Children's rhymes are a wonderful example of the oral tradition. They are passed along from kid to kid for decades, even centuries, with very little variation - certainly less variation than folk songs. If a kid makes a change in a rhyme, he will be considered wrong by his peers and they will let him know.


Children's rhymes have been collected by many people, especially Ben Bodkin, but kids never learn them from a written source.

Bev and Jerry