"Oriental Hornpipe", also known as "The Boys from the East" is an American hornpipe in A Major. The parts are played AABB. There was a fashion for things oriental in the mid-19th century, based on fascination for the exotic and unknown. Trade with China and Japan was being gradually forced open by the Colonial powers and goods from the orient and home-made products in imitation of such began to appear on American streets. There was a clipper ship called the "Oriental", a name that appears in American Clipper Ships 1833-1858 by Howe and Matthews and a distant possibility as a source for the title. However, the name "Oriental" was also applied to theaters and saloons where music and entertainments were performed. One of the more famous of these establishments was Frank Burns' Oriental at 650 Broadway, between Bleecker and Bond, where a piano and violin were featured. O'Neill prints the hornpipe as "The Boys from the East", perhaps his private joke, a take-off on the 'Oriental' title. See also note for the "Occidental Hornpipe", It was printed in O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (1903), Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) and Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940).