COMPARATIVE STUDIES
IN NURSERY RHYMES
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COMPARATIVE STUDIES
IN
NURSERY RHYMES
BY
UNA ECKENSTEIN
AUTHOR OF " WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM
There ivere more things in Mrs. Gurtons eye^ ^
Mayhap, than are dreamed of in our philosophy
C. S. CALVERLEY
LONDON
DUCKWORTH & CO.
3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1906
E3
> TO THE GENTLE READER
THE walls of the temple of King Sety at
Abydos in Upper Egypt are decorated
with sculptured scenes which represent the cult
of the gods and the offerings brought to them.
In a side chapel there is depicted the following
curious scene. A dead figure lies extended on a
bier ; sorrowing hawks surround him ; a flying
hawk reaches down a seal amulet from above.
Had I succeeded in procuring a picture of the
scene, it would stand reproduced here; for the
figure and his mourners recalled the quaint little
woodcut of a toy-book which told the tale of
the Death and Burial of Cock Robin. The sculp-
tures of Sety date from the fourteenth century
before Christ ; the knell of the robin can be traced
back no further than the middle of the eighteenth
century A.D. Can the space that lies between be
bridged over, and the conception of the dead robin
33657G
vi TO THE GENTLE READER
be linked on to that of the dead hawk ? How-
ever that may be, the sight of the sculptured
scene strengthened my resolve to place some of
the coincidences of comparative nursery lore be-
fore the gentle reader. It lies with him to decide
whether the wares are such as to make a further
instalment desirable.
23 September, 1906.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
PAGE
First appearance of Rhymes in Print 1
II.
Early References
13
III.
Rhymes and Popular Songs .
23
IV.
Rhymes in Toy-books .
36
V.
Rhymes and Ballads .
45
VI.
Rhymes and Country Dances
57
VII.
The Game of ^' Sally Waters"
67
VIII.
"The Lady of the Land"
. 78
IX.
Custom Rhymes
. 89
X.
Riddle-rhymes
. 104
XI.
Cumulative Pieces
. 115
XII.
Chants of Numbers
134
XIII.
Chants of the Creed .
143
XIV.
Heathen Chants of the Creed
152
XV.
Sacrificial Hunting .
171
XVI.
Bird Sacrifice
185
XVII.
The Robin and the Wren
200
i\llL
Concluding Remarks .
215
List of Foreign Collections .
221
Alphabetical Index
223
. . . To my gaze the phantoms of the Past,
The cherished fictions of my boyhood, rise:
The House that Jack built — and the Malt that lay
Within the House — the Bat that ate the Malt —
The Cat, that in that sanguinary way
Punished the poor thing for its venial fault —
The Worrier-Dog — the Cow with ci'umpled horn—
And then — ah yes ! and then — the Maiden all forlorn !
0 Mrs. Gurton — {may I call thee Gammer ?)
Thou more than mother to my infant mind !
1 loved thee better than I loved my grammar —
/ used to wonder v)hy the Mice were blind,
And who was gardener to Mistress Mary,
And what — / don't know still — was meant by "quite
contrary." C. S. C.
The dates that stand after the separate rhymes refer to the list of
English collections on p. 11 ; the capital letters in brackets refer to
thp list of books on p. 221.
COMPARATIVE STUDIES
IN NURSERY RHYMES
CHAPTER I
FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES
IN PRINT
THE study of folk-lore has given a new
interest to much that seemed insignificant
and trivial. Among the unheeded possessions
of the past that have gained a fresh value are
nursery rhymes. A nursery rhyme I take to be
a rhyme that was passed on by word of mouth
and taught to children before it was set down
in writing and put into print. The use of the
term in this application goes back to the early
part of the nineteenth century. In 1834 John
Gawler, afterwards Bellenden Ker, published the
first volume of his Essay on the Archaiology of
2 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Popular English Phrases and Nursery Rhymes,
a fanciful production. Prior to this time nursery
rhymes were usually spoken of as nursery songs.
The interest in these "unappreciated trifles
of the nursery,'''' as Rimbault called them, was
aroused towards the close of the eighteenth
century. In a letter which Joseph Ritson wrote
to his little nephew, he mentioned the collection
of rhymes known as Mother Goose'^s Melody, and
assured him that he also would set about collecting
rhymes.^ His collection of rhymes is said, in the
Dictionary of National Biography, to have been
published at Stockton in 1783 under the title Gam-
mer Gurton''s Garland, A copy of an anonymous
collection of rhymes published by Christopher
and Jennett at Stockton, which is called Gammer
Gurton''s Garland or the Nursery Parnassus, is
now at the British Museum, and is designated
as a " new edition with additions.*" It bears no
name and no date, but its contents, which con-
sist of over seventy rhymes, agree with parts
1 and 2 of a large collection of nursery rhymes,
1 Letters of Joseph BUson, edited by his Nephew, 1833.
27 AprU, 1781.
FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES 3
including over one hundred and forty pieces,
which were published in 1810 by the publisher
R. Triphook, of 37 St. James Street, London,
who also issued other collections made by Ritson.
The collection of rhymes known as Mother .
Goose's Melody^ which aroused the interest of
Ritson, was probably the toy-book which was
entered for copyright in London on 28 December,
1780. Its title was Mother Goose'' s Melody or
Sonnets for the Cradle^ and it was entered by
John Carnan, the stepson of the famous publisher
John Newbery, who had succeeded to the business
in partnership with Francis Newbery.^ Of this
book no copy is known to exist. Toy-books,
owing to the careless way in which they are
handled, are amongst the most perishable litera-
ture. Many toy-books are known to have been
issued in hundreds of copies, yet of some of these
not a single copy can now be traced.
The name Mother Goose, its connection with
nursery rhymes, and the date of issue of Mother
Goose'' s Melody^ have been the subject of some
^ Welsh, Ch., A Publisher of the Last Century y 1885,
p. 272.
4 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
• contention. Thomas Fleet, a well-known printer
of Boston, Mass., who was from Shropshire, is
said to have issued a collection of nursery rhymes
under the following title, Songs for the Nursery ^
or Mother Goose''s Melodies for Children, printed
by Thomas Fleet at his printing-house. Pudding
Lane, 1719, price two coppers.^ The existence
of this book at the date mentioned has been both
affirmed and denied.^ John Fleet Eliot, a great-
grandson of the printer, accepted its existence, and
in 1834 wrote with regard to it as follows: "It is
well known to antiquaries that more than a hun-
dred years ago there was a small book in circulation
in London bearing the name of Rhymes for the
Nurseiy or Lulla-Byes for Children, which con-
tained many of the identical pieces of Mother
Goose'^s Melodies of the present day. It con-
tained also other pieces, more silly if possible,
and some that the American types of the present
day would refuse to give off an impression. The
cuts or illustrations thereof were of the coarsest
1 Appleton, Cyclopcedia of American Biography, 1887 :
Fleet, Thomas.
2 Whitmore, W. H. , The original Mother Goose's Melody,
1892, p. 40 ff.
FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES 5
description." On the other hand, the date of
1719 in connection with the expression "two
coppers," has been declared impossible. However
this may be, no copy of the book of Fleet or of
its presumed prototype has been traced.
The name Mother Goose, which John Newbery
and others associated with nursery rhymes, may
have been brought into England from France,
where La Mere Oie was connected with the telling
of fairy tales as far back as 1650.^ La Mere Oie
is probably a lineal descendant of La Reine
Pedauque^ otherwise Berthe au grand pied^ but
there is the possibility also of the relation-
ship to Fmi Gode or Fru Gosen of German folk-
lore. We first come across Mother Goose in
England in connection with the famous puppet-
showman Robert Powell, who set up his show in
Bath and in Covent Garden, London, between
1709 and 1711. The repertory of his plays, which
were of his own composing, included Whittington
and his Cat, The Children in the Wood, Friar
Bacon and Friar Bungay, Robin Hood and Little
^ Lang, A., Perravlfs Popular Tales, 1888. Introduction,
XXIV.
6 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
John^ Mother Shipton, and Mother Goose?- A
play or pantomime called Mother Goose was still
popular at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, for the actor Grimaldi obtained his
greatest success in it in 1806.^
y The name Gammer Gurton which Ritson chose
for his collection of rhymes, was traditional also.
Gammer Gurtori's Needle is the name of a famous
old comedy which dates from about the year
1566. The name also appears in connection
with nursery rhymes in a little toy-book, issued
by Lumsden in Glasgow, which is called Gammer
Gurtori's Garland of Nursery Songs, and Toby
TickWs Collection of Riddles. This is undated.
It occurs also in an insignificant little toy-book
called The TopbooJc of all, in connection with
Nurse Lovechild, Jacky Nory, and Tommy
Thumb. This book is also undated, but contains
the picture of a shilling of 1760 which is referred
to as " a new shilling."
The date at which nursery rhymes appeared in
^ Collier, J. P., Punch and Judy^ citing *'A Second Tale
of a Tub or the History of Robert Powell, the puppet-show-
man, 1715."
2 Dictionary of National Biography, Grimaldi.
FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES 7
print yields one clue to their currency at a given
period. The oldest dated collection of rhymes
which I have seen bears the title Tommy ThicrnVs
Pretty Song Book, vol. II, " sold by M. Cooper
according to Act of Parliament." It is printed
partly in red, partly in black, and on its last page
bears the date 1744. A copy of this is at the
British Museum.
Next to this in date is a toy-book which is
called TTie Famous Tommy TTiumVs Little Story-
Book, printed and sold at the printing office in*
Marlborough Street, 1771. A copy of this is in .
the library of Boston, Mass. It contains nine
nursery rhymes at the end, which have been
reprinted by Whitmore.
Other collections of rhymes issued in America
have been preserved which are reprints of earlier
English collections. Among these is Tommy
Thumbs Song Book for all Little Masters and
Misses, by Nurse Lovechild, which is dated 1788,
and was printed by Isaiah Thomas at Worcester,
Mass. A copy is at the British Museum.
Isaiah Thomas was in direct connection with
England, where he procured, in 1786, the first
8 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
fount of music type that was carried to America.
Among many toy-books of his that are reprints
from English publications, he issued Mother Goose's
Melody, Sonnets for the Cradle. A copy of this
book which is designated as the third Worcester
edition, bears the date 1799, and has been re-
printed in facsimile by Whitmore. It was prob-
ably identical with the collection of rhymes for
which the firm of Newberry received copyright
in 1780, and which was mentioned by Ritson.
Other copies of Mother Gooseys Melody, one bear-
ing the watermark of 1803, and the other issued
by the firm of John Marshall, which is undated,
are now at the Bodleian.^ Thus the name of
Mother Goose was largely used in connection
with nursery rhymes.
The second half of the eighteenth century
witnessed a great development in toy-book litera-
ture. The leader of the movement was John
Newbery, a man of considerable attainments,
who sold drugs and literature, and who came
from Reading to London in 1744, and settled in
St. Paul's Churchyard, where his establishment
1 Whitmore, loc. cit., p. 6.
FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES 9
became a famous centre of the book trade.
Among those whom he had in his employ were
Griffith Jones (d. 1786) and Oliver Goldsmith
(d. 1774), whose versatility and delicate humour
gave a peculiar charm to the books for children
which they helped to produce.
In London Newbery had a rival in John
Marshall, whose shop in Aldermary Churchyard
was known already in 1787 as the Great A, and
Bouncing B Toy Factory. This name was derived
from a current nursery rhyme on the alphabet,
which occurs as follows : —
Great A^ little a^ Bouncing B,
The cat's in the cupboard, and she can't see.
(1744, p. 22.)
A number of provincial publishers followed
their example. Among them were Thomas Saint,
in Newcastle, who between 1771 and 1774 em-
ployed the brothers Bewick ; Kendrew, in York ;
Lumsden, in Glasgow ; Drewey, in Derby ;
Rusher, in Banbury ; and others. The toy-books
that were issued by these firms have much like-
ness to one another, and are often illustrated by
the same cuts. Most of them are undated.
10 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Among the books issued by Rusher were Nursery
Rhymes from the Royal Collections^ and Nursery
Poems from the Ancient and Modern Poets ^ which
contain some 'familiar rhymes in versions which
differ from those found elsewhere.
Besides these toy-book collections, there is a
large edition of Gammer Gurton''s Garland^ of the
year 1810, which contains the collections of 1783
with considerable additions. In the year 1826,
Chambers published his Popular Rhymes of Scot-
land, which contained some fireside stories and
nursery rhymes, the number of which was con-
siderably increased in the enlarged edition of
1870. In the year 1842, Halliwell, under the
auspices of the Percy Society, issued the Nursery
Rhymes of England, which were reprinted in
1843, and again in an enlarged edition in 1846.
Three years later he supplemented this book by
a collection of Popular Rhymes which contain
many traditional game rhymes and many valuable
remarks and criticisms.
These books, together with the rhymes of
Gawler, and a collection of Old Nursery Rhymes
with Tunes, issued by Rimbault in 1864, exhaust
FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES 11
the collections of nursery rhymes which have
a claim on the attention of the student. Most
of their contents were subsequently collected and
issued by the firm of Warne & Co., under the
title Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes^ Tales and
Jingles^ of which the issue of 1890 contains over
seven hundred pieces. In the list which follows,
I have arranged these various collections of rhymes
in the order of their issue, with a few modern
collections that contain further rhymes. Of those
which are bracketed I have not succeeded in find-
ing a copy.
(1719. Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Gooses
Melodies. Printed by T. Fleet.)
1744. Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book.
c. 1760. The Topbook of all.
(1771. Tommy Thumb's Little Story Book. The nine
rhymes which this contains are cited by Whitmore.)
(1780. Mother Goose's Melody, for which copyright was
taken by John Carnan.)
c. 1783. Gammer Gurton's Garland.
1788. Tommy Thumb's Song Book, issued by Isaiah
Thomas.
(1797. Infant Institutes, cited by Halliwell and Rim-
bault.)
1799. Mother Goose's Melody. Facsimile reprint by
Whitmore.
12 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
1810. Gammer Gurton's Garland. The enlarged edition,
published by R. Triphook, 37 St. James Street, London.
1826. Chambers, Popular Rhymefi of Scotland.
1834-9. Ker, Essays on the Archaiology of Nursery
Rhymes.
1842-3. Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England.
1846. Halliwell, ditto. Enlarged and annotated
edition.
1849. Halliwell, Popular Rhymes.
1864. Rimbault, Old Nursery Rhymes with tunes.
1870. Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland. En-
larged edition.
1876. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs.
1890. Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, Tales and
Jingles. Issued by Warne & Co.
1892. Northall, G. F., English Folk Rhymes.
1894. Gomme, A. B., The Traditional Games of Eng-
land j Scotland, and Ireland.
In the studies which follow, the rhymes cited
have attached to them the date of the collection
in which they occur.
CHAPTER II
EARLY REFERENCES
INDEPENDENTLY of these collections of
nursery rhymes, many rhymes are cited in
general literature. This yields a further clue to
their currency at a given period. Thus Rimbault
describes a book called Infant Institutes^ paH the
firsts or a Nurserical Essay on the Foeti-y Lyric
and Allegorical of the Earliest Ages, 1797, per-
haps by B. N. Turner, the friend of Dr. Johnson,
which was intended to ridicule the Shakespeare
commentators {N. &' Q., 5, 3, 441). In the
course of his argument, the author cites a number
of nursery rhymes.
Again, the poet Henry Carey, about the year
1720, ridiculed the odes addressed to children by
Ambrose Philips by likening these to a jumble
of nursery rhymes. In doing so he cited the
rhymes, " Namby Pamby Jack a Dandy," " Lon-
13
14 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
don Bridge is broken down,'' "Liar Lickspit,"
"Jacky Horner,'" "See-saw,'' and others, which
nowadays are still included among the ordinary
stock of our rhymes.
Again, in the year 1671, John Eachard, the
divine, illustrated his argument by quoting the
alphabet rhyme "A was an apple pie," as far as .
" G got it."^ Instances such as these do not, how-
ever, carry us back farther than the seventeenth
century.
Another clue to the date of certain rhymes is
afforded by their mention of historical persons,
in a manner which shows that the rhyme in this
form was current at the time when the individual
whom they mention was prominently before the
eyes of the public. Halliwell recorded from oral
tradition the following verse : —
Doctor Sacheverel
Did very well.
But Jacky Dawbin
Gave him a warning. (1849, p. 12.)
The verse refers to Dr. Sacheverel, the noncon-
formist minister who preached violent sermons in
1 Eachard, Observations, etc., 1671, cited. Halliwell,
Popular Rhymes, 1849, p. 137.
EARLY REFERENCES 15
St. Paul's, pointing at the Whig members as false
friends and real enemies of the Church. John
Dolben (1662-1710) called attention to them in
the House of Commons, and they were declared
" malicious, scandalous, and seditious libels."
Again there is the rhyme : —
Lucy Locket lost her pockety
Kitty Fisher found it^
But the devil a penny was there in it_,
Except the binding round it. (1849, p. 48.)
This is said to preserve the names of two
celebrated courtesans of the reign of Charles II
(1892, p. 330).
The first name in the following rhyme is that
of a famous border hero who was hanged between
1529 and 1530 :—
Johnny Armstrong killed a calf ;
Peter Henderson got half ;
Willy Wilkinson got the head, —
Ring the bell, the calf is dead.
(1890, p. 858.)
Among the pieces collected by Halliwell, and
told in cumulative form, one begins and ends
with the following line, which recurs at the end
of every verse : —
John Ball shot them all.
16 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Halliwell is of opinion that this may refer to
the priest who took a prominent part in the
rebellion at the time of Richard II, and who was
hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1381.
But a historical name does not necessarily
indicate the date of a rhyme. For a popular
name is sometimes substituted for one that has
fallen into contempt or obscurity. Moreover, a
name may originally have indicated a person
other than the one with whom it has come to be
associated.
A familiar nursery song printed in the collec-
tion of c. 1783, and extant in several variants, is
as follows : —
"Wlien good King Arthur rul'd the land.
He was a goodly king.
He stole three pecks of barley meal
To make a bag pudding.
A bag pudding the king did make
And stuflPd it well with plumbs.
And in it put great lumps of fat,
As big as my two thumbs.
The king and queen did eat thereof,
And noblemen beside.
And what they could not eat that night
The queen next morning fry'd. (c. 1783, p. 32.)
Mr. Chappell, as cited by Halliwell, considered
EARLY REFERENCES 17
that this version is not the correct one, but the
one which begins : —
King Stephen was a worthy king
As ancient bards do sing ....
The same story related in one verse only, and
in simpler form, connects it with Queen Elizabeth,
in a version recovered in Berkshire.
Our good Quane Bess, she maayde a pudden^
An stuiFed un well o' plumes ;
And in she put gurt dabs o^ vat.
As big as my two thumbs. (1892, p. 289.)
On the face of it the last variant appears to be
the oldest.
An interesting example of a change of name,
and of the changing meaning of a name, is
afforded by the nursery song that is told of
King Arthur, and mutatis mutandis of Old King
Cole. The poem of King Arthur is as follows : —
When Arthur first in Court began
To wear long hanging sleeves.
He entertained three serving men
And all of them were thieves.
The first he was an Irishman,
The second was a Scot,
The third he was a Welshman,
And all were knaves, I wot.
18 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
The Irishman loved usquebaugh^
The Scot loved ale called blue-cap.
The Welshman he loved toasted cheese,
And made his mouth like a mouse-trap.
Usquebaugh burnt the Irishman,
The Scot was drowned in ale,
The Welshman had liked to be choked by a mouse,
But he pulled it out by the tail.
In this form the piece is designated as a glee,
and is printed in the New Lyric by Badcock of
about 1720, which contains " the best songs now
in vogue."
In the nursery collection of Halliwell of 1842
there is a parallel piece to this which stands as
follows : —
Old King Cole was a merry old soul
And a merry old soul was he ;
Old King Cole he sat in his hole.
And he called for his fiddlers three.
The first he was a miller,
The second he was a weaver.
The third he was a tailor,
And all were rogues together.
The miller he stole corn.
The weaver he stole yarn.
The little tailor stole broadcloth
To keep these three rogues warm.
EARLY REFERENCES 19
The miller was drowned in his dam,
The weaver was hung in his loom.
The devil ran away with the little tailor
With the broadcloth under his arm.
(1842, p. 3.)
Chappell printed the words of the song of Old
King Cole in several variations, and pointed out
that The Pleasant Historie of Thomas of Reading^
or the Six Worthie Yeomen of the West of 1632,
contains the legend of one Cole, a cloth-maker of
Reading at the time of King Henry I, and that
the name " became proverbial owing to the popu-
larity of this book." " There was some joke or
conventional meaning among Elizabethan drama-
tists," he says, "when they gave the name of
Old Cole, which it is now difficult to recover."
Dekker in the Satiromatrix of 1602, and Marston
in The Malcontent of 1604, applied the name to
a woman. On the other hand, Ben Jonson in
Bartholomew Fair gave the name of Old Cole to
the sculler in the puppet-play Hero and Leander
which he there introduces.^ In face of this infor-
mation, what becomes of the identity of the
supposed king ?
^ Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time, 1893,
p. 633.
20 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
On the other hand a long ancestry is now claimed
for certain characters of nursery fame who seemed
to have no special claim to attention. The
following verse appears in most collections of
rhymes, and judging from the illustration which
accompanies it in the toy-books, it refers some-
times to a boy and a girl, sometimes to two boys.
Jack and Gill went up the hill
To fetch a bottle of water ;
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Gill came tumbling after.
(c. 1783, p. 51.)
[Later collections have Jiil and paiL]
This verse, as was first suggested by Baring-
Gould,^ preserves the Scandinavian myth of the
children Hjuki and Bill who were caught up by
Mani, the Moon, as they were taking water from
the well Byrgir, and they can be seen to this day
in the moon carrying the bucket on the pole
between them.
Another rhyme cited by Halliwell from The
New Mad Tom o' Bedlam mentions Jack as being
the Man in the Moon : —
^ Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages^ 1866,
p. 189.
EARLY REFERENCES 21
The Man in the Moon drinks claret^
But he is a dull Jack-a-dandy ;
Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot.
He should learn to drink cider or brandy.
(1842, p. 33.)
According to North German belief, a man
stands in the moon pouring water out of a pail
(K., p. 304), which agrees with expressions such as
" the moon holds water." In a Norse mnemonic
verse which dates from before the twelfth cen-
tury, we read, "the pail is called Saeg, the
pole is called Simul, Bil and Hiuk carry them "
(C. P, I, 78).
The view that Jack and Jill are mythological
or heroic beings finds corroboration in the ex-
pression " for Jak nor for Gille," which occurs in
the Townley Mysteries of about the year 1460.^
By this declaration a superhuman power is called
in as witness. The same names are coupled
together also in an ancient divination rhyme used
to decide in favour of one of two courses of
action. Two scraps of paper slightly moistened
were placed on the back of the hand, and the
following invocation was pronounced before and
2 Cited Murray* 8 Dictionary : Jack.
22 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
after breathing upon them to see which would fly
first. The sport was taught by Goldsmith to Miss
Hawkins when a child, as she related to Forster.^
There were two blackbirds sat upon a hill
The one was named Jack, the other named Jill.
Fly away Jack ! Fly away Jill !
Come again Jack ! Come again Jill ! (1810, p. 45.)
The lines suggest the augur'*s action with regard
to the flight of birds. The same verse has been
recited to me in the following variation : —
Peter and Paul sat on the wall.
Fly away Peter ! Fly away Paul !
Come again Peter ! Come again Paul !
In this case the names of Christian apostles have
been substituted for heathen names which, at
the time when the names were changed, may still
have carried a suggestion of profanity. The
following rhyme on Jack and Gill occurs in an
early nursery collection : —
I won't be my father's Jack,
I won't be my mother's Gill,
I will be the fiddler's wife
And have music when I will.
T'other little tune, t'other little tune,
Pr'ythee, love, play me, t'other little tune.
(c. 1783, p. 25.)
1 Forster, J., Life of Ooldsmith, II, p. 71.
CHAPTER III
RHYMES AND POPULAR SONGS
/^^N looking more closely at the contents of
^^ our nursery collections, we find that a large
proportion of so-called nursery rhymes are songs
or snatches of songs, which are preserved also as
broadsides, or appeared in printed form in early
song-books. These songs or parts of songs were
included in nursery collections because they hap-
pened to be current at the time when these
collections were made, and later compilers trans-
ferred into their own collections what they found
in earlier ones. Many songs are preserved in a
number of variations, for popular songs are in
a continual state of transformation. Sometimes
new words are written to the old tune, and
differ from those that have gone before in all but
the rhyming words at the end of the lines ; some-
times new words are introduced which entirely
23
24 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
change the old meaning. Many variations of
songs are born of the moment, and would pass
away with it, were it not that they happen to be
put into writing and thereby escape falling into
oblivion.
In Mother Goose's Melody stands a song in six
verses which begins : —
There was a little man who wooM a little maid,
And he said : '' Little maid, will you wed, wed, wed ?
I have little more to say, will you ? Aye or nay ?
For little said is soonest mended, ded, ded.'^
(1799, p. 46.)
HalliwelPs collection includes only the first and
the fourth verse of this piece. (1842, p. 24.)
In the estimation of Chappell this song was
a very popular ballad, which was sung to the
tune of / am the Duke of Norfolk, or PauVs
Steeple} It appears also in the Fairing or Golden
Toy for Children of all Sizes and Denominations
of 1781, where it is designated as "a new love
song by the poets of Great Britain." Its words
form a variation of the song called The Dumb
Maid, which is extant in a broadside of about
1 Chappell, loe. cit., p. 770.
POPULAR SONGS 25
1678,^ and which is also included in the early
collection of Pills to Purge Melancholy of 1698-
1719. The likeness between the pieces depends
on their peculiar repeat : —
ITiere was a bonny blade bad married a country maid^
And safely conducted her homej bome^ borne ;
She was neat in every part, and she pleased bim to the
hearty
But alas^ and alas, she was dumb, dumb, dumb.
The same form of verse was used in another
nursery song which stands as follows : —
There was a little man, and he had a little gun,
And the ball was made of lead, lead, lead.
And be went to a brook to shoot at a duck.
And he hit her upon the head, head, head.
Then he went home unto his wife Joan,
To bid her a good fire to make, make, make.
To roast the duck that swam in the brook.
And he would go fetch her the drake, drake, drake.
(1744, p. 43 ; with repeat, 1810, p. 46.)
Again, a song which appears in several early ^
nursery collections is as follows : —
There was an old woman toss'd in a blanket.
Seventeen times as high as the moon ;
But where she was going no mortal could tell.
For under her arm she carried a broom.
^ Roxburgh Collection of Ballads^ IV, p. 355.
26 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
" Old womaiij old woman, old woman/' said 1,
" Whither, ah whither, ah whither, so high ? ''
To sweep the cohwehs from the sky.
And I'll be with you by and by. (c. 1783, p. 22.)
This song was a favourite with Goldsmith, who
sang it to his friends at dinner on the day when
his play The Good-natured Man was produced.^
It was one of the numerous songs that were sung
to the tune of Lilliburlero, which goes back at
least to the time of Purcell.^ A Scottish version
of this piece was printed by Chambers, which
presents some interesting variations : —
There was a wee wifie row't up in a blanket,
Nineteen times as hie as the moon ;
And what did she there I canna declare,
For in her oxter she bure the sun.
*'Wee wifie, wee wifie, wee wifie," quo* I,
'' O what are ye doin' up there sae hie ? "
'^I'm blowin' the cauld cluds out o' the sky."
" Weel dune, weel dune, wee wifie I " quo' I.
(1870, p. 34.)
I have come across a verse sung on Earl Grey
and Lord Brougham, written in 1835, which may
have been in imitation of this song : —
1 Forster, Life of Goldsmith, II, 122.
^ Chappell, loc. cit., p. 569.
POPULAR SONGS 27
Mother Bunch shall we visit the moon ?
Come, mount on your broom, Til stick on a spoon.
Then hey to go, we shall be there soon . . . etc.
