Hit a kitty cat with a brick bat and sing nonsense songs

SUMMARY: And I don't mean the ones that I make up.

I often sing to myself, and also to whatever dogs happen to be around at the moment. The other day I started singing:

"...hit him with a brick bat
sing song kitty cat chi-kymeo
Chikeemeo chi-kymeo my deereo my dell
Hi ho income paddywinkle
something something something something
hit him with a brick bat
sing song kitty cat chi-kymeo"

I thought:

1. Where did that come from?
2. What does it mean? 
3. It's so garbled! Maybe something from when I was a young child and I've completely forgotten the real lyrics because most of that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever?
4. I should look it up on the "interwebs"!
5. What did we ever do before the WWW?

And, so, I found out:

• It *is* just nonsense, because, after all, kids love nonsense songs... or at least I know *I* did. And, OK, still do.
• It's an old Appalachian folk song, origins unknown, meanings unknown. This is cool, because my home territory from most of my childhood includes the Appalachians (northern).
  Lyrics similar to what I remember.
  Web site with many versions.
• (And because this is an educational blog [???], if you want to know *really* what Appalachia is--you're out of luck, because it's pretty nebulous.)
• Wow, so where did I learn it?  Didn't find it on the couple of childhood records that I still have, but my recollection is a male voice on a record. I perhaps will never know...
  
  BUT... I'll keep on singing it!

Gratuitous kitty cat, not singing a song (Los Gatos Creek trail, February 2010)