One, Two, Three Alairy (two versions)
a. Ewan MacColl (spoken): And the little girls would
play a a game which consisted of bouncing a ball and
cocking one's leg over it, to this tune
(sings):
One, two, three, alairy,
Four, five, six, alairy,
Seven, eight, nine, alairy,
Ten
— alairy, catch the ball.
b. Cedar Place children:
One, two, three, aleerie,
I spy Bella Peerie,
Sitting on her basket chairie / bumbaleerie
Eating chocolate babies.
This song has a remarkable pedigree. The Scottish ball-bouncing version is often "one, two, three, aleerie, four, five, six, aleerie, seven, eight, nine, aleerie, ten, aleerie over ball." At each "aleerie," the leg is crooked and the ball bounced under it.
Although "aleerie" appears in no modern dictionaries, in the 1370 English poem Piers Plowman, the sturdy beggars at the town gate hold their legs "alery," or crooked, so they will appear to be disabled. A favorite "entertainment" verse has a concealed rude word: "Sitting on her bumbaleerie." Although John Mearns had told the Cedar Park children to sing the polite "basket chairie" version, some sang "bumbaleerie" on the recording. "Chocolate babies" was a popular candy. Other versions interpolate contemporary characters, for example,
"One, two,
three, aleerie
I saw Wallace Beery
Sitting on his
bumbaleerie
Kissing Shirley Temple."
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Various Artists
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Singing in the Streets: Scottish Children's Songs
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