Mother Bunch is a familiar character of British
folk-lore, who figures in old chapbooks as a keeper
of old-world saws, and gives advice in matters
matrimonial. One of the earliest accounts of her
is Pasqidirs Jests with the Merriments of Mother
Bunchy extant in several editions, which was
reprinted by Hazlitt in Old English Jestbooks,
1864, Vol. III. There are also Mother Bunch'' s
Cbset nexvliy broke open, Mother BundCs Golden
Fortune Teller, and Mother Bunch'^s Fairy Tales,
published by Harris in 1802. The name also
occurs in MotJier Osborne'' s Letter to the Protestant
Dissenters rendered into English Metre by Mother
Bunch, 1733. Mother Bunch, like Mother Goose
and Mother Shipton, may be a traditional name,
for Mother Bunch has survived in connections
which suggest both the wise woman and the
witch.
Another old song which figures in early nursery
collections is as follows : —
28 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
What care I how black I be ?
Twenty pounds will marry me ;
If twenty won% forty shall —
I am my mother's bomicing girl.
(c. 1783, p. 67.)
Chappell mentions a song called, What care I
howfaw she he, which goes back to before 1620.^
The words of these songs seem to have suggested
a parody addressed to Zachary Macaulay, the
father of the historian, who pleaded the cause of
the slaves. The Bill for the abolition of slavery
was passed in 1833, and the following quatrain
was sung with reference to it : —
What though now opposed I be ?
Twenty peers will carry me.
If twenty won't, thirty will.
For I'm His Majesty's bouncing Bill.
(iV^. (SfQ.,8,XII,48.)
Another so-called nursery rhyme which is no
more than a popular song has been traced some
way back in history by Halliwell, who gives it in
two variations : —
Three blind mice, see how they run !
They all run after the farmer's wife.
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Did you ever see such fools in your life —
Three blind mice ! (1846, p. 5.)
1 Chappell, Ice. cit, p. 315.
POPULAR SONGS 29
In Deuterom^lia of 1609 this stands as
follows : —
Three blind mice, three blind mice !
Dame Julian, the miller and his merry old wife
She scrapie the tripe, take thow the knife.
Among the popular songs which have found
their way into nursery collections is the one
known as A Frog he would a wooing go^ the
subject of which is old. Already in 1549 the
shepherds of Scotland sang a song called, The
Frog cam to the Myldur. In the year 1580 there
was licensed, A most strange Wedding of the Frog
and the Mouse, as appears from the books of the
Stationers' Company cited by Warton.^ The
song has been preserved in many variations with
a variety of burdens. These burdens sound like
nonsense, but in some cases the same words
appear elsewhere in a different application, which
shows that they were not originally unmeaning.
The oldest known version of the song begins : —
It was a frog in the well, humble dum, humble dumf
And the mouse in the mill, tweedle tweedle twino.^
» Warton, History of English Poetry^ 1840, III, 360.
* Chappell, loc. cit., p. 88.
30 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
The expression humble dum occurs in other
songs and seems to indicate triumph; the word
tweedle represents the sound made by the pipes.
A Scottish variation of the song begins : —
There lived a Puddy in a well. Cuddy alone, Cuddy
alone.
There lived a Puddy in a well. Cuddy alone and I.^
In the nursery collection of c. 1783 the song
begins : —
There was a frog liv'd in a well, Kitty alone, Kitty
alone.
There was a frog liv'd in a well.
There was a frog livM in a well, Kitty alone and I.
And a farce mouse in a mill.
Cock me cary, Kitty alone, Kitty alone and I.
{c. 1783, p. 4.)
The origin and meaning of this burden remains
obscure.
The antiquity and the wide popularity of these
verses are further shown by a song written in
imitation of it, called A Ditty on a High Amove
at St, James, and set to a popular tune, which
dates from before 1714. It is in verse, and
begins : —
1 Sharpe, Ch. K., Ballad Book, 1824, p. 87.
POPULAR SONGS 31
Great Lord Frog and Lady Mouse^ Crackledom hee, crack-
ledom ho,
Dwelling near St. James' house, Cocki mi chart chi;
Rode to make his court one day.
In the merry month of May,
Wlien the sun shone bright and gay, twiddle corner tweedle
dee.^
In the accepted nursery version the song
begins : —
A frog he would a wooing ride, heigho, says Rowley,
Whether his mother would let him or no.
With a roly-poly, gammon and .spinach,
Heigho, says Anthony Rowley.
This burden is said by a correspondent of
Notes and Queries to have been first inserted in
the old song as a burden by Liston. His song,
entitled The. Love-sick F?vg, with an original tune
by C. E. H., Esq. (perhaps Charles Edward Horn),
and an accompaniment by Thomas Cook, was
published by Goulding & Co., Soho Square, in
the early part of the nineteenth century (N» ^^
Q., I, 458). The burden has been traced back
to the jeu d'^espnt of 1809 on the installation of
Lord Grenville as Chancellor of Oxford, which
another correspondent quotes from memory: —
^ Chappell, loc. cit, p. 561.
32 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Mister Chinnery then an M.A. of great parts,
Sang the praises of Chancellor Grenville.
Oh ! He pleased all the ladies and tickled their
hearts.
But then we all know he's a Master of Arts.
With a rowly, powly, gammon and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Rowley. (iV. &^ Q., II, 27.)
Another variation of the song of The Frog
and the Mouse of about 1800 begins : —
There was a frog lived in a well, heigho, crowdie !
And a merry mouse in a mill, with a howdie, crowdie, etc.
{N. cS' q., II, no.)
This expression, heigho, crowdie, contains a call
to the crowd to strike up. The crowd is the
oldest kind of British fiddle, which had no neck
and only three strings. It is mentioned as a
British instrument already by the low Latin
poet Fortunatus towards the close of the sixth
century : " Chrotta Britannia canat." The instru-
ment is well known to this day in Wales as the
crtvth.
The word crowdy occurs also as a verb in one
of the numerous nursery rhymes referring to
scenes of revelry, at which folk-humour pictured
the cat making music : —
POPULAR SONGS 33
Come dance a jig to my granny's pig.
With a rowdy, rowdy, dowdy ;
Come dance a jig to my granny's pig.
And pussy cat shall crowdy. (1846, p. 141.)
This verse and a number of others go back to
the festivities that were connected with Twelfth
Night. Some of them preserve expressions in
the form of burdens which have no apparent
sense ; in other rhymes the same expressions have
the force of a definite meaning. Probably the
verses in which the words retain a meaning have
the greater claim to antiquity.
Thus among the black-letter ballads is a song^
which is found also in the nursery collection of
1810 under the designation The Lady's Song in
Leap Year,
Roses are red, diddle diddle, lavender's blue.
If you will have me, diddle diddle^ I will have you.
Lillies are white, diddle diddle, rosemary's green.
When you are king, diddk, diddle, I will be queen.
Call up your men, diddle, diddle, set them to work.
Some to the plough, diddle, diddle, some to the cart.
Some to make hay, diddle, diddle, some to cut corn.
While you and I, diddle, diddle, keep the bed warm.
(1810, p. 46.)
^ Roxburgh Collection, IV, 433.
34 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Halliwell cites this song in a form in which the
words are put into the lips of the king, and
associates it with the amusements of Twelfth
Night :—
Lavender blue, fiddle fuddle, lavender green^
When I am ^mg, fiddle fuddle j you shall be queen^ etc.
(1849, p. 237.)
The expression diddle diddle according to
Murray''s Dictionary means to make music with-
out the utterance of words, while fiddle f addle
is said to indicate nonsense, and to fiddle is to
fuss. But both words seem to go back to the
association of dancing, as is suggested by the
songs on Twelfth Night, or by the following
nursery rhyme which refers to the same cele-
bration.
A cat came fiddling out of the barn.
With a pair of bagpipes under her arm.
She could sing nothing but fiddle cum fee.
The mouse has married the humble bee ;
Pipe, cat, dance, mouse ;
We'll have a wedding in our good house.
(1842, p. 102.)
The following variation of this verse occurs in
the Nursery Songs published by Rusher : —
POPULAR SONGS 35
A cat came fiddling out of a barn^
^rith a pair of bagpipes under her arm,
She sang nothing but fiddle-de-dee j
Worried a mouse and a humble bee.
Puss began purring, mouse ran away.
And off the bee flew with a wild huzza !
In both cases the cat was fiddling, that is
moving to instrumental music without the
utterance of words, and called upon the others
to do so while she played the pipes. Her
association with an actual fiddle, however, is
preserved in the following rhyme which I cite
in two of its numerous variations : —
Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle.
The cow jumped over the moon I
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish lick't up the spoon.
(1797, cited by Rimbault.)
Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle.
The cow jumped over the moon ;
The little dog laughed to see such craft.
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
(c. 1783, p. 27.)
This rhyme also refers to the revelry which
accompanied a feast, probably the one of
Twelfth Night also.
CHAPTER IV
RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS
MANY of our longer nursery pieces first
appeared in print in the diminutive toy-
books already described, which represent so
curious a development in the literature of the
eighteenth century. These books were sometimes
hawked about in one or more sheets, which were
afterwards folded so as to form a booklet of
sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty-four pages. Others
were issued sewn and bound in brilliant covers, at
a cost of as much as a shilling or eighteen pence.
Usually each page contained one verse which was
illustrated by an appropriate cut. In the toy-
books which tell a consecutive story, the number
of verses of the several pieces seem to have been
curtailed or enlarged in order to fit the required
size of the book.
It is in these toy-books that we first come
36
RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS 37
across famous nursery pieces such as the Alphabet
which begins : —
A was an Archer, who shot at a frog,
B was a blind man, and led by a dog . . . etc.
This first appeared in A Little Booh for Little
Children by T. AV., sold at the Ring in Little
Britain. It contains a portrait of Queen Anne,
and probably goes back to the early part of the
eighteenth century.
The TopbooJc of all, already mentioned, which
is of about 1760, contains the oldest version
that I have come across of the words used
in playing The Gaping, Wide-mouthed, Waddling
Frog, each verse of which is illustrated by
a rough cut. Again, The Tragic Death of
A, Apple Pie, which, as mentioned above, was
cited as far back as 1671, forms the contents of a
toy-book issued by J. Evans about the year 1791
at the price of a farthing. The Death and Burial
of Cock Robin fills a toy -book which was
published by J. Marshall, London, and again by
Rusher at Banbury; both editions are undated.
Again The Courtship, Marriage, and Picnic
Dinner of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren form the
38 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
contents of a toy-book dated 1810 and published
by Harris, and The Life and Death of Jenny
Wren appeared in a toy-book dated 1813, issued
by J. Evans.
y Another famous toy-book contained The Comic
Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog.
This story was first issued in toy-book form by
J. Harris, " successor to E. Newbery at the
corner of St. Paul's Churchyard," probably at the
beginning of 1806, at the cost of eighteen pence.
A copy of the second edition, which mentions the
date 1 May, 1806, is at the British Museum. It
contains the words " to T. B. Esquire, m.p. county
of XX, at whose suggestion and at whose house
these notable sketches were first designed, this
volume is with all suitable deference dedicated by
his humble servant S. C. M."" The coffin which is
represented in one of the cuts in the book bears
the initials S. C. M., and the date 1804. This
inscribing of the author'^s initials on a coffin is
quite in keeping with the tone of toy-book
literature.
In October, 1805, J. Harris had published
Whimsical Incidents, or the Pozver of Music, a
RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS 39
poetic tale hy a near relation of Old Mother Huh-
hard^ which has little to recommend it,and contains
nothing on the dog. On its first page stands a
verse which figures independently as a nursery
rhyme in some later collections : —
The cat was asleep by the side of the fire,
Her mistress snor'd loud as a pig.
When Jack took the fiddle hy Jenny's desire,
And struck up a bit of a jig. (1810, p. 33.)
J. Harris also published in March, 1806, Pug's
Visits or the Disasters of Mr, Punchy a sequel
to the Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard
and her Dog. This has a dedication framed
in the same style, *'To P. A. Esquire ... by
his humble servant W. F.*"
The success of the Comic Adventures of Mother
Hubbard and her Dog was instantaneous and
lasting. In The Courtship of Jenny Wren, which
is dated 1810, while its cuts bear the date 1806,
Parson Rook is represented carrying "Mother
Hubbard's book," and a foot-note is added to the
effect that "upwards of ten thousand copies of
this celebrated work have been distributed in
various parts of the country in a few months.*"
40 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
The Comic Adventures were read all over London
and in the provinces, both in the original and in
pirated editions, of which I have seen copies
issued by J. Evans of Long Lane, West Smith-
field ; by W. S. Johnson of 60 St. Martin"*s Lane ;
by J. Marshall of Aldermary Churchyard; and
by others. A very diminutive toy-book containing
verses of the tale of Mother Hubbard, illustrated
with rough cuts, is on view at South Kensington
Museum among the exhibits of A. Pearson. I do
not know its publisher.
The Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard are
usually told in fourteen verses, which refer to the
dame's going to the cupboard, to her going for
bread, for a coffin, for tripe, beer, wine, fruit, a
coat, a hat, a wig, shoes, hose, and linen. The
story ends : —
The dame made a curtsey, the dog made a bow.
The dame said, "Your servant," the dog said "Bow-
wow."
But some editions have an additional rhyme on
the dame's going for fish ; and the edition at
South Kensington has the verse : —
RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS 41
Old Mother Hubbard sat down in a chair.
And danced her dog to a delicate air ;
She went to the garden to buy him a pippin.
When she came back the dog was skipping.
In the edition of Rusher, instead of " the dog
made a bow,'' we read "Prin and Puss made a
bow."
In HalliwelFs estimation the tale of Mother
Hubbard and her dog is of some antiquity, " were
we merely to judge,"" he says, "of the rhyme of
laughing to coffin in the third verse."
She went to the undertaker's to buy him a coffin.
When she came back the poor dog was laughing.
But it seems possible also that the author of
the poem had running in his mind a verse con-
taining this rhyme, which occurs already in the
Infant Institutes of 1797, where it stands as
follows : —
There was a little old woman and she liv'd in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
She crumm'd 'em some porridge without any bread
And she borrow'd a beetle, and she knock'd 'em all o'
th' head.
Then out went the old woman to bespeak 'em a coffin
And when she came back she found 'em all a-loffing.
/
42 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
This piece contains curious mythological
allusions, as we shall see later.
It may be added that the nursery collection of
1810 (p. 37) contains the first verse only of
Mother Hubbard, which favours the view ex-
pressed by Halliwell, that the compiler of the
famous book did not invent the subject nor the
metre of his piece, but wrote additional verses to
an older story.
The association of Mother Hubbard and the
dog may be relatively new, but the name Mother
Hubbard itself has some claim to antiquity. For
a political satire by Edmund Spenser was called
Prosopopeia or Mother HubhercTs Tale. It was
a youthful effort of the poet, and was soon for-
gotten. In this piece " the good old woman was
height Mother Hubberd who did far surpass the
rest in honest mirth,'' and who related the fable
of the fox and the ape. Also Thomas Middleton
in 1604 published Father Hubburd's Tale, or the
Ant and the Nightingale, in the introduction to
which he addressed the reader as follows : — " Why
I call these Father Hubburd's tales, is not to have
them called in again as the Tale of Mother
RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS 43
Hubburd. The world would shew little judgment
in that i' faith ; and I should say then plena stul-
tonmi omnia; for I entreat {i.e. treat) here
neither of rugged {i,e, ragged) bears or apes, no,
nor the lamentable downfall of the old wife's
platters — I deal with no such metal . . . etc."
We do not know that Spenser's tale was
"called in again,'' nor does it mention ragged
bears and platters. Middleton must therefore
be referring to a different production to which
obstruction was offered by the public authorities.
In any case the name of Mother Hubburd, or
Hubbard, was familiar long before the publication
of the story of the dame and her dog.
Father Hubberd, who is mentioned by Middle-
ton, figures in nursery lore also. A rhyme is
cited which mentions him in connection with the
traditional cupboard : —
What's in the cupboard ? says Mr Hubbard ;
A knuckle of veal, says Mr Beal ;
Is that all ? says Mr Ball ;
And enough too, says Mr Glue ;
And away they all flew. {N. 6^ Q., 7, IV, 166.)
Were they figured as cats ?
44 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
The form of verse of this piece on Father
Hubbard reproduces the chiming of bells. The
same form of verse is used also in the follow-
ing :—
'^ Fire ! Fire ! " says the town-crier ;
*^*^ Where, where ?" says Goody Blair ;
"Down the town," said Goody Brown ;
" I'll go and see 't/' said Goody Fleet,
''So will I/' said Goody Fry. (1890, p. 316.)
The old play of Ralph Roister Doister, written
about the year 1550, ends with a "peele of bells
rung by the parish clerk," which is in the same
form of verse : —
First bell : When dyed he, when dyed he ?
Second bell : We have him ! We have him !
Third bell : Roister doister. Roister doister.
Fourth bell : He cometh, he cometh.
Great bell : Our owne, our owne.
CHAPTER V
RHYMES AND BALLADS
VARIOUS nursery pieces deal with material
which forms the subject of romantic ballads
also, r Romantic ballads, like popular songs, are
preserved in a number of variations, for they were
sung again and again to suit the modified taste of
succeeding ages. Many romantic ballads retain
much that is pre-Christian in disposition and
sentiment. The finest collection of romantic
ballads during recent times was made by Child,^
who included the fireside versions of ballads that
have come down to us through nursery litera-
ture. Child puts forward the opinion that where
we are in possession of a romantic and a fireside
version of the same ballad, the latter is a late and
degraded survival. But this hardly seems prob-
^ Child, F. G., English and Scottish Popular Ballads
1894.
45
46 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
able, considering that the nursery version of the
tale is usually simpler in form, and often consists
of dialogue only.
In the estimation of Gregory Smith, the oldest
extant examples of romantic ballads "do not date
further back than the second and third quarter
of the fifteenth century" (that is between 1425
and 1475), " since the way in which the incidents
in these are presented, reflects the taste of that
age.'*''^ This applies to romantic ballads that are
highly complex in form. The fireside version of
the same story may have flowed from the same
source. The question hangs together with that
of the origin of the ballad, which may have
arisen in connection with dancing and singing,
but the subject needs investigation.
Among our famous early ballads is that of The
Elfin Knight^ the oldest printed copy of which is
of 1670. . % V' '
« ■ V *
It begins as follows : — y
My plaid awa', my plaid awa'.
And o^er the hill and far awa',
And far awa' to Norrowa,
1 Smith, G., The Transition Period, 1897, p. 180, in Saints-
bury, Periods of European Literature.
RHYMES AND BALLADS 47
My plaid shall not be blown awa'.
The Elfin Knight sits on yon hill,
Ba, ba, ba, lilli ba.
He blaws his horn both loud and shrill.
The wind has blawn my plaid awa'.
He blows it east, he blows it west,
He blows it where he liketh best.^
The ballad goes on to describe how problems
were bandied between the Elfin Knight and a
lady. The one on whom an impossible task was
imposed stood acquitted if he devised a task of no
less difficulty, which must first be performed by
his opponent. Such flytings go far back in
literature. In this case the Elfin Knight staked
his plaid, that is his life, on receiving the favour
of the lady, and he propounded to her three
problems, viz. of making a sack without a seam,
of washing it in a well without water, and of
hanging it to dry on a tree that never blossomed.
In reply, she claimed that he should plough an
acre of land with a ram's horn, that he should
sow it with a peppercorn, and that he should
reap it with a sickle of leather. The problems
perhaps had a recondite meaning, and the ballad-
» Child, loc. cit, I. 6 flF.
48 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
monger probably found them ready to hand.
For Child cites a version of the ballad in which
the same flyting took place between a woman
and "the auld, auld man," who threatened to
take her as his own, and who turned out to be
Death. The idea of a wooer staking his life on
winning a lady is less primitive than that of
Death securing a victim. J
The same tasks without their romantic setting
are preserved in the form of a simple dialogue, in
' the nursery collections of c. 1783 and 1810. In
this case also it is the question of a wooer.
Man speaks.
Can you make me a cambrick shirty
Parsley^ sage, rosemary, and thyme,
Without any seam or needlework ?
And you shall be a true lover of mine.
Can you wash it in yonder well ? Parsley, etc..
Where never spring water or rain ever fell.
Can you dry it on yonder thorn,
AVliich never bore blossom since Adam was born.'*
Maiden speaks.
Now you have asked me questions three,
I hope you will answer as many for me.
Can you find me an acre of land.
Between the salt water and the sea sand .''
RHYMES AND BALLADS 49
Can you plow it with a ram's horn.
And sow it all over with peppercorn ?
Can you reap it with a sickle of leather.
And hind it up with a peacock's feather ?
When you have done and finished your work.
Then come to me for your cambrick shirt.
(c. 1783, p. 10.)
On the face of it, it hardly seems likely that
this version is descended from the romantic
ballad.
The tasks that are here imposed on the man
are set also in the form of a boast in a nursery
song, in which they have so entirely lost their
meaning as to represent a string of impossi-
bilities.
My father left me three acres of land.
Sing sing, sing sing.
My father left me three acres of land.
Sing holly, go whistle and sing.
I ploughed it with a ram's horn.
And sowed it with one pepper corn.
I harrowed it with a bramble bush.
And reaped it with a little pen knife.
I got the mice to carry it to the mill.
And thrashed it with a goose's quill.
I got the cat to carry it to the mill.
The miller swore he would have her paw.
And the cat she swore she would scratch his face.
E
50 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Another nursery piece is recorded by Halli-
well which, in simple form relates concerning Billy
my son the sequence of events which underlies
the famous romantic ballad of Lord Randal.^ (V*>X
The story is current also in Scotland relating
to The Croodin Doo (1870, p. 51); it was told
also some eighty years ago in Lincolnshire, of
King Henry my son (iV. 6^ Q., 8, VI, 427). The
romantic ballad in five verses, as told of Lairde
Rowlande, relates how he came from the woods
weary with hunting and expecting death. He
had been at his true love"'s, where he ate of the
food which poisoned his warden and his dogs. In
the nursery version the tragedy is told in the
following simple form : —
Where have you been to-day, Billy my son ?
Where have you been to-day, my only man ? —
I've been a wooing, mother ; make my bed soon,
For I'm sick at heart, and fain would lie down.
What have you ate to-day, Billy my son ?
What have you ate to-day, my only man ? —
I've eat eel pie, mother ; make my bed soon.
For I am sick at heart, and shall die before noon.
(1849, p. 259.)
1 iWd, I, 157 : Lord Randal.
RHYMES AND BALLADS 51
Other nursery pieces deal with Tommy Linn,
the Tarn Linn of romance, who is the hero of many
famous romantic ballads. flThe name of Tam Linn
goes some way back in history. For the Tayl of
young Tamlene^ according to Vedder burn's Com-
plaint of Scotland, of 1549, was told among a
company of shepherds, and the name appears
also as that of a dance, A Ballett of Thomalyn^
as far back as 1558.^
According to the romantic ballads, Tam Linn
fell under the influence of the fairies through
sleeping under an apple tree, and they threatened
to take him back as their own on Hallowe'en,
when they rode abroad once in seven years and
had the right to claim their due. Tam Linn told
the woman who loved him that she must hold
him fast, whatever shape he assumed owing to
the enchantment of the witches, and that she
must cast him into water as soon as he assumed
the shape of a gled. He would then be restored
to human form.'l
Tam Linn of romance figures in nursery lore
as Tommy Linn. His exploits were printed by
1 Ibid.y I, 256 : Tamlene.
52 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Halliwell in one of the numerous versions that
are current in the north. In these pieces Tommy
Linn has only this in common with Tam Linn of
romance, that he too is ready with a suggestion
whatever mishap befalls.
Tommy Linn is a Scotchman born.
His head is bald and his beard is shorn ;
He has a cap made of a hare skin.
An alderman is Tommy Linn.
Tommy Linn has no boots to put on.
But two calves' skins and the hair it was on.
They are open at the side and the water goes in.
Unwholesome boots, says Tommy Linn.
Tommy Linn had no bridle to put on.
But two mouse's tails that he put on.
Tommy Linn had no saddle to put on.
But two urchins' skins and them he put on.
Tommy Linn's daughter sat on the stair,
O dear father, gin I be not fair ?
The stairs they broke and she fell in,
You^re fair enough now, says Tommy Linn.
Tommy Linn had no watch to put on,
So he scooped out a turnip to make himself one ;
He caught a cricket and put it within.
It's my own ticker, says Tommy Linn.
Tommy Linn, his wife, and wife's mother.
They all fell into the fire together ;
Oh, said the topmost, I've got a hot skin,
It's hotter below, says Tommy Linn.
(1849, p. 271.)
RHYMES AND BALLADS 53
Several short nursery rhymes are taken from
this, or other versions of this poem. Among the
pieces printed by Chambers we read —
Tam o' the Lin and his bairns.
Fell i' the fire iu others' arms !
Ohj quo' the bunemost, I ha'e a hot skin ! !
It's hotter below, quo' Tam o' the Lin ! ! !
(1870, p. 33.)
Sir Walter Scott in Redgauntlet cites a catch
on Sir Thorn o' Lyne,
In some nursery collections the adventures of
Tommy Lin, the Scotchman, are appropriated to
Bryan OXin, the Irishman.
Bryan O'Lin had no watch to put on.
So he scooped out a turnip to make himself one :
He caught a cricket and put it within.
And called it a ticker, did Bryan O'Lin.
Bryan O'Lin had no breeches to wear.
So he got a sheepskin to make him a pair :
With the skinny side out and the woolly side in.
Oh ! how nice and warm, cried Bryan O'Lin.
(1842, p. 212.)
Many nursery rhymes which dwell on cats are
formed on the model of these verses. A rhyme
that comes from America is as follows : —
/
54 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Kit and Kitterit and Kitterit's mother,
All went over the bridge together.
The bridge broke down, they all fell in,
" Good luck to you," says Tom Bolin.
A modern collection of rhymes (1873, p. 136)
gives this as follows : —
The two grey cats and the grey kits^ mother,
All went over the bridge together ;
The bridge broke down, they all fell in.
May the rats go with you, sings Tom Bowlin.
The association of cats with Tommy Linn
reappears in the rhyme in which Tommy, who in
the romantic ballad begged immersion for himself,
practised immersion on a cat. Perhaps the cat
was figured as a witch, who, being suspected, was
cast into the water in order to prove her witch-
craft.
Ding dong bell, poor pussy has fall'n i' th' well.
Who threw her in ? Little Tom O' Linne,
What a naughty boy was that
To drown poor pussy cat.
That never did any harm.
But catch'd a mouse i' th^ barn.
(1797, cited by Rimbault.)
Other variations of this rhyme mention Johnny
Green (c. 1783, p. 23) and Tommy Quin (Rusher),
RHYMES AND BALLADS 55
which, considering the relative antiquity of
Tommy Linn, are obvious degradations of this
name.
The rhyme in some collections is quoted in an
enlarged form : —
"VVlio put her in ? Little Tommy Lin,
Who pulled her out ? Little Tommy [or Dickey] Stout.
I have heard also : —
Who put her in ? Little Tommy Thin. \
Who pulled her out ? Little Tommy Stout. ^-^^^^
Stout is perhaps a traditional name. For it
occurs in the nursery piece on the old woman who
went to sleep out of doors and forgot her identity.
I know no earlier version of this piece in English
than the one recorded by Rimbault which begins :
There was a little woman as I've heard tell.
Who went to market her eggs for to sell.
It further relates how she went to sleep out of
doors, how the man Stout "cut her petticoats
round about,"" and how on waking she did not
know herself, and decided to go home and find
out if her dog knew her (1864, p. 6). But the
story is an old one, for we come across it in
56 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Grimm'*s Fairy Tales^ where it forms a sequel to
" Kluge Else," (No. 35). In this the part of Stout
is taken by the woman's husband, who hung her
skirt about with bells, and it is further stated that
the woman fell asleep when she was cutting corn.
The same story in a more interesting form was
recovered in Norway. Here we read that the
woman fell asleep while she was cutting hemp,
which explains why her mind failed her. For
hemp newly cut has strongly narcotic properties.
