Wow, this is a very interesting yet macabre piece of folklore. I love it! I suppose the ol' "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring" rhyme is pretty macabre too. I mean, it sounds like he suffered some pretty serious brain trauma if he couldn't get up in the morning. Right?

This post is much more interesting than that though. All the background and stories behind it are pretty fascinating.