Face-songs

: NURSERY GAMES
: Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales

Bo Peeper,

Nose dreeper,

Chin chopper,

White lopper,

Red rag,

And little gap.



These lines are said to a very young child, touching successively for

each line the eye, nose, chin, tooth, tongue, and mouth. Sometimes the

following version is used:



Brow brinky,

Eye winky,

Chin choppy

Nose noppy,

Cheek cherry,

Mouth merry.



The most pleasing amusement of this kind is the game of "face-tapping,"

the nurse tapping each feature as she sings these lines,--



Here sits the lord mayor (forehead),

Here sit his two men (eyes);

Here sits the cock (right cheek),

Here sits the hen (left cheek).

Here sit the little chickens (tip of nose),

Here they run in (mouth);

Chinchopper, chinchopper,

Chinchopper, chin (chucking the chin)!



Similar songs are common in the North of Europe. A Danish one is given

by Thiele, iii. 130:



Pandebeen,

Oisteen,

Naesebeen,

Mundelip,

Hagetip,

Dikke, dikke, dik.



Brow-bone,

Eye-stone,

Nose-bone,

Mouth-lip,

Chin-tip,

Dikke, dikke, dik!



The nurse, while repeating the last line, tickles the child under the

chin. A German version, now common at Berlin, is printed by M. Kuhn, in

his article on Kinderlieder, p. 237:



Kinnewippchen,

Rothlippchen,

Nasendrippchen,

Augenthraenechen,

Ziep ziep Maraenechen.



The following lines are repeated by the nurse when sliding her hand down

the child's face:



My mother and your mother

Went over the way;

Said my mother to your mother,

It's chop-a-nose day!