The idea of a mother rocking a baby in her arms and singing a lullaby for the baby to sleep is a lovely image that seems so natural. Many of us can think of standard lullabies like Brahm's Lullaby or the words, “Hush little baby, don't say a word / Mama's gonna by you a mockingbird.” Sometimes, mothers even come up with lullabies of their own but the purpose is the same; to get a crying or tired baby to sleep.
Several people are very familiar with the lullaby, “Rock-a-bye baby”:
Rock-a-bye, baby, on the tree top
When the wind blows the cradle with rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all
If one stops to really think about the lyrics, it is one of the most disturbing rhymes that people have ever heard. Why would anyone want to sing about a delicate baby on top of a precarious branch in a tree with the idea that the branch would break and a baby would fall to its doom? However, this is only a hint of how lullabies were originally used centuries ago; lullabies were incantations to ward off evil spirits that would harm children.
The origin of the term “lullaby” comes from the words “Lilith abi” which means “Lilith, go away.” In some versions of Jewish folklore Lilith was considered a succubus, a female demon, who seduced men in their sleep. When she bore children from her nighttime sexual encounters, she killed them.
From this, people believed that Lilith was responsible for the unexplained sudden death of babies (what we currently call “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome”). To prevent this “Lilith abi” was written on the amulets surrounding the baby's crib to prevent Lilith or other evil spirits from taking babies away.
Even aside from the mystical origin, singing a child to sleep has been a practice from ancient times and examples are found all over the world. Magical or not, calming a crying child to sleep has been the domain of mothers everywhere since the beginning of time. And according to some mothers, the true purpose of a lullaby is so that the mother can get some needed rest as well.
http://www.indianchild.com/history_origins_nursery_ryhmes.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1513/whats-the-story-on-lilith-adams-first-wife
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lullaby
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