Chapter I: Front Matter

COMPARATIVE STUDIES
IN NURSERY RHYMES

COMPARATIVE STUDIES
IN
NURSERY RHYMES

BY
LINA ECKENSTEIN
AUTHOR OF "WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM"

_There were more things in Mrs. Gurton's eye,
Mayhap, than are dreamed of in our philosophy_

C. S. CALVERLEY

LONDON
DUCKWORTH & CO.
3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1906

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 sculptures 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 be linked on to that of the dead hawk? However that may be, the sight of the sculptured scene strengthened my resolve to place some of the coincidences of comparative nursery lore before 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 PAGE

I. 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

XVIII. 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 Rat 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 crumpled horn--
And then--ah yes! and then--the Maiden all forlorn!_

_O Mrs. Gurton--(may I call thee Gammer?)
Thou more than mother to my infant mind!
I loved thee better than I loved my grammar--
I used to wonder why the Mice were blind,
And who was gardener to Mistress Mary,
And what--I 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 the list of books on p. 221.

COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN NURSERY RHYMES