ID: 202
Date: 1950s - 2006
Title: Ring a ring a rosies
Gender: Male and Female 
Classification: Game 
Rhyme: 

Ring a ring a rosies 
A pocket full of posies.
A-tishoo, a-tishoo. 
We all fall down. 

(Auckland, 1960s; Christchurch, 1970s; Nelson, 1970s; Taupo, 1990s; Christchurch, 1990s; Nelson, 1990s; Ashburton, 2000; Ashburton, 2006)

Fishies in the water, fishies in the sea, 
We all jump up with a 1,2,3.

(Auckland, 1950s; Auckland, 2000; Christchurch, 2000 x 2; Ashburton, 2006)

--

ALTERNATIVE ENDINGS:
Down at the bottom of the deep, blue sea.
Catching fishes for Daddy's tea.
We all jump up 1, 2, 3.

(Rangiora, 2002)

--

Mummy in the teapot,
Daddy in the cup,
Baby in the saucer, 
We all jump up.

(New Plymouth, 1980s)

--

The cow's in the meadow,
Eating buttercups,
A-tishoo, a-tishoo,
We all get up.

(Christchurch, 1960s; NZ ex Australia, 1990s; Methven, 2000)

--

Under the water,
Under the sea,
We all jump up,
With a 1, 2, 3.

(Christchurch, 2000)

--
 
Background Info: Variation from Opie, 1992:435:

Ring-a-ring-o'geranium,
A pocket full of uranium,
Hiro, shima, 
All fall down. (1949)
 
==

Sutton-Smith, 1959:12, describes ring a rosie as a unison circle game being played by children in the water at the seaside:

Ring a ring a rosie,
Pop down a posie, 
A tissue, a tissue, (hands on head)
We all fall down. (all crouch down)

or:

Ring a ring a roses
Pop goes the weasel.

==

Scottish version from Gullen, 1950:126:

Ring a ring o' roses,
A pocketful of posies,
One for you and one for me,
And one for little Moses,
Hasha, hasha, all fall down.

==

Opie, 1988:221, refers to the game as being "tainted by a legend that the song is a relic of the Great Plague of 1665..the story has obtained such circulation in recent years it can itself be said to be epidemic."
The reasons given for disbelief in this theory are as follows:
1. No record to the rhyme in Pepys's records or diaries.
2. Not recorded by Alice Gomme in 1898, nor any work prior to WWII.
3. Very few early versions of this rhyme actually have sneezing as part of the rhyme. The final lines often involving a stooping or bowing down action, or the words 'hush, hush.'
4. In America Newell recorded the rhyme as simply a game to see who squatted down last.
Round the ring of roses,
Pots full of posies. 
The one who stoops last,
Shall tell whom she loves best. (Opie, 1988:224)

==
 
Location: Various NZ 
Group size: 6 
Incidence: 19