Dr. James T. Callow publications
Browse by
Questions or comments on this site? Please email davidsor@udmercy.edu.
The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for 1330 returned 123 results.
Superstition
See a pin, pick it up,
All day long, you have good luck;
See a pin, leave it lay
You'll have bad luck all day.
Data entry tech comment:
Informant and collector share the same surname.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Verse without Music |
A Belief
To make the butter come when churning say the chant:
Come butter come
Come butter come
Peter standing at the gate
Waiting for a butter cake
Come butter come.
Data entry tech comment:
Informant and collector share the same surname.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Verse without Music |
Rock School
Object--to proceed up to the top of the steps
Participants--1 teacher--any number of players
The teacher places rock in hand and puts hand behind back, players attempt to guess which hand the rock is in. The player who guesses goes up the step, if he does not he stays where he is.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Bodily Activity |
Club Fist
A matching-up game called "Club Fist" is started by each player putting his fist on top of the previous player until each has a fist in the stack. Then "It" says to the player who has his fist on the top: "What you got there?" "Club fist." "Well, take it off or I'll knock it off." Each fist is removed until the last one, then ask questions. It: "What you got there?" Player: "Piece of cheese." "Where's my share?" "Cat got it." "Where's the cat?" "In the woods." "Where're the woods?" "Fire burned it." "Where's the fire?" "Water squenched it." "Where's the water?" "Ox drank it." "Where's the ox?" "Butcher killed it." "Where's the butcher?" "Rope hung him." "Where's the rope?" "Rat gnawed it." "Where's the rat?" "Cat caught him." "Where's the cat?" "Dead and buried behind the church door, and now the first one who shows his teeth get ten pinches and ten boxes."
Submitter comment:
Then "It" tries to make the other players laugh or speak.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Athletic sport and exercise Gymnastics |
Cats-Cradle or Cratch Cradle
A continuous piece of twine or string is looped over the extended fingers of both hands. A second person then must remove the string without losing the loops, to create another different pattern or figure.
Data entry tech comment:
Informant and collector are the same person.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Special Object or Implement |
Wish Belief
When a child's tooth is extracted if he puts it under his pillow and sleeps on it, makes a wish it will come to pass.
When the first star is seen, make a wish and say:
Star light, star bright,
First star I've seen tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Get the wish I wish tonight.
Data entry tech comment:
Informant and collector are the same person.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Verse without Music |
The rabbit has a shiny nose
on that you may depend
because his little powder puff
is at the other end.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Had a little monkey
Took him to the country
Fed him on ginger bread.
Along came a choo choo
And knocked him cuckoo
And now my little monkey's dead.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Jump Rope Rhymes
Oliver Cromwell lost his shoe
At the battle of Waterloo
Left-Right
Left-Right
One, two
One, two
Nebuchadnezzar, the King of the Jews
Bought his wife a pair of shoes
When the shoes began to wear
Nebuchadnezzar began to swear.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Come lasses and lads
Take care of your dads--
Make way for the Maypole high . . .
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Wheer has ta' been
Sin I saw thee
On Ikly Moor bat' at
On Ikly Moor bat' at
(without a hat)
Then worms will come
And eat thee up.
Submitter comment:
Yorkshire
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Game
The children sit in a ring. One takes up a poker and bangs it three times on the floor. He then hands the poker to the person next to him and says, "You can do but little if you can't do that." Generally the next child will take the poker and bang three times on the floor. This is wrong. The correct action is for the person who received it, to pass the poker from his hand which received it to the other hand--and this is the action which was done as the first person said, "You can do but little if you can't do that."
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Bodily Activity |
Games
1. Tin Can Lurky (comparable to our kick the can)
2. Runs Across--children on opposite sides of a playing field attempt to cross to the other side without being caught by a "catcher" who stands in the center of the field.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Bodily Activity |
Autograph Book Quote
Little John took a drink
But he will drink no more
For what he thought was H2O
was H2SO4 . . . (sulphuric acid)
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Skipping Rhyme
My mother said
I never should
play with the gypsies
in the wood.
If I did
she would say
Naughty little girl to disobey.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Autograph Book Quote
There was a young lady of Hyde
Who ate green apples and died
The apples fermented
Inside the lamented
and made cider inside her insides.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Counting Out Rhyme
One potato, two potato, three potato, four
Five potato, six potato, seven potato o'er.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Let the piper play the tune.
Explanation: If someone decides the group should do something and says let's do ---, someone else may say to him, "Well you're the piper, play the tune," meaning you lead the way and show us what to do.
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Autograph Book Quote
I do not like the Dr. Fell
The reason why I can not tell!
I only know and know full well,
. . .
(last line forgotten)
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |
Beliefs
If two people pronounce the same word or say the same thing at the same time, they must not speak again until they have hooked their little fingers together, make wishes, and say the following for their wish to come true.
First person: "Needles,"
Second person: "Pins,"
First person: "Triplets,"
Second person: "Twins."
First person: "When a man marries,"
Second person: "His troubles begin,"
First person: "When a man dies,"
Second person: "His troubles end,"
First person: "What goes up the chimney?"
Second person: "Smoke!"
Where learned: LOCATION NOT RECORDED
| Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse |