Mary Mack
"Mary Mack" ("Miss Mary Mack") is a clapping game played by children in English-speaking countries. It is first attested in the book The "Counting Out Rhymes of Children" by Henry Carrington Bolton (1888), whose version was collected in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It is well known in various parts of the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and in New Zealand and has been called "the most common hand-clapping game in the English-speaking world". In the game, two children stand or sit opposite to each other, and clap hands in time to a rhyming song. The  same song is also used as a jumprope rhyme, although rarely so according to one source. Rhyme. Various versions of the song exist; a common version goes; An alternate version, sung in Canada, includes the words: An alternate version, sung in the American South: Clap. A common version of the accompanying clap is as follows: Another version: Another Version: Another Version: repeat Possible origins. The first verse, the repetition, is also a riddle with the answer "coffin". Early mentions of the part about the elephant do not include the part about Mary Mack. Merrimack. The origin of the name "Mary  Mack" is obscure, and various theories have been proposed. According to one theory, "Mary Mack" originally referred to the USS Merrimack, a United States warship of the mid-1800s named after the Merrimack River, that would have been black, with silvery rivets. This may suggest that the first verse refers to the Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War.