Paul Stamler, who learned the rhyme some years before I did, also learned it with "tiger" - and says that the children he played it with liked the alliteration.
More interesting is the fact that we (middle-class kids in Minnesota in about 1970) gave the second line as "Catch a tiger by the toe," compared to the seemingly-older version involving catching a "nigger." Did we modify it to "tiger" because none of us knew the meaning of the racial slur, or did our parents firmly straighten us (or our older classmates, who taught us the rhyme) out? I've no clue. I suppose I was fortunate that they didn't listen, or I'd have been "it" every time. I remember, at about age ten, trying to convince other children that this was *not* random and that the counter could always pick who was "it" using this scheme. The Opies declare it the most popular rhyme of this sort in both the United States and England, and certainly it is the only one I ever personally encountered. for choosing who is "it" in a game of tag. NOTES : A child's counting-out rhyme, used e.g. 76, "(Eenee meenee macka racka)" (1 text, with the nonsense words much changed, but still a counting rhyme)Ĭf. Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 20, "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo" (1 text)ĪDDITIONAL: Iona and Peter Opie, _Children's Games in Street and Playground_, oxford, 1969, 1984, p. 117-118, "(Eenie, meenie, miny, mo)" (2 texts)ĭolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 87, "(Eenah Deenah Dinah Doe/Eenie Meenie Minie Moh") (5 texts) also p 95, "Each peach pear plum" (1 text, which he claims is a "relic of "Eenah Deenah"), p. Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes)
242 (no title) (another very strange variant, but too short to classify elsewhere) 240, (no title) (amother variant, quite distinct, with all nonsense words) p. 238, (no title) (2 variants of a short text) p. Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 128-129, "Counting-out rhymes" (sundry short texts, not quite the same as the American versions but too close to separate) 5, (1 text, the second of three "counting out" rhymes) Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 149, "Eena, meena, mina, mo" (1 text) Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)ĭESCRIPTION: "Eenie meenie minie mo, Catch a (nigger/tiger) by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, Eenie meenie minie mo."ĮARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren) Simpson and Roud report an 1885 collection in Canada, and Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes claims that Bolton had a version in 1888įOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Britain(England(West)) Australia New Zealand
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