Une souris verte

Jacques comes home from preschool singing new nursery rhymes and songs every day. Most of them are foreign to me, so I'm always enthusiastically making song requests, "just once more!" so that I can 1) hear his sweet voice singing and 2) learn these curious ditties. Some of them are positively confusing, though. Take Une souris verte. It's about a green mouse that some men advise dipping in oil and water, in order to turn it into a hot snail.

Jean-Baptiste tries to convince me that many French nursery rhymes are allegories for historical events (corruption between the Church and State seeming to be the most common! I'm wondering if these sadist messieurs are Jesuits?) What in tarnation could this tortured green mouse symbolize?

The lyrics are so weird and catchy that I find myself singing it throughout the day. This morning in yoga class, while I was supposed to be counting the breath going into my left nostril then out my right nostril, I kept getting distracted by the idea of a green mouse transforming into a hot snail. Trip.

Une souris verte
Qui courait dans l'herbe,
Je l'attrape par la queue,
Je la montre à ces messieurs.
Ces messieurs me disent :
Trempez-la dans l'huile,
Trempez-la dans l'eau,
Ça fera un escargot...
Tout chaud !