Nievie Nievie Nick Nack

Scottish Counting Song

Nievie Nievie Nick Nack is a very early counting-out rhyme, used for choosing "It" or used as a guessing game, particularly in Scotland.

This game, where one person would try to guess the hand in which another person was holding an object, works like this:

One child holds both hands behind their back with a prize in only one closed hand (nievie is the Scottish word for fist). The other child has to pick either the left or right hand, trying to guess which one has the prize while chanting this rhyme.

The rhyme can also be used to chose one child out of many:

All the children put out both of their fists. One goes around tapping each of the other children's fists in turn. The last children's fist to be tapped when the rhyme ends has to put that fist behind their back. This is repeated again and again until only one fist is left. The one that is left at the end of all the rounds is "It".

A similar rhyme was mentioned in Blackwood's Magazine in 1821, and was also described in Dickinson's Cumberland Glossary published in 1859 as "a boyish mode of casting lots".

It is noted in https://www.gutenberg.org

Jamieson (Supp., sub voce) adds: "The first part of the word seems to be from neive, the fist being employed in the game." A writer in Notes and Queries, iii. 180, says: "The neive, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed. It is held out to him who is to guess-the conjuror-and it is he who is addressed, and under a conjuring name. In short (to hazard a wide conjecture, it may be) he is invoked in the person of Nic Neville (Neivi Nic), a sorcerer in the days of James VI., who was burnt at St. Andrews in 1569. If I am right, a curious testimony is furnished to his quondam popularity among the common people." It will be remembered that this game is mentioned by Scott in St. Ronan's Well-"Na, na, said the boy, he is a queer old cull. . . . He gave me half-a-crown yince, and forbade me to play it awa' at pitch and toss." "And you disobeyed him, of course?" "Na, I didna disobey him-I played it awa' at 'Nievie, nievie, nick-nack.'"

Many other counting rhymes have been made throughout the world using this formulae. A small sample is shown below including 'Hana, Man', believed to be the first known written example, from around 1815.

Related Scottish Country Dances

Davy Nick Nack

Nievie Nievie Nick Nack - Popular Version

Nievie, nievie, nick-nack
Which hand will ye tak'?
Tak' the right, tak' the wrang,
I'll beguile ye if I can.

As you would expect of such an old, handed-down rhyme, many versions exist.

Neiveie, Neiveie, Nick Nack is one from The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia by John Mactaggart, 1791-1830.

Neiveie, neiveie, nick nack,
What ane will ye