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By Dan Beard
Rhymes of Different Nationalities
Upon the wind-swept mountains of Scotland the bare-legged, kilted descendants of Rob Roy when preparing for a game in the heather count out with this verse
Eatum, peatum, penny, pie,
Babyioni, stickum stie,
Stand you out there by!
The little Irish lads have a very original rhyme of their own which the author believes few if any Americans have ever heard.
A lirripeg, a larrapeg,
A bee, a nail, a stone, a stack,
A bonny Billie
Gelpie,
A Belia-bug, a warum rock,
Crib-i-stery, Hick!
According to the New York Sun, Mr. Bolton says that the little Turks and Armenians used this count:
Allem, Bellum, chirozi,
Chirmirozi, fotozi,
Fotoz,
gider magara,
Magarada tilki bash,
Pilki beni korkootdi,
Aallede shooullede
Edirnede,
Divid bashi
Ben Olayen kehad bashi,
and we suppose that if the counter does not fall ill after the first court or lose control altogether of his tongue from the hard knots that he has tied in it, he continues his " Allem, Bellem, Chirozi " until all the "bashi" have gone free, leaving some little red-capped Mahomedan or Armenian as "It."
The Turkish jingle is all about ghosts in a cave and foxes' heads and other strange things, with about as much sense in them as the English and American boys have in their rhymes. The Bulgarians have one about a strange sort of frog that jumps screaming from fence to fence, and a little white bone. The polite little French boy, as he bows to his companions, counts out in this fashion:
Un, deux, trois,
Tu ne l'est pas;
Quatre, cinq, six,
Va-t'en d'ici!
[One, two, three,
Thou art not "it";
Four, five, six,
Go away from
here!]
The sturdy little Dutchman, in his wooden shoes, counts out too:
Een, twee, en kopje thee;
Een, klontje er bij,
Af ben jij!
While the North German boy has evidently taken his rhyme from the same source we get ours from, for he says:
Ene, tene, mone, mei,
Paster, lone, bone strei.
Ene, fune, herke, berke,
Wer?
Wie? Wo? Was?
A verse from India that Mr. Bolton gives also has a familiar sound in it:
Ha, hoo, too,
Pooska, bramina padala stoo!
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