Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes Part 8

Also:

Une femme qui siffle et une poule qui crie Porte malheur dans la maison.

If the words used in playing _Sally Waters_ are a.n.a.lysed, it will be seen that the name Sally occurs in forty-four out of fifty variations, and that in twenty-four variations the name is a.s.sociated with water. It is combined with water especially in the south and the south-west of England. Away from this district we have the name Sally Walker, in Shropshire, Bucks, Yorkshire, Scotland, and Ireland; the name Sally Salter in Yorkshire and Lincoln; the names Sally Sander in Penzance, Polly Sanders in Liverpool, and so forth. Obviously, Sally Waters is the oldest form of the name. This view is accepted by Mrs. Gomme, who was, however, at a loss to account for the wide use of the name Sally Waters.

But, in cla.s.sing the variations of words of the game according to the reasonableness of their contents, she placed foremost as most meaningful the verses that hailed from Dorsetshire, Somerset, and Devonshire, where the form Sally Waters is in use. It is to this district, therefore, that we must turn for the origin of the game of _Sally Waters_.

On turning to the history of the British past in these districts, we find that the Romans when they came to Bath found this spot far famed for its waters. The name by which they knew the place was _Aquae Solis_, but the word _Solis_ did not stand for the sun as a male divinity, but for _Sul_, the presiding female divinity of the place. For the Roman temple built at Bath was dedicated to the G.o.ddess Sulis-Minerva, and the name Sul, both with and without the name of Minerva, occurs among the noted inscriptions.[38] It was a common practice with the Romans to couple the name of one of their own divinities with that of a local divinity, and Minerva, in her capacity of a healing G.o.ddess, was here a.s.sociated with Sul, the female divinity of the waters. On the facade of the temple a medallion is represented. Inside it is the head of a G.o.ddess with her hair tied together over her forehead, and a crescent moon is behind her. The moon is an emblem which is not a.s.sociated with Minerva elsewhere, and the head on the medallion must therefore represent Sul. Sul was the presiding divinity at Bath, and an altar was also discovered which was dedicated to the Sulevae.

[38] Scarth, H. M., _Aquae Solis, Notices on Roman Bath_, 1864, pp.

16 ff., 22 ff., etc.

A similar altar has been discovered at Nismes, which is dedicated to _Suliviae Idennicae Minervae_. Scarth, in his history of Roman Bath, cites Mr. Roach Smith on these Sulevae, who "appear to have been sylphs, the tutelary divinities of rivers, fountains, hills, roads, villages and other localities against whom were especially directed in the fifth and subsequent centuries the anathemas of Christian councils, missionaries, and princes."[39] Taking this evidence into consideration, is it far-fetched to suggest that Sally Waters of the traditional marriage game, which, in its most meaningful form, is still played in the districts surrounding Bath, may be related to Sul of the waters of Bath, and to her followers, or ministrants, the Sulevae?

[39] _Ibid._, p. 53.

We know nothing further of Sul as far as our islands are concerned. But in Central France a female impersonation of the sun is still called upon as _La Soule_, and St. Solange, patron saint of Berry, who is represented with a light over her forehead, is looked upon as heir to her in the pantheon of Christian saints. Sulis also was a place-name in Brittany during Roman times, situated somewhere between Auray and Quimper. It seems probable that the site is identical with that of the present St. Anne d'Auray, famous for its holy waters, which are still sought in pilgrimage from far and near. The enormous stone basin into which pilgrims are dipped, remains its most curious feature.

In Scandinavian nursery lore we also come across a _Fru Sole_, the mother of many daughters, who sat in heaven, and across _Fru Soletopp_, who distributed gifts. These names may be related to Sul of the waters of Bath, or to Sally of our game, or to both. However this may be, the wide distribution of the game known as _Sally Waters_, and its peculiar connection with the south-west of England, induce the belief that there is some relation between Sally of the game, and Sul, the divinity of the waters.

CHAPTER VIII

_THE LADY OF THE LAND_

a.s.sociations dating from heathen times are preserved in other traditional games, the full meaning of which becomes apparent only when we compare these with their foreign parallels. Some of these games in their cruder and more primitive forms are sports, in which dialogue takes the place of rhymed verses, and in which the characters that are introduced are frequently spoken of as animals.

Among the dancing and singing games first described by Halliwell is one called by him _The Lady of the Land_. In this game one side is taken by a mother and her daughters, the other by a second woman, and the game consists in the daughters changing sides. The verses that are recited are as follows:--

Here comes a woman from Babyland, With three small children in her hand.

