Publisher's Synopsis
The author's note TO THE GENTLE READER:
THE walls of the temple of King Sety at Abydos in Upper Egypt are decorated with sculptured scenes which represent the cult of the gods and the offerings brought to them. In a side chapel there is depicted the following curious scene. A dead figure lies extended on a bier; sorrowing hawks surround him; a flying hawk reaches down a seal amulet from above. Had I succeeded in procuring a picture of the scene, it would stand reproduced here; for the figure and his mourners recalled the quaint little woodcut of a toy-book which told the tale of the Death and Burial of Cock Robin. The sculptures of Sety date from the fourteenth century before Christ; the knell of the robin can be traced back no further than the middle of the eighteenth century A.D. Can the space that lies between be bridged over, and the conception of the dead robin be linked on to that of the dead hawk? However that may be, the sight of the sculptured scene strengthened my resolve to place some of the coincidences of comparative nursery lore before the gentle reader. It lies with him to decide whether the wares are such as to make a further installment desirable.
23 September, 1906
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CONTENTS
I. First appearance of Rhymes in Print
II. Early References
III. Rhymes and Popular Songs
IV. Rhymes in Toy-books
V. Rhymes and Ballads
VI. Rhymes and Country Dances
VII. The Game of "Sally Waters"
VIII. "The Lady of the Land"
IX. Custom Rhymes
X. Riddle-rhymes
XI. Cumulative Pieces
XII. Chants of Numbers
XIII. Chants of the Creed
XIV. Heathen Chants of the Creed
XV. Sacrificial Hunting
XVI. Bird Sacrifice
XVII. The Robin and the Wren
XVIII. Concluding Remarks
List of Foreign Collections
Alphabetical Index
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. . . To my gaze the phantoms of the Past,
The cherished fictions of my boyhood, rise:
The House that Jack built - and the Malt that lay
Within the House - the Rat that ate the Malt -
The Cat, that in that sanguinary way
Punished the poor thing for its venial fault -
The Worrier-Bog - the Cow with crumpled horn -
And then - ah yes! and then - the Maiden all forlorn!
Mrs. Gurton - (may I call thee Gammer?)
Thou more than mother to my infant mind!
I loved thee better than I loved my grammar -
I used to wonder why the Mice were blind.
And who was gardener to Mistress Mary,
And what - I don't know still - was meant by "quite contrary."
