Net surfing reveals the following (http://www.scotist. dame.uy/newscotistnotes/html/ (I can't do the blue-clicky thing).
"New Scotist Notes: In the forthcoming revised version of their Oxford Book of Children's Verse, the Opies discuss the possible origins of the children's game, "hokey -pokey" or "okey-kokey" as being derived at one remove from the medieval communion service phrase, 'Hoc ist corpus meum' (This is my body) which was corrupted into "hocus-pocus" in 16th century nonsense phrases supposedly used by magicians, particularly parodic versions of Scotus; and the nonsense phrase was in turn corrupted into 'hokey-pokey'. They cite remnant examples of a ring dance parodying magic ritual from Shropshire surviving into the early 20th century, which uses the phrase "okey pookey, pookey okey", but this was a women's festival dance, and not a children's dance. Carters Meade, folklorist specialist at the British Library Children's Literature Archive (cited by the Opies) suggests that the movements in the modern ring dance may similarly derive very distantly from portions of the liturgy.
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ISBN - 0-201-88448-8. Hardbound, available July 31, 1999. Oxford: O.U.P ($175.00 American).
The Internet is an amazing place.Yours, Peter T.