The different range of ideas which are here expressed is reflected in the form of verse in which they are presented. While the rhymes hitherto discussed are set in verse which depends for its consistency on tail rhyme and assonance, the pieces that deal with the magic properties of things and with hunting, are mostly set in a form of verse that depends for its consistency on repetition and cumulation. This difference in form is probably due to the different origin of these pieces. Rhymed verse may have originated in dancing and singing--cumulative verse in recitation and instruction. In cumulative recitation one sentence is uttered and repeated, a second sentence is uttered and repeated, then the first sentence is said; a third sentence is uttered and repeated, followed by the second and the first. Thus each sentence adds to the piece and carries it back to the beginning. Supposing each letter to stand for a sentence, the form of recitation can thus be described: A, a; B, b, a; C, c, b, a; D, d, c, b, a; etc. This manner of recitation is well known among ourselves, but I know of no word to designate it. In Brittany the form of recitation is known as _chant de grénouille_, i.e. frog-chant. A game of forfeits was known in the eighteenth century, which was called _The Gaping Wide-mouthed Waddling Frog_, in which the verses were recited in exactly the same manner. We shall return to it later. A relation doubtless exists between this game and the French expression frog-chant. Among our most familiar pieces that are set in cumulative form are _The Story of the Old Woman and Her Pig_ and _This is the House that Jack built_. They both consist of narrative, and are told as stories. _This is the House that Jack built_ first appeared in print as a toy-book that was issued by Marshall at his printing office, Aldermary Churchyard. It is illustrated with cuts, and its date is about 1770. Perhaps the story is referred to in the _Boston News Letter_ (No. 183) of 12-19 April, 1739, in which the reviewer of Tate and Brady's Version of the Psalms remarks that this "makes our children think of the tune of their vulgar playsong so like it: this is the man all forlorn." The sentence looks like a variation of the line "this is the maiden all forlorn" in _This is the House that Jack built_. In 1819 there was published in London a satire by Hone, called _The Political House that Jack built_. It was illustrated by Cruikshank, and went through fifty-four editions. In form it imitates the playsong, which was doubtless as familiar then as it is now. The playsong in the form published by Marshall begins:-- This is the house that Jack built,-- This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built,-- This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built,--