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COMPARATIVE STUDIES
IN NURSERY RHYMES
COMPARATIVE STUDIES
IN
NURSERY RHYMES
BY
LINA ECKENSTEIN
AUTHOR OF "WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM"
There were more things in Mrs. Gurton's eye,
Mayhap, than are dreamed of in our philosophy
C. S. CALVERLEY
LONDON
DUCKWORTH & CO.
3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1906
TO THE GENTLE READER
The walls of the temple of King Sety atAbydos in Upper Egypt are decoratedwith sculptured scenes which represent the cultof the gods and the offerings brought to them.In a side chapel there is depicted the followingcurious scene. A dead figure lies extended on abier; sorrowing hawks surround him; a flyinghawk reaches down a seal amulet from above.Had I succeeded in procuring a picture of thescene, it would stand reproduced here; for thefigure and his mourners recalled the quaint littlewoodcut of a toy-book which told the tale ofthe Death and Burial of Cock Robin. The sculpturesof Sety date from the fourteenth centurybefore Christ; the knell of the robin can be tracedback no further than the middle of the eighteenthcentury A.D. Can the space that lies between bebridged over, and the conception of the dead robinbe[Pg vi] linked on to that of the dead hawk? Howeverthat may be, the sight of the sculpturedscene strengthened my resolve to place some ofthe coincidences of comparative nursery lore beforethe gentle reader. It lies with him to decidewhether the wares are such as to make a furtherinstalment desirable.
23 September, 1906.