A
• Abbadazoola
See mitchakaboola abbadazoola
• Abba zabba
In Literature:
• The magic word abbadabba appears in the Carl Sandburg poem "The Abracadabra
Boys." The boys in question have been hanging around "the
stacks and cloisters" and have "been to a sea of jargons and brought back
jargons." They "make pitty pat with each other" in a sort of "private pig
Latin." Sandburg asks, "Do they have fun? Sure -- their fun is being what
they are, like our fun is being what we are -- only they are more sorry for us
being what we are than we are for them being what they are."14
Abba-Dabba-Ooga-Booga-Hoojee-
Goojee-Yabba-Dabba-Doo
(see abba, abbadabba, abracadabra, ooga-booga, and yabba-dabba-doo)
Mystique: Seemingly nonsensical rhythmic sounds can indicate that the
speaker hears his own beat and is in touch with a mysterious and joyous
reality unknown to the listener. Scholar of metaphysics Raymond Buck-
land suggests that all magic words "must be spoken rhythmically. Chants
and spells should either rhyme or, at the very least, have a repetitive, heavy,
sonorous beat to them. This can, and should, contribute to a gradually rising
state of excitement within the magician, adding immeasurably to the
amount of power produced."15
In Literature:
• Edward Allen, Mustang Sally (1992)
Abbazabba
(see abba and zabba)
Facts: Abba Zabba appears in a Captain Beefheart song of the same name
(1974). The lyrics are a sort of nursery rhyme about childhood rituals and
seem to suggest that the primal syllables abba zabba are "song before song
before song."
Abba Zabba is the name of an old-fashioned peanut butter taffy can
dy bar.
14 The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (1970)
15 Ray Buckland's Magic Cauldron: A Potpourri of Matters Metaphysical (1995)