She's indecisive, she can't decide She keeps on looking from left to right Girl, come a bit closer, look in my eyes Searching is so wrong, I'm Mr. Engle.Eenie meenie miney mo Catch a bad chick by her toe If she holla, if, if, if she holla let her go The Ballad Index Copyright 2021 by Robert B. Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren says that "Eenah Deenah Dinah Doe" was the most common form (at least in New Zealand) before 1900, with "Eenie Meenie Minie Moh" taking over after that. Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland lists this among three Counting Out Rymes, with the other two being related to each other but not evidently related to this. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe Youre it Hmm, which doll should I pick Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. When one says 'moe,' they choose the person or thing that they are currently looking at. It may seem odd to include this in a Ballad Index it certainly isn't a ballad - but it is a song, and clearly of the folk variety.ĭolby-OrangesAndLemons claims the form goes back to "ancient Celtic numerals"! Said when one is choosing someone or something from a group of people or things. For the "O-U-T spells out" lyric, see the references under "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door." 40, has an interesting form beginning "Eeny, meeny, tipsy, teeny, Apple jack, John Sweeney" and proceeding for six more lines, then ending "O-U-T spells out, And out goes you" this appears to be an unusual composite of several counting rhymes. NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Leonidas Betts, "Folk Speech from Kipling ," Vol. This seems reasonable in context, but I've yet to encounter any of these forms in real life. Simpson and Roud's Dictionary of English Folklore (article on Counting Rymes) suggests that the British original was "chicken" or "tinker," with "beggar" also used. Paul Stamler, who learned the rhyme some years before I did, also learned it with "tiger" - and says that the children he played it with liked the alliteration. More interesting is the fact that we (middle-class kids in Minnesota in about 1970) gave the second line as "Catch a tiger by the toe," compared to the seemingly-older version involving catching a "nigger." Did we modify it to "tiger" because none of us knew the meaning of the racial slur, or did our parents firmly straighten us (or our older classmates, who taught us the rhyme) out? I've no clue. I suppose I was fortunate that they didn't listen, or I'd have been "it" every time. I remember, at about age ten, trying to convince other children that this was *not* random and that the counter could always pick who was "it" using this scheme. The Opies declare it the most popular rhyme of this sort in both the United States and England, and certainly it is the only one I ever personally encountered. for choosing who is "it" in a game of tag.
NOTES : A child's counting-out rhyme, used e.g. 76, "(Eenee meenee macka racka)" (1 text, with the nonsense words much changed, but still a counting rhyme)Ĭf. Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 20, "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo" (1 text)ĪDDITIONAL: Iona and Peter Opie, _Children's Games in Street and Playground_, oxford, 1969, 1984, p. 117-118, "(Eenie, meenie, miny, mo)" (2 texts)ĭolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 87, "(Eenah Deenah Dinah Doe/Eenie Meenie Minie Moh") (5 texts) also p 95, "Each peach pear plum" (1 text, which he claims is a "relic of "Eenah Deenah"), p. Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes) 242 (no title) (another very strange variant, but too short to classify elsewhere) 240, (no title) (amother variant, quite distinct, with all nonsense words) p. 238, (no title) (2 variants of a short text) p. Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 128-129, "Counting-out rhymes" (sundry short texts, not quite the same as the American versions but too close to separate) 5, (1 text, the second of three "counting out" rhymes) Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 149, "Eena, meena, mina, mo" (1 text) Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)ĭESCRIPTION: "Eenie meenie minie mo, Catch a (nigger/tiger) by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, Eenie meenie minie mo."ĮARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren) Simpson and Roud report an 1885 collection in Canada, and Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes claims that Bolton had a version in 1888įOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Britain(England(West)) Australia New Zealand
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