<h2 class="nobreak chap6"><SPAN name="II" id="II">II</SPAN><br/> <span class="subhead">THE FOLK-LORE OF<br/> CHILDHOOD</span></h2>
<blockquote>
<p class="center b1">“Why this is the best fooling when all is done.”—<cite>Twelfth
Night.</cite></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="drop-cap3"><span class="smcap1">The</span> trite saying that “children and fools
are soothsayers” goes straight to the
heart of those familiar superstitions with which
the folk-lore of childhood abounds. We, the
children of a larger growth, often call to mind
with what avidity we listened in our childhood’s
days to the nursery tales of giants, dwarfs,
ghosts, fairies, and the like creations of pure
fancy. We still remember how instantly all
the emotions of our childish nature were excited
by the recital of these marvels—told us,
too, with such an air of truth, that never for a
moment did we doubt them. Oh, how we<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</SPAN></span>
hated Blue Beard, and how we adored Jack
the Giant-Killer! Are we not treated, just as
soon as we are out of the cradle, as if superstition
was the first law of nature? What is the
wonder, then, that the effects of these early
impressions are not easily got rid of, or the
impressions themselves soon, if ever, forgotten?
“Brownie” is put into the arms of toddling
infants before they can articulate two
words plainly. Just as soon as the child is able
to prattle a little, it is taught the familiar nursery
rhyme of</p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Bye, bye, Baby Bunting,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Papa’s gone a-hunting,”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p class="in0">drawn from ancient folk-lore, with which the
rabbit and hare are so intimately associated.
After the innocent face rhymes, found with
little variation, in no less than four different
languages, giving names to each of the chubby
little <span class="locked">features,—</span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="i0">“Eyes winker, Tom Tinker,” etc.<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p class="in0">come the well-known button rhymes, like this:</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief;”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p class="in0">or this one, told centuries ago to children
across the <span class="locked">water:—</span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“A tinker, a tailor,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">A soldier or sailor,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">A rich man, a poor man,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">A priest or a parson,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">A ploughman or a thief.”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>The virgin soil being thus artfully prepared
to receive superstition, the boy or girl goes
forth among playmates similarly equipped,
with them to practice various forms of conjuration
in their innocent sports, without in
the least knowing what they are doing. Here
are a few of <span class="locked">them:—</span></p>
<p>Making a cross upon the ground before
your opponent, at the same time muttering
“criss-cross,” when playing at marbles, to make
him miss his shot, as I have often seen done
in my schoolboy days. This is merely a relic
of that superstition attached to making the sign
of the cross, as a charm against the power of
evil spirits.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</SPAN></span>
The innocent sounding words “criss-cross”
we believe originally to have been Christ’s
Cross.</p>
<p>Children of both sexes count apple seeds
by means of the pretty jingling rhymes, so
like to the German flower oracle, often employed
by children of a larger growth. It
has been set to music.</p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“One I love,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Two I love.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Three I love, I say,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Four I love with all my heart,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Five I cast away;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Six he loves,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Seven she loves,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Eight both love;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Nine he comes,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Ten he tarries,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Eleven he courts,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Twelve he marries.”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>Holding the pretty field buttercup under
another’s chin, in order to see if he or she loves
butter, is a good form of divination. So is the
practice of blowing off the fluffy dandelion top,
after the flower has gone to seed, to determine<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</SPAN></span>
the hour, as that flower always opens at about
five in the morning, and shuts at about eight in
the evening, thus making it stand in the room
of a clock for shepherds. This plant has also
been called the rustic oracle. To find the time
of day, as many puffs as it takes to blow away
the downy seed balls gives the answer. The
same method of divination is employed by
children to find out if their mothers want them;
or to waft a message to some loved one; or to
know if such or such a person is thinking of
them; and whether he or she lives north, east,
south, or west.</p>
<p>To the same general purport is the invocation:</p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Rain, rain, go away,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Come again another day.”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>We understand that the equally familiar
<span class="locked">form,—</span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Snail, snail, put out your horn,”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p class="in0">is repeated in China as well as in this country,
though sometimes altered to</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Snail, snail, come out of your hole,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Or else I’ll beat you black as a coal.”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>One equally familiar form of childish invocation
appears in the pretty little lady-bird rhyme,
so often repeated by the <span class="locked">young:—</span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Lady-bird, lady-bird,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Fly away home,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Your house is on fire,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Your children will burn.”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>A favorite way, with boys, of choosing sides
for a game of ball is by measuring the stick.
To do this, the leader of one side first heaves
the stick in the air, skilfully catching it, as it
falls, at a point as near a hand’s-breadth to the
end as possible, as his opponent must then
measure the stick with him, alternately hand-over-hand,
from the point where it is caught.
The one securing enough of the last of the
stick for a hold, has the first choice. This is
determination by lot.</p>
<p>Still another form of invocation, formerly
much used to clinch a bargain between boys,
when “swapping” jack-knives or marbles, runs
to this <span class="locked">effect:—</span></p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Chip, chop, chay,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Give a thing, give a thing,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Never take it back again.”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>The process of counting a person out in the
familiar phrase as being “it,” is fairly traced
back to the ancient custom of designating a
criminal from among his fellows by lot. The
form that we know the best in New England,
a sort of barbaric doggerel, according to Mr.
Burton, is still current in Cornwall, England,
and goes in this <span class="locked">wise:—</span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Ena, mena, bora, mi:<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Kisca, lara, mova, di:<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Eggs, butter, cheese, bread,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Stick, stock, stone dead.”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>The resemblance between the foregoing, and
what is current among playfellows on this
side of the water easily suggests that the boys
of the “good Old Colony times,” so often
referred to with a sigh of regret, brought their
games and pastimes along with them. As
now remembered, the doggerel charm runs as
<span class="locked">follows:—</span></p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“Eny, meny, mony might,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Huska, lina, bony tight,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Huldy, guldy, boo!”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>In getting ready for a game of “tag,” “I
spy,” or “hide and seek,” the one to whom
this last magic word falls becomes the victim or
is said to be “it.” So in like manner the
rhymed formula, following, is employed in
counting a child “out”:—</p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“One-ery, two-ery, ickery Ann,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Fillicy, fallicy, Nicholas, John,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Queever, quaver, English knaver,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Stinckelum, stanckelum, Jericho, buck.”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>A more simple counting-out rhyme is this:</p>
<div class="center-container"><div class="poem">
<span class="iq">“One, two, three,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Out goes he (or she).”<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>“Tit, tat, toe,” is still another form, repeated
with variations according to locality.</p>
<p>These few examples may serve to show
that what the performers themselves regard
only as a simple expedient in the arranging
of their games, if they ever give the matter
a thought, is really a survival of the belief
in the efficacy of certain magical words, turned
into rhyme, to propitiate success. If this idea<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</SPAN></span>
had not been instilled into our children by
long custom and habit, it is not believed that
they would continue to repeat such unmeaning
drivel. Yet, as childish as it may seem,
it advances us one step in solving the intricate
problem in hand; for here, too, “the
child is father to the man.”</p>
<hr />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</SPAN></span></p>
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