The view that Jack and Jill are mythological or heroic beings finds corroboration in the expression "for Jak nor for Gille," which occurs in the Townley Mysteries of about the year 1460.[12] By this declaration a superhuman power is called in as witness. The same names are coupled together also in an ancient divination rhyme used to decide in favour of one of two courses of action. Two scraps of paper slightly moistened were placed on the back of the hand, and the following invocation was pronounced before and after breathing upon them to see which would fly first. The sport was taught by Goldsmith to Miss Hawkins when a child, as she related to Forster.[13] [12] Cited _Murray's Dictionary_: Jack. [13] Forster, J., _Life of Goldsmith_, II, p. 71. There were two blackbirds sat upon a hill The one was named Jack, the other named Jill. Fly away Jack! Fly away Jill! Come again Jack! Come again Jill! (1810, p. 45.) The lines suggest the augur's action with regard to the flight of birds. The same verse has been recited to me in the following variation:-- Peter and Paul sat on the wall, Fly away Peter! Fly away Paul! Come again Peter! Come again Paul! In this case the names of Christian apostles have been substituted for heathen names which, at the time when the _names_ were changed, may still have carried a suggestion of profanity. The following rhyme on Jack and Gill occurs in an early nursery collection:-- I won't be my father's Jack, I won't be my mother's Gill, I will be the fiddler's wife And have music when I will. T'other little tune, t'other little tune, Pr'ythee, love, play me, t'other little tune. (_c._ 1783, p. 25.) CHAPTER III RHYMES AND POPULAR SONGS On looking more closely at the contents of our nursery collections, we find that a large proportion of so-called nursery rhymes are songs or snatches of songs, which are preserved also as broadsides, or appeared in printed form in early song-books. These songs or parts of songs were included in nursery collections because they happened to be current at the time when these collections were made, and later compilers transferred into their own collections what they found in earlier ones. Many songs are preserved in a number of variations, for popular songs are in a continual state of transformation. Sometimes new words are written to the old tune, and differ from those that have gone before in all but the rhyming words at the end of the lines; sometimes new words are introduced which entirely change the old meaning. Many variations of songs are born of the moment, and would pass away with it, were it not that they happen to be put into writing and thereby escape falling into oblivion. In _Mother Goose's Melody_ stands a song in six verses which begins:--