Cuckoo Cherry Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Cuckoo [or "cook a ball," or "keppy ball"], cherry-tree, catch a bird and give it to me [or "Come down the long lonning and tell to me"]" the form of the singer's future spouse: "Once a maiden, two a wife, Three a maiden, four a wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting wife nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 100, "(Keppy ball, Keppy ball, Coban Tree") (1 short text)
Roud #19966
File: Rowl100

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