744 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
represented during the earlier eighteenth century by the Testa¬ 
ment of Easy's Mare 1 and the Testament of the Norfolk Cock, 2 
both printed in 1714. In these the animals make satirical be¬ 
quests of parts of their bodies. 
As early as 1730 the literary testament makes its appear¬ 
ance in American literature. Matthew Abdy, bedmaker and 
sweeper to Harvard College from 1717-1730, died in 1730. 
The Rev. John Seccombe a graduate of Harvard wrote in rime 
a testament for him which became popular both in America and 
England. 3 It was printed in The Gentleman's Magazine, The 
London Magazine, and The Massachusetts Magazine . It also 
appeared as a broadside. The testator in Father Ahdy's Tes¬ 
tament leaves to his dear wife his entire estate which he men¬ 
tions piece by piece. Its spirit is rather humorous than satiri¬ 
cal. This testament evoked several imitations. One of these 
took the form of a letter of courtship addressed to Father 
Abdy’s widow by a bedmaker at Yale. 
A poem that seems to have been rather popular in Scotland 
during the eighteenth century is reported by Herd in 1776. 4 
In Bohin's Testament the robin is made to bequeath parts of 
his body, some for the benefit of certain persons and some for 
the benefit of certain public works. On the several versions 
of this song Lina Echenstein has commented and has tried to 
connect it with some ancient chants used in pagan bird sacri¬ 
fices. 5 It seems to me to be only another manifestation of the 
widespread tendency to make animals draw up their testa¬ 
ments. 6 
The April number of the Town and Country Magazine for 
1 D’Urfey’s Pills, I, 309. 
2 Ibid., I, 344. 
s J. L. Sibley, Father Abdy’s Will, Cambridge, Mass., 1854. 
4 David Herd, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Edinburgh, 1776; 
another edition 1870, II, 166; Robt. Chambers, Popular Rhymes of 
Scotland , London and Edinburgh, 1870, p. 38. 
5 Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes, London, 1906, p. 192. 
e Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, 
Edinburgh, 1828, T, 273. “This little piece, I am convinced, is very old, 
as its style and language, although modernized, will testify. I have 
every reason to think it has been composed under a cloud of disguise, 
upon some great family, and on some particular event, though now 
unknown; as was the ballad of the “Wren” composed on Lord Len¬ 
nox’s love to a daughter of Lord Blantyre’s.” 