It was probably the herb which the witches
smoked in their diminutive clay-pipes in pre-
Christian times. Presumably on account of these
narcotic properties sowing and cutting of hemp
were associated all over Europe with peculiar
dances, such as Enfille aiguille^ our Thread-the-
Needle. Its connection with heathen rites of divi-
nation is suggested by the well-known rhyme : —
Hemp-seed I set^ hemp-seed I sow.
The young man whom I love.
Come after me and mow. (1890, p. 414.)
In this form the rhyme is also cited in Mother
BuncKs Closet newly broke open, as a charm to
secure the vision of one's future husband.
CHAPTER VI
RHYMES AND COUNTRY DANCES
MANY true nursery rhymes go back to tra-
ditional dancing and singing games which
are now relegated to the playground, but which
were danced by rustics within the memory of
man, and which are heirs to the choral dances of
our heathen forefathers. For dancing in its origin
was no idle and unmeaning pastime. Dances
were undertaken for serious purposes, such as
warding off evil and promoting agricultural
growth, conceptions which hang closely together.
These dances formed part of festivities that took
place at certain times of the year. They were
accompanied by expressive words, and by actions
which were suited to the words, and which gave
the dance a dramatic character. Our carol is
related to the caraula that was prohibited among
heathen customs by Bishop Eligius of Noyon
57
l/
58 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
(d. 659), in the north of France in the seventh
centiu-y, and has the same origin as the Choreia
.of the Greeks, the ?'eihe or reigen of Germany,
the Jcarol of Brittany, and the caraula of eastern
Switzerland. In course of time the religious
significance of the choral dance was lost and its
practice survived as a sport. At a later stage
still, it became a pastime of children and a diver-
sion of the ballroom.
Among the dances that can be traced back
through several stages, is the one which in its
latest survival is known as the Cotillon, This is
mentioned in England as far back as the year 1766.
Burns in Tarn o"* Shanter speaks of it as " brand
new from France." The peculiar features of the
Cotillon as it is danced nowadays, include free
choice of partners, the women being at liberty in
one figure to choose the men, the drawing into
the dance of the assembled company, and the
presence of a cushion which is put to a variety
of uses. The Cotillon usually concludes the
ball.
In an earlier form the Cotillon is represented
by the dance which was known in the seventeenth
COUNTRY DANCES 59
century as Joan Saunderson or the Cushion Dance,
The way of dancing Joan Saunderson is described
in The Dauncing Master^ a collection of dances
with tunes for young people^ published by
H. Playford. Of this the first volume was
issued in 1650, which was enlarged in subse-
quent editions, when further volumes were added.
Tlie Dauncing Master of Playford shows how
traditional country dances were appropriated to
the ballroom, for many of these dance tunes,
such as Mulheriy Bush, and Green Sleeves, corre-
spond with the names of traditional dancing and
singing games.
In Joan Saunderson or the Cushion Dance as
described by Playford,^ a cushion and a drinking-
horn were brought in by two dancers to the sound
of a fiddle. The cushion-bearer locked the door
and pocketed the key, and danced round the room
alone. Then he exchanged words with the fiddler
as to the need of finding a maid and pressing her
into the dance. The name Joan Saunderson
being proposed, the cushion-bearer placed the
cushion before the woman of his choice, and
1 Playford, The Dauncing Mastery 1686, p. 206.
60 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
knelt upon it. She did the same, and drank
from the horn. They kissed and danced together.
The same ceremony was then gone through by
the girl, who, when the name John Saunderson
was proposed, approached the man of her choice
bearing the cushion, the first dancer accompany-
ing her. The ceremony was repeated again and
again, alternately by man and woman, and as
each dancer chose a partner, the number of those
following the cushion-bearer increased. Finally
the whole assembled company were drawn into
the ring.
A scene in Joan Saunderson is said to be repre-
sented in a Dutch engraving of the year 1624
(1876, p. 254). Joa7i Saunderson is still danced
in different parts of the country under the same
or some similar name. In Derbyshire it is known
as the Cushion Dance^ and those who are drawn
into the ring are addressed as John Sanders and
Jane Sanders. In the Lowlands the dance is
known as Bahhity Bowster^ bowster standing for
bolster; in the north it is the Whishin Dance,
whishin standing for cushion (1894, I, pp. 9, 87).
The Cushion Dance was the last dance that was
COUNTRY DANCES 6l
danced at a wedding,^ and at Northampton it
came at the conclusion of the May-Day festival
(1876, p. 253).
In the Cotillon of the ballroom, the ring
finally breaks up and the company dances in
couples ; the Cushion Dance leads up to the with-
drawal of the married pair, and concludes with
a romp. A later edition of The Dauncing Master
(1698, p. 7), perhaps with a view to forestalling
this, adds a sequel to the dance, according to
which the game, after it had been wound, was
unwound, that is, each dancer in turn bade fare-
well to his partner, and after doing so left the
room.
The points of likeness between the Cotillon
and the Cushion Dance are such as to favour
the belief that they are connected. The free
choice of partners, the presence of the cushion,
the drawing in of the whole assembled company,
and the fact that the dance terminates the ball,
are peculiar to them both. The Cushion Dance
being the older sport, preserves the association
with weddings and with the May-Day festival,
1 Murray's Dictionary : Cushion Dance.
62 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
which at one time was the occasion for mating
and marriage.
The associations with mating and marriage are
preserved also in a traditional game that is still
played throughout the greater part of England,
which is generally known as Salli/ Waters. The
verses recited in playing it render it probable that
the Cushion Dance is a later development of the
game known as Sallt/ Waters.
In playing Salli/ Waters the players stand
in a ring, a boy and a girl alternately choose a
partner and seal the bond by joining hands, or by
kneeling, or by a kiss. The verses recited in
playing the game were first recorded by Halliwell
(1849, p. 133). Forty-nine further variations,
used in different parts of the kingdom in playing
the game, have been printed by Mrs. Gomme,
who classed this among marriage games, (1894,
II, 461). In the book of Playford the Cushion
Dance is called also Joan Saunderson, and those
who are pressed into the dance are designated as
Joan Saunderson and John Saunderson, or as
Jane Sanders and John Sanders. In playing the
game of Sallt/ Waters similar names are used.
COUNTRY DANCES 63
Thus the children in Penzance stand in a ring
and sing the following verse : —
Little Sally Sander sitting in the Sander,
Weeping and crying for her young man.
(1894, No. 26.)
In playing the game in Liverpool they begin : —
Little Polly Sanders sits on the sand, etc.
{Ihid., No. 42.)
The verses used in Yorkshire begin : —
Little Alice Sander sat upon a cinder, etc.
{Ibid., No. 31.)
These names Sally Sander, Polly Sanders, etc.,
must be derived from the same source as Saunder-
son and Sanders of the Cushion Dance. A host
of other rhymes current in the nursery deal with
the same theme, and are formed on the same
model. There is one step only from little Sally
Sander of Penzance, little Polly Sanders of
Liverpool, and little Alice Sander who sat upon a
cinder, to the following rhymes which are included
in different nursery collections. All these rhymes
describe a person sitting and waiting, and most
of them dwell on the idea of a seat or a cushion.
64 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
while the allusion to matters matrimonial, being
unsuitable to children, is altogether dropped.
Little Polly Flinders sat among the cinders^
Warming her pretty toes ;
Her mother came and caught her^ and scolded her
little daughter.
For spoiling her nice new clothes. (1846, p. 212.)
Little Miss Muifet sat on a tuflfet,
Eating of curds and whey.
There came a great spider and sat down heside her
And frightened Miss MuiFet away. ^
Little Mary Ester sat upon a tester
Eating of curds and whey ;
There came a little spider and sat down heside her,
And frightened Mary Ester away. (1842, p. 61.)
Tuffet and tester are words for a footstool.
Little Miss Mopsey sat in the shopsey.
Eating of curds and whey ;
There came a great spider who sat down heside her
And frightened Miss Mopsey away. (1842, p. 37.)
Little Tom Tacket sits upon his cracket.
Half a yard of cloth will make him a jacket.
Make him a jacket and breeches to the knee.
And if you will not have \im, you may let him be.
(1842, p. 199.)
^ Songs for the Nursery, published by Darton & Co.,
1812. The verses included in this collection were altered
with a view to rendering them more suitable for children.
COUNTRY DANCES 6.5
Little Tom Tucker sings for his supper,
\VTiat shall he eat, but white bread and butter ;
How will he cut it, without e're a knife
And how will he be married without e're a wife.
(1744, p. 10 ; c. 1783, p. 56.)
Little Jack Homer sat in the corner.
Eating a [of] Christmas pie ;
He put in his thumb, and he took [pulled] out a plum,
And said [cried] '' What a good boy am I ! "
Chorus: And what a good boy am I ! (c. 1783, p. 55.)
These verses as they here stand arranged, show
an increasing deviation from the words used in
playing the game of Sally Waters.
Tom 1 ucker and Jack Horner are names that
go some way back in history. For Brand states
that at the revels kept at St. John's College,
1 November, 1607, a Christmas Lord of the
Revels was chosen as Thomas Tucker.^ A dance
tune of the Dauncing Maste?' was called Tom
TiLcker also.^
The name of Jacky Horner was familiar to
Carey about the year 1720, as mentioned above.
Liitle Jack Homer was a well-known tune, and
there is a direction in the Grub Street opera that
^ Brand, Popular Antiquities ^ I, 219.
2 The Dauncing Master ^ 1686, p. 130.
F
66 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
the chorus shall be sung to this melody.^ A
chapbook of the latter half of the eighteenth
century bears the title, The Pleasant History of
Jack Horner^ containing his Witty Tricks^ etc.
It cites the familiar rhyme, and further describes
the pranks that the hero played upon women.
This association and the name recall the expres-
sions hornified, that is a cuckold ;^ horning^ a mock
serenade "without which no wedding would be
complete"*' ; and Horn Fair, a time of unusual
licence, kept up in Kent : " all was fair at Horn
Fair"(1876, p. 387).
1 Whitmore, loc. cit., p. 97.
^ Murray's Dictionary : IIoQ'ninc/.
CHAPTER VII
THE GAME OF SALLY WATERS
THE game of Salli/ Waters calls for further
comment. In this game, as already men-
tioned, the players stand in a circle, boy and
girl alternately choose a partner, while the friends
stand around and chant the verses. In these lies
the interest of the game. For these words in
the fifty variations collected by Mrs. Gomme, all
give expression to the same sequence of ideas.
There is the call to Sally to go through the
ceremony of sprinkling the pan or watering the
can. This is followed by a chorus that urges
that a choice be made. When this is made and
sealed by joining hands, or by kneeling, or by
a kiss, the chorus utters wishes for a prosperous
union. Similar traits appear in the games known
as Pretty Little Girl of Mine, The Lady of the
Mountain, and Kiss in the Ring, which, in a less
pronounced form, give expression to the same ideas.
67
68 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
The verses used in playing Sally Waters in
Dorsetshire are among the most meaningful, and
stand as follows : —
Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan,
Rise, Sally ; rise, Sally, and choose a young man ;
Choose [o7' bow] to the east, choose [or how] to the west
[Or choose for the best one, choose for the worst one].
Choose the pretty girl [or young man] that you love best.
And now you're married, I wish you joy.
First a girl and then a boy ;
Seven years after son and daughter.
And now young people, jump over the water.
(1894, Nr. 1.)
These verses and the fact that Sally Water's
is related to the Cushion Dance that is danced
at weddings, render it probable that Sally Waters
originated in a marriage celebration of heathen
times. The formula in the Dorsetshire version
of the game concludes with a direction to the
young couple to "jump over the water/'' In
the Somersetshire version the direction is "kiss
each other and come out of the water'' (1894,
No. S); in the Shropshire variation, "kiss and
shake hands and come out"" (1894, No. 14); in
the London variation, "kiss before you go out
of the water." (Appendix.)
"SALLY WATERS" 69
Dipping was an accepted ceremonial during
heathen times, which recovered or revealed a
person's true identity as in the case of Tam Linn,
or of the suspected witch who was thrown into
the water. Dipping constituted part of definite
celebrations. For the ceremonial of " dipping ^
formed part of the May-Day festival as it was
kept in Northampton, while in Cornwall the say-
ing is current: "The first of May is dipping day "
(1876, p. 235). May-Day was a great day for
contracting matrimonial alliances in the heathen
past, and is at present avoided because of its
riotous associations.
Judging from the verses used in playing Sally
Waters, the union between the parties was con-
tracted conditionally for seven years only. Seven
years are definitely mentioned in sixteen out of
fifty variations of the game. The same period is
mentioned also in fourteen out of the twenty-five
variations of the verses used in playing Pretty
Little Girl of Mine, and in three out of seven
variations of the verses used in playing The Lady
on the Mountain,
Mrs. Gomme, in discussing the game of Sally
70 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Waters, cites various expressions which show that
the marriage vow is still popularly looked upon
as binding for a certain period only, sometimes
for seven years (1894, II, 177). I find this cor-
roborated by remarks I have gleaned from country-
folk. Thus a woman whose husband had gone
from her, after seven years felt justified in looking
upon him as diead, and had the bell tolled for
his funeral.
Time-reckoning by seven years goes far back in
history, and is still the rule in many legal
arrangements. Seven years of plenty succeeded
seven years of famine in Egypt. Once in seven
years the fairies rode out to claim their due.
Some festivities happened only once in seven
years. The curious custom of humping^ that is, of
two persons taking up by the arms any persons
whom they met, and swinging them to and fro,
was observed on Ganging Day (29 September)
once in seven years at Bishop's Stortford (1876,
p. 380). At Bradford also a septennial festival
was kept in honour of Jason and the Golden
Fleece and St. Blaize on 3 February (1876,
p. 60). Similarly a dance known as the Metzger-
\3 ^
'^SALLY WATERS" 71
sprung was danced at Munich once in seven years
to keep off the plague (Bo., p. 44).
The mention of seven years in the maiTiage
game may indicate that the marriage was broken
off after seven years if the stipulated conditions
failed to be fulfilled. These conditions were that
the children born of the union should include one
of either sex. Mrs. Gomme, in connection with
this stipulation, remarks that a marriage is still
popularly reckoned incomplete from which there
is not male and female offspring. She also points
out that the expression "choose for the best,
choose for the worst" of the marriage game, is
related to the words "for better, for worse'' of
the vernacular portion of the English marriage
service. The expressions "worst and best,"" or
"wisest and best," occur in thirteen out of the
fifty versions of words ; instead of these, " choose
east and choose west " occur in twenty-two out of
the fifty versions (1894, II, 168). It is difficult
to decide which is the more primitive form of the
verse ; I fancy the latter.
The ceremony of choosing was led up to by
sprinkling the pan, which is mentioned in twenty-
72 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
one out of fifty variations of the game ; water-
ing the can stands in twelve others. The pan
was specially associated with women as house-
keepers, and, together with the cradle, is mentioned
as one of the first essentials in setting up house
in the game of Wallflowers?-
Judging from the game of Sally Waters as
played in Bucks, a " mother " actually presided at
the game, who directed her daughters to sprinkle
the pan, and their being included among those
from whom a choice was made, depended on their
successfully doing so. To the words of the game
as played in Bucks, I have added in brackets an
indication how the words were probably dis-
tributed : —
(Half chorus) : Sally^ Sally Walker, sprinkled in the pan.
(Other half) : What did she sprinkle for ?
(Answer) : For a young man.
(Mother) : Sprinkle^ sprinkle daughter, and you shall
have a cow.
1 Gomme, loc. cit. : Wallfloioers : —
Mister Moffit is a very good man,
He came to the door with a hat in his hand,
He pulled up his cloak and showed me the ring ;
To-morrow, to-morrow the wedding begins.
First he bought a frying pan, then he bought the cradle.
And then one day the baby was born. Rock, rock the
cradle. (No. 32.)
'«SALLY WATERS" 73
(Daughter) : I cannot sprinkle, mother, because I don't
know how.
(Mother) : Sprinkle, (laughter, sprinkle, and you
shall have a man.
(Daughter) : I cannot sprinkle, mother, but I'll do
the best I can.
(Chorus) : Pick and choose, but don't you pick me,
Pick the fairest you can see.
(Man) : The fairest that I can see is . . . Come to
me ! (1894, No. 23.)
This is followed by the usual marriage formula.
A similar dialogue is included amongst the
Nursery Rhymes of Halliwell, in which the
daughter is directed to whistle, a word which
formerly conveyed the idea of uttering impreca-
tions in a low voice, and which was condemned in
a woman since it marked her out for a witch.
The verse stands as follows : —
Whistle daughter, whistle, whistle for a cradle.
I cannot whistle, mammy, 'deed I am not able.
Whistle daughter, whistle, whistle for a cow,
I cannot whistle, mammy, 'deed I know not how.
Whistle, daughter, whistle, whistle for a man,
I cannot whistle, mammy ; whew ! Yes, I believe I can.
(1846, p. 219.) 1
^ Cf. A whistUng woman and a crowing hen
Are neither fit for God or man. (1892, p. 506.)
Also : Une femme qui siflBe et une poule qui cr'
Porte malheur dans la maison.
74 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
If the words used in playing Sally Waters are
analysed, it will be seen that the name Sally
occurs in forty-four out of fifty variations, and
that in twenty-four variations the name is asso-
ciated with water. It is combined with water espe-
cially in the south and the south-west of England.
Away from this district we have the name Sally
Walker, in Shropshire, Bucks, Yorkshire, Scotland,
and Ireland ; the name Sally Salter in Yorkshire
and Lincoln ; the names Sally Sander in Penzance,
Polly Sanders in Liverpool, and so forth. Ob-
viously, Sally Waters is the oldest form of the
name. This view is accepted by Mrs. Gomme,
who was, however, at a loss to account for the wide
use of the name Sally Waters. But, in classing the
variations of words of the game according to the
reasonableness of their contents, she placed fore-
most as most meaningful the verses that hailed
from Dorsetshire, Somerset, and Devonshire, where
the form Sally Waters is in use. It is to this
district, therefore, that we must turn for the
origin of the game of Sally Waters.
On turning to the history of the British past in
these districts, we find that the Romans when
"SALLY WATERS' 75
they came to Bath found this spot far famed for
its waters. The name by which they knew the
place was Aquce Soils, but the word Soils did
not stand for the sun as a male divinity, but for
Sul, the presiding female divinity of the place.
For the Roman temple built at Bath was dedicated
to the goddess Sulis-Minerva, and the name Sul,
both with and without the name of Minerva,
occurs among the noted inscriptions.^ It was a
common practice with the Romans to couple the
name of one of their own divinities with that of
a local divinity, and Minerva, in her capacity of a
healing goddess, was here associated with Sul, the
female divinity of the waters. On the facade of
the temple a medallion is represented. Inside it
is the head of a goddess with her hair tied together
over her forehead, and a crescent moon is behind
her. The moon is an emblem which is not associ-
ated with Minerva elsewhere, and the head on the
medallion must therefore represent Sul. Sul was
the presiding divinity at Bath, and an altar was
also discovered which was dedicated to the Sulevae.
^ Scarth, H. M., Aquce Solisy Notices on Roman Bath,
1864, pp. 16ff.,22ff.,etc.
76 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
A similar altar has been discovered at Nismes,
which is dedicated to SulivicB Idennicce Minervce,
Scarth, in his history of Roman Bath, cites Mr.
Roach Smith on these Sulevae, who "appear to
have been sylphs, the tutelary divinities of rivers,
fountains, hills, roads, villages and other localities
against whom were especially directed in the fifth
and subsequent centuries the anathemas of Chris-
tian councils, missionaries, and princes.'"^ Taking
this evidence into consideration, is it far-fetched
to suggest that Sally Waters of the traditional
marriage game, which, in its most meaningful
form, is still played in the districts surrounding
Bath, may be related to Sul of the waters of Bath,
and to her followers, or ministrants, the Sulevae ?
We know nothing further of Sul as far as our
islands are concerned. But in Central France
a female impersonation of the sun is still called
upon as La Soule, and St. Solange, patron saint
of Berry, who is represented with a light over
her forehead, is looked upon as heir to her in the
pantheon of Christian saints. Sulis also was
a place-name in Brittany during Roman times,
1 Ibid., p. 53.
"SALLY WATERS' 77
situated somewhere between Auray and Quimper.
It seems probable that the site is identical with
that of the present St. Anne d' Auray, famous for
its holy waters, which are still sought in pilgrim-
age from far and near. The enormous stone basin
into which pilgrims are dipped, remains its most
curious feature.
In Scandinavian nursery lore we also come
across a Fru Sole^ the mother of many daughters,
who sat in heaven, and across Fru Soletopp, who
distributed gifts. These names may be related
to Sul of the waters of Bath, or to Sally of our
game, or to both. However this may be, the wide
distribution of the game known as Salli/ Waters,
and its peculiar connection with the south-west
of England, induce the belief that there is some
relation between Sally of the game, and Sul, the
divinity of the waters.
CHAPTER VIII
THE LADY OF THE LAND
A SSOCIATIONS dating from heathen times
l\. are preserved in other traditional games,
the full meaning of which becomes apparent only
when we compare these with their foreign parallels.
Some of these games in their cruder and more
primitive forms are sports, in which dialogue takes
the place of rhymed verses, and in which the
characters that are introduced are frequently
spoken of as animals.
Among the dancing and singing games first
described by Halliwell is one called by him The
Lady of the Land. In this game one side is taken
by a mother and her daughters, the other by
a second woman, and the game consists in the
daughters changing sides. The verses that are
recited are as follows : —
78
"LADY OF THE LAND" 79
Here comes a woman from Babyland,
With three small children in her hand.
One can brew, the other can bake.
The other can make a pretty round cake.
One can sit in the garden and spin.
Another can make a fine bed for a king.
Pray m'am will you take one in ?
(1846, p. 121.)
One child is then pointed out and passes to
the other side, and this is continued till all are
selected.
Twelve further variations of the words used in
playing this game were recovered from different
parts of the country by Mrs. Gomme (1894, I,
313). Of these two, one from Shropshire (No. 3)
and one from the Isle of Wight (No. 6), like that
of Halliwell, designate the woman as "from
Babyland."'' Others, from the Isle of Man
and from Galloway (Appendix), describe her as
from Babylon, while further variations mention
Sandiland (No. 9), Cumberland (Berks, No. 8),
and others. The word Babyland, which occurs
in three out of thirteen variations of the game,
is probably the original one, for it has a paral-
lel in the corresponding German game in the
80 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
name Engelland, the land of the spirits of the
unborn.
The Babyland game in a more primitive form
is known as Little Dog I call you^ in which the
players also change sides (1894, I, 330). In
this game, the one side is taken by a girl who
looks after a number of children, the other by
a girl who is designated as Little Dog^ and who
stands apart. The children secretly impart their
wishes to their owner or leader, who warns them
against laughing, and then calls the Little Dog
and tells him to pick out the child who has ex-
pressed such and such a wish. Should this child
laugh by inadvertence, she at once goes over to
the Little Dog. If not, the dog is left to guess
who has imparted the wish, and by doing so he
secures the child. If he fails to guess aright, the
child goes and stands behind the leader and is
altogether removed out of the reach of the Little
Dog. This is continued till all belong to one side
or the other, and the game concludes with a tug
of war.
The games of The Lady of the Land and Little
Dog have parallels in the foreign game of
"LADY OF THE LAND" 81
children changing sides, fourteen variations of
which were collected from different parts of
northern Europe by Mannhardt (M., p. 273).
The closest parallel to Tlie Lady of the Land is
played in Belgium, in which sides are taken by
two leaders, of whom the one has many daughters
and the other has none. The game is called
Riche et pauvre and the following verses are
sung : —
Je suis pauvre, je suis pauvre, Anne Marie Jacqueline ;
Je suis pauvre dans ce jeu d'ici. —
Je suis riche^ je suis riche, Anne Marie Jacqueline ;
Je suis riche dans ce jeu d'ici. —
Donnez-moi un de vos enfants, Anne Marie Jacqueline,
Donnez-moi un de vos enfants, dans ce jeu d'ici.
(M., No. 13.)
" I am poor, I am poor in this game, I am rich in this
game. Give me one of your children, in this game."
This is continued as in the Babyland game
till every child has had its turn. There is no
sequel.
In the German game the woman who owns the
children is called sometimes Mary, sometimes
Witch, but usually she has the name of a heathen
divinity. Thus in Mecklenburg she is F^ni Goden
82 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
or Fru Gol (No. 11). Gode is the name of a
mother divinity, who, as Godmor, is the mother
of Thor (Gr., p. 209, note). In the game as played
in Prussia (No. 10), in Elsass (No. 3), in Swabia
(No. 2), and in Aargau (No. 4), she is Frau Ros
or Frau Rose, that is Lady Ros or Rose ; while
in Pommerellen she is either Ok Moder Rose or
Ole Moder Taersche (No. 1), a word that signifies
witch. In Holstein, on the other hand, the
alternative is recorded as Fru Rosen or Mutter
Marie, Mother Mary (No. 9), while in Appenzell
(No. 5) and near Dunkirk (No. 6) the owner of
the children is Marei Muetter Gotts, i.e. Mary the
Mother of God. Mannhardt points out that
Ross, sometimes Rose, is the name of a German
mother divinity who occurs frequently in German
folk-lore. I have come across Mother Ross in our
own chapbook literature, where the name may be
traditional also. Mary indicates the substitution
of a Christian name in the place of the older
heathen one. In Sweden the owner of many
babes is Fru Sole, who is represented as sitting
in heaven surrounded by her daughters, who are
described as chickens (No. 14).
"LADY OF THE LAND" 83
The game of securing children is called in
Switzerland Das Englein aufziehen (No. 5), that
is, " the drawing forth of an angel." The word
Engel, angel, according to the information
collected by Mannhardt, originally designates the
spirit that awaits re-birth. For the heathen in-
habitanls of Northern Europe, including the
Kelts, were unable to realize individual death.
They held that the living spirit passed away
with death, but continued in existence, and again
reappeared under another shape. In the civiliza-
tion that belonged to the mother age, these
spirits or angels that awaited re-birth, peopled the
realm which was associated with divine mothers
or mother divinities. At a later period, trans-
ferred into Christian belief, they were pictured as
a host of winged babes, whom we find represented
in mediaeval art hovering around the Virgin
Mother and Child.
The land in which the unborn spirits dwelt, is
generally spoken of in German nursery and folk
rhymes as Engelland^ an expression which forms
a direct parallel to the expression Babyland of
our game. Thus the Woman of Bahyland, like
84 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Frau Rose or Frau Gode of the German game,
was in all probability a divine mother, who was
the owner of the spirits or babes that awaited re-
birth.
In the estimation of Mannhardt, the game in
which children are drawn from one woman into
the possession of the other, preserves the relics
of a ceremonial connected with the cult of the
mother divinity. It visibly set forth how the
spirits of the departed were drawn back into life
(M., p. 319). Perhaps we may go a step further.
The study of folk-lore has taught us that to
simulate a desired result is one way of working
for its attainment. Women who were desirous
of becoming mothers, both in England and in
Germany, were wont to rock an empty cradle.
They also visited particular shrines. Of the rites
which they practised there we know nothing.
Perhaps the Babyland game originated not as
an ideal conception, but preserves the relics of a
rite by which women sought to promote mother-
hood. This assumption is supported by various
features that are incidental to the game.
Thus the game, both in England and abroad.
"LADY OF THE LAND" 85
is essentially a girls' game, and the words that
are used indicate that it is played by them only.
Even where the generality of the players are
designated as " children,^' the leaders are in-
variably girls.
Again, in some versions of the foreign game
(Nos. 8, 9) there is mention of salt. The woman
who asks for a child, complains that she has lost
those that were given to her ; she is told that she
ought to have sprinkled them with salt (No. 8).
Sprinkling with salt is still observed at Christian
baptism in some districts, and such sprinkling is
said to make a child safe.^
Again, in the game as played abroad the child
that is chosen is put to the test if it can be made
to laugh (Nos. 2, 4, 5, 8). In the game of Little
Dog also, the child that laughs passes into the
keeping of a new owner. Laughing indicates
quickening into life, and in folk-lore generally
the child that refrains from laughing is reckoned
uncanny. Numerous stories are told of the
changeling that was made to laugh and dis-
* Cf. Addy, S. O., House Tales and Traditional Bemains,
1895, pp. 86, 120.
