Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-14
CHILDREN's DOGGEREL
CURIOUS CoUNT-oUT RHYMES
CHANTED By LITTLE oNKa
Examples Of Juvenile Poetry - Words
That Are Without Meaning
-Eeny-Neeny.

From the New York Sun.
Now when the windows are up, toward
nightfall. you may hear some of the won
derful. mysterious and far-diffused poetry
Of childhood. the works Of the Eeny, Nee
ny school, chanted by lively young rhapso-
dists. For example, the classic
Eeny. meeny. miny mo,
Catch nigger by the toe
II he hollers, let him 60,
Eeny, meeny, mfny, me"
There are variants such as IF he asks
to let him go. Make him holler 'Miny NOR
Invention Is not absolutely dead in the case
Of these hallowed contingent rhymes, to
our thinking among the most curious pro-
ducts of the human mind and possessing In
their frequent unintelligiblity their defor-
nation Of phrases or words once having q
meaning. and their strange refrains the
characteristics Of ancient and even masi-
cal song. Obviously they are built UP from
the refrain, and so they are very near to
the origin of poetry as some writers see it.
And they are much more filling and salts
factory than most of the more aspiring and
sophisticated verse. They stick. to the
memory like leeches. How can We forget
such masterpiece as
'Eeny. meeny, mony, mi.
Tuska, liner, homer. stri
Hubby, guldy, boot
The "boo!' comes out like a cannon ball.
The collectors and students of this hide
and-Seek poetry have a wide and pleasant
field; and all their labors like those Of the
masters of the vast wealth of popular tales
and ballads. throw a brilliant light upon
the essential unity in diversity of the hui
man race.
Hoosier Rhymes.
Miss Eleanor Brooks Pearson of the Stan
ford University. an amateur of children's
games. has been hearing the Indianapolis
oh n,It- hni-
rhymes with the older versions Take this
vigorous reading>of a noble poem:
"One-ery, two-ery, ickery Ann
Phillison phollison. Nicholas, John;
Quevy, auayy. Engish navy,
Stfnkum, stankum, buck!''
The final line may be a little too Swift
like. but what a rafting gait the stanza
has! The American version is an improve
ment upon the English original quoted by
Miss Pearson:
Phiiiisy, phoiiisi Nicholas, jam:
Queby, quorby, Irish Mary,
Stickery, sank, sock!''
Philison, Phollison, Nicholas. John; we
are almost ready to back that line against
any other in the language. From what
sound? And here, in what is called 1.-The
most popular jingle of alr' in Indiana,
Lewis Carroll seems to be speaking:
Eeny. meeny. miny, mo. crackafeeny. finy. 70;
Big Words.
Opitoojer, popitoojer-oh, the grand words.
Where do the children get EN-? In Louisi-
ana the jingiers have equally grand words,
such as ''ominoucha." .'popitoucha," words
with bewtching, bedeviing suggestion of
bayous, alligators and the Kalevala-H ia-
watha meter In other parts of the south
there are such treasures as "appaIoochee"
popatoochee," which sound remarkably
like the names of Alabama rivers. From
the Pacific coast Miss Pearson brings this
chant, altogether unknown in the east"
worthy to be known everywhere:
Ching. Chnng. Chnaman
How do you sell your fish
r Ching, Choag Chinaman,
Six bits dish:
Ching Chong ChinaTnan, - -.-~
Oh. that is too dear:
Is Ching Chong Chinaman
. Clear right out of here,'
Michigan is said to be the parent of this
alliterative quatrain:
Boilika bublika, devil-a pot
Bolika, bublika helika, .ot;
= Boil black blood of big black man,
Bolika, hublika, Kuklux Khan
This seems somewhat artificial, conscious
and mature. 1t is scarcely up to the stand
ard of the "eeny, meeny" school.