Volume Ii Part 75 (2/2)

The girls stand in a row, and one goes backwards and forwards singing the first four lines. She then takes one out of the row, and they swing round and round while they all sing the other four lines.

Weave the Diaper

Weave the diaper tick-a-tick tick, Weave the diaper tick; Come this way, come that, As close as a mat, Athwart and across, up and down, round about, And forwards and backwards and inside and out; Weave the diaper thick-a-thick thick, Weave the diaper thick.

-Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 65.

(_b_) This game should be accompanied by a kind of pantomimic dance, in which the motions of the body and arms express the process of weaving, the motion of the shuttle, &c.

(_c_) Mr. Newell (_Games and Songs of American Children_, p. 80) mentions a dance called ”Virginia Reel,” which he says is an imitation of weaving. The first movement represents the shooting of the shuttle from side to side and the pa.s.sage of the woof over and under the threads of the warp; the last movements indicate the tightening of the threads and bringing together of the cloth. He also says that an acquaintance told him that in New York the men and girls stand in rows by sevens, an arrangement which may imitate the different colours of strands. Mr.

Newell does not say whether any words are sung during the dancing of the reel. Halliwell gives another rhyme (p. 121), which may have belonged to this weaving game. It is extremely probable that in these fragments described by him we have remains of one of the old trade dances and songs.

Weigh the b.u.t.ter

Two children stand back to back, with their arms locked. One stoops as low as he can, supporting the other on his back, and says, ”Weigh the b.u.t.ter;” he rises, and the second stoops in his turn with ”Weigh the cheese.” The first repeats with ”Weigh the old woman;” and it ends by the second with ”Down to her knees.”-_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 58.

The players turn their backs to each other, and link their arms together behind. One player then bends forward, and lifts the other off his [her]

feet. He rises up, and the other bends forward and lifts him up. Thus the two go on bending and rising, and lifting each other alternately, and keep repeating-

Weigh b.u.t.ter, weigh cheese, Weigh a pun (pound) o' can'le grease.

-Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).

Mr. Northall (_English Folk Rhymes_) gives this game with the words as-

A bag o' malt, a bag o' salt, Ten tens a hundred.

This game is described as played in the same way in Antrim and Down (Patterson's _Glossary_), and also by Jamieson in Roxburgh.

See ”Way-Zaltin.”

When I was a Young Girl

[Music]

-Platt School, nr. Wrotham, Kent (Miss Burne).

[Music]

-Hanbury, Staffs. (Miss Edith Hollis).

[Music]

-Market Drayton, Salop (_Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_).

[Music]

-Ogbourne, Wilts. (H. S. May).

<script>