{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_40457/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_40457","id":"gutenberg_40457","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40457","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Comparative literature","Nursery rhymes -- Bibliography","Nursery rhymes -- History and criticism"],"text":"COMPARATIVE STUDIES\n  IN NURSERY RHYMES\n\n\n\n\n  COMPARATIVE STUDIES\n    IN\n  NURSERY RHYMES\n\n    BY\n  LINA ECKENSTEIN\n  AUTHOR OF \"WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM\"\n\n\n  _There were more things in Mrs. Gurton's eye,\n  Mayhap, than are dreamed of in our philosophy_\n\n  C. S. CALVERLEY\n\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n\n  LONDON\n  DUCKWORTH & CO.\n  3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN\n  1906\n\n\n\n\nTO THE GENTLE READER\n\n\nThe walls of the temple of King Sety at Abydos in Upper Egypt are\ndecorated with sculptured scenes which represent the cult of the gods\nand the offerings brought to them. In a side chapel there is depicted\nthe following curious scene. A dead figure lies extended on a bier;\nsorrowing hawks surround him; a flying hawk reaches down a seal amulet\nfrom above. Had I succeeded in procuring a picture of the scene, it\nwould stand reproduced here; for the figure and his mourners recalled\nthe quaint little woodcut of a toy-book which told the tale of the Death\nand Burial of Cock Robin. The sculptures of Sety date from the\nfourteenth century before Christ; the knell of the robin can be traced\nback no further than the middle of the eighteenth century A.D. Can the\nspace that lies between be bridged over, and the conception of the dead\nrobin be linked on to that of the dead hawk? However that may be, the\nsight of the sculptured scene strengthened my resolve to place some of\nthe coincidences of comparative nursery lore before the gentle reader.\nIt lies with him to decide whether the wares are such as to make a\nfurther instalment desirable.\n\n_23 September, 1906._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAPTER                    PAGE\n\n      I. FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES IN PRINT      1\n\n     II. EARLY REFERENCES      13\n\n    III. RHYMES AND POPULAR SONGS      23\n\n     IV. RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS      36\n\n      V. RHYMES AND BALLADS      45\n\n     VI. RHYMES AND COUNTRY DANCES      57\n\n    VII. THE GAME OF \"SALLY WATERS\"      67\n\n   VIII. \"THE LADY OF THE LAND\"      78\n\n     IX. CUSTOM RHYMES      89\n\n      X. RIDDLE-RHYMES      104\n\n     XI. CUMULATIVE PIECES      115\n\n    XII. CHANTS OF NUMBERS      134\n\n   XIII. CHANTS OF THE CREED      143\n\n    XIV. HEATHEN CHANTS OF THE CREED      152\n\n     XV. SACRIFICIAL HUNTING      171\n\n    XVI. BIRD SACRIFICE      185\n\n   XVII. THE ROBIN AND THE WREN      200\n\n  XVIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS      215\n\n         LIST OF FOREIGN COLLECTIONS      221\n\n         ALPHABETICAL INDEX      223\n\n\n\n\n    _... To my gaze the phantoms of the Past,\n    The cherished fictions of my boyhood, rise:_\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    _The House that Jack built--and the Malt that lay\n    Within the House--the Rat that ate the Malt--\n    The Cat, that in that sanguinary way\n    Punished the poor thing for its venial fault--\n    The Worrier-Dog--the Cow with crumpled horn--\n    And then--ah yes! and then--the Maiden all forlorn!_\n\n    _O Mrs. Gurton--(may I call thee Gammer?)\n    Thou more than mother to my infant mind!\n    I loved thee better than I loved my grammar--\n    I used to wonder why the Mice were blind,\n    And who was gardener to Mistress Mary,\n    And what--I don't know still--was meant by \"quite contrary.\"_\n\n    C. S. C.\n\n    The dates that stand after the separate rhymes refer to the list of\n    English collections on p. 11; the capital letters in brackets refer\n    to the list of books on p. 221.\n\n\n\n\nCOMPARATIVE STUDIES IN NURSERY RHYMES\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nFIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES IN PRINT\n\n\nThe study of folk-lore has given a new interest to much that seemed\ninsignificant and trivial. Among the unheeded possessions of the past\nthat have gained a fresh value are nursery rhymes. A nursery rhyme I\ntake to be a rhyme that was passed on by word of mouth and taught to\nchildren before it was set down in writing and put into print. The use\nof the term in this application goes back to the early part of the\nnineteenth century. In 1834 John Gawler, afterwards Bellenden Ker,\npublished the first volume of his _Essay on the Archaiology of Popular\nEnglish Phrases and Nursery Rhymes_, a fanciful production. Prior to\nthis time nursery rhymes were usually spoken of as nursery songs.\n\nThe interest in these \"unappreciated trifles of the nursery,\" as\nRimbault called them, was aroused towards the close of the eighteenth\ncentury. In a letter which Joseph Ritson wrote to his little nephew, he\nmentioned the collection of rhymes known as _Mother Goose's Melody_, and\nassured him that he also would set about collecting rhymes.[1] His\ncollection of rhymes is said, in the _Dictionary of National Biography_,\nto have been published at Stockton in 1783 under the title _Gammer\nGurton's Garland_. A copy of an anonymous collection of rhymes published\nby Christopher and Jennett at Stockton, which is called _Gammer Gurton's\nGarland or the Nursery Parnassus_, is now at the British Museum, and is\ndesignated as a \"new edition with additions.\" It bears no name and no\ndate, but its contents, which consist of over seventy rhymes, agree with\nparts 1 and 2 of a large collection of nursery rhymes, including over\none hundred and forty pieces, which were published in 1810 by the\npublisher R. Triphook, of 37 St. James Street, London, who also issued\nother collections made by Ritson.\n\n    [1] _Letters of Joseph Ritson_, edited by his Nephew, 1833. 27\n    April, 1781.\n\nThe collection of rhymes known as _Mother Goose's Melody_, which aroused\nthe interest of Ritson, was probably the toy-book which was entered for\ncopyright in London on 28 December, 1780. Its title was _Mother Goose's\nMelody or Sonnets for the Cradle_, and it was entered by John Carnan,\nthe stepson of the famous publisher John Newbery, who had succeeded to\nthe business in partnership with Francis Newbery.[2] Of this book no\ncopy is known to exist. Toy-books, owing to the careless way in which\nthey are handled, are amongst the most perishable literature. Many\ntoy-books are known to have been issued in hundreds of copies, yet of\nsome of these not a single copy can now be traced.\n\n    [2] Welsh, Ch., _A Publisher of the Last Century_, 1885, p. 272.\n\nThe name Mother Goose, its connection with nursery rhymes, and the date\nof issue of _Mother Goose's Melody_, have been the subject of some\ncontention. Thomas Fleet, a well-known printer of Boston, Mass., who was\nfrom Shropshire, is said to have issued a collection of nursery rhymes\nunder the following title, _Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose's\nMelodies for Children_, printed by Thomas Fleet at his printing-house,\nPudding Lane, 1719, price two coppers.[3] The existence of this book at\nthe date mentioned has been both affirmed and denied.[4] John Fleet\nEliot, a great-grandson of the printer, accepted its existence, and in\n1834 wrote with regard to it as follows: \"It is well known to\nantiquaries that more than a hundred years ago there was a small book in\ncirculation in London bearing the name of _Rhymes for the Nursery or\nLulla-Byes for Children_, which contained many of the identical pieces\nof _Mother Goose's Melodies_ of the present day. It contained also other\npieces, more silly if possible, and some that the American types of the\npresent day would refuse to give off an impression. The cuts or\nillustrations thereof were of the coarsest description.\" On the other\nhand, the date of 1719 in connection with the expression \"two coppers,\"\nhas been declared impossible. However this may be, no copy of the book\nof Fleet or of its presumed prototype has been traced.\n\n    [3] Appleton, _Cyclop\u00e6dia of American Biography_, 1887: Fleet,\n    Thomas.\n\n    [4] Whitmore, W. H., _The original Mother Goose's Melody_, 1892, p.\n    40 ff.\n\nThe name Mother Goose, which John Newbery and others associated with\nnursery rhymes, may have been brought into England from France, where\n_La M\u00e8re Oie_ was connected with the telling of fairy tales as far back\nas 1650.[5] _La M\u00e8re Oie_ is probably a lineal descendant of _La Reine\nP\u00e9dauque_, otherwise _Berthe au grand pied_, but there is the\npossibility also of the relationship to _Fru Gode_ or _Fru Gosen_ of\nGerman folk-lore. We first come across Mother Goose in England in\nconnection with the famous puppet-showman Robert Powell, who set up his\nshow in Bath and in Covent Garden, London, between 1709 and 1711. The\nrepertory of his plays, which were of his own composing, included\n_Whittington and his Cat_, _The Children in the Wood_, _Friar Bacon and\nFriar Bungay_, _Robin Hood and Little John_, _Mother Shipton_, and\n_Mother Goose_.[6] A play or pantomime called _Mother Goose_ was still\npopular at the beginning of the nineteenth century, for the actor\nGrimaldi obtained his greatest success in it in 1806.[7]\n\n    [5] Lang, A., _Perrault's Popular Tales_, 1888. Introduction, XXIV.\n\n    [6] Collier, J. P., _Punch and Judy, citing \"A Second Tale of a Tub\n    or the History of Robert Powell, the puppet-showman, 1715.\"_\n\n    [7] _Dictionary of National Biography_, Grimaldi.\n\nThe name Gammer Gurton which Ritson chose for his collection of rhymes,\nwas traditional also. _Gammer Gurton's Needle_ is the name of a famous\nold comedy which dates from about the year 1566. The name also appears\nin connection with nursery rhymes in a little toy-book, issued by\nLumsden in Glasgow, which is called _Gammer Gurton's Garland of Nursery\nSongs, and Toby Tickle's Collection of Riddles_. This is undated. It\noccurs also in an insignificant little toy-book called _The Topbook of\nall_, in connection with Nurse Lovechild, Jacky Nory, and Tommy Thumb.\nThis book is also undated, but contains the picture of a shilling of\n1760 which is referred to as \"a new shilling.\"\n\nThe date at which nursery rhymes appeared in print yields one clue to\ntheir currency at a given period. The oldest dated collection of rhymes\nwhich I have seen bears the title _Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book_, vol.\nII, \"sold by M. Cooper according to Act of Parliament.\" It is printed\npartly in red, partly in black, and on its last page bears the date\n1744. A copy of this is at the British Museum.\n\nNext to this in date is a toy-book which is called _The Famous Tommy\nThumb's Little Story-Book_, printed and sold at the printing office in\nMarlborough Street, 1771. A copy of this is in the library of Boston,\nMass. It contains nine nursery rhymes at the end, which have been\nreprinted by Whitmore.\n\nOther collections of rhymes issued in America have been preserved which\nare reprints of earlier English collections. Among these is _Tommy\nThumb's Song Book for all Little Masters and Misses_, by Nurse\nLovechild, which is dated 1788, and was printed by Isaiah Thomas at\nWorcester, Mass. A copy is at the British Museum.\n\nIsaiah Thomas was in direct connection with England, where he procured,\nin 1786, the first fount of music type that was carried to America.\nAmong many toy-books of his that are reprints from English publications,\nhe issued _Mother Goose's Melody, Sonnets for the Cradle_. A copy of\nthis book which is designated as the third Worcester edition, bears the\ndate 1799, and has been reprinted in facsimile by Whitmore. It was\nprobably identical with the collection of rhymes for which the firm of\nNewberry received copyright in 1780, and which was mentioned by Ritson.\nOther copies of _Mother Goose's Melody_, one bearing the watermark of\n1803, and the other issued by the firm of John Marshall, which is\nundated, are now at the Bodleian.[8] Thus the name of Mother Goose was\nlargely used in connection with nursery rhymes.\n\n    [8] Whitmore, loc. cit., p. 6.\n\nThe second half of the eighteenth century witnessed a great development\nin toy-book literature. The leader of the movement was John Newbery, a\nman of considerable attainments, who sold drugs and literature, and who\ncame from Reading to London in 1744, and settled in St. Paul's\nChurchyard, where his establishment became a famous centre of the book\ntrade. Among those whom he had in his employ were Griffith Jones (d.\n1786) and Oliver Goldsmith (d. 1774), whose versatility and delicate\nhumour gave a peculiar charm to the books for children which they helped\nto produce.\n\nIn London Newbery had a rival in John Marshall, whose shop in Aldermary\nChurchyard was known already in 1787 as the _Great A, and Bouncing B Toy\nFactory_. This name was derived from a current nursery rhyme on the\nalphabet, which occurs as follows:--\n\n    Great A, little a, Bouncing B,\n    The cat's in the cupboard, and she can't see.      (1744, p. 22.)\n\nA number of provincial publishers followed their example. Among them\nwere Thomas Saint, in Newcastle, who between 1771 and 1774 employed the\nbrothers Bewick; Kendrew, in York; Lumsden, in Glasgow; Drewey, in\nDerby; Rusher, in Banbury; and others. The toy-books that were issued by\nthese firms have much likeness to one another, and are often illustrated\nby the same cuts. Most of them are undated. Among the books issued by\nRusher were _Nursery Rhymes from the Royal Collections_, and _Nursery\nPoems from the Ancient and Modern Poets_, which contain some familiar\nrhymes in versions which differ from those found elsewhere.\n\nBesides these toy-book collections, there is a large edition of _Gammer\nGurton's Garland_, of the year 1810, which contains the collections of\n1783 with considerable additions. In the year 1826, Chambers published\nhis _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, which contained some fireside stories\nand nursery rhymes, the number of which was considerably increased in\nthe enlarged edition of 1870. In the year 1842, Halliwell, under the\nauspices of the Percy Society, issued the _Nursery Rhymes of England_,\nwhich were reprinted in 1843, and again in an enlarged edition in 1846.\nThree years later he supplemented this book by a collection of _Popular\nRhymes_ which contain many traditional game rhymes and many valuable\nremarks and criticisms.\n\nThese books, together with the rhymes of Gawler, and a collection of\n_Old Nursery Rhymes with Tunes_, issued by Rimbault in 1864, exhaust\nthe collections of nursery rhymes which have a claim on the attention of\nthe student. Most of their contents were subsequently collected and\nissued by the firm of Warne & Co., under the title _Mother Goose's\nNursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles_, of which the issue of 1890 contains\nover seven hundred pieces. In the list which follows, I have arranged\nthese various collections of rhymes in the order of their issue, with a\nfew modern collections that contain further rhymes. Of those which are\nbracketed I have not succeeded in finding a copy.\n\n(1719. _Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose's Melodies._ Printed by\nT. Fleet.)\n\n1744. _Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book._\n\n_c._ 1760. _The Topbook of all._\n\n(1771. _Tommy Thumb's Little Story Book._ The nine rhymes which this\ncontains are cited by Whitmore.)\n\n(1780. _Mother Goose's Melody_, for which copyright was taken by John\nCarnan.)\n\n_c._ 1783. _Gammer Gurton's Garland._\n\n1788. _Tommy Thumb's Song Book_, issued by Isaiah Thomas.\n\n(1797. _Infant Institutes_, cited by Halliwell and Rimbault.)\n\n1799. _Mother Goose's Melody._ Facsimile reprint by Whitmore.\n\n1810. _Gammer Gurton's Garland._ The enlarged edition, published by R.\nTriphook, 37 St. James Street, London.\n\n1826. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_.\n\n1834-9. Ker, _Essays on the Archaiology of Nursery Rhymes_.\n\n1842-3. Halliwell, _The Nursery Rhymes of England_.\n\n1846. Halliwell, ditto. Enlarged and annotated edition.\n\n1849. Halliwell, _Popular Rhymes_.\n\n1864. Rimbault, _Old Nursery Rhymes with tunes_.\n\n1870. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_. Enlarged edition.\n\n1876. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_.\n\n1890. _Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles._ Issued by\nWarne & Co.\n\n1892. Northall, G. F., _English Folk Rhymes_.\n\n1894. Gomme, A. B., _The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and\nIreland_.\n\nIn the studies which follow, the rhymes cited have attached to them the\ndate of the collection in which they occur.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nEARLY REFERENCES\n\n\nIndependently of these collections of nursery rhymes, many rhymes are\ncited in general literature. This yields a further clue to their\ncurrency at a given period. Thus Rimbault describes a book called\n_Infant Institutes, part the first, or a Nurserical Essay on the Poetry\nLyric and Allegorical of the Earliest Ages_, 1797, perhaps by B. N.\nTurner, the friend of Dr. Johnson, which was intended to ridicule the\nShakespeare commentators (_N. & Q._, 5, 3, 441). In the course of his\nargument, the author cites a number of nursery rhymes.\n\nAgain, the poet Henry Carey, about the year 1720, ridiculed the odes\naddressed to children by Ambrose Philips by likening these to a jumble\nof nursery rhymes. In doing so he cited the rhymes, \"Namby Pamby Jack a\nDandy,\" \"London Bridge is broken down,\" \"Liar Lickspit,\" \"Jacky\nHorner,\" \"See-saw,\" and others, which nowadays are still included among\nthe ordinary stock of our rhymes.\n\nAgain, in the year 1671, John Eachard, the divine, illustrated his\nargument by quoting the alphabet rhyme \"A was an apple pie,\" as far as\n\"G got it.\"[9] Instances such as these do not, however, carry us back\nfarther than the seventeenth century.\n\n    [9] Eachard, _Observations, etc._, 1671, cited. Halliwell, _Popular\n    Rhymes_, 1849, p. 137.\n\nAnother clue to the date of certain rhymes is afforded by their mention\nof historical persons, in a manner which shows that the rhyme in this\nform was current at the time when the individual whom they mention was\nprominently before the eyes of the public. Halliwell recorded from oral\ntradition the following verse:--\n\n    Doctor Sacheverel\n    Did very well,\n    But Jacky Dawbin\n    Gave him a warning.      (1849, p. 12.)\n\nThe verse refers to Dr. Sacheverel, the nonconformist minister who\npreached violent sermons in St. Paul's, pointing at the Whig members as\nfalse friends and real enemies of the Church. John Dolben (1662-1710)\ncalled attention to them in the House of Commons, and they were declared\n\"malicious, scandalous, and seditious libels.\"\n\nAgain there is the rhyme:--\n\n    Lucy Locket lost her pocket,\n    Kitty Fisher found it,\n    But the devil a penny was there in it,\n    Except the binding round it.      (1849, p. 48.)\n\nThis is said to preserve the names of two celebrated courtesans of the\nreign of Charles II (1892, p. 330).\n\nThe first name in the following rhyme is that of a famous border hero\nwho was hanged between 1529 and 1530:--\n\n    Johnny Armstrong killed a calf;\n    Peter Henderson got half;\n    Willy Wilkinson got the head,--\n    Ring the bell, the calf is dead.      (1890, p. 358.)\n\nAmong the pieces collected by Halliwell, and told in cumulative form,\none begins and ends with the following line, which recurs at the end of\nevery verse:--\n\n    John Ball shot them all.\n\nHalliwell is of opinion that this may refer to the priest who took a\nprominent part in the rebellion at the time of Richard II, and who was\nhanged, drawn, and quartered in 1381.\n\nBut a historical name does not necessarily indicate the date of a rhyme.\nFor a popular name is sometimes substituted for one that has fallen into\ncontempt or obscurity. Moreover, a name may originally have indicated a\nperson other than the one with whom it has come to be associated.\n\nA familiar nursery song printed in the collection of c. 1783, and extant\nin several variants, is as follows:--\n\n    When good King Arthur rul'd the land,\n    He was a goodly king,\n    He stole three pecks of barley meal\n    To make a bag pudding.\n    A bag pudding the king did make\n    And stuff'd it well with plumbs,\n    And in it put great lumps of fat,\n    As big as my two thumbs.\n    The king and queen did eat thereof,\n    And noblemen beside,\n    And what they could not eat that night\n    The queen next morning fry'd.      (_c._ 1783, p. 32.)\n\nMr. Chappell, as cited by Halliwell, considered that this version is\nnot the correct one, but the one which begins:--\n\n    King Stephen was a worthy king\n    As ancient bards do sing....\n\nThe same story related in one verse only, and in simpler form, connects\nit with Queen Elizabeth, in a version recovered in Berkshire.\n\n    Our good Quane Bess, she maayde a pudden,\n    An stuffed un well o' plumes;\n    And in she put gurt dabs o' vat,\n    As big as my two thumbs.      (1892, p. 289.)\n\nOn the face of it the last variant appears to be the oldest.\n\nAn interesting example of a change of name, and of the changing meaning\nof a name, is afforded by the nursery song that is told of King Arthur,\nand _mutatis mutandis_ of Old King Cole. The poem of King Arthur is as\nfollows:--\n\n    When Arthur first in Court began\n    To wear long hanging sleeves,\n    He entertained three serving men\n    And all of them were thieves.\n\n    The first he was an Irishman,\n    The second was a Scot,\n    The third he was a Welshman,\n    And all were knaves, I wot.\n\n    The Irishman loved usquebaugh,\n    The Scot loved ale called blue-cap.\n    The Welshman he loved toasted cheese,\n    And made his mouth like a mouse-trap.\n\n    Usquebaugh burnt the Irishman,\n    The Scot was drowned in ale,\n    The Welshman had liked to be choked by a mouse,\n    But he pulled it out by the tail.\n\nIn this form the piece is designated as a glee, and is printed in the\n_New Lyric_ by Badcock of about 1720, which contains \"the best songs now\nin vogue.\"\n\nIn the nursery collection of Halliwell of 1842 there is a parallel piece\nto this which stands as follows:--\n\n    Old King Cole was a merry old soul\n    And a merry old soul was he;\n    Old King Cole he sat in his hole,\n    And he called for his fiddlers three.\n\n    The first he was a miller,\n    The second he was a weaver,\n    The third he was a tailor,\n    And all were rogues together.\n\n    The miller he stole corn,\n    The weaver he stole yarn,\n    The little tailor stole broadcloth\n    To keep these three rogues warm.\n\n    The miller was drowned in his dam,\n    The weaver was hung in his loom,\n    The devil ran away with the little tailor\n    With the broadcloth under his arm.      (1842, p. 3.)\n\nChappell printed the words of the song of Old King Cole in several\nvariations, and pointed out that _The Pleasant Historie of Thomas of\nReading, or the Six Worthie Yeomen of the West_ of 1632, contains the\nlegend of one Cole, a cloth-maker of Reading at the time of King Henry\nI, and that the name \"became proverbial owing to the popularity of this\nbook.\" \"There was some joke or conventional meaning among Elizabethan\ndramatists,\" he says, \"when they gave the name of Old Cole, which it is\nnow difficult to recover.\" Dekker in the _Satiromatrix_ of 1602, and\nMarston in _The Malcontent_ of 1604, applied the name to a woman. On the\nother hand, Ben Jonson in _Bartholomew Fair_ gave the name of Old Cole\nto the sculler in the puppet-play _Hero and Leander_ which he there\nintroduces.[10] In face of this information, what becomes of the\nidentity of the supposed king?\n\n    [10] Chappell, _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, 1893, p. 633.\n\nOn the other hand a long ancestry is now claimed for certain characters\nof nursery fame who seemed to have no special claim to attention. The\nfollowing verse appears in most collections of rhymes, and judging from\nthe illustration which accompanies it in the toy-books, it refers\nsometimes to a boy and a girl, sometimes to two boys.\n\n    Jack and Gill went up the hill\n    To fetch a bottle of water;\n    Jack fell down and broke his crown,\n    And Gill came tumbling after.      (_c._ 1783, p. 51.)\n\n    [Later collections have _Jill_ and _pail_.]\n\nThis verse, as was first suggested by Baring-Gould,[11] preserves the\nScandinavian myth of the children Hjuki and Bill who were caught up by\nMani, the Moon, as they were taking water from the well Byrgir, and they\ncan be seen to this day in the moon carrying the bucket on the pole\nbetween them.\n\n    [11] Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_, 1866, p. 189.\n\nAnother rhyme cited by Halliwell from _The New Mad Tom o'Bedlam_\nmentions Jack as being the Man in the Moon:--\n\n    The Man in the Moon drinks claret,\n    But he is a dull Jack-a-dandy;\n    Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot,\n    He should learn to drink cider or brandy.      (1842, p. 33.)\n\nAccording to North German belief, a man stands in the moon pouring water\nout of a pail (K., p. 304), which agrees with expressions such as \"the\nmoon holds water.\" In a Norse mnemonic verse which dates from before the\ntwelfth century, we read, \"the pail is called Saeg, the pole is called\nSimul, Bil and Hiuk carry them\" (C. P., I, 78).\n\nThe view that Jack and Jill are mythological or heroic beings finds\ncorroboration in the expression \"for Jak nor for Gille,\" which occurs in\nthe Townley Mysteries of about the year 1460.[12] By this declaration a\nsuperhuman power is called in as witness. The same names are coupled\ntogether also in an ancient divination rhyme used to decide in favour of\none of two courses of action. Two scraps of paper slightly moistened\nwere placed on the back of the hand, and the following invocation was\npronounced before and after breathing upon them to see which would fly\nfirst. The sport was taught by Goldsmith to Miss Hawkins when a child,\nas she related to Forster.[13]\n\n    [12] Cited _Murray's Dictionary_: Jack.\n\n    [13] Forster, J., _Life of Goldsmith_, II, p. 71.\n\n    There were two blackbirds sat upon a hill\n    The one was named Jack, the other named Jill.\n    Fly away Jack! Fly away Jill!\n    Come again Jack! Come again Jill!      (1810, p. 45.)\n\nThe lines suggest the augur's action with regard to the flight of birds.\nThe same verse has been recited to me in the following variation:--\n\n    Peter and Paul sat on the wall,\n    Fly away Peter! Fly away Paul!\n    Come again Peter! Come again Paul!\n\nIn this case the names of Christian apostles have been substituted for\nheathen names which, at the time when the _names_ were changed, may\nstill have carried a suggestion of profanity. The following rhyme on\nJack and Gill occurs in an early nursery collection:--\n\n    I won't be my father's Jack,\n    I won't be my mother's Gill,\n    I will be the fiddler's wife\n    And have music when I will.\n    T'other little tune, t'other little tune,\n    Pr'ythee, love, play me, t'other little tune.      (_c._ 1783, p. 25.)\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nRHYMES AND POPULAR SONGS\n\n\nOn looking more closely at the contents of our nursery collections, we\nfind that a large proportion of so-called nursery rhymes are songs or\nsnatches of songs, which are preserved also as broadsides, or appeared\nin printed form in early song-books. These songs or parts of songs were\nincluded in nursery collections because they happened to be current at\nthe time when these collections were made, and later compilers\ntransferred into their own collections what they found in earlier ones.\nMany songs are preserved in a number of variations, for popular songs\nare in a continual state of transformation. Sometimes new words are\nwritten to the old tune, and differ from those that have gone before in\nall but the rhyming words at the end of the lines; sometimes new words\nare introduced which entirely change the old meaning. Many variations\nof songs are born of the moment, and would pass away with it, were it\nnot that they happen to be put into writing and thereby escape falling\ninto oblivion.\n\nIn _Mother Goose's Melody_ stands a song in six verses which begins:--\n\n    There was a little man who woo'd a little maid,\n    And he said: \"Little maid, will you wed, wed, wed?\n    I have little more to say, will you? Aye or nay?\n    For little said is soonest mended, ded, ded.\"      (1799, p. 46.)\n\nHalliwell's collection includes only the first and the fourth verse of\nthis piece. (1842, p. 24.)\n\nIn the estimation of Chappell this song was a very popular ballad, which\nwas sung to the tune of _I am the Duke of Norfolk_, or _Paul's\nSteeple_.[14] It appears also in the _Fairing or Golden Toy for Children\nof all Sizes and Denominations_ of 1781, where it is designated as \"a\nnew love song by the poets of Great Britain.\" Its words form a variation\nof the song called _The Dumb Maid_, which is extant in a broadside of\nabout 1678,[15] and which is also included in the early collection of\n_Pills to Purge Melancholy_ of 1698-1719. The likeness between the\npieces depends on their peculiar repeat:--\n\n    There was a bonny blade had married a country maid,\n    And safely conducted her home, home, home;\n    She was neat in every part, and she pleased him to the heart,\n    But alas, and alas, she was dumb, dumb, dumb.\n\n    [14] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 770.\n\n    [15] _Roxburgh Collection of Ballads_, IV, p. 355.\n\nThe same form of verse was used in another nursery song which stands as\nfollows:--\n\n    There was a little man, and he had a little gun,\n    And the ball was made of lead, lead, lead.\n    And he went to a brook to shoot at a duck,\n    And he hit her upon the head, head, head.\n\n    Then he went home unto his wife Joan,\n    To bid her a good fire to make, make, make,\n    To roast the duck that swam in the brook,\n    And he would go fetch her the drake, drake, drake.\n\n    (1744, p. 43; with repeat, 1810, p. 45.)\n\nAgain, a song which appears in several early nursery collections is as\nfollows:--\n\n    There was an old woman toss'd in a blanket,\n    Seventeen times as high as the moon;\n    But where she was going no mortal could tell,\n    For under her arm she carried a broom.\n\n    \"Old woman, old woman, old woman,\" said I,\n    \"Whither, ah whither, ah whither, so high?\"\n    To sweep the cobwebs from the sky,\n    And I'll be with you by and by.      (_c._ 1783, p. 22.)\n\nThis song was a favourite with Goldsmith, who sang it to his friends at\ndinner on the day when his play _The Good-natured Man_ was produced.[16]\nIt was one of the numerous songs that were sung to the tune of\nLilliburlero, which goes back at least to the time of Purcell.[17] A\nScottish version of this piece was printed by Chambers, which presents\nsome interesting variations:--\n\n    There was a wee wifie row't up in a blanket,\n    Nineteen times as hie as the moon;\n    And what did she there I canna declare,\n    For in her oxter she bure the sun.