dot-com wanes; eny, meny, miny, mo

[A. Maberry]

Call me schizophrenic but:

On Fri, 7 Jul 2000, Laurence Horn wrote:

> At 9:18 PM -0400 7/6/00, Dfcoye at AOL.COM wrote:
> >Some adult in my family told us kids (in the 50s) about the older version
> >with 'nigger' but instructed us never to say it.   The replacement we were
> >taught  (and I don't know how widespread it was), was of all things, Indian!
> > And we lived two miles from the Onondaga Reservation and went to school with
> >them.
> >
> >Dale Coye
> >The College of NJ

I never heard the version using "Indian" but I remember a variation on
the last 2 lines which is usually "If he hollers let him go /
Eeny-meeny-miney mo". The variation is "If he hollers make him pay / Fifty
dollars every day".

> Probably employing the already extant process reflected earlier in the
> 'euphemizing' of the "ten little niggers" doggerel to "ten little Indians".
> What a rich cultural heritage we enjoy!

I never heard "ten little Indians" as anything other than that, so I must
predate any euphemizing (a fact I find disconcerting).

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu