A HISTORY OF NURSERY RHYMES

by Percy B. Green

Overview

CONTENTS


PAGE
INTRODUCTION xiii


PART I.

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

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013468917
Publisher:	SAP
Publication date:	12/05/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	79 KB
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years