Eerie Orie, Virgin Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Eerie orie, Virgin Marie, A' the keetles in a tearie." I've been full seven weeks and shall be seven more until Marie and St John's weeks. Tailors have big feet but short toes. Put his tail to the plow; my tail's long enough.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #22, p. 2, ("Eerie, orie, Virgin Mary") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1642, "Eerie Orie, Virgin Mary" (1 text)
Roud #13060
NOTES [122 words]: Is the reference to "the weeks of Marie -- Marie an' St John" a reference to name days (June 24 for John the Baptist[?] and June 29 for Mary[?])? Is the reference to 14 weeks a pointer to March 15 or the equinox? Is it reasonable to try to make anything out of this rhyme? Tailors and tails? Is it just disconnected phrases or disconnected nonsense?
"Virgin Mary" appears in a number of Bolton's counting out rhymes, but none of them are close to the Greig/Duncan8 text. See, for exampple, Henry Carrington Bolton, Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (New York, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), #527 p. 100, ("One-ery, two-ery, zickery zan"); #532 p. 100 ("One's all, two's all, zig's all zan") and similar rhymes #540 and #544 p. 101. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81642

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