86 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
appeared, when the real child was found restored
to its cradle.
Again, in the foreign game the player who
seeks to secure a child speaks of herself as
lame, and limps in order to prove herself so
(Nos. 1, 2, 14). In one instance she attributes
her limping to a bone in her leg. Limping, in
the estimation of Mannhardt, is peculiar to the
woman who has borne children (M., p. 305).
For in German popular parlance the woman who
is confined, is said to have been bitten by the
stork who brought the child.
A reminiscence of this idea lurks in our proverb
rhyme : —
The wife who expects to have a good name.
Is always at home as if she were lame ;
And the maid that is honest, her chiefest delight
Is still to be doing from morning till night.*
Again, in one version of the foreign game the
children that are won over are given the names
of dogs, and when their former owner attempts to
get them back, they rush at her and bark (No. 1).
This corresponds to our game of Little Dog, in
1 Bohn, H., A Handbook of Proverbs, 1901, p. 43.
"LADY OF THE LAND" 87
which the child that stands apart is addressed as
" Little Dog I call you." Grimm declared him-
self at a loss to account for the fact that a dog
was associated|with the Norns or Fate-maidens
who assisted at childbirth (Gr., p. 339) ; Mann-
hardt cites the belief that the spirits of the dead
were sometimes spoken of as dogs (M., p. 301) ;
and in England there also exists a superstition
that the winds that rush past at night are dogs,
the so-called Gabriel hounds or ratchets (cf.
below, p. 165).
Features preserved in other games contain
similar suggestions which are worth noting.
Thus in the game known as Drop-handkerchief
one girl holding a kerchief goes round the others
who are arranged in a circle, saying : —
I have a little dog and it won't bite you
It won't bite you, it won't bite you \ad lih.'\
It will bite you. (1894, I, 109.)
The person on whom the little dog is bestowed is
" bitten *" ; that is, she is in the same predicament
as the German woman who is bitten by the stork,
and the limping woman of the German Babyland
game.
88 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
In playing Drop-handkerchief in Deptford the
children sing : —
I had a little dog whose name was BuflF,
I sent him up the street for a pennyworth of snuff.
He broke my box and spilt my snuff
I think my story is long enough —
'Taint you, 'taint you, and 'taint you, but 'tis you.
(1894, I, p. 111.)
In the collection of Nursery Songs by Rusher
stands the following rhyme : —
I had a little dog and they called him Buff,
I sent him to a shop to buy me snuff.
But he lost the bag and spilt the stuff ;
I sent him no more but gave him a cuff.
For coming from the mart without any snuff.
" Bufe '■* as a word for a dog occurs as far back
^ Murray's Dictionary : Bufe.
as 1567.1
CHAPTER IX
CUSTOM RHYMES
THE comparison of our short nursery rhymes
with those current in other countries, next
engages our attention. Halliwell has remarked
that some of our rhymes are chanted by the
children of Germany and Scandinavia, which
to him strikingly exhibited the great antiquity
and remote origin of these rhymes. The observa-
tion which he made with regard to the countries
of Northern Europe, applies to the countries of
Central and Southern Europe also. Scholarly
collections of rhymes have been published during
recent years in Scandinavia, Germany, France, Italy,
Spain, and referring to special parts of these coun-
tries, which give us a fair insight into their nursery
lore. (Cf., p. 212). The comparison of these collec-
tions with ours yields surprising results. Often the
same thought is expressed in the same form of
90 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
verse. Frequently the same proper name reappears
in the same connection. In many cases rhymes,
that seem senseless taken by themselves, acquire
a definite meaning when taken in conjunction
with their foreign parallels. Judging from what
we know of nursery rhymes and their appearance
in print, the thought of a direct translation of
rhymes in the bulk cannot be entertained. We
are therefore left to infer, either that rhymes were
carried from one country to another at a time
when they were still meaningful, or else that they
originated in different countries as the outcome of
the same stratum of thought.
The sorting of nursery rhymes according to
the number of their foreign parallels, yields an
additional criterion as to the relative antiquity of
certain rhymes. For those rhymes that embody
the more primitive conceptions are those that are
spread over the wider geographical area. The
above inquiry has shown that pieces such as
Mother Hubbard and TTiree Blind Mice are rela-
tively new, and that all the rhymes formed on
the model of Little Miss Mvffet go back to the
Cushion Dance and to the game of Sally Waters,
CUSTOM RHYMES 91
Rhymes of this kind are entirely without foreign
parallels. On the other hand, calls, such as those
addressed to the ladybird and the snail, and
riddle-rhymes, such as that on Humfty Dumpty^
have numerous and close parallels half across
Europe.
The ladybird is the representative among our-
selves of a large class of insects which were asso-
ciated with the movement of the sun from the
earliest times. The association goes back to the
kheper or chafer of ancient Egypt, which has the
habit of rolling along the ball that contains its
eggs. This ball was identified as the orb of the
sun, and the kheper was esteemed as the bene-
ficent power that helped to keep it moving.
A like importance attached to the chafers that
had the power of flying, especially to the ladybird
{Coccinella septern punctata). In India the insect
was called Indragopas^ that is "protected by
Indra." The story is told how this insect flew
too near the sun, singed its wings, and fell back
to the earth.^
In Greece the same idea was embodied in the
^ De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology^ 1872, II, p. 209.
92 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
myth of Ikaros, the son of Daedalus, who flew too
near the sun with the wings he had made for him-
self, and, falling into the sea, was drowned.
Already the ancient Greeks were puzzled by this
myth, which found its reasonable explanation
in describing Ikaros as the inventor of sails.
He was the first to attach sails to a boat, and
sailing westwards, he was borne out to sea and
perished.
Among ourselves the ladybird is always
addressed in connection with its power of flight.
It is mostly told to return to its house or home,
which is in danger of being destroyed by fire, and
warned of the ruin threatening its children if
it fails to fly. But some rhymes address it on
matters of divination, and one urges it to bring
down blessings from heaven.
The rhyme addressed to the ladybird first
appears in the nursery collection of 1744, where
it stands as follows : —
1. Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home.
Your house is on fire, your children will burn.
Many variations of the rhyme are current in
CUSTOM RHYMES 93
different parts of the country, which may be
tabulated as follows : —
2. Lady cow, lady cow, fly away home.
Your house is on fire, your children all roam.
(1892, p. 326.)
3. Ladycow, Ladycow, fly and be gone.
Your house is on fire, and your children at home.
(Hallamshire, 1892, p. 326.)
4. Gowdenbug", gowdenbug, fly away home,
Yahr house is bahnt dun, and your children all gone.
(SuiFolk, N. c^ Q., IV., 55.)
6. Ladybird, ladybird, eigh thy way home.
Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam,
Except little Nan, who sits in her pan
Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.
(Lancashire, 1892, p. 326.)
6. Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home.
Your house is on fire, your children at home.
They're all burnt but one, and that's little Ann,
And she has crept under the warming pan.
(Rusher's Series.)
7. Ladycow, ladycow, fly thy way home.
Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone ;
All but one, that ligs under a stone.
Ply thee home, ladycow, ere it be gone.
(1842, p. 204.)
8. Ladycow, Ladycow, fly away home.
Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone ;
All but one, and he is Turn,
And he lies under the grindelstone.
(Shropshire, 1892, p. 327.)
94 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
9. Dowdy cow, dowdy cow, ride away hame.
Thy house is burnt, and thy bairns are ta'en ;
And if thou means to save thy bairns.
Take thy wings and fly away.
(N. Riding, Yorks., 1892, p. 327.)
10. Lady, lady landers, fly away to Flanders.
(Chambers, 1842, p. 43.)
11. Fly, ladybird, fly !
North, south, east, or west.
Fly to the pretty girl that I love best.
(1849, p. 5.)
12. King, king Golloway, up your wings and fly away.
Over land and over sea ; tell me where my love
can be. (Kincardineshire, 1870, p. 201.)
13. Lady cow, ladycow, fly from my hand.
Tell me where my true love stands.
Up hill and down hill and by the sea-sand.
(1892, p. 119.)
14. Bishop, Bishop, Barnabee, tell me when my wedding
will be.
If it be to-morrow day.
Ope your wings and fly away.
(Sussex, 1892, p. 119.)
16. Bishop, bishop, barnabee, tell me when my wedding
will be.
Fly to the east, fly to the west.
Fly to them that I love best.
(N. 8^ q,, I., p. 132.)
16. Burnie bee, burnie bee, say when will your wedding be.
If it be to-morrow day.
Take your wings and fly away.
(Norfolk, 1849, p. 3.)
CUSTOM RHYMES 95
17. Bless you, bless you, bonnie bee, say when will your
wedding be.
If it be to-morrow day.
Take your wings and fly away.
(M., p. 253, foot-note.)
18. God A'mighty's colly cow, fly up to heaven ;
Carry up ten pound, and bring down eleven.
(Hampshire, 1892, p. 327.)
19. This ladyfly I take from the grass.
Whose spotted back might scarlet red surpass.
Fly ladybird, north, south, or east or west.
Fly where the man is found that I love best.
(M., p. 417:, citing Brand.)
The comparison of these rhymes with their
foreign parallels, of which a number were collected
by Mannhardt, shows that a rhyme current in
Saxony is very close to ours : —
Himmelskiichlein, flieg aus !
Dein Haus brennt,
Deine kinder weinen alle miteinander.
(M., p. 349.)
" Heaven's little chicken, fly away ; thy house is on
fire, thy children are all crying."
Mannhardt was of opinion that the ladybird
rhyme originated as a charm intended to speed
the sun across the dangers of sunset, that is,
the "house on fire" or welkin of the West,
96 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
which is set aglow at sundown. Throughout
the East a prayer is still uttered to the setting
sun in order to ensure its safe return on the
morrow.
The ladybird is known by a variety of names
both in England and abroad. Among ourselves
it is identified as a cow, a bird, or a bee, while
the ladi/ of our rhymes reappears as Mary in the
German expression Marienkdfer. In Sweden the
ladybird is addressed as Jungfru Marias Nyckel-
piga, " the Lady Mary's keybearer,*" and this
expression is explained by the story that the
Virgin lost the keys of heaven, and that all the
animals helped her to look for them. They
were found by the ladybird, to whose care they
are now entrusted. The keys of heaven have
been interpreted as the lightning which opened
the floodgates of heaven. For the mother di-
vinities were credited with making the weather,
with giving rain, and with washing. This latter
association lingers in the Scottish ladybird rhyme,
in which the ladybird is addressed as landers, i.e. '
laundress (M., p. 250, foot-note).
In Potsdam they sing : —
CUSTOM RHYMES 97
Marienwormken flig furt,
Fllg fart nach Engelland !
Engelland ist zugeschlossen^
Schliissel davon abgebrochen.
(M., p. 347.)
^^ Insect of Mary, fly away, fly away to Engelland.
Engelland is locked, its key is broken."
The rhyme thus combines the idea of the keys
of heaven with Engelland^ the home of the
unborn spirits, and with Mary, to whom the insect
is dedicated.
Many of our ladybird rhymes refer to the
danger that is threatening, probably from sunset
or the direction of the West, but one person is
safe. It is little Nan, who sits weaving gold
laces. Spinning gold or silk was a prerogative of
the mother divinities who sat in heaven (Gr., 223,
M., 705). Another rhyme calls her Ann. Nan
or Ann reappears in the corresponding ladybird
rhymes of Switzerland and Swabia. In Aargau
they sing : —
Goldchaber, fliig uf, uf dine hoche Tanne,
Zue diner Muetter Anne.
Si git dir Chas und Brod,
's isch besser as der bitter Tod. (R., p. 464.)
H
J
98 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
" Gold-chafer^ up and away^ up to thy high story, to thy
Mother Anne, who gives thee bread and cheese, 'Tis better
than bitter death."
In Swabia they sing : —
Sonnevogele flieg aus,
Flieg in meiner Ahne Haus,
Bring mir Aepfel und Bire ;
Komm bald wieder. (Me., p. 24.)
'' Sunbird, fly away, fly to my ancestress' house ; bring
me apples and pears ; come back soon."
This request to the ladybird to bring down
gifts from heaven has a parallel in our rhyme
which entreats it to " carry up ten pounds, and
bring down eleven.""
According to another of our rhymes the one
who is safe at home is Tom, who lies under the
grindelstone, that is the grindstone. The ana-
lysis of the stories that are told of Tom shows
that he is related to the northern god Thor, and
that the grindstone corresponds to Thor's hammer.
Moreover, in Scandinavian folk-lore there is a
house-sprite called Tommelgubbe, literally Tom-
boy, who took offence if work was done on a
Thursday, the day sanctified to the god Thor.
The hammer of Thor was called Mjolnir, that is
CUSTOM RHYMES 99
pounder, and with it the god was busy in summer-
time in heaven, pounding ice into snow.
In an old story-book called Tom Hickathrifi,
otherwise Hickifric^ traits are preserved in con-
nection with Tom, which recall the peculiarities
of the god Thor. Tom dwelt with his mother,
who slept on straw ; there was no father. Thor
had no father; his mother was designated as
Godmor. Tom ate hugely, Thor did the same.
Tom flung his hammer into the river, Thor
measured distance by throwing his hammer.
Tom carted beer — a trait that recalls Thor''s fits
of drunkenness. On one occasion Tom made
himself a weapon by sticking an axle-tree into a
waggon-wheel, which suggests that Thor's hammer
was a flat stone mace. Likewise Tom, having
broken his club, " seized upon a lusty raw-
boned miller,"*** and used him as a weapon. Can
we hesitate from accepting that this " miller " in
a confused manner recalls the Mjolnir — that is
the hammer — of the northern god Thor ?
The analysis of the ladybird rhymes takes us
even farther afield. In Saxony they sing : —
1 Reprinted Halliwell, 1849, p. 81 ff.
100 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Flieg, Kafer, flieg, dein Vater ist im Krieg,
Deine Mutter ist in den Stiefel gekroche.
Hat das linke Bein gebroche.
(M., p. 347.)
" Fly, chafer^ fly, father has gone to war, mother has
crept into the shoe, she has broken her left leg.^'
The mother with the broken leg of this rhyme
recalls the limping mother of the Babyland game,
and the person in Drop Handkerchief, who was
bitten. The expression of "creeping into a shoe''
yields a clue to the nature of the woman of one
of our rhymes who lived in a shoe, and was op-
pressed by the number of her children. In one
form this rhyme, cited above in connection with
the tale of Mother Hubbard, describes how the
children were to all appearance dead, but were
quickened into life. This conception is allied to
the quickening into life of the babes in the
Babyland game. In its earliest printed form the
rhyme stands as follows : —
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children she didn't know what to do ;
She gave them some broth without any bread.
She whipped all their bums and sent them to bed.
(c. 1783, p. 62.)
CUSTOM RHYMiES "loi'
Those of our ladybird rhymes which call on
the insect in matters of love divination have
their closest parallels in Scandinavia. In Sweden
they sing : —
Jungfru Marias Nyckelpiga,
Flyg oster, flyg vester,
Flyg dit der bor din alskede. (1849^ P- 5.)
'* Fly, Our Lady's keybearer ! fly east, fly west, fly
where thy lover dwells."
Of the rhymes of this class, one introduces the
term GoUoway. This may be intended for Yellow
Way, the course of the sun in daytime, as distinct
from the Milky Way, the course of the stars at
night.
Another rhyme begins with the call Bishop,
bishop, which has puzzled various commentators.
I venture to suggest that the word be read Bee-
ship, and that it indicates the boat that sailed
across heaven bearing the souls of the dead, who
were figured as bees. For the spirits of those
who passed away, viewed under one aspect, were
bees, and the ship that conveyed the dead in
Norsk saga was actually designated as the
Byskip. Mannhardt, in illustration, cites a
102 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
line which the skald Egil Skallagrimssonr, whose
date is between 902 and 980, sang on his son
that had been drowned : —
Byrr es byskips i boe kominn kvanar son.
^'In the beeship there has gone the son of my wife.'^
Our commentators inaccurately translate the
expression as " City of the Hive " (C. P., I,
54<6).
According to a fancy of the Welsh bards,
Britain was peopled with bees before the arrival
of man, and this was held to account for its name,
the "Isle of Honey."
A Prussian ladybird rhyme also mentions the
boat that sailed across heaven. In Dantzig they
sing : —
Herrgotspferdchen, fliege weg,
Dein Hauschen brennt, dein Kahnchen schwimmt,
Deine Kinder schreien nacli Butterbrod ;
Herrgotspferdcben, fliege weg. (M., 349.)
'^ God Almighty's little horse, fly away, thy house is on
fire, thy boat is afloat, thy children cry for bread and
butter."
From an early period the sun was supposed to
be conveyed in a boat, and boats were associated
CUSTOM RHYMES 103
with divinities half the world over. Tacitus was
acquainted with the boat of the goddess Isis
that was conveyed about in Alexandria, and he
described the boat that was taken about in pro-
cession by the heathen Germans in their cult of
Hertha, as the boat of Isis (Gr., p. 214). The
sun-boat of Ra in Egypt conveyed the dead to
heaven. So did the golden ship of Odin in
Scandinavia, which conveyed the bodies of the
fallen warriors to Valhalla. The remembrance
of this sun-boat probably gave rise to the story
how Ikaros invented sails. It may linger still in
the " beeship " of our rhymes, and in the
" Kahnchen " of the corresponding German lady-
bird rhyme.
CHAPTER X
RIDDLE-RHYMES
AMONG other rhymes which date some way
-^^- back in history are those which may fitly
be called riddle-rhymes. Some of these have close
parallels in the nursery lore of other countries.
The most interesting example of this class is the
rhyme on Humpty-Dumpty which deals with the
egg. The egg from the earliest times formed an
enigma in itself, and was looked upon as represent-
ing the origin of life. Aristophanes knew of the
great bird that laid the world-egg. According
to Kalevala, the Finnish epic, the world-egg fell
and broke. Its upper part became the vault of
heaven, its lower part the earth. The yolk
formed the sun, the white the moon, and the
fragments of the shell became the stars in heaven.
Reminiscences of this idea of a world-egg linger
in the SenchiLS Mor of Ireland and in the Volospa
104
RIDDLE-RHYMES 105
of Norse saga. In Tibet the holy Budh is
represented holding in his hand a broken egg-shell,
on the edge of which a diminutive human being
is sometimes represented sitting. These world-
wide conceptions account for the existence of
numerous riddles that are current about the egg.
The rhyme on Humpty-Dumpty among us is
current in three variations : —
Humpty-Dumpty sate on a wall,
Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall ;
Threescore men and threescore more
Cannot place Humpty-Dumpty as he was before.
(1810, p. 36.)
Humpty-Dumpty sate on a wall,
Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall ;
All the king's soldiers and all the king's men
Cannot set Humpty-Dumpty up again.
(1842, p. 113.)
Humpty-Dumpty lay in a beck
With all his sinews around his neck ;
Forty doctors and forty wights
Couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty to rights.
(1846, p. 209.)
Many parallels of this rhyme were collected
from different parts of Europe by Mannhardt.
In these Humpty-Dumpty appears under various
names. They include Hiimpelken-Pumpelken,
106 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Runtzelken-PuntzelkeiijWirgele-Wargele, Gigele-
Gagele, and Etje-Papetje in different parts of
Germany, and Lille -Trille and Lille BuUe in
Scandinavia. The closest parallel of our rhyme
hails from Saxony, and stands as follows : —
Hiimpelken-Pumpelken sat up de Bank,
Hiimpelken-Pumpelken fel von de Bank ;
Do is ken Docter in Engelland
De Hiimpelken-Pumpelken kurere kann.
(M., p. 416.)^
"H.-P. sat on a bench, H.-P. fell from the bench;
there is no doctor in Engelland who can restore H.-P."
In Switzerland the rhyme of Humpty-Dumpty
is told of Annebadadeli. The usual answer is
an egg, but sometimes it is an icicle or a feeding-
bottle.
In Scandinavia they say : —
Lille BuUe trilla' ner a skulle ;
Ingen man i detta lan^
Lille Bulle laga kan. (1849, p. 9.)
" Little B. fell from the shelf, no man in the whole
land can restore little B."
This has a further parallel in France in a rhyme
^ Cf. also Mannhardt, Das Rdtsel vom Ei, in Zeitschrift
fiir deutsche Mytholofflet IV, 1859, p. 394 if.
RIDDLE-RHYMES 107
which reproduces the German expression Engel-
land regardless of its intrinsic meaning : —
Boulej boule su I'keyere,
Boule, bonle par terre.
Y n^a nuz homme en Angleterre
Pou I'erfaire.i
" B. b. on the bench, B. b. on the ground. There is
no man in England who can restore him."
The forty doctors of our rhyme who figure also
as twice threescore men, reappear in the German
rhyme as " no doctor in Engelland^^ as " no man
in all the land" in the Scandinavian rhyme, and
as "no man in England" literally translated, of
the French version.
In one version of our rhyme those who are
powerless to restore what is broken are described
as " all the king's soldiers and all the king's men."
This expression is also used in the riddle-rhymes
on Smoke and on the Well, which are found in
our own and in foreign nursery collections.
As round as an apple, as deep as a cup,
And all the king's horses cannot pull it up.
(The Well, 1846, p. 75.)
^ RoUand, E., Devinettes on 6nigmes poptUaires, 1877,
p. 199, from Mons.
108 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
As high as a castle^ as weak as a wastle,
And all the king's soldiers cannot pull it down.
(Smoke, 1849, p. 144.)
In Swabia they say : —
Es ist etwas in meinem Haus,
Es Ziehen es hundert tausend Gaule nicht naus.
(Me., p. 79.)
''There is something in my house, not a hundred
thousand horses can pull it out.''
The answer is "Smoke." In France they
say:— .
Qu'est-ce-qui est rond comme un de,
Et que des chevaux ne peuvent porter. ^
''What is as round as a thimble, and horses cannot
pull it.?"
The answer is " A well."*' Possibly the " king "
of these rhymes stands for the sun as the repre-
sentative of power, whose horses and men are
alike powerless.
The egg, which in these rhymes is designated
by fanciful names, in other riddle-rhymes current
abroad is described as a cask containing two kinds
of beer. A riddle was put by the god Wodan
in the character of a wayfarer to King Heidrek,
and stood as follows : —
^ Rolland, E., Devinettes on enigmes populaires, 1877,
p. 98, from Paris.
RIDDLE-RHYMES 109
" Blond - haired brides, bondswomen both,
carried ale to the barn ; the casks were not turned
with hands nor forged by hammers ; she that
made it strutted about outside the isle."" The
answer is "Eider-ducks' eggs'" (C. P., I, 89).
The egg is also likened to a cask containing beer
in a short riddle-rhyme which is current from
Lapland to Hungary. In the Faroe Islands it
takes this form : " BoUi fell from the ledge, all its
hoops fell off. There is no man in the East,
there is no man in the West, who can restore it "
(M., p. 417). In Prussia they say ; —
Kommt ein Tonu aus Engelland,
Ohne Boden, oline Band ;
1st zweierleai Bier drin. (Sim.j p. 287.)
" A cask comes from Engelland, without bottom, with-
out baud ; it contains two kinds of beer."
Among ourselves there is no riddle-rhyme,
as far as I know, which describes the egg as a cask
containing beer. But in the seventeenth century
the word Humpty-Dumpty was used to designate
a drink which consisted of ale boiled in brandy,^
and this conception obviously hangs together with
^ Murray's Dictionary : Humpty-Dumptyj
no COMPARATIVE STUDIES
the two kinds of beer of the foreign riddle-
rhymes on the egg.
Other riddle-rhymes current among ourselves
or abroad describe the egg as a house or a castle.
The following one describes it as an enigma
in itself: —
As I was going o'er London Bridge
I saw something under a hedge ;
'Twas neither jfish, flesh_, fowl, nor bone,
And yet in three weeks it runned alone.
(1846, p. 213.)
Girls in America play a game called Humpty-
Dumpty, They sit on the ground with their
skirts tightly gathered around them so as to
enclose the feet. The leader begins some rhyme,
all join in, and at a certain word previously agreed
upon, all throw themselves backwards, keeping
their skirts tightly grasped. The object is to
recover the former position without letting go
the skirt (N., p. 132).
Possibly the game is older than the riddle-
rhymes, for these rhymes describe Humpty-
Diimpty as sitting on a wall, or a bank, or a
ledge, or as lying in a beck, which for an actual
Qgg are impossible situations. They are intelli-
RIDDLE-RHYMES 111
gible on the assumption that the sport is older
than the rhyme, and that the rhyme describes
human beings who are personating eggs.
The name Humpty-Dumpty itself is one of the
large class of rhyming compounds which are
formed by the varied reduplication of the same
word. Perhaps they originally conveyed a definite
meaning. The word Humpty-Dumpty is allied
to hump and to dump^ words which express round-
ness and shortness. Another name of the kind is
Hoddy-Doddy, which occurs in the following
riddle-rhyme : —
Hoddy-Doddy with a round, black body ;
Three legs and a wooden hat, what is that ?
(1849, p. 142.)
The answer is "An iron pot."^ The word
Hoddy-Doddy in the sixteenth century was
directly used to express "a short and dumpy
person'' (1553). It was also applied to a "hen-
pecked man '' (1598).^ The meaning of shortness
and roundness is expressed also by the name of
the foreign equivalents of Humpty-Dumpty. The
1 A workman in Berkshire in 1905 repeated this riddle
to H. P.
' Murray's Dictionary : Hoddy-Doddy.
112 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
German Hiimpelken-Pumpelken, and probably
Lille BuUe of Scandinavia convey the same idea.
On the other hand, the names Wirgele-Wargele
and Gigele - Gagele suggest instability. The
Danish Lille Trille is allied to lille trblle, little
troll, that is, a member of the earlier and stumpy
race of men who, by a later age, were accounted
dwarves. These were credited in folk-lore with
sex-relations of a primitive kind, an allusion to
which seems to linger in the word Hoddy-Doddy
as applied to a hen-pecked man.
Among other rhyming compounds is the word
Hitty-Pitty, It occurs in a riddle-rhyme which
Halliwell traced back to the seventeenth century
(MS. Harl. 1962) :^
Hitty Pitty within the wall,
Hitty Pitty without the wall ;
If you touch Hitty Pitty,
Hitty Pitty will bite you.
(A nettle, 1849, p. 149.)
This verse is sometimes used in playing Hide
and SeeJc as a warning to the player who ap-
proaches the place that is "hot'' (1894, I, 211).
A variation of the word is Highty-Tighty^ which
is preserved in the following rhyme : —
RIDDLE-RHYMES 113
Highty^ tiglity, paradighty, clothed in green,
Tlie king could not read it, no more could the queen ;
They sent for a wise man out of the East,
Who said it had horns, but was not a beast.
(1842, p. 118.)
The answer is " A holly tree."
Another rhyming compound is preserved in the
riddle-rhyme on the sunbeam : —
Hick-a-more, Hack-a-more
Hung on a kitchen door ;
Nothing so long, and nothing so strong.
As Hick-a-more, Hack-a-more
Hung on the kitchen door. (1846, p. 207.)
The following riddle-rhyme preserves the word
lilly-low, which is the north-country term for the
flame of a candle : —
Lilly-low, lilly-low, set up on end.
See little baby go out at town end.
(A candle, 1849, p. 146.)
Another riddle on the candle, which also stands
in MS. Harl. 1962, and has found its way into
nursery collections, is : —
Little Nancy Etticoat with a white petticoat.
And a red nose ;
The longer she stands, the shorter she grows.
(1842, p. 114.)
I
114 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
This recalls a riddle current in Devonshire,
where the sky is called widdicote : —
Widdicote, widdicote^ over cote hang ;
Nothing so broad, and nothing so lang
As Widdicote, etc. (1892, p. 333.)
All these riddle-rhymes are based on primitive
conceptions, and all have parallels in the nursery
lore of other countries. The rhyme on Hoddy-
Doddy in Norwegian is simply descriptive ; in
France it is told in the form of words exchanged
between Noiret, " Blacky,*" the pot, and Rouget,
" Ruddy," the fire. In Italy the Pot, the Smoke,
and the Fire are described as three sisters.
