Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-09-07

Make him holler "miny, mo-
Rejection of the refrain plainly indicates
less antiquity for this form.
Hoosier Catalexis
Variant readings show that the "eeny,
meeny" school of poetry is still living or
ganism, and offers a field for the research Of
the curious. But the old forms are more in
teresting less conscious.
Another correspondent quotes the follow
ing, with variation in the refrain:
Enc, meme, none mi,
Huska, lana, bona, stri,
Hulda, gulda, BOO
out goes you!
Elsewhere this is used to count out:
Eeny. meeny. mony. mi,
Tusker, liner, boner. stry,
Huldy. gudy, goo,
though boo" is sometimes the ultima, the
one receiving the syllable being out
In Indiana, we are told by a Hoosier
author between novels, that this is the ia
vored form of the "eeny, meeny' legend:
Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, crackafteeny. fny 70,
Opitooier. popitoojer, rick. bick, ban, do.
Note the swell and surge of the line The
practced metrician will find in 1t catalexis
syncope and all the fearsome figures found
in the prosody section at the stub end OF
the grammar book
Down in Louisiana the kids" have much
the same form, except that the rhythmic
movement is more sonorous, with the sub
stitution Of "ominoucha, poopitoucha," sin
gularly reminiscent of the metre celebrating
the exploits Of the Finn giant Kaeva, a
metre transferred by Longfellow to his mar
ration of Hiawatha's career Sailing around
the Gulf from the bayous and creoles and
okra, brought to memory by "ominoucha,
poopitoucha," We get to the Cotton Belt
where the variant is "appaloochee, popatoo-
Chez" terms also with memories memories
Of unpronounceable and almost unremem-
bered rivers and creeks OF the "Joggerfy" OF
the Southern States.
Another rhyme from those far off, happy
days. begins with the familiar "eeny, meeny."
and continues:
Happy, hoppy, hippy, no.
Ram, scram, mullica man,
Bo. Bo, Bo,
the last "bo" meaning at" in hide-and-seelx
and "out" in counting for the so-called ring
games" 1t derives from the West Virginia
mountains, at least the boy who brought II
to Delaware came thence. His brother had
the alternative medicine man." but he was
older and a reader Of wild and woolly yellow
backs, which Edward S. Ellis used to write
under a nom de plume. This "Injun" in
reading is too mature for the juvenility that
counts out"
Mark Twain said there were three root
jokes-at least they say Mark Twain said it
and James Huneker has made a valid DEM
onstration OF the seven plots of drama--or
was IL thirty-seven? So far is known to
the present writer there are two motifs In
name to the school and the "ickery Ann"
theme.
The norm seems TO be:
one-ery. two-ery. ickery Ann,
Phillison, phollison, Nicholas John;
Quevy quavy, English navy,
stiokory. sank, sock.
Vestiges Of a love lyric with the senti-
ment worn to attrition, are visible here.
Sometimes the feminine name Is man"
Maybe the sense OF tragedy brooded over the
original; note the monnikers OF two rivals
But this is all surmise
Compare-as the savants say-this with n
Celtic touch:
Winery, wannery. accory, ham,
Phillosy, phollisy. Nicholas, JAM
Queby quorby, Irish Mary
Stinkum, stankum, buck.
Common source is certain, but the devia-
tion is marked. The lines move swiftly-the
last smacks Of the witty Dean OF St Pat
riek's. Probably the spelling Of "phillison'
or "phillisy' is too literary. too, but there
is nothing Of the affected about the auatrain.
Il is ingenious, by and large
But what sounding words they are. how
rotund' how ample, what a mouthful!
On "The Birth Of Nation"
ba "A
blamed on Michigan. though It hath a sound
OF carpet baggers' and the Southland dur
ing Reconstruction;
Bollika, bublika. devil-a-pot
Boilika, bubllka hellika lot;
Boil black blood OF big black man
Boilika. bublika. Ku Klux Khan
This is a pretty study in ALTERATION but
II is the neologism Of maturity. Il has a
sophistication which does not belong 10 the
authentic specimen OF the school. II does
not sound as II Lewis Carroll had written II.
And that is as near a criterion as moderns
can get TO Judge the historicity or prehis-
toricity OF the mystic, magic survivaIs OF the
childhood OF the race. now the verbal play
things OF real romping childhood