Demented

I could never understand why a cradle would be on a tree top?

It is pretty awful...I've wondered about that myself before. I don't think I'd sing it to my child.

Most rhymes and songs for children are demented. You should read the original texts to the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, they are scarey as all Hell! With babies, though, it is the reassuring sound of the parents voice that counts, and they don't understand a word we are saying. They respond to anything rhythmic, because it flows. Incidentally, my favourite Grimm story is one called 'the Frog' (there are 3 versions), in which a little girl in a rural area has no friends locally, but finds a frog in her garden. She gives the forg some of her bread, and the next day the frog brings her a sparkly ring as a thank you. The friendship grows, until the mother, seeing her child with the reptile, smashes the ffogs head in with her broom! Tremendous.