From the 1913 musical farce “High Jinks”
Words by Otto Hauerbach.
Music by Rudolf Friml.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment from a player piano roll
scanned by Terry Smythe:
Lyrics
- Beyond the Himalaya mountains
Were flows the great Tsanpo
Beside old Tibet’s laughing fountains
Gay, festive flowers grow
To hands of merry youth and maiden
They yield their radiant bloom
And all the balmy air is laden
With rich and rare perfume
One very little drop placed so
One tiny little whiff, and lo
Refrain
Something seems tingle-ingle
Ingle-ingle-ingleing so queer
Here in your ear, nearer and near
Like some strange mingling
Of jingle-ingle-ingle-ingle-ingles
And tangle-angle-angle-angle-angles
Why! you want to cry
You want to die
But all you do is laugh
Hi! Hi! You’ve got the High Jinks
That’s why
- The Roman god of jubilation
Old Momus was his name
He wooed the goddess Exultation
Of weird Buddhistic fame
Their sun was High Jinks, a sensation
Who, ere he caught his breath
Soon died of chronic cachination
Just laughed himself to death
His soul became this wondrous flower
Who breathes it, feels its mystic power
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: