God only gave me two hands. The rest he gave to the Indians.

[Andrea Morrow]

Maybe this is from an old song?

God only gave me two hands
The rest he gave to the Indians

Both lines could be put into a 3/4 meter.  And "hands" could certainly be
made to rhyme with "Indians."

Andrea

On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 6:14 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: God only gave me two hands. The rest he gave to the
> Indians.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> FWIW, I doubt that Asian religion has (or ever had) anything to do
> with it. You can (sometimes) do two different things with two hands,
> like handing someone the milk while continuing to stir the soup. But
> that's all you've got.
>
> (Unless you're the circus family wife in the Charles Addams cartoon:
> "Wait a minute, can't you? I've only got three hands."
> In The New Yorker, June 20, 1942
>
> http://www.docstoc.com/docs/389168/US-Copyright-Renewals-1969-July---December-by-US-Copyright-Office
> )
>
> --
> Mark Mandel
>
> On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 12:00 PM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > Though I've never heard this, I wonder whether Indians here means
> American or
> > South Asian Indians. If the latter, might it refer to depictions of
> > Shiva or of
> > Buddha as many-handed?
> >
> > Stephen
>
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