Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories Part 7

Zeenty, teenty, alligo, dan, Bobs o' vinegar, gentleman, Kiss, toss, mouse, fat, Bore a needle, b.u.m a fiddle, Jink ma jeerie, jink ma jye, Stand you there, you're out bye.

One, two, three, four, Jenny at the cottage door, Eating cherries aff a plate, Five, six, seven, eight.

Zeenty, teenty, feggerie fell, Pompaleerie jig.

Every man who has no hair Generally wears a wig.

Mistress Mason broke a basin, How much will it be?

Half-a-crown. Lay it down.

Out goes she!

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, All good children go to heaven; When they die their sin's forgiven, One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, All good children go to heaven: A penny by the water, Tuppence by the sea, Threepence by the railway, Out goes she!

Me and the minister's wife coost out.

Guess ye what it was about?

Black puddin', dish-clout, Eerie, orrie, you are out!

Master Monday, how's your wife?

Very sick, and like to die.

Can she eat? O yes, As much as I can buy.

She makes the porridge very thin, A pound of b.u.t.ter she puts in, Black puddin', white clout, Eerie, orrie, you are out!

Inky pinky, my black hen Lays eggs for gentlemen; Whiles ane, whiles twa, Whiles a bonnie black craw.

One--two--three, You--are--out!

Eeny, meeny, clean peeny, If you want a piece and jeely, Just walk out!

John says to John, How much are your geese?

John says to John, Twenty cents a-piece.

John says to John, That's too dear; John says to John, Get out of here!

Ching, Ching, Chinaman, How do you sell your fish?

Ching, Ching, Chinaman, Six bits a dish.

Ching, Ching, Chinaman, Oh! that's too dear; Ching, Ching, Chinaman, Clear out of here!

Lemons and oranges, two for a penny, I'm a good scholar that counts so many.

The rose is red, the leaves are green, The days are past that I have seen.

I doot, I doot, My fire is out, And my little dog's not at home: I'll saddle my cat, and I'll bridle my dog, And send my little boy home.

Home, home again, home!

Jenny, good spinner, Come down to your dinner, And taste the leg of a roasted frog!

I pray ye, good people, Look owre the kirk steeple, And see the cat play wi' the dog!

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Haud the horse till I win on; Haud him siccar, haud him fair, Haud him by a pickle hair.

One, two, three, You are out!

Around the house, arickity-rary, I hope ye'll meet the green canary: You say ay, I say no, Hold fast--let go!

Scottie Malottie, the king o' the Jews, Sell't his wife for a pair o' shoes; When the shoes began to wear Scottie Malottie began to swear.

In Dundee these lines are added to the "Eenity feenity" rhyme:--

Jock out, Jock in, Jock through a hickle-pin.

Eetle-ottle, black bottle; Eetle-ottle, out!

This, more commonly used as a test of truth-telling (little fingers being linked while it is uttered), is also used on the East Coast as a counting-out rhyme:--

I ring, I ring, a pinky!

If I tell a lie I'll go to the bad place Whenever I die.

White pan, black pan, Burn me to death, Tak' a muckle gully And cut my breath.

Ten miles below the earth.

Amen!

But these all, of course, as already stated, have been delivered and acted, as they are still, rather as a prelude to the more elaborate games designed to follow than as a part of them, and to afford designedly the opportunity of deciding emphatically who shall be "it" or "takkie."

CHILDREN'S RHYME-GAMES.

When by the aid of the "chapping-out" rhyme it has been decided who should be "it," the game to follow may be "Single Tig," "Cross Tig,"

"Burly Bracks Round the Stacks," "p.u.s.s.ie in the Corner," "Bonnety," "The Tod and the Hounds," "I Spy," "Smuggle the Keg," "Booly Horn," "Dock,"

"Loup the Frog," "Foot and a Half," "Bools," "Pitch and Toss," or any one of another dozen, all of which are essentially boys' games, and have no rhymes to enliven their action. But if it is to be a game in which both s.e.xes may equally engage, or a game for girls alone, then almost certainly there is a rhyme with it. Somehow girls have always been more musical than boys, even as in their maturer years they are more frequently the subject of song than their confreres of the sterner s.e.x.

"Peever," "Tig," and "Skipping Rope," are indeed, so far as I can recall at the moment, about all of the girls' commoner games which are played without the musical accompaniment of line and verse. Their rhyme-games, on the other hand, are legion, and embrace "A Dis, a Dis, a Green Gra.s.s," "The Merry-Ma-Tanzie," "The Mulberry Bush," "Carry My Lady to London," "I Dree I Droppit It," "Looby-Looby," and ever so many more.

Like the counting-out rhymes, the game-rhymes are found in only slightly differing forms in widely divided countries and places. But ever alike, they are never quite the same. The "Merry-Ma-Tanzie," for instance, though always the same in name, will be found with varying lines in almost every town and village in Scotland even. There are variants equally, I suppose, of all.