—Shepscombe, Gloucestershire (Miss Mendham).
Sift the lady’s oaten meal, sift it into flour,
Put it in a chest of drawers and let it lie an hour.
One of my rush,
Two of my rush,
Please, young lady, come under my bush.
My bush is too high, my bush is too low,
Please, young lady, come under my bow.
Stir up the dumpling, stir up the dumpling.
—Belfast (W. H. Patterson).
Sieve my lady’s oatmeal,
Grind my lady’s flour;
Put it in a chestnut,
Let it stand an hour.
One may rush, two may rush;
Come, my girls, walk under the bush.
—Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, Games, cclxxxviii.
(b) The [Berrington version] of this game is played as follows:—Two girls face each other, holding each other by both hands. Two others face each other, holding both hands across the other two. They see-saw backwards and forwards, singing the lines ([fig. 1]). One girl gets inside the enclosing hands ([fig. 2]), and they repeat till all four have “popped under” ([fig. 3]), when they “jog” up and down till they fall on the floor! ([fig. 4]). At [Ellesmere] only two girls join hands, and as many “pop under” as they can encircle. The [Lincolnshire] and [Norfolk versions] are played practically in the same way. In the [Liphook version] the children stand in two and two opposite to each other; the children on one side of the square hold hands up at the third line, and the other two children run under the hands of the first two. There is no pause, but the verse is sung time after time, so that the four children are nearly always moving. In the other [Hampshire version] four girls stand in a square, each holding the hands of the one opposite to her, pulling each other’s hands backwards and forwards singing the lines. Two arms are then raised, and one girl comes under; this is repeated till all four girls have come under the arms, then their arms encircle each other’s waists and they dance round. In the [Scottish version] there are only two girls who join hands and pull each other backwards and forwards, repeating the words. [Halliwell] describes a different action to any of these. A string of children, hand in hand, stand in a row. A child stands in front of them as leader; two other children form an arch, each holding both of the hands of the other. The string of children pass under the arch, the last of whom is taken captive by the two holding hands. The verses are repeated until all are taken.—Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, cclxxxvii.