The boys seem to have dropped their nuts while I was away, for which we should all be properly grateful.

Little Hawk:  I'm not for a moment suggesting that the obvious answer is the only one; merely that it should always be considered first, before one becomes embroiled in deeper and more problematic speculation.  When it comes to the old songs, people always seem to want an answer that is as complicated as possible, often investing the most ordinary things with a numen quite inappropriate to their actual significance.  I'm well aware of the folkloric significance of the left side, having studied such things myself, but I do feel obliged to be devil's advocate in many of these discussions, if only to ensure some kind of balance.

I certainly claim no exclusivity for the point I made; there may well be a spiritual significance to the gesture in this case, but it would certainly be a mistake to suggest that there must be, simply because it is possible, just as I would have been wrong if I had suggested that there couldn't be, simply because it was less likely on the face of it than the prosaic, but reasonable (empirically speaking) possibility that I mentioned.

In fact, as I expect you know, people are forever looking over their left shoulders in traditional song, sometimes in situations where some additional significance might reasonably be assigned to the action, sometimes not; I am not aware of a single instance of anybody looking over their right shoulder, as it happens, which suggests to me that we're looking at an oral-formulaic construction which does not necessarily have any particular significance at all, beyond its familiarity as a narrative device. Which, in deference to Metaphysics, of which I have always been rather fond, is not to say that you are wrong or that I am right; merely that, while there is always more than one way of skinning a cat, it generally makes sense to consider, to begin with, the easiest option.

Malcolm

Interval over.  Anybody wishing to get back to their nuts, now, feel free.