In the second bar of "B" music, No. 2 with top end taps the butt of No. 1 at beats 3 and 4 in the following manner :

In the third bar of "B" music No. 1 taps No. 2 as in bar 1 of same step.

In the fourth bar of "B" music No. 1 taps No. 2 on every beat; in the first beat No. 1 with butt end taps No. 2 on top end.

The second beat with top end taps butt.

The third beat with butt taps top.

The fourth beat with top end taps top of

Once I loved a maiden fair" is a charming old-fashioned country dance, accompanied with singing. Spirit and abandon should mark the performances of country dances rather than elaboration of steps

No. 2 in the following manner :

It must be admitted that this double tapping appears complicated, both in the dance itself and in the diagram, but is really quite simple. A few words of explanation concerning the fourth bar, which is the most difficult, will serve to explain the whole. In this on beat one No. 1 taps with his butt on No. 2's stick, raises the wrist and hand till the stick is above and at right angles to No. 2's; then thrusts outward till his butt strikes No. 2's top. On beat two, No. 1 lowers his hand, keeping the stick perpendicular, moves hand to right, and taps his top on No. 2's butt. Beat three is the same as beat one. On beat four, No. 1 simply lowers hand and taps No. 2 on his right or top end.

In the second four bars of "B," double tapping and steps are repeated precisely as in the first four bars, and throughout the dance it is the same to "B" music, four bars of double tapping repeated up to the call of "all in."

In the dance "Bluff King Hal," the step is 4-3 throughout; and it should be danced something after the fashion of " Morris Off," but not quite so soberly; but, nevertheless, the step is less vigorous than the normal Morris step. It must be danced evenly and almost steadily, or its true effect will be spoiled.

By Florence Bohun

Origin of the Nursery Rhyme - Varying Theories - The Original "Mother Goose" - Early Collections of Nursery Rhymes - Sources of Some Well-known Rhymes

Almost the first words a baby attempts to pronounce are those of the nursery songs, and it is not long before he is able to ask for the pathetic story of " Old Mother Hubbard," or the tragic tale of the amorous couple "Jack and Jill," or some other rhythmical legend. Picture books in attractive colours tell him more of the stories as he grows older, and he soon is deeply versed in the quaint old nursery rhymes.

It is difficult to believe that once these now innocent and dainty verses had very different, and by no means as pleasant, meanings. Some possibly are the direct descendants of savage incantations and early charms, others are all that remain of biting political satires, and others, again, are the abbreviated and modified versions of old popular songs.

Most of our nursery rhymes are very old, so old that even the earliest writers have "collected," not originated them. The greater number of them were handed on by word of mouth from mother to child, and it was not until printing became general that there was any attempt to gather them into a book. Even then they were compiled for a child's book, and none of their ancient and interesting history brought to light. It is only recently that their origin and history has been inquired into.

The Original "Mother Goose"

The earliest complete collection in English of nursery rhymes was published by a "lady of Boston town " in America, named Dame Vergoose, who, for the sake of brevity and perhaps attractiveness, was always called " Dame Goose," or " Mother Goose." Her printer son-in-law, who had stayed in the old country, brought out the book, under the title "'songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose's Melodies for the Children.' Printed by T. Fleet at his Printing House, Pudding Lane, 1719. Price Two Coppers." A French collection was published twenty-two years earlier, and, strangely enough, had a similar title, "Contes de la Mere L'oye." These were supposed to be the work of a French queen, who was universally known, in the brutally candid way of those times, as " Mother Goose," on account of possessing a webbed foot. There is no proof that the American "Mother Goose " took her idea from the French collector, and I do not think we can accuse her of plagiarism.

Many attempts have been tried to prove that all the old nursery rhymes had a common source of origin. In 1857 Mr. J. B. Ker produced a book in two volumes called " The

Archaeology of Nursery Rhymes," in which he tried to show that all our dear old songs were brought over by Dutch refugees during persecutions of the sixteenth century. A little earlier, another author wrote a lengthy and very dull treatise, " An Attempt to show that our Nursery Rhyme - The House that Jack Built - is an Historical Allegory Portraying Eventful Periods in England's History since the Time of Harold."