While reading the Standard Snippet and Regional Riff pages on this site, where The Streets of Cairo or "That snake-charmer song" was mentioned, I did a bit of research and found out that the melody is supposed to be from a song called "Kradoutja" or "Kradoudja."

After some searching on Google Books I found this (Got nothing for Kradoutja, but quite a lot, surprisingly, for the spelling with a d): http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Msc5AAAAcAAJ&dq=kradoudja&q=kardoudja#v=onepage&q=kradoudja&f=false. The French lyrics of the song. Apparently the melody is also known in some parts of the Middle East and North Africa.

There are references to this song being popular in 19th century France. It's referred to as an "Arab air" or an Algerian song.

edited 26th Jul '12 3:44:03 AM by MorwenEdhelwen