XXI Children’s Singing-Games
The tunes used by children in the traditional singing-games rank as folk-music, and are always of the most simple and marked character. Having these qualities they are easily remembered, and capable of being passed from one generation of children to another with but little chance of corruption. Although certain games have the same rhymes and tunes in different parts of the country, yet there are others where the airs are not so fixed.
A very high antiquity has been allotted to the origin of these games. It is claimed that many are reflexes of pagan marriage and burial customs, and even of sacrificial rites. Into this question it is outside the province of this book to inquire, but whatever may be adduced as to the great age the games themselves possess, it seems doubtful whether any exceptional degree of antiquity can be safely assigned to the existing tunes, though they are all pretty and charming, and well worth preservation, apart from their antiquarian association.
Many collections of these singing-games have been published; details of these will be found in the bibliography. Miss A. G. Gilchrist, of Southport, has noted a very great number from children in different parts of the country. Her collection, up to the present, remains in manuscript.
A number of the singing-game tunes resemble in a greater or less degree certain published airs, as “Nancy Dawson,” “Sheriff Muir,” and some others. Whether the children have taken these airs for their games, or whether the composers of the printed tunes have gone to the children’s games for inspiration, is a problem not easily solved.