With men, however, kingly proclamations, laws, empires pass away and are forgotten, time obliterates their memories, but in Child Land all the inhabitants, from the tiniest crower to the ten-year-old boy, show an eager appreciation in the conservation of the pleasing lore contained in the lullabies, the jingles, the tales, the riddles, the proverbs, and the games of the nursery classics.
And what terrible critics these babies are! What a perverse preference they have for the soft jingle of nonsensical melody; blank verse with its five accents and want of rhythm does not soothe: they must have the—
"Lalla, lalla, lalla,
Aut dormi, aut lacta"
of their prototype of Roman days.
How they revel and delight in the mother's measured song of—
"Dance, little baby, dance up high,
Never mind, baby, mother is nigh;
Crow and caper, caper and crow,
There, little baby, there you go.
Up to the ceiling, down to the ground,
Backwards and forwards, round and round;
So dance, little baby, and mother will sing,
With a high cockolorum and tingle, ting ting."
Or—
"With a merry, gay coral, and tingle, ting ting."[A]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] First printed in a selection of nursery rhymes by Taylor, 1828. A modern well-known baby dance.