Hmmm. I learned the "ashes, ashes" version in Mexico City during the late
1940s. My mother is midwestern U.S.; the teachers were British; the other
students were British, U.S., French, and Swedish. I since
discovered that I acquired "British" variants of a number of nursery and
jump rope rhymes. For what it's worth, I had never heard a version other
than "ashes ashes" till this past week on this list, so that must have
been the prevalent form in the midwest in the 50s too, and presumably
what my mother learned from her mother.
I think I once asked what the rhyme "meant" and was told she didn't know.
She firmly believed in not talking about death with children, however, so
the answer doesn't prove much.
Alison Anderson
University of Pennsylvania Press
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