Catch a nigger by his toe,
If he squeals, let him go,
Eenie, meenie, minie, mowhose predecessors in the nineteenth century were composed of completely meaningless
syllables. An example is the following from the Northumberland Glossary, vol. 2, 1854:
Any, many, mony, my,
Barcelony, stony, sty,
Harum, scarum, frownum ack,
Harricum, barricum, wee, wo, wack.Other groups of variants exist. Those beginning ‘Inty, minty, tippety, fig’ have always
had a more lively existence in America than in Britain. Those beginning ‘Zeenty teenty’
were popular in Scotland in the nineteenth century and remain in circulation. The
starting point, or inspiration, or source of occasional words in ‘Zeenty teenty’ and its
associates, would appear to be versions of the ‘shepherd’s score’, so called, the numerals
reputedly employed in past times by shepherds counting their sheep, by fishermen
assessing their catch, and by old women minding their stitches. In the north of England
this score is still known, not only to old folk but to children when dipping; though the
scores vary, in a typical example the first ten numerals are ‘An, tan, tethera, methera,
pimp, sethera, lethera, hothera, dothera, dick’. However, the relationship between the
children’s rhymes and the shepherds’ scores is not close.
The games of children are accompanied by verses and songs which, later in life, are
remembered with affection—and a certain puzzlement, for most of the older songs have
been corrupted in their passage through oral tradition into a kind of surrealist poetry. A
singing game like ‘The wind blows high’ is losing popularity in its old ring form, as a
mating game, since girls, now the custodians of the singing game tradition, are
beginning to find it unnatural to play the roles of both sexes. The power of the story is,
however, undeniable:
The wind, the wind, the wind blows high,
The rain comes scattering down the sky,
He is handsome, she is pretty,
She is a girl of London City,
He comes a-courting of one, two, three,
And may I tell you who it be?
Tommy Johnson says he loves her,
All the boys are fighting for her.
He takes her in the garden, he sits her on his knee,
And says, Pretty girl, will you marry me?
Pick up a pin and knock at the door,
And say has Tommy been here before?182 TYPES AND GENRES