Again, the riddle-rhyme on the candle is told in
Swabia and in France. But in no case are the
foreign parallels as close as in the riddle-rhyme of
Humpty-Dumpty, and in no case do they preserve
the same interesting allusions.
CHAPTER XI
CUMULATIVE PIECES
WE now turn to rhymes which dwell on
different ideas and present life under
other aspects. In these rhymes there is much on
spells, on the magic properties of numbers, and
on sacrificial hunting. A fatalistic tendency
underlies many of these rhymes, and there are
conscious efforts to avert dafiger.
The different range of ideas which are here
expressed is reflected in the form of verse in
which they are presented. While the rhymes
hitherto discussed are set in verse which de-
pends for its consistency on tail rhyme and
assonance, the pieces that deal with the magic
properties of things and with hunting, are mostly
set in a form of verse that depends for its con-
sistency on repetition and cumulation. This
difference in form is probably due to the different
115
116 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
origin of these pieces. Rhymed verse may have
originated in dancing and singing — cumulative
verse in recitation and instruction.
In cumulative recitation one sentence is uttered
and repeated, a second sentence is uttered and
repeated, then the first sentence is said ; a third
sentence is uttered and repeated, followed by the
second and the first. Thus each sentence adds
to the piece and carries it back to the begin-
ning. Supposing each letter to stand for a
sentence, the form of recitation can thus be
described : A, a ; B, b, a ; C, c, b, a ; D, d, c, b,
a ; etc. This manner of recitation is well known
among ourselves, but I know of no word to
designate it. In Brittany the form of recitation
is known as chant de grenouille, i.e. frog-chant.
A game of forfeits was known in the eighteenth
century, which was called TTie Gaping Wide-
mouthed Waddling Frog, in which the verses were
recited in exactly the same manner. We shall
return to it later. A relation doubtless exists
between this game and the French expression
frog-chant.
Among our most familiar pieces that are set in
CUMULATIVE PIECES 117
cumulative form are The Story of the Old Woman
and Her Pig and This is the House that Jack
built. They both consist of narrative, and are
told as stories. Tliis is the House that Jack
built first appeared in print as a toy-book that
was issued by Marshall at his printing office,
Aldermary Churchyard. It is illustrated with cuts,
and its date is about 1770. Perhaps the story is
referred to in the Boston News Letter (No. 183)
of 12-19 April, 1739, in which the reviewer of Tate
and Brady's Version of the Psalms remarks that this
" makes our children think of the tune of their
vulgar playsong so like it : this is the man all
forlorn.*" The sentence looks like a variation of
the line " this is the maiden all forlorn " in This
is the House that Jack built.
In 1819 there was published in London a satire
by Hone, called TTie Political House that Jack
built. It was illustrated by Cruikshank, and
went through fifty-four editions. In form it
imitates the playsong, which was doubtless as
familiar then as it is now.
The playsong in the form published by
Marshall begins : —
118 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
This is the house that Jack built, —
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built, —
This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that
Jack built, —
which is followed by the cat that killed the rat —
the dog that worried the cat — the cow that tossed
the dog — the maiden that milked the cow — the
man that kissed the maid — the priest that married
them. Here it ended. But a further line added
by Halliwell (1842, p. 222) mentioned the cock
that crowed on the morn of the wedding-day, and
a lady of over seventy has supplied me with one
more line, on the knife that killed the cock. She
tells me that she had the story from her nurse,
and that she does not remember seeing it in
print. The version she repeated in cumulative
form, told to me, ended as follows : —
This is the knife with a handle of horn,
that killed the cock that crowed in the morn,
that wakened the priest all shaven and shorn,
that married the man all tattered and torn,
unto the maiden all forlorn,
that milked the cow with a crumpled horn,
that tossed the dog over the barn,
that worried the cat that killed the rat
that ate the malt that lay in the house
that Jack built.
CUMULATIVE PIECES 119
The greater part of this piece consists of
rhymed verse, and deals with matters of court-
ship. The idea of a cock sacrificed on the
wedding-day is certainly heathen in origin, but
its introduction forms a new departure when we
come to compare this piece with its foreign
parallels and with the story of The Old Woman
and Her Pig. These pieces are all set in the
same form, and all introduce a regular sequence
of relative powers.
The Old Woman and Her Pig was first printed
by Halliwell (1842, p. 21 9). It tells how the woman
found sixpence, and how she set out for market,
and bought a pig which on the way back refused
to jump over the stile. In order to break the spell
that had fallen on it, she summoned to her aid :
dog — stick — fire — water — ox — butcher — rope —
rat — cat — cow. The cow finally gave the milk
required by the cat, which set the other powers
going, and thus enabled the woman to get home
that night. Halliwell was impressed by the an-
tiquity of this sequence, and included in his
collection a translation of a Hebrew chant which
has considerable likeness to the tale of The Old
v/
120 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Woman and Her Pig. This chant is told in the
first person. It begins : —
A kid, a kid my father bought
For two pieces of money,
A kid, a kid.
Then came the cat and ate the kid,
That my father bought.
For two pieces of money.
A kid, a kid.
(1842, p. 6.)
It further introduces dog — staff — fire — water —
ox — butcher — angel of death — Holy One.
The Hebrew chant of the kid was printed in
Venice as far back as 1609, and was made the
subject of the learned Latin dissertation De
Haedo by Probst von der Hardt in 1727
(R., p. 153). It was again discussed by P. N.
Leberecht in 1731.^ The chant forms part of the
Jewish liturgy, and is still recited in the original
Hebrew or in the vernacular as part of a religious
ceremonial at Easter. Opinions on the origin
and the meaning of the chant differ. One learned
rabbi interpreted it as setting forth how each
^ The article by Leberecht is in Ler Christliche Beform-
ator, Leipzig, 1731, XVII, 28.
CUMULATIVE PIECES 121
power in creation is kept within bounds by a
power that stands above it. It teaches how he who
goes wrong is at the mercy of one stronger than
himself. But according to another interpretation
the Father who bought the kid was Jehovah him-
self, the kid was the Hebrew, the cat represented
the Assyrians, the dog the Babylonians, and so
forth ; and the whole poem described the position
of the Jews at the time of the Crusades.
The Hebrew chant and its relation to The Old
Woman and her Pig engaged the attention of
Professor Tylor, who remarked on the solemn
ending of the Hebrew chant, which according to
him may incline us to think that we really have
before us this composition in something like its
first form. "If so," he says, "then it follows
that our familiar tale of the Old Woman who
couldn't get the kid {or pig) over the stile, must
be considered as a broken-down adaptation of
this old Jewish poem."^
But the tale of the Old Woman taken in
conjunction with This is the House that Jack
built and its numerous foreign parallels, shows
1 Tylor, E. B., Primitive Culture, II, 86.
y
122 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
that these sequences of relative powers, far from
being broken-down adaptations, are at least as
meaningful as the Hebrew chant. For the under-
lying conception in all cases is that a spell has
fallen on an object which man is appropriating to
his use. The spell extends to everything, be it
man or beast, that comes within the range of
its influence, and the unmaking of the spell
necessitates going back step by step to the point
at which it originated.
Halliwell compared a piece current in Denmark
with This is the House that Jack built : —
Der har du det haus som Jacob bygde.
'^ Here hast thou the house that Jacob built. "^
Many other versions of this tale are current
in Germany and Scandinavia. In them it is some-
times a question of a house, sometimes of corn,
oftenest of cutting oats or of garnering pears.
The cumulative form is throughout adhered to.
One German piece called 1st alles verlom^ " all is
lost," begins : —
1 Halliwell, 1849, p. 6, citing Thiele, II, 3, 146. I cannot
find this book.
CUMULATIVE PIECES 123
Es kam eiue Maus gegangeu
In unser Kornehaus,
Die nahm das Korn gefangen,
In unserm Kornehaus.
Die Maus das Korn,
1st alles verlorn
In unserm Kornehaus. (Sim., p. 266.)
''There came a mouse into our corn-house, she seized
the corn in our corn-house. The mouse, the corn, now
all is lost in our corn-house.'^
The other powers are rat, cat, fox, wolf, bear,
man, maid. This piece, like This is the House
that Jack bidlt^ ends abruptly.
Among the less primitive variations of the tale
is one recorded in Sonneberg (S., p. 102), and
another in the north of France, which both sub-
stitute the name of Peter for that of Jack, that is
a Christian name for a heathen one. In France
the piece is called La Mouche, literally " the fly,""
but its contents indicate that not mouche but the
Latin mics (mouse) was originally meant. The
tale departs from the usual form, and has a
refrain : —
Voici la maison que Pierre a batie,
II sortait un rat de sa raterie.
Qui fit rentrer la mouch' dans sa moucherie :
124 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Rat a mouchej
Belle, belle mouche
Jamais je n'ai vu si belle mouche.
(D.B., p. 116.)
^' This is the house that Peter built. A rat came out of
a rat-hole, and made the fly go into the fly-hole. Rat
to fly, lovely fly, never saw I so lovely a fly.^'
The other powers are dog, bear, man, maid,
abbot, pope, devil.
The same tale is told in Austria (V., p. 113), and
in Prussia (F., p. 197), where it is called Das
Haus vom holzemen Mann, "the house of the
wooden Man." In Prussia it is recited as a
game of forfeits. The sequence of the powers
in the one version is house, door, lock, band,
mouse, cat, dog, stick, fire, water, ox, butcher,
devil ; and in the other, house, door, lock, band,
mouse, cat, huntsman.
Jack in Germany is called Jockel, Joggeli,
Jokele. The Master who sent out Jockel is men-
tioned already in the Gargantua of Fischart,
which was published in 1575 (Chap. xxv.). The
name Jack among ourselves is applied to a person
or an object of peculiar serviceableness, as in
Jack-of-all-trades, or boot-jack. But in Germ£iny
CUMULATIVE PIECES 125
the expression "to send Jockel on an errand""
implies that this will never get done.
In Vogtland the current nursery version of this
piece begins : —
Es schickt der Herr den Gokel 'nans,
Er soil den Haber schneiden. (Du., p. 35.)
''The master sent out Gokel to cut oats."
As he failed to come back, dog, fire, water, ox,
butcher, hangman, devil, were sent after him.
In Swabia Jokele (Br., p. 44), and in Switzer-
land Joggeli, was sent to knock off pears on which
a spell had fallen. The chant in Zurich has been
traced back to the year 1769, and it begins : —
Es ist ein Baum im Gartle hinne_,
d' Birren wand niid fallen.
Do schiickt de Bur de Joggeli usen
Er soil di Birren schiitteln. (R., p. 165.)
'' There is a tree in the garden, its pears will not drop.
The peasant sent out Joggeli to knock them off."
But the pears refused to be knocked off, and
the usual sequence of powers was sent to secure
them.
The tale of Jack was current in Miinster in
Westphalia also, where it was taken over by the
126 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Church, and annually recited at the religious
procession which took place on the eve of the
feast of St. Lambert, 17 September. This was
done as late as the year 1810 (R., p. 155). The
recitation was followed or accompanied by a dance,
the purpose of which is not recorded. Perhaps
the procession stood in relation to the actual
garnering of pears, and the tale was recited in
order to secure a good harvest. In this case not
Jack, but der Jdger, " the huntsman,*" was dis-
patched to knock the pears off, and the sequence
of powers included dog, stick, fire, water, calf,
butcher, hangman, devil.
This adoption by the Church of the sequence
of powers shows that we have to do with the
remains of a heathen ritual, which found its way
into a Christian celebration, as the tale of the
kid found its way into the Easter celebration of
the Jewish Church. In both instances the
sequence of relative powers is preserved, and in
both it is question of making an object secure
for the use of man.
The same sequence of powers is preserved also
in the traditional game that is known as Dump
CUMULATIVE PIECES 127
amongf^ourselves (1894, I, 117; II, 419), and
as Club Fist in America (N., p. 134). In this
game it is also a question of building a house,
and of knocking off pears. The action of the
players, however, stands in no obvious relation to
the words that are used. Sometimes three, some-
times a number of lads, crowd together and place
their fists sideways one on the other, till they
form a pile of clenched hands. The last boy, who
has a fist free, knocks off the fists one by one,
saying :—
(In Yorkshire) "UTiat's this ? — (Answer) Dump.
(In America) What's that ? — (Answer) A pear.
Take it off or I'll knock it off.
In Shropshire all sing together : —
I've built my house, IVe built my wall ;
I don't care where my chimneys fall.
When all the fists are knocked down, the
following dialogue ensues : —
What's there.'* — Cheese and bread and a mouldy half-
penny.
Where's my share ?— I put it on the shelf, and the cat
got it.
Where's the cat ?— She's run nine miles through the wood.
Where's the wood } — T' fire burnt it.
128 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Where's the fire ? — T' water sleckt it.
Where's the water ? — T' ox drunk it.
Where's the ox ? — T' butcher killed 'em.
Wliere's the butcher.'* — Upon the church-top cracking
nuts_, and you may go and eat the shells ; and them
as speak first shall have nine nips, nine scratches,
and nine boxes on the ear. (1849, p. 128.)
Silence falls, all try not to laugh, and he who
first allows a word to escape him, is punished by
the others in the methods adopted by schoolboys.
In the Scottish game the punishment is described
as " nine nips, nine nobs, nine double douncomes,
and a good blow on the back.""
In France the same game is known as Le Pied
de Boeuf^ "the foot of the ox,"" and a scramble
of fists starts at the words -- —
Neuf, je tiens mon pied de bceuf. (Mo., p. 361.)
" Nine, 1 hold my ox's foot " ;
the number nine in this case being also men-
tioned.
The meting out of punishments by nines goes far
back in history. It was associated with a Yule-tide
sport which is still practised in Denmark and in
Schleswig, and is known as Ballerrune or Balder-
rune, Every member of the assembled company
CUMULATIVE PIECES 129
repeated a formula on "Balder Rune and his wife,"
and he who made a mistake received nine blows,
as in our game. The custom was explained by
the legend that the god Balder, incensed at his
wife''s loquacity, chastised her by giving her nine
blows, and ordered that this should be repeated
every year, so that women be reminded that it is
their duty to be silent when their husbands
speak (H., p. 44).
In the game of Dump also, it is the person who
speaks first that is punished, but there is nothing
to suggest that this was a woman, for the game is
essentially a boys' game.
The story of The Woman and her Pig {or Kid),
like that of Jack, is told over a wide geographical
area. In the Scottish version the woman lived in
a wee house and found two pennies and bought
a kid. On coming home she saw a bush and
wished to pull off its berries, and could not. She
set the kid to watch the house, and went to seek
the help of dog, stick, fire, water, ox, axe, smith,
rope, mouse, cat, milk, in her hope of breaking
the spell that had fallen on the bush. Each
animal or object refused "to do the next one
130 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
harm, saying that it never did it any harm
itself''; but the cat finally could not resist the
temptation of lapping the milk (1870, p. 57).
Thus the tale introduced a moral element which
is not found elsewhere.
In Sweden the tale of The Old Woman and her
Pig is called Konen och Grisen Fick, " the woman
and her pig Fick,'' and the pig refused to leave
off eating acorns. A similar tale is called Gossen
och Geten Ndppa, " the lad and the kid Nappa,''
(1849, p. 6). In Elsass the pig is called Schnirrchele
(St., p. 93), in Transylvania it is Mischka or
Bitschki (Sch., p. 372). And a version from the
north of France tells how Biquette got into a
cabbage-patch from which stick, fire, water, were
summoned to expel her. Biquette is described as
a kid (D., p. 122). In Languedoc Biquette re-
appears as Bouquaire-Bouquil^ who is furnished
with horns and does havoc in a millet-field from
which he is expelled with the help of wolf, dog,
stick, fire, water, ox, rope (M. L., p. 538). In all
cases the animal is one that is provided with
horns. Millet is one of the oldest cereals that
were cultivated in Europe, the displacement of
CUMULATIVE PIECES 131
which by the cultivation of corn had begun in
England when Pytheas visited these shores in the
fourth century B.C. Can the " malt" of This is
the House that Jack built stand for millet ?
A French piece is current in Rerairemont
which is called Le Coiijiirateur et le Loup^
"the magician and the wolf.'' It describes the
contest between them, and shows that the
making and unmaking of spells is involved : —
]^'y a un loup dedans le bois,
Le loup ne veut pas sortir du bois.
Ha, j' te promets, comper' Brocardj
Tu sortiras de ce lieu-la. (R., p. 162.)
''There is a wolf in the wood, the wolf will not come
out of the wood. Ha, I promise you, brother Brocard,
you will soon come out."
And the magician summons to his assistance
stick, fire, water, calf, butcher, devil, which help
him to expel the wolf.
Even more primitive than this tale is one
current in Languedoc, in which a spell has
fallen on a root or turnip, which is finally raised
by the hog. It begins: "The old woman went
into the garden in order to pull out a turnip.
132 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
When the old man saw that the old woman did
not come back, he went into the garden and saw
the old woman pulling at the turnip. The old
man pulled at the old woman, the old woman
pulled at the turnip, but the turnip stuck fast."
They were followed by daughter-in-law, son, man,
maid, and so forth, including the cat and the rat.
Finally the hog came to the rescue. Instead of
pulling like the others, he attacked the turnip
from below, and by doing so he succeeded in.
raising it, otherwise the spell would continue,
"and the root would still be holding fast" (M. L.,
p. 541).
The comparison of these various tales or pieces
shows that dog, stick, fire, water, ox, butcher,
form a sequence of powers that was accepted
over a wide geographical area. They were
invoked wherever it was question of breaking
a spell that had fallen on a coveted object, the
object including pigs, pears, oats, berries, millet,
and roots. These are products that were prized
in Europe from a remote period in antiquity.
As the products are primitive, so probably is the
form of verse in which the story is told of their
CUMULATIVE PIECES 133
being made fast. For the same form of verse
is used in a further class of pieces to which we
now turn, and which, by their contents, betray a
pre-Christian origin.
CHAPTER XII
CHANTS OF NUMBERS
A MONG our traditional games, some consist
-^^- of a dialogue in which the answer is set in
cumulative form. These include the game known
as The Twelve Days of Christmas^ which was
played on Twelfth-Day night by the assembled
company before eating mince -pies and twelfth
cake. In the game of Twelve Days each player
in succession repeated the gifts of the day, and
raised his fingers and hand according to the
number which he named. Each answer included
the one that had gone before, and forfeits were
paid for each mistake that was made. (1894, II,
315.)
The oldest printed version of the words used in
playing Twelve Days stands in one of the diminu-
tive toy-books exhibited at South Kensington
Museum by E. Pearson. These words begin :—
134
CHANTS OF NUMBERS 135
The first day of Christmas, my true love gave me
A partridge in a pear-tree.
The second day of Christmas, my true love gave me
Two turtle-doves and a partridge in a pear-tree.
And so forth, enumerating three French hens,
four colly birds, five gold rings, six geese a-laying,
seven swans a-swimming, eight maids a-milking,
nine drummers drumming, ten pipers piping,
eleven ladies dancing, twelve lords leaping.
The same game is played in Scotland, where it
is known as The Yule Days^ but is carried on to
thirteen.
The king sent his lady on the first Yule day
A papingo-aye [i.e. peacock or parrot]
Who learns my carol and carries it away ?
The king sent his lady on the second Yule day
Two partridges and a papingo-aye.
(1870, p. 42.)
On the third day he sent three plovers;
on the fourth, a goose that was grey ; on the fifth,
three starlings ; on the sixth, three goldspinks ;
on the seventh, a bull that was brown ; on the
eighth, three ducks a-merry laying ; on the ninth,
three swans a-merry swimming ; on the tenth, an
Arabian baboon ; on the eleventh, three hinds
a-merry dancing; on the twelfth, two maids a-
136 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
merry dancing ; on the thirteenth three stalks of
corn.
In Cambresis, in the North of France, the same
game is called Les dons de Van^ " the gifts of the
year,"*' but the gifts correspond in number with
the number of the day. They are : one partridge,
two turtle-doves, three wood-pigeons, four ducks
flying, five rabbits trotting, six hares a-field, seven
hounds running, eight shorn sheep, nine horned
oxen, ten good turkeys, eleven good hams, twelve
small cheeses (D. B., II, 125).
In the West of France the piece is described
as a song. It is called La foi de la hi, that is,
"the creed of authority," and is sung avec solennite.
It begins : —
La premier' parti' d'la foi de la loi,
Dit' la moi, frere Gregoire.
— Un bon farci sans os —
La deiixieme parti' d'la foi de la loi,
Dit' le moi, frere Gregoire
— Deux ventres de veau,
Un bon farci sans os. (B., II, 271.)
" The first part of the creed of authority, tell it me,
Brother Gregory. A good stuffing without bones. The
second part of the creed of authority . . . two breasts
of veal."
CHANTS OF NUMBERS 137
And so forth, enumerating three joints of beef,
four pig's trotters, five legs of mutton, six
partridges with cabbage, seven spitted rabbits,
eight plates of salad, nine plates of (? chapitre),
ten full casks, eleven beautiful full -breasted
maidens, twelve knights with their rapiers.
The same conceptions underlie a Languedoc
chant, in which the numbers are, however, caiTied
on to fifteen. The gifts in this case are made
on the first fifteen days of the month of May : —
Le prumie del mes de mai,
Qu' embouiarei a mai mio.
Uno perdic que bolo, que bolo.
(M. L., p. 486.)
" The first of the month of May, what shall I send to
my lady love ? — A partridge that flies and flies."
And similarly we read of two doves, three
white pigeons, four ducks flying in the air, five
rabbits, six hares, seven hunting dogs, eight
white horses, nine horned oxen, ten bleating
sheep, eleven soldiers coming from war, twelve
maidens, thirteen white nosegays, fourteen white
loaves, fifteen casks of wine.
The contents of these chants at first sound like
138 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
nonsense, but on looking at them more closely
one notes that the gifts which they enumerate
mostly consist of birds and beasts that are
conceived as food. We know that the weather
on Twelve Days was carefully observed, since the
weather of the months of the ensuing year was
prognosticated from that of the corresponding day
of the twelve.^ A like conception perhaps under-
lies these enumerations of food, which may refer
to the representative sports of the months.
The game of Twelve Days in a degraded form
is known as The Gaping Wide-mouthed Waddling
Frogy in which the crux likewise consists of
answering the question with rapidity and exact-
ness. But words are purposely chosen that are
difficult to enunciate and to remember. The
result is a string of nonsense. The words used
in playing The Gaping Wide-mouthed Waddling
Frog were first printed in a toy-book of the
eighteenth century. Persons who are still living
remember it in this form as a Christmas game.
As in playing Twelve Days, the players sat in
^ Frazer, loc. cit., 1900, p. 143; RoUand, Almanack des
traditions poptUaireSt 1883, Jan. 1-12.
CHANTS OF NUMBERS 139
a circle, a dialogue ensued, and the answers were
given in cumulative form. He who made a mis-
take gave a forfeit.
Buy this of me : — What is it ?
The gaping wide-mouthed waddling frog.
Buy this of me : — What is it ?
Two pudding ends will choke a dog^
With a gaping wide-mouthed waddling frog.
Buy this of me : — What is it ?
Three monkeys tied to a clog,
Two pudding ends will choke a dog, etc.
The answer to the last question stood as
follows : —
Twelve huntsmen with horns and hounds,
Hunting over other men's grounds ;
Eleven ships sailing o'er the main,
Some bound for France and some for Spain,
I wish them all safe home again ;
Ten comets in the sky.
Some low and some high ;
Nine peacocks in the air,
I wonder how they all came there,
I do not know and I don't care ;
Eight joiners in joiner's hall
Working with their tools and all.
Seven lobsters in a dish.
As fresh as any heart could wish ;
Six beetles against the wall [or six spiders in the wall].
Close by an old woman's apple stall ;
140 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Five puppies by our bitch Ball
Who daily for their breakfast call ;
Four horses stuck in a bog ;
Three monkeys tied to a clog ;
Two pudding ends would choke a dog ;
With a gaping wide-mouthed waddling frog.
Many rhymes that originated in these nonsense
verses have found their way into nursery collec-
tions. Halliwell printed the following lines as a
separate nursery rhyme : —
Eight ships on the main,
^ I wish them all safe back again ;
Seven eagles in the air,
I wonder how they all came there ;
I don't know, nor I don't care.
Six spiders on the wall.
Close to an old woman^s apple stall ;
Five puppies in Highgate hall.
Who daily for their breakfast call ;
Four mares stuck in a bog.
Three monkeys tied to a log.
Two pudding ends will choke a dog.
With a gaping wide mouthed waddling frog.
(1842, p. 246.)
Halliwell also printed some utterly debased
rhymes, in which, however, numbers are still
combined with the objects that are named»
Among these rhymes is the following : —
CHANTS OF NUMBERS 141
One old Oxford ox opening oysters ;
Two teetotums totally tired of trying to trot to Tad-
bury ;
Three tall tigers tippling tenpenny tea ;
Four fat friars fanning fainting flies ;
And so on to
Twelve typographical typographers typically translat-
ing types. (1846, p. 111.)
Other rhymes of this kind depend for their
consistency on alliteration only, such as : —
Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round,
A round roll Robert Rowley rolled round ;
Where rolled the round roll Robert Rowley rolled
round. (1842, p. 128.)
Robert Rowley is perhaps a name for thunder,
since a rhyme recited in the North of England as
a charm against thunder is : —
Rowley, Rowley, Rattley-bags ;
Take the lasses and leave the lads.
(1876, p. 15.)
Another rhyme of this class begins : —
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, etc.
(1842, p. 129.)
And the time-honoured rhyme, "When a
twister a twisting," etc., has been traced back bv
142 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Halliwell to a collection of 1674. This has a
French parallel : —
Si un cordonnier accordant veut accorder sa corde,
etc.
I do not know if the English or the French
version is the older one.
CHAPTER XIII
CHANTS OF THE CREED
THE game of Twelve Days^ especially in one
French version, shows that instruction was
conveyed by the cumulative mode of recitation.
There are many pieces enlarging on matters
of belief — Hebrew, Christian, Dniidical, and
heathen — which in the same way associate num-
bers with objects. The comparison of these pieces
suggests that they are all derived from one
original source. They may fitly be termed
Chants of the Creed.
One of these cumulative chants is included in
the Hebrew service for the night of the Passover,
which is called Echod mi j odea, "He who knows." ^
It is recited to a monotonous tune after the
return of the family from celebration, either by
^ Tylor, E. B., Primitive Culture, I, 87, citing Mendes,
Service for the First Nights of the Passcwer, 1862.
143
144 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
the master of the house or by the assembled
company. The dialogue form, I am told, is no
longer observed. The piece begins : —
Who knoweth One ? — Ij saith Israel, know One.
One is God, who is over heaven and earth.
Who knoweth Two ? — I, saith Israel, know Two.
Two tahles of the covenant ; hut One is our God who
is over the heavens and the earth ..."
And so forth to the last verse, which is as
follows : —
Who knoweth thirteen?— I, saith Israel, know thir-
teen : Thirteen divine attributes — twelve tribes — eleven
stars — ten commandments — nine months preceding child-
birth— eight days preceding circumcision — seven days of
the week— six books of the Mishnah — five books of the
Law — four matrons — three patriarchs — two tables of the
covenant — but One is our God, who is over the heavens
and the earth.
The same chant adapted to matters of Chris-
tian belief, but carried only from one to twelve,
is current also in Latin, Italian, Spanish, French,
German, and Danish. Among ourselves it is set
as a song. But the objects which are associated
with the numbers are not uniformly the same,
and this renders it probable that the chants were
composed independently of one another. This
CHANTS OF THE CREED 145
view is supported by the fact that some of the
items that are named in the Christian chants are
not Christian, and are, in fact, identical with the
items named in the entirely heathen chants.
The Latin version of the Chant of the Creed has
been traced back to the second half of the six-
teenth century. Its words were set to music in a
motet for thirteen voices by Theodor Clinius
(d. 1602), a Venetian by birth (E., p. 408).
Another Latin version of the chant goes back
to 1650. The chant begins : —
Die mihi quid unus ?
— Unus est Jesus Cliristus [or Deus] qui regnat in
aeternum [or coelis]. (A., I, 420.)
