Will I ever use the preview feature??? I meant to write "I have other references to this early European ritual of stepping over water as a purification or fertility symbol and will look for them and post them in this thread later"

I would like to get down to business and comment on Janie's friend's version of this game song and also post some versions of "Little Sally Walker" that I have found. BTW, kirsten anderberg, I have a recording of Aretha singing "Spirit In the Dark' and love it!! Little Sally is also mentioned in other popular records..

But before "getting down to the real nitty gritty" I'd like to respectfully disagree with Alan Lomax et.al...Well, "disagree" is too strong a word. Let me put it this way-my sense [as an African American] is that if pre-1960s if there had been a contest between "Miss Mary Mack" and "Little Sally Walker" pre-190060as to who was the most popular [among Black girls], even if "Little Sally" brought in her twin "Little Sally Ann" {more about her later},
"Miss Mary Mack" would win "hands down".

But time marches on and, according to my 'field activities' collecting children's rhymes from African American children [mostly in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area from 1997 to date], I believe that the handclap rhyme "Miss Mary Mack' is far more widely known then "Little Sally Walker", or at least the old game song versions of that song*. This is partly because 'game songs' as recreational activities have long been relegated to pre-school age children [at least since the 1960s], and- among African American children I've worked with and otherwise observed- with few exceptions such as "Goin to Kentucky" and "Punchinella", game songs are usually adult led and adult initiated...

And furthermore, even though I believe that "Miss Mary Mack" is currently [and has been since at least the 1970s] much more widely known than "Little Sally Walker", I definitely wouldn't say that "Miss Mary Mack" is the most popular African American rhyme now...But that's a whole 'nuther subject, and Mary's got her own thread here on Mudcat so I'll not muddy these waters goin off on that tangent...