These verses as they here stand arranged, show an increasing deviation from the words used in playing the game of Sally Waters.
Tom Tucker and Jack Horner are names that go some way back in history. For Brand states that at the revels kept at St. John's College, 1 November, 1607, a Christmas Lord of the Revels was chosen as Thomas Tucker.[32] A dance tune of the Dauncing Master was called Tom Tucker also.[33]
The name of Jacky Horner was familiar to Carey about the year 1720, as mentioned above. Little Jack Horner was a well-known tune, and there is a direction in the Grub Street opera that the chorus shall be sung to this melody.[34] A chapbook of the latter half of the eighteenth century bears the title, The Pleasant History of Jack Horner, containing his Witty Tricks, etc. It cites the familiar rhyme, and further describes the pranks that the hero played upon women. This association and the name recall the expressions hornified, that is a cuckold;[35] horning, a mock serenade "without which no wedding would be complete"; and Horn Fair, a time of unusual licence, kept up in Kent: "all was fair at Horn Fair" (1876, p. 387).
CHAPTER VII
THE GAME OF SALLY WATERS
THE game of Sally Waters calls for further comment. In this game, as already mentioned, the players stand in a circle, boy and girl alternately choose a partner, while the friends stand around and chant the verses. In these lies the interest of the game. For these words in the fifty variations collected by Mrs. Gomme, all give expression to the same sequence of ideas. There is the call to Sally to go through the ceremony of sprinkling the pan or watering the can. This is followed by a chorus that urges that a choice be made. When this is made and sealed by joining hands, or by kneeling, or by a kiss, the chorus utters wishes for a prosperous union. Similar traits appear in the games known as Pretty Little Girl of Mine, The Lady of the Mountain, and Kiss in the Ring, which, in a less pronounced form, give expression to the same ideas.
The verses used in playing Sally Waters in Dorsetshire are among the most meaningful, and stand as follows:—
Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan,
Rise, Sally; rise, Sally, and choose a young man;
Choose [or bow] to the east, choose [or bow] to the west
[Or choose for the best one, choose for the worst one],
Choose the pretty girl [or young man] that you love best.