The Meaning of a Tale
A commentator's point, discussed some while ago in this place, is delightfully illustrated in the latest issue of the Sussex Magazine. What exactly did Milton mean when he wrote of the shepherd who " . . Tells his tale, Under the hawthorn in -the dale " The paragraph- from Sussex is as follows : " The farmer told me that one job was `telling' the sheep. The sheep were allowed to run through a hurdle two al a time ; and as a boy he had to stand there and count them, keeping time with the shepherd thus : one-erum, two-arum, lockerum, shu-erum, shitherum, shatherum, wineberry, wagtail, tarry- diddle, Den." There are many such local sing-song idioms of enumeration. Their recovery is interesting ; but it is the phrase " telling his sheep " that throws light on the Milton line. His shepherd doubtless collected the sheep UP against a thorn and thus took the tally or told the tale.
NV. BEACH THOMAS.
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