Darby’s son was dressed in black,
With silver buttons down his back.
Knee by knee, and foot by foot,
Turn about lady under the bush.
—Hersham, Surrey (Folk-lore Record, v. 87).
V.
Darby and Joan were dressed in black,
Sword and buckle behind their back.
Foot for foot, and knee for knee,
Turn about Darby’s company.
—Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, p. 121.
(b) The children form pairs, one pair following the other, with their arms linked behind. While the first four lines are repeated by all, they skip forward, and then skip back again. At the end of the last line they turn themselves about without loosing hands.
(c) Miss Burne includes this among obscure and archaic games, and Halliwell-Phillips mentions it as a marching game. The three first versions have something of the nature of an incantation, while the fourth and fifth versions may probably belong to another game altogether. It is not clear from the great variation in the verses to which class the game belongs.
Almonds and Reasons
An old English game undescribed.—Useful Transactions in Philosophy, 1709, p. 43.