A History of Nursery Rhymes Part 8

is said to the clapping of hands.

"Catching fishes all alive"

is sung to the action of grabbing at supposed fishes with the fingers.

"Why did you let them go?"

Everybody shakes their head and replies--

"Because they bit my finger so!"

"Which finger did they bite?"

Holding up the little finger, you answer--

"This little finger on the right!"

"ANOTHER NURSERY TABLE GAME, BUT NEARLY 300 YEARS OLD."

Some of the thousands of the nursery tales in vogue come to us without a trace as to their origin. In James I.'s time the ending of ballads ran with a tuneful

"Fa, la, la, la, lal, de."

A collection of ballads in book-form by John Hilton, and called "Garlands," are also described as the "Ayres and Fa las" in the t.i.tle-page.

Halliwell gives "The tale of two birds sitting on a stone" the same date. It is scarcely a tale, but a game still played by all cla.s.ses of children--

"There were two birds sitting on a stone, Fa, la, la, la, lal, de.

One flew away, and then there was one, Fa, la, la, la, lal, de.

The other flew after, and then there was none, Fa, la, la, la, lal, de.

And so the poor stone was left all alone, Fa, la, la, la, lal, de!"

The way boys play it may be briefly told as follows:--Pieces of paper are wetted and fixed on the fingers, the first finger of each hand.

Being thus ornamented, they are placed on the table or knee, and the rhyme repeated--

"There were two birds sitting on a stone."

Then by a sudden upward movement, throwing the paper on one finger, as it were, over the shoulder, the next finger--the second--is subst.i.tuted for it, and the hand is again brought down and placed beside the remaining paper bird--

"Fa, la, la, la, lal, de."

"One flew away, and then there was one."

The same sleight-of-hand is gone through with the other finger--

"The other flew away, and then there was none, And so the poor stone was left all alone."

Another but more modern game, embodying the same idea, is told in--

"There were two blackbirds sitting on a hill, One named Jack and the other named Jyll.

Fly away, Jack, fly away, Jyll.

Come again, Jack, come again, Jyll"--

to the wonderment of the child watching the quick change of fingers.

It is the earliest sleight-of-hand trick taught to the nursery child.

A B C GAME.

A spirited game may be played after this fashion. All seated round the table or fireplace. One child sings a solo--a verse of some nursery rhyme. For instance--

"Hi diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed to see such fine sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon."

A chorus of voices takes up the tune and the solo is repeated, after which the alphabet is sung through, and the last letter, Z, sustained and repeated again and again, to bother the next child whose turn it now is to sing the next solo. The new solo must be a nursery rhyme not hitherto sung by any of the company. If unable to supply a fresh rhyme the child stands out of the game and pays forfeit.

"I APPRENTICE MY SON."

In another parlour game of a rather interesting kind the youngest in the room begins by saying--

"I apprentice my son to a butcher; the first thing he sold was a pound of M."

Each has a turn to guess what M may stand for--some kind of meat the butcher usually sells. Should the first person in the circle guess the correct meaning, it becomes his or her turn to ask the next question.

Baker or grocer, chemist or draper, in fact any trade may be selected by the person whose turn it is to put the question.

AN ARMENIAN CHILD'S GAME

of a thousand years ago is still played by the Christian children of Asia. Like our Western street games of tops and tip-cats it perpetuates the cruelties of the persecutions which their ancestors suffered, a most terrible instance of the child's game outliving the serious performance of that which it represented. The frontier of the Armenian kingdom had been destroyed by one of the Christian Byzantine emperors, thus enabling the Seljouck Turks to pa.s.s through the Armenian kingdom, and deal out to the unoffending Asiatic Christians the terrors of pillage by firing their peaceful homesteads. England, France, and Germany have a modification of the game. In France the youngsters hand round a burning f.a.ggot, exclaiming--

"Pet.i.t bonhomme vit encore."

German children play a similar game with a stick instead of a firebrand, and Halliwell gives the rhyme describing the English game as--

"Jack's alive and in very good health, If he die in your hand you must look to yourself."

RUSSIAN SUPERSt.i.tION.

An old custom of the Russian maiden--identical with the English girl's habit on St. Valentine's Day--is still in vogue. Going into the street she asks the first man she meets his Christian name, believing that her future husband will be sure to bear the same.

CHAPTER III.

JEWISH RHYMES.