Eentie Teentie Figgery Fell

DESCRIPTION: "Eentie teentie figgery fell, Ell dell dromonell... You are out!" Or "Zeentie teentie halligolun, The cat went oot tae hae some fun, Hae some fun on Toddie's grun, Zeentie teentie halligolun." Or "A seentie teentie halligolum." Or something
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonsense wordplay animal | cat
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37, "(Zeentie, teentie, figgerie fell)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #72, "(As Eenty Feenty Halligolun)" (1 text)
Roud #19276
NOTES [159 words]: No two versions of this are entirely alike, and as I was trying to decide on a title, I looked for the "middle" version that would best explain the others, which looked to me like "Zeentie Teenty Halligo Lum." But then I discovered what seems like the likely explanation: the words in this song are not (by origin at least) nonsense; rather, they are Scottish sheep-counting numbers, with "eenty teenty" being the usual form. But. Mairi Robinson, editor-in-chief, The Concise Scots Dictionary, Aberdeen University Press, 1985, entry on "zeendi &c" gives this:
zeendi &c ['zindι, 'zendι, 'zintι, &c] numeral, sheep-countinc and children's rhymes one e20 [usu(ally) ascribed to Welsh infl(uence) in SW Scotland; cf Welsh un [in] one, and EENDY, TEENTY, TETHERY, MUNDHERI, TICKERIE, BAOMBE, HECTURI, LECTURI, SEATER, OVER, DAOVER, DEK].
So is it "Eenty" or "Zeendi"? At that point, I gave up and decided that someone needs to find more versions.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB037G

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