LL-L "Traditions" 2003.11.11 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * 11.NOV.2003 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=rules
Posting Address: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html
Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Please switch your view mode to it.]
=======================================================================
You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================
A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
=======================================================================

From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Traditions"

> From: Jack Kilmon <jkilmon at historian.net>
> Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2003.11.10 (03) [E]
>
> This children's song and its variants are a result of the Bubonic
> Plague in
> Europe.  The "Ring around thje rosie" is the red lesion and its escar..the
> buboe.  The "pocket full of posies" is the collection of flowers
> carried to
> ward of the disease. "atchew ("hatischa")/ashes...is sneezing, the final
> pneumonic form of the disease and "all fall down" (dead).

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.

Now consider the strange fact that modern Europeans express a gene which
makes them resistant to ebola.

Before we start saying that the rhyme originates with the Black Death, we
first have to establish what the Black Death actually was!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

================================END===================================
* Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
  to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at
  http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
======================================================================