\n    \"Wee wifie, wee wifie, wee wifie,\" quo' I,\n    \"O what are ye doin' up there sae hie?\"\n    \"I'm blowin' the cauld cluds out o' the sky.\"\n    \"Weel dune, weel dune, wee wifie!\" quo' I.      (1870, p. 34.)\n\n    [16] Forster, _Life of Goldsmith_, II, 122.\n\n    [17] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 569.\n\nI have come across a verse sung on Earl Grey and Lord Brougham, written\nin 1835, which may have been in imitation of this song:--\n\n    Mother Bunch shall we visit the moon?\n    Come, mount on your broom, I'll stick on a spoon,\n    Then hey to go, we shall be there soon ... etc.\n\nMother Bunch is a familiar character of British folk-lore, who figures\nin old chapbooks as a keeper of old-world saws, and gives advice in\nmatters matrimonial. One of the earliest accounts of her is _Pasquill's\nJests with the Merriments of Mother Bunch_, extant in several editions,\nwhich was reprinted by Hazlitt in _Old English Jestbooks_, 1864, Vol.\nIII. There are also _Mother Bunch's Closet newly broke open_, _Mother\nBunch's Golden Fortune Teller_, and _Mother Bunch's Fairy Tales_,\npublished by Harris in 1802. The name also occurs in _Mother Osborne's\nLetter to the Protestant Dissenters rendered into English Metre by\nMother Bunch_, 1733. Mother Bunch, like Mother Goose and Mother Shipton,\nmay be a traditional name, for Mother Bunch has survived in connections\nwhich suggest both the wise woman and the witch.\n\nAnother old song which figures in early nursery collections is as\nfollows:--\n\n    What care I how black I be?\n    Twenty pounds will marry me;\n    If twenty won't, forty shall--\n    I am my mother's bouncing girl.      (_c._ 1783, p. 57.)\n\nChappell mentions a song called, _What care I how fair she be_, which\ngoes back to before 1620.[18] The words of these songs seem to have\nsuggested a parody addressed to Zachary Macaulay, the father of the\nhistorian, who pleaded the cause of the slaves. The Bill for the\nabolition of slavery was passed in 1833, and the following quatrain was\nsung with reference to it:--\n\n    What though now opposed I be?\n    Twenty peers will carry me.\n    If twenty won't, thirty will,\n    For I'm His Majesty's bouncing Bill.      (_N. & Q._, 8, XII, 48.)\n\n    [18] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 315.\n\nAnother so-called nursery rhyme which is no more than a popular song has\nbeen traced some way back in history by Halliwell, who gives it in two\nvariations:--\n\n    Three blind mice, see how they run!\n    They all run after the farmer's wife,\n    Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,\n    Did you ever see such fools in your life--\n    Three blind mice!      (1846, p. 5.)\n\nIn _Deuteromalia_ of 1609 this stands as follows:--\n\n    Three blind mice, three blind mice!\n    Dame Julian, the miller and his merry old wife\n    She scrapte the tripe, take thow the knife.\n\nAmong the popular songs which have found their way into nursery\ncollections is the one known as _A Frog he would a wooing go_, the\nsubject of which is old. Already in 1549 the shepherds of Scotland sang\na song called, _The Frog cam to the Myldur_. In the year 1580 there was\nlicensed, _A most strange Wedding of the Frog and the Mouse_, as appears\nfrom the books of the Stationers' Company cited by Warton.[19] The song\nhas been preserved in many variations with a variety of burdens. These\nburdens sound like nonsense, but in some cases the same words appear\nelsewhere in a different application, which shows that they were not\noriginally unmeaning.\n\n    [19] Warton, _History of English Poetry_, 1840, III, 360.\n\nThe oldest known version of the song begins:--\n\n    It was a frog in the well, _humble dum, humble dum_,\n    And the mouse in the mill, _tweedle tweedle twino_.[20]\n\n    [20] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 88.\n\nThe expression _humble dum_ occurs in other songs and seems to indicate\ntriumph; the word _tweedle_ represents the sound made by the pipes.\n\nA Scottish variation of the song begins:--\n\n    There lived a Puddy in a well, _Cuddy alone, Cuddy alone_,\n    There lived a Puddy in a well, _Cuddy alone and I_.[21]\n\n    [21] Sharpe, Ch. K., _Ballad Book_, 1824, p. 87.\n\nIn the nursery collection of _c._ 1783 the song begins:--\n\n    There was a frog liv'd in a well, _Kitty alone, Kitty alone_,\n    There was a frog liv'd in a well.\n    There was a frog liv'd in a well, _Kitty alone and I_.\n    And a farce mouse in a mill,\n    _Cock me cary, Kitty alone, Kitty alone and I_.      (_c._ 1783, p. 4.)\n\nThe origin and meaning of this burden remains obscure.\n\nThe antiquity and the wide popularity of these verses are further shown\nby a song written in imitation of it, called _A Ditty on a High Amore at\nSt. James_, and set to a popular tune, which dates from before 1714. It\nis in verse, and begins:--\n\n    Great Lord Frog and Lady Mouse, _Crackledom hee, crackledom ho_,\n    Dwelling near St. James' house, _Cocki mi chari chi_;\n    Rode to make his court one day,\n    In the merry month of May,\n    When the sun shone bright and gay, _twiddle come, tweedle dee_.[22]\n\n    [22] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 561.\n\nIn the accepted nursery version the song begins:--\n\n    A frog he would a wooing ride, _heigho, says Rowley_,\n    Whether his mother would let him or no,\n    _With a roly-poly, gammon and spinach,\n    Heigho, says Anthony Rowley_.\n\nThis burden is said by a correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ to have\nbeen first inserted in the old song as a burden by Liston. His song,\nentitled _The Love-sick Frog_, with an original tune by C. E. H., Esq.\n(perhaps Charles Edward Horn), and an accompaniment by Thomas Cook, was\npublished by Goulding & Co., Soho Square, in the early part of the\nnineteenth century (_N. & Q._, I, 458). The burden has been traced back\nto the _jeu d'esprit_ of 1809 on the installation of Lord Grenville as\nChancellor of Oxford, which another correspondent quotes from memory:--\n\n    Mister Chinnery then an M. A. of great parts,\n    Sang the praises of Chancellor Grenville.\n    Oh! He pleased all the ladies and tickled their hearts,\n    But then we all know he's a Master of Arts.\n    _With a rowly, powly, gammon and spinach,\n    Heigh ho! says Rowley._      (_N. & Q._, 11, 27.)\n\nAnother variation of the song of _The Frog and the Mouse_ of about 1800\nbegins:--\n\n    There was a frog lived in a well, _heigho, crowdie_!\n    And a merry mouse in a mill, _with a howdie, crowdie_, etc.\n\n    (_N. & Q._, 11, 110.)\n\nThis expression, _heigho, crowdie_, contains a call to the crowd to\nstrike up. The crowd is the oldest kind of British fiddle, which had no\nneck and only three strings. It is mentioned as a British instrument\nalready by the low Latin poet Fortunatus towards the close of the sixth\ncentury: \"Chrotta Britannia canat.\" The instrument is well known to this\nday in Wales as the _crwth_.\n\nThe word crowdy occurs also as a verb in one of the numerous nursery\nrhymes referring to scenes of revelry, at which folk-humour pictured the\ncat making music:--\n\n    Come dance a jig to my granny's pig,\n    With a rowdy, rowdy, dowdy;\n    Come dance a jig to my granny's pig,\n    And pussy cat shall crowdy.      (1846, p. 141.)\n\nThis verse and a number of others go back to the festivities that were\nconnected with Twelfth Night. Some of them preserve expressions in the\nform of burdens which have no apparent sense; in other rhymes the same\nexpressions have the force of a definite meaning. Probably the verses in\nwhich the words retain a meaning have the greater claim to antiquity.\n\nThus among the black-letter ballads is a song[23] which is found also in\nthe nursery collection of 1810 under the designation _The Lady's Song in\nLeap Year_.\n\n    [23] _Roxburgh Collection_, IV, 433.\n\n    Roses are red, _diddle diddle_, lavender's blue,\n    If you will have me, _diddle diddle_, I will have you.\n    Lillies are white, _diddle diddle_, rosemary's green,\n    When you are king, _diddle, diddle_, I will be queen.\n    Call up your men, _diddle, diddle_, set them to work,\n    Some to the plough, _diddle, diddle_, some to the cart.\n    Some to make hay, _diddle, diddle_, some to cut corn,\n    While you and I, _diddle, diddle_, keep the bed warm.\n\n    (1810, p. 46.)\n\nHalliwell cites this song in a form in which the words are put into the\nlips of the king, and associates it with the amusements of Twelfth\nNight:--\n\n    Lavender blue, _fiddle faddle_, lavender green.\n    When I am king, _fiddle faddle_, you shall be queen, etc.\n\n    (1849, p. 237.)\n\nThe expression _diddle diddle_ according to Murray's Dictionary means to\nmake music without the utterance of words, while _fiddle faddle_ is said\nto indicate nonsense, and to fiddle is to fuss. But both words seem to\ngo back to the association of dancing, as is suggested by the songs on\nTwelfth Night, or by the following nursery rhyme which refers to the\nsame celebration.\n\n    A cat came fiddling out of the barn,\n    With a pair of bagpipes under her arm,\n    She could sing nothing but fiddle cum fee,\n    The mouse has married the humble bee;\n    Pipe, cat, dance, mouse;\n    We'll have a wedding in our good house.      (1842, p. 102.)\n\nThe following variation of this verse occurs in the _Nursery Songs_\npublished by Rusher:--\n\n    A cat came fiddling out of a barn,\n    With a pair of bagpipes under her arm,\n    She sang nothing but fiddle-de-dee,\n    Worried a mouse and a humble bee.\n    Puss began purring, mouse ran away,\n    And off the bee flew with a wild huzza!\n\nIn both cases the cat was fiddling, that is moving to instrumental music\nwithout the utterance of words, and called upon the others to do so\nwhile she played the pipes. Her association with an actual fiddle,\nhowever, is preserved in the following rhyme which I cite in two of its\nnumerous variations:--\n\n    Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,\n    The cow jump'd over the moon!\n    The little dog laughed to see such sport,\n    And the dish lick't up the spoon.      (1797, cited by Rimbault.)\n\n    Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,\n    The cow jumped over the moon;\n    The little dog laughed to see such craft,\n    And the dish ran away with the spoon.      (_c._ 1783, p. 27.)\n\nThis rhyme also refers to the revelry which accompanied a feast,\nprobably the one of Twelfth Night also.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nRHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS\n\n\nMany of our longer nursery pieces first appeared in print in the\ndiminutive toy-books already described, which represent so curious a\ndevelopment in the literature of the eighteenth century. These books\nwere sometimes hawked about in one or more sheets, which were afterwards\nfolded so as to form a booklet of sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty-four\npages. Others were issued sewn and bound in brilliant covers, at a cost\nof as much as a shilling or eighteen pence. Usually each page contained\none verse which was illustrated by an appropriate cut. In the toy-books\nwhich tell a consecutive story, the number of verses of the several\npieces seem to have been curtailed or enlarged in order to fit the\nrequired size of the book.\n\nIt is in these toy-books that we first come across famous nursery\npieces such as the _Alphabet_ which begins:--\n\n    A was an Archer, who shot at a frog,\n    B was a blind man, and led by a dog ... etc.\n\nThis first appeared in _A Little Book for Little Children_ by T. W.,\nsold at the Ring in Little Britain. It contains a portrait of Queen\nAnne, and probably goes back to the early part of the eighteenth\ncentury.\n\n_The Topbook of all_, already mentioned, which is of about 1760,\ncontains the oldest version that I have come across of the words used in\nplaying _The Gaping, Wide-mouthed, Waddling Frog_, each verse of which\nis illustrated by a rough cut. Again, _The Tragic Death of A, Apple\nPie_, which, as mentioned above, was cited as far back as 1671, forms\nthe contents of a toy-book issued by J. Evans about the year 1791 at the\nprice of a farthing. _The Death and Burial of Cock Robin_ fills a\ntoy-book which was published by J. Marshall, London, and again by Rusher\nat Banbury; both editions are undated. Again _The Courtship, Marriage,\nand Picnic Dinner of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren_ form the contents of a\ntoy-book dated 1810 and published by Harris, and _The Life and Death of\nJenny Wren_ appeared in a toy-book dated 1813, issued by J. Evans.\n\nAnother famous toy-book contained _The Comic Adventures of Old Mother\nHubbard and her Dog_. This story was first issued in toy-book form by J.\nHarris, \"successor to E. Newbery at the corner of St. Paul's\nChurchyard,\" probably at the beginning of 1806, at the cost of eighteen\npence. A copy of the second edition, which mentions the date 1 May,\n1806, is at the British Museum. It contains the words \"to T. B. Esquire,\nM.P. county of XX, at whose suggestion and at whose house these notable\nsketches were first designed, this volume is with all suitable deference\ndedicated by his humble servant S. C. M.\" The coffin which is\nrepresented in one of the cuts in the book bears the initials S. C. M.,\nand the date 1804. This inscribing of the author's initials on a coffin\nis quite in keeping with the tone of toy-book literature.\n\nIn October, 1805, J. Harris had published _Whimsical Incidents, or the\nPower of Music, a poetic tale by a near relation of Old Mother\nHubbard_, which has little to recommend it, and contains nothing on the\ndog. On its first page stands a verse which figures independently as a\nnursery rhyme in some later collections:--\n\n    The cat was asleep by the side of the fire,\n    Her mistress snor'd loud as a pig,\n    When Jack took the fiddle by Jenny's desire,\n    And struck up a bit of a jig.      (1810, p. 33.)\n\nJ. Harris also published in March, 1806, _Pug's Visit, or the Disasters\nof Mr. Punch_, a sequel to the _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard and\nher Dog_. This has a dedication framed in the same style, \"To P. A.\nEsquire ... by his humble servant W. F.\"\n\nThe success of the _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard and her Dog_ was\ninstantaneous and lasting. In _The Courtship of Jenny Wren_, which is\ndated 1810, while its cuts bear the date 1806, Parson Rook is\nrepresented carrying \"Mother Hubbard's book,\" and a foot-note is added\nto the effect that \"upwards of ten thousand copies of this celebrated\nwork have been distributed in various parts of the country in a few\nmonths.\" The _Comic Adventures_ were read all over London and in the\nprovinces, both in the original and in pirated editions, of which I have\nseen copies issued by J. Evans of Long Lane, West Smithfield; by W. S.\nJohnson of 60 St. Martin's Lane; by J. Marshall of Aldermary Churchyard;\nand by others. A very diminutive toy-book containing verses of the tale\nof Mother Hubbard, illustrated with rough cuts, is on view at South\nKensington Museum among the exhibits of A. Pearson. I do not know its\npublisher.\n\nThe _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard_ are usually told in fourteen\nverses, which refer to the dame's going to the cupboard, to her going\nfor bread, for a coffin, for tripe, beer, wine, fruit, a coat, a hat, a\nwig, shoes, hose, and linen. The story ends:--\n\n    The dame made a curtsey, the dog made a bow,\n    The dame said, \"Your servant,\" the dog said \"Bow-wow.\"\n\nBut some editions have an additional rhyme on the dame's going for fish;\nand the edition at South Kensington has the verse:--\n\n    Old Mother Hubbard sat down in a chair,\n    And danced her dog to a delicate air;\n    She went to the garden to buy him a pippin,\n    When she came back the dog was skipping.\n\nIn the edition of Rusher, instead of \"the dog made a bow,\" we read \"Prin\nand Puss made a bow.\"\n\nIn Halliwell's estimation the tale of Mother Hubbard and her dog is of\nsome antiquity, \"were we merely to judge,\" he says, \"of the rhyme of\nlaughing to coffin in the third verse.\"\n\n    She went to the undertaker's to buy him a coffin,\n    When she came back the poor dog was laughing.\n\nBut it seems possible also that the author of the poem had running in\nhis mind a verse containing this rhyme, which occurs already in the\n_Infant Institutes_ of 1797, where it stands as follows:--\n\n    There was a little old woman and she liv'd in a shoe,\n    She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.\n    She crumm'd 'em some porridge without any bread\n    And she borrow'd a beetle, and she knock'd 'em all o' th' head.\n    Then out went the old woman to bespeak 'em a coffin\n    And when she came back she found 'em all a-loffing.\n\nThis piece contains curious mythological allusions, as we shall see\nlater.\n\nIt may be added that the nursery collection of 1810 (p. 37) contains the\nfirst verse only of Mother Hubbard, which favours the view expressed by\nHalliwell, that the compiler of the famous book did not invent the\nsubject nor the metre of his piece, but wrote additional verses to an\nolder story.\n\nThe association of Mother Hubbard and the dog may be relatively new, but\nthe name Mother Hubbard itself has some claim to antiquity. For a\npolitical satire by Edmund Spenser was called _Prosopopeia or Mother\nHubberd's Tale_. It was a youthful effort of the poet, and was soon\nforgotten. In this piece \"the good old woman was height Mother Hubberd\nwho did far surpass the rest in honest mirth,\" and who related the fable\nof the fox and the ape. Also Thomas Middleton in 1604 published _Father\nHubburd's Tale, or the Ant and the Nightingale_, in the introduction to\nwhich he addressed the reader as follows:--\"Why I call these Father\nHubburd's tales, is not to have them called in again as the Tale of\nMother Hubburd. The world would shew little judgment in that i' faith;\nand I should say then _plena stultorum omnia_; for I entreat (_i.e._\ntreat) here neither of rugged (_i.e._ ragged) bears or apes, no, nor the\nlamentable downfall of the old wife's platters--I deal with no such\nmetal ... etc.\"\n\nWe do not know that Spenser's tale was \"called in again,\" nor does it\nmention ragged bears and platters. Middleton must therefore be referring\nto a different production to which obstruction was offered by the public\nauthorities. In any case the name of Mother Hubburd, or Hubbard, was\nfamiliar long before the publication of the story of the dame and her\ndog.\n\nFather Hubberd, who is mentioned by Middleton, figures in nursery lore\nalso. A rhyme is cited which mentions him in connection with the\ntraditional cupboard:--\n\n    What's in the cupboard? says Mr Hubbard;\n    A knuckle of veal, says Mr Beal;\n    Is that all? says Mr Ball;\n    And enough too, says Mr Glue;\n    And away they all flew.     (_N. & Q._, 7, IV, 166.)\n\nWere they figured as cats?\n\nThe form of verse of this piece on Father Hubbard reproduces the chiming\nof bells. The same form of verse is used also in the following:--\n\n    \"Fire! Fire!\" says the town-crier;\n    \"Where, where?\" says Goody Blair;\n    \"Down the town,\" said Goody Brown;\n    \"I'll go and see't,\" said Goody Fleet,\n    \"So will I,\" said Goody Fry.      (1890, p. 315.)\n\nThe old play of _Ralph Roister Doister_, written about the year 1550,\nends with a \"peele of bells rung by the parish clerk,\" which is in the\nsame form of verse:--\n\n    First bell: When dyed he, when dyed he?\n    Second bell: We have him! We have him!\n    Third bell: Roister doister, Roister doister.\n    Fourth bell: He cometh, he cometh.\n    Great bell: Our owne, our owne.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nRHYMES AND BALLADS\n\n\nVarious nursery pieces deal with material which forms the subject of\nromantic ballads also. Romantic ballads, like popular songs, are\npreserved in a number of variations, for they were sung again and again\nto suit the modified taste of succeeding ages. Many romantic ballads\nretain much that is pre-Christian in disposition and sentiment. The\nfinest collection of romantic ballads during recent times was made by\nChild,[24] who included the fireside versions of ballads that have come\ndown to us through nursery literature. Child puts forward the opinion\nthat where we are in possession of a romantic and a fireside version of\nthe same ballad, the latter is a late and degraded survival. But this\nhardly seems probable, considering that the nursery version of the tale\nis usually simpler in form, and often consists of dialogue only.\n\n    [24] Child, F. G., _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_ 1894.\n\nIn the estimation of Gregory Smith, the oldest extant examples of\nromantic ballads \"do not date further back than the second and third\nquarter of the fifteenth century\" (that is between 1425 and 1475),\n\"since the way in which the incidents in these are presented, reflects\nthe taste of that age.\"[25] This applies to romantic ballads that are\nhighly complex in form. The fireside version of the same story may have\nflowed from the same source. The question hangs together with that of\nthe origin of the ballad, which may have arisen in connection with\ndancing and singing, but the subject needs investigation.\n\n    [25] Smith, G., _The Transition Period_, 1897, p. 180, in\n    Saintsbury, _Periods of European Literature_.\n\nAmong our famous early ballads is that of _The Elfin Knight_, the oldest\nprinted copy of which is of 1670.\n\nIt begins as follows:--\n\n    My plaid awa', my plaid awa',\n    And o'er the hill and far awa',\n    And far awa' to Norrowa,\n    My plaid shall not be blown awa'.\n    The Elfin Knight sits on yon hill,\n    Ba, ba, ba, lilli ba,\n    He blaws his horn both loud and shrill,\n    The wind has blawn my plaid awa',\n    He blows it east, he blows it west,\n    He blows it where he liketh best.[26]\n\n    [26] Child, loc. cit., I, 6 ff.\n\nThe ballad goes on to describe how problems were bandied between the\nElfin Knight and a lady. The one on whom an impossible task was imposed\nstood acquitted if he devised a task of no less difficulty, which must\nfirst be performed by his opponent. Such flytings go far back in\nliterature. In this case the Elfin Knight staked his plaid, that is his\nlife, on receiving the favour of the lady, and he propounded to her\nthree problems, viz. of making a sack without a seam, of washing it in a\nwell without water, and of hanging it to dry on a tree that never\nblossomed. In reply, she claimed that he should plough an acre of land\nwith a ram's horn, that he should sow it with a peppercorn, and that he\nshould reap it with a sickle of leather. The problems perhaps had a\nrecondite meaning, and the ballad-monger probably found them ready to\nhand. For Child cites a version of the ballad in which the same flyting\ntook place between a woman and \"the auld, auld man,\" who threatened to\ntake her as his own, and who turned out to be Death. The idea of a wooer\nstaking his life on winning a lady is less primitive than that of Death\nsecuring a victim.\n\nThe same tasks without their romantic setting are preserved in the form\nof a simple dialogue, in the nursery collections of _c._ 1783 and 1810.\nIn this case also it is the question of a wooer.\n\n    _Man speaks._\n\n    Can you make me a cambrick shirt,\n    Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme,\n    Without any seam or needlework?\n    And you shall be a true lover of mine.\n    Can you wash it in yonder well? Parsley, etc.,\n    Where never spring water or rain ever fell.\n    Can you dry it on yonder thorn,\n    Which never bore blossom since Adam was born?\n\n    _Maiden speaks._\n\n    Now you have asked me questions three,\n    I hope you will answer as many for me.\n    Can you find me an acre of land,\n    Between the salt water and the sea sand?\n    Can you plow it with a ram's horn,\n    And sow it all over with peppercorn?\n    Can you reap it with a sickle of leather,\n    And bind it up with a peacock's feather?\n\n    When you have done and finished your work,\n    Then come to me for your cambrick shirt.      (_c._ 1783, p. 10.)\n\nOn the face of it, it hardly seems likely that this version is descended\nfrom the romantic ballad.\n\nThe tasks that are here imposed on the man are set also in the form of a\nboast in a nursery song, in which they have so entirely lost their\nmeaning as to represent a string of impossibilities.\n\n    My father left me three acres of land,\n    Sing sing, sing sing,\n    My father left me three acres of land,\n    Sing holly, go whistle and sing.\n    I ploughed it with a ram's horn,\n    And sowed it with one pepper corn.\n    I harrowed it with a bramble bush,\n    And reaped it with a little pen knife.\n    I got the mice to carry it to the mill,\n    And thrashed it with a goose's quill.\n    I got the cat to carry it to the mill,\n    The miller swore he would have her paw,\n    And the cat she swore she would scratch his face.\n\n    (_N. & Q._, VII. 8.)\n\nAnother nursery piece is recorded by Halliwell which, in simple form\nrelates concerning _Billy my son_ the sequence of events which underlies\nthe famous romantic ballad of Lord Randal.[27] The story is current also\nin Scotland relating to _The Croodin Doo_ (1870, p. 51); it was told\nalso some eighty years ago in Lincolnshire, of _King Henry my son_ (_N.\n& Q._, 8, VI, 427). The romantic ballad in five verses, as told of\nLairde Rowlande, relates how he came from the woods weary with hunting\nand expecting death. He had been at his true love's, where he ate of the\nfood which poisoned his warden and his dogs. In the nursery version the\ntragedy is told in the following simple form:--\n\n    Where have you been to-day, Billy my son?\n    Where have you been to-day, my only man?--\n    I've been a wooing, mother; make my bed soon,\n    For I'm sick at heart, and fain would lie down.\n\n    What have you ate to-day, Billy my son?\n    What have you ate to-day, my only man?--\n    I've eat eel pie, mother; make my bed soon,\n    For I am sick at heart, and shall die before noon.      (1849, p. 259.)\n\n    [27] _Ibid._, I, 157: Lord Randal.\n\nOther nursery pieces deal with Tommy Linn, the Tam Linn of romance, who\nis the hero of many famous romantic ballads. The name of Tam Linn goes\nsome way back in history. For the _Tayl of young Tamlene_, according to\nVedderburn's _Complaint of Scotland_, of 1549, was told among a company\nof shepherds, and the name appears also as that of a dance, _A Ballett\nof Thomalyn_, as far back as 1558.[28]\n\n    [28] _Ibid._, I, 256: Tamlene.\n\nAccording to the romantic ballads, Tam Linn fell under the influence of\nthe fairies through sleeping under an apple tree, and they threatened to\ntake him back as their own on Hallowe'en, when they rode abroad once in\nseven years and had the right to claim their due. Tam Linn told the\nwoman who loved him that she must hold him fast, whatever shape he\nassumed owing to the enchantment of the witches, and that she must cast\nhim into water as soon as he assumed the shape of a _gled_. He would\nthen be restored to human form.\n\nTam Linn of romance figures in nursery lore as Tommy Linn. His exploits\nwere printed by Halliwell in one of the numerous versions that are\ncurrent in the north. In these pieces Tommy Linn has only this in common\nwith Tam Linn of romance, that he too is ready with a suggestion\nwhatever mishap befalls.\n\n    Tommy Linn is a Scotchman born,\n    His head is bald and his beard is shorn;\n    He has a cap made of a hare skin,\n    An alderman is Tommy Linn.\n\n    Tommy Linn has no boots to put on,\n    But two calves' skins and the hair it was on.\n    They are open at the side and the water goes in,\n    Unwholesome boots, says Tommy Linn.\n\n    Tommy Linn had no bridle to put on,\n    But two mouse's tails that he put on.\n    Tommy Linn had no saddle to put on,\n    But two urchins' skins and them he put on.\n\n    Tommy Linn's daughter sat on the stair,\n    O dear father, gin I be not fair?\n    The stairs they broke and she fell in,\n    You're fair enough now, says Tommy Linn.\n\n    Tommy Linn had no watch to put on,\n    So he scooped out a turnip to make himself one;\n    He caught a cricket and put it within,\n    It's my own ticker, says Tommy Linn.\n\n    Tommy Linn, his wife, and wife's mother,\n    They all fell into the fire together;\n    Oh, said the topmost, I've got a hot skin,\n    It's hotter below, says Tommy Linn.      (1849, p. 271.)\n\nSeveral short nursery rhymes are taken from this, or other versions of\nthis poem. Among the pieces printed by Chambers we read--\n\n    Tam o' the Lin and his bairns,\n    Fell i' the fire in others' arms!\n    Oh, quo' the bunemost, I ha'e a hot skin!!\n    It's hotter below, quo' Tam o' the Lin!!!      (1870, p. 33.)\n\nSir Walter Scott in _Redgauntlet_ cites a catch on _Sir Thom o' Lyne_.\n\nIn some nursery collections the adventures of Tommy Lin, the Scotchman,\nare appropriated to Bryan O'Lin, the Irishman.\n\n    Bryan O'Lin had no watch to put on,\n    So he scooped out a turnip to make himself one:\n    He caught a cricket and put it within,\n    And called it a ticker, did Bryan O'Lin.\n\n    Bryan O'Lin had no breeches to wear,\n    So he got a sheepskin to make him a pair:\n    With the skinny side out and the woolly side in,\n    Oh! how nice and warm, cried Bryan O'Lin.      (1842, p. 212.)\n\nMany nursery rhymes which dwell on cats are formed on the model of these\nverses. A rhyme that comes from America is as follows:--\n\n    Kit and Kitterit and Kitterit's mother,\n    All went over the bridge together.\n    The bridge broke down, they all fell in,\n    \"Good luck to you,\" says Tom Bolin.\n\nA modern collection of rhymes (1873, p. 136) gives this as follows:--\n\n    The two grey cats and the grey kits' mother,\n    All went over the bridge together;\n    The bridge broke down, they all fell in,\n    May the rats go with you, sings Tom Bowlin.\n\nThe association of cats with Tommy Linn reappears in the rhyme in which\nTommy, who in the romantic ballad begged immersion for himself,\npractised immersion on a cat. Perhaps the cat was figured as a witch,\nwho, being suspected, was cast into the water in order to prove her\nwitchcraft.\n\n    Ding dong bell, poor pussy has fall'n i' th' well,\n    Who threw her in? Little Tom O' Linne,\n    What a naughty boy was that\n    To drown poor pussy cat,\n    That never did any harm,\n    But catch'd a mouse i' th' barn.      (1797, cited by Rimbault.)\n\nOther variations of this rhyme mention Johnny Green (_c._ 1783, p. 23)\nand Tommy Quin (Rusher), which, considering the relative antiquity of\nTommy Linn, are obvious degradations of this name.\n\nThe rhyme in some collections is quoted in an enlarged form:--\n\n    Who put her in? Little Tommy Lin,\n    Who pulled her out? Little Tommy [_or_ Dickey] Stout.\n\nI have heard also:--\n\n    Who put her in? Little Tommy Thin.\n    Who pulled her out? Little Tommy Stout.\n\nStout is perhaps a traditional name. For it occurs in the nursery piece\non the old woman who went to sleep out of doors and forgot her identity.\nI know no earlier version of this piece in English than the one recorded\nby Rimbault which begins:\n\n    There was a little woman as I've heard tell,\n    Who went to market her eggs for to sell.\n\nIt further relates how she went to sleep out of doors, how the man Stout\n\"cut her petticoats round about,\" and how on waking she did not know\nherself, and decided to go home and find out if her dog knew her (1864,\np. 6). But the story is an old one, for we come across it in Grimm's\n_Fairy Tales_, where it forms a sequel to \"Kluge Else,\" (No. 35). In\nthis the part of Stout is taken by the woman's husband, who hung her\nskirt about with bells, and it is further stated that the woman fell\nasleep when she was cutting corn. The same story in a more interesting\nform was recovered in Norway. Here we read that the woman fell asleep\nwhile she was cutting hemp, which explains why her mind failed her. For\nhemp newly cut has strongly narcotic properties. It was probably the\nherb which the witches smoked in their diminutive clay-pipes in\npre-Christian times. Presumably on account of these narcotic properties\nsowing and cutting of hemp were associated all over Europe with peculiar\ndances, such as _Enfille aiguille_, our _Thread-the-Needle_. Its\nconnection with heathen rites of divination is suggested by the\nwell-known rhyme:--\n\n    Hemp-seed I set, hemp-seed I sow,\n    The young man whom I love,\n    Come after me and mow.      (1890, p. 414.)\n\nIn this form the rhyme is also cited in _Mother Bunch's Closet newly\nbroke open_, as a charm to secure the vision of one's future husband.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nRHYMES AND COUNTRY DANCES\n\n\nMany true nursery rhymes go back to traditional dancing and singing\ngames which are now relegated to the playground, but which were danced\nby rustics within the memory of man, and which are heirs to the choral\ndances of our heathen forefathers. For dancing in its origin was no idle\nand unmeaning pastime. Dances were undertaken for serious purposes, such\nas warding off evil and promoting agricultural growth, conceptions which\nhang closely together. These dances formed part of festivities that took\nplace at certain times of the year. They were accompanied by expressive\nwords, and by actions which were suited to the words, and which gave the\ndance a dramatic character. Our carol is related to the _caraula_ that\nwas prohibited among heathen customs by Bishop Eligius of Noyon (d.\n659), in the north of France in the seventh century, and has the same\norigin as the _Choreia_ of the Greeks, the _reihe_ or _reigen_ of\nGermany, the _karol_ of Brittany, and the _caraula_ of eastern\nSwitzerland. In course of time the religious significance of the choral\ndance was lost and its practice survived as a sport. At a later stage\nstill, it became a pastime of children and a diversion of the ballroom.\n\nAmong the dances that can be traced back through several stages, is the\none which in its latest survival is known as the _Cotillon_. This is\nmentioned in England as far back as the year 1766. Burns in _Tam o'\nShanter_ speaks of it as \"brand new from France.\" The peculiar features\nof the Cotillon as it is danced nowadays, include free choice of\npartners, the women being at liberty in one figure to choose the men,\nthe drawing into the dance of the assembled company, and the presence of\na cushion which is put to a variety of uses. The Cotillon usually\nconcludes the ball.\n\nIn an earlier form the Cotillon is represented by the dance which was\nknown in the seventeenth century as _Joan Saunderson or the Cushion\nDance_. The way of dancing _Joan Saunderson_ is described in _The\nDauncing Master, a collection of dances with tunes for young people_,\npublished by H. Playford. Of this the first volume was issued in 1650,\nwhich was enlarged in subsequent editions, when further volumes were\nadded. _The Dauncing Master_ of Playford shows how traditional country\ndances were appropriated to the ballroom, for many of these dance tunes,\nsuch as _Mulberry Bush_, and _Green Sleeves_, correspond with the names\nof traditional dancing and singing games.\n\nIn _Joan Saunderson or the Cushion Dance_ as described by Playford,[29]\na cushion and a drinking-horn were brought in by two dancers to the\nsound of a fiddle. The cushion-bearer locked the door and pocketed the\nkey, and danced round the room alone. Then he exchanged words with the\nfiddler as to the need of finding a maid and pressing her into the\ndance. The name Joan Saunderson being proposed, the cushion-bearer\nplaced the cushion before the woman of his choice, and knelt upon it.\nShe did the same, and drank from the horn. They kissed and danced\ntogether. The same ceremony was then gone through by the girl, who, when\nthe name John Saunderson was proposed, approached the man of her choice\nbearing the cushion, the first dancer accompanying her. The ceremony was\nrepeated again and again, alternately by man and woman, and as each\ndancer chose a partner, the number of those following the cushion-bearer\nincreased. Finally the whole assembled company were drawn into the ring.\n\n    [29] Playford, _The Dauncing Master_, 1686, p. 206.\n\nA scene in _Joan Saunderson_ is said to be represented in a Dutch\nengraving of the year 1624 (1876, p. 254). _Joan Saunderson_ is still\ndanced in different parts of the country under the same or some similar\nname. In Derbyshire it is known as the _Cushion Dance_, and those who\nare drawn into the ring are addressed as John Sanders and Jane Sanders.\nIn the Lowlands the dance is known as _Babbity Bowster_, bowster\nstanding for bolster; in the north it is the _Whishin Dance_, whishin\nstanding for cushion (1894, I, pp. 9, 87). The Cushion Dance was the\nlast dance that was danced at a wedding,[30] and at Northampton it came\nat the conclusion of the May-Day festival (1876, p. 253).\n\n    [30] Murray's Dictionary: _Cushion Dance_.\n\nIn the Cotillon of the ballroom, the ring finally breaks up and the\ncompany dances in couples; the Cushion Dance leads up to the withdrawal\nof the married pair, and concludes with a romp. A later edition of _The\nDauncing Master_ (1698, p. 7), perhaps with a view to forestalling this,\nadds a sequel to the dance, according to which the game, after it had\nbeen wound, was unwound, that is, each dancer in turn bade farewell to\nhis partner, and after doing so left the room.\n\nThe points of likeness between the Cotillon and the Cushion Dance are\nsuch as to favour the belief that they are connected. The free choice of\npartners, the presence of the cushion, the drawing in of the whole\nassembled company, and the fact that the dance terminates the ball, are\npeculiar to them both. The Cushion Dance being the older sport,\npreserves the association with weddings and with the May-Day festival,\nwhich at one time was the occasion for mating and marriage.\n\nThe associations with mating and marriage are preserved also in a\ntraditional game that is still played throughout the greater part of\nEngland, which is generally known as _Sally Waters_. The verses recited\nin playing it render it probable that the Cushion Dance is a later\ndevelopment of the game known as _Sally Waters_.\n\nIn playing _Sally Waters_ the players stand in a ring, a boy and a girl\nalternately choose a partner and seal the bond by joining hands, or by\nkneeling, or by a kiss. The verses recited in playing the game were\nfirst recorded by Halliwell (1849, p. 133). Forty-nine further\nvariations, used in different parts of the kingdom in playing the game,\nhave been printed by Mrs. Gomme, who classed this among marriage games,\n(1894, II, 461). In the book of Playford the Cushion Dance is called\nalso _Joan Saunderson_, and those who are pressed into the dance are\ndesignated as Joan Saunderson and John Saunderson, or as Jane Sanders\nand John Sanders. In playing the game of _Sally Waters_ similar names\nare used. Thus the children in Penzance stand in a ring and sing the\nfollowing verse:--\n\n    Little Sally Sander sitting in the Sander,\n    Weeping and crying for her young man.      (1894, No. 26.)\n\nIn playing the game in Liverpool they begin:--\n\n    Little Polly Sanders sits on the sand, etc.      (_Ibid._, No. 42.)\n\nThe verses used in Yorkshire begin:--\n\n    Little Alice Sander sat upon a cinder, etc.      (_Ibid._, No. 31.)\n\nThese names Sally Sander, Polly Sanders, etc., must be derived from the\nsame source as Saunderson and Sanders of the Cushion Dance. A host of\nother rhymes current in the nursery deal with the same theme, and are\nformed on the same model. There is one step only from _little Sally\nSander_ of Penzance, _little Polly Sanders_ of Liverpool, and _little\nAlice Sander who sat upon a cinder_, to the following rhymes which are\nincluded in different nursery collections. All these rhymes describe a\nperson sitting and waiting, and most of them dwell on the idea of a seat\nor a cushion, while the allusion to matters matrimonial, being\nunsuitable to children, is altogether dropped.\n\n    Little Polly Flinders sat among the cinders,\n    Warming her pretty toes;\n    Her mother came and caught her, and scolded her little daughter,\n    For spoiling her nice new clothes.      (1846, p. 212.)\n\n    Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,\n    Eating of curds and whey,\n    There came a great spider and sat down beside her\n    And frightened Miss Muffet away.[31]\n\n    Little Mary Ester sat upon a tester\n    Eating of curds and whey;\n    There came a little spider and sat down beside her,\n    And frightened Mary Ester away.      (1842, p. 61.)\n\n    [31] _Songs for the Nursery_, published by Darton & Co., 1812. The\n    verses included in this collection were altered with a view to\n    rendering them more suitable for children.\n\nTuffet and tester are words for a footstool.\n\n    Little Miss Mopsey sat in the shopsey,\n    Eating of curds and whey;\n    There came a great spider who sat down beside her\n    And frightened Miss Mopsey away.      (1842, p. 37.)\n\n    Little Tom Tacket sits upon his cracket,\n    Half a yard of cloth will make him a jacket,\n    Make him a jacket and breeches to the knee,\n    And if you will not have him, you may let him be.      (1842, p. 199.)\n\n    Little Tom Tucker sings for his supper,\n    What shall he eat, but white bread and butter;\n    How will he cut it, without e're a knife\n    And how will he be married without e're a wife.\n\n    (1744, p. 10; _c._ 1783, p. 56.)\n\n    Little Jack Horner sat in the corner,\n    Eating a [of] Christmas pie;\n    He put in his thumb, and he took [pulled] out a plum,\n    And said [cried] \"What a good boy am I!\"\n\n    _Chorus_: And what a good boy am I!      (_c._ 1783, p. 55.)\n\nThese verses as they here stand arranged, show an increasing deviation\nfrom the words used in playing the game of Sally Waters.\n\nTom Tucker and Jack Horner are names that go some way back in history.\nFor Brand states that at the revels kept at St. John's College, 1\nNovember, 1607, a Christmas Lord of the Revels was chosen as Thomas\nTucker.[32] A dance tune of the _Dauncing Master_ was called _Tom\nTucker_ also.[33]\n\n    [32] Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, I, 219.\n\n    [33] _The Dauncing Master_, 1686, p. 130.\n\nThe name of Jacky Horner was familiar to Carey about the year 1720, as\nmentioned above. _Little Jack Horner_ was a well-known tune, and there\nis a direction in the Grub Street opera that the chorus shall be sung\nto this melody.[34] A chapbook of the latter half of the eighteenth\ncentury bears the title, _The Pleasant History of Jack Horner,\ncontaining his Witty Tricks_, etc. It cites the familiar rhyme, and\nfurther describes the pranks that the hero played upon women. This\nassociation and the name recall the expressions _hornified_, that is a\ncuckold;[35] _horning_, a mock serenade \"without which no wedding would\nbe complete\"; and _Horn Fair_, a time of unusual licence, kept up in\nKent: \"all was fair at Horn Fair\" (1876, p. 387).\n\n    [34] Whitmore, loc. cit., p. 27.\n\n    [35] Murray's Dictionary: _Horning_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE GAME OF _SALLY WATERS_\n\n\nThe game of _Sally Waters_ calls for further comment. In this game, as\nalready mentioned, the players stand in a circle, boy and girl\nalternately choose a partner, while the friends stand around and chant\nthe verses. In these lies the interest of the game. For these words in\nthe fifty variations collected by Mrs. Gomme, all give expression to the\nsame sequence of ideas. There is the call to Sally to go through the\nceremony of sprinkling the pan or watering the can. This is followed by\na chorus that urges that a choice be made. When this is made and sealed\nby joining hands, or by kneeling, or by a kiss, the chorus utters wishes\nfor a prosperous union. Similar traits appear in the games known as\n_Pretty Little Girl of Mine_, _The Lady of the Mountain_, and _Kiss in\nthe Ring_, which, in a less pronounced form, give expression to the same\nideas.\n\nThe verses used in playing _Sally Waters_ in Dorsetshire are among the\nmost meaningful, and stand as follows:--\n\n    Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan,\n    Rise, Sally; rise, Sally, and choose a young man;\n    Choose [_or_ bow] to the east, choose [_or_ bow] to the west\n    [_Or_ choose for the best one, choose for the worst one],\n    Choose the pretty girl [_or_ young man] that you love best.\n\n    And now you're married, I wish you joy,\n    First a girl and then a boy;\n    Seven years after son and daughter,\n    And now young people, jump over the water.      (1894, Nr. 1.)\n\nThese verses and the fact that _Sally Waters_ is related to the Cushion\nDance that is danced at weddings, render it probable that _Sally Waters_\noriginated in a marriage celebration of heathen times. The formula in\nthe Dorsetshire version of the game concludes with a direction to the\nyoung couple to \"jump over the water.\" In the Somersetshire version the\ndirection is \"kiss each other and come out of the water\" (1894, No. 3);\nin the Shropshire variation, \"kiss and shake hands and come out\" (1894,\nNo. 14); in the London variation, \"kiss before you go out of the water.\"\n(Appendix.)\n\nDipping was an accepted ceremonial during heathen times, which recovered\nor revealed a person's true identity as in the case of Tam Linn, or of\nthe suspected witch who was thrown into the water. Dipping constituted\npart of definite celebrations. For the ceremonial of \"dipping\" formed\npart of the May-Day festival as it was kept in Northampton, while in\nCornwall the saying is current: \"The first of May is dipping day\" (1876,\np. 235). May-Day was a great day for contracting matrimonial alliances\nin the heathen past, and is at present avoided because of its riotous\nassociations.\n\nJudging from the verses used in playing Sally Waters, the union between\nthe parties was contracted conditionally for seven years only. Seven\nyears are definitely mentioned in sixteen out of fifty variations of the\ngame. The same period is mentioned also in fourteen out of the\ntwenty-five variations of the verses used in playing _Pretty Little Girl\nof Mine_, and in three out of seven variations of the verses used in\nplaying _The Lady on the Mountain_.\n\nMrs. Gomme, in discussing the game of Sally Waters, cites various\nexpressions which show that the marriage vow is still popularly looked\nupon as binding for a certain period only, sometimes for seven years\n(1894, II, 177). I find this corroborated by remarks I have gleaned from\ncountry-folk. Thus a woman whose husband had gone from her, after seven\nyears felt justified in looking upon him as dead, and had the bell\ntolled for his funeral.\n\nTime-reckoning by seven years goes far back in history, and is still the\nrule in many legal arrangements. Seven years of plenty succeeded seven\nyears of famine in Egypt. Once in seven years the fairies rode out to\nclaim their due. Some festivities happened only once in seven years. The\ncurious custom of _bumping_, that is, of two persons taking up by the\narms any persons whom they met, and swinging them to and fro, was\nobserved on Ganging Day (29 September) once in seven years at Bishop's\nStortford (1876, p. 380). At Bradford also a septennial festival was\nkept in honour of Jason and the Golden Fleece and St. Blaize on 3\nFebruary (1876, p. 60). Similarly a dance known as the Metzgersprung\nwas danced at Munich once in seven years to keep off the plague (Bo., p.\n44).\n\nThe mention of seven years in the marriage game may indicate that the\nmarriage was broken off after seven years if the stipulated conditions\nfailed to be fulfilled. These conditions were that the children born of\nthe union should include one of either sex. Mrs. Gomme, in connection\nwith this stipulation, remarks that a marriage is still popularly\nreckoned incomplete from which there is not male and female offspring.\nShe also points out that the expression \"choose for the best, choose for\nthe worst\" of the marriage game, is related to the words \"for better,\nfor worse\" of the vernacular portion of the English marriage service.\nThe expressions \"worst and best,\" or \"wisest and best,\" occur in\nthirteen out of the fifty versions of words; instead of these, \"choose\neast and choose west\" occur in twenty-two out of the fifty versions\n(1894, II, 168). It is difficult to decide which is the more primitive\nform of the verse; I fancy the latter.\n\nThe ceremony of choosing was led up to by _sprinkling the pan_, which is\nmentioned in twenty-one out of fifty variations of the game; _watering\nthe can_ stands in twelve others. The pan was specially associated with\nwomen as housekeepers, and, together with the cradle, is mentioned as\none of the first essentials in setting up house in the game of\n_Wallflowers_.[36]\n\n    [36] Gomme, loc. cit.:  _Wallflowers_:--\n\n    Mister Moffit is a very good man,\n    He came to the door with a hat in his hand,\n    He pulled up his cloak and showed me the ring;\n    To-morrow, to-morrow the wedding begins.\n    First he bought a frying pan, then he bought the cradle,\n    And then one day the baby was born. Rock, rock the cradle.\n\n    (No. 32.)\n\n\nJudging from the game of _Sally Waters_ as played in Bucks, a \"mother\"\nactually presided at the game, who directed her daughters to sprinkle\nthe pan, and their being included among those from whom a choice was\nmade, depended on their successfully doing so. To the words of the game\nas played in Bucks, I have added in brackets an indication how the words\nwere probably distributed:--\n\n    (Half chorus): Sally, Sally Walker, sprinkled in the pan.\n    (Other half):  What did she sprinkle for?\n    (Answer):      For a young man.\n    (Mother):      Sprinkle, sprinkle daughter, and you shall have a cow.\n    (Daughter):    I cannot sprinkle, mother, because I don't know how.\n    (Mother):      Sprinkle, daughter, sprinkle, and you shall have a man.\n    (Daughter):    I cannot sprinkle, mother, but I'll do the best I can.\n    (Chorus):      Pick and choose, but don't you pick me,\n                   Pick the fairest you can see.\n    (Man):         The fairest that I can see is.... Come to me!\n\n    (1894, No. 23.)\n\nThis is followed by the usual marriage formula.\n\nA similar dialogue is included amongst the Nursery Rhymes of Halliwell,\nin which the daughter is directed to whistle, a word which formerly\nconveyed the idea of uttering imprecations in a low voice, and which was\ncondemned in a woman since it marked her out for a witch. The verse\nstands as follows:--\n\n    Whistle daughter, whistle, whistle for a cradle.\n    I cannot whistle, mammy, 'deed I am not able.\n\n    Whistle daughter, whistle, whistle for a cow,\n    I cannot whistle, mammy, 'deed I know not how.\n\n    Whistle, daughter, whistle, whistle for a man,\n    I cannot whistle, mammy; whew! Yes, I believe I can.\n\n    (1846, p. 219.)[37]\n\n    [37] Cf.\n\n    A whistling woman and a crowing hen\n    Are neither fit for God or man.      (1892, p. 506.)\n\nAlso:\n\n    Une femme qui siffle et une poule qui crie\n    Porte malheur dans la maison.\n\n\n\n\nIf the words used in playing _Sally Waters_ are analysed, it will be\nseen that the name Sally occurs in forty-four out of fifty variations,\nand that in twenty-four variations the name is associated with water. It\nis combined with water especially in the south and the south-west of\nEngland. Away from this district we have the name Sally Walker, in\nShropshire, Bucks, Yorkshire, Scotland, and Ireland; the name Sally\nSalter in Yorkshire and Lincoln; the names Sally Sander in Penzance,\nPolly Sanders in Liverpool, and so forth. Obviously, Sally Waters is the\noldest form of the name. This view is accepted by Mrs. Gomme, who was,\nhowever, at a loss to account for the wide use of the name Sally Waters.\nBut, in classing the variations of words of the game according to the\nreasonableness of their contents, she placed foremost as most meaningful\nthe verses that hailed from Dorsetshire, Somerset, and Devonshire, where\nthe form Sally Waters is in use. It is to this district, therefore, that\nwe must turn for the origin of the game of _Sally Waters_.\n\nOn turning to the history of the British past in these districts, we\nfind that the Romans when they came to Bath found this spot far famed\nfor its waters. The name by which they knew the place was _Aqu\u00e6 Solis_,\nbut the word _Solis_ did not stand for the sun as a male divinity, but\nfor _Sul_, the presiding female divinity of the place. For the Roman\ntemple built at Bath was dedicated to the goddess Sulis-Minerva, and the\nname Sul, both with and without the name of Minerva, occurs among the\nnoted inscriptions.[38] It was a common practice with the Romans to\ncouple the name of one of their own divinities with that of a local\ndivinity, and Minerva, in her capacity of a healing goddess, was here\nassociated with Sul, the female divinity of the waters. On the fa\u00e7ade of\nthe temple a medallion is represented. Inside it is the head of a\ngoddess with her hair tied together over her forehead, and a crescent\nmoon is behind her. The moon is an emblem which is not associated with\nMinerva elsewhere, and the head on the medallion must therefore\nrepresent Sul. Sul was the presiding divinity at Bath, and an altar was\nalso discovered which was dedicated to the Sulev\u00e6.\n\n    [38] Scarth, H. M., _Aqu\u00e6 Solis, Notices on Roman Bath_, 1864, pp.\n    16 ff., 22 ff., etc.\n\nA similar altar has been discovered at Nismes, which is dedicated to\n_Sulivi\u00e6 Idennic\u00e6 Minerv\u00e6_. Scarth, in his history of Roman Bath, cites\nMr. Roach Smith on these Sulev\u00e6, who \"appear to have been sylphs, the\ntutelary divinities of rivers, fountains, hills, roads, villages and\nother localities against whom were especially directed in the fifth and\nsubsequent centuries the anathemas of Christian councils, missionaries,\nand princes.\"[39] Taking this evidence into consideration, is it\nfar-fetched to suggest that Sally Waters of the traditional marriage\ngame, which, in its most meaningful form, is still played in the\ndistricts surrounding Bath, may be related to Sul of the waters of Bath,\nand to her followers, or ministrants, the Sulev\u00e6?\n\n    [39] _Ibid._, p. 53.\n\nWe know nothing further of Sul as far as our islands are concerned. But\nin Central France a female impersonation of the sun is still called upon\nas _La Soule_, and St. Solange, patron saint of Berry, who is\nrepresented with a light over her forehead, is looked upon as heir to\nher in the pantheon of Christian saints. Sulis also was a place-name in\nBrittany during Roman times, situated somewhere between Auray and\nQuimper. It seems probable that the site is identical with that of the\npresent St. Anne d'Auray, famous for its holy waters, which are still\nsought in pilgrimage from far and near. The enormous stone basin into\nwhich pilgrims are dipped, remains its most curious feature.\n\nIn Scandinavian nursery lore we also come across a _Fru Sole_, the\nmother of many daughters, who sat in heaven, and across _Fru Soletopp_,\nwho distributed gifts. These names may be related to Sul of the waters\nof Bath, or to Sally of our game, or to both. However this may be, the\nwide distribution of the game known as _Sally Waters_, and its peculiar\nconnection with the south-west of England, induce the belief that there\nis some relation between Sally of the game, and Sul, the divinity of the\nwaters.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\n_THE LADY OF THE LAND_\n\n\nAssociations dating from heathen times are preserved in other\ntraditional games, the full meaning of which becomes apparent only when\nwe compare these with their foreign parallels. Some of these games in\ntheir cruder and more primitive forms are sports, in which dialogue\ntakes the place of rhymed verses, and in which the characters that are\nintroduced are frequently spoken of as animals.\n\nAmong the dancing and singing games first described by Halliwell is one\ncalled by him _The Lady of the Land_. In this game one side is taken by\na mother and her daughters, the other by a second woman, and the game\nconsists in the daughters changing sides. The verses that are recited\nare as follows:--\n\n    Here comes a woman from Babyland,\n    With three small children in her hand.\n    One can brew, the other can bake,\n    The other can make a pretty round cake.\n    One can sit in the garden and spin,\n    Another can make a fine bed for a king.\n    Pray m'am will you take one in?      (1846, p. 121.)\n\nOne child is then pointed out and passes to the other side, and this is\ncontinued till all are selected.\n\nTwelve further variations of the words used in playing this game were\nrecovered from different parts of the country by Mrs. Gomme (1894, I,\n313). Of these two, one from Shropshire (No. 3) and one from the Isle of\nWight (No. 6), like that of Halliwell, designate the woman as \"from\nBabyland.\" Others, from the Isle of Man and from Galloway (Appendix),\ndescribe her as from Babylon, while further variations mention Sandiland\n(No. 9), Cumberland (Berks, No. 8), and others. The word Babyland, which\noccurs in three out of thirteen variations of the game, is probably the\noriginal one, for it has a parallel in the corresponding German game in\nthe name _Engelland_, the land of the spirits of the unborn.\n\nThe Babyland game in a more primitive form is known as _Little Dog I\ncall you_, in which the players also change sides (1894, I, 330). In\nthis game, the one side is taken by a girl who looks after a number of\nchildren, the other by a girl who is designated as _Little Dog_, and who\nstands apart. The children secretly impart their wishes to their owner\nor leader, who warns them against laughing, and then calls the Little\nDog and tells him to pick out the child who has expressed such and such\na wish. Should this child laugh by inadvertence, she at once goes over\nto the Little Dog. If not, the dog is left to guess who has imparted the\nwish, and by doing so he secures the child. If he fails to guess aright,\nthe child goes and stands behind the leader and is altogether removed\nout of the reach of the Little Dog. This is continued till all belong to\none side or the other, and the game concludes with a tug of war.\n\nThe games of _The Lady of the Land_ and _Little Dog_ have parallels in\nthe foreign game of children changing sides, fourteen variations of\nwhich were collected from different parts of northern Europe by\nMannhardt (M., p. 273). The closest parallel to _The Lady of the Land_\nis played in Belgium, in which sides are taken by two leaders, of whom\nthe one has many daughters and the other has none. The game is called\n_Riche et pauvre_ and the following verses are sung:--\n\n    Je suis pauvre, je suis pauvre, Anne Marie Jacqueline;\n    Je suis pauvre dans ce jeu d'ici.--\n    Je suis riche, je suis riche, Anne Marie Jacqueline;\n    Je suis riche dans ce jeu d'ici.--\n    Donnez-moi un de vos enfants, Anne Marie Jacqueline,\n    Donnez-moi un de vos enfants, dans ce jeu d'ici.      (M., No. 13.)\n\n    \"I am poor, I am poor in this game, I am rich in this game. Give me\n    one of your children, in this game.\"\n\nThis is continued as in the Babyland game till every child has had its\nturn. There is no sequel.\n\nIn the German game the woman who owns the children is called sometimes\nMary, sometimes Witch, but usually she has the name of a heathen\ndivinity. Thus in Mecklenburg she is _Fru Goden_ or _Fru Gol_ (No. 11).\nGode is the name of a mother divinity, who, as _Godmor_, is the mother\nof Thor (Gr., p. 209, note). In the game as played in Prussia (No. 10),\nin Elsass (No. 3), in Swabia (No. 2), and in Aargau (No. 4), she is\n_Frau Ros_ or _Frau Rose_, that is Lady Ros or Rose; while in\nPommerellen she is either _Ole Moder Rose_ or _Ole Moder Taersche_ (No.\n1), a word that signifies witch. In Holstein, on the other hand, the\nalternative is recorded as _Fru Rosen_ or _Mutter Marie_, Mother Mary\n(No. 9), while in Appenzell (No. 5) and near Dunkirk (No. 6) the owner\nof the children is _Marei Muetter Gotts_, i.e. Mary the Mother of God.\nMannhardt points out that Ross, sometimes Rose, is the name of a German\nmother divinity who occurs frequently in German folk-lore. I have come\nacross Mother Ross in our own chapbook literature, where the name may be\ntraditional also. Mary indicates the substitution of a Christian name in\nthe place of the older heathen one. In Sweden the owner of many babes is\n_Fru Sole_, who is represented as sitting in heaven surrounded by her\ndaughters, who are described as chickens (No. 14).\n\nThe game of securing children is called in Switzerland _Das Englein\naufziehen_ (No. 5), that is, \"the drawing forth of an angel.\" The word\n_Engel_, angel, according to the information collected by Mannhardt,\noriginally designates the spirit that awaits re-birth. For the heathen\ninhabitants of Northern Europe, including the Kelts, were unable to\nrealize individual death. They held that the living spirit passed away\nwith death, but continued in existence, and again reappeared under\nanother shape. In the civilization that belonged to the mother age,\nthese spirits or angels that awaited re-birth, peopled the realm which\nwas associated with divine mothers or mother divinities. At a later\nperiod, transferred into Christian belief, they were pictured as a host\nof winged babes, whom we find represented in mediaeval art hovering\naround the Virgin Mother and Child.\n\nThe land in which the unborn spirits dwelt, is generally spoken of in\nGerman nursery and folk rhymes as _Engelland_, an expression which forms\na direct parallel to the expression Babyland of our game. Thus the\n_Woman of Babyland_, like _Frau Rose_ or _Frau Gode_ of the German\ngame, was in all probability a divine mother, who was the owner of the\nspirits or babes that awaited re-birth.\n\nIn the estimation of Mannhardt, the game in which children are drawn\nfrom one woman into the possession of the other, preserves the relics of\na ceremonial connected with the cult of the mother divinity. It visibly\nset forth how the spirits of the departed were drawn back into life (M.,\np. 319). Perhaps we may go a step further. The study of folk-lore has\ntaught us that to simulate a desired result is one way of working for\nits attainment. Women who were desirous of becoming mothers, both in\nEngland and in Germany, were wont to rock an empty cradle. They also\nvisited particular shrines. Of the rites which they practised there we\nknow nothing. Perhaps the Babyland game originated not as an ideal\nconception, but preserves the relics of a rite by which women sought to\npromote motherhood. This assumption is supported by various features\nthat are incidental to the game.