The Whiffenpoof Song

I heard The Whiffenpoof Song on my iPod while walking.

We're poor little lambs who have lost our way
Baa, baa, baa
We're little black sheep who have gone astray
Baa, baa, baa

I then spent several minutes wondering “What is a whiffenpoof?” and “Why is that word part of the song’s title?”

Google and Wikipedia helped:  A whiffenpoof was a tool for training Boy Scouts in tracking skills. The whiffenpoof itself was a small log, about the size of a stick of firewood, with nails driven into it on all sides, so that it bristled with nails. This was dragged through the forest on a short leash, by the older Scouts who were training the younger. It might thus create a track that the tenderfoot must learn to trace out. Or it might, alternately, be dragged across a trail in order to confuse the trackers. The fewer nails that were driven into it, the more difficult and subtle was the effect.

That connects a whiffenpoof to lost sheep.  But why wasn’t the song called Poor Little Lambs or Lost Sheep.  That’s when I discovered there is an introductory verse which I’ve apparently never listened to.

To the tables down at Mory's
To the place where Louie dwells
To the dear old Temple bar we love so well
Sing the Whiffenpoofs assembled with their glasses raised on high
And the magic of their singing casts it's spell

Yes, the magic of their singing of the songs we love so well
"Shall I Wasting" and "Mavourneen" and the rest
We will serenade our Louie while life and voice shall last
Then we'll pass and be forgotten with the rest

We're poor little lambs who have lost our way
Baa, baa, baa
We're little black sheep who have gone astray
Baa, baa, baa

Gentleman songsters off on a spree
Doomed from here to eternity
Lord have mercy on such as we
Baa, baa, baa

It’s still a pretty strange song.

My questions have now been answered, and I’ll figure out something else to think about on tomorrow’s walk.