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  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


  [Illustration]


  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




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,