The version done in the USA when I was a child in Iowa went as follows:
Ring around the rosie
Pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes
All fall down! (At which point everyone falls to the ground.)
I've believed the plague theory (or something to do with a later plague) ever
since. This is how it was explained to me: 1-The first line refers to the
hearald spot, like ring-worm, which is the first thing (a ring around a red
spot) to appear on the victim. 2-Posies were thought to ward off the plague.
3-The third line refered to the burning of the victim's bodies and 4-The fourth
was the end of it all, catastrophe or death or whatever. It sounded very
convincing. What does it really mean?
C. Thomas Ault
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
USA
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