'' Tell me^ what is One ? One is Jesus Christ [or God]
who reigns in eternity [or in heaven]."
The answers further explain two as the testa-
ments, three as the patriarchs, four as the evan-
gelists, five as the books of Moses, six as the
water-jugs of Cana in Galilee, seven as the gifts
of the spirit {or the candelabra lit before God),
eight as the beatitudes, nine as the orders (or
choirs of the angels), ten as the commandments,
eleven as the disciples (or stars seen by Joseph),
146 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
twelve as the articles of the faith {or the
apostles).
The Chant of the Creed as recited in Spain
(A., II, 142) is set in the same form, and ex-
plains the numbers in much the same manner,
except that six are the days of the Creation, and
eleven are eleven thousand virgins. Another
version (A., II, 104) associates the Virgin with
one, the three Maries with three, while nine, like
the Hebrew chant, indicates the months of ex-
pectancy of the Virgin. In a Portuguese version
also, nine are the months of Christ's becoming,
and eleven are eleven thousand virgins (A., II,
102).
Throughout Italy and in Sicily the Chant of
the Creed is known as Le dodici parole delta
Veritd, " the twelve words of truth." They are
generally put into the lips of the popular saint,
Nicolas of Bari, who is said to have defeated the
evil intentions of Satan by teaching them. ITiese
Italian chants for the most part agree with the
Latin chant already cited, except that two in
the Abruzzi is associated with the sun and the
moon ; five is explained as the wounds of Jesus
CHANTS OF THE CREED 147
or of St. Francis, and eleven stands for the
articles of the Catholic faith (A., I, 419 ; H, 97).
In Denmark the Chant of the Creed is put into
the lips of St. Simeon, and begins : —
Stat op, Sante Simeon, og sig mig, hvad een er ?
"Stand forth, St. Simeon, and tell me, what is one."
The explanations in this case are strictly Christian,
Jesus Christ standing for One. The souls saved
by God from the ark {sjaelefrelste Gud udi Arken)
stand for eight (Gt., II, 68).
In Languedoc also the chant is current in a
Christian adaptation which agrees with the Latin,
except that the Trinity stands for three ; the
wounds of Jesus, as in the Italian chant, stand
for five ; the lights in the temple stand for six ;
and the joys of our Lady stand for seven (M. L.,
p. 478).
From Europe the Chant of the Creed has been
carried to Canada, where a version is sung in
French to a monotonous tune in four beats at a
formal kind of dance, called a ronde religieiise — a
religious round. To this dance six couples stand
up; each dancer represents a number. To the
148 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
sound of their singing they move in a chain, each
person turning first to the right, then to the left.
When number six is reached in singing, and every
time that six recurs in the chant, the dancing
stops, and to the words "*i^ urnes de vin rem-
plies^ the dancers who represent even numbers
turn first to the right, then to the left, and make
a deep bow, while those that represent uneven
numbers perform the same ceremony the other
way about (G., p. 298). Then the dancing is
resumed. This figure, judging from the descrip-
tion, exactly corresponds to the Grand Chain in
Lancers, except that six couples dance instead
of four or eight.
In the Canadian chant the explanations of the
numbers are all Christian, except that for eleven
they say eleven thousand virgins, which agrees
with the virgins of the Spanish and Portuguese
chants. These eleven thousand virgins are men-
tioned also in a version of the chant current in
Ziirich, which, unlike the others, carries the
numbers to fifteen. It enumerates Christian
matters similar to those already named as far
as nine choirs of angels, and further associates
CHANTS OF THE CREED 149
ten with thousands of knights, eleven with thou-
sands of virgins, the apostles with twelve, the
disciples with thirteen, the helpers in need (Not-
helfer) with fourteen, the mysteries with fifteen.
This chant is set in the old way of question and
answer, and the answers are recited in cumulative
form (R., p. 268).
The Chant of the Creed in a late development
is preserved in the form of a religious poem
among ourselves which is called A New Dyall.
Two versions of it are preserved in the MS.
Harleian 5937, which dates from about the year
1625. They have been printed by F. S. A.
Sandys among his Christmas Carols. The refrain
of the one recalls the celebration of Twelve
Days : —
In those twelve days^ in those twelve days^ let us be
glad.
For God of His power hath all things made.
In both pieces the dialogue form is dropped,
and there is no attempt at cumulation.
One God, one baptism, and one faith.
One truth there is the Scripture saith ;
150 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Two Testaments^ the old and new.
We do acknowledge to be true ;
Three persons are in Trinity,
Which make one God in Unity ;
Four sweet evangelists there are
Christ's birth, life, death, which do declare ;
Five senses like five kings, maintain
In every man a several reign ;
Six days to labour is not wrong,
For God Himself did work so long ;
Seven liberal arts has God sent down
With divine skill man's soul to crown ;
Eight in Noah^s ark alive were found.
When (in a word) the World lay drowned.
Nine Muses (like the heaven's nine spheres)
With sacred tunes entice our ears ;
Ten statutes God to Moses gave
Which, kept or broke, do spoil or save ;
Eleven with Christ in heaven do dwell,
The twelfth for ever burns in hell ;
Twelve are attending on God's Son ;
Twelve make our Creed, *^ the dyall's done." ^
The objects named in this poem agree in most
cases with those of the Latin chant, but six, there
associated with the water-jugs in Cana of Galilee,
is here associated with the days of the Creation,
which correspond with the six days of the Creation
of the Spanish Chant of the Creed, and with the
six working days of the week of a heathen dia-
1 Sandys, F. S. A. : Christmas Carols, p. 59 S.
CHANTS OF THE CREED 151
logue story to which we shall return later. The
number eight is here associated with the persons
saved in the ark of Noah, as in the Chant of the
Creed which is current in Denmark.
CHAPTER XIV
HEATHEN CHANTS OF THE CREED
WE now turn to those versions of the Chant
of the Creed which are heathen in char-
acter. Again we have versions before us in the
vernacular of Brittany, Spain, Scotland, and
several set in the form of songs that are current
in different parts of England.
The most meaningful and elaborate versions of
the chant come from Brittany. One is called
Les vepres des grenouilles. It is set in the form
of instruction, and begins : —
Can caer, Killore. lolic, petra faot dide ?
Caera traic a gement orizoud ti. (L., Ij p. 95.)
" Chant well, Killore. lolic, what shall I sing .'* — The
most beautiful thing thou knowest."
And it enumerates, " One silver ring to Mary,
two silver rings, three queens in a palace, four
acolytes, five black cows, six brothers and six
HEATHEN CHANTS 153
sisters, seven days and seven moons, eight beaters
of the air, nine armed sons, ten ships on the
shore, eleven sows, twelve small swords." This
combination of objects with numbers from one
to twelve agrees most closely with the enumera-
tion of the game of Twelve Days.
The longer version of the Breton chant was
interpreted by its editor as a chant of instruction,
and he claimed for it a Druidical origin. It
begins : —
Beautiful child of the Druid^ answer me right well.
— What would'st thou that I should sing ? —
Sing to me the series of number one, that I may learn
it this very day.
— There is no series for one^ for One is Necessity alone,
the father of death, there is nothing before and
nothing after.
And we read of two as oxen yoked to a cart ;
of three as the beginning, the middle, and the
end of the world for man and for the oak ; also
of the three kingdoms of Merlin ; of four as the
stones of Merlin for sharpening the swords of the
brave ; of five as the terrestrial zones, the divisions
of time, the rocks on one sister {sic) ; of six as
154 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
babes of wax quickened into life through the
power of the moon ; of seven as the suns, the
moons, and the planets, including La Poule (i.e.
the constellation of Charles's Wain ; of eight as
the winds that blow, eight fires with the great
fire lighted in the month of May on the War
Mountain ; of nine as little white hands near the
tower of Lezarmeur, and as maidens who groan ;
of nine also as maidens who dance with flowers
in their hair and in white robes around the
well by the light of the moon; 'the wild sow
and her young at the entrance to their lair, are
snorting and snarling, snarling and snorting;
little one, little one, hurry to the apple-tree, the
wild boar will instruct you ' ; of ten as the enemy's
boats on the way from Nantes, ' woe to you, woe
to you, men of Vannes'; of eleven as priests
'coming from Vannes with broken swords and
blood-stained garments, and crutches of hazel-
wood, of three hundred only these eleven ones
are left ' ; of twelve as months and signs, ' Sagit-
tarius, the one before the last, lets fly his pointed
arrow. The twelve signs are at war. The black
cow with a white star on her forehead rushes
HEATHEN CHANTS 155
from the forest (des despouilUs) pierced by a
pointed arrow, her blood flows, she bellows with
raised head. The trumpet sounds, fire and
thunder, rain and wind. No more, no more,
there is no further series.'' (H. V., p. 1.)
The contents of this chant in several particulars
agree with the shorter one. Seven stands for
days, eight for winds, and ten for boats.
A similar chant comes from Spain, which gives
the answers with a curious variation. For in this
case most of the numbers are explained as one
less of one kind and one more of another. Thus
one stands for the Wheel of Fortune; two for
one clock and bell; three for the handle of a
mortar (? la mano del almiles) ; four for three
basins and one dish ; five for three jars of red
wine and two of white (or for the wounds of
St. Francis) ; six for the loves you hold (amores
que teiieis) ; seven for six cassocks and a cape ;
eight for seven butchers and one sheep; nine
for eight hounds and one hare ; ten for the toes ;
eleven for ten horsemen and one leader (breva,
.?acorn) ; twelve are probably pigs.
Exactly as in the other chants the numbers
156 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
are set in question and answer, the answer being
in cumulative form : —
Quien me dira que no es una ? —
La rued de la fortuna. (Ma._, p. 68.)
" Who will tell me what is one ? — One is the Wheel of
Fortune," and so forth.
In this Spanish version there is the alternative
of associating five with the jars of wine of Cana
or with the wounds of St. Francis, both of which
are Christian conceptions that occur in the Chris-
tian chants — the wounds of St. Francis in the
Italian chant, and the jugs of wine, six in
number, in the chant as it is sung and danced
in Canada. Christian conceptions are also intro-
duced into some of the numerous versions of the
heathen Chants of the Creed that are current
among ourselves, but they are relatively few, and
by their nature suggest a change from heathen
to Christian matters of belief.
The oldest version of this chant was printed
by Chambers from an unpublished collection of
songs by P. Buchan. It is in dialogue form,
and, as in the case of the Druidical chants, its
HEATHEN CHANTS 157
words indicate a teacher who is instructing his
pupils : —
1. We will a' gae sing, boys.
Where will we begin, boys ?
We'll begin the way we should.
And we'll begin at ane, boys.
O, what will be our ane, boys ?
O, what will be our ane, boys ?
— My only ane she walks alane,
And evermair has dune, boys.
2. Now we will a' gae sing, boys ;
Where will we begin, boys ?
Well begin where we left aff.
And we'll begin at twa, boys.
What will be our twa, boys ^
— 'Twa's the lily and the rose
That shine baith red and green, boys.
My only ane she walks alane.
And evermair has dune, boys.
3. Now we will a' gae sing, boys, . . . etc.
What will be our three, boys ?
Three, three thrivers. . . . etc.
(1870, p. 44.)
Four's the gospel-makers, five's the hymnlers o' my
bower, six the echoing waters, seven's the stars in heaven,
eight's the table rangers, nine's the muses of Parnassus,
ten's the commandments, eleven's maidens in a dance,
twelve's the twelve apostles.
Further variations of this chant have been re-
158 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
covered in Dorsetshire, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Nor-
folk, and elsewhere. Many of them at the close
of each line insert the interjection 0 in the place
of the word bo?/s. This drew the suggestion
from Dr. Jessopp that the song was connected
with the so-called Seve7i great Os, a song sung at
vespers diu-ing Advent before the Magnificat
from 16 December to Christmas Eve. It took
its name from the first line in the song, which
begins O Sapient'ia.
The Dorsetshire version is still sung at Eton,
and is known as "Green grow the rushes oh,"
the words that form the chorus : —
Solo : I'll sing you one oh !
Chorus : Green grow the rushes oh !
What is your one oh ?
Solo : One is one and all alone
And ever more shall be so.^
The same order is observed for the next verse,
the soloist explaining two, the chorus adding
one, and so forth. In this version we have two
lily-white boys, three rivals, four gospel makers,
five symbols at your door, six proud walkers, seven
* Byrne, S. R., Camp Chortises, 1891, p. 91.
HEATHEN CHANTS 159
stars in the sky, eight bold rainers, nine bright
shiners, ten commandments, eleven for the eleven
that went up to heaven, twelve for the twelve
apostles.
A Chant of the Creed is sung in Cornwall by
the sailors, and begins : —
Come and I will sing you !
— What will you sing me ?
I will sing you one, oh !
— What is your one, oh !
Your one is all alone.
And ever must remain so.
The explanations which follow are very cor-
rupt. Two are lily-white maids clothed all in
green, oh ! ; three are bright shiners ; four are
gospel-makers ; five are the ferrymen in a boat
and one of them a stranger; six is the cheerful
waiter ; seven are the stars in the sky ; eight are
the archangels ; nine are the bold rainers ; ten
are the commandments ; eleven went up to heaven ;
twelve are the apostles.^
In Derbyshire the chant is associated with the
harvest festival, and takes the form of a drinking
1 Lang, A., "At the Sign of the Ship," in The Gentle-
man's Magazine, January, 1889, p. 328.
160 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
song. It begins with three, but the explanations
of one and two are preserved in the last verse,
in which the song is carried back to its real
beginning : —
Plenty of ale to-night, my boys, and then I will sing you.
What will you sing ? — I'll sing you three oh.
What is the three O? . . .
The last verse enumerates : — Twelve apostles ;
eleven archangels ; ten commandments ; nine
bright shiners; eight, the Gabriel riders; seven
golden stars in heaven ; six came on the board ;
five by water ; four Gospel rhymers ; three threble
thribers; two lily-white maids and one was
dressed in green O.^
ITiis version of the chant was sung or recited
at harvest-time in Norfolk also, and began : —
A : I'll sing the one O.
B : What means the one O ?
A : When the one is left alone^ No more can be seen O !
C : 1^11 sing the two Os.
D : What means the two Os ?
Two's the lily-white boys — three's the rare O — four's
the gospel makers — five's the thimble in the bowl — six is
the provokers — seven's the seven stars in the sky — eight
1 Addy, S. O., "Two Relics of Enghsh Paganism," in
The Gentleman's Magaziney July, 1890, p. 46.
HEATHEN CHANTS l6l
is the bright walkers — nine's the gable rangers— ten's the
ten commandments — ^leven's the 'leven evangelists —
twelve's the twelve apostles.*
The version current in Herefordshire is pre-
served as far as number eight only : —
Eight was the crooked straight.
Seven was the bride of heaven.
Six was the crucifix.
Five was the man alive.
Four was the lady's bower [or lady bird, or lady, or
lady's birth ?],
Three was the Trinity,
Two was the Jewry,
One was God to the righteous man
To save our souls to rest. Amen.^
Some of our nursery rhymes which are non-
sensical represent these lines in a further degrada-
tion : —
One, two, three, four, five,
I caught a hare alive ;
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
I let her go again, (c. 1783, p. 48.)
And the following, in which " sticks " takes the
* Jessopp, •' A Song in Arcady," in Longman's Magazine,
June, 1889, p. 187.
^ From Stoke Prior, Herefordshire, in Addy, S. O.,
Household Tales and Traditional Remains^ 1895, p. 150.
M
162 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
place of crucifia:, while " straight ^ recalls crooked
straight : —
One, two, buckle my shoe,
Three, four, shut the door,
Five six, pick up sticks.
Seven, eight, lay them straight. (1810, p. 30).
The rhyme is sometimes continued as far as
twenty : —
Nine, ten, a good fat hen.
Eleven, twelve, who shall delve .'* etc.
The tabulation of the explanations of numbers
of these various songs will give an idea of the
degradation to which words are liable, when they
have lost their meaning. It shows also that some
information can be recovered from comparing
what is apparently nonsensical.
One. — Scotland : One all alone.
Dorset : One is one and all alone.
Cornwall : Is all alone and ever must remain so.
Derbyshire : One was dressed in green O.
Norfolk ; One left alone no more can be seen O.
Hereford : One was God to the righteous man.
Two. — Sc. : Lilly and rose.
Dt. : Lilly white boys.
C. : Lilly white maids clothed in green.
Db. : Lilly white maids.
N. : Lily white boys.
H. : Jewry.
HEATHEN CHANTS l63
Three. — Sc. : Thrivers.
Dt. : Rivals.
C. : Bright shiners.
Db. : Threble thribers.
N. : Rare O.
H. : Trinity.
Four. — Sc. : Gospelmakers.
Dt.
C.
Db. : Gospelrhymers.
N. : Gospelmakers.
H. : Lady's bower.
Five. — Sc. : Hymnlers of my bower.
Dt. : Symbols at your door.
C. : Ferrymen in a boat and one a stranger.
Db. : By water.
N. : Thimble in a bowl.
H. : Man alive.
Sia^. — Sc. : Echoing waters.
Dt. : Proud walkers.
C. : Cheerful waiter.
Db. : Came on board.
N. : Provokers.
H. : Crucifix.
Seven.
-Sc.
: Stars in heaven.
Dt.
: Stars in the sky.
C.
ff >>
Db.
: Golden stars.
N.:
Stars in the sky.
H.:
Bride of heaven.
164 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Eight. — Sc. : Table rangers.
Dt. : Bold rainers.
C. : Archangels.
Db. : Gabriel riders.
N. : Bright walkers.
H. : Crooked straight.
Nine. — Sc. : Muses.
Dt. : Bright shiners.
C. : Bold rainers.
Db. : Bright shiners.
N. : Gable rangers.
Ten. — Sc. : Commandments.
Dt.
C.
Db.
N.
Eleven. — Sc. ; Maidens in a dance,
Dt. : Went up to heaven.
C. ,i )i
Db. : Archangels.
N. : Evangelists.
Twelve. — Sc. : Apostles.
C.
Db.
N.
From this table we see that the thrivers of
Scotland are threhle thribers in Derbyshire. These,
according to the explanation of Addy, are the three
HEATHEN CHANTS l65
Norns or white ladies,^ and this view is supported
by the three queens of the one Breton chant,
wliich probably suggested The Three Maries of
the one Spanish version.
Again, the table rangers of the Scottish song
are Gabriel riders^ otherwise known as Gabriel
hounds or gabbe ratches in Derbyshire. Gabriel
hounds is a word applied to the winds. The winds
are also associated with eight in the one Breton
chant. In Cornwall bj'ight shiners are associated
with three, but in Dorsetshire and Derbyshire
bright shiners are associated with nine, and nine
is the number of maidens in one Breton chant
also. We are reminded of the priestesses who
were devoted to religious rites on some island
of the Atlantic, perhaps Ushant, off Brittany,
when Pytheas, in the fourth century before Christ,
visited these shores. Nine of them attended a
famous oracle, and professed to control the
weather.
The interest of these chants is increased when
we compare them with what folk-lore preserves
on the subject. The followers of Mohammed
1 Addy, S. O., loc. cit, p. 150.
166 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
tell a tale which describes how a rich man
promised a poor man his ox if he could explain
to him the numbers, and the following dialogue
ensued : —
What is one and not two ? — God is one.
What is two and not three ? — Day and night [or the sun
and the moon].
And further : three for divorces from one's wife ;
four for the Divine books (i.e. the Old and New
Testament, the Psalter and the Koran) ; five for
the states of Islam ; six for the realms in Nizam ;
seven for the heavens that surround the throne
of God (A., II, 230).
The same story in a more primitive form is
told in Ditmarschen, a district bordering on
Holstein, in which also the numbers are carried
to seven only. But in this case a peasant's
property stood forfeited to the "little man in
grey," unless he found an explanation to the
numbers. He despaired of doing so, when Christ
intervened and instructed him as follows : —
One stands for wheelbarrow ; two stands for a
cart ; three for a trivet ; four for a waggon ; five
stands for the fingers of the hand; six for the
HEATHEN CHANTS l67
working days of the week ; seven for the stars of
the Great Bear. And the peasant remained in
the possession of his goods (R., p. 137).
More primitive still is the story as told in
Little Russia. In this case a man bartered away
his soul for six pigs. After three years the devil
came to fetch him. But the devil was met by an
old, old man who successfully cheated him of his
due. The dialogue between them was : " Who is
in the house.? — One and not one (that is two).
And how about two ? — It is well to thrash two at
a time. It is well to travel three at a time. He
who has four has a waggon. He who has five sons
has company. Six pigs the devil had, but he left
them with a poor man, and now he has lost them
forever"(A., II, 227).
The comparison of these stories with the
Chants of the Creed shows that the dialogue
stories are older in contents, and probably in
form also, than the cumulative pieces. In both,
superhuman power is conveyed by associating
numbers with objects. This power in the dia-
logue pieces is attributed to the " little man in
grey '' of the German piece, who may be intended
168 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
for Death, and to the devil in the Russian piece.
In the pieces where numbers are associated with
Christian articles of belief, the superhuman power
is attributed to a popular saint, viz. St. Simeon
in Denmark and St. Nicholas in Italy, who make
use of their power to overcome Satan.
The dialogue stories explain the numbers only
as far as six or seven. This in itself indicates
that they are relatively early. Some of the ex-
planations they contain reappear in the cumulative
Chants of the Creed, both in their Christian
and in their heathen variations. Thus the " one
wheel"" of the wheelbarrow in the German dia-
logue story, reappears as the Wheel of Fortune
in the Spanish chant, and as the " One that walks
alone " of the Scottish chant. Perhaps this idea
underlies the one O, or circle of our late English
songs also. Two in the dialogue story is ex-
plained as a cart ; one Breton Chant of the Creed
associates two with an ox-cart also. In the
Mohammedan dialogue story two is explained as
the sun and moon, and this explanation reappears
in the Christian chant as sung in the Abruzzi.
Six, which the German dialogue story explains as
HEATHEN CHANTS I69
the working days of the week, has the same mean-
ing in our song of the New DyalL Seven, which
the German dialogue story associates with the con-
stellation of Charles's Wain, reappears as La
Poule in the Breton Chant of the Creed, as seven
bright shiners in our English songs, and as the
stars seen by Joseph in the Latin Chant.
These points of likeness cannot be due to mere
chance ; they indicate a relationship between all
the pieces which associate objects with numbers.
There has been some discussion as to which
Chant of the Creed has the greater claim to
priority — whether the Breton was based on the
Christian, or the Christian on the Hebrew, and
how these stand in relation to the various heathen
chants. But the analysis of these pieces renders
it probable that they are all derived from an
earlier prototype, and this prototype is perhaps
to be sought in the dialogue stories. For in the
Chants of the Creed the explanations of the
numbers are often abstract in meaning, whereas
in the dialogue pieces they are simple objects,
mostly wheels or circles, which may well have
appeared magical in themselves to the primitive
170 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
mind. Again, the purpose of the Chants of the
Creed is to convey religious instruction as a
protection against the devil, while in the dialogue
stories in the last instance the theme is the
acquisition of pigs, and pigs were esteemed
valuable possessions from a remote period of
antiquity.
CHAPITER XV
SACRIFICIAL HUNTING
MANY nursery rhymes and pieces relate to
sacrificial hunting. This hunting goes
back to the time when certain animals were
looked upon as tabu in that they were generally
held in reverence, and ill-luck befell him who
wittingly or unwittingly did them harm. At the
same time one animal of the kind was periodically
slain. It was actually killed, but its spirit was
held to be incarnate in other creatures of its kind,
and it therefore continued to be spoken of as
alive.
The custom of killing the divine animal belongs ^ '^
to an early stage of social evolution, since it
stands in no relation to agriculture, and perhaps
took rise before men tilled the soil. The animal
that was slaughtered was generally looked upon
as the representative of a certain clan, or as
171
172 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
constituting the bond between a number of
kinsmen.^
Among the creatures that were sacrificially
hunted in different parts of Western Europe were
a number of small birds. Many of our nursery
pieces relate to the hunting of the wren. A
peculiar importance was attached to this bird from
a remote period in antiquity, possibly on account of
the golden crest worn by one kind of these birds.
This importance was expressed by the term "little
king." In- Greek the wren was /BacnXlcrKog^ in
Latin he was regulus or rex avium. In France he
is roitelet ; in Italy he is reatino ; in Spain he is
reyezuolo ; in Germany he is zaunkonig ; in Wales
he is hren^ a word allied to our wren. The sacri-
fice of a bird that was so highly esteemed, must
have a deeper significance. Possibly his sacrifice
was accepted in the place of the periodical sacri-
fice of the real king, a primitive custom which
dates far back in history. If so, the practice of
slaying the wren represents the custom of killing
the king "of the woods'" at a later stage of
development.
1 Frazer, J. G., The Golden Bough, 1900, II, 442 if.
SACRIFICIAL HUNTING 173
The designation of king as applied to the wren
naturally called for an explanation. It was
accounted for by the story according to which
the birds challenged one another as to who could
fly highest. The eagle flew higher than the other
birds, but the diminutive wren hid beneath his
wing, and, being carried up by the eagle, started
on his own flight when the eagle tired, and
so proved his superiority (Ro., II, 293). The
story dates from the period when cunning was
esteemed higher than brute force, and when
cheating was accepted as a legitimate way of
showing one's powers. Among the fairy tales of
Grimm one tells how the wren, whose young had
been spoken of disrespectfully by the bear,
challenged the four-footed beasts of the forest,
and by a similar strategem proved his superiority
over them also (No. 152). Thus the kingship of
the wren extended to the four-footed as well as to
the feathered tribes.
The lines that celebrate the Hunting of the
Wren are included in several of the oldest nursery
collections. They depend for their consistency on
repetition ; there is no attempt at cumulation.
y
174 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
In the collection of 1744 the piece stands as
follows : —
I
We will go to the wood, says Robbin to Bobbin,
We will go to the wood, says Richard to Robbin,
We will go to the wood, says John and alone.
We will go to the wood, says everyone.
II
We will shoot at a wren, says Robbin to Bobbin,
We will shoot at a wren, says Richard to Robbin, etc.
Til
She's down, she's down, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.
IV
How shall we get her home, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.
V
We will hire a cart, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.
VI
Then hoist, hoist, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.
VII
She's up, she's up, says Robbin to Bobbin, etc.
In the collection of 1783 there is an additional
verse : —
So they brought her away after each pluck'd a feather.
And when they got home shar'd the booty together.
(c. 1783, p. 20.)
SACRIFICIAL HUNTING 1?5
Another version of this chant from Scotland is
included in Herd's collection of songs, which goes
back to 1776.^ In this the wren "is slayed,"
" conveyed home in carts and horse,'' and is got in
by " driving down the door cheeks." The charac-
ters in this case are Fozie Mozie, Johnie Red-
nosie, Foslin 'ene, and brethren and kin. The
song ends : —
VIII
I'll hae a wing, quo' Fozie Mozie,
Pll hae anither, quo' Johnie Rednosie,
I'll hae a leg, quo' Foslin 'ene,
And I'll hae another, quo' brither and kin.
In the toy-book literature of the eighteenth
century I have come across the expression, " They
sang the Fuzzy Muzzy chorus," which may be
related to these names.
Another variation of the chant sung in Car-
marthenshire ^ is set in the form of a dialogue,
and the fact is insisted on that the hunt shall be
carried out in the old way in preference to the
new : —
* Herd, David, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, re-
print, 1869, II, 210.
"^ Mason, M. H., Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs,
1877, p. 47.
176 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
I
Oj where are you goings says Milder to Malder,
O, I cannot tell, says Festel to Fose,
We're going to the woods, says John the Red Nose,
We're going to the woods, says John the Red Nose.
II
O, what will you do there ? says Milder to Malder . . .
I We'll shoot the Cutty Wren, says John the Red Nose. |
III
O, how will you shoot her . . .
I With cannons and guns, etc. \
IV
O, that will not do . . .
I With arrows and bows, etc. \
O, how will you bring her home . . .
I On four strong men's shoulders, etc. |
VI
O, that will not do . . .
