Skipping-rope rhyme

A skipping rhyme (occasionally skipping-rope rhyme or jump-rope rhyme), is a rhyme chanted by children while skipping. Such rhymes have been recorded in all cultures where skipping is played. Examples of English-language rhymes have been found going back to at least the 17th century. Like most folklore, skipping rhymes tend to be found in many different variations. The article includes those chants used by English-speaking children.
Explorers reported seeing aborigines jumping with vines in the 16th century. European boys started jumping rope in the early 17th century. The activity was considered indecent for girls because they might show their ankles. There were no associated chants. This changed in the early 18th century as girls began to jump rope. They added the chants, owned the rope, controlled the game, and decided who participated.
In the United States, domination of the activity by girls occurred when their families moved into the cities in the late 19th century. There, they found sidewalks and other smooth surfaces conducive to jumping rope, along with a host of contemporaries. American educator Lucy Nulton studied the rhymes of jumping rope in the mid-20th century.
Another source suggests that, prior to 1833, the invention of pantalettes enabled girls to jump rope without displaying ankles.
Chants are intended to structure the game and are secondary, explaining the nonsense or irrational lyrics. These chants are unusual inasmuch as they were transmitted from child to child usually without an underlying reason, as opposed to nursery rhymes which were transmitted from adult to child and often contained a moral. Chants may contain girlish references to boyfriends or marriage.
Two children with a long rope stood about 12 feet (3.7 m) apart and turned the rope as other children took turns jumping. If one were not a good jumper, one would be an 'Ever-Laster,' that is, one would perpetually turn the rope. When it was a child's turn to jump, they would enter as the rope turned, and jump to the rhyme until they missed. Then they would become a rope-turner, and the next child in line would take their place. In a way, the chants resemble Hiphop music today in the way the chants rhyme at the end of the lines and they are very catchy with a rhythm that is easy to pick up.
For a line of potential jumpers, the jumpers were restricted on time by the length of the chant. They jumped in at the beginning, jumped out at the end, and the next jumper took their turn.
In another version, the teacher is "Benjamin Franklin." In the Charlie Chaplin rhyme, the child jumping had to follow directions as the rope was turning: touching the heel of one foot on the ground; touching the toe of the same foot on the ground; doing a (short) split of the feet, turning around, saluting, bowing, and jumping out from the turning rope on the last line. This rhyme, c. 1942, reflects children's awareness of World War II.
An Australian version of the Charlie Chaplin Skipping Song, as sung at Salisbury Primary School in Brisbane, Australia in the mid 1950s, is as follows:
There's also "Betty Grable went to France,/To teach the soldiers how to dance." (The rest is the same.)
Another variation:
In Dublin, Ireland, the visits of inspectors known as "Glimmer men" to private houses to enforce regulations to prevent the use of coal gas in restricted hours during the Emergency gave rise to:
Most rhymes are intended to count the number of jumps the skipper takes without stumbling. These were essentially restricted to times when there were relatively few jumpers and time was abundant. These rhymes can take very simple forms.
This chant was collected in London in the 1950s:
and
alternately, "Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper. How many legs does a spider have? 1,2,3, etc."
Another rendition substitutes, "teddy bear" for "butterfly. This can be dated no earlier than the early 20th century, to the term of Theodore Roosevelt.
In another skipping rhyme, once the alphabet finishes, participants continue with numbers until skipper catches rope. It is natural for participants to use the letter that the skipper lost on and to use it to find someone's name following the rule of either best friend or boyfriend, depending on what is chosen in the beginning.
or
or
or
Another counting rhyme:
, how many doctors will it take? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 etc. (Go to 20 then go down to the next line)
The counting continues as long as the jumper avoids faulting. If they do then the counting starts again.:
another counting one from Ireland called 12x12
Chinese jump rope patterns are often accompanied by chants. The diamonds pattern is accompanied by the letters which spell "diamond" ("D-I-A-M-O-N-D-S."), while the Americans pattern, as are many patterns, is accompanied by the names of the moves made while carrying out the pattern ("right, left, right, left, in, out/open, in, on.").
Some rhymes are intended to test the agility of the jumper by turning the rope more rapidly. The key word to start turning fast is often "pepper" to indicate speed, such as:
"Pretty Little Dutch Girl" was a lengthy song, much too long for a simple chant, but often excerpted for jumping rope. "My husband's name is Fatty. He comes from Cincinnati." Or alphabetical, "My husband's name is Alfred, He comes from Atlanta, He works in the attic.." All made up on the spur of the moment. The jumper may be obliged to jump out upon finishing a letter, or be allowed to continue until either failing to invent new lyrics, or faulting.
Other rhymes are highly topical, and sometimes survive long after the events that inspired them have disappeared from the headlines. Perhaps the most notorious rhyme of this type is one that began circulating during the 1892 trial of Lizzie Borden. Despite Borden's desire to stay out of the public eye - and despite the fact that she was found not guilty - children would follow her around and chant the rhyme. It later started being used as a rhyme used when skipping rope:
This one from Prohibition: