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 at Abydos in Upper Egypt are decorated with sculptured scenes which represent the cult of the gods and the offerings brought to them. In a side chapel there is depicted the following curious scene. A dead figure lies extended on a bier; sorrowing hawks surround him; a flying hawk reaches down a seal amulet from above. Had I succeeded in procuring a picture of the scene, it would stand reproduced here; for the figure and his mourners recalled the quaint little woodcut of a toy-book which told the tale of the Death and Burial of Cock Robin. The sculptures of Sety date from the fourteenth century before Christ; the knell of the robin can be traced back no further than the middle of the eighteenth century A.D. Can the space that lies between be bridged over, and the conception of the dead robin be linked on to that of the dead hawk? However that may be, the sight of the sculptured scene strengthened my resolve to place some of the coincidences of comparative nursery lore before the gentle reader. It lies with him to decide whether the wares are such as to make a further instalment desirable.

23 September, 1906.

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