Animal Fair
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Traditional folk song. Earliest printed appearance noted as "Ozark Folksongs," 1927, as "The Hamburger Fair." Collected in Missouri, 1927 -- the singer said that he heard the song in Joplin, MO, about 1900. Text in the Aurora [MO] Advertiser, 1935, is "said to date back to 1895."

I went to the Animal Fair
The birds and the beasts were there
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair

The monkey he got drunk
He sat on the elephant's trunk
The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees
And that was the end of the monk
The monk, the monk, the monk,

Said a flea to a fly in a flue
Said the flea "Oh what shall we do?"
Said the fly, "Let us flee!"; said the flea, "Let us fly!"
So they flew through a flaw in the flue

I went to the Animal Fair
The birds and the beasts were there
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair

The monkey he got drunk
He sat on the elephant's trunk
The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees
And that was the end of the monk
The monk, the monk, the monk,
The monk, the monk, the monk?