Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 26

Snegl! snegl! kom herud!

Her er en Mand, som vil kjobe dit Huus, For en Skjaeppe Penge!

Snail! snail! come out here!

Here is a man thy house will buy, For a measure of white money.

A similar idea is preserved in Germany, the children saying (Des Knaben Wunderhorn, iii. 81)-

Klosterfrau im Schneckenhaussle, Sie meint, sie sey verborgen.

Kommt der Pater Guardian, Wunscht ihr guten Morgen!

Cloister-dame, in house of sh.e.l.l, Ye think ye are hidden well.

Father Guardian will come, And wish you good morning.

The following lines are given by M. Kuhn, Gebrauche und Aberglauben, 398, as current in Stendal:

Schneckhus, peckhus, Stak du din ver horner rut, Sust schmit ick di in'n grven, D freten di de rven.

APPLES.

Children in the North of England, when they eat apples, or similar fruit, delight in throwing away the pippin, exclaiming-

Pippin, pippin, fly away, Get me one another day!

THE WALNUT-TREE.

There is a common persuasion amongst country people that whipping a walnut-tree tends to increase the produce, and improve the flavour of the fruit. This belief is embodied in the following distich:

A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut-tree, The more you whip them the better they be.

And also in this quatrain:

Three things by beating better prove, A nut, an a.s.s, a woman; The cudgel from their back remove, And they'll be good for no man.

THE ASH.

Burn ash-wood green, 'Tis a fire for a queen: Burn ash-wood sear, 'Twill make a man swear.

Ash, when green, makes good fire-wood, and, contrary perhaps to all other sorts of wood, is bad for that purpose when _sear_, or dry, withered. The old Anglo-Saxon term _sear_ is well ill.u.s.trated by this homely proverb. The reader will remember Macbeth:

I have lived long enough: My way of life is fallen into the _sear_ and yellow leaf.

PEAS.

Children get the pods of a pea, and flinging them at each other, cry

Pea-pod hucks, Twenty for a pin; If you don't like them, I'll take them agin.

The _hucks_ are the sh.e.l.ls or pods, and _agin_ the provincial p.r.o.nunciation of _again_.

PIMPERNELL.

No heart can think, no tongue can tell, The virtues of the pimpernell.

Gerard enumerates several complaints for which this plant was considered useful, and he adds, that country people prognosticated fine or bad weather by observing in the morning whether its flowers were spread out or shut up.-Herbal, first ed. p. 494. According to a MS. on magic, preserved in the Chetham Library at Manchester, "the herb pimpernell is good to prevent witchcraft, as Mother b.u.mby doth affirme;" and the following lines must be used when it is gathered:

Herbe pimpernell, I have thee found Growing upon Christ Jesus' ground: The same guift the Lord Jesus gave unto thee, When he shed his blood on the tree.

Arise up, pimpernell, and goe with me, And G.o.d blesse me, And all that shall were thee. Amen.

"Say this fifteen dayes together, twice a day, morning earlye fasting, and in the evening full." MS. ibid.

MARUM.

If you set it, The cats will eat it; If you sow it, The cats will know it.

BIRD-SHOOER'S SONG.

Awa', birds, awa', Take a peck And leave a seck, And come no more to day!

This is the universal _bird-shooer's_ song in the midland counties.

THE GNAT.

In the eastern counties of England, and perhaps in other parts of the country, children chant the following lines when they are pursuing this insect:

Gnat, gnat, fly into my hat, And I'll give you a slice of bacon!

THE TROUT.

In Herefords.h.i.+re the alder is called the _aul_, and the country people use the following proverbial lines:

When the bud of the _aul_ is as big as the trout's eye, Then that fish is in season in the river Wye.

TOBACCO.

Tobacco hic, Will make you well If you be sick.

Tobacco was formerly held in great esteem as a medicine. Sickness was the old term for illness of any kind, and is no doubt the more correct expression.