THE . SHEPHERD'S TALE
[To the Editor of the SeEcmirron.] SIR,—The Numeral-Words : Their Origin, Meaning, History and Lesson (London : Witherby, 1923), by Melius de Villiers, sometime Chief Justice of the Orange Free State, contains a discussion of the Lincolnshire and Welsh numeral words; as well as many other aspects of the problem. The Lincolnshire sheep-counting numerals are (from one to twenty) : Van, tan, tethera, .pethera, pimp, sethera, tethers, hovers, covers, dik, yen a dik, tan a dik, tethers dik, pethera dik, bumpit, yan a bumpit, tana bumpit, tethera bumpit, pethera bumpit, figgit.
Children's, counting-out rhymes often embody old forms. De Villiers points out that these- rhymes usually contain twenty-one syllables, and this is 'confirmed in the rhyme, which I collected from purely English-speaking children at Llanelly last year. I believe that this example has not been published- before : Rena, meena, maeka, tea, rye, pomma- racks, chickaracka, rum, porn, push, ont.—I am, Sir, skc.,
Hcon NICOL.
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts.
Previous page
