Eight ships on the main, I wish them all safe back again; Seven eagles in the air, I wonder how they all came there; I don't know, nor I don't care. Six spiders on the wall, Close to an old woman's apple stall; Five puppies in Highgate hall, Who daily for their breakfast call; Four mares stuck in a bog, Three monkeys tied to a log, Two pudding ends will choke a dog, With a gaping wide mouthed waddling frog. (1842, p.246.) Halliwell also printed some utterly debased rhymes, in which, however, numbers are still combined with the objects that are named. Among these rhymes is the following:-- One old Oxford ox opening oysters; Two teetotums totally tired of trying to trot to Tadbury; Three tall tigers tippling tenpenny tea; Four fat friars fanning fainting flies; And so on to Twelve typographical typographers typically translating types. (1846, p. 111.) Other rhymes of this kind depend for their consistency on alliteration only, such as:-- Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round, A round roll Robert Rowley rolled round; Where rolled the round roll Robert Rowley rolled round. (1842, p. 128.) Robert Rowley is perhaps a name for thunder, since a rhyme recited in the North of England as a charm against thunder is:-- Rowley, Rowley, Rattley-bags; Take the lasses and leave the lads. (1876, p. 15.) Another rhyme of this class begins:-- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, etc. (1842, p. 129.) And the time-honoured rhyme, "When a twister a twisting," etc., has been traced back by Halliwell to a collection of 1674. This has a French parallel:-- Si un cordonnier accordant veut accorder sa corde, etc. I do not know if the English or the French version is the older one. CHAPTER XIII CHANTS OF THE CREED The game of _Twelve Days_, especially in one French version, shows that instruction was conveyed by the cumulative mode of recitation. There are many pieces enlarging on matters of belief--Hebrew, Christian, Druidical, and heathen--which in the same way associate numbers with objects. The comparison of these pieces suggests that they are all derived from one original source. They may fitly be termed Chants of the Creed. One of these cumulative chants is included in the Hebrew service for the night of the Passover, which is called _Echod mi jodea_, "He who knows."[55] It is recited to a monotonous tune after the return of the family from celebration, either by the master of the house or by the assembled company. The dialogue form, I am told, is no longer observed. The piece begins:-- Who knoweth One?--I, saith Israel, know One. One is God, who is over heaven and earth. Who knoweth Two?--I, saith Israel, know Two. Two tables of the covenant; but One is our God who is over the heavens and the earth....