The Opies' think that the Muffin Man is ".. is the most eccentric of the eccentric ring games: [because]it has changed in shape at least four times in the past hundred and sixty years"..

Maybe. But I bet there are other ways this rhyme has changed-such as no actions accompanying the singing of the rhyme at all..

I was disapointed that the Opie books provide little racial/ethnic documentation of their informants. I dare say that if they had focused more on Black Britons in their studies, they would have found more variants of the texts and probably the performances of various children's rhymes.

In my informal collections of rhymes in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [USA] area, I certainly am finding that there is sometimes a racial/ethnic factor in 'play'.