The Hebrew chant of the kid was printed in Venice as far back as 1609, and was made the subject of the learned Latin dissertation _De Haedo_ by Probst von der Hardt in 1727 (R., p. 153). It was again discussed by P. N. Leberecht in 1731.[51] The chant forms part of the Jewish liturgy, and is still recited in the original Hebrew or in the vernacular as part of a religious ceremonial at Easter. Opinions on the origin and the meaning of the chant differ. One learned rabbi interpreted it as setting forth how each power in creation is kept within bounds by a power that stands above it. It teaches how he who goes wrong is at the mercy of one stronger than himself. But according to another interpretation the Father who bought the kid was Jehovah himself, the kid was the Hebrew, the cat represented the Assyrians, the dog the Babylonians, and so forth; and the whole poem described the position of the Jews at the time of the Crusades. [51] The article by Leberecht is in _Der Christliche Reformator_, Leipzig, 1731, XVII, 28. The Hebrew chant and its relation to _The Old Woman and her Pig_ engaged the attention of Professor Tylor, who remarked on the solemn ending of the Hebrew chant, which according to him may incline us to think that we really have before us this composition in something like its first form. "If so," he says, "then it follows that our familiar tale of the Old Woman who couldn't get the kid (_or_ pig) over the stile, must be considered as a broken-down adaptation of this old Jewish poem."[52] [52] Tylor, E. B., _Primitive Culture_, II, 86. But the tale of the Old Woman taken in conjunction with _This is the House that Jack built_ and its numerous foreign parallels, shows that these sequences of relative powers, far from being broken-down adaptations, are at least as meaningful as the Hebrew chant. For the underlying conception in all cases is that a spell has fallen on an object which man is appropriating to his use. The spell extends to everything, be it man or beast, that comes within the range of its influence, and the unmaking of the spell necessitates going back step by step to the point at which it originated. Halliwell compared a piece current in Denmark with _This is the House that Jack built_:-- Der har du det haus som Jacob bygde. "Here hast thou the house that Jacob built."[53] [53] Halliwell, 1849, p. 6, citing Thiele, II, 3, 146. I cannot find this book. Many other versions of this tale are current in Germany and Scandinavia. In them it is sometimes a question of a house, sometimes of corn, oftenest of cutting oats or of garnering pears. The cumulative form is throughout adhered to. One German piece called _Ist alles verlorn_, "all is lost," begins:-- Es kam eine Maus gegangen In unser Kornehaŭs, Die nahm das Korn gefangen, In ŭnserm Kornehaŭs. Die Maus das Korn, Ist alles verlorn In ŭnserm Kornehaŭs. (Sim., p. 256.)