Children's Rhymes, Games, Songs, and Stories
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JiNGO-KlNG. DRAWN BY KATE T. HILL. Children's Rhymes Children's Games Children's Songs Children's Stories j\ BOOK for Bairtis and Bid 7olk By ROBERT FORD Author of ''Thistledown/' and Editor of ** Ballads of Bairnhood/' ** Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland'' ^ ^ Etc., etc. r " Au/<i rhymes and auld chimes Y" Gar us think 07i atild times" —Proverb PAISLEY: ALEXANDER GARDNER Publisher to the late Queen Victoria : 1904 — PREFACE. In offerino- to tlie public this collection of Children's Rlivmes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, and Children's Stories—the multitudinous items of which^ or such, at leasts as were not living in my own memory, have been gathered with patient industry, albeit with much genuine delight, from wide and varied sources I anticipate for the work a hearty and general welcome, ^ alike from old and young. It is the first really sincere ^ effort to collect in anything like ample and exclusive '^ fashion the iiatwal literature of the children of Scotland, >\^and meets what has long appealed to me as decidedly X a felt want. The earlier pages are occupied with a |J^ commentary, textually illustrated, on the generally \d puerile, but regularly fascinating Rhymes of the Xur- ser}', the vitality and universal use of which ha\e been \ at once the wonder and the puzzle of the ages. This is s^followed in turn by a chapter on Counting-out Rhymes, >j' with numerous examples, home and foreign ; which is ^ succeeded, appropriately, by a section of the work ^ embracing description of all the well-known out-door and in-door Rhyme-Games—in each case the Rhvme being given, the action being portrayed. The remain- ing contents the title may be left to suggest. I may — 6 PREFACE. only add that the Stories—inchiding ^"^ Bkie Beard/' and "Jack the Giant Killer/' and their fellow-narratives —ten in all—are printed verbatim from the old chap- books once so common in the country^ but now so rare as to be almost unobtainable. Essentially a book about children and their jiictur- esque and innocent^ though often apparently meaning- less, frolics, by the young in the land, I am assured, it will be received with open arms. From the " children of larger growth " — those who were once young and have delight in remembering the fact—the welcome, if less boisterous, should be not less sincere. Commend to me on all occasions the man or woman who, " with lyart haffets thin and bare," can sing with the poet " Och hey ! gin I were young again, Ochone ! gin I were young again ; For chasin' bumbees owre the plain Is just an auld sang sung again." ROBERT FORD. 287 Onslow Drive, Dennistoun, Glasgow. CONTENTS. PAGE Rhymes of the Nursery, 9 Counting-out Rhymes, .S8 Children's Rhyme-Games, 55 ' ' Merry-ma-Tanzie, " 56 "The Mulberry Hush." 57 " A Dis, a Dis, a Green Grass," .. 58 " Looby Looby," 59 "I Dree I Droppit it," (iO " Bab at the Bowster," 61 "The Wadds," 68 "The Wadds and the Wears," 65 "The Widow of Babylon," 68 ' ' London Bridge, " 69 "The Jolly Miller," 70 "Willie Wastle," 70 " Oats and Beans and Barley," 71 " Hornie Holes," 72 "The Craw," 73 " Neevie-neevie-nick-nack," 73 "Blind Man's Buff," 74 , ' Wat er Wal 1 fl ow e r " 75 "The Emperor Napoleon," 75 " A' the Birdies i' the Air," 76 "Through the Needle-e'e, Boys," 76 " King Henry," 77 "The Bhie Bird," 78 "When I was a Young Thing," 78 "Carry my Lady to London," 79 "A, B, C^' 80 "My Theerie and my Thorie," 80 ' ' Glasgow Ships, " 81 " Airlie's Green," 83 " Het Rowes and Butter Cakes," 83 ' ' Queen Mary, " 84 " Whuppity Scoorie," 85 " Hinkumbooby," 85 ' * Three Brethren come from Spain, " 87 "Here Comes a Poor Sailor from Botany Bay 90 "Janet Jo," 91 "The Goloshans," 94 8 CONTENTS. PAGE Children's Songs and Ballads, 101 Cock Robin, 101 The Marriage of Cock Eobin and Jenny Wren, 104 The North Wind 109 Little Bo-Peep, 110 The House that Jack Builr, Ill Simple Simon, 114 Old Mother Hubbard, 114 Old Mother Goose, 115 The Old Woman and her Pig, 117 A Frog he would a- wooing go, , 122 The Carrion Crow 126 My Pretty Maid, 127 Can ye Sew Cushions ? 127 Hush-a-ba Birdie, Croon, 129 Dance to your Daddie, 1 29 Katie Beardie 132 The Miller's Dochter 133 Hap and Row, 133 How Dan, Dilly Dow, 134 Crowdie, 135 Whistle, whistle, Auld Wife, 136 The Three Little Pi^s, 137 Cowe the Nettle early, 138 The Wren's Nest, 140 Robin Redbreast's Testament, 141 Children's Humour and Quaint Sayings, ... 143 Schoolroom Facts and Fancies, 163 Children's Stories, 182 Blue Beard, 184 Jack and the Bean-Stalk, 191 The Babes in the Wood, 205 Jack the Giant Killer, 210 Little Red Riding Hood, 229 Cinderella; or, the Little Glass Slipper, 233 Puss in Boots, 243 Whittington and his Cat, 249 Beauty and the Beast, 259 The Sleeping Beauty, 274 — RHYMES OF THE NURSERY. Writing on the subject of nursery rhymes more than half a century ago, the late Dr. Robert Chambers expressed regret because, as he said, " Nothing had of late been revolutionised so much as the nursery." But harking back on the period of his own childhood, he was able to say, with a feeling of satisfaction, that the young mind was then " cradled amidst the simplicities of the uninstructed intellect ; and she was held to be the best nurse who had the most coj)ious supply of song, and tale, and drollery^ at all times ready to soothe and amuse her young charges. There M^ere, it is true, some disadvantages in the system ; for sometimes sui)er- stitious terrors were implanted, and little })ains were taken to distinguish between what tended to foster the evil and what tended to elicit the better feelings of infantile nature. Yet the ideas which presided over the scene," he continues, "and rung through it all the day in light gabble and jocund song, were simple, often beautiful ideas, generally well expressed, and unques- tionably suitable to the capacities of children. There was no philosophy about these gentle dames ; but there was generally endless kindness, and a wonderful power of keeping their little flock in good humour. It never occurred to them that children were anything but children ' Bairns are just bairns,' my old nurse would 2 — — 10 RHYMES OF THE NURSERY. say—and they never once thought of beginning to make them men and women while still little more than able to speak." They did not ; and^ in the common homes of Scotland, they do not to this hour. The self- same rhymes and drollery which amused Dr. Chambers as a child are amusing and engaging the minds and exercising the faculties of children over all the land even now. I question if there is a child anywhere north of the Tweed who has not been entertained by Brow, brow, brinkie, Ee, ee, winkie, Nose, nose, nebbie. Cheek, cheek, cherrie, Mou, mou, merry. Chin, chin, chuckle, Curry-wurry ! Curry-wurry ! etc. Or the briefer formula, referring only to the brow, the eye, the nose, and the mouth, which runs : Chap at the door. Keek in. Lift the sneck. Walk in. And it was only the other evening that I saw a father with his infant son on his knee, having a little hand spread out, and entertaining its owner by travelling from thumb to little finger, and repeating the old catch : This is the man that broke the barn. This is the man that stole the corn. This is the man that ran awa'. This is the man that tell't a'. And puir Pirly Winkie paid for a', paid for a'. — ; RHYMES OF THK XLHSKRY. n As well as its tVllow-rhvine : Tliis little \n<r went to the market, This little pig stayed at home ; This Httle pig got roast beef. This little ])ig got none ; This little })ig cried, Squeak I squeak ! I can't find my way home. Than the nonsense rhymes and capers that have delighted the nursery Hfe of Scotland for many genera- tions, none, of course, could be more delectable—none more suitable. While charming the sense, they have awakened imagination and develo])ed ]wetic fancy in thousands who otherwise might have blundered into old age proving stolid and uninteresting men and women. They are, for this reason, part and j)arcel of every properly-balanced life, and the healthy and happy mind can never let them go. Johnny Smith, my fallow fine. Can you shoe this horse o' mine } Yes, indeed, and that I can, Just as weel as ony man. Ca' a nail into the tae. To gar the pownie climb brae the ; Ca' a nail into the heel. To gar the poAvnie trot weel There's a nail, and there's a brod. There's a pownie weel shod, Weel shod, w^eel shod, weel shod })ownie. What pleasing recollections of his own early child- hood many a father has had when, sitting with his child on his knee, he has demonstrated and chanted that rude rhyme by the fireside o' nights far, as often ; ! 12 RHYMES OF THE NURSERY. has been the case^ from the scene where he learned it To know such is to reaHse one, at least, of the various reasons why the old delight in the frolics of the young. Hush-a-by baby on the the tree top. When the wind blows the cradle will rock When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, And down will come cradle and baby and all.