Among other rhymes which date some way back in history are those which may fitly be called riddle-rhymes. Some of these have close parallels in the nursery lore of other countries. The most interesting example of this class is the rhyme on Humpty-Dumpty which deals with the egg. The egg from the earliest times formed an enigma in itself, and was looked upon as representing the origin of life. Aristophanes knew of the great bird that laid the world-egg. According to _Kalevala_, the Finnish epic, the world-egg fell and broke. Its upper part became the vault of heaven, its lower part the earth. The yolk formed the sun, the white the moon, and the fragments of the shell became the stars in heaven. Reminiscences of this idea of a world-egg linger in the _Senchus Mor_ of Ireland and in the _Volospa_ of Norse saga. In Tibet the holy Budh is represented holding in his hand a broken egg-shell, on the edge of which a diminutive human being is sometimes represented sitting. These world-wide conceptions account for the existence of numerous riddles that are current about the egg. The rhyme on Humpty-Dumpty among us is current in three variations:-- Humpty-Dumpty sate on a wall, Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall; Threescore men and threescore more Cannot place Humpty-Dumpty as he was before. (1810, p. 36.) Humpty-Dumpty sate on a wall, Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall; All the king's soldiers and all the king's men Cannot set Humpty-Dumpty up again. (1842, p. 113.) Humpty-Dumpty lay in a beck With all his sinews around his neck; Forty doctors and forty wights Couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty to rights. (1846, p. 209.) Many parallels of this rhyme were collected from different parts of Europe by Mannhardt. In these Humpty-Dumpty appears under various names. They include Hümpelken-Pümpelken, Rüntzelken-Püntzelken, Wirgele-Wargele, Gigele-Gagele, and Etje-Papetje in different parts of Germany, and Lille-Trille and Lille Bulle in Scandinavia. The closest parallel of our rhyme hails from Saxony, and stands as follows:-- Hümpelken-Pümpelken sat up de Bank, Hümpelken-Pümpelken fël von de Bank; Do is kën Docter in Engelland De Hümpelken-Pümpelken kurere kann. (M., p. 416.)[45] "H.-P. sat on a bench, H.-P. fell from the bench; there is no doctor in Engelland who can restore H.-P." [45] Cf. also Mannhardt, _Das Rätsel vom Ei_, in _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie_, IV, 1859, p. 394 ff. In Switzerland the rhyme of Humpty-Dumpty is told of Annebadadeli. The usual answer is an egg, but sometimes it is an icicle or a feeding-bottle. In Scandinavia they say:-- Lille Bulle trilla' ner a skulle; Ingen man i detta lan' Lille Bulle laga kan. (1849, p. 9.) "Little B. fell from the shelf, no man in the whole land can restore little B."