Little Miss Nancy

DESCRIPTION: "It's little Miss Nancy, she's just in her teens, She loves and she says, I know what it means, The other day to her mother she said with a frown, Indeed I must have a large flounce to my gown, Singing, ... [chorus]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, p. 286, "Little Miss Nancy" (1 fragment)
Roud #1071
NOTES [170 words]: The current description is based on the Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle fragment.
"Little Miss Nancy" seems to be the target of English and Caribbean riddles:
A candle: "Little Miss Nancy, In her white petticoat, The longer she stands, The shorter she grows" (Archer Taylor, "English Riddles from Oral Tradition" (1977), #613, p. 223; Elsie Clews Parsons, "Barbados Folklore" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 148 (Apr-Jun 1925 (available online by JSTOR)), #62, p. 286), or "Little Miss Nancy with the blue nose, The longer she stays the shorter she grows" (Elsie Clews Parsons, "Riddles and Proverbs from the Bahama Islands" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXII, No. 125 (Jul-Sep 1919 (available online by JSTOR)), #20, p. 440).
A pineapple: "Little Miss Nancy set on a hill with a big beaver" (Roger D Abrahams, "A Riddling on St Vincent" in Western Folklore, Vol. XLII, No. 4 (Oct 1983 (available online by JSTOR)), #38, p. 284). - BS
For related material, see "Little Nancy Etticoat." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: ReCip286

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