I In waggons and carts, etc. \
VII
O, what will you cut her up with ? . . .
I With knives and forks, etc. \
VIII
O, that will not do . . .
I With hatchets and cleavers, etc. \
IX
O, how will you boil her ? . . .
I In kettles and pots, etc. \
SACRIFICIAL HUNTING 177
O, that will not do . . .
1 In cauldrons and pans^ etc. \
XI
O, who'll have the spare ribs, says Milder to Malder,
O, I cannot tell, says Festel to Fose,
We'll give them to the poor, says John the Red Nose,
We'll give them to the poor, says John the Red Nose.
Further variations of the chant have been re-
covered from the Isle of Man and from Ireland,
where the hunt is kept up to this day. In the
Isle of Man it used to take place on 24 December,
though afterwards on St. Stephen's Day, that is
27 December, which according to the old reckon-
ing was the beginning of the New Year.^ On this
day people left the church at midnight and then
engaged in hunting the wren. When the bird
was secured, it was fastened to a long pole with
its wings extended, and it was carried about in
procession to the singing of the chant : —
We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin.
1 Waldron, Description of the Isle of Man, reprint 1865,
p. 49 ; also Train, T., History of the Isle of Man, 1845, II,
126.
178 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
This chant further describes that the bird was
hunted with sticks and stones, a cart was hired,
he was brought home, he was boiled in the
brewery-pan, he was eaten with knives and forks,
the king and the queen dined at the feast, and
the pluck went to the poor.
The behaviour of the huntsmen was not, how-
ever, in keeping with these words ; for the
bearers of the wren, after making the circuit,
laid it on a bier and carried it to the parish
churchyard, where it was buried with the ut-
most solemnity, and dirges were sung over it
in the Manx language, which were called the
knell of the wren. The company then formed
a circle outside the churchyard and danced to
music.
In the middle of the nineteenth century the
wren was still hunted in the Isle of Man and was
carried by boys from door to door, suspended by
the legs in the centre of two hoops. These crossed
each other at right angles and were decorated
with evergreens and ribbons. The boys recited
the chant. In return for a coin they gave a
feather of the wren, so that before the end of
SACRIFICIAL HUNTING 179
the day the bird hung featherless. A super-
stitious value was attached to these feathers, for
the possession of one of them was considered an
effective preservative from shipwreck during the
coming year among the sailors. At this time the
bird was no longer buried in the churchyard, but
on the seashore or in some waste place.
The hunt in the Isle of Man was accounted for
by the legend that in former times a fairy of
uncommon beauty exerted such influence over
the male population of the island that she
induced them by her sweet voice to follow her
footsteps, till by degrees she led them into the sea,
where they perished. At last a knight-errant
sprang up, who laid a plot for her destruction,
which she escaped at the last moment by taking
the form of a wren. But a spell was cast upon
her by which she was condemned on every
succeeding New Yearns Day to reanimate the
same form, with the definite sentence that she
must ultimately perish by human hand. In this
form the legend is told by Train. Waldron
relates the same story, which explained why the
female sex are now held of little account in the
180 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
island, but the fairy according to him was trans-
formed into a bat.
In Ireland also the wren was generally hunted
during the eighteenth century, and continues
to be hunted in Leinster and in Connaught,
but I have come across no chant of the hunt.
The bird was slain by the peasants, and was
carried about hung by the leg inside two crossed
hoops, and a custom rhyme was sung which
began : —
The wren^ the wren_, the king of all hirds,
Was caught St. Stephen's Day in the furze ;
Although he's little^ his family's great,
Then pray, gentlefolks, give him a treat.
(1849, p. 166.)
The bird was slain, but it was not therefore
dead. This is conveyed by the tale told in the
Isle of Man, and by the following custom observed
in Pembrokeshire on 6 January, that is on
Twelfth Day. On this day one or several wrens
were secured in a small house or cage, sometimes
the stable lantern, which was decorated with
ribbons and carried from house to house while
the following lines were sung : —
SACRIFICIAL HUNTING 181
Joy, health, love, and peace,
Be to you in this place.
By your leave we will sing
Concerning our king :
Our king is well drest,
In silks of the best.
With his ribbons so rare
No king can compare.
In his coach he does ride
With a great deal of pride
And with four footmen
To wait upon him.
We were four at watch.
And all nigh of a match ;
And with powder and ball
We fired at his hall.
We have travell'd many miles.
Over hedges and stiles.
To find you this king
Which we now to you bring.
Now Christmas is past.
Twelfth Day is the last.
Th' Old Year bids adieu ;
Great joy to the new. (1876, p. 35.)
On grouping together these various pieces, we
are struck by their likeness, and by the antiquity
of their allusions. The bird was usually slain
with stones and sticks, which are among the most
primitive weapons. In Wales bows and arrows,
which are old also, were declared preferable to
182 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
cannons and guns. In Wales the bird was cut up
with hatchets and cleavers in preference to knives
and forks ; it was boiled in the brewery pan^ or in
cauldrons and pans^ in preference to kettles and
pots ; and it was conveyed about in a waggon or
cart in preference to being earned on four merCs
shoulders. Sometimes the bird was plucked.
Finally it was cut up in a sacrificial manner ; one
wing — another — one leg — another — and the spare
ribs or the pluck, as the least valuable part of the
feast, went to the poor.
The representative huntsmen in England are
Robbin, Bobbin, Richard, and John-all-alone.
In Scotland they are Fozie-Mozie, Johnie Red-
nosie, and Foslin, besides " the brethren and
kin." In Wales they are Milder, Malder, Festel,
Fose, and John the Rednose. Of these characters
only Robin and Bobbin (the names are sometimes
run together) and Richard, reappear in other
nursery pieces. In the oldest collection of 1744
stand the lines : —
Robbin and Bobbin,, two great belly'd men.
They ate more victuals than three-score men.
(1744, p. 26.)
SACRIFICIAL HUNTING 183
These powers of eating perhaps refer to the
first share of these characters at the feast. They
are further dwelt on in the following nursery
rhyme : —
Robin the Bobbin, the big-headed hen [or ben]
He eat more meat than four-score men.
He eat a cow, he eat a calf,
He eat a butcher and a half ;
He eat a church, he eat a steeple.
He eat the priest and all the people.
(c. 1783, p. 43.)
To which some collections add : —
And yet he complained that his belly was not full.
Other pieces dilate on Robin and Richard as
lazy in starting, and on Robin, whose efforts as a
huntsman were attended with ill luck : —
Robin and Richard were two pretty men.
They lay in bed till the clock struck ten :
Then up starts Robin, and looks at the sky.
Oh ! brother Richard, the sun's very high.
You go before, with the bottle and bag,
And I will come after, on little Jack Nag.
(c. 1783, p. 42.)
Robin-a-Bobbin bent his bow,
Shot at a woodcock and killed a yowe [ewe] ;
The yowe cried ba, and he ran away.
And never came back till Midsummer day.
(1890, p. 346.)
184 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Ilalliwell saw a relation between the huntsman
of this verse and the bird robin, since the robin
was reckoned to disappear at Christmas and not
to return till Midsummer. As a matter of fact,
the robin leaves the abodes of man and retires
into the woodland as soon as the sharp winter
frost is over. However this may be, the presence
of the wren and of the robin was mutually exclu-
sive, as we shall see in the pieces which deal with
the proposed union, the jealousy, and the death of
these two birds.
CHAPTER XVI
BIRD SACRIFICE
THE custom of slaying the wren is wide-
spread in France also. But the chants that
deal with it dwell, not like ours, on the actual
hunt, but on the sacrificial plucking and dividing
up of the bird. Moreover, the French chants
depend for their consistency not on repetition like
ours, but are set in cumulative form. Both in
contents and in form they seem to represent the
same idea in a later development.
At Entraigues, in Vaucluse, men and boys
hunted the wren on Christmas Eve, and when they
caught a bird alive they gave it to the priest, who
set it free in church. At Mirabeau the hunted
bird was blessed by the priest, and the curious
detail is preserved that if the first bird was
secured by a woman, this gave the sex the right
to jeer at and insult the men, and to blacken
185
186 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
their faces with mud and soot if they caught
them. At Carcassonne, on the first Sunday of
December, the young people who dwelt in the
street of Saint-Jean went out of the town armed
with sticks and stones to engage in the hunt. The
first person who struck the bird was hailed king,
and carried the bird home in procession. On the
last of December he was solemnly introduced to
his office as king ; on Twelfth Day he attended
mass in church, and then, crowned and girt about
with a cloak, he visited the various dignitaries of
the place, including the bishop and the mayor, in
a procession of mock solemnity. This was done
as late as 1819.^ This identification of the bird
and the men explains the hiring of a cart or
waggon to convey " the bird " in our own custom-
rhymes.
The Breton chant on "plucking the wren,"'
Plumer le 7'oitelet begins : —
Nin' ziblus bee al laouenanic
Rac henes a zo bihanic | bis. (L., I, p. 72.)
" We will pluck the beak of the wren^ for he is very
small," and continues, ^' We will pluck the left eye of the
wren, for he is very small "
^ Rolland, loc. cit., II, 295 if.; Frazer, loc. cit, II, 445 flF.
BIRD SACRIFICE 187
and then enumerates right eye, left ear, right ear,
head, neck, chest, back, belly, left wing, right
wing, left buttock, right buttock, left thigh,
right thigh, left leg, right leg, left foot, right
foot, first claw of left foot and every claw in
succession of this and of the other foot. The
last sentence is " We will pluck the tail of the
wren," and then sentence after sentence is repeated
to the first, "We will pluck the beak of the
wren because he is very small, we have plucked
him altogether/'
Another poem preserved in Breton relates how
the wren was caught and caged and fed till the
butcher and his comrades came and slew it, when
the revelry began (L., I, p. 7).
I have often wondered at the cruel sport of
confining singing birds in cages. Possibly this
goes back to a custom of fattening a victim that
was sacrificially slain. For the wren is tabu in
Brittany as among ourselves, and in popular
belief the nestlings of each brood assemble with
the parent birds in the nest on Twelfth Night, and
must on no account be disturbed. This reflects
the belief that the creature that is slain during
188 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
the winter solstice, at its close starts on a new
lease of life.
The wren is not the only bird that was sacri-
ficially eaten in France, judging from the chants
that are recorded. A chant on "plucking the
lark,''"' Plumer Valouette^ is current in the north
of France which begins : —
Nous la plumerons^ I'alouette,
Nous la plumerons^ tout de long.
(D. B., p. 124.)
"We will pluck the lark^ we will pluck it alto-
gether.'^
And it enumerates the bird's beak, eyes, head,
throat, back, wings, tail, legs, feet, claws.
A variation of the same chant is sung in
Languedoc, where it is called Valouette plumee^
"the plucked lark,"*' and is described as a game
(M. L., p. 457).
Again, the dividing up of the thrush forms
the subject of a chant which is sung in Brittany in
the north (L., I, p. 81), and in Languedoc in the
south. It is called Depecer le merle^ and preserves
the further peculiarity that the bird, although
BIRD SACRIFICE 189
it is divided up, persists in singing. The version
current in Languedoc begins : —
Le merle n'a perdut le bec^ le merle n'a perdut le bee.
Comment fra-t-il, le merle, comment pourra-t-il chanter ?
Emai encaro canto, le pauvre merle, merle,
Emai encaro canto, le pauvre merlatou.
(M. L., p. 458.)
'^ The thrush has lost his beak, how will he manage to
sing, and yet he sings, the poor thrush, yet he goes on
singing."
The chant then enumerates the bird's tongue,
one eye, two eyes, head, neck, one wing, two
wings, one foot, two feet, body, back, feathers,
tail ; always returning to the statement that
the bird, although it is divided up, persists in
singing.
The French word merle stands both for thrush
and for blackbird. The blackbird is held in
reverence among ourselves in Salop and Mont-
gomeryshire, and blackbird-pie was eaten in
Cornwall on Twelfth Night. ^ But there is no
reference to the sacrificial slaying of the bird, as
far as I am aware. In the French chant the
1 Thomas, N. W., " Animal Superstitions" in Folk-Lore,
September, 1900, p. 227.
190 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
V bird continues to sing although it is killed. The
same idea finds expression in our nursery song of
Sing a Song of Sixpence. This piece, taken in
conjunction with the eating of blackbird-pie
in Cornwall and the French chants, seems to
preserve the remembrance of the ancient bird
sacrifice. The first verse of this rhyme appears
in the collection of 1744, in which "naughty
boys *" stands for blackbirds. In other collections
the piece runs as follows : —
Sing a song of sixpence, a bagful of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pye
And when the pye was open'd, the birds began to sing ;
Was not this a dainty dish to set before the king ?
The king was in his parlour counting out his money,
The queen was in the kitchen eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes.
Up came a magpie and bit off her nose.
(c. 1783, p. 26.)
The magpie is " a little blackbird " in the
version of Halliwell, which continues : —
Jenny was so mad, she didn't know what to do.
She put her finger in her ear and cracked it right in two.
HalHwell (1842, p. 62) noted that in the book
called Empulario or the Italian Banquet of 1589,
BIRD SACRIFICE 191
there is a receipt " to make pies so that the birds
may be alive in them and fly out when it is cut
up," a mere device, live birds being introduced
after the pie is made. One cannot but wonder if
the device was a mere sport of fancy, or if it
originated from the desire to give substance to an
ancient belief.
Again, the robin redbreast was sacrificially
eaten in France at Le Charme, Loiret, on
Candlemas, that is on February the first (Ro., II,
264). There are no chants on the sacrifice of
the robin in France, as far as I know. Among
ourselves, on the other hand, where no hunting of
the robin is recorded, a piece printed both by
Herd ^ and Chambers suggests his sacrifice. The
piece is called by Chambers The Robin's Testa-
ment ^Sind it describes how the bird, on the approach
of death, made a bequest of his several parts,
which he enumerated exactly in the way of the
sacrificial bird-chants current in France. They
were his neb, feathers of his neb, right leg, other
leg, feathers of his tail, and feathers of his
breast, to each of which he attributed a mystic
1 Herd, David, loc. cit., II, 166.
192 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
significance. The piece in the combined versions
stands as follows : —
Guid-day now, bonnie Robin
How lang have you been here ?
I've been bird about this bush.
This mair than twenty year !
Chorus : Teetle ell ell, teetle ell ell.
Tee, tee, tee, tee, tee, tee, tee,
Tee, tee, tee, teetle eldie.
But now I am the sickest bird
That ever sat on brier ;
And I wad make my testament,
Guidman, if ye wad hear.
" Gar tak this bonnie neb o' mine.
That picks upon the corn.
And gie 't to the Duke o^ Hamilton
To be a hunting horn.
*' Gar tak these bonnie feathers o' mine.
The feathers o' my neb,
And gie to the Lady o' Hamilton
To fill a feather-bed.
^' Gar tak this guid right leg o' mine
And mend the brig o' Tay ;
It will be a post and pillar guid,
It will neither ban nor gae.
'^ And tak this other leg o' mine
And mend the brig o'er Weir ;
It will be a post and pillar guid.
It '11 neither ban nor steer.
BIRD SACRIFICE 193
{Herd only).
" Gar tak tliese boniiie feathers o' mine
The feathers o' my tail^
And gie to the Lady o' Hamilton
To be a barn-flail.
'^ Gar tak these bonnie feathers o' mine
The feathers o' my breast,
And gie to ony bonnie lad
That '11 bring me to a priest.^*
Now in there came my Lady Wren
With mony a sigh and groan ;
'^ O what care I for a' the lads
If my wee lad be gone ? "
Then robin turned him round about
E'en like a little king,
^'Go_, pack ye out at my chamber door,
Ye little cutty quean."
{Chambers only).
Robin made his testament
Upon a coll of hay
And by came a greedy gled
And snapt him a' away. (1870, p. 40. )
The Rabbi's Testament should be compared with
the French piece called Le Testament de PJne,
"the testament of the ass,'** of which a number
of variations have been collected. The " testament
of the ass " was recited outside the church on the
o
194 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
so-called Fete de PAne, "the feast of the ass,"
which was kept in many cities of France till a
comparatively recent date. In Doiiai it was
celebrated as late as the year 1668. On this
occasion an ass was brought into church, and
an office was recited in Latin, which enlarged
on the ass that carried the Holy Family into
Egypt, the ass which bore Christ into Jerusalem,
the ass of Balaam, and so forth. Its chorus
consisted of braying, in which the assembled
canons joined. This service in church was pre-
ceded by a recitation outside the holy edifice,
which was in the vernacular, and which, in dia-
logue form, enlarged on the several parts of the
ass.^
One of these dialogue pieces, current in Franche-
Comte, describes how the she-ass, conscious of the
approach of death, bequeathed her feet and ears
to her son, her skin to the drummer, her tail to
the priest to make an aspergill, and her hole to
the notary to make an inkpot (B., p. 61).
^ Clement, Madame, Histoire des fetes civil es ei religieuses
du Nord, 1834, p. 184. Also, Du Cange, Glossarium,
Festum Asinorum.
BIRD SACRIFICE 195
Another version, at greater length, is in the form
of instruction which is given by the priest to the
child, whose answers are set in cumulative form.
" The feast of the ass," in the words of Bujeaud,
" must have been very popular, since I have often
heai'd the children of Angoumais and Poitou
recite the following piece " : —
Le pretre : Que signifient les deux oreilles de I'ane ?
L' enfant : Les deux oreilles de I'ane signifient les deux
grands saints, patrons de notre ville.
Le pretre : Que signifie la tete de I'ane ?
L'enfant : La tete de I'ane signifie la grosse cloche et
la langue fait le battant de cette grosse cloche qui est
dans le clocher de la cathe'drale des saints patrons de
notre ville. (B. i.^ p. 65.)
" The priest : What do the ears of the ass stand for ? —
The child : The ears of the ass stand for the two great
patron saints of our city. — The priest : What does the
head stand for ? — The head stands for the great bell, and
the tongue for the clapper of the great bell which is
in the belfry of the cathedral of the holy saints, the
patrons of our city."
We then read of the throat which stands for
the entrance to the cathedral — the body for the
cathedral itself — the four legs, its pillars — the
heart and liver, its great lamps — the belly, its
alms-box — the tail which stands for the aspergill
196 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
— the hide which stands for the cope of the priest
— and the hole which stands for the holy-water
stoup.
This chant on the parts of the ass is among the
most curious survivals. At first one feels inclined
to look upon it as intended to convey ridicule,
but this idea is precluded by the existence of
The Robin's Testament^ and by the numerous
pieces which enumerate the several parts of the
bird in connection with the bird sacrifice. Again
in this case we are led to look upon the piece
as a garbled survival of some heathen form of
ritual. The ass, however, was not known in
Western Europe till a comparatively late period
in history. It has no common Aryan name, and
the question therefore arises how it can have
come to be associated with what is obviously a
a heathen form of ritual.
Mannhardt, with regard to German folk-lore,
pointed out that the ass was substituted in many
places for the hare, which was tabu, and with
which it shared the peculiarity of having long
ears. This substitution was favoured by their
likeness of name : heselin, heselken. (M., p. 412.)
BIRD SACRIFICE 197
We are led to inquire if the ass in Western
Europe can have taken the place of another
animal also, and we find ourselves confronted
with the following facts : —
DicJci/ among ourselves is applied to a bird,
especially to a caged (? perhaps a sacrificial) bird ;
the word Dicky is also widely applied to an ass,
properly to a he-ass.^ The ass is often called
by nicknames exactly like the small wild birds :
Jack-ass, Betty -ass, Jenny-ass, in form closely
correspond to Jack-daw, Magpie, and Jenny Wren
of the feathered tribe. The word Jack-ass more-
over is applied both to the four-footed beast and
to a member of the feathered tribe. Nicknames
probably originated in the desire to conceal a
creature's true identity.
In Scotland the word ciiddy again stands both
for an ass and for some kinds of bird, including
the hedge-sparrow and the moor-hen.^ The word
cuddy is said to be short for Cuthbert, but it
seems to be related also to cutty, an adjective
applied to the wren (cf. above, p. 176, 193), the
derivation and meaning of which are uncertain.
^ Murray's Dictionary : Dicky, cuddyy ass. Jackass.
198 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
The same overlapping of terms exists in France,
where the ass is popularly called Martin (Ro., IV,
206, 223, 233), while the feathered martins
include the martin pecheur^ kingfisher, the martin
rose^ goatsucker, and the martinets (Ro., II, p. 70).
In Germany also, where no bird -chants are
recorded, as far as I am aware, the expression
Martinsvogel is applied to a bird of augury of
uncertain identity, sometimes to the redbreast
(Gr., p. 946). And a current proverb has it,
Es ist mehr als ein Esel der Martin heisst, "he
is more than an ass who is called Martin.*" (Ro.,
IV, 233.) In Barmen boys parade the streets
on the eve of St. Martin'*s Day, asking for con-
tributions, and, if they receive nothing, they
sing :—
Mateu ist ein Esel, der zieht die Kuh am Besel.
(B., p. 363.)
^' Martin is an ass, he pulls the cow hy the tail," that is,
^'he has no money in his purse."
These various survivals support the view that
the ass in Western Europe somehow got mixed
up with the birds. When and how this came
about is difficult to tell. The representatives
BIRD SACRIFICE 199
of Christianity were in a position to accept the
feast of the ass, since the ass figured largely in
the Old and the New Testaments. But we do
not know if they consciously did so, and intro-
duced the ass in the place of another animal, or
if they took over an animal which had before
their time been accepted in the place of a bird.
CHAPTER XVII
THE ROBIN AND THE WREN
ONE side of the subject remains to be dis-
cussed. It is the relation of the robin to
the wren. Many custom rhymes, legends, and
nursery pieces name the birds together, and they
sometimes enlarge on the jealousy of the birds,
and on the fact that their presence was reckoned
mutually exclusive. Perhaps the birds, looked
at from one point of view, were accounted the
representatives of the seasons, and, as such, came
and went by turns.
The robin and the wren are mentioned together
in several custom rhymes, some of which mention
other birds also : —
The robin redbreast and the wren
Are God's cock and hen. (1826, p. 292.)
In Warwickshire they say : —
200
THE ROBIN AND WREN 201
The robin and the wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen ;
The martin and the swallow
Are God Almighty's bow and arrow.
(1870, p. 188.)
In Lancashire this takes the form : —
The robin and the wren are God's cock and hen ;
The spink and the sparrow are the de'il's bow and arrow.
(1892, p. 275.)
This association of the sparrow with the bow
and arrow reappears in some nursery pieces, as
we shall see later.
The robin and the wren are coupled together
also in the following rhyme from Scotland, which
has found its way into some modem English
nursery collections : —
The robin redbreast and the wran
Coost out about the parritch pan ;
And ere the robin got a spune
The wran she had the parritch dune.
(1870, p. 188.)
Tlie Rohiii's Testament already quoted con-
cludes with anger on the part of the robin
at the entrance of the wren, whose appearance
heralds his death. Other pieces describe the
202 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
inverse case, when the wren dies in spite of the
robin's efforts to keep her alive. This conception
forms the subject of a Scottish ballad called The
Birds'^ Lamentation^ which is included in the col-
lection of David Herd of the year 1776. It
contains the following lines : —
The Wren she lyes iu Care's bed^ in meikle dule and
pyne, O !
Quhen in came Robin Red-breast wi' sugar saps and wine,
O!
— Now, maiden will ye taste o' this ? — It's sugar saps and
wine, O !
Na, ne'er a drap, Robin, (I wis) ; gin it be ne'er so fine,
o\
— Ye're no sae kind's ye was yestreen, or sair I hae mis-
tae'n, O !
Ye're no the lass, to pit me by, and bid me gang my
lane, O!
And quhere's the ring that I gied ye, ye little cutty
quean, O !
— I gied it till an ox-ee [tomtit], a kind sweat-heart o'
myne, O !
The same incidents are related of real birds in
the toy-book called The Life and Death of Jenny
Wren, which was published by Evans in 1813
" for the use of young ladies and gentlemen : —
A very small book at a very small charge,
To teach them to read before they grow large."
THE ROBIN AND WREN 203
The story begins : —
Jenny Wren fell sick upon a merry time.
In came Robin Redbreast and brought her sops and wine ;
Eat well of the sop, Jenny, drink well of the wine.
Thank you Robin kindly, you shall be mine.
The wren recovered for a time, but her be-
haviour was such as to rouse the robin's jealousy.
She finally died, and the book concludes with the
lines : —
Poor Robin long for Jenny grieves.
At last he covered her with leaves.
Yet near the place a mournful lay
For Jenny Wren sings every day.
It was an ancient superstition that the robin
took charge of the dead, especially of those who
died by inadvertence.
The proposed union of the robin and the wren
forms the subject also of a story that was taken
down from the recitation of Mrs. Begg, the sister
of the poet Burns. She was under the impression
that her brother invented it. It describes how
the robin started on Yule morning to sing before
the king, and of the dangers, in the form of
Poussie Baudrons, of the grey greedy gled, of
Tod Lowrie, and of others, he encountered by the
204 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
way. He sang before the king and queen, who
gave him the wee wren to wed. Then he flew
away and sat on a briar (1870, p. 60). There is
no sequel.
In all these stories the wren is described not
as a cock-bird, but as a hen-bird, which is in-
compatible with the idea of kingship that is ex-
pressed by the bird-chants. Perhaps the idea of
the kingship is the older one. For in the legend
told in the Isle of Man as an explanation of the
custom of killing the wren, this bird is described as
a fairy, that is, of the female sex, and legends that
are intended to account for a custom are neces-
sarily of a more recent date than the custom
which they explain. The wren in Normandy
also is sometimes spoken of as a hen-bird. La
poulette du bon Dieu, God Almighty's hen. One
custom-rhyme current in Scotland directly associ-
ates the bird with the Lady of Heaven : —
Malisons, Malisons, mair than tens.
That harry the Ladye of Heaven's hen.
(1870, p. 186.)
There is another toy-book relating the pro-
posed union of the robin and the wren, which
THE ROBIN AND WREN 205
leads up to the death of the robin. It is called
The Courtship, Marriage, and Picnic Dinner of
CocJc Robin and Jenny Wren, and was first issued
by Harris in 1810. In this book other animals
took part in the ceremony. The cock blew the
horn, the parson rook carried Mother Hubbard's
book, the lark sang, the linnet, the bullfinch, and
the blackbird all officiated. A picnic dinner
followed, to which the raven brought walnuts,
the dog Tray brought a bone, the owl brought
a sack of wheat, the pigeon brought tares, and
so forth. The enjoyment was at it height —
AVhen in came the cuckoo and made a great rout,
He caught hold of Jenny and pulled her about.
Cock robin was angry and so was the sparrow,
Who now is preparing his bow and his arrow.
His aim then he took, but he took it not right.
His skill was not good, or he shot in a fright.
For the cuckoo he missed, but cock robin he killed.
And all the birds mourned that his blood was so spilled.
The cuckoo, it will be remembered, was the
bird of the god Thor, and the enemy of matri-
monial bliss.
This story of a bird- wedding does not stand
alone. From France and Spain come a number
206 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
of pieces which similarly describe the proposed
wedding of birds and end in disaster. In Lan-
guedoc one is called Lou mariage de Valouseta,
" the wedding of the lark." It begins : —
Lou pinson et I'alouseta
Se ne voulien marida. (M. L., p. 490.)
^'Tbe spink {or finch) and the lark intended to
marry. On the first day of the wedding they had
nothing to eat.''
A gadfly on his neck brought a loaf, a gnat
brought a cask, a butterfly a joint, and a sparrow
brought grapes. The flea jumped out of the bed
and began to dance, and the louse came forth
from the rags and seized the flea by the arm.
Then the rat came out of his hole and acted as
drummer, when in rushed the cat and devoured
him.
Exactly the same story is told in much the same
form in Catalan of La golondrinay elpinzon^ "The
goldfinch and the swallow,""' but the verses on the
gay rat and the destructive cat are wanting (Mi.,
p. 398). Other versions have been recorded in the
centre and in the North of France, one of which
was printed in 1780 (Ro., II, 180, 212; D. B.,
THE ROBIN AND WREN 207
p. 106). From thence the song was probably
carried to Canada, where it reappears as Pinson
et Cendrouille, "Tlie finch and the nuthatch"
(G., p. 275). Here the ending is that the rat played
the fiddle, and the cat rushed in and spoilt the
fun.
