Pudding tame

[Jonathon Green]

I originally backchannelled this to Douglas Wilson but since the thread is
on-going:

According to Iona and Peter Opie _Lore and Language of Schoolchildren_ (the
best UK study, albeit published in 1950s, of such material), who quote the
rhyme as 'US' and specifically 'Maryland' my earlier suggested link to
dialect 'pudding time' is wrong. They trace the term to Sussex and add -

" 'Pudding and Tame' seems to preserve the name of the fiend or devil,
'Pudding-of-Tame', listed in Samuel Harsnet's Popish Impostures, 1603."

Jonathon Green