If you catch the devil by the toe, it won't cause his cloven hoof any pain. There are similar examples of children's rhymes that were collected in England that are more obviously counting rhymes up to ten, such as 'Ya, ta, tethera, pethera, pip, Slata, lata, covera, dovera, dick'.ĭavid Zincavage asserts that the origin is Scottish and posits that the first line of the verse is a corruption of Inimicus animo, a Latin phrase that translates as "enemy of the soul." The second line uses "nigger" and this goes to early depictions of the devil as black, as opposed to the modern red we still have references to darkness as being evil. One theory about the origins of the rhyme is that it is descended from Old English or Welsh counting, similar to the old Shepherd's count " Yan Tan Tethera" or the Cornish "Eena, mea, mona, mite". On saying that last word, the child pointed to was either: "in", "out" or "it" as the case may be. Īnother version of this type of rhyme heard sung in English by children in Bombay in 19 and written down by Glen Dryhurst during several business trips was: Eena, meena, maca-roni, dee, dye, domi-nony, It's half past ten, an old lady came, she called my name, chick-a-dye, chick-a-dye is my name. Īnother possibility is that the British occupiers of India brought a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards: ubi eni mana bou, baji neki baji thou, elim tilim latim gou. Ī Cornish version runs: Ena, mena, mona, mite, Bascalora, bora, bite, Hugga, bucca, bau, Eggs, butter, cheese, bread. which was one of many variants of 'counting out Rhymes' collected by Bolton in 1888. More recognizable as a variation, which even includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version is Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe Olla bolla Domino, Okka, Pokka dominocha, Hy! Pon! Tush! Hickery Pickery, pease scon Where will this young man gang? He'll go east, he'll go west, he'll go to the crow's nest. Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this Scottish one. Eena meena mina mo, Where do all the Frenchmen go? To the East and to the West, To the bonny birdie's nest Apples in the garden, fishes in the sea, if you want a pretty girl please choose me!
The most common English form seems to be Eena, Meena, Mona, My, Barcelona, Bona, stry, Air, ware, frum, dy, Aracy, baraca, we, wo, wackīut there is a well-entrenched version, collected from Durham. He also found a similar rhyme in German: Ene, tene, mone, mei, Pastor, lone, bone, strei, Ene, fune, herke, berke, Wer? Wie? Wo? Was? The rhyme seems to have been unknown in England among collectors until the late nineteenth century, although it was found by Henry Bolton in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s. The first American record of a similar rhyme is from about 1815, when children in New York are said to have repeated the rhyme: Hana, man, mona, mike Barcelona, bona, strike Hare, ware, frown, vanac Harrico, warico, we wo, wac. Occasionally the line copies ' Ip dip': Not because you're dirty, Not because you're clean, Just because you kissed a boy/girl behind the magazine. Sometimes additional lines are added at the end of the rhyme to draw out or manipulate the selection process or make it seem less predetermined, such as: My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, And that is Y-O-U (alternative: And you are it! or "You dirty, dirty, dish rag, YOU!" There are many common variations, such as replacing tiger with "piggy", "tinker", "tigger", "chicken", "monkey", "baby", "spider", or a two-syllable name and changing the verb in the third line to "screams", "wiggles", "squeals" or another verb. If he hollers, let him go, Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. A common modern version is: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Catch a tiger by the toe.