One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann

DESCRIPTION: "One-ery, two-ery, ikery on, Fillisy, follisy, Nicholas John, Query, quavey, Irish Mary, Stinkilum, stankilum, jolly-co, buck"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, quoted by Bolton)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Que) US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1641, "Eerie, Oarie, Acktie, Ann" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 390, "One-ery, two-ery, ickery, Ann" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #628, p. 249, "(One-ery, two-ery)"
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 67, "(One-ray, two-ray, Zick-ray, a a)" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 14, "(One-ery, two-ery, ickery Ann)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, 3147, "One-ery two-ery ickery Ann" (1 text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 218, "One-ery" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 103-104, ("Onery, twoery, threery, same") (1 text, which combines the counting part of "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" with a "salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper" line also found in New Zealand texts of "One to Make Ready," "Baker, Baker, Bake Your Bread," and "Mabel, Mabel")
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 256, "(Onery, twoery, ickery, Ann)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Carrington Bolton, Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (New York, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), #444 p.94 -470 p. 96, [for example, ("Ery, iry, ickery, Ann"),("One-ery, two-ery, ikery on")]; #527 p. 100, ("One-ery, two-ery, zickery zan"); #9 p. 63, ("'Ekkeri, akai-ri, you kair-an"); p.1 (also p. 43) "One-ery, two-ery, ickery, Ann" (30 texts)
Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie (Cardiff,2001), #116 pp. 314-322, ("Ekkeri (or ickery), akkery, u-kery an") (3 texts)
James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1886 ("Digitized by Google")),#302 p. 167, ("One-ery, two-ery, hickary, hum")
Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 191, "One-ery, Two-ery" (1 text)
Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #73, "(Onery, twoery)" (1 text)
Roud #13059
NOTES [163 words]: The current description is all of a Bolton text from Rhode Island [#456]; the #446 Bolton text is from Montreal; #449 is from Ohio; #452 is from Texas, Missouri, Iowa and Kansas; #455 is from Connecticut. These are two of very many counting out -- that is, find out who is "it" -- rhymes in Bolton, many beginning "one-ery, two-ery," but distinguishable from these texts. Bolton #9 is Leland's Philadelphia text discussed both by Leland and Coughlin.
Halliwell's text is "used in Somersetshire in counting out the game of pee-wip or pee wit."
Coughlin's first text was reported by Leland in 1891 from Philadelphia, and included by Bolton on pp. 44, 63. Coughlin reviews at length the verse and its possible Gypsy roots as discussed by Bolton, the Opies, and others, and includes a proposed Romany translation that converts the nonsense to an intelligible counting out rhyme.
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes and Bolton find this "One-ery Two-ery" in Halliwell (1842). - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: GrD81641

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