\n\nThus the game, both in England and abroad, is essentially a girls'\ngame, and the words that are used indicate that it is played by them\nonly. Even where the generality of the players are designated as\n\"children,\" the leaders are invariably girls.\n\nAgain, in some versions of the foreign game (Nos. 8, 9) there is mention\nof salt. The woman who asks for a child, complains that she has lost\nthose that were given to her; she is told that she ought to have\nsprinkled them with salt (No. 8). Sprinkling with salt is still observed\nat Christian baptism in some districts, and such sprinkling is said to\nmake a child safe.[40]\n\n    [40] Cf. Addy, S. O., _House Tales and Traditional Remains_, 1895,\n    pp. 86, 120.\n\nAgain, in the game as played abroad the child that is chosen is put to\nthe test if it can be made to laugh (Nos. 2, 4, 5, 8). In the game of\n_Little Dog_ also, the child that laughs passes into the keeping of a\nnew owner. Laughing indicates quickening into life, and in folk-lore\ngenerally the child that refrains from laughing is reckoned uncanny.\nNumerous stories are told of the changeling that was made to laugh and\ndisappeared, when the real child was found restored to its cradle.\n\nAgain, in the foreign game the player who seeks to secure a child speaks\nof herself as lame, and limps in order to prove herself so (Nos. 1, 2,\n14). In one instance she attributes her limping to a bone in her leg.\nLimping, in the estimation of Mannhardt, is peculiar to the woman who\nhas borne children (M., p. 305). For in German popular parlance the\nwoman who is confined, is said to have been bitten by the stork who\nbrought the child.\n\nA reminiscence of this idea lurks in our proverb rhyme:--\n\n    The wife who expects to have a good name,\n    Is always at home as if she were lame;\n    And the maid that is honest, her chiefest delight\n    Is still to be doing from morning till night.[41]\n\n    [41] Bohn, H., _A Handbook of Proverbs_, 1901, p. 43.\n\nAgain, in one version of the foreign game the children that are won over\nare given the names of dogs, and when their former owner attempts to get\nthem back, they rush at her and bark (No. 1). This corresponds to our\ngame of _Little Dog_, in which the child that stands apart is addressed\nas \"Little Dog I call you.\" Grimm declared himself at a loss to account\nfor the fact that a dog was associated with the Norns or Fate-maidens\nwho assisted at childbirth (Gr., p. 339); Mannhardt cites the belief\nthat the spirits of the dead were sometimes spoken of as dogs (M., p.\n301); and in England there also exists a superstition that the winds\nthat rush past at night are dogs, the so-called Gabriel hounds or\nratchets (cf. below, p. 165).\n\nFeatures preserved in other games contain similar suggestions which are\nworth noting.\n\nThus in the game known as _Drop-handkerchief_ one girl holding a\nkerchief goes round the others who are arranged in a circle, saying:--\n\n    I have a little dog and it won't bite you\n    It won't bite you, it won't bite you [_ad lib._]\n    It _will_ bite you.      (1894, I, 109.)\n\nThe person on whom _the little dog_ is bestowed is \"bitten\"; that is,\nshe is in the same predicament as the German woman who is bitten by the\nstork, and the limping woman of the German Babyland game.\n\nIn playing _Drop-handkerchief_ in Deptford the children sing:--\n\n    I had a little dog whose name was Buff,\n    I sent him up the street for a pennyworth of snuff.\n    He broke my box and spilt my snuff\n    I think my story is long enough--\n    'Taint you, 'taint you, and 'taint you, but 'tis you.\n\n    (1894, I, p. 111.)\n\nIn the collection of Nursery Songs by Rusher stands the following\nrhyme:--\n\n    I had a little dog and they called him Buff,\n    I sent him to a shop to buy me snuff,\n    But he lost the bag and spilt the stuff;\n    I sent him no more but gave him a cuff,\n    For coming from the mart without any snuff.\n\n\"Bufe\" as a word for a dog occurs as far back as 1567.[42]\n\n    [42] Murray's Dictionary: _Bufe_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nCUSTOM RHYMES\n\n\nThe comparison of our short nursery rhymes with those current in other\ncountries, next engages our attention. Halliwell has remarked that some\nof our rhymes are chanted by the children of Germany and Scandinavia,\nwhich to him strikingly exhibited the great antiquity and remote origin\nof these rhymes. The observation which he made with regard to the\ncountries of Northern Europe, applies to the countries of Central and\nSouthern Europe also. Scholarly collections of rhymes have been\npublished during recent years in Scandinavia, Germany, France, Italy,\nSpain, and referring to special parts of these countries, which give us\na fair insight into their nursery lore. (Cf., p. 212). The comparison of\nthese collections with ours yields surprising results. Often the same\nthought is expressed in the same form of verse. Frequently the same\nproper name reappears in the same connection. In many cases rhymes, that\nseem senseless taken by themselves, acquire a definite meaning when\ntaken in conjunction with their foreign parallels. Judging from what we\nknow of nursery rhymes and their appearance in print, the thought of a\ndirect translation of rhymes in the bulk cannot be entertained. We are\ntherefore left to infer, either that rhymes were carried from one\ncountry to another at a time when they were still meaningful, or else\nthat they originated in different countries as the outcome of the same\nstratum of thought.\n\nThe sorting of nursery rhymes according to the number of their foreign\nparallels, yields an additional criterion as to the relative antiquity\nof certain rhymes. For those rhymes that embody the more primitive\nconceptions are those that are spread over the wider geographical area.\nThe above inquiry has shown that pieces such as _Mother Hubbard_ and\n_Three Blind Mice_ are relatively new, and that all the rhymes formed on\nthe model of _Little Miss Muffet_ go back to the _Cushion Dance_ and to\nthe game of _Sally Waters_. Rhymes of this kind are entirely without\nforeign parallels. On the other hand, calls, such as those addressed to\nthe ladybird and the snail, and riddle-rhymes, such as that on _Humpty\nDumpty_, have numerous and close parallels half across Europe.\n\nThe ladybird is the representative among ourselves of a large class of\ninsects which were associated with the movement of the sun from the\nearliest times. The association goes back to the _kheper_ or chafer of\nancient Egypt, which has the habit of rolling along the ball that\ncontains its eggs. This ball was identified as the orb of the sun, and\nthe _kheper_ was esteemed as the beneficent power that helped to keep it\nmoving.\n\nA like importance attached to the chafers that had the power of flying,\nespecially to the ladybird (_Coccinella septem punctata_). In India the\ninsect was called _Indragopas_, that is \"protected by Indra.\" The story\nis told how this insect flew too near the sun, singed its wings, and\nfell back to the earth.[43]\n\n    [43] De Gubernatis, _Zoological Mythology_, 1872, II, p. 209.\n\nIn Greece the same idea was embodied in the myth of Ikaros, the son of\nD\u00e6dalus, who flew too near the sun with the wings he had made for\nhimself, and, falling into the sea, was drowned. Already the ancient\nGreeks were puzzled by this myth, which found its reasonable explanation\nin describing Ikaros as the inventor of sails. He was the first to\nattach sails to a boat, and sailing westwards, he was borne out to sea\nand perished.\n\nAmong ourselves the ladybird is always addressed in connection with its\npower of flight. It is mostly told to return to its house or home, which\nis in danger of being destroyed by fire, and warned of the ruin\nthreatening its children if it fails to fly. But some rhymes address it\non matters of divination, and one urges it to bring down blessings from\nheaven.\n\nThe rhyme addressed to the ladybird first appears in the nursery\ncollection of 1744, where it stands as follows:--\n\n    1.  Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,\n        Your house is on fire, your children will burn.\n\nMany variations of the rhyme are current in different parts of the\ncountry, which may be tabulated as follows:--\n\n    2.  Lady cow, lady cow, fly away home,\n        Your house is on fire, your children all roam.      (1892, p. 326.)\n\n    3.  Ladycow, Ladycow, fly and be gone,\n        Your house is on fire, and your children at home.\n\n    (Hallamshire, 1892, p. 326.)\n\n    4.  Gowdenbug, gowdenbug, fly away home,\n        Yahr house is bahnt dun, and your children all gone.\n\n    (Suffolk, _N. & Q._, IV., 55.)\n\n    5.  Ladybird, ladybird, eigh thy way home,\n        Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam,\n        Except little Nan, who sits in her pan\n        Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.\n\n        (Lancashire, 1892, p. 326.)\n\n    6.  Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,\n        Your house is on fire, your children at home.\n        They're all burnt but one, and that's little Ann,\n        And she has crept under the warming pan.      (Rusher's Series.)\n\n    7.  Ladycow, ladycow, fly thy way home,\n        Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone;\n        All but one, that ligs under a stone,\n        Ply thee home, ladycow, ere it be gone.      (1842, p. 204.)\n\n    8.  Ladycow, Ladycow, fly away home,\n        Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone;\n        All but one, and he is Tum,\n        And he lies under the grindelstone.\n\n        (Shropshire, 1892, p. 327.)\n\n    9.  Dowdy cow, dowdy cow, ride away hame,\n        Thy house is burnt, and thy bairns are ta'en;\n        And if thou means to save thy bairns,\n        Take thy wings and fly away.\n\n        (N. Riding, Yorks., 1892, p. 327.)\n\n    10. Lady, lady landers, fly away to Flanders.\n\n        (Chambers, 1842, p. 43.)\n\n    11. Fly, ladybird, fly!\n        North, south, east, or west,\n        Fly to the pretty girl that I love best.      (1849, p. 5.)\n\n    12. King, king Golloway, up your wings and fly away,\n        Over land and over sea; tell me where my love can be.\n\n    (Kincardineshire, 1870, p. 201.)\n\n    13. Ladycow, ladycow, fly from my hand,\n        Tell me where my true love stands,\n        Up hill and down hill and by the sea-sand.      (1892, p. 119.)\n\n    14. Bishop, Bishop, Barnabee, tell me when my wedding will be.\n        If it be to-morrow day,\n        Ope your wings and fly away.      (Sussex, 1892, p. 119.)\n\n    15. Bishop, bishop, barnabee, tell me when my wedding will be.\n        Fly to the east, fly to the west,\n        Fly to them that I love best.      (_N. & Q._, I., p. 132.)\n\n    16. Burnie bee, burnie bee, say when will your wedding be.\n        If it be to-morrow day,\n        Take your wings and fly away.      (Norfolk, 1849, p. 3.)\n\n    17. Bless you, bless you, bonnie bee, say when will your wedding be.\n        If it be to-morrow day,\n        Take your wings and fly away.      (M., p. 253, foot-note.)\n\n    18. God A'mighty's colly cow, fly up to heaven;\n        Carry up ten pound, and bring down eleven.\n\n    (Hampshire, 1892, p. 327.)\n\n    19. This ladyfly I take from the grass,\n        Whose spotted back might scarlet red surpass.\n        Fly ladybird, north, south, or east or west,\n        Fly where the man is found that I love best.\n\n    (M., p. 417, citing Brand.)\n\nThe comparison of these rhymes with their foreign parallels, of which a\nnumber were collected by Mannhardt, shows that a rhyme current in Saxony\nis very close to ours:--\n\n    Himmelsk\u00fcchlein, flieg aus!\n    Dein Haus brennt,\n    Deine kinder weinen alle miteinander.      (M., p. 349.)\n\n    \"Heaven's little chicken, fly away; thy house is on fire, thy\n    children are all crying.\"\n\nMannhardt was of opinion that the ladybird rhyme originated as a charm\nintended to speed the sun across the dangers of sunset, that is, the\n\"house on fire\" or welkin of the West, which is set aglow at sundown.\nThroughout the East a prayer is still uttered to the setting sun in\norder to ensure its safe return on the morrow.\n\nThe ladybird is known by a variety of names both in England and abroad.\nAmong ourselves it is identified as a cow, a bird, or a bee, while the\n_lady_ of our rhymes reappears as Mary in the German expression\n_Marienk\u00e4fer_. In Sweden the ladybird is addressed as _Jungfru Marias\nNyckelpiga_, \"the Lady Mary's keybearer,\" and this expression is\nexplained by the story that the Virgin lost the keys of heaven, and that\nall the animals helped her to look for them. They were found by the\nladybird, to whose care they are now entrusted. The keys of heaven have\nbeen interpreted as the lightning which opened the floodgates of heaven.\nFor the mother divinities were credited with making the weather, with\ngiving rain, and with washing. This latter association lingers in the\nScottish ladybird rhyme, in which the ladybird is addressed as landers,\ni.e. laundress (M., p. 250, foot-note).\n\nIn Potsdam they sing:--\n\n    Marienw\u00f6rmken fl\u00efg furt,\n    Fl\u00efg furt nach Engelland!\n    Engelland ist zugeschlossen,\n    Schl\u00fcssel davon abgebrochen.      (M., p. 347.)\n\n    \"Insect of Mary, fly away, fly away to Engelland. Engelland is\n    locked, its key is broken.\"\n\nThe rhyme thus combines the idea of the keys of heaven with _Engelland_,\nthe home of the unborn spirits, and with Mary, to whom the insect is\ndedicated.\n\nMany of our ladybird rhymes refer to the danger that is threatening,\nprobably from sunset or the direction of the West, but one person is\nsafe. It is little Nan, who sits weaving gold laces. Spinning gold or\nsilk was a prerogative of the mother divinities who sat in heaven (Gr.,\n223, M., 705). Another rhyme calls her Ann. Nan or Ann reappears in the\ncorresponding ladybird rhymes of Switzerland and Swabia. In Aargau they\nsing:--\n\n    Goldch\u00e4ber, fl\u00fcg uf, uf dine hoche Tanne,\n    Zue diner Muetter Anne.\n    Si git dir Ch\u00e4s und Brod,\n    's isch besser as der bitter Tod.      (R., p. 464.)\n\n    \"Gold-chafer, up and away, up to thy high story, to thy Mother Anne,\n    who gives thee bread and cheese. 'Tis better than bitter death.\"\n\nIn Swabia they sing:--\n\n    Sonnev\u00f6gele flieg aus,\n    Flieg in meiner Ahne Haus,\n    Bring mir Aepfel und Bire;\n    Komm bald wieder.      (Me., p. 24.)\n\n    \"Sunbird, fly away, fly to my ancestress' house; bring me apples and\n    pears; come back soon.\"\n\nThis request to the ladybird to bring down gifts from heaven has a\nparallel in our rhyme which entreats it to \"carry up ten pounds, and\nbring down eleven.\"\n\nAccording to another of our rhymes the one who is safe at home is Tom,\nwho lies under the grindelstone, that is the grindstone. The analysis of\nthe stories that are told of Tom shows that he is related to the\nnorthern god Thor, and that the grindstone corresponds to Thor's hammer.\nMoreover, in Scandinavian folk-lore there is a house-sprite called\nTommelgubbe, literally Tom-boy, who took offence if work was done on a\nThursday, the day sanctified to the god Thor. The hammer of Thor was\ncalled _Mj\u00f6lnir_, that is pounder, and with it the god was busy in\nsummertime in heaven, pounding ice into snow.\n\nIn an old story-book called _Tom Hickathrift_, otherwise\n_Hickifric_,[44] traits are preserved in connection with Tom, which\nrecall the peculiarities of the god Thor. Tom dwelt with his mother, who\nslept on straw; there was no father. Thor had no father; his mother was\ndesignated as Godmor. Tom ate hugely, Thor did the same. Tom flung his\nhammer into the river, Thor measured distance by throwing his hammer.\nTom carted beer--a trait that recalls Thor's fits of drunkenness. On one\noccasion Tom made himself a weapon by sticking an axle-tree into a\nwaggon-wheel, which suggests that Thor's hammer was a flat stone mace.\nLikewise Tom, having broken his club, \"seized upon a lusty raw-boned\nmiller,\" and used him as a weapon. Can we hesitate from accepting that\nthis \"miller\" in a confused manner recalls the _Mj\u00f6lnir_--that is the\nhammer--of the northern god Thor?\n\n    [44] Reprinted Halliwell, 1849, p. 81 ff.\n\nThe analysis of the ladybird rhymes takes us even farther afield. In\nSaxony they sing:--\n\n    Flieg, K\u00e4fer, flieg, dein Vater ist im Krieg,\n    Deine Mutter ist in den Stiefel gekroche,\n    Hat das linke Bein gebroche.      (M., p. 347.)\n\n    \"Fly, chafer, fly, father has gone to war, mother has crept into the\n    shoe, she has broken her left leg.\"\n\nThe mother with the broken leg of this rhyme recalls the limping mother\nof the Babyland game, and the person in _Drop Handkerchief_, who was\nbitten. The expression of \"creeping into a shoe\" yields a clue to the\nnature of the woman of one of our rhymes who lived in a shoe, and was\noppressed by the number of her children. In one form this rhyme, cited\nabove in connection with the tale of Mother Hubbard, describes how the\nchildren were to all appearance dead, but were quickened into life. This\nconception is allied to the quickening into life of the babes in the\nBabyland game. In its earliest printed form the rhyme stands as\nfollows:--\n\n    There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,\n    She had so many children she didn't know what to do;\n    She gave them some broth without any bread,\n    She whipped all their bums and sent them to bed.\n\n    (_c._ 1783, p. 52.)\n\nThose of our ladybird rhymes which call on the insect in matters of love\ndivination have their closest parallels in Scandinavia. In Sweden they\nsing:--\n\n    Jungfru Marias Nyckelpiga,\n    Flyg \u00f6ster, flyg vester,\n    Flyg dit der bor din \u00e4lskede.      (1849, p. 5.)\n\n    \"Fly, Our Lady's keybearer! fly east, fly west, fly where thy lover\n    dwells.\"\n\nOf the rhymes of this class, one introduces the term Golloway. This may\nbe intended for Yellow Way, the course of the sun in daytime, as\ndistinct from the Milky Way, the course of the stars at night.\n\nAnother rhyme begins with the call Bishop, bishop, which has puzzled\nvarious commentators. I venture to suggest that the word be read\nBeeship, and that it indicates the boat that sailed across heaven\nbearing the souls of the dead, who were figured as bees. For the spirits\nof those who passed away, viewed under one aspect, were bees, and the\nship that conveyed the dead in Norsk saga was actually designated as the\n_B\u0177skip_. Mannhardt, in illustration, cites a line which the skald Egil\nSkallagrimssonr, whose date is between 902 and 980, sang on his son that\nhad been drowned:--\n\n    Byrr es b\u0177skips i boe kominn kvanar son.\n\n    \"In the beeship there has gone the son of my wife.\"\n\nOur commentators inaccurately translate the expression as \"City of the\nHive\" (C. P., I, 546).\n\nAccording to a fancy of the Welsh bards, Britain was peopled with bees\nbefore the arrival of man, and this was held to account for its name,\nthe \"Isle of Honey.\"\n\nA Prussian ladybird rhyme also mentions the boat that sailed across\nheaven. In Dantzig they sing:--\n\n    Herrgotspferdchen, fliege weg,\n    Dein H\u00e4uschen brennt, dein K\u00e4hnchen schwimmt,\n    Deine Kinder schreien nach Butterbrod;\n    Herrgotspferdchen, fliege weg.      (M., 349.)\n\n    \"God Almighty's little horse, fly away, thy house is on fire, thy\n    boat is afloat, thy children cry for bread and butter.\"\n\nFrom an early period the sun was supposed to be conveyed in a boat, and\nboats were associated with divinities half the world over. Tacitus was\nacquainted with the boat of the goddess Isis that was conveyed about in\nAlexandria, and he described the boat that was taken about in procession\nby the heathen Germans in their cult of Hertha, as the boat of Isis\n(Gr., p. 214). The sun-boat of Ra in Egypt conveyed the dead to heaven.\nSo did the golden ship of Odin in Scandinavia, which conveyed the bodies\nof the fallen warriors to Valhalla. The remembrance of this sun-boat\nprobably gave rise to the story how Ikaros invented sails. It may linger\nstill in the \"beeship\" of our rhymes, and in the \"K\u00e4hnchen\" of the\ncorresponding German ladybird rhyme.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nRIDDLE-RHYMES\n\n\nAmong other rhymes which date some way back in history are those which\nmay fitly be called riddle-rhymes. Some of these have close parallels in\nthe nursery lore of other countries. The most interesting example of\nthis class is the rhyme on Humpty-Dumpty which deals with the egg. The\negg from the earliest times formed an enigma in itself, and was looked\nupon as representing the origin of life. Aristophanes knew of the great\nbird that laid the world-egg. According to _Kalevala_, the Finnish epic,\nthe world-egg fell and broke. Its upper part became the vault of heaven,\nits lower part the earth. The yolk formed the sun, the white the moon,\nand the fragments of the shell became the stars in heaven. Reminiscences\nof this idea of a world-egg linger in the _Senchus Mor_ of Ireland and\nin the _Volospa_ of Norse saga. In Tibet the holy Budh is represented\nholding in his hand a broken egg-shell, on the edge of which a\ndiminutive human being is sometimes represented sitting. These\nworld-wide conceptions account for the existence of numerous riddles\nthat are current about the egg.\n\nThe rhyme on Humpty-Dumpty among us is current in three variations:--\n\n    Humpty-Dumpty sate on a wall,\n    Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall;\n    Threescore men and threescore more\n    Cannot place Humpty-Dumpty as he was before.      (1810, p. 36.)\n\n    Humpty-Dumpty sate on a wall,\n    Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall;\n    All the king's soldiers and all the king's men\n    Cannot set Humpty-Dumpty up again.      (1842, p. 113.)\n\n    Humpty-Dumpty lay in a beck\n    With all his sinews around his neck;\n    Forty doctors and forty wights\n    Couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty to rights.      (1846, p. 209.)\n\nMany parallels of this rhyme were collected from different parts of\nEurope by Mannhardt. In these Humpty-Dumpty appears under various names.\nThey include H\u00fcmpelken-P\u00fcmpelken, R\u00fcntzelken-P\u00fcntzelken,\nWirgele-Wargele, Gigele-Gagele, and Etje-Papetje in different parts of\nGermany, and Lille-Trille and Lille Bulle in Scandinavia. The closest\nparallel of our rhyme hails from Saxony, and stands as follows:--\n\n    H\u00fcmpelken-P\u00fcmpelken sat up de Bank,\n    H\u00fcmpelken-P\u00fcmpelken f\u00ebl von de Bank;\n    Do is k\u00ebn Docter in Engelland\n    De H\u00fcmpelken-P\u00fcmpelken kurere kann.      (M., p. 416.)[45]\n\n    \"H.-P. sat on a bench, H.-P. fell from the bench; there is no doctor\n    in Engelland who can restore H.-P.\"\n\n    [45] Cf. also Mannhardt, _Das R\u00e4tsel vom Ei_, in _Zeitschrift f\u00fcr\n    deutsche Mythologie_, IV, 1859, p. 394 ff.\n\nIn Switzerland the rhyme of Humpty-Dumpty is told of Annebadadeli. The\nusual answer is an egg, but sometimes it is an icicle or a\nfeeding-bottle.\n\nIn Scandinavia they say:--\n\n    Lille Bulle trilla' ner a skulle;\n    Ingen man i detta lan'\n        Lille Bulle laga kan.      (1849, p. 9.)\n\n    \"Little B. fell from the shelf, no man in the whole land can restore\n    little B.\"\n\nThis has a further parallel in France in a rhyme which reproduces the\nGerman expression Engelland regardless of its intrinsic meaning:--\n\n    Boule, boule su l'keyere,\n    Boule, boule par terre.\n    Y n'a nuz homme en Angleterre\n    Pou l'erfaire.[46]\n\n    \"B. b. on the bench, B. b. on the ground. There is no man in England\n    who can restore him.\"\n\n    [46] Rolland, E., _Devinettes on \u00e9nigmes populaires_, 1877, p. 199,\n    from Mons.\n\nThe forty doctors of our rhyme who figure also as twice threescore men,\nreappear in the German rhyme as \"no doctor in _Engelland_,\" as \"no man\nin all the land\" in the Scandinavian rhyme, and as \"no man in England\"\nliterally translated, of the French version.\n\nIn one version of our rhyme those who are powerless to restore what is\nbroken are described as \"all the king's soldiers and all the king's\nmen.\" This expression is also used in the riddle-rhymes on Smoke and on\nthe Well, which are found in our own and in foreign nursery collections.\n\n    As round as an apple, as deep as a cup,\n    And all the king's horses cannot pull it up.\n\n    (The Well, 1846, p. 75.)\n\n    As high as a castle, as weak as a wastle,\n    And all the king's soldiers cannot pull it down.\n\n    (Smoke, 1849, p. 144.)\n\nIn Swabia they say:--\n\n    Es ist etwas in meinem Haus,\n    Es ziehen es hundert tausend G\u00e4ule nicht naus.      (Me., p. 79.)\n\n    \"There is something in my house, not a hundred thousand horses can\n    pull it out.\"\n\nThe answer is \"Smoke.\" In France they say:--\n\n    Qu'est-ce-qui est rond comme un d\u00e9,\n    Et que des chevaux ne peuvent porter.[47]\n\n    \"What is as round as a thimble, and horses cannot pull it?\"\n\n    [47] Rolland, E., _Devinettes on \u00e9nigmes populaires_, 1877, p. 98,\n    from Paris.\n\nThe answer is \"A well.\" Possibly the \"king\" of these rhymes stands for\nthe sun as the representative of power, whose horses and men are alike\npowerless.\n\nThe egg, which in these rhymes is designated by fanciful names, in other\nriddle-rhymes current abroad is described as a cask containing two kinds\nof beer. A riddle was put by the god Wodan in the character of a\nwayfarer to King Heidrek, and stood as follows:--\n\n\"Blond--haired brides, bondswomen both, carried ale to the barn; the\ncasks were not turned with hands nor forged by hammers; she that made it\nstrutted about outside the isle.\" The answer is \"Eider-ducks' eggs\" (C.\nP., I, 89).\n\nThe egg is also likened to a cask containing beer in a short\nriddle-rhyme which is current from Lapland to Hungary. In the Faroe\nIslands it takes this form: \"Bolli fell from the ledge, all its hoops\nfell off. There is no man in the East, there is no man in the West, who\ncan restore it\" (M., p. 417). In Prussia they say:--\n\n    Kommt ein Tonn aus Engelland,\n    Ohne Boden, ohne Band;\n    Ist zweierleai Bier drin.      (Sim., p. 287.)\n\n    \"A cask comes from Engelland, without bottom, without band; it\n    contains two kinds of beer.\"\n\nAmong ourselves there is no riddle-rhyme, as far as I know, which\ndescribes the egg as a cask containing beer. But in the seventeenth\ncentury the word Humpty-Dumpty was used to designate a drink which\nconsisted of ale boiled in brandy,[48] and this conception obviously\nhangs together with the two kinds of beer of the foreign riddle-rhymes\non the egg.\n\n    [48] Murray's Dictionary: _Humpty-Dumpty_.\n\nOther riddle-rhymes current among ourselves or abroad describe the egg\nas a house or a castle. The following one describes it as an enigma in\nitself:--\n\n    As I was going o'er London Bridge\n    I saw something under a hedge;\n    'Twas neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor bone,\n    And yet in three weeks it runned alone.      (1846, p. 213.)\n\nGirls in America play a game called _Humpty-Dumpty_. They sit on the\nground with their skirts tightly gathered around them so as to enclose\nthe feet. The leader begins some rhyme, all join in, and at a certain\nword previously agreed upon, all throw themselves backwards, keeping\ntheir skirts tightly grasped. The object is to recover the former\nposition without letting go the skirt (N., p. 132).\n\nPossibly the game is older than the riddle-rhymes, for these rhymes\ndescribe _Humpty-Dumpty_ as sitting on a wall, or a bank, or a ledge, or\nas lying in a beck, which for an actual egg are impossible situations.\nThey are intelligible on the assumption that the sport is older than\nthe rhyme, and that the rhyme describes human beings who are personating\neggs.\n\nThe name Humpty-Dumpty itself is one of the large class of rhyming\ncompounds which are formed by the varied reduplication of the same word.\nPerhaps they originally conveyed a definite meaning. The word\nHumpty-Dumpty is allied to _hump_ and to _dump_, words which express\nroundness and shortness. Another name of the kind is Hoddy-Doddy, which\noccurs in the following riddle-rhyme:--\n\n    Hoddy-Doddy with a round, black body;\n    Three legs and a wooden hat, what is that?      (1849, p. 142.)\n\nThe answer is \"An iron pot.\"[49] The word Hoddy-Doddy in the sixteenth\ncentury was directly used to express \"a short and dumpy person\" (1553).\nIt was also applied to a \"hen-pecked man\" (1598).[50] The meaning of\nshortness and roundness is expressed also by the name of the foreign\nequivalents of Humpty-Dumpty. The German H\u00fcmpelken-P\u00fcmpelken, and\nprobably Lille Bulle of Scandinavia convey the same idea. On the other\nhand, the names Wirgele-Wargele and Gigele-Gagele suggest instability.\nThe Danish Lille Trille is allied to _lille tr\u00f6lle_, little troll, that\nis, a member of the earlier and stumpy race of men who, by a later age,\nwere accounted dwarves. These were credited in folk-lore with\nsex-relations of a primitive kind, an allusion to which seems to linger\nin the word Hoddy-Doddy as applied to a hen-pecked man.\n\n    [49] A workman in Berkshire in 1905 repeated this riddle to H. P.\n\n    [50] Murray's Dictionary: _Hoddy-Doddy_.\n\nAmong other rhyming compounds is the word _Hitty-Pitty_. It occurs in a\nriddle-rhyme which Halliwell traced back to the seventeenth century (MS.\nHarl. 1962):--\n\n    Hitty Pitty within the wall,\n    Hitty Pitty without the wall;\n    If you touch Hitty Pitty,\n    Hitty Pitty will bite you.      (A nettle, 1849, p. 149.)\n\nThis verse is sometimes used in playing _Hide and Seek_ as a warning to\nthe player who approaches the place that is \"hot\" (1894, I, 211). A\nvariation of the word is _Highty-Tighty_, which is preserved in the\nfollowing rhyme:--\n\n    Highty, tighty, paradighty, clothed in green,\n    The king could not read it, no more could the queen;\n    They sent for a wise man out of the East,\n    Who said it had horns, but was not a beast.      (1842, p. 118.)\n\nThe answer is \"A holly tree.\"\n\nAnother rhyming compound is preserved in the riddle-rhyme on the\nsunbeam:--\n\n    Hick-a-more, Hack-a-more\n    Hung on a kitchen door;\n    Nothing so long, and nothing so strong,\n    As Hick-a-more, Hack-a-more\n    Hung on the kitchen door.      (1846, p. 207.)\n\nThe following riddle-rhyme preserves the word lilly-low, which is the\nnorth-country term for the flame of a candle:--\n\n    Lilly-low, lilly-low, set up on end,\n    See little baby go out at town end.      (A candle, 1849, p. 146.)\n\nAnother riddle on the candle, which also stands in MS. Harl. 1962, and\nhas found its way into nursery collections, is:--\n\n    Little Nancy Etticoat with a white petticoat,\n    And a red nose;\n    The longer she stands, the shorter she grows.      (1842, p. 114.)