Bamboo Girl

Our choir sings "'Taint No Sin". This is a song from the 1930s. There is a reference in it to Bamboo Babies. I am curious about the meaning and started chasing it down on the internet. So far, I've found that there is a Japanese folk myth of a tiny Bamboo Girl found by a cane cutter. It is a Naughty Girl myth. She has been sleeping for 100 years (shades of Sleeping Beauty) after God punished her naughtiness at age 8. She grants the cutter 3 wishes - he wants only one: to be a samurai. He gets his wish and she is free. Graeme Connors also refers to the Bamboo Girl and Leapin'Lena in his song "Don't go down to the River"