The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #11455   Message #87508
Posted By: LEJ
17-Jun-99 - 06:11 PM
Thread Name: Hokey pokey and the Druids?
Subject: RE: Hokey pokey and the Druids?
Penny...you have just made an amazing contribution to the entire scholastic body of Hokipokology. The poem you recount is a fascinating mish-mash of English, Latin and Hikipikalt! I have used the Aureola Stone (the well known Hikipikalt Pub Sign which gave directions to the water closet in HP, Greek and Low Serbian) to de-codify this example of apparent childish folderol. Let me elucidate:

Hoky Poky, Winky Wum This is an allusion to the original ritual dance coupled with the Winkiwum, or Bough-run Ritual. It is a powerful invocation of the multi-armed Tree Gods.

How do you like your taters done? "Tater's done" is a linguistic corruption of Teeter-Stone, the term used for the linking "hinge" stones at the Stonehenge Monument . In other words, the Druidical priest asks "Welcome Deities! How do you like the enormous stone structure we have erected for you?"

Snip, Snap, Snorum Again, an allusion to the Ceremonial breaking-of-the-twig during the Bough-run."Snorum" is a latinate word which refers to the fitful sleep of the tree-gods, who have been awakened by this ritual.

High Popolorum Another English/Latin hybrid phrase translated "Hey! There's way to many of us, anyway! Somebody's got to go!"

Kate go scratch it, You are Out! This was the dreaded moment when "the Kate", the designated sacrificial victim, was selected and dragged by the other relieved members of the counting circle to the Altar to be the centerpiece of The Sanctification of the Limbs Ceremony.*

LEJ

*Bristlethwaite Hikipikalt Studies Vol.2