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قراءة كتاب Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories A Book for Bairns and Big Folk
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Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories A Book for Bairns and Big Folk
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Seamaw, seamaw, my mither's awa' For pouther an' lead, to shoot ye dead— Pit-oo! pit-oo! pit-oo!
To the lark's song the young mind gives language, in a kindly way, thus:—
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Larikie, larikie, lee! Wha'll gang up to heaven wi' me? No the lout that lies in his bed, No the doolfu' that dreeps his head. |
Interpreting similarly the lapwing's cry, they retaliate with:—
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Peese-weep! Peese-weep! Harry my nest, and gar me greet! |
Of the cuckoo they have this common rhyme:—
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The cuckoo is a bonnie bird, He sings as he flies; He brings us good tidings; He tells us no lies. He drinks the cold water To keep his voice clear; And he'll come again In the Spring of the year. |
The lady-bird, or "Leddy Lanners," is a favourite insect with children, and is employed by them to discover their future partners in life. When a boy or girl finds one, he, or she, as the case may be, places it on the palm of his, or her, hand, and repeats, until it flies off, the lines:—
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Leddy, Leddy Lanners, Leddy, Leddy Lanners, Tak' up yer cloak about yer head An' flee awa' to Flann'ers; Flee ower firth, an' flee ower fell, Flee ower pool, an' rinnin' well, Flee ower hill, an' flee ower mead, Flee ower livin', flee ower dead, Flee ower corn, an' flee ower lea, Flee ower river, flee ower sea, Flee ye East, or flee ye West, Flee to the ane that loves me best. |
The following rhyme, old and curious, and still not unknown to the young in Scotland and England alike, has many varieties:—
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Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lie on; Four posties to my bed, Six angels are outspread: Two to bottom, two to head, One to watch me while I pray, One to bear my soul away. |
After the first two lines it goes sometimes:—
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Four corners to my bed, Four angels round my head; One to read and one to write, Two to guard my bed at night. |
And often the closing lines run:—
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One to watch and two to pray, One to keep all fears away. |
In an old MS. by Aubrey, in the British Museum, he states that this was a prayer regularly used by people when they went to bed. Then Ody, in his Candle in the Dark, 1656, tells that it was frequently used by old people as a charm, and was repeated three times before going to bed. Launcelot Sharpe, in his Towneley Mysteries, 1838, relates that he had often, when a boy, heard similar words used in Kent as a prayer.
Since about the time of the Crimean War—and more immediately after then than now—the children of Glasgow have shouted in the streets:—
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Saw ye the Forty-Second? Saw ye them gaun awa'? Saw ye the Forty-Second Marching to the Broomielaw? Some o' them had boots an' stockin's, Some o' them had nane ava; Some of them had tartan plaidies, Marching to the Broomielaw. |
At an earlier period they had:—
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Wha saw the Cotton-spinners? Wha saw them gaun awa'? Wha saw the Cotton-spinners Sailing frae the Broomielaw? Some o' them had boots an' stockin's, Some o' them had nane ava; Some o' them had umbrellas For to keep the rain awa'. |
There are many similar entertainments which these suggest. But to follow in extent the out-door rhymes of the bairns would carry us beyond the prescribed limits of this chapter. None have been cited, so far, that do not belong absolutely to the nursery; and the collection of these even, though fairly ample, is not so full as it might be. We will conclude with a few, each of which forms a puzzle or conundrum—some of them, in all conscience, gruesome enough, and full of terrible mystery—but, individually, well calculated to awaken thought and stir imagination in any youthful circle.
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As I gaed owre the Brig o' Perth I met wi' George Bawhannan; I took aff his head, and drank his bluid, And left his body stannin'. [A bottle of wine.] As I looked owre my window at ten o'clock at nicht, I saw the dead carrying the living. [A ship sailing.] Hair without and hair within, A' hair, and nae skin. [A hair rope.] Three feet up, cauld and dead, Twa feet doun, flesh and bluid; The head o' the livin' in the mouth o' the dead: An auld man wi' a pot on his head. [Last line is the answer.] There was a man o' Adam's race, Wha had a certain dwellin' place; It was neither in heaven, earth, nor hell, Tell me where this man did dwell. [Jonah in the whale's belly.] A ha'penny here, an' a ha'penny there, Fourpence-ha'penny and a ha'penny mair; A ha'penny weet, an' a ha'penny dry, Fourpence-ha'penny an' a ha'penny forby— How much is that? [A shilling.] There was a prophet on this earth, His age no man could tell; He was at his greatest height |