\n\nThis recalls a riddle current in Devonshire, where the sky is called\nwiddicote:--\n\n    Widdicote, widdicote, over cote hang;\n    Nothing so broad, and nothing so lang\n    As Widdicote, etc.       (1892, p. 333.)\n\nAll these riddle-rhymes are based on primitive conceptions, and all have\nparallels in the nursery lore of other countries. The rhyme on\nHoddy-Doddy in Norwegian is simply descriptive; in France it is told in\nthe form of words exchanged between _Noiret_, \"Blacky,\" the pot, and\n_Rouget_, \"Ruddy,\" the fire. In Italy the Pot, the Smoke, and the Fire\nare described as three sisters. Again, the riddle-rhyme on the candle is\ntold in Swabia and in France. But in no case are the foreign parallels\nas close as in the riddle-rhyme of Humpty-Dumpty, and in no case do they\npreserve the same interesting allusions.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nCUMULATIVE PIECES\n\n\nWe now turn to rhymes which dwell on different ideas and present life\nunder other aspects. In these rhymes there is much on spells, on the\nmagic properties of numbers, and on sacrificial hunting. A fatalistic\ntendency underlies many of these rhymes, and there are conscious efforts\nto avert danger.\n\nThe different range of ideas which are here expressed is reflected in\nthe form of verse in which they are presented. While the rhymes hitherto\ndiscussed are set in verse which depends for its consistency on tail\nrhyme and assonance, the pieces that deal with the magic properties of\nthings and with hunting, are mostly set in a form of verse that depends\nfor its consistency on repetition and cumulation. This difference in\nform is probably due to the different origin of these pieces. Rhymed\nverse may have originated in dancing and singing--cumulative verse in\nrecitation and instruction.\n\nIn cumulative recitation one sentence is uttered and repeated, a second\nsentence is uttered and repeated, then the first sentence is said; a\nthird sentence is uttered and repeated, followed by the second and the\nfirst. Thus each sentence adds to the piece and carries it back to the\nbeginning. Supposing each letter to stand for a sentence, the form of\nrecitation can thus be described: A, a; B, b, a; C, c, b, a; D, d, c, b,\na; etc. This manner of recitation is well known among ourselves, but I\nknow of no word to designate it. In Brittany the form of recitation is\nknown as _chant de gr\u00e9nouille_, i.e. frog-chant. A game of forfeits was\nknown in the eighteenth century, which was called _The Gaping\nWide-mouthed Waddling Frog_, in which the verses were recited in exactly\nthe same manner. We shall return to it later. A relation doubtless\nexists between this game and the French expression frog-chant.\n\nAmong our most familiar pieces that are set in cumulative form are _The\nStory of the Old Woman and Her Pig_ and _This is the House that Jack\nbuilt_. They both consist of narrative, and are told as stories. _This\nis the House that Jack built_ first appeared in print as a toy-book that\nwas issued by Marshall at his printing office, Aldermary Churchyard. It\nis illustrated with cuts, and its date is about 1770. Perhaps the story\nis referred to in the _Boston News Letter_ (No. 183) of 12-19 April,\n1739, in which the reviewer of Tate and Brady's Version of the Psalms\nremarks that this \"makes our children think of the tune of their vulgar\nplaysong so like it: this is the man all forlorn.\" The sentence looks\nlike a variation of the line \"this is the maiden all forlorn\" in _This\nis the House that Jack built_.\n\nIn 1819 there was published in London a satire by Hone, called _The\nPolitical House that Jack built_. It was illustrated by Cruikshank, and\nwent through fifty-four editions. In form it imitates the playsong,\nwhich was doubtless as familiar then as it is now.\n\nThe playsong in the form published by Marshall begins:--\n\n    This is the house that Jack built,--\n    This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built,--\n    This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack\n        built,--\n\nwhich is followed by the cat that killed the rat--the dog that worried\nthe cat--the cow that tossed the dog--the maiden that milked the\ncow--the man that kissed the maid--the priest that married them. Here it\nended. But a further line added by Halliwell (1842, p. 222) mentioned\nthe cock that crowed on the morn of the wedding-day, and a lady of over\nseventy has supplied me with one more line, on the knife that killed the\ncock. She tells me that she had the story from her nurse, and that she\ndoes not remember seeing it in print. The version she repeated in\ncumulative form, told to me, ended as follows:--\n\n    This is the knife with a handle of horn,\n    that killed the cock that crowed in the morn,\n    that wakened the priest all shaven and shorn,\n    that married the man all tattered and torn,\n    unto the maiden all forlorn,\n    that milked the cow with a crumpled horn,\n    that tossed the dog over the barn,\n    that worried the cat that killed the rat\n    that ate the malt that lay in the house\n    that Jack built.\n\nThe greater part of this piece consists of rhymed verse, and deals with\nmatters of courtship. The idea of a cock sacrificed on the wedding-day\nis certainly heathen in origin, but its introduction forms a new\ndeparture when we come to compare this piece with its foreign parallels\nand with the story of _The Old Woman and Her Pig_. These pieces are all\nset in the same form, and all introduce a regular sequence of relative\npowers.\n\n_The Old Woman and Her Pig_ was first printed by Halliwell (1842, p.\n219). It tells how the woman found sixpence, and how she set out for\nmarket, and bought a pig which on the way back refused to jump over the\nstile. In order to break the spell that had fallen on it, she summoned\nto her aid: dog--stick--fire--water--ox--butcher--rope--rat--cat--cow.\nThe cow finally gave the milk required by the cat, which set the other\npowers going, and thus enabled the woman to get home that night.\nHalliwell was impressed by the antiquity of this sequence, and included\nin his collection a translation of a Hebrew chant which has considerable\nlikeness to the tale of _The Old Woman and Her Pig_. This chant is told\nin the first person. It begins:--\n\n    A kid, a kid my father bought\n    For two pieces of money,\n                          A kid, a kid.\n\n    Then came the cat and ate the kid,\n    That my father bought,\n    For two pieces of money.\n                          A kid, a kid.      (1842, p. 6.)\n\nIt further introduces dog--staff--fire--water--ox--butcher--angel of\ndeath--Holy One.\n\nThe Hebrew chant of the kid was printed in Venice as far back as 1609,\nand was made the subject of the learned Latin dissertation _De Haedo_ by\nProbst von der Hardt in 1727 (R., p. 153). It was again discussed by P.\nN. Leberecht in 1731.[51] The chant forms part of the Jewish liturgy,\nand is still recited in the original Hebrew or in the vernacular as part\nof a religious ceremonial at Easter. Opinions on the origin and the\nmeaning of the chant differ. One learned rabbi interpreted it as setting\nforth how each power in creation is kept within bounds by a power that\nstands above it. It teaches how he who goes wrong is at the mercy of one\nstronger than himself. But according to another interpretation the\nFather who bought the kid was Jehovah himself, the kid was the Hebrew,\nthe cat represented the Assyrians, the dog the Babylonians, and so\nforth; and the whole poem described the position of the Jews at the time\nof the Crusades.\n\n    [51] The article by Leberecht is in _Der Christliche Reformator_,\n    Leipzig, 1731, XVII, 28.\n\nThe Hebrew chant and its relation to _The Old Woman and her Pig_ engaged\nthe attention of Professor Tylor, who remarked on the solemn ending of\nthe Hebrew chant, which according to him may incline us to think that we\nreally have before us this composition in something like its first form.\n\"If so,\" he says, \"then it follows that our familiar tale of the Old\nWoman who couldn't get the kid (_or_ pig) over the stile, must be\nconsidered as a broken-down adaptation of this old Jewish poem.\"[52]\n\n    [52] Tylor, E. B., _Primitive Culture_, II, 86.\n\nBut the tale of the Old Woman taken in conjunction with _This is the\nHouse that Jack built_ and its numerous foreign parallels, shows that\nthese sequences of relative powers, far from being broken-down\nadaptations, are at least as meaningful as the Hebrew chant. For the\nunderlying conception in all cases is that a spell has fallen on an\nobject which man is appropriating to his use. The spell extends to\neverything, be it man or beast, that comes within the range of its\ninfluence, and the unmaking of the spell necessitates going back step by\nstep to the point at which it originated.\n\nHalliwell compared a piece current in Denmark with _This is the House\nthat Jack built_:--\n\n    Der har du det haus som Jacob bygde.\n\n    \"Here hast thou the house that Jacob built.\"[53]\n\n    [53] Halliwell, 1849, p. 6, citing Thiele, II, 3, 146. I cannot find\n    this book.\n\nMany other versions of this tale are current in Germany and Scandinavia.\nIn them it is sometimes a question of a house, sometimes of corn,\noftenest of cutting oats or of garnering pears. The cumulative form is\nthroughout adhered to. One German piece called _Ist alles verlorn_, \"all\nis lost,\" begins:--\n\n    Es kam eine Maus gegangen\n    In unser Korneha\u016ds,\n    Die nahm das Korn gefangen,\n    In \u016dnserm Korneha\u016ds.\n    Die Maus das Korn,\n    Ist alles verlorn\n    In \u016dnserm Korneha\u016ds.      (Sim., p. 256.)\n\n    \"There came a mouse into our corn-house, she seized the corn in our\n    corn-house. The mouse, the corn, now all is lost in our corn-house.\"\n\nThe other powers are rat, cat, fox, wolf, bear, man, maid. This piece,\nlike _This is the House that Jack built_, ends abruptly.\n\nAmong the less primitive variations of the tale is one recorded in\nSonneberg (S., p. 102), and another in the north of France, which both\nsubstitute the name of Peter for that of Jack, that is a Christian name\nfor a heathen one. In France the piece is called _La Mouche_, literally\n\"the fly,\" but its contents indicate that not _mouche_ but the Latin\n_mus_ (mouse) was originally meant. The tale departs from the usual\nform, and has a refrain:--\n\n    Voici la maison que Pierre a b\u00e2tie,\n    Il sortait un rat de sa raterie,\n    Qui fit rentrer la mouch' dans sa moucherie:\n    Rat \u00e0 mouche,\n    Belle, belle mouche\n    Jamais je n'ai vu si belle mouche.      (D.B., p. 116.)\n\n    \"This is the house that Peter built. A rat came out of a rat-hole,\n    and made the fly go into the fly-hole. Rat to fly, lovely fly, never\n    saw I so lovely a fly.\"\n\nThe other powers are dog, bear, man, maid, abbot, pope, devil.\n\nThe same tale is told in Austria (V., p. 113), and in Prussia (F., p.\n197), where it is called _Das Haus vom h\u00f6lzernen Mann_, \"the house of\nthe wooden Man.\" In Prussia it is recited as a game of forfeits. The\nsequence of the powers in the one version is house, door, lock, band,\nmouse, cat, dog, stick, fire, water, ox, butcher, devil; and in the\nother, house, door, lock, band, mouse, cat, huntsman.\n\nJack in Germany is called Jockel, J\u00f6ggeli, Jokele. _The Master who sent\nout Jockel_ is mentioned already in the Gargantua of Fischart, which was\npublished in 1575 (Chap. XXV.). The name Jack among ourselves is applied\nto a person or an object of peculiar serviceableness, as in\nJack-of-all-trades, or boot-jack. But in Germany the expression \"to\nsend Jockel on an errand\" implies that this will never get done.\n\nIn Vogtland the current nursery version of this piece begins:--\n\n    Es schickt der Herr den G\u020fkel 'naus,\n    Er soll den Haber schneiden.      (Du., p. 35.)\n\n    \"The master sent out Gokel to cut oats.\"\n\nAs he failed to come back, dog, fire, water, ox, butcher, hangman,\ndevil, were sent after him.\n\nIn Swabia Jokele (Br., p. 44), and in Switzerland Joggeli, was sent to\nknock off pears on which a spell had fallen. The chant in Z\u00fcrich has\nbeen traced back to the year 1769, and it begins:--\n\n    Es ist ein Baum im G\u00e4rtle hinne,\n    d' Birren w\u00e4nd n\u00fcd fallen.\n    Do sch\u00fcckt de Bur de Joggeli usen\n    Er soll di Birren sch\u00fctteln.      (R., p. 155.)\n\n    \"There is a tree in the garden, its pears will not drop. The peasant\n    sent out Joggeli to knock them off.\"\n\nBut the pears refused to be knocked off, and the usual sequence of\npowers was sent to secure them.\n\nThe tale of Jack was current in M\u00fcnster in Westphalia also, where it was\ntaken over by the Church, and annually recited at the religious\nprocession which took place on the eve of the feast of St. Lambert, 17\nSeptember. This was done as late as the year 1810 (R., p. 155). The\nrecitation was followed or accompanied by a dance, the purpose of which\nis not recorded. Perhaps the procession stood in relation to the actual\ngarnering of pears, and the tale was recited in order to secure a good\nharvest. In this case not Jack, but _der J\u00e4ger_, \"the huntsman,\" was\ndispatched to knock the pears off, and the sequence of powers included\ndog, stick, fire, water, calf, butcher, hangman, devil.\n\nThis adoption by the Church of the sequence of powers shows that we have\nto do with the remains of a heathen ritual, which found its way into a\nChristian celebration, as the tale of the kid found its way into the\nEaster celebration of the Jewish Church. In both instances the sequence\nof relative powers is preserved, and in both it is question of making an\nobject secure for the use of man.\n\nThe same sequence of powers is preserved also in the traditional game\nthat is known as _Dump_ among ourselves (1894, I, 117; II, 419), and as\n_Club Fist_ in America (N., p. 134). In this game it is also a question\nof building a house, and of knocking off pears. The action of the\nplayers, however, stands in no obvious relation to the words that are\nused. Sometimes three, sometimes a number of lads, crowd together and\nplace their fists sideways one on the other, till they form a pile of\nclenched hands. The last boy, who has a fist free, knocks off the fists\none by one, saying:--\n\n    (In Yorkshire) What's this?--(Answer) Dump.\n    (In America) What's that?--(Answer) A pear.\n    Take it off or I'll knock it off.\n\nIn Shropshire all sing together:--\n\n    I've built my house, I've built my wall;\n    I don't care where my chimneys fall.\n\nWhen all the fists are knocked down, the following dialogue ensues:--\n\n    What's there?--Cheese and bread and a mouldy half-penny.\n\n    Where's my share?--I put it on the shelf, and the cat got it.\n\n    Where's the cat?--She's run nine miles through the wood.\n\n    Where's the wood?--T' fire burnt it.\n\n    Where's the fire?--T' water sleckt it.\n\n    Where's the water?--T' ox drunk it.\n\n    Where's the ox?--T' butcher killed 'em.\n\n    Where's the butcher?--Upon the church-top cracking nuts, and you may\n    go and eat the shells; and _them as_ speak first shall have nine\n    nips, nine scratches, and nine boxes on the ear. (1849, p. 128.)\n\nSilence falls, all try not to laugh, and he who first allows a word to\nescape him, is punished by the others in the methods adopted by\nschoolboys. In the Scottish game the punishment is described as \"nine\nnips, nine nobs, nine double douncornes, and a good blow on the back.\"\n\nIn France the same game is known as _Le Pied de B\u0153uf_, \"the foot of the\nox,\" and a scramble of fists starts at the words:--\n\n    Neuf, je tiens mon pied de b\u0153uf.      (Mo., p. 351.)\n\n    \"Nine, I hold my ox's foot\";\n\nthe number nine in this case being also mentioned.\n\nThe meting out of punishments by nines goes far back in history. It was\nassociated with a Yule-tide sport which is still practised in Denmark\nand in Schleswig, and is known as _Ballerrune_ or _Balderrune_. Every\nmember of the assembled company repeated a formula on \"Balder Rune and\nhis wife,\" and he who made a mistake received nine blows, as in our\ngame. The custom was explained by the legend that the god Balder,\nincensed at his wife's loquacity, chastised her by giving her nine\nblows, and ordered that this should be repeated every year, so that\nwomen be reminded that it is their duty to be silent when their husbands\nspeak (H., p. 44).\n\nIn the game of _Dump_ also, it is the person who speaks first that is\npunished, but there is nothing to suggest that this was a woman, for the\ngame is essentially a boys' game.\n\nThe story of _The Woman and her Pig_ (_or Kid_), like that of Jack, is\ntold over a wide geographical area. In the Scottish version the woman\nlived in a wee house and found two pennies and bought a kid. On coming\nhome she saw a bush and wished to pull off its berries, and could not.\nShe set the kid to watch the house, and went to seek the help of dog,\nstick, fire, water, ox, axe, smith, rope, mouse, cat, milk, in her hope\nof breaking the spell that had fallen on the bush. Each animal or object\nrefused \"to do the next one harm, saying that it never did it any harm\nitself\"; but the cat finally could not resist the temptation of lapping\nthe milk (1870, p. 57). Thus the tale introduced a moral element which\nis not found elsewhere.\n\nIn Sweden the tale of _The Old Woman and her Pig_ is called _Konen och\nGrisen Fick_, \"the woman and her pig Fick,\" and the pig refused to leave\noff eating acorns. A similar tale is called _Gossen och Geten N\u00e4ppa_,\n\"the lad and the kid N\u00e4ppa,\" (1849, p. 6). In Elsass the pig is called\n_Schnirrchele_ (St., p. 93), in Transylvania it is _Mischka_ or\n_Bitschki_ (Sch., p. 372). And a version from the north of France tells\nhow _Biquette_ got into a cabbage-patch from which stick, fire, water,\nwere summoned to expel her. _Biquette_ is described as a kid (D., p.\n122). In Languedoc _Biquette_ reappears as _Bouquaire-Bouquil_, who is\nfurnished with horns and does havoc in a millet-field from which he is\nexpelled with the help of wolf, dog, stick, fire, water, ox, rope (M.\nL., p. 538). In all cases the animal is one that is provided with horns.\nMillet is one of the oldest cereals that were cultivated in Europe, the\ndisplacement of which by the cultivation of corn had begun in England\nwhen Pytheas visited these shores in the fourth century B.C. Can the\n\"malt\" of _This is the House that Jack built_ stand for millet?\n\nA French piece is current in Remiremont which is called _Le Conjurateur\net le Loup_, \"the magician and the wolf.\" It describes the contest\nbetween them, and shows that the making and unmaking of spells is\ninvolved:--\n\n    L'y a un loup dedans le bois,\n    Le loup ne veut pas sortir du bois.\n    Ha, j' te promets, comp\u00e8r' Brocard,\n    Tu sortiras de ce lieu-l\u00e0.      (R., p. 152.)\n\n    \"There is a wolf in the wood, the wolf will not come out of the\n    wood. Ha, I promise you, brother Brocard, you will soon come out.\"\n\nAnd the magician summons to his assistance stick, fire, water, calf,\nbutcher, devil, which help him to expel the wolf.\n\nEven more primitive than this tale is one current in Languedoc, in which\na spell has fallen on a root or turnip, which is finally raised by the\nhog. It begins: \"The old woman went into the garden in order to pull out\na turnip. When the old man saw that the old woman did not come back, he\nwent into the garden and saw the old woman pulling at the turnip. The\nold man pulled at the old woman, the old woman pulled at the turnip, but\nthe turnip stuck fast.\" They were followed by daughter-in-law, son, man,\nmaid, and so forth, including the cat and the rat. Finally the hog came\nto the rescue. Instead of pulling like the others, he attacked the\nturnip from below, and by doing so he succeeded in raising it, otherwise\nthe spell would continue, \"and the root would still be holding fast\" (M.\nL., p. 541).\n\nThe comparison of these various tales or pieces shows that dog, stick,\nfire, water, ox, butcher, form a sequence of powers that was accepted\nover a wide geographical area. They were invoked wherever it was\nquestion of breaking a spell that had fallen on a coveted object, the\nobject including pigs, pears, oats, berries, millet, and roots. These\nare products that were prized in Europe from a remote period in\nantiquity. As the products are primitive, so probably is the form of\nverse in which the story is told of their being made fast. For the same\nform of verse is used in a further class of pieces to which we now turn,\nand which, by their contents, betray a pre-Christian origin.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nCHANTS OF NUMBERS\n\n\nAmong our traditional games, some consist of a dialogue in which the\nanswer is set in cumulative form. These include the game known as _The\nTwelve Days of Christmas_, which was played on Twelfth-Day night by the\nassembled company before eating mince-pies and twelfth cake. In the game\nof _Twelve Days_ each player in succession repeated the gifts of the\nday, and raised his fingers and hand according to the number which he\nnamed. Each answer included the one that had gone before, and forfeits\nwere paid for each mistake that was made. (1894, II, 315.)\n\nThe oldest printed version of the words used in playing _Twelve Days_\nstands in one of the diminutive toy-books exhibited at South Kensington\nMuseum by E. Pearson. These words begin:--\n\n    The first day of Christmas, my true love gave me\n    A partridge in a pear-tree.\n    The second day of Christmas, my true love gave me\n    Two turtle-doves and a partridge in a pear-tree.\n\nAnd so forth, enumerating three French hens, four colly birds, five gold\nrings, six geese a-laying, seven swans a-swimming, eight maids\na-milking, nine drummers drumming, ten pipers piping, eleven ladies\ndancing, twelve lords leaping.\n\nThe same game is played in Scotland, where it is known as _The Yule\nDays_, but is carried on to thirteen.\n\n    The king sent his lady on the first Yule day\n    A papingo-aye [i.e. peacock or parrot]\n    Who learns my carol and carries it away?\n    The king sent his lady on the second Yule day\n    Two partridges and a papingo-aye.      (1870, p. 42.)\n\nOn the third day he sent three plovers; on the fourth, a goose that was\ngrey; on the fifth, three starlings; on the sixth, three goldspinks; on\nthe seventh, a bull that was brown; on the eighth, three ducks a-merry\nlaying; on the ninth, three swans a-merry swimming; on the tenth, an\nArabian baboon; on the eleventh, three hinds a-merry dancing; on the\ntwelfth, two maids a-merry dancing; on the thirteenth three stalks of\ncorn.\n\nIn Cambresis, in the North of France, the same game is called _Les dons\nde l'an_, \"the gifts of the year,\" but the gifts correspond in number\nwith the number of the day. They are: one partridge, two turtle-doves,\nthree wood-pigeons, four ducks flying, five rabbits trotting, six hares\na-field, seven hounds running, eight shorn sheep, nine horned oxen, ten\ngood turkeys, eleven good hams, twelve small cheeses (D. B., II, 125).\n\nIn the West of France the piece is described as a song. It is called _La\nfoi de la loi_, that is, \"the creed of authority,\" and is sung _avec\nsolennit\u00e9_. It begins:--\n\n    La premi\u00e8r' parti' d'la foi de la loi,\n    Dit' la moi, fr\u00e8re Gr\u00e9goire.\n    --Un bon farci sans os--\n    La deuxi\u00e8me parti' d'la foi de la loi,\n    Dit' le moi, fr\u00e8re Gr\u00e9goire\n    --Deux ventres de veau,\n    Un bon farci sans os.      (B., II, 271.)\n\n    \"The first part of the creed of authority, tell it me, Brother\n    Gregory. A good stuffing without bones. The second part of the creed\n    of authority ... two breasts of veal.\"\n\nAnd so forth, enumerating three joints of beef, four pig's trotters,\nfive legs of mutton, six partridges with cabbage, seven spitted rabbits,\neight plates of salad, nine plates of (? _chapitre_), ten full casks,\neleven beautiful full-breasted maidens, twelve knights with their\nrapiers.\n\nThe same conceptions underlie a Languedoc chant, in which the numbers\nare, however, carried on to fifteen. The gifts in this case are made on\nthe first fifteen days of the month of May:--\n\n    Le prumi\u00e8 del m\u00e9s de mai,\n    Qu'embouiarei \u00e0 mai mio.\n    Uno perdic que bolo, que bolo.      (M. L., p. 486.)\n\n    \"The first of the month of May, what shall I send to my lady\n    love?--A partridge that flies and flies.\"\n\nAnd similarly we read of two doves, three white pigeons, four ducks\nflying in the air, five rabbits, six hares, seven hunting dogs, eight\nwhite horses, nine horned oxen, ten bleating sheep, eleven soldiers\ncoming from war, twelve maidens, thirteen white nosegays, fourteen white\nloaves, fifteen casks of wine.\n\nThe contents of these chants at first sound like nonsense, but on\nlooking at them more closely one notes that the gifts which they\nenumerate mostly consist of birds and beasts that are conceived as food.\nWe know that the weather on Twelve Days was carefully observed, since\nthe weather of the months of the ensuing year was prognosticated from\nthat of the corresponding day of the twelve.[54] A like conception\nperhaps underlies these enumerations of food, which may refer to the\nrepresentative sports of the months.\n\n    [54] Frazer, loc. cit., 1900, p. 143; Rolland, _Almanach des\n    traditions populaires_, 1883, Jan. 1-12.\n\nThe game of _Twelve Days_ in a degraded form is known as _The Gaping\nWide-mouthed Waddling Frog_, in which the crux likewise consists of\nanswering the question with rapidity and exactness. But words are\npurposely chosen that are difficult to enunciate and to remember. The\nresult is a string of nonsense. The words used in playing _The Gaping\nWide-mouthed Waddling Frog_ were first printed in a toy-book of the\neighteenth century. Persons who are still living remember it in this\nform as a Christmas game. As in playing _Twelve Days_, the players sat\nin a circle, a dialogue ensued, and the answers were given in\ncumulative form. He who made a mistake gave a forfeit.\n\n    Buy this of me:--What is it?\n    The gaping wide-mouthed waddling frog.\n\n    Buy this of me:--What is it?\n    Two pudding ends will choke a dog,\n    With a gaping wide-mouthed waddling frog.\n\n    Buy this of me:--What is it?\n    Three monkeys tied to a clog,\n    Two pudding ends will choke a dog, etc.\n\nThe answer to the last question stood as follows:--\n\n    Twelve huntsmen with horns and hounds,\n    Hunting over other men's grounds;\n    Eleven ships sailing o'er the main,\n    Some bound for France and some for Spain,\n    I wish them all safe home again;\n    Ten comets in the sky,\n    Some low and some high;\n    Nine peacocks in the air,\n    I wonder how they all came there,\n    I do not know and I don't care;\n    Eight joiners in joiner's hall\n    Working with their tools and all.\n    Seven lobsters in a dish,\n    As fresh as any heart could wish;\n    Six beetles against the wall [_or_ six spiders in the wall],\n    Close by an old woman's apple stall;\n    Five puppies by our bitch Ball\n    Who daily for their breakfast call;\n    Four horses stuck in a bog;\n    Three monkeys tied to a clog;\n    Two pudding ends would choke a dog;\n    With a gaping wide-mouthed waddling frog.\n\nMany rhymes that originated in these nonsense verses have found their\nway into nursery collections. Halliwell printed the following lines as a\nseparate nursery rhyme:--\n\n    Eight ships on the main,\n    I wish them all safe back again;\n    Seven eagles in the air,\n    I wonder how they all came there;\n    I don't know, nor I don't care.\n    Six spiders on the wall,\n    Close to an old woman's apple stall;\n    Five puppies in Highgate hall,\n    Who daily for their breakfast call;\n    Four mares stuck in a bog,\n    Three monkeys tied to a log,\n    Two pudding ends will choke a dog,\n    With a gaping wide mouthed waddling frog.      (1842, p.246.)\n\nHalliwell also printed some utterly debased rhymes, in which, however,\nnumbers are still combined with the objects that are named. Among these\nrhymes is the following:--\n\n    One old Oxford ox opening oysters;\n    Two teetotums totally tired of trying to trot to Tadbury;\n    Three tall tigers tippling tenpenny tea;\n    Four fat friars fanning fainting flies;\n\nAnd so on to\n\n    Twelve typographical typographers typically translating types.\n\n    (1846, p. 111.)\n\nOther rhymes of this kind depend for their consistency on alliteration\nonly, such as:--\n\n    Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round,\n    A round roll Robert Rowley rolled round;\n    Where rolled the round roll Robert Rowley rolled round.\n\n    (1842, p. 128.)\n\nRobert Rowley is perhaps a name for thunder, since a rhyme recited in\nthe North of England as a charm against thunder is:--\n\n    Rowley, Rowley, Rattley-bags;\n    Take the lasses and leave the lads.      (1876, p. 15.)\n\nAnother rhyme of this class begins:--\n\n    Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, etc.      (1842, p. 129.)\n\nAnd the time-honoured rhyme, \"When a twister a twisting,\" etc., has been\ntraced back by Halliwell to a collection of 1674. This has a French\nparallel:--\n\n    Si un cordonnier accordant veut accorder sa corde, etc.\n\nI do not know if the English or the French version is the older one.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nCHANTS OF THE CREED\n\n\nThe game of _Twelve Days_, especially in one French version, shows that\ninstruction was conveyed by the cumulative mode of recitation. There are\nmany pieces enlarging on matters of belief--Hebrew, Christian,\nDruidical, and heathen--which in the same way associate numbers with\nobjects. The comparison of these pieces suggests that they are all\nderived from one original source. They may fitly be termed Chants of the\nCreed.\n\nOne of these cumulative chants is included in the Hebrew service for the\nnight of the Passover, which is called _Echod mi jodea_, \"He who\nknows.\"[55] It is recited to a monotonous tune after the return of the\nfamily from celebration, either by the master of the house or by the\nassembled company. The dialogue form, I am told, is no longer observed.\nThe piece begins:--\n\n    Who knoweth One?--I, saith Israel, know One.\n    One is God, who is over heaven and earth.\n    Who knoweth Two?--I, saith Israel, know Two.\n    Two tables of the covenant; but One is our God who is over the heavens\n        and the earth....\n\n    [55] Tylor, E. B., _Primitive Culture_, I, 87, citing Mendes,\n    _Service for the First Nights of the Passover_, 1862.\n\nAnd so forth to the last verse, which is as follows:--\n\n    Who knoweth thirteen?--I, saith Israel, know thirteen: Thirteen\n    divine attributes--twelve tribes--eleven stars--ten\n    commandments--nine months preceding childbirth--eight days preceding\n    circumcision--seven days of the week--six books of the Mishnah--five\n    books of the Law--four matrons--three patriarchs--two tables of the\n    covenant--but One is our God, who is over the heavens and the earth.\n\nThe same chant adapted to matters of Christian belief, but carried only\nfrom one to twelve, is current also in Latin, Italian, Spanish, French,\nGerman, and Danish. Among ourselves it is set as a song. But the objects\nwhich are associated with the numbers are not uniformly the same, and\nthis renders it probable that the chants were composed independently of\none another. This view is supported by the fact that some of the items\nthat are named in the Christian chants are not Christian, and are, in\nfact, identical with the items named in the entirely heathen chants.