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Help[Facts] Re: Looking for the meaning of "Bocephus" or "Bocephas"
in reply to a message by Warren
Already suggested. Further Information (https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=68478), the name comes from a book by Albert Bigelow Paine titled The Arkansas Bear: a tale of fanciful adventure (1898). The complete book can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg. In the book, the proper name of the boy Bo is Bocephus--long before Brasfield's dummy was a log in the woodcarver's bin. (In case you're wondering, the bear's name is Horatio.)
The book inspired a song popular in the 1920s:
"There was a little boy whose name was Bo
He went into the woods when the moon was gettin' low
Where he met a big bear who was hungry for a snack
And the folks are still awaitin' for Bocephus to come back
Oh, Bo became the teacher of the kind and gentle creature
Who could play upon the fiddle in a very skillful way
And they wandered off together and will never ever sever
Bocephus and the fiddle and the big black bear."
The book inspired a song popular in the 1920s:
"There was a little boy whose name was Bo
He went into the woods when the moon was gettin' low
Where he met a big bear who was hungry for a snack
And the folks are still awaitin' for Bocephus to come back
Oh, Bo became the teacher of the kind and gentle creature
Who could play upon the fiddle in a very skillful way
And they wandered off together and will never ever sever
Bocephus and the fiddle and the big black bear."
This message was edited 10/23/2018, 1:36 PM
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