These stories of bird-weddings should be com-
pared with one which describes how the flea and
the louse combined to set up house together and
came to grief. It is told in Catalan of La purga
y er piejo (Ma., p. 74). In Languedoc the same
story is told of La fourmiho e le pouzouil, " the
ant and the flea" (M. L., p. 508). In form these
pieces closely correspond with our bird-wedding.
There is the same communal feast to which the
various guests bring contributions, and the same
revelry which ends in disaster.
This Spanish piece on the housekeeping of the
louse and the flea has a further parallel in the
story called Laiischen und Flohchen, " The louse
and the flea," which is included in the fairy tales
of Grimm (No. 30). But the German story is told
in the cumulative form of recitation, and its con-
tents are yet one stage more primitive. There is
208 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
nothing on a wedding celebration. The louse
and the flea set up house together, and began by
brewing beer in an eggshell. The flea fell in by
inadvertence and was drowned. Then the louse
set up the wail. In this the door joined by jar-
ring, the broom by sweeping, the cart by running,
the dungheap by reeking, the tree by shaking,
till they were all carried away by the brook.
Much the same story, told in cumulative form
also and equally primitive, is current among our-
selves. It seems to be old (1890, p. 454), and
is called Tittymouse and Tattymouse. We read
how Tittymouse and Tattymouse went a-leasing
(gleaning), and set about boiling a pudding.
Titty fell in and was scalded to death. Then
Tatty set up the wail. It was joined by the stool
that hopped, the besom that swept, the window
that creaked, the tree that shed its leaves, the
bird that moulted its feathers, and the girl that
spilt the milk. Finally an old man fell from a
ladder, and all were buried beneath the ruins.
Tittymouse and Tattymouse are usually repre-
sented as mice, but the word tittymouse is also
allied to titmouse, a bird. Titty and Tatty are
THE ROBIN AND WREN 209
among the many rhyming compounds of which
the meaning is no longer clear.
The conceptions on which these pieces are
based all recall primitive customs. The wedding
is a communal feast to which contributions of
different kinds are brought by the several guests.
Again the death of one individual draws that of
a number of others in its wake. On comparing
these various pieces, we find that those which are
set in cumulative form, judging from their con-
tents, are the more primitive. This supports
the view that the cumulative form of recitation
represents an earlier development in literature
than rhymed verse.
The toy -book on The CourtsJiip of Cock Robin
and Jenny Wren attributes the robin's death to
the carelessness of the sparrow. The sparrow is
also described as causing the death of the robin
in the knell of the robin, which is one of our
oldest and most finished nursery pieces. The
death of the robin is a calamity, his blood is
treasured, he is buried with solemnity. In the
collections of 1744 and 1771 the knell stands as
follows : —
210 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
1. Who did kill Cock Robbin ?
I said the sparrow^ with my bow and arrow.
And I did kill Cock Robbin.
2. Who did see him die ?
I said the fly, with my little eye,
And I did see him die.
3. And who did catch his blood ?
1 said the fish, with my little dish.
And I did catch, his blood.
4. And who did make his shroud }
I said the beetle, with my little needle.
And I did make his shroud.
JTie Death and Burial of Cock Rohin formed
the contents of a toy-book that was printed by
Marshall in London, by Rusher in Banbury, and
others. One of the early toy-books belonging to
Pearson, which are exhibited at South Kensington
Museum, contain verses of this knell with quaint
illustrations. The toy-book published by Mar-
shall which contains the knell, is described as
"a pretty gilded toy, for either girl or boy.""
It leads up to the knell by the following verse,
which occurs already as a separate rhyme in the
nursery collection of 1744 : —
Little Robin Redbreast sitting on [or sat upon] a pole,
Niddle noddle [or wiggle waggle] went his head [tail]
And poop went his hole.
THE ROBIN AND WREN 211
This is followed by the picture of a dead robin
with the words : —
Here lies Cock Robin, dead and cold,
His end this book will soon unfold.
We then read the four verses of the knell already
cited, and further verses on the owl so brave that
dug the grave ; the parson rook who read the
book; the lark who said amen like a clerk; the
kite who came in the night ; the wren, both cock
and hen ; the thrush sitting in a bush ; the bull
who the bell did pull.
In another toy-book the magpie takes the place
of the fly, and from the illustration in a third
one we gather that not a bull but a bullfinch
originally pulled the bell.
The toy-book published by Marshall con-
cludes : —
All the birds of the air
Fell to sighing and sobbing,
When they heard the bell toll
For poor Cock Robin.
(Reprint 1849, p. 169 ff.)
The antiquity of this knell of the robin is
apparent when we come to compare it with its
foreign parallels, which are current in France,
212 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Italy, and Spain. In these rhymes also, those
who undertake the office of burial are usually
birds, but the nature of him whose death is
deplored remains obscure.
In Germany he is sometimes Sporhrod, some-
times Ohnebrod, that is "breadless'' (Sim., p. 70),
a term which may indicate a pauper. The piece
current in Mecklenburg is simpler in form than
ours.
Wer is dod? — Sporbrod.
Wenn ehr ward begraben ?
Oewermorgen abend^ mit schiiiFeln un spaden,
Kukuk is de kulengraver^
Adebor is de klokkentreder,
Kiwitt is de schauler,
Mit all sin sch wester un brauder. (W., p. 20.)
" Who is dead ? — Breadless. When will he be buried?
— On the eve of the day after to-morrow^ with spades and
with shovels. The Cuckoo is the gravedigger^ the Stork
is the bell-ringer, the Pee-wit acts as scholar, with all his
sisters and brothers."
The knell that is recited in Languedoc is called
Las Campanas, the bells. One version begins : —
Balalin, balalan. La campana de Sant Jan
Quau la sona ? Quau la dis ? — Lou curat de Sant-Denis.
Quau sona lous classes ? —Lous quatre courpatrasses.
Quau porta la caissa ? — Lou cat ambe sa maissa.
Quau porta Ion dou.'' — Lou peirou.^
1 (M. L.,p. 225.)
THE ROBIN AND WREN 213
"Ding dong, the bell of St. John. — Who tolls it and
who says (mass) ? — The priest of St. Denis. — Who sounds
the knell i^ — The four ravens. — Who bears the coffin.'* —
The cat in its maw. — AVho wears mourning.'* — ITie part-
ridge.''
Another version preserves the trait that the
individual's possessions took part in the mourning :
'^ Balanli, balanlau, the bells near Yssingeaux are
all tolled through April. Who is dead.'' — Jan of the
Gardens (dos Ort). Who carries him to his grave ? — His
great coat. Who follows him .'' — His hat. Who mourns
for him.'* — ^Tlie frog. Who sings for him.'' — The toad.
Wlio forsakes him.'* — His sabots. Who says so.'* — Jan
the less. What shall we give himi* — Tlie legs of a dog.
Where shall we find them.'* — Near Chalen90us there
are plenty. (M. L., p. 232.)
Jan dos OH in other versions of the knell is
called Jean k Po7v, also le pere dujardin ; and in
the latter case, le pere petit, the little father, pro-
nounces him dead, and receives dogflesh (M. L.,
pp. 226, 230).
The Italian knell is quite short : —
Who is dead.'' — Beccatorto.
Who sounds the knell .'' — That rascal of a punch.
(Quel birbon de pulcinella. Ma., p. 133.)
The Spanish knell is not much longer : —
214 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
PQuien s' ha muerto. — Juan el tuerto.
PQuieu lo llora. — La senora.
PQuien lo caiita. — Su garganta.
PQuien lo chilla. — La chiquilla. (Ma., p. 62.)
" Who is dead ? — Crooked J uan. Who mourns for him P
— The swallow. Who sings for him.^* — His coat. Who
calls for him? — The quail."
Victor Smith, with reference to these chants,
enlarged on the possible nature of Jan, or Juan,
of the French and Spanish versions, who is called
also "the father of the gardens,""' and who was
given dogflesh to eat. In illustration he adduced
the legend of the god Pan, who was looked upon as
the father of gardens, and who was supposed to
eat dogflesh (M. L., p. 227). Dogs were sacri-
ficed at the Lupercalia which were kept in April,
and the month of April is actually mentioned in
one of the French chants. If this interpretation
is correct, the knells on Jan current in France
and Spain preserve the remembrance, not of a bird
sacrifice, but of a dog sacrifice. But the Italian
name Beccatorto is probably crossbill (R., II, 160),
and birds appear as the chief mourners in most
of the foreign chants, as they do in ours.
CHAPTER XVIII
CONCLUDING REMARKS
IN conclusion it seems well to glance back over
the ground that has been traversed, and to
consider what information can be gleaned from
the comparative study of nursery rhymes.
At the outset we saw that our nursery collec-
tions consist of a variety of pieces of diverse
origin. Many rhymes are songs or snatches of
songs which have no direct claim on the attention
of the student of folk-lore. Other pieces are rela-
tively new, although they contain names that are
old. Thus, Old King Cole and Mother Hubbard
are names that go some way back in history ; the
story of the woman who fell asleep out of doors
and forgot her identity, preserves an old tradition ;
Jack and Jill are connected with Scandinavian
mythology ; while Tommy Linn, the hero of
915
^16 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
several nursery pieces, figures in romantic ballad
literature also.
A more primitive form of literature is repre-
sented by traditional dancing and singing games,
to which many nursery rhymes can be traced.
These games in several instances preserve the
remains of celebrations that date from heathen
times. In the last instance they survive as a
diversion of the ballroom. Incidental allusions
enabled us to establish the relation between the
Cotillon, the Cushion Dance, and the game of
Salli/ Waters, This latter game preserves fea-
tures of a marriage rite, which was presided over
by a woman who was addressed as mother. The
words used in the game and the rite suggest that
there may be some connection between the game
of Salli/ Waters and the name of Sul, the local
goddess of the waters at Bath.
Other traits preserved in the games of The Lady
of the Land, Little Dog I call you, and Drop Hand-
herchief, probably date from the same period. For
the comparison of these games with their foreign
parallels enabled us to realize that, in their
case also, it is a question of a presiding mother.
CONCLUDING REMARKS 217
who, in some of the German versions of the game,
was addressed by the name of a heathen mother
divinity. Engelland^ that is Babyland, and the
disabled condition of the human mother, which
are mentioned in these games, reappear in the
ladybird rhymes. In these we also come across
Ann or Nan, who reappears under the same name
in the corresponding rhymes of Switzerland and
Swabja.
On comparing our rhymes with those of other
countries, we find that the same thoughts and
conceptions are usually expressed in different
countries in the same form of verse. The words
that are used, both in England and abroad, in
dancing and singing games, in custom rhymes like
those addressed to the ladybird, and in riddle-
rhymes such as that in Humpty-Dumpty^ are set
in short verse that depends on tail rhyme for its
consistency. Distinct from them are the pieces
that depend for their consistency on repetition
and cumulation. Some of these are obviously
intended to convey instruction, like the chants of
Numbers and of the Creed. Others appear to be
connected with the making and unmaking of
218 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
spells. Again in this case, the parallel pieces of
different countries are set in the same form of
verse.
Another class of rhymes is represented by the
chants on bird sacrifice. Those current among
ourselves depend for their consistency on repeti-
tion only, while those current abroad which
present details on the plucking and the divid-
ing up of the bird, are related in cumulative
form. Perhaps the repetition which preserves the
simpler facts of the custom is the older form of
recitation. The kingship of the wren which is
accepted throughout Europe, and which dates
some way back in history, in some of these chants
is connected with the kingship of the man who
was engaged in the hunt. Possibly the custom
of killing the king was overlaid by the custom of
sacrificing a bird in his stead.
The reverence felt for the wren is equalled
among ourselves by the reverence felt for the
robin, whose knell remains one of our finest, and
perhaps one of our oldest nursery pieces. It is
set in dialogue form, which seems to have been
generally associated with bells, but which was a
CONCLUDING REMARKS 219
primitive manner of recitation, as we gather
from other pieces.
The information which can be derived from
nursery rhymes corroborates what has been
collected elsewhere concerning different stages of
social history in the heathen past. Some pieces
preserve allusions which carry us back to customs
that prevailed during the so-called mother age;
others, quite distinct from them, are based on
conceptions that may have taken rise before man
tilled the soil. The spread of European nursery
rhymes, taken in the bulk, appears to be in-
dependent of the usual racial divisions. Some of
our rhymes, such as that of the ladybird and
Humpty Dumpty have their closest parallels in
Germany and Scandinavia ; others, such as the
bird-chants and the animal weddings, have cor-
responding versions in France and in Spain. More-
over, some of the ideas that are expressed in
rhymes carry us beyond the confines of Europe.
The chafer was associated with the sun in Egypt,
the broken egg engaged the attention of the
thinking in Tibet.
Thus the comparative study of the nursery
220 COMPARATIVE STUDIES
rhymes of different countries throws light on
allusions which otherwise remain obscure, and
opens up a new vista of research. The evidence
which is here deduced from some rhymes, and the
interpretation put on others, may be called into
question. Much remains to be said on the
subject. But the reader will, I think, agree that
nursery rhymes preserve much that is meaningful
in itself, and worth the attention of the student.
LIST OF FOREIGN COLLECTIONS
T^HE following foreign collections are referred to by
initials in the text ; —
A. Archivio Storico per lo Studio delle tradizione
popolari. Articles by Canizzaro, I, 1882 ;
by Wesselowski, II, 1883, etc.
Br. Birlinger: Nimm mich mit, 1871.
Bo. Boehme, F. M. : Geschichte des Tauzes, 1884.
B. Bujeaudj I. : Chants et chansons des provinces
de rOuest, 1895.
C. P. Corpus Poet. Borealium, ed. Vigfusson and
PoweU, 1883.
D. Dumersan, M, : Chansons et rondes enfantines,
1866.
Du. Dunger, H.: Kinderlieder aus dem Vogtland,
1874.
D. B. Durieux et Bruyelles : Chants et chansons du
Cambresis, 1864.
E. Erk, L. : Deutscher Liederhort, 1856.
F. FrischUer, H.: Preussische Volksreime und
Spiele, 1867.
G. Gagnon, E. : Chansons pop. du Canada, 1866.
Or. Grimm, J. ; Deutsche Mythologie, reprint 1876.
Gt. Grundtvig : Gamle Danske Minder, 1854-6.
H. Handelmann: Volks — und Kinderspiele aus
Schleswig Holstein, 1862.
221
222 FOREIGN COLLECTIONS
H. V. Hersart de la Villemarque : Barzas Breis, 1867.
L. iMzelj F. M. : Chansons de la Basse Bretagne,
1890.
M. Mannhardt : Germanische Mythen^ 1858.
Ma. Marin, Rodriguez : Rimas Infantiles, 1882.
Me. Meier, Ernst: Kinderreime und Kinderspiele
aus Schwaben^ 1851.
Mi. Mila y Fontanals: Romancerillo Catalan, 1882.
Mo. Morlidas : Grande Encyclopedie des Jeux.
M. L. Montel et Lambert : Chants populaires du Lan-
guedoc, 1880.
N. Newell, W. W. : Songs of American Children,
1884.
N. S^ Q. Notes and Queries.
R. Rochholz: Alemannisches Kinderlied und Spiel,
1859.
Ro. Rolland : Faune populaire, 1876-83.
S. Schleicher: Volksthiimliches aus Sonneberg,
1858.
Sch. Schuster, F. W.: Siebenbiirg-sachs. Volks-
lieder, 1856.
Sim. Simrock : Das deutsche Kinderbuch.
St. Stober : Elsassisches Volksbiichlein, 1842.
V. Vemaleken: Spiele und Reime aus Oesterreich,
1873.
W. Wossidlo : Volksthiimliches aus Mecklenburg,
1885.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
A cat came fiddling out of a barn
A frog he would a-wooing ride .
A new dyall {Christmas carol)
A was an apple pie
A was an archer who shot at a frog
A whistling woman and a crowing hen (Proverb rhyme) 73 n.
Ann or Nan . . . . . 97, 217
As high as a castle . . ... 108
As round as an apple . . ... 107
Ass, chants on the . . . . 193 ff.
34,35
29,31
. 149
14
. 37
B
Babbity Bowster (o game)
Babyland
Balalin, balalan (French knell) .
Balanli, balanlau (French knell) .
Ballads and rhymes
BeUs
Bird sacrifice
Bishop, bishop, barnabee
Blackbird, sacrificed and eaten .
Bless you, bless you, bonnie bee
Boule, boule (French riddle)
Bryan o' Lin had no watch to put on
Bufe (name of a dog) .
. 60
79 ff., 100,217
54,56
. 213
.44ff.
I, 212, 213
185 ff.
94
189
95
107
53
224 ALPHABETICAL INDEX
Burdens and their origin
Burnie bee, burnie bee
Buy this of me (a game)
PAGES
29
94
139
Can, caer, Killore {Breton chant)
Can you make me a carabrick shirt ?
Chants of Numbers
Chants of the Creed .
Chi h morto ? (Italian knell)
Club Fist (a (/ame)
Collections of English Nursery Rhymes
Collections of foreign rhymes .
Come, and I will sing you (a chant)
Come, dance a jig
Cotillon (a dance)
Country dances
Cuddy (bird and ass)
Cumulative pieces
Cushion Dance
Custom Rhymes
D
Das Englein aufziehen (German game)
Das Haus vom holzernen Mann (German
Depecer le merle (French chant) .
Der har du det haus (Scandinavian piece)
Die mihi quid unus (Latin chant)
Dicky {bird and ass) .
Ding dong bell
Dipping, custom of
Doctor Sacheverel
Dog, character in games
Dog sacrifice
Dowdy cow, dowdy cow
Drop handkerchief (a game)
Dump (a game)
. 152
. 49
134 ff.
142 ff.
. 213
. 127
11
. 221
. 159
. 33
58, 216
.57ff.
. 197
115 fF.
CO, 216
. 89 ff.
83
124
188
122
145
197
54
69
14
80,85
214
94
87, 216
. 126
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
22i
E PAO>S
Early references to rhymes . . . . 13 ff .
Ecliod rae jodea (a Hebrew chant) . . .143
Eggs in religious belief . . . 104 fF.
Eight ships on the main . . . . 140
Eight was the crooked straight (a chant) . . . 161
Enfille aiguille {French dance) . . , . 56
Engelland {in Geitnan folk-lore) . . . 84, 217
Es ist ein Baum {German jnece) . . . . 125
Es ist etwas in meinem Haus {Swabian riddle) . .108
Es kam eine Maus gegangen {Oerman piece) . . 123
Es schickt der Herr {German piece) . . .125
Father Hubbard
Fire, fire, says the town crier
First appearance of rhymes in print
Flieg, kafer, iiieg {German rhyme)
Fly, ladybird, fly
Frau Gode, Rose, Sole {German divinities)
Fuzzy-Muzzy chorus .
G
Gabriel hounds
God Almighty's colly cow
Goldchaber fliig up {Swiss rhyme)
Gossen och Geten Nappa {Swedish piece) .
Gowden bug, gowden bug
Great A, little a, Bouncing B
Great Lord Frog and Lady Mouse (o son^)
Green grow the rushes, O {a chant)
Guid day now, bonnie Robin (a ballad) .
44
Iff.
100
94
81 ff.
175
87, 165
95
97
130
93
9
31
158
192
H
Heathen chants of the Creed
Hebrew chants
Hemp seed I set
a
153 ff.
119, 143
. 56
226
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
Here comes a woman from Babyland
Herrgotspferdchen {German rhyme)
Hick-a-more, Hack-a-more
Highty, tighty, paradighty
Himmelskiichlein {German rhyme)
Hitty Pitty within the wall
Hiuki and Bill {heathen divinities)
Hoddy doddy with a round body
Hiimpelken PUmpelken {German rhyme)
Humpty Dumpty {a drink)
Humpty Dumpty {a game)
Humpty Dumpty sate on the waU
Hunting the wren
91, 105,
PAGES
79
102
113
113
96
112
20
111
106
109
110
217, 219
173 ff.
I had a little dog whose name was Buff
I have a little dog and it won't bite you
I'll sing you one, oh ! {a song) .
I won't be ray father's Jack
II sortait un rat {French piece) .
In those twelve days, in those twelve days (a carol)
It was a frog in the well (a sottg)
158,
88
87
160
22
123
149
29
Jack and Gill went up the hill
Je suis pauvre {French game)
Jenny Wren fell sick .
Joan Saunderson (a dance)
John Ball shot them all
Johnny Armstrong killed a calf .
Joy, health, love, and peace {a custom rhyme)
20ff.,215
81
203
59
15
15
181
King, King Golloway .
King Stephen was a worthy king {a song)
Kiss in the ring (a game)
Kit and Kitterit and Kitterit's mother
94
17
67
54
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
Kluge Else {German tale)
Kommt ein Tonii {German riddle)
227
rAOBS
56
109
L'alouette plumee {French chant)
La fourmiho e le pouzouil {French piece) .
La golondrina y el pinzon {Spanish piece)
La premiere partie de la foi {French chant)
La purga y er piejo {Spanish piece)
La Soule (a French divinity)
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home
Lady cow, lady cow, fly and be gone
Lady, lady landers
Laughing, significance of
Laiischen und Fiohchen {German Jale)
Lavender blue, fiddle faddle
Le conjurateur et le loup {French piece)
Le merle a perdu le bee {French chant)
Le pied de boeuf {French game) .
Le testament de I'ane {French chant)
Les dons de Tan {French game) .
Lille Bulle {Scandinavian riddle)
Lilly low, lillylow
Limping, significance of
Little Dog, I call you (a game) .
Little Jack Horner sat in a corner
Little Mary Ester
Little Miss Mopsey
Little Miss Muffet
Little Nancy Etticoat .
Little Polly Flinders .
Little Robin Redbreast sitting on a pole
Little Tom Tacket
Little Tom Tucker
Lou pinson et I'alouseta {French chant)
Lucy Locket lost her pocket
L'y a un loup {French chant)
80
85 ff.
188
207
206
136
207
77
93
93
94
80, 85
207
34.
131
189
128
193
136
106
113
86
\y 216
14, Q5
64
64
64, 90
113
64
210
64
65
206
15
131
228
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
M
Malisons, malisons, mair than tens
Malt or millet
Maten ist ein Esel {German rhyme)
Martin (bird or ass)
Mister Chinnery then .
Mister Mofl&t is a very good man
Mjolnir or miller
Mohammedan dialogue story
Mother Bunch (a traditional name)
Mother Goose (a traditional name)
Mother Hubbard
Mother Ross
My father left me three acres of land
My plaid awa' (a ballad)
PAQBS
. 204
. 131
. 198
. 198
. 32
172 n.
. 99
. 165
27, 56
3
38, 215
. 82
. 49
. 46
N
Nan or Ann . . . . . 97, 217
Nin ziblus bee (Breton chant) . . . . 186
Nines, punishment by . . . . . 128
Nous la plumerons I'alouette {French chant) . .188
O, where are you going, says Milder to Malder
Old King Cole was a merry old soul
Old Mother Hubbard she went to the cupboard
One God, one baptism, and one faith {a poem)
One old Oxford oyster
One, two, buckle my shoe
One, two, three, four, five
Our good Quane Bess .
. 176
18, 215
38, 42
. 149
. 141
. 163
. 161
. 17
Peter and Paul sat on the wall .
Peter Piper picked a peck
Pinson et Cendrouille (French chant)
22
141
207
ALPHABETICAL INDEX 229
PAon
Plenty of ale to-night, my boys (a song) . . . 160
Plumer le roitelet {French chant) . . . 186
Pretty little girl of mine (a game) . . . 67
Q
Qu'est-ce-qui est rond {French riddle) . . . 108
Quien me dira {Spanish chant) . ... 156
Quien s'ha muerto {Spanish knell) . . .214
R
Riddle-rhymes . . . . 104 fF.
Robbin and Bobbin, two great belly 'd men . .182
Robert Rowley rolled . . ... 141
Robin and Richard were two pretty men . . . 183
Robin-a-Bobbin bent his bow . ... 183
Robin-the-Bobbin, the big-headed hen . . . 183
Roses are red, diddle, diddle . . . . 33
Rowley, rowley, rattlebags . . . . 141
Sacrificial hunting
Sally Waters {a game) .
Salt, significance of
Seven years' time reckoning
Si un cordonnier cordant {French rhyme)
Sing a song of sixpence
Sing hey diddle diddle
Sommervogele flueg aus {German rhyme)
Sprinkling the pan (a ceremonial act)
Stout {a traditional name)
Sul (a divinity)
171 «.
62, 67ff., 216
. 85
51, 69flF.
142
190
35
96
71
55
75
Tam o' th' Lin and a' his bairns . . . . 53
The birds' lamentation (a song) . ... 202
The comic adventures of Mother Hubbard (a toy-book) 38 ff.
230
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
The courtship of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren
(a toy-hook) . ... 205, 209
The death and burial of Cock Robin (a toy-hook) 3T, 210
The first day of Christmas (a game) . . . 135
The gaping, wide-mouthed, waddling frog (a game)
37, 116, 138
The king sent his lady (a game) .
The Lady of the Land (a game)
The Lady of the Mountain (a game)
The life and death of Jenny Wren {a toy-book)
The man in the moon drinks claret
The old woman and her pig or kid
The robin and the wren
The robin redbreast and the wren
The Robin's Testament {a song)
The tragic death of A, apple pie (a toy-hook)
The twelve days of Christmas (a game) .
The two grey cats
The wife who expects to have a good name (a proverb)
The wren she lyes in care's bed (a song) .
The wren, the wren, the king of all birds
The Yule days (a game)
There lived a puddy in a well (a song)
There was a bonny blade (a song)
There was a frog Hved in a well (a song) .
There was a little man who woo'd
There was a little man who had a little gun
There was a little old woman, and she lived in a shoe
There was a little woman as I've heard tell
There was a wee wifie (a song) .
There was an old woman tossed in a blanket (a song)
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe
There were two blackbirds
This is the house that Jack built . . 117 flF.
This ladyfly I take from the grass . . . 95
Three blind mice . . , . 28, 29, 90
. 135
78i£,216
. 67
. 202
. 21
119 fF.
200 flf.
201
191 if., 201
37
134 fF.
54
86
202
180
135
30
25
32
24
25
41
55
26
25
100
ALPHABETICAL INDEX 231
PAGES
Tittymouse and Tattymouse (a cumulative story) . 208
Tom Hickathrift {a chapbook) . . . . 99
Tommy Linn is a Scotchman born , . 52, 215
Toy-books . . . . 3, 36 if. , 202, 204
Twelve huntsmen, with horns and hounds . . 139
U
Una femme qui siffle {French proverb)
73 n.
Voici la maison que Pierre a batie (a French piece) . 123
W
Wallflowers (a game) .
We hunted the wren .
We will a' gae sing, boys (a chant)
We will go to the wood
Wer is dod {German knell)
What care I how black I be .
What care I how fair she be (a song)
What though now opposed I be (a song) .
What's in the cupboard ? says Mr. Hubbard
When a twister a twisting
When Arthur first in court began
When good King Arthur rul'd the land .
Where have you been to-day, Billy, my son ?
Whishin dance
Whistle, daughter, whistle
Who did kill Cock Bobbin ?
Widdicote, widdicote (a riddle-^hyme)
72 n.
177
157
174
212
28
43
Ul
17
16
50
60
73
210
114
PLYMOUTH
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SOX, LTD., PRINTKRS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM
CHAPTERS ON SAINT LORE AND CONVENT LIFE BETWEEN
A.D. 500 AND 1500.
The University Press, Cambridge
THROUGH THE CASENTINO
WITH HINTS TO THE TRAVELLER
A COMPANION VOLUME TO THE MEDIEVAL TOWN SERIES
J. M. Dent and Co., London
ALBRECHT DURER
IN THE POPULAR LIBRARY OF ART
Duckworth and Co., London
RETURN TO DESK
ICH BORROWED
This book is due on die last date stamped below, or
on the date to which renewed.
)ks are subjea to immediate recall.
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