\n\nThe Latin version of the Chant of the Creed has been traced back to the\nsecond half of the sixteenth century. Its words were set to music in a\nmotet for thirteen voices by Theodor Clinius (d. 1602), a Venetian by\nbirth (E., p. 408). Another Latin version of the chant goes back to\n1650. The chant begins:--\n\n    Dic mihi quid unus?\n\n    --Unus est Jesus Christus [_or_ Deus] qui regnat in aeternum [_or_\n    coelis]. (A., I, 420.)\n\n    \"Tell me, what is One? One is Jesus Christ [_or_ God] who reigns in\n    eternity [_or_ in heaven].\"\n\nThe answers further explain two as the testaments, three as the\npatriarchs, four as the evangelists, five as the books of Moses, six as\nthe water-jugs of Cana in Galilee, seven as the gifts of the spirit\n(_or_ the candelabra lit before God), eight as the beatitudes, nine as\nthe orders (_or_ choirs of the angels), ten as the commandments, eleven\nas the disciples (_or_ stars seen by Joseph), twelve as the articles of\nthe faith (_or_ the apostles).\n\nThe Chant of the Creed as recited in Spain (A., II, 142) is set in the\nsame form, and explains the numbers in much the same manner, except that\nsix are the days of the Creation, and eleven are eleven thousand\nvirgins. Another version (A., II, 104) associates the Virgin with one,\nthe three Maries with three, while nine, like the Hebrew chant,\nindicates the months of expectancy of the Virgin. In a Portuguese\nversion also, nine are the months of Christ's becoming, and eleven are\neleven thousand virgins (A., II, 102).\n\nThroughout Italy and in Sicily the Chant of the Creed is known as _Le\ndodici parole della Verit\u00e0_, \"the twelve words of truth.\" They are\ngenerally put into the lips of the popular saint, Nicolas of Bari, who\nis said to have defeated the evil intentions of Satan by teaching them.\nThese Italian chants for the most part agree with the Latin chant\nalready cited, except that two in the Abruzzi is associated with the sun\nand the moon; five is explained as the wounds of Jesus _or_ of St.\nFrancis, and eleven stands for the articles of the Catholic faith (A.,\nI, 419; II, 97).\n\nIn Denmark the Chant of the Creed is put into the lips of St. Simeon,\nand begins:--\n\n    Stat op, Sante Simeon, og sig mig, hvad een er?\n\n    \"Stand forth, St. Simeon, and tell me, what is one.\"\n\nThe explanations in this case are strictly Christian, Jesus Christ\nstanding for One. The souls saved by God from the ark (_sjaele frelste\nGud udi Arken_) stand for eight (Gt., II, 68).\n\nIn Languedoc also the chant is current in a Christian adaptation which\nagrees with the Latin, except that the Trinity stands for three; the\nwounds of Jesus, as in the Italian chant, stand for five; the lights in\nthe temple stand for six; and the joys of our Lady stand for seven (M.\nL., p. 478).\n\nFrom Europe the Chant of the Creed has been carried to Canada, where a\nversion is sung in French to a monotonous tune in four beats at a formal\nkind of dance, called a _ronde religieuse_--a religious round. To this\ndance six couples stand up; each dancer represents a number. To the\nsound of their singing they move in a chain, each person turning first\nto the right, then to the left. When number six is reached in singing,\nand every time that six recurs in the chant, the dancing stops, and to\nthe words \"_six urnes de vin remplies_,\" the dancers who represent even\nnumbers turn first to the right, then to the left, and make a deep bow,\nwhile those that represent uneven numbers perform the same ceremony the\nother way about (G., p. 298). Then the dancing is resumed. This figure,\njudging from the description, exactly corresponds to the Grand Chain in\nLancers, except that six couples dance instead of four or eight.\n\nIn the Canadian chant the explanations of the numbers are all Christian,\nexcept that for eleven they say eleven thousand virgins, which agrees\nwith the virgins of the Spanish and Portuguese chants. These eleven\nthousand virgins are mentioned also in a version of the chant current in\nZ\u00fcrich, which, unlike the others, carries the numbers to fifteen. It\nenumerates Christian matters similar to those already named as far as\nnine choirs of angels, and further associates ten with thousands of\nknights, eleven with thousands of virgins, the apostles with twelve, the\ndisciples with thirteen, the helpers in need (_Nothelfer_) with\nfourteen, the mysteries with fifteen. This chant is set in the old way\nof question and answer, and the answers are recited in cumulative form\n(R., p. 268).\n\nThe Chant of the Creed in a late development is preserved in the form of\na religious poem among ourselves which is called _A New Dyall_. Two\nversions of it are preserved in the MS. Harleian 5937, which dates from\nabout the year 1625. They have been printed by F. S. A. Sandys among his\n_Christmas Carols_. The refrain of the one recalls the celebration of\nTwelve Days:--\n\n    In those twelve days, in those twelve days, let us be glad,\n    For God of His power hath all things made.\n\nIn both pieces the dialogue form is dropped, and there is no attempt at\ncumulation.\n\n    One God, one baptism, and one faith,\n    One truth there is the Scripture saith;\n    Two Testaments, the old and new,\n    We do acknowledge to be true;\n    Three persons are in Trinity,\n    Which make one God in Unity;\n    Four sweet evangelists there are\n    Christ's birth, life, death, which do declare;\n    Five senses like five kings, maintain\n    In every man a several reign;\n    Six days to labour is not wrong,\n    For God Himself did work so long;\n    Seven liberal arts has God sent down\n    With divine skill man's soul to crown;\n    Eight in Noah's ark alive were found,\n    When (in a word) the World lay drowned.\n    Nine Muses (like the heaven's nine spheres)\n    With sacred tunes entice our ears;\n    Ten statutes God to Moses gave\n    Which, kept or broke, do spoil or save;\n    Eleven with Christ in heaven do dwell,\n    The twelfth for ever burns in hell;\n    Twelve are attending on God's Son;\n    Twelve make our Creed, \"the dyall's done.\"[56]\n\n    [56] Sandys, F. S. A.: _Christmas Carols_, p. 59 ff.\n\nThe objects named in this poem agree in most cases with those of the\nLatin chant, but six, there associated with the water-jugs in Cana of\nGalilee, is here associated with the days of the Creation, which\ncorrespond with the six days of the Creation of the Spanish Chant of the\nCreed, and with the six working days of the week of a heathen dialogue\nstory to which we shall return later. The number eight is here\nassociated with the persons saved in the ark of Noah, as in the Chant of\nthe Creed which is current in Denmark.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nHEATHEN CHANTS OF THE CREED\n\n\nWe now turn to those versions of the Chant of the Creed which are\nheathen in character. Again we have versions before us in the vernacular\nof Brittany, Spain, Scotland, and several set in the form of songs that\nare current in different parts of England.\n\nThe most meaningful and elaborate versions of the chant come from\nBrittany. One is called _Les v\u00eapres des grenouilles_. It is set in the\nform of instruction, and begins:--\n\n    Can caer, Killor\u00e9. Iolic, petra faot dide?\n    Caera tra\u00efc a gement orizoud ti.      (L., I, p. 95.)\n\n    \"Chant well, Killore. Iolic, what shall I sing?--The most beautiful\n    thing thou knowest.\"\n\nAnd it enumerates, \"One silver ring to Mary, two silver rings, three\nqueens in a palace, four acolytes, five black cows, six brothers and\nsix sisters, seven days and seven moons, eight beaters of the air, nine\narmed sons, ten ships on the shore, eleven sows, twelve small swords.\"\nThis combination of objects with numbers from one to twelve agrees most\nclosely with the enumeration of the game of _Twelve Days_.\n\nThe longer version of the Breton chant was interpreted by its editor as\na chant of instruction, and he claimed for it a Druidical origin. It\nbegins:--\n\n    Beautiful child of the Druid, answer me right well.\n\n    --What would'st thou that I should sing?--\n\n    Sing to me the series of number one, that I may learn it this very\n    day.\n\n    --There is no series for one, for One is Necessity alone, the father\n    of death, there is nothing before and nothing after.\n\nAnd we read of two as oxen yoked to a cart; of three as the beginning,\nthe middle, and the end of the world for man and for the oak; also of\nthe three kingdoms of Merlin; of four as the stones of Merlin for\nsharpening the swords of the brave; of five as the terrestrial zones,\nthe divisions of time, the rocks on one sister (_sic_); of six as babes\nof wax quickened into life through the power of the moon; of seven as\nthe suns, the moons, and the planets, including _La Poule_ (i.e. the\nconstellation) of Charles's Wain; of eight as the winds that blow, eight\nfires with the great fire lighted in the month of May on the War\nMountain; of nine as little white hands near the tower of Lezarmeur, and\nas maidens who groan; of nine also as maidens who dance with flowers in\ntheir hair and in white robes around the well by the light of the moon;\n'the wild sow and her young at the entrance to their lair, are snorting\nand snarling, snarling and snorting; little one, little one, hurry to\nthe apple-tree, the wild boar will instruct you'; of ten as the enemy's\nboats on the way from Nantes, 'woe to you, woe to you, men of Vannes';\nof eleven as priests 'coming from Vannes with broken swords and\nblood-stained garments, and crutches of hazel-wood, of three hundred\nonly these eleven ones are left'; of twelve as months and signs,\n'Sagittarius, the one before the last, lets fly his pointed arrow. The\ntwelve signs are at war. The black cow with a white star on her forehead\nrushes from the forest (_des despouill\u00e9s_) pierced by a pointed arrow,\nher blood flows, she bellows with raised head. The trumpet sounds, fire\nand thunder, rain and wind. No more, no more, there is no further\nseries.' (H. V., p. 1.)\n\nThe contents of this chant in several particulars agree with the shorter\none. Seven stands for days, eight for winds, and ten for boats.\n\nA similar chant comes from Spain, which gives the answers with a curious\nvariation. For in this case most of the numbers are explained as one\nless of one kind and one more of another. Thus one stands for the Wheel\nof Fortune; two for one clock and bell; three for the handle of a mortar\n(? _la mano del almiles_); four for three basins and one dish; five for\nthree jars of red wine and two of white (_or_ for the wounds of St.\nFrancis); six for the loves you hold (_amores que teneis_); seven for\nsix cassocks and a cape; eight for seven butchers and one sheep; nine\nfor eight hounds and one hare; ten for the toes; eleven for ten horsemen\nand one leader (_breva_, ? acorn); twelve are probably pigs.\n\nExactly as in the other chants the numbers are set in question and\nanswer, the answer being in cumulative form:--\n\n    Qui\u00e9n me dir\u00e1 que no es una?--\n    La rued de la fortuna.      (Ma., p. 68.)\n\n    \"Who will tell me what is one?--One is the Wheel of Fortune,\" and so\n    forth.\n\nIn this Spanish version there is the alternative of associating five\nwith the jars of wine of Cana or with the wounds of St. Francis, both of\nwhich are Christian conceptions that occur in the Christian chants--the\nwounds of St. Francis in the Italian chant, and the jugs of wine, six in\nnumber, in the chant as it is sung and danced in Canada. Christian\nconceptions are also introduced into some of the numerous versions of\nthe heathen Chants of the Creed that are current among ourselves, but\nthey are relatively few, and by their nature suggest a change from\nheathen to Christian matters of belief.\n\nThe oldest version of this chant was printed by Chambers from an\nunpublished collection of songs by P. Buchan. It is in dialogue form,\nand, as in the case of the Druidical chants, its words indicate a\nteacher who is instructing his pupils:--\n\n    1. We will a' gae sing, boys,\n       Where will we begin, boys?\n       We'll begin the way we should,\n       And we'll begin at ane, boys.\n\n       O, what will be our ane, boys?\n       O, what will be our ane, boys?\n       --My only ane she walks alane,\n       And evermair has dune, boys.\n\n    2. Now we will a' gae sing, boys;\n       Where will we begin, boys?\n       We'll begin where we left aff,\n       And we'll begin at twa, boys.\n\n       What will be our twa, boys?\n       --'Twa's the lily and the rose\n       That shine baith red and green, boys.\n       My only ane she walks alane,\n       And evermair has dune, boys.\n\n    3. Now we will a' gae sing, boys, ... etc.\n       What will be our three, boys?\n       Three, three thrivers ... etc.      (1870, p. 44.)\n\n    Four's the gospel-makers, five's the hymnlers o' my bower, six the\n    echoing waters, seven's the stars in heaven, eight's the table\n    rangers, nine's the muses of Parnassus, ten's the commandments,\n    eleven's maidens in a dance, twelve's the twelve apostles.\n\nFurther variations of this chant have been recovered in Dorsetshire,\nCornwall, Derbyshire, Norfolk, and elsewhere. Many of them at the close\nof each line insert the interjection _O_ in the place of the word\n_boys_. This drew the suggestion from Dr. Jessopp that the song was\nconnected with the so-called _Seven great Os_, a song sung at vespers\nduring Advent before the _Magnificat_ from 16 December to Christmas Eve.\nIt took its name from the first line in the song, which begins _O\nSapientia_.\n\nThe Dorsetshire version is still sung at Eton, and is known as \"Green\ngrow the rushes oh,\" the words that form the chorus:--\n\n    Solo:   I'll sing you one oh!\n\n    Chorus: Green grow the rushes oh!\n            What is your one oh?\n\n    Solo:   One is one and all alone\n            And ever more shall be so.[57]\n\n    [57] Byrne, S. R., _Camp Choruses_, 1891, p. 91.\n\nThe same order is observed for the next verse, the soloist explaining\ntwo, the chorus adding one, and so forth. In this version we have two\nlily-white boys, three rivals, four gospel makers, five symbols at your\ndoor, six proud walkers, seven stars in the sky, eight bold rainers,\nnine bright shiners, ten commandments, eleven for the eleven that went\nup to heaven, twelve for the twelve apostles.\n\nA Chant of the Creed is sung in Cornwall by the sailors, and begins:--\n\n    Come and I will sing you!\n    --What will you sing me?\n    I will sing you one, oh!\n    --What is your one, oh!\n    Your one is all alone,\n    And ever must remain so.\n\nThe explanations which follow are very corrupt. Two are lily-white maids\nclothed all in green, oh!; three are bright shiners; four are\ngospel-makers; five are the ferrymen in a boat and one of them a\nstranger; six is the cheerful waiter; seven are the stars in the sky;\neight are the archangels; nine are the bold rainers; ten are the\ncommandments; eleven went up to heaven; twelve are the apostles.[58]\n\n    [58] Lang, A., \"At the Sign of the Ship,\" in _The Gentleman's\n    Magazine_, January, 1889, p. 328.\n\nIn Derbyshire the chant is associated with the harvest festival, and\ntakes the form of a drinking song. It begins with three, but the\nexplanations of one and two are preserved in the last verse, in which\nthe song is carried back to its real beginning:--\n\n    Plenty of ale to-night, my boys, and then I will sing you.\n    What will you sing?--I'll sing you three oh.\n    What is the three O?...\n\nThe last verse enumerates:--Twelve apostles; eleven archangels; ten\ncommandments; nine bright shiners; eight, the Gabriel riders; seven\ngolden stars in heaven; six came on the board; five by water; four\nGospel rhymers; three threble thribers; two lily-white maids and one was\ndressed in green O.[59]\n\n    [59] Addy, S. O., \"Two Relics of English Paganism,\" in _The\n    Gentleman's Magazine_, July, 1890, p. 46.\n\nThis version of the chant was sung or recited at harvest-time in Norfolk\nalso, and began:--\n\n    A: I'll sing the one O.\n    B: What means the one O?\n    A: When the one is left alone, No more can be seen O!\n    C: I'll sing the two Os.\n    D: What means the two Os?\n\n    Two's the lily-white boys--three's the rare O--four's the gospel\n    makers--five's the thimble in the bowl--six is the\n    provokers--seven's the seven stars in the sky--eight is the bright\n    walkers--nine's the gable rangers--ten's the ten\n    commandments--'leven's the 'leven evangelists--twelve's the twelve\n    apostles.[60]\n\n    [60] Jessopp, \"A Song in Arcady,\" in _Longman's Magazine_, June,\n    1889, p. 187.\n\nThe version current in Herefordshire is preserved as far as number eight\nonly:--\n\n    Eight was the crooked straight,\n    Seven was the bride of heaven,\n    Six was the crucifix,\n    Five was the man alive,\n    Four was the lady's bower [_or_ lady bird, _or_ lady, _or_ lady's\n        birth?],\n    Three was the Trinity,\n    Two was the Jewry,\n    One was God to the righteous man\n    To save our souls to rest. Amen.[61]\n\n    [61] From Stoke Prior, Herefordshire, in Addy, S. O., _Household\n    Tales and Traditional Remains_, 1895, p. 150.\n\nSome of our nursery rhymes which are nonsensical represent these lines\nin a further degradation:--\n\n    One, two, three, four, five,\n    I caught a hare alive;\n    Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,\n    I let her go again.      (_c._ 1783, p. 48.)\n\nAnd the following, in which \"sticks\" takes the place of _crucifix_,\nwhile \"straight\" recalls _crooked straight_:--\n\n    One, two, buckle my shoe,\n    Three, four, shut the door,\n    Five six, pick up sticks,\n    Seven, eight, lay them straight.      (1810, p. 30).\n\nThe rhyme is sometimes continued as far as twenty:--\n\n    Nine, ten, a good fat hen,\n    Eleven, twelve, who shall delve? _etc._\n\nThe tabulation of the explanations of numbers of these various songs\nwill give an idea of the degradation to which words are liable, when\nthey have lost their meaning. It shows also that some information can be\nrecovered from comparing what is apparently nonsensical.\n\n    _One._--Scotland: One all alone.\n            Dorset: One is one and all alone.\n            Cornwall: Is all alone and ever must remain so.\n            Derbyshire: One was dressed in green O.\n            Norfolk: One left alone no more can be seen O.\n            Hereford: One was God to the righteous man.\n\n    _Two._--Sc.: Lilly and rose.\n            Dt.: Lilly white boys.\n            C.: Lilly white maids clothed in green.\n            Db.: Lilly white maids.\n            N.: Lily white boys.\n            H.: Jewry.\n\n    _Three._--Sc.: Thrivers.\n            Dt.: Rivals.\n            C.: Bright shiners.\n            Db.: Threble thribers.\n            N.: Rare O.\n            H.: Trinity.\n\n    _Four._--Sc.: Gospelmakers.\n            Dt.       \"\n            C.        \"\n            Db.: Gospelrhymers.\n            N.: Gospelmakers.\n            H.: Lady's bower.\n\n    _Five._--Sc.: Hymnlers of my bower.\n            Dt.: Symbols at your door.\n            C.: Ferrymen in a boat and one a stranger.\n            Db.: By water.\n            N.: Thimble in a bowl.\n            H.: Man alive.\n\n    _Six._--Sc.: Echoing waters.\n            Dt.: Proud walkers.\n            C.: Cheerful waiter.\n            Db.: Came on board.\n            N.: Provokers.\n            H.: Crucifix.\n\n    _Seven._--Sc.: Stars in heaven.\n            Dt.: Stars in the sky.\n            C.    \"    \"\n            Db.: Golden stars.\n            N.: Stars in the sky.\n            H.: Bride of heaven.\n\n    _Eight._--Sc.: Table rangers.\n            Dt.: Bold rainers.\n            C.: Archangels.\n            Db.: Gabriel riders.\n            N.: Bright walkers.\n            H.: Crooked straight.\n\n    _Nine._--Sc.: Muses.\n            Dt.: Bright shiners.\n            C.: Bold rainers.\n            Db.: Bright shiners.\n            N.: Gable rangers.\n\n    _Ten._--Sc.: Commandments.\n            Dt.     \"\n            C.      \"\n            Db.     \"\n            N.      \"\n\n    _Eleven._--Sc.: Maidens in a dance.\n            Dt.: Went up to heaven.\n            C.    \"        \"\n            Db.: Archangels.\n            N.: Evangelists.\n\n    _Twelve._--Sc.: Apostles.\n            Dt.    \"\n            C.     \"\n            Db.    \"\n            N.     \"\n\nFrom this table we see that the _thrivers_ of Scotland are _threble\nthribers_ in Derbyshire. These, according to the explanation of Addy,\nare the three Norns or white ladies,[62] and this view is supported by\nthe _three queens_ of the one Breton chant, which probably suggested\n_The Three Maries_ of the one Spanish version.\n\n    [62] Addy, S. O., loc. cit., p. 150.\n\nAgain, the _table rangers_ of the Scottish song are _Gabriel riders_,\notherwise known as _Gabriel hounds_ or _gabbe ratches_ in Derbyshire.\n_Gabriel hounds_ is a word applied to the winds. The winds are also\nassociated with eight in the one Breton chant. In Cornwall _bright\nshiners_ are associated with three, but in Dorsetshire and Derbyshire\n_bright shiners_ are associated with nine, and nine is the number of\nmaidens in one Breton chant also. We are reminded of the priestesses who\nwere devoted to religious rites on some island of the Atlantic, perhaps\nUshant, off Brittany, when Pytheas, in the fourth century before Christ,\nvisited these shores. Nine of them attended a famous oracle, and\nprofessed to control the weather.\n\nThe interest of these chants is increased when we compare them with what\nfolk-lore preserves on the subject. The followers of Mohammed tell a\ntale which describes how a rich man promised a poor man his ox if he\ncould explain to him the numbers, and the following dialogue ensued:--\n\n    What is one and not two?--God is one.\n\n    What is two and not three?--Day and night [_or_ the sun and the\n    moon].\n\nAnd further: three for divorces from one's wife; four for the Divine\nbooks (i.e. the Old and New Testament, the Psalter and the Koran); five\nfor the states of Islam; six for the realms in Nizam; seven for the\nheavens that surround the throne of God (A., II, 230).\n\nThe same story in a more primitive form is told in Ditmarschen, a\ndistrict bordering on Holstein, in which also the numbers are carried to\nseven only. But in this case a peasant's property stood forfeited to the\n\"little man in grey,\" unless he found an explanation to the numbers. He\ndespaired of doing so, when Christ intervened and instructed him as\nfollows:--\n\nOne stands for wheelbarrow; two stands for a cart; three for a trivet;\nfour for a waggon; five stands for the fingers of the hand; six for the\nworking days of the week; seven for the stars of the Great Bear. And the\npeasant remained in the possession of his goods (R., p. 137).\n\nMore primitive still is the story as told in Little Russia. In this case\na man bartered away his soul for six pigs. After three years the devil\ncame to fetch him. But the devil was met by an old, old man who\nsuccessfully cheated him of his due. The dialogue between them was: \"Who\nis in the house?--One and not one (that is two). And how about two?--It\nis well to thrash two at a time. It is well to travel three at a time.\nHe who has four has a waggon. He who has five sons has company. Six pigs\nthe devil had, but he left them with a poor man, and now he has lost\nthem for ever\" (A., II, 227).\n\nThe comparison of these stories with the Chants of the Creed shows that\nthe dialogue stories are older in contents, and probably in form also,\nthan the cumulative pieces. In both, superhuman power is conveyed by\nassociating numbers with objects. This power in the dialogue pieces is\nattributed to the \"little man in grey\" of the German piece, who may be\nintended for Death, and to the devil in the Russian piece. In the\npieces where numbers are associated with Christian articles of belief,\nthe superhuman power is attributed to a popular saint, viz. St. Simeon\nin Denmark and St. Nicholas in Italy, who make use of their power to\novercome Satan.\n\nThe dialogue stories explain the numbers only as far as six or seven.\nThis in itself indicates that they are relatively early. Some of the\nexplanations they contain reappear in the cumulative Chants of the\nCreed, both in their Christian and in their heathen variations. Thus the\n\"one wheel\" of the wheelbarrow in the German dialogue story, reappears\nas the Wheel of Fortune in the Spanish chant, and as the \"One that walks\nalone\" of the Scottish chant. Perhaps this idea underlies the one O, or\ncircle of our late English songs also. Two in the dialogue story is\nexplained as a cart; one Breton Chant of the Creed associates two with\nan ox-cart also. In the Mohammedan dialogue story two is explained as\nthe sun and moon, and this explanation reappears in the Christian chant\nas sung in the Abruzzi. Six, which the German dialogue story explains\nas the working days of the week, has the same meaning in our song of\nthe _New Dyall_. Seven, which the German dialogue story associates with\nthe constellation of Charles's Wain, reappears as _La Poule_ in the\nBreton Chant of the Creed, as seven bright shiners in our English songs,\nand as the stars seen by Joseph in the Latin Chant.\n\nThese points of likeness cannot be due to mere chance; they indicate a\nrelationship between all the pieces which associate objects with\nnumbers. There has been some discussion as to which Chant of the Creed\nhas the greater claim to priority--whether the Breton was based on the\nChristian, or the Christian on the Hebrew, and how these stand in\nrelation to the various heathen chants. But the analysis of these pieces\nrenders it probable that they are all derived from an earlier prototype,\nand this prototype is perhaps to be sought in the dialogue stories. For\nin the Chants of the Creed the explanations of the numbers are often\nabstract in meaning, whereas in the dialogue pieces they are simple\nobjects, mostly wheels or circles, which may well have appeared magical\nin themselves to the primitive mind. Again, the purpose of the Chants\nof the Creed is to convey religious instruction as a protection against\nthe devil, while in the dialogue stories in the last instance the theme\nis the acquisition of pigs, and pigs were esteemed valuable possessions\nfrom a remote period of antiquity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nSACRIFICIAL HUNTING\n\n\nMany nursery rhymes and pieces relate to sacrificial hunting. This\nhunting goes back to the time when certain animals were looked upon as\ntabu in that they were generally held in reverence, and ill-luck befell\nhim who wittingly or unwittingly did them harm. At the same time one\nanimal of the kind was periodically slain. It was actually killed, but\nits spirit was held to be incarnate in other creatures of its kind, and\nit therefore continued to be spoken of as alive.\n\nThe custom of killing the divine animal belongs to an early stage of\nsocial evolution, since it stands in no relation to agriculture, and\nperhaps took rise before men tilled the soil. The animal that was\nslaughtered was generally looked upon as the representative of a certain\nclan, or as constituting the bond between a number of kinsmen.[63]\n\n    [63] Frazer, J. G., _The Golden Bough_, 1900, II, 442 ff.\n\nAmong the creatures that were sacrificiallybasiliskost hunted in\ndifferent parts of Western Europe were a number of small birds. Many of\nour nursery pieces relate to the hunting of the wren. A peculiar\nimportance was attached to this bird from a remote period in antiquity,\npossibly on account of the golden crest worn by one kind of these birds.\nThis importance was expressed by the term \"little king.\" In Greek the\nwren was \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b9\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2, in Latin he was _regulus_ or _rex avium_. In France\nhe is _roitelet_; in Italy he is _reatino_; in Spain he is _reyezuolo_;\nin Germany he is _zaunk\u00f6nig_; in Wales he is _bren_, a word allied to\nour wren. The sacrifice of a bird that was so highly esteemed, must have\na deeper significance. Possibly his sacrifice was accepted in the place\nof the periodical sacrifice of the real king, a primitive custom which\ndates far back in history. If so, the practice of slaying the wren\nrepresents the custom of killing the king \"of the woods\" at a later\nstage of development.\n\nThe designation of king as applied to the wren naturally called for an\nexplanation. It was accounted for by the story according to which the\nbirds challenged one another as to who could fly highest. The eagle flew\nhigher than the other birds, but the diminutive wren hid beneath his\nwing, and, being carried up by the eagle, started on his own flight when\nthe eagle tired, and so proved his superiority (Ro., II, 293). The story\ndates from the period when cunning was esteemed higher than brute force,\nand when cheating was accepted as a legitimate way of showing one's\npowers. Among the fairy tales of Grimm one tells how the wren, whose\nyoung had been spoken of disrespectfully by the bear, challenged the\nfour-footed beasts of the forest, and by a similar strategem proved his\nsuperiority over them also (No. 152). Thus the kingship of the wren\nextended to the four-footed as well as to the feathered tribes.\n\nThe lines that celebrate the _Hunting of the Wren_ are included in\nseveral of the oldest nursery collections. They depend for their\nconsistency on repetition; there is no attempt at cumulation. In the\ncollection of 1744 the piece stands as follows:--\n\nI\n\n    We will go to the wood, says Robbin to Bobbin,\n    We will go to the wood, says Richard to Robbin,\n    We will go to the wood, says John and alone,\n    We will go to the wood, says everyone.\n\nII\n\n    We will shoot at a wren, says Robbin to Bobbin,\n    We will shoot at a wren, says Richard to Robbin, etc.\n\nIII\n\n    She's down, she's down, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.\n\nIV\n\n    How shall we get her home, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.\n\nV\n\n    We will hire a cart, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.\n\nVI\n\n    Then hoist, hoist, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.\n\nVII\n\n    She's up, she's up, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.\n\nIn the collection of 1783 there is an additional verse:--\n\n    So they brought her away after each pluck'd a feather,\n    And when they got home shar'd the booty together.\n\n    (_c._ 1783, p. 20.)\n\nAnother version of this chant from Scotland is included in Herd's\ncollection of songs, which goes back to 1776.[64] In this the wren \"is\nslayed,\" \"conveyed home in carts and horse,\" and is got in by \"driving\ndown the door cheeks.\" The characters in this case are Fozie Mozie,\nJohnie Rednosie, Foslin 'ene, and brethren and kin. The song ends:--\n\nVIII\n\n    I'll hae a wing, quo' Fozie Mozie,\n    I'll hae anither, quo' Johnie Rednosie,\n    I'll hae a leg, quo' Foslin 'ene,\n    And I'll hae another, quo' brither and kin.