One can brew, the other can bake, The other can make a pretty round cake.

One can sit in the garden and spin, Another can make a fine bed for a king.

Pray m'am will you take one in? (1846, p. 121.)

One child is then pointed out and pa.s.ses to the other side, and this is continued till all are selected.

Twelve further variations of the words used in playing this game were recovered from different parts of the country by Mrs. Gomme (1894, I, 313). Of these two, one from Shropshire (No. 3) and one from the Isle of Wight (No. 6), like that of Halliwell, designate the woman as "from Babyland." Others, from the Isle of Man and from Galloway (Appendix), describe her as from Babylon, while further variations mention Sandiland (No. 9), c.u.mberland (Berks, No. 8), and others. The word Babyland, which occurs in three out of thirteen variations of the game, is probably the original one, for it has a parallel in the corresponding German game in the name _Engelland_, the land of the spirits of the unborn.

The Babyland game in a more primitive form is known as _Little Dog I call you_, in which the players also change sides (1894, I, 330). In this game, the one side is taken by a girl who looks after a number of children, the other by a girl who is designated as _Little Dog_, and who stands apart. The children secretly impart their wishes to their owner or leader, who warns them against laughing, and then calls the Little Dog and tells him to pick out the child who has expressed such and such a wish. Should this child laugh by inadvertence, she at once goes over to the Little Dog. If not, the dog is left to guess who has imparted the wish, and by doing so he secures the child. If he fails to guess aright, the child goes and stands behind the leader and is altogether removed out of the reach of the Little Dog. This is continued till all belong to one side or the other, and the game concludes with a tug of war.

The games of _The Lady of the Land_ and _Little Dog_ have parallels in the foreign game of children changing sides, fourteen variations of which were collected from different parts of northern Europe by Mannhardt (M., p. 273). The closest parallel to _The Lady of the Land_ is played in Belgium, in which sides are taken by two leaders, of whom the one has many daughters and the other has none. The game is called _Riche et pauvre_ and the following verses are sung:--

Je suis pauvre, je suis pauvre, Anne Marie Jacqueline; Je suis pauvre dans ce jeu d'ici.-- Je suis riche, je suis riche, Anne Marie Jacqueline; Je suis riche dans ce jeu d'ici.-- Donnez-moi un de vos enfants, Anne Marie Jacqueline, Donnez-moi un de vos enfants, dans ce jeu d'ici. (M., No. 13.)

"I am poor, I am poor in this game, I am rich in this game. Give me one of your children, in this game."

This is continued as in the Babyland game till every child has had its turn. There is no sequel.

In the German game the woman who owns the children is called sometimes Mary, sometimes Witch, but usually she has the name of a heathen divinity. Thus in Mecklenburg she is _Fru G.o.den_ or _Fru Gol_ (No. 11).

G.o.de is the name of a mother divinity, who, as _G.o.dmor_, is the mother of Thor (Gr., p. 209, note). In the game as played in Prussia (No. 10), in Elsa.s.s (No. 3), in Swabia (No. 2), and in Aargau (No. 4), she is _Frau Ros_ or _Frau Rose_, that is Lady Ros or Rose; while in Pommerellen she is either _Ole Moder Rose_ or _Ole Moder Taersche_ (No.

1), a word that signifies witch. In Holstein, on the other hand, the alternative is recorded as _Fru Rosen_ or _Mutter Marie_, Mother Mary (No. 9), while in Appenzell (No. 5) and near Dunkirk (No. 6) the owner of the children is _Marei Muetter Gotts_, i.e. Mary the Mother of G.o.d.

Mannhardt points out that Ross, sometimes Rose, is the name of a German mother divinity who occurs frequently in German folk-lore. I have come across Mother Ross in our own chapbook literature, where the name may be traditional also. Mary indicates the subst.i.tution of a Christian name in the place of the older heathen one. In Sweden the owner of many babes is _Fru Sole_, who is represented as sitting in heaven surrounded by her daughters, who are described as chickens (No. 14).

