Wiskit-a-waskit,
A green leather basket;
I wrote a letter to my love,
And on the way I lost it;
Some of you have picked it up,
And put it in your pocket.
I have a little dog at home,
And it shan’t bite you,
(Here the singer points to each child in turn)
Nor you, nor you, nor you;
But it shall bite you.
Then she drops the handkerchief before her chosen playmate, who chases her in and out of the ring under the arms of the other children until she is captured. The captor afterwards takes the place in the centre, and the original singer becomes a member of the circle.—Miss M. Peacock.
The Deptford version of the verse is as follows:—
I had a little dog whose name was Buff,
I sent him up the street for a penny’orth of snuff,
He broke my box and spilt my snuff,
I think my story is long enough—
’Tain’t you, and ’tain’t you, and ’tis you!
—Deptford, Kent (Miss Chase).
A Staffordshire and Sharleston version gives some altogether different formulæ:—
What colour’s the sky?
Blue.
Look up again.
Like a W.
Follow me through every little hole that I go through.