\n\n    [64] Herd, David, _Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs_, reprint,\n    1869, II, 210.\n\nIn the toy-book literature of the eighteenth century I have come across\nthe expression, \"They sang the Fuzzy Muzzy chorus,\" which may be related\nto these names.\n\nAnother variation of the chant sung in Carmarthenshire[65] is set in the\nform of a dialogue, and the fact is insisted on that the hunt shall be\ncarried out in the old way in preference to the new:--\n\n    [65] Mason, M. H., _Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs_, 1877, p. 47.\n\nI\n\n    O, where are you going, says Milder to Malder,\n    O, I cannot tell, says Festel to Fose,\n    We're going to the woods, says John the Red Nose,\n    We're going to the woods, says John the Red Nose.\n\n\nII\n\n    O, what will you do there? says Milder to Malder....\n    | We'll shoot the Cutty Wren, says John the Red Nose. |\n\nIII\n\n    O, how will you shoot her....\n    | With cannons and guns, _etc._ |\n\nIV\n\n    O, that will not do ...\n    | With arrows and bows, _etc._ |\n\nV\n\n    O, how will you bring her home....\n    | On four strong men's shoulders, _etc._ |\n\nVI\n\n    O, that will not do ...\n    | In waggons and carts, _etc._ |\n\nVII\n\n    O, what will you cut her up with?...\n    | With knives and forks, _etc._ |\n\nVIII\n\n    O, that will not do ...\n    | With hatchets and cleavers, _etc._ |\n\nIX\n\n    O, how will you boil her?...\n    | In kettles and pots, _etc._ |\n\nX\n\n    O, that will not do ...\n    | In cauldrons and pans, _etc._ |\n\nXI\n\n    O, who'll have the spare ribs, says Milder to Malder,\n    O, I cannot tell, says Festel to Fose,\n    We'll give them to the poor, says John the Red Nose,\n    We'll give them to the poor, says John the Red Nose.\n\nFurther variations of the chant have been recovered from the Isle of Man\nand from Ireland, where the hunt is kept up to this day. In the Isle of\nMan it used to take place on 24 December, though afterwards on St.\nStephen's Day, that is 27 December, which according to the old reckoning\nwas the beginning of the New Year.[66] On this day people left the\nchurch at midnight and then engaged in hunting the wren. When the bird\nwas secured, it was fastened to a long pole with its wings extended, and\nit was carried about in procession to the singing of the chant:--\n\n    We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin.\n\n    [66] Waldron, _Description of the Isle of Man_, reprint 1865, p. 49;\n    also Train, T., _History of the Isle of Man_, 1845, II, 126.\n\nThis chant further describes that the bird was hunted with sticks and\nstones, a cart was hired, he was brought home, he was boiled in the\nbrewery-pan, he was eaten with knives and forks, the king and the queen\ndined at the feast, and the pluck went to the poor.\n\nThe behaviour of the huntsmen was not, however, in keeping with these\nwords; for the bearers of the wren, after making the circuit, laid it on\na bier and carried it to the parish churchyard, where it was buried with\nthe utmost solemnity, and dirges were sung over it in the Manx language,\nwhich were called the knell of the wren. The company then formed a\ncircle outside the churchyard and danced to music.\n\nIn the middle of the nineteenth century the wren was still hunted in the\nIsle of Man and was carried by boys from door to door, suspended by the\nlegs in the centre of two hoops. These crossed each other at right\nangles and were decorated with evergreens and ribbons. The boys recited\nthe chant. In return for a coin they gave a feather of the wren, so that\nbefore the end of the day the bird hung featherless. A superstitious\nvalue was attached to these feathers, for the possession of one of them\nwas considered an effective preservative from shipwreck during the\ncoming year among the sailors. At this time the bird was no longer\nburied in the churchyard, but on the seashore or in some waste place.\n\nThe hunt in the Isle of Man was accounted for by the legend that in\nformer times a fairy of uncommon beauty exerted such influence over the\nmale population of the island that she induced them by her sweet voice\nto follow her footsteps, till by degrees she led them into the sea,\nwhere they perished. At last a knight-errant sprang up, who laid a plot\nfor her destruction, which she escaped at the last moment by taking the\nform of a wren. But a spell was cast upon her by which she was condemned\non every succeeding New Year's Day to reanimate the same form, with the\ndefinite sentence that she must ultimately perish by human hand. In this\nform the legend is told by Train. Waldron relates the same story, which\nexplained why the female sex are now held of little account in the\nisland, but the fairy according to him was transformed into a bat.\n\nIn Ireland also the wren was generally hunted during the eighteenth\ncentury, and continues to be hunted in Leinster and in Connaught, but I\nhave come across no chant of the hunt. The bird was slain by the\npeasants, and was carried about hung by the leg inside two crossed\nhoops, and a custom rhyme was sung which began:--\n\n    The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,\n    Was caught St. Stephen's Day in the furze;\n    Although he's little, his family's great,\n    Then pray, gentlefolks, give him a treat.      (1849, p. 166.)\n\nThe bird was slain, but it was not therefore dead. This is conveyed by\nthe tale told in the Isle of Man, and by the following custom observed\nin Pembrokeshire on 6 January, that is on Twelfth Day. On this day one\nor several wrens were secured in a small house or cage, sometimes the\nstable lantern, which was decorated with ribbons and carried from house\nto house while the following lines were sung:--\n\n    Joy, health, love, and peace,\n    Be to you in this place.\n    By your leave we will sing\n    Concerning _our king_:\n    Our king is well drest,\n    In silks of the best,\n    With his ribbons so rare\n    No king can compare.\n    _In his coach he does ride_\n    With a great deal of pride\n    And with _four footmen_\n    To wait upon him.\n    We were four at watch,\n    And all nigh of a match;\n    And with powder and ball\n    We fired at his hall.\n    We have travell'd many miles,\n    Over hedges and stiles,\n    To find you this king\n    Which we now to you bring.\n    Now Christmas is past,\n    Twelfth Day is the last.\n    Th' Old Year bids adieu;\n    Great joy to the new.      (1876, p. 35.)\n\nOn grouping together these various pieces, we are struck by their\nlikeness, and by the antiquity of their allusions. The bird was usually\nslain with stones and sticks, which are among the most primitive\nweapons. In Wales _bows and arrows_, which are old also, were declared\npreferable to _cannons and guns_. In Wales the bird was cut up with\n_hatchets and cleavers_ in preference to _knives and forks_; it was\nboiled in the _brewery pan_, or in _cauldrons and pans_, in preference\nto _kettles and pots_; and it was conveyed about in a _waggon or cart_\nin preference to being _carried on four men's shoulders_. Sometimes the\nbird was plucked. Finally it was cut up in a sacrificial manner; one\nwing--another--one leg--another--and the spare ribs or the pluck, as the\nleast valuable part of the feast, went to the poor.\n\nThe representative huntsmen in England are Robbin, Bobbin, Richard, and\nJohn-all-alone. In Scotland they are Fozie-Mozie, Johnie Rednosie, and\nFoslin, besides \"the brethren and kin.\" In Wales they are Milder,\nMalder, Festel, Fose, and John the Rednose. Of these characters only\nRobin and Bobbin (the names are sometimes run together) and Richard,\nreappear in other nursery pieces. In the oldest collection of 1744 stand\nthe lines:--\n\n    Robbin and Bobbin, two great belly'd men,\n    They ate more victuals than three-score men.      (1744, p. 25.)\n\nThese powers of eating perhaps refer to the first share of these\ncharacters at the feast. They are further dwelt on in the following\nnursery rhyme:--\n\n    Robin the Bobbin, the big-headed hen [_or_ ben]\n    He eat more meat than four-score men.\n    He eat a cow, he eat a calf,\n    He eat a butcher and a half;\n    He eat a church, he eat a steeple,\n    He eat the priest and all the people.      (_c._ 1783, p. 43.)\n\nTo which some collections add:--\n\n    And yet he complained that his belly was not full.\n\nOther pieces dilate on Robin and Richard as lazy in starting, and on\nRobin, whose efforts as a huntsman were attended with ill luck:--\n\n    Robin and Richard were two pretty men,\n    They lay in bed till the clock struck ten:\n    Then up starts Robin, and looks at the sky,\n    Oh! brother Richard, the sun's very high.\n    You go before, with the bottle and bag,\n    And I will come after, on little Jack Nag.      (_c._ 1783, p. 42.)\n\n    Robin-a-Bobbin bent his bow,\n    Shot at a woodcock and killed a yowe [ewe];\n    The yowe cried ba, and he ran away,\n    And never came back till Midsummer day.      (1890, p. 346.)\n\nHalliwell saw a relation between the huntsman of this verse and the bird\nrobin, since the robin was reckoned to disappear at Christmas and not to\nreturn till Midsummer. As a matter of fact, the robin leaves the abodes\nof man and retires into the woodland as soon as the sharp winter frost\nis over. However this may be, the presence of the wren and of the robin\nwas mutually exclusive, as we shall see in the pieces which deal with\nthe proposed union, the jealousy, and the death of these two birds.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nBIRD SACRIFICE\n\n\nThe custom of slaying the wren is widespread in France also. But the\nchants that deal with it dwell, not like ours, on the actual hunt, but\non the sacrificial plucking and dividing up of the bird. Moreover, the\nFrench chants depend for their consistency not on repetition like ours,\nbut are set in cumulative form. Both in contents and in form they seem\nto represent the same idea in a later development.\n\nAt Entraigues, in Vaucluse, men and boys hunted the wren on Christmas\nEve, and when they caught a bird alive they gave it to the priest, who\nset it free in church. At Mirabeau the hunted bird was blessed by the\npriest, and the curious detail is preserved that if the first bird was\nsecured by a woman, this gave the sex the right to jeer at and insult\nthe men, and to blacken their faces with mud and soot if they caught\nthem. At Carcassonne, on the first Sunday of December, the young people\nwho dwelt in the street of Saint-Jean went out of the town armed with\nsticks and stones to engage in the hunt. The first person who struck the\nbird was hailed king, and carried the bird home in procession. On the\nlast of December he was solemnly introduced to his office as king; on\nTwelfth Day he attended mass in church, and then, crowned and girt about\nwith a cloak, he visited the various dignitaries of the place, including\nthe bishop and the mayor, in a procession of mock solemnity. This was\ndone as late as 1819.[67] This identification of the bird and the men\nexplains the hiring of a cart or waggon to convey \"the bird\" in our own\ncustom-rhymes.\n\n    [67] Rolland, loc. cit., II, 295 ff.; Frazer, loc. cit., II, 445 ff.\n\nThe Breton chant on \"plucking the wren,\" _Plumer le roitelet_ begins:--\n\n    Nin' ziblus bec al laouenanic\n    Rac hen\u00e8s a zo bihanic | _bis._      (L., I, p. 72.)\n\n    \"We will pluck the beak of the wren, for he is very small,\" and\n    continues, \"We will pluck the left eye of the wren, for he is very\n    small\".\n\nand then enumerates right eye, left ear, right ear, head, neck, chest,\nback, belly, left wing, right wing, left buttock, right buttock, left\nthigh, right thigh, left leg, right leg, left foot, right foot, first\nclaw of left foot and every claw in succession of this and of the other\nfoot. The last sentence is \"We will pluck the tail of the wren,\" and\nthen sentence after sentence is repeated to the first, \"We will pluck\nthe beak of the wren because he is very small, we have plucked him\naltogether.\"\n\nAnother poem preserved in Breton relates how the wren was caught and\ncaged and fed till the butcher and his comrades came and slew it, when\nthe revelry began (L., I, p. 7).\n\nI have often wondered at the cruel sport of confining singing birds in\ncages. Possibly this goes back to a custom of fattening a victim that\nwas sacrificially slain. For the wren is tabu in Brittany as among\nourselves, and in popular belief the nestlings of each brood assemble\nwith the parent birds in the nest on Twelfth Night, and must on no\naccount be disturbed. This reflects the belief that the creature that is\nslain during the winter solstice, at its close starts on a new lease of\nlife.\n\nThe wren is not the only bird that was sacrificially eaten in France,\njudging from the chants that are recorded. A chant on \"plucking the\nlark,\" _Plumer l'alouette_, is current in the north of France which\nbegins:--\n\n    Nous la plumerons, l'alouette,\n    Nous la plumerons, tout de long.      (D. B., p. 124.)\n\n    \"We will pluck the lark, we will pluck it altogether.\"\n\nAnd it enumerates the bird's beak, eyes, head, throat, back, wings,\ntail, legs, feet, claws.\n\nA variation of the same chant is sung in Languedoc, where it is called\n_L'alouette plum\u00e9e_, \"the plucked lark,\" and is described as a game (M.\nL., p. 457).\n\nAgain, the dividing up of the thrush forms the subject of a chant which\nis sung in Brittany in the north (L., I, p. 81), and in Languedoc in the\nsouth. It is called _D\u00e9pecer le merle_, and preserves the further\npeculiarity that the bird, although it is divided up, persists in\nsinging. The version current in Languedoc begins:--\n\n    Le merle n'a perdut le bec, le merle n'a perdut le bec,\n    Comment fra-t-il, le merle, comment pourra-t-il chanter?\n    Emai encaro canto, le pauvre merle, merle,\n    Emai encaro canto, le pauvre merlatou.      (M. L., p. 458.)\n\n    \"The thrush has lost his beak, how will he manage to sing, and yet\n    he sings, the poor thrush, yet he goes on singing.\"\n\nThe chant then enumerates the bird's tongue, one eye, two eyes, head,\nneck, one wing, two wings, one foot, two feet, body, back, feathers,\ntail; always returning to the statement that the bird, although it is\ndivided up, persists in singing.\n\nThe French word _merle_ stands both for thrush and for blackbird. The\nblackbird is held in reverence among ourselves in Salop and\nMontgomeryshire, and blackbird-pie was eaten in Cornwall on Twelfth\nNight.[68] But there is no reference to the sacrificial slaying of the\nbird, as far as I am aware. In the French chant the bird continues to\nsing although it is killed. The same idea finds expression in our\nnursery song of _Sing a Song of Sixpence_. This piece, taken in\nconjunction with the eating of blackbird-pie in Cornwall and the French\nchants, seems to preserve the remembrance of the ancient bird sacrifice.\nThe first verse of this rhyme appears in the collection of 1744, in\nwhich \"naughty boys\" stands for blackbirds. In other collections the\npiece runs as follows:--\n\n    Sing a song of sixpence, a bagful of rye,\n    Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pye\n    And when the pye was open'd, the birds began to sing;\n    Was not this a dainty dish to set before the king?\n    The king was in his parlour counting out his money,\n    The queen was in the kitchen eating bread and honey,\n    The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,\n    Up came a magpie and bit off her nose.      (_c._ 1783, p. 26.)\n\n    [68] Thomas, N. W., \"Animal Superstitions\" in _Folk-Lore_,\n    September, 1900, p. 227.\n\nThe magpie is \"a little blackbird\" in the version of Halliwell, which\ncontinues:--\n\n    Jenny was so mad, she didn't know what to do,\n    She put her finger in her ear and cracked it right in two.\n\nHalliwell (1842, p. 62) noted that in the book called _Empulario or the\nItalian Banquet_ of 1589, there is a receipt \"to make pies so that the\nbirds may be alive in them and fly out when it is cut up,\" a mere\ndevice, live birds being introduced after the pie is made. One cannot\nbut wonder if the device was a mere sport of fancy, or if it originated\nfrom the desire to give substance to an ancient belief.\n\nAgain, the robin redbreast was sacrificially eaten in France at Le\nCharme, Loiret, on Candlemas, that is on February the first (Ro., II,\n264). There are no chants on the sacrifice of the robin in France, as\nfar as I know. Among ourselves, on the other hand, where no hunting of\nthe robin is recorded, a piece printed both by Herd[69] and Chambers\nsuggests his sacrifice. The piece is called by Chambers _The Robin's\nTestament_, and it describes how the bird, on the approach of death,\nmade a bequest of his several parts, which he enumerated exactly in the\nway of the sacrificial bird-chants current in France. They were his neb,\nfeathers of his neb, right leg, other leg, feathers of his tail, and\nfeathers of his breast, to each of which he attributed a mystic\nsignificance. The piece in the combined versions stands as follows:--\n\n    [69] Herd, David, loc. cit., II, 166.\n\n    Guid-day now, bonnie Robin\n      How lang have you been here?\n    I've been bird about this bush,\n      This mair than twenty year!\n\n    _Chorus_: Teetle ell ell, teetle ell ell.\n              Tee, tee, tee, tee, tee, tee, tee,\n              Tee, tee, tee, teetle eldie.\n\n    But now I am the sickest bird\n      That ever sat on brier;\n    And I wad make my testament,\n      Guidman, if ye wad hear.\n\n    \"Gar tak this bonnie _neb_ o' mine,\n      That picks upon the corn,\n    And gie 't to the Duke o' Hamilton\n      To be a hunting horn.\n\n    \"Gar tak these bonnie feathers o' mine,\n      _The feathers o' my neb_,\n    And gie to the Lady o' Hamilton\n      To fill a feather-bed.\n\n    \"Gar tak this guid _right leg_ o' mine\n      And mend the brig o' Tay;\n    It will be a post and pillar guid,\n      It will neither ban nor gae.\n\n    \"And tak this _other leg_ o' mine\n      And mend the brig o'er Weir;\n    It will be a post and pillar guid,\n      It'll neither ban nor steer.\n\n    (_Herd only_).\n\n    \"Gar tak these bonnie feathers o' mine\n      The feathers o' my tail,\n    And gie to the Lady o' Hamilton\n      To be a barn-flail.\n\n    \"Gar tak these bonnie feathers o' mine\n      The _feathers o' my breast_,\n    And gie to ony bonnie lad\n      That'll bring me to a priest.\"\n\n    Now in there came my Lady Wren\n      With mony a sigh and groan;\n    \"O what care I for a' the lads\n      If my wee lad be gone?\"\n\n    Then robin turned him round about\n      E'en like a little king,\n    \"Go, pack ye out at my chamber door,\n      Ye little cutty quean.\"\n\n    (_Chambers only_).\n\n    Robin made his testament\n      Upon a coll of hay\n    And by came a greedy gled\n      And snapt him a' away.      (1870, p. 40.)\n\n_The Robin's Testament_ should be compared with the French piece called\n_Le Testament de l'Ane_, \"the testament of the ass,\" of which a number\nof variations have been collected. The \"testament of the ass\" was\nrecited outside the church on the so-called _F\u00eate de l'Ane_, \"the feast\nof the ass,\" which was kept in many cities of France till a\ncomparatively recent date. In Douai it was celebrated as late as the\nyear 1668. On this occasion an ass was brought into church, and an\noffice was recited in Latin, which enlarged on the ass that carried the\nHoly Family into Egypt, the ass which bore Christ into Jerusalem, the\nass of Balaam, and so forth. Its chorus consisted of braying, in which\nthe assembled canons joined. This service in church was preceded by a\nrecitation outside the holy edifice, which was in the vernacular, and\nwhich, in dialogue form, enlarged on the several parts of the ass.[70]\n\n    [70] Cl\u00e9m\u00e9nt, Madame, _Histoire des f\u00eates civiles et religieuses du\n    Nord_, 1834, p. 184. Also, Du Cange, Glossarium, _Festum Asinorum_.\n\nOne of these dialogue pieces, current in Franche-Comt\u00e9, describes how\nthe she-ass, conscious of the approach of death, bequeathed her feet and\nears to her son, her skin to the drummer, her tail to the priest to make\nan aspergill, and her hole to the notary to make an inkpot (B., p. 61).\n\nAnother version, at greater length, is in the form of instruction which\nis given by the priest to the child, whose answers are set in cumulative\nform.\n\n\"The feast of the ass,\" in the words of Bujeaud, \"must have been very\npopular, since I have often heard the children of Angoumais and Poitou\nrecite the following piece \":--\n\n    Le pr\u00eatre: Que signifient les deux oreilles de l'\u00e2ne?\n\n    L'enfant: Les deux oreilles de l'\u00e2ne signifient les deux grands\n    saints, patrons de notre ville.\n\n    Le pr\u00eatre: Que signifie la t\u00eate de l'\u00e2ne?\n\n    L'enfant: La t\u00eate de l'\u00e2ne signifie la grosse cloche et la langue\n    fait le battant de cette grosse cloche qui est dans le clocher de la\n    cath\u00e9drale des saints patrons de notre ville. (B. I., p. 65.)\n\n    \"The priest: What do the ears of the ass stand for?--The child: The\n    ears of the ass stand for the two great patron saints of our\n    city.--The priest: What does the head stand for?--The head stands\n    for the great bell, and the tongue for the clapper of the great bell\n    which is in the belfry of the cathedral of the holy saints, the\n    patrons of our city.\"\n\nWe then read of the throat which stands for the entrance to the\ncathedral--the body for the cathedral itself--the four legs, its\npillars--the heart and liver, its great lamps--the belly, its\nalms-box--the tail which stands for the aspergill--the hide which\nstands for the cope of the priest--and the hole which stands for the\nholy-water stoup.\n\nThis chant on the parts of the ass is among the most curious survivals.\nAt first one feels inclined to look upon it as intended to convey\nridicule, but this idea is precluded by the existence of _The Robin's\nTestament_, and by the numerous pieces which enumerate the several parts\nof the bird in connection with the bird sacrifice. Again in this case we\nare led to look upon the piece as a garbled survival of some heathen\nform of ritual. The ass, however, was not known in Western Europe till a\ncomparatively late period in history. It has no common Aryan name, and\nthe question therefore arises how it can have come to be associated with\nwhat is obviously a heathen form of ritual.\n\nMannhardt, with regard to German folk-lore, pointed out that the ass was\nsubstituted in many places for the hare, which was tabu, and with which\nit shared the peculiarity of having long ears. This substitution was\nfavoured by their likeness of name: _hesel\u00een_, _heselken_. (M., p.\n412.)\n\nWe are led to inquire if the ass in Western Europe can have taken the\nplace of another animal also, and we find ourselves confronted with the\nfollowing facts:--\n\n_Dicky_ among ourselves is applied to a bird, especially to a caged (?\nperhaps a sacrificial) bird; the word Dicky is also widely applied to an\nass, properly to a he-ass.[1] The ass is often called by nicknames\nexactly like the small wild birds: Jack-ass, Betty-ass, Jenny-ass, in\nform closely correspond to Jack-daw, Magpie, and Jenny Wren of the\nfeathered tribe. The word Jack-ass moreover is applied both to the\nfour-footed beast and to a member of the feathered tribe. Nicknames\nprobably originated in the desire to conceal a creature's true identity.\n\nIn Scotland the word _cuddy_ again stands both for an ass and for some\nkinds of bird, including the hedge-sparrow and the moor-hen.[71] The\nword cuddy is said to be short for Cuthbert, but it seems to be related\nalso to cutty, an adjective applied to the wren (cf. above, p. 176,\n193), the derivation and meaning of which are uncertain.\n\n    [71] Murray's Dictionary: _Dicky_, _cuddy_, _ass_, _Jackass_.\n\nThe same overlapping of terms exists in France, where the ass is\npopularly called Martin (Ro., IV, 206, 223, 233), while the feathered\nmartins include the _martin p\u00eacheur_, kingfisher, the _martin rose_,\ngoatsucker, and the _martinets_ (Ro., II, p. 70). In Germany also, where\nno bird-chants are recorded, as far as I am aware, the expression\n_Martinsvogel_ is applied to a bird of augury of uncertain identity,\nsometimes to the redbreast (Gr., p. 946). And a current proverb has it,\n_Es ist mehr als ein Esel der Martin heisst_, \"he is more than an ass\nwho is called Martin.\" (Ro., IV, 233.) In Barmen boys parade the streets\non the eve of St. Martin's Day, asking for contributions, and, if they\nreceive nothing, they sing:--\n\n    M\u00e4ten ist ein Esel, der zieht die Kuh am Besel.      (B., p. 363.)\n\n    \"Martin is an ass, he pulls the cow by the tail,\" that is, \"he has\n    no money in his purse.\"\n\nThese various survivals support the view that the ass in Western Europe\nsomehow got mixed up with the birds. When and how this came about is\ndifficult to tell. The representatives of Christianity were in a\nposition to accept the feast of the ass, since the ass figured largely\nin the Old and the New Testaments. But we do not know if they\nconsciously did so, and introduced the ass in the place of another\nanimal, or if they took over an animal which had before their time been\naccepted in the place of a bird.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nTHE ROBIN AND THE WREN\n\n\nOne side of the subject remains to be discussed. It is the relation of\nthe robin to the wren. Many custom rhymes, legends, and nursery pieces\nname the birds together, and they sometimes enlarge on the jealousy of\nthe birds, and on the fact that their presence was reckoned mutually\nexclusive. Perhaps the birds, looked at from one point of view, were\naccounted the representatives of the seasons, and, as such, came and\nwent by turns.\n\nThe robin and the wren are mentioned together in several custom rhymes,\nsome of which mention other birds also:--\n\n    The robin redbreast and the wren\n    Are God's cock and hen.      (1826, p. 292.)\n\nIn Warwickshire they say:--\n\n    The robin and the wren\n    Are God Almighty's cock and hen;\n    The martin and the swallow\n    Are God Almighty's bow and arrow.      (1870, p. 188.)\n\nIn Lancashire this takes the form:--\n\n    The robin and the wren are God's cock and hen;\n    The spink and the sparrow are the de'il's bow and arrow.\n\n    (1892, p. 275.)\n\nThis association of the sparrow with the bow and arrow reappears in some\nnursery pieces, as we shall see later.\n\nThe robin and the wren are coupled together also in the following rhyme\nfrom Scotland, which has found its way into some modern English nursery\ncollections:--\n\n    The robin redbreast and the wran\n    Coost out about the parritch pan;\n    And ere the robin got a spune\n    The wran she had the parritch dune.      (1870, p. 188.)\n\n_The Robin's Testament_ already quoted concludes with anger on the part\nof the robin at the entrance of the wren, whose appearance heralds his\ndeath. Other pieces describe the inverse case, when the wren dies in\nspite of the robin's efforts to keep her alive. This conception forms\nthe subject of a Scottish ballad called _The Birds' Lamentation_, which\nis included in the collection of David Herd of the year 1776. It\ncontains the following lines:--\n\n    The Wren she lyes in Care's bed, in meikle dule and pyne, O!\n    Quhen in came Robin Red-breast wi' sugar saps and wine, O!\n    --Now, maiden will ye taste o' this?--It's sugar saps and wine, O!\n    Na, ne'er a drap, Robin, (I wis); gin it be ne'er so fine, O!\n    --Ye're no sae kind's ye was yestreen, or sair I hae mistae'n, O!\n    Ye're no the lass, to pit me by, and bid me gang my lane, O!\n    And quhere's the ring that I gied ye, ye little cutty quean, O!\n    --I gied it till an ox-ee [tomtit], a kind sweat-heart o' myne, O!\n\nThe same incidents are related of real birds in the toy-book called _The\nLife and Death of Jenny Wren_, which was published by Evans in 1813 \"for\nthe use of young ladies and gentlemen:--\n\n    A very small book at a very small charge,\n    To teach them to read before they grow large.\"\n\nThe story begins:--\n\n    Jenny Wren fell sick upon a merry time,\n    In came Robin Redbreast and brought her sops and wine;\n    Eat well of the sop, Jenny, drink well of the wine.\n    Thank you Robin kindly, you shall be mine.\n\nThe wren recovered for a time, but her behaviour was such as to rouse\nthe robin's jealousy. She finally died, and the book concludes with the\nlines:--\n\n    Poor Robin long for Jenny grieves,\n    At last he covered her with leaves.\n    Yet near the place a mournful lay\n    For Jenny Wren sings every day.\n\nIt was an ancient superstition that the robin took charge of the dead,\nespecially of those who died by inadvertence.\n\nThe proposed union of the robin and the wren forms the subject also of a\nstory that was taken down from the recitation of Mrs. Begg, the sister\nof the poet Burns. She was under the impression that her brother\ninvented it. It describes how the robin started on Yule morning to sing\nbefore the king, and of the dangers, in the form of Poussie Baudrons, of\nthe grey greedy gled, of Tod Lowrie, and of others, he encountered by\nthe way. He sang before the king and queen, who gave him the wee wren\nto wed. Then he flew away and sat on a briar (1870, p. 60). There is no\nsequel.\n\nIn all these stories the wren is described not as a cock-bird, but as a\nhen-bird, which is incompatible with the idea of kingship that is\nexpressed by the bird-chants. Perhaps the idea of the kingship is the\nolder one. For in the legend told in the Isle of Man as an explanation\nof the custom of killing the wren, this bird is described as a fairy,\nthat is, of the female sex, and legends that are intended to account for\na custom are necessarily of a more recent date than the custom which\nthey explain. The wren in Normandy also is sometimes spoken of as a\nhen-bird, _La poulette du bon Dieu_, God Almighty's hen. One\ncustom-rhyme current in Scotland directly associates the bird with the\nLady of Heaven:--\n\n    Malisons, Malisons, mair than tens,\n    That harry the Ladye of Heaven's hen.      (1870, p. 186.)\n\nThere is another toy-book relating the proposed union of the robin and\nthe wren, which leads up to the death of the robin. It is called _The\nCourtship, Marriage, and Picnic Dinner of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren_,\nand was first issued by Harris in 1810. In this book other animals took\npart in the ceremony. The cock blew the horn, the parson rook carried\nMother Hubbard's book, the lark sang, the linnet, the bullfinch, and the\nblackbird all officiated. A picnic dinner followed, to which the raven\nbrought walnuts, the dog Tray brought a bone, the owl brought a sack of\nwheat, the pigeon brought tares, and so forth. The enjoyment was at its\nheight--\n\n    When in came the cuckoo and made a great rout,\n    He caught hold of Jenny and pulled her about.\n    Cock robin was angry and so was the sparrow,\n    Who now is preparing his bow and his arrow.\n    His aim then he took, but he took it not right,\n    His skill was not good, or he shot in a fright,\n    For the cuckoo he missed, but cock robin he killed,\n    And all the birds mourned that his blood was so spilled.