A History of Nursery Rhymes

CHAP. I. Prehistoric man--His language one of signs and sounds--The story of Psammetichus and the Two Babies--Idiom of language a survival of primitive peoples 1

II. Modern types of early man--Sign-language of people living on the globe to-day--The custom of the UVINZA grandees--The "good-morning" of the Walunga tribe--Signs of hospitality in the sign vocabulary of the North American Indian--The "attingere extremis digitis" of the Romans--Clap-hands one of the first lessons of the Nursery--The modern survival of hand-clapping--"Is it rude to shake hands, Nurse?"--A hypercritical mother--Plato's rebuke--Agesilaus and his children--Nursery classics and critical babies--"Lalla, lalla, lalla" of the Roman child--The well-known baby dance of "Crow and caper, caper and crow" 8

III. Writers on comparative religions show that entire religious observances come down to modern peoples from heathen sources--The Bohemian Peasant and his Apple Tree--A myth of long descent found in the rhyme of "A Woman, a Spaniel, and Walnut Tree"; our modern "Pippin, pippin, fly away," indicates the same sentiment--The fairy tale of Ashputtel and the Golden Slipper, the legend from which came our story of Cinderella--Tylor on Children's Sports--The mystery of Northern Europe at Christ's coming--The Baby's Rattle--Ancestral worship follows sun and moon worship, and gives us the tales of fairies, goblins, and elves--Boyd Dawkins' story of the Isle of Man farmer--A Scandinavian Manxman--Modernised lullaby of a Polish mother--"Shine, Stars"--"Rain, rain, go away"--Wind making--LULLABIES--Bulgarian, German, "Sleep, Baby, Sleep"--The lullaby of the Black Guitar--"Baby, go to Sleep"--English version, "Hush thee, my Babby"--Danish lullaby of "Sweetly sleep, my little Child"--"Bye, baby bunting" 17

IV. Elf-land--Old-time superstitions--A custom of providing a feast for the dead known in Yorkshire, North-west Ireland, and in Armenia--The Erl King of Goethe--Ballet of the Leaf-dressed Girl--The Spirit of the Waters--An Irish legend of Fior Usga--Scotch superstition--Jenny Greenteeth of Lancashire--The Merrow of the West of Ireland--Soul Cages--The German rhyme of "O Man of the Sea, come list unto Me"--Mysticism among uncivilised races--The Corn Spirit--The Rye-wolf--"The Cow's in the Corn"--"Ring a ring a rosies"--"Cuckoo Cherry Tree"--Our earliest song, "Summer is a-coming in"--"Hot Cockles" at Yorkshire funerals--"Over the Cuckoo Hill, I oh!"--Indian Lore 34

PART II.

I. GAMES--Whipping-tops, Marbles, etc.--"I am good at Scourging of my Toppe," date 15--(?)--Dice and Pitch-and-Toss--"Dab a Prin in my Lottery Book"--"A' the Birds of the Air"--Hop Scotch--"Zickety, dickety, dock"--"All good Children go to Heaven"--"Mary at the Cottage Door."

MARRIAGE GAMES--"If ever I Marry I'll Marry a Maid," 1557 A.D.--London Street Games--A Wedding--"Choose one, choose two, choose the nearest one to you"--"Rosy Apple, Lemon, and Pear"--The King of the Barbarines--"I've got Gold and I've got Silver"--A Lancashire Round Game--"Fol th' riddle, I do, I do, I do"--Round Game of the Mulberry Bush--"Pray, Mr. Fox, what time is it?"--"Mother, buy me a Milking Can"--"Here comes a Poor Sailor from Botany Bay"--"Can I get there by Candle-light?" 58

II. NURSERY GAMES--A Game for a Wet Day--"Cows and Horses walk on four legs"--A Game nearly 300 years old--"There were two birds sitting on a stone"--A B C Game--"Hi diddle diddle"--"I Apprentice my Son"--An Armenian Child's Game, "Jack's Alive"--Russian Superstition 80

III. JEWISH RHYMES--"A kid, a kid my father bought for two pieces of money--a kid! a kid!"--"The house that Jack built"--The Scotch version, "There was an old woman swept her house and found a silver penny"--The Chad Gadyâ--"Who knoweth One" 89

IV. An ancient English Rhyme--"A Frog who would a-wooing go," the version of same sung in Henry VIII.'s reign--Songs of London Boys in Tudor times--"Quoth John to Joan"--"Good parents in good manners do instruct their child"--"Tom a Lin"--"Bryan O'Lynn"--Four songs sung by children in Elizabeth's reign--"We'll have a Wedding at our House" 100

V. CAT RHYMES--"Pussy-cat, pussy-cat"--"Ten little mice sat down to spin"--"The rose is red, the grass is green"--"I Love little Pussy"--"Three Cats sat by the Fireside"--"There was a Crooked Man"--"Ding dong bell"--Cat tale of Dick Whittington 112

VI. A Cradle Song of the first century, "Sleep, O son, sleep" 117