The game of securing children is called in Switzerland _Das Englein aufziehen_ (No. 5), that is, "the drawing forth of an angel." The word _Engel_, angel, according to the information collected by Mannhardt, originally designates the spirit that awaits re-birth. For the heathen inhabitants of Northern Europe, including the Kelts, were unable to realize individual death. They held that the living spirit pa.s.sed away with death, but continued in existence, and again reappeared under another shape. In the civilization that belonged to the mother age, these spirits or angels that awaited re-birth, peopled the realm which was a.s.sociated with divine mothers or mother divinities. At a later period, transferred into Christian belief, they were pictured as a host of winged babes, whom we find represented in mediaeval art hovering around the Virgin Mother and Child.

The land in which the unborn spirits dwelt, is generally spoken of in German nursery and folk rhymes as _Engelland_, an expression which forms a direct parallel to the expression Babyland of our game. Thus the _Woman of Babyland_, like _Frau Rose_ or _Frau G.o.de_ of the German game, was in all probability a divine mother, who was the owner of the spirits or babes that awaited re-birth.

In the estimation of Mannhardt, the game in which children are drawn from one woman into the possession of the other, preserves the relics of a ceremonial connected with the cult of the mother divinity. It visibly set forth how the spirits of the departed were drawn back into life (M., p. 319). Perhaps we may go a step further. The study of folk-lore has taught us that to simulate a desired result is one way of working for its attainment. Women who were desirous of becoming mothers, both in England and in Germany, were wont to rock an empty cradle. They also visited particular shrines. Of the rites which they practised there we know nothing. Perhaps the Babyland game originated not as an ideal conception, but preserves the relics of a rite by which women sought to promote motherhood. This a.s.sumption is supported by various features that are incidental to the game.

Thus the game, both in England and abroad, is essentially a girls'

game, and the words that are used indicate that it is played by them only. Even where the generality of the players are designated as "children," the leaders are invariably girls.

Again, in some versions of the foreign game (Nos. 8, 9) there is mention of salt. The woman who asks for a child, complains that she has lost those that were given to her; she is told that she ought to have sprinkled them with salt (No. 8). Sprinkling with salt is still observed at Christian baptism in some districts, and such sprinkling is said to make a child safe.[40]

[40] Cf. Addy, S. O., _House Tales and Traditional Remains_, 1895, pp. 86, 120.

Again, in the game as played abroad the child that is chosen is put to the test if it can be made to laugh (Nos. 2, 4, 5, 8). In the game of _Little Dog_ also, the child that laughs pa.s.ses into the keeping of a new owner. Laughing indicates quickening into life, and in folk-lore generally the child that refrains from laughing is reckoned uncanny.

Numerous stories are told of the changeling that was made to laugh and disappeared, when the real child was found restored to its cradle.

Again, in the foreign game the player who seeks to secure a child speaks of herself as lame, and limps in order to prove herself so (Nos. 1, 2, 14). In one instance she attributes her limping to a bone in her leg.

Limping, in the estimation of Mannhardt, is peculiar to the woman who has borne children (M., p. 305). For in German popular parlance the woman who is confined, is said to have been bitten by the stork who brought the child.

A reminiscence of this idea lurks in our proverb rhyme:--

The wife who expects to have a good name, Is always at home as if she were lame; And the maid that is honest, her chiefest delight Is still to be doing from morning till night.[41]

[41] Bohn, H., _A Handbook of Proverbs_, 1901, p. 43.

Again, in one version of the foreign game the children that are won over are given the names of dogs, and when their former owner attempts to get them back, they rush at her and bark (No. 1). This corresponds to our game of _Little Dog_, in which the child that stands apart is addressed as "Little Dog I call you." Grimm declared himself at a loss to account for the fact that a dog was a.s.sociated with the Norns or Fate-maidens who a.s.sisted at childbirth (Gr., p. 339); Mannhardt cites the belief that the spirits of the dead were sometimes spoken of as dogs (M., p.

301); and in England there also exists a superst.i.tion that the winds that rush past at night are dogs, the so-called Gabriel hounds or ratchets (cf. below, p. 165).

Features preserved in other games contain similar suggestions which are worth noting.

Thus in the game known as _Drop-handkerchief_ one girl holding a kerchief goes round the others who are arranged in a circle, saying:--

I have a little dog and it won't bite you It won't bite you, it won't bite you [_ad lib._]

It _will_ bite you. (1894, I, 109.)

The person on whom _the little dog_ is bestowed is "bitten"; that is, she is in the same predicament as the German woman who is bitten by the stork, and the limping woman of the German Babyland game.

In playing _Drop-handkerchief_ in Deptford the children sing:--

I had a little dog whose name was Buff, I sent him up the street for a pennyworth of snuff.