\n\nThe cuckoo, it will be remembered, was the bird of the god Thor, and the\nenemy of matrimonial bliss.\n\nThis story of a bird-wedding does not stand alone. From France and Spain\ncome a number of pieces which similarly describe the proposed wedding\nof birds and end in disaster. In Languedoc one is called _Lou mariage de\nl'alouseta_, \"the wedding of the lark.\" It begins:--\n\n    Lou pinson et l'alouseta\n    Se ne voulien marid\u00e0.      (M. L., p. 490.)\n\n    \"The spink (_or_ finch) and the lark intended to marry. On the first\n    day of the wedding they had nothing to eat.\"\n\nA gadfly on his neck brought a loaf, a gnat brought a cask, a butterfly\na joint, and a sparrow brought grapes. The flea jumped out of the bed\nand began to dance, and the louse came forth from the rags and seized\nthe flea by the arm. Then the rat came out of his hole and acted as\ndrummer, when in rushed the cat and devoured him.\n\nExactly the same story is told in much the same form in Catalan of _La\ngolondrina y el pinzon_, \"The goldfinch and the swallow,\" but the verses\non the gay rat and the destructive cat are wanting (Mi., p. 398). Other\nversions have been recorded in the centre and in the North of France,\none of which was printed in 1780 (Ro., II, 180, 212; D. B., p. 106).\nFrom thence the song was probably carried to Canada, where it reappears\nas _Pinson et Cendrouille_, \"The finch and the nuthatch\" (G., p. 275).\nHere the ending is that the rat played the fiddle, and the cat rushed in\nand spoilt the fun.\n\nThese stories of bird-weddings should be compared with one which\ndescribes how the flea and the louse combined to set up house together\nand came to grief. It is told in Catalan of _La purga y er piejo_ (Ma.,\np. 74). In Languedoc the same story is told of _La fourmiho e le\npouzouil_, \"the ant and the flea\" (M. L., p. 508). In form these pieces\nclosely correspond with our bird-wedding. There is the same communal\nfeast to which the various guests bring contributions, and the same\nrevelry which ends in disaster.\n\nThis Spanish piece on the housekeeping of the louse and the flea has a\nfurther parallel in the story called _La\u00fcschen und Fl\u00f6hchen_, \"The louse\nand the flea,\" which is included in the fairy tales of Grimm (No. 30).\nBut the German story is told in the cumulative form of recitation, and\nits contents are yet one stage more primitive. There is nothing on a\nwedding celebration. The louse and the flea set up house together, and\nbegan by brewing beer in an eggshell. The flea fell in by inadvertence\nand was drowned. Then the louse set up the wail. In this the door joined\nby jarring, the broom by sweeping, the cart by running, the dungheap by\nreeking, the tree by shaking, till they were all carried away by the\nbrook.\n\nMuch the same story, told in cumulative form also and equally primitive,\nis current among ourselves. It seems to be old (1890, p. 454), and is\ncalled _Tittymouse and Tattymouse_. We read how Tittymouse and\nTattymouse went a-leasing (gleaning), and set about boiling a pudding.\nTitty fell in and was scalded to death. Then Tatty set up the wail. It\nwas joined by the stool that hopped, the besom that swept, the window\nthat creaked, the tree that shed its leaves, the bird that moulted its\nfeathers, and the girl that spilt the milk. Finally an old man fell from\na ladder, and all were buried beneath the ruins. Tittymouse and\nTattymouse are usually represented as mice, but the word tittymouse is\nalso allied to titmouse, a bird. Titty and Tatty are among the many\nrhyming compounds of which the meaning is no longer clear.\n\nThe conceptions on which these pieces are based all recall primitive\ncustoms. The wedding is a communal feast to which contributions of\ndifferent kinds are brought by the several guests. Again the death of\none individual draws that of a number of others in its wake. On\ncomparing these various pieces, we find that those which are set in\ncumulative form, judging from their contents, are the more primitive.\nThis supports the view that the cumulative form of recitation represents\nan earlier development in literature than rhymed verse.\n\nThe toy-book on _The Courtship of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren_ attributes\nthe robin's death to the carelessness of the sparrow. The sparrow is\nalso described as causing the death of the robin in the knell of the\nrobin, which is one of our oldest and most finished nursery pieces. The\ndeath of the robin is a calamity, his blood is treasured, he is buried\nwith solemnity. In the collections of 1744 and 1771 the knell stands as\nfollows:--\n\n    1.  Who did kill Cock Robbin?\n          I said the sparrow, with my bow and arrow,\n        And I did kill Cock Robbin.\n\n    2.  Who did see him die?\n          I said the fly, with my little eye,\n        And I did see him die.\n\n    3.  And who did catch his blood?\n          I said the fish, with my little dish,\n        And I did catch his blood.\n\n    4.  And who did make his shroud?\n          I said the beetle, with my little needle,\n        And I did make his shroud.\n\n_The Death and Burial of Cock Robin_ formed the contents of a toy-book\nthat was printed by Marshall in London, by Rusher in Banbury, and\nothers. One of the early toy-books belonging to Pearson, which are\nexhibited at South Kensington Museum, contain verses of this knell with\nquaint illustrations. The toy-book published by Marshall which contains\nthe knell, is described as \"a pretty gilded toy, for either girl or\nboy.\" It leads up to the knell by the following verse, which occurs\nalready as a separate rhyme in the nursery collection of 1744:--\n\n    Little Robin Redbreast sitting on [_or_ sat upon] a pole,\n      Niddle noddle [_or_ wiggle waggle] went his head [tail]\n    And poop went his hole.\n\nThis is followed by the picture of a dead robin with the words:--\n\n    Here lies Cock Robin, dead and cold,\n    His end this book will soon unfold.\n\nWe then read the four verses of the knell already cited, and further\nverses on the owl so brave that dug the grave; the parson rook who read\nthe book; the lark who said amen like a clerk; the kite who came in the\nnight; the wren, both cock and hen; the thrush sitting in a bush; the\nbull who the bell did pull.\n\nIn another toy-book the magpie takes the place of the fly, and from the\nillustration in a third one we gather that not a bull but a bullfinch\noriginally pulled the bell.\n\nThe toy-book published by Marshall concludes:--\n\n    All the birds of the air\n    Fell to sighing and sobbing,\n    When they heard the bell toll\n    For poor Cock Robin.      (Reprint 1849, p. 169 ff.)\n\nThe antiquity of this knell of the robin is apparent when we come to\ncompare it with its foreign parallels, which are current in France,\nItaly, and Spain. In these rhymes also, those who undertake the office\nof burial are usually birds, but the nature of him whose death is\ndeplored remains obscure.\n\nIn Germany he is sometimes _Sporbrod_, sometimes _Ohnebrod_, that is\n\"breadless\" (Sim., p. 70), a term which may indicate a pauper. The piece\ncurrent in Mecklenburg is simpler in form than ours.\n\n    Wer is dod?--Sporbrod.\n    Wenn ehr ward begraben?\n    Oewermorgen abend, mit sch\u00fcffeln un spaden,\n    Kukuk is de kulengr\u00e4ver,\n    Adebor is de klokkentreder,\n    Kiwitt is de sch\u00e4\u016dler,\n    Mit all sin schwester un br\u00e4\u016dder.      (W., p. 20.)\n\n    \"Who is dead?--Breadless. When will he be buried?--On the eve of the\n    day after to-morrow, with spades and with shovels. The Cuckoo is the\n    gravedigger, the Stork is the bell-ringer, the Pee-wit acts as\n    scholar, with all his sisters and brothers.\"\n\nThe knell that is recited in Languedoc is called _Las Campanas_, the\nbells. One version begins:--\n\n    Balalin, balalan, La campana de Sant Jan\n    Quau la sona? Quau la dis?--Lou curat de Sant-Denis.\n    Quau sona lous classes?--Lous quatre courpatrasses.\n    Quau porta la caissa?--Lou cat ambe sa maissa.\n    Quau porta lon do\u00f9?--Lou p\u00e8irou.[72]\n\n    \"Ding dong, the bell of St. John.--Who tolls it and who says\n    (mass)?--The priest of St. Denis.--Who sounds the knell?--The four\n    ravens.--Who bears the coffin?--The cat in its maw.--Who wears\n    mourning?--The partridge.\"\n\n    [72] (M. L., p. 225.)\n\nAnother version preserves the trait that the individual's possessions\ntook part in the mourning:\n\n    \"Balanli, balanlau, the bells near Yssingeaux are all tolled through\n    April. Who is dead?--Jan of the Gardens (dos Ort). Who carries him\n    to his grave?--His great coat. Who follows him?--His hat. Who mourns\n    for him?--The frog. Who sings for him?--The toad. Who forsakes\n    him?--His sabots. Who says so?--Jan the less. What shall we give\n    him?--The legs of a dog. Where shall we find them?--Near Chalen\u00e7ons\n    there are plenty.\" (M. L., p. 232.)\n\n_Jan dos Ort_ in other versions of the knell is called _Jean le Porc_,\nalso _le p\u00e8re du jardin_; and in the latter case, _le p\u00e8re petit_, the\nlittle father, pronounces him dead, and receives dogflesh (M. L., pp.\n226, 230).\n\nThe Italian knell is quite short:--\n\n    Who is dead?--Beccatorto.\n    Who sounds the knell?--That rascal of a punch.\n\n    (Quel birbon de pulcinella, Ma., p. 133.)\n\nThe Spanish knell is not much longer:--\n\n    ?Qui\u00e9n s'ha muerto.--Juan el tuerto.\n    ?Qui\u00e9n lo llora.--La se\u00f1ora.\n    ?Qui\u00e9n lo canta.--Su garganta.\n    ?Qui\u00e9n lo chilla.--La chiquilla.      (Ma., p. 62.)\n\n    \"Who is dead?--Crooked Juan. Who mourns for him?--The swallow. Who\n    sings for him?--His coat. Who calls for him?--The quail.\"\n\nVictor Smith, with reference to these chants, enlarged on the possible\nnature of Jan, or Juan, of the French and Spanish versions, who is\ncalled also \"the father of the gardens,\" and who was given dogflesh to\neat. In illustration he adduced the legend of the god Pan, who was\nlooked upon as the father of gardens, and who was supposed to eat\ndogflesh (M. L., p. 227). Dogs were sacrificed at the Lupercalia which\nwere kept in April, and the month of April is actually mentioned in one\nof the French chants. If this interpretation is correct, the knells on\nJan current in France and Spain preserve the remembrance, not of a bird\nsacrifice, but of a dog sacrifice. But the Italian name Beccatorto is\nprobably crossbill (R., II, 160), and birds appear as the chief mourners\nin most of the foreign chants, as they do in ours.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nCONCLUDING REMARKS\n\n\nIn conclusion it seems well to glance back over the ground that has been\ntraversed, and to consider what information can be gleaned from the\ncomparative study of nursery rhymes.\n\nAt the outset we saw that our nursery collections consist of a variety\nof pieces of diverse origin. Many rhymes are songs or snatches of songs\nwhich have no direct claim on the attention of the student of folk-lore.\nOther pieces are relatively new, although they contain names that are\nold. Thus, Old King Cole and Mother Hubbard are names that go some way\nback in history; the story of the woman who fell asleep out of doors and\nforgot her identity, preserves an old tradition; Jack and Jill are\nconnected with Scandinavian mythology; while Tommy Linn, the hero of\nseveral nursery pieces, figures in romantic ballad literature also.\n\nA more primitive form of literature is represented by traditional\ndancing and singing games, to which many nursery rhymes can be traced.\nThese games in several instances preserve the remains of celebrations\nthat date from heathen times. In the last instance they survive as a\ndiversion of the ballroom. Incidental allusions enabled us to establish\nthe relation between the Cotillon, the Cushion Dance, and the game of\n_Sally Waters_. This latter game preserves features of a marriage rite,\nwhich was presided over by a woman who was addressed as mother. The\nwords used in the game and the rite suggest that there may be some\nconnection between the game of _Sally Waters_ and the name of Sul, the\nlocal goddess of the waters at Bath.\n\nOther traits preserved in the games of _The Lady of the Land_, _Little\nDog I call you_, and _Drop Handkerchief_, probably date from the same\nperiod. For the comparison of these games with their foreign parallels\nenabled us to realize that, in their case also, it is a question of a\npresiding mother, who, in some of the German versions of the game, was\naddressed by the name of a heathen mother divinity. _Engelland_, that is\nBabyland, and the disabled condition of the human mother, which are\nmentioned in these games, reappear in the ladybird rhymes. In these we\nalso come across Ann or Nan, who reappears under the same name in the\ncorresponding rhymes of Switzerland and Swabia.\n\nOn comparing our rhymes with those of other countries, we find that the\nsame thoughts and conceptions are usually expressed in different\ncountries in the same form of verse. The words that are used, both in\nEngland and abroad, in dancing and singing games, in custom rhymes like\nthose addressed to the ladybird, and in riddle-rhymes such as that in\n_Humpty-Dumpty_, are set in short verse that depends on tail rhyme for\nits consistency. Distinct from them are the pieces that depend for their\nconsistency on repetition and cumulation. Some of these are obviously\nintended to convey instruction, like the chants of Numbers and of the\nCreed. Others appear to be connected with the making and unmaking of\nspells. Again in this case, the parallel pieces of different countries\nare set in the same form of verse.\n\nAnother class of rhymes is represented by the chants on bird sacrifice.\nThose current among ourselves depend for their consistency on repetition\nonly, while those current abroad which present details on the plucking\nand the dividing up of the bird, are related in cumulative form. Perhaps\nthe repetition which preserves the simpler facts of the custom is the\nolder form of recitation. The kingship of the wren which is accepted\nthroughout Europe, and which dates some way back in history, in some of\nthese chants is connected with the kingship of the man who was engaged\nin the hunt. Possibly the custom of killing the king was overlaid by the\ncustom of sacrificing a bird in his stead.\n\nThe reverence felt for the wren is equalled among ourselves by the\nreverence felt for the robin, whose knell remains one of our finest, and\nperhaps one of our oldest nursery pieces. It is set in dialogue form,\nwhich seems to have been generally associated with bells, but which was\na primitive manner of recitation, as we gather from other pieces.\n\nThe information which can be derived from nursery rhymes corroborates\nwhat has been collected elsewhere concerning different stages of social\nhistory in the heathen past. Some pieces preserve allusions which carry\nus back to customs that prevailed during the so-called mother age;\nothers, quite distinct from them, are based on conceptions that may have\ntaken rise before man tilled the soil. The spread of European nursery\nrhymes, taken in the bulk, appears to be independent of the usual racial\ndivisions. Some of our rhymes, such as that of the ladybird and _Humpty\nDumpty_ have their closest parallels in Germany and Scandinavia; others,\nsuch as the bird-chants and the animal weddings, have corresponding\nversions in France and in Spain. Moreover, some of the ideas that are\nexpressed in rhymes carry us beyond the confines of Europe. The chafer\nwas associated with the sun in Egypt, the broken egg engaged the\nattention of the thinking in Tibet.\n\nThus the comparative study of the nursery rhymes of different countries\nthrows light on allusions which otherwise remain obscure, and opens up a\nnew vista of research. The evidence which is here deduced from some\nrhymes, and the interpretation put on others, may be called into\nquestion. Much remains to be said on the subject. But the reader will, I\nthink, agree that nursery rhymes preserve much that is meaningful in\nitself, and worth the attention of the student.\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF FOREIGN COLLECTIONS\n\n\nThe following foreign collections are referred to by initials in the\ntext:--\n\n    A. Archivio Storrco per lo Studio delle tradizione popolari.\n    Articles by Canizzaro, I, 1882; by Wesselowski, II, 1883, _etc._\n\n    Br. _Birlinger_: Nimm mich mit, 1871.\n\n    Bo. _Boehme, F. M._: Geschichte des Tanzes, 1884.\n\n    B. _Bujeaud, I._: Chants et chansons des provinces de l'Ouest, 1895.\n\n    C. P. Corpus Poet. Borealium, ed. Vigfusson and Powell, 1883.\n\n    D. _Dumersan, M._: Chansons et rondes enfantines, 1856.\n\n    Du. _Dunger, H._: Kinderlieder aus dem Vogtland, 1874.\n\n    D. B. _Durieux et Bruyelles_: Chants et chansons du Cambr\u00e9sis, 1864.\n\n    E. _Erk, L._: Deutscher Liederhort, 1856.\n\n    F. _Frischbier, H._: Preussische Volksreime und Spiele, 1867.\n\n    G. _Gagnon, E._: Chansons pop. du Canada, 1865.\n\n    Gr. _Grimm, J._: Deutsche Mythologie, reprint 1875.\n\n    Gt. _Grundtvig_: Gamle Danske Minder, 1854-6.\n\n    H. _Handelmann_: Volks--und Kinderspiele aus Schleswig Holstein,\n    1862.\n\n    H. V. _Hersart de la Villemarqu\u00e9_: Barzas Breis, 1867.\n\n    L. _Luzel, F. M._: Chansons de la Basse Bretagne, 1890.\n\n    M. _Mannhardt_: Germanische Mythen, 1858.\n\n    Ma. _Marin, Rodriguez_: Rimas Infantiles, 1882.\n\n    Me. _Meier, Ernst_: Kinderreime und Kinderspiele aus Schwaben, 1851.\n\n    Mi. _Mila y Fontanals_: Romancerillo Catalan, 1882.\n\n    Mo. _Morlidas_: Grande Encyclopedie des Jeux.\n\n    M. L. _Montel et Lambert_: Chants populaires du Languedoc, 1880.\n\n    N. _Newell, W. W._: Songs of American Children, 1884.\n\n    _N. & Q._ Notes and Queries.\n\n    R. _Rochholz_: Alemannisches Kinderlied und Spiel, 1859.\n\n    Ro. _Rolland_: Faune populaire, 1876-83.\n\n    S. _Schleicher_: Volksth\u00fcmliches aus Sonneberg, 1858.\n\n    Sch. _Schuster, F. W._: Siebenb\u00fcrg-s\u00e4chs. Volkslieder, 1856.\n\n    Sim. _Simrock_: Das deutsche Kinderbuch.\n\n    St. _St\u00f6ber_: Els\u00e4ssisches Volksb\u00fcchlein, 1842.\n\n    V. _Vemaleken_: Spiele und Reime aus Oesterreich, 1873.\n\n    W. _Wossidlo_: Volksth\u00fcmliches aus Mecklenburg, 1885.\n\n\n\n\nALPHABETICAL INDEX\n\n\n  A\n                        PAGES\n\n  A cat came fiddling out of a barn, 34, 35\n\n  A frog he would a-wooing ride, 29, 31\n\n  A new dyall (_Christmas carol_), 149\n\n  A was an apple pie, 14\n\n  A was an archer who shot at a frog, 37\n\n  A whistling woman and a crowing hen (_Proverb rhyme_), 73 n.\n\n  Ann _or_ Nan, 97, 217\n\n  As high as a castle, 108\n\n  As round as an apple, 107\n\n  Ass, chants on the, 193 ff.\n\n\n  B\n\n  Babbity Bowster (_a game_), 60\n\n  Babyland, 79 ff., 100, 217\n\n  Balalin, balalan (_French knell_), 212\n\n  Balanli, balanlau (_French knell_), 213\n\n  Ballads and rhymes, 44 ff.\n\n  Bells, 54, 56, 212, 213\n\n  Bird sacrifice, 185 ff.\n\n  Bishop, bishop, barnabee, 94\n\n  Blackbird, sacrificed and eaten, 189\n\n  Bless you, bless you, bonnie bee, 95\n\n  Boule, boule (_French riddle_), 107\n\n  Bryan o'Lin had no watch to put on, 53\n\n  Bufe (_name of a dog_), 88\n\n  Burdens and their origin, 29\n\n  Burnie bee, burnie bee, 94\n\n  Buy this of me (_a game_), 139\n\n\n  C\n\n  Can, caer, Killor\u00e9 (_Breton chant_), 152\n\n  Can you make me a cambrick shirt?, 49\n\n  Chants of Numbers, 134 ff.\n\n  Chants of the Creed, 142 ff.\n\n  Chi \u00e8 morto? (_Italian knell_), 213\n\n  Club Fist (_a game_), 127\n\n  Collections of English Nursery Rhymes, 11\n\n  Collections of foreign rhymes, 221\n\n  Come, and I will sing you (_a chant_), 159\n\n  Come, dance a jig, 33\n\n  Cotillon (_a dance_), 58, 216\n\n  Country dances, 57 ff.\n\n  Cuddy (_bird and ass_), 197\n\n  Cumulative pieces 115, ff.\n\n  Cushion Dance, 60, 216\n\n  Custom Rhymes, 89 ff.\n\n\n  D\n\n  Das Englein aufziehen (_German game_), 83\n\n  Das Haus vom h\u00f6lzernen Mann (_German piece_), 124\n\n  D\u00e9pecer le merle (_French chant_), 188\n\n  Der har du det haus (_Scandinavian piece_), 122\n\n  Dic mihi quid unus (_Latin chant_), 145\n\n  Dicky (_bird and ass_), 197\n\n  Ding dong bell, 54\n\n  Dipping, custom of, 69\n\n  Doctor Sacheverel, 14\n\n  Dog, character in games, 80, 85\n\n  Dog sacrifice, 214\n\n  Dowdy cow, dowdy cow, 94\n\n  Drop handkerchief (_a game_), 87, 216\n\n  Dump (_a game_), 126\n\n\n  E\n\n  Early references to rhymes, 13 ff.\n\n  Echod me jodea (_a Hebrew chant_), 143\n\n  Eggs in religious belief, 104 ff.\n\n  Eight ships on the main, 140\n\n  Eight was the crooked straight (_a chant_), 161\n\n  Enfille aiguille (_French dance_), 56\n\n  Engelland (_in German folk-lore_), 84, 217\n\n  Es ist ein Baum (_German piece_), 125\n\n  Es ist etwas in meinem Haus (_Swabian riddle_), 108\n\n  Es kam eine Maus gegangen (_German piece_), 123\n\n  Es schickt der Herr (_German piece_), 125\n\n\n  F\n\n  Father Hubbard, 42\n\n  Fire, fire, says the town crier, 44\n\n  First appearance of rhymes in print, 1 ff.\n\n  Flieg, k\u00e4fer, flieg (_German rhyme_), 100\n\n  Fly, ladybird, fly, 94\n\n  Frau Gode, Rose, Sole (_German divinities_), 81 ff.\n\n  Fuzzy-Muzzy chorus, 175\n\n\n  G\n\n  Gabriel hounds, 87, 165\n\n  God Almighty's colly cow, 95\n\n  Goldch\u00e4ber fl\u00fcg up (_Swiss rhyme_), 97\n\n  Gossen och Geten N\u00e4ppa (_Swedish piece_), 130\n\n  Gowden bug, gowden bug, 93\n\n  Great A, little a, Bouncing B, 9\n\n  Great Lord Frog and Lady Mouse (_a song_), 31\n\n  Green grow the rushes, O (_a chant_), 158\n\n  Guid day now, bonnie Robin (_a ballad_), 192\n\n\n  H\n\n  Heathen chants of the Creed, 152 ff.\n\n  Hebrew chants, 119, 143\n\n  Hemp seed I set, 56\n\n  Here comes a woman from Babyland, 79\n\n  Herrgotspferdchen (_German rhyme_), 102\n\n  Hick-a-more, Hack-a-more, 113\n\n  Highty, tighty, paradighty, 113\n\n  Himmelsk\u00fcchlein (_German rhyme_), 95\n\n  Hitty Pitty within the wall, 112\n\n  Hiuki and Bill (_heathen divinities_), 20\n\n  Hoddy doddy with a round body, 111\n\n  H\u00fcmpelken P\u00fcmpelken (_German rhyme_), 106\n\n  Humpty Dumpty (_a drink_), 109\n\n  Humpty Dumpty (_a game_), 110\n\n  Humpty Dumpty sate on the wall, 91, 105, 217, 219\n\n  Hunting the wren, 173 ff.\n\n\n  I\n\n  I had a little dog whose name was Buff, 88\n\n  I have a little dog and it won't bite you, 87\n\n  I'll sing you one, oh! (_a song_), 158, 160\n\n  I won't be my father's Jack, 22\n\n  Il sortait un rat (_French piece_), 123\n\n  In those twelve days, in those twelve days (_a carol_), 149\n\n  It was a frog in the well (_a song_), 29\n\n\n  J\n\n  Jack and Gill went up the hill, 20 ff., 215\n\n  Je suis pauvre (_French game_), 81\n\n  Jenny Wren fell sick, 203\n\n  Joan Saunderson (_a dance_), 59\n\n  John Ball shot them all, 15\n\n  Johnny Armstrong killed a calf, 15\n\n  Joy, health, love, and peace (_a custom rhyme_), 181\n\n\n  K\n\n  King, King Golloway, 94\n\n  King Stephen was a worthy king (_a song_), 17\n\n  Kiss in the ring (_a game_), 67\n\n  Kit and Kitterit and Kitterit's mother, 54\n\n  Kluge Else (_German tale_), 56\n\n  Kommt ein Tonn (_German riddle_), 109\n\n\n  L\n\n  L'alouette plum\u00e9e (_French chant_), 188\n\n  La fourmiho e le pouzouil (_French piece_), 207\n\n  La golondrina y el pinzon (_Spanish piece_), 206\n\n  La premiere partie de la foi (_French chant_), 136\n\n  La purga y er piejo (_Spanish piece_), 207\n\n  La Soule (_a French divinity_), 77\n\n  Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, 93\n\n  Lady cow, lady cow, fly and be gone, 93\n\n  Lady, lady landers, 94\n\n  Laughing, significance of, 80, 85\n\n  La\u00fcschen und Fl\u00f6hchen (_German tale_), 207\n\n  Lavender blue, fiddle faddle, 34\n\n  Le conjurateur et le loup (_French piece_), 131\n\n  Le merle a perdu le bec (_French chant_), 189\n\n  Le pied de b\u0153uf (_French game_), 128\n\n  Le testament de l'\u00e2ne (_French chant_), 193\n\n  Les dons de l'an (_French game_), 136\n\n  Lille Bulle (_Scandinavian riddle_), 106\n\n  Lillylow, lillylow, 113\n\n  Limping, significance of, 86\n\n  Little Dog, I call you (_a game_), 80, 85 ff., 216\n\n  Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, 14, 65\n\n  Little Mary Ester, 64\n\n  Little Miss Mopsey, 64\n\n  Little Miss Muffet, 64, 90\n\n  Little Nancy Etticoat, 113\n\n  Little Polly Flinders, 64\n\n  Little Robin Redbreast sitting on a pole, 210\n\n  Little Tom Tacket, 64\n\n  Little Tom Tucker, 65\n\n  Lou pinson et l'alouseta (_French chant_), 206\n\n  Lucy Locket lost her pocket, 15\n\n  L'y a un loup (_French chant_), 131\n\n\n  M\n\n  Malisons, malisons, mair than tens, 204\n\n  Malt or millet, 131\n\n  M\u00e4ten ist ein Esel (_German rhyme_), 198\n\n  Martin (_bird or ass_), 198\n\n  Mister Chinnery then, 32\n\n  Mister Moffit is a very good man, 172 n.\n\n  Mj\u00f6lnir _or_ miller, 99\n\n  Mohammedan dialogue story, 165\n\n  Mother Bunch (_a traditional name_), 27, 56\n\n  Mother Goose (_a traditional name_), 3\n\n  Mother Hubbard, 38, 215\n\n  Mother Ross, 82\n\n  My father left me three acres of land, 49\n\n  My plaid awa' (_a ballad_), 46\n\n\n  N\n\n  Nan _or_ Ann, 97, 217\n\n  Nin ziblus bec (_Breton chant_), 186\n\n  Nines, punishment by, 128\n\n  Nous la plumerons l'alouette (_French chant_), 188\n\n\n  O\n\n  O, where are you going, says Milder to Malder, 176\n\n  Old King Cole was a merry old soul, 18, 215\n\n  Old Mother Hubbard she went to the cupboard, 38, 42\n\n  One God, one baptism, and one faith (_a poem_), 149\n\n  One old Oxford oyster, 141\n\n  One, two, buckle my shoe, 162\n\n  One, two, three, four, five, 161\n\n  Our good Quane Bess, 17\n\n\n  P\n\n  Peter and Paul sat on the wall, 22\n\n  Peter Piper picked a peck, 141\n\n  Pinson et Cendrouille (_French chant_), 207\n\n  Plenty of ale to-night, my boys (_a song_), 160\n\n  Plumer le roitelet (_French chant_), 186\n\n  Pretty little girl of mine (_a game_), 67\n\n\n  Q\n\n  Qu'est-ce-qui est rond (_French riddle_), 108\n\n  Qui\u00e9n me dira (_Spanish chant_), 156\n\n  Quien s'ha muerto (_Spanish knell_), 214\n\n\n  R\n\n  Riddle-rhymes, 104 ff.\n\n  Robbin and Bobbin, two great belly'd men, 182\n\n  Robert Rowley rolled, 141\n\n  Robin and Richard were two pretty men, 183\n\n  Robin-a-Bobbin bent his bow, 183\n\n  Robin-the-Bobbin, the big-headed hen, 183\n\n  Roses are red, diddle, diddle, 33\n\n  Rowley, rowley, rattlebags, 141\n\n\n  S\n\n  Sacrificial hunting, 171 ff.\n\n  Sally Waters (_a game_), 62, 67 ff., 216\n\n  Salt, significance of, 85\n\n  Seven years' time reckoning, 51, 69 ff.\n\n  Si un cordonnier cordant (_French rhyme_), 142\n\n  Sing a song of sixpence, 190\n\n  Sing hey diddle diddle, 35\n\n  Sommerv\u00f6gele flueg aus (_German rhyme_), 96\n\n  Sprinkling the pan (_a ceremonial act_), 71\n\n  Stout (_a traditional name_), 55\n\n  Sul (_a divinity_), 75\n\n\n  T\n\n  Tam o' th' Lin and a' his bairns, 53\n\n  The birds' lamentation (_a song_), 202\n\n  The comic adventures of Mother Hubbard (_a toy-book_), 38 ff.\n\n  The courtship of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren (_a toy-book_), 205, 209\n\n  The death and burial of Cock Robin (_a toy-book_), 37, 210\n\n  The first day of Christmas (_a game_), 135\n\n  The gaping, wide-mouthed, waddling frog (_a game_), 37, 116, 138\n\n  The king sent his lady (_a game_), 135\n\n  The Lady of the Land (_a game_), 78 ff., 216\n\n  The Lady of the Mountain (_a game_), 67\n\n  The life and death of Jenny Wren (_a toy-book_), 202\n\n  The man in the moon drinks claret, 21\n\n  The old woman and her pig _or_ kid, 119 ff.\n\n  The robin and the wren, 200 ff.\n\n  The robin redbreast and the wren, 201\n\n  The Robin's Testament (_a song_), 191 ff., 201\n\n  The tragic death of A, apple pie (_a toy-book_), 37\n\n  The twelve days of Christmas (_a game_), 134 ff.\n\n  The two grey cats, 54\n\n  The wife who expects to have a good name (_a proverb_), 86\n\n  The wren she lyes in care's bed (_a song_), 202\n\n  The wren, the wren, the king of all birds, 180\n\n  The Yule days (_a game_), 135\n\n  There lived a puddy in a well (_a song_), 30\n\n  There was a bonny blade (_a song_), 25\n\n  There was a frog lived in a well (_a song_), 32\n\n  There was a little man who woo'd, 24\n\n  There was a little man who had a little gun, 25\n\n  There was a little old woman, and she lived in a shoe, 41\n\n  There was a little woman as I've heard tell, 55\n\n  There was a wee wifie (_a song_), 26\n\n  There was an old woman tossed in a blanket (_a song_), 25\n\n  There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, 100\n\n  There were two blackbirds, 22\n\n  This is the house that Jack built, 117 ff.\n\n  This ladyfly I take from the grass, 95\n\n  Three blind mice, 28, 29, 90\n\n  Tittymouse and Tattymouse (_a cumulative story_), 208\n\n  Tom Hickathrift (_a chapbook_), 99\n\n  Tommy Linn is a Scotchman born, 52, 215\n\n  Toy-books, 3, 36 ff., 202, 204\n\n  Twelve huntsmen, with horns and hounds, 139\n\n\n  U\n\n  Une femme qui siffle (_French proverb_), 73 n.\n\n\n  V\n\n  Voici la maison que Pierre a b\u00e2tie (_a French piece_), 123\n\n\n  W\n\n  Wallflowers (_a game_), 72 n.\n\n  We hunted the wren, 177\n\n  We will a' gae sing, boys (_a chant_), 157\n\n  We will go to the wood, 174\n\n  Wer is dod (_German knell_), 212\n\n  What care I how black I be, 28\n\n  What care I how fair she be (_a song_), 28\n\n  What though now opposed I be (_a song_), 28\n\n  What's in the cupboard? says Mr. Hubbard, 43\n\n  When a twister a twisting, 141\n\n  When Arthur first in court began, 17\n\n  When good King Arthur rul'd the land, 16\n\n  Where have you been to-day, Billy, my son?, 50\n\n  Whishin dance, 60\n\n  Whistle, daughter, whistle, 73\n\n  Who did kill Cock Robbin?, 210\n\n  Widdicote, widdicote (_a riddle-rhyme_), 114\n\n\n\n\nPLYMOUTH\n\nWILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS\n\n\n\n\nBY THE SAME AUTHOR\n\n\nWOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM\n  CHAPTERS ON SAINT LORE AND CONVENT LIFE BETWEEN\n  A.D. 500 AND 1500.\n\nTHE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE\n\n\nTHROUGH THE CASENTINO\n  WITH HINTS TO THE TRAVELLER\n  A COMPANION VOLUME TO THE MEDI\u00c6VAL TOWN SERIES\n\nJ. M. DENT AND CO., LONDON\n\n\nALBRECHT D\u00dcRER\n  IN THE POPULAR LIBRARY OF ART\n\nDUCKWORTH AND CO., LONDON\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:\n\n\nObvious typos and printer errors have been corrected without comment.\nOther than obvious errors, the author's spelling, grammar, and use of\npunctuation are retained as in the original publication.\n\nIn addition to obvious errors, the following changes have been made:\n\n  Pages 101 and 102: The word \"B\u0177skip/ b\u0177skips\" appears in the original\n    with an inverted breve over the y. Since this character is not\n    available in the utf-8 code lists, a variant spelling is used in\n    this text with a circumflex over the y.\n\n  Page 144: endquote removed from the phrase, \"... heavens and the\n    earth....\"\n\n  Page 154: closing parenthesis added in the phrase, \"(i.e. the\n    constellation)\"\n\n  Page 193: \"bonuie\" changed to \"bonnie\" in the phrase, \"... bonnie\n    feathers....\"\n\n  Page 205: \"it\" changed to \"its\" in the phrase, \"... was at its\n    height....\"\n\n  Page 213: closing quote added in the phrase, \"... are plenty.\" (M. L.,\n    p. 232.)","title":"Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":41706}