SHEEP AND SHEPHERDS.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]

Sm,—There are two counting-out rhymes known to me which bear a particularly striking resemblance to the Lincolnshire score. The first of these runs as follows :— " Eenty, teenty, tethery, methery,

Banful, eetful, over, dover ; Ding, dell, dominel, Ann, tan, toosh !"

The second is a variant of the first :—

"Eenty, teenty, heathery bell,

Bamful, °oral, over and over; Dicky dell, Roman ell, Ann, tan, toosh, Jock, You are out!"

The clumsy vigesimal system of counting is common to the Celtic languages, and the number "twenty " is evidently an arithmetical landmark. "Figgit," which is one of the forms used to express twenty in Lincolnshire, is the same word as

the Gaelic "fichead," and appears in some Scottish rhymes in, the form " fickety." Traces of the old system, moreover, per- sist in everyday French in such expressions as " vingt sous," "quatre-vingt sous," and "threescore and ten" is still intelligible English. My object in writing, however, was not to descant upon a familiar theme, but to seek information for my own enlightenment.

In Slavonia the peasants, while dancing the species of Jingo- ring known as the "kolo," often sing the following :—

" Igra kolo, igra kolo na dvadeset i dye IT tom kola, u tom kolu lips Mara igre Kakva, Mara, kakva, Mara medna usta ima! Da me ode, da me ode poljubiti Xnjima Volio hi, volio bi nem dvadeset i due Ljubi Maro, ljubi Zara koga, tebi drago."

(They are dancing the kolo, the twenty-two

In this kola the lovely Mara dances.

What a honey month has Mara!

If she would but kiss me with her honey month

I should prefer it to twenty-two.

Mara, Mara, kiss the one you love hest.)

What may be the meaning of this twenty-two ? Dr. Krauss, the distinguished South Slav ethnologist, says that in his youth he often took part in this very dance. Generally the dancers were fewer in number than twenty-two, but the- formula was invariable. He could discover no reason. for the employment of this particular number, and cites a variant of the second last line to prove that the peasants themselves have lost the clue-.

In this variant instead of

" Volio bi neg dvadeset i due" (/ should prefer it to twenty-two),

" V olio bi nego dukes* i due"

(I should prefer it to a ducat end hos),

an obvious attempt to get round a difficulty by substituting the known for the unknown—" sin verfehlter Erkliirinags- versuch " is the savant's comment. Perhaps one of your readers may be able to elucidate the point.—I am, Sir, &c., we find