LL-L "Traditions" 2003.11.12 (02) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 12.NOV.2003 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: jpkrause <jpkrause at weblink2000.net>
Subject: Traditions

This discussion is very interesting, indeed.  The version I grew up with on
the west coast of the US was:

Ring around the rosie
Pockets full of posies
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down.

The "ashes, ashes" bit I think is a corruption of some sort of sneezing
vocalization.  I understand that sneezing is a symptom of one infected by
the plague.  I also remember that as a kid the whole rhyme never made a bit
of sense to me.

Jim Krause

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From: Thomas <t.mcrae at uq.net.au>
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2003.11.11 (06) [E]

on 12/11/03 9:33,  sandy at scotstext.org wrote:

> Before even considering the text, consider the bubonic plague itself. This
> plague:
>
> 1.    is spread by fleas, therefore can only spread at temperatures
> where flea eggs can incubate;
>
> 2.    is spread by fleas that live a parasitical existence on rats, so
> can't spread faster than rats travel.
>
> Now consider the Black Death, which:
>
> 1.    arrived in southern Italy and swept up the penninsula and right
> across the Alps almost as if they weren't there;
>
> 2.    travelled from Marseilles to Paris at a steady rate of 2 miles per
> day.
>
> 1. contradicts 1. and 2. contradicts 2.

No exactly richt Sandy. I was a medical Entomologist from 1957 until 1995
and am very familiar with plague epidemiology.
Much of the initial infestations began from rats leaving ships docked in
harbours. Rats also were transported around in wagons of foodstuffs for
great distances and even among personal possessions.
Main problem though is there is a much worse variant of plague known as
Pneumonic. This is transmitted by coughs and sneezes and is the really fast
mover once initial reservoirs are established from Xenopsylla cheopis fleas
leaving dead rats. This is commemorated in the rhyme by the closing lines
"Husha! Husha !
All fall down !'

An Scots song of the period commemorates what was probably a case of
pneumonic...Two well born local girls left town to escape the pestilence and
made a small shelter but someone who visited them passed it on anyway.

"Bessie Bell an' Mary Gray, they waur twa bonnie lassies,
Thay built a bour (bower) oan yoan burn brae (river slope) an' theekit
(covered) it ower wi rashes (rushes)
Thay theekit it aw wi rashes green, they theekit it aw wi' heathir,
But The Pest cam frae the Burgh Toon an' slew thaim baith the gither.
They thoacht tae lie in Nairn Kirkyaird, amung thair noble kin.
But noo they lie aboon the brae, an bake aneath the Sin"
Says it all alas.
Regards
Tom
Tom Mc Rae PSOC
Brisbane Australia
"The masonnis suld mak housis stark and rude,
To keep the pepill frome the stormes strang,
And he that fals, the craft it gois all wrang."
>>From 15th century Scots Poem 'The Buke of the Chess'

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