| Ekkeri, akai-ri, you kiar-an, |
and remarks that "Ekkeri, akai-ri," literally translated, just gives the familiar "One-ery, two-ery," which is etymologically analogous to "Hickory, dickory," in the all-pervading nursery rhyme:—
| Hickory, dickory, dock, The mouse ran up the clock; The clock struck one, and down the mouse ran, Hickory, dickory, dock. |
An American version of which, by the bye, goes:—
| Hiddlety, diddlety, dumpty, The cat ran up the plum tree; Half-a-crown to fetch her down, Hiddlety, diddlety, dumpty. |
But still, before leaving the familiar chapping-out rhyme of Marjorie Fleming, let us see how it occurs again in Scotland and among the children of some of the other English-speaking nations, to go no further. Charles Taylor, in the Magpie; or Chatterings of the Pica, published at Glasgow in 1820, gives it thus:—
| Anery, twaery, duckery, seven, Alama, crack, ten am eleven; Peem, pom, it must be done, Come teetle, come total, come twenty-one; |
and remarks:—"This is reported to have originated with the Druids; the total number of words is twenty-one, and it seems to be a mixture of words put into rhyme." In the streets and lanes and open spaces of Aberdeen it runs:—
| Enery, twa-ery, tuckery, taven, Halaba, crackery, ten or eleven; Peen, pan, musky dan, Feedelam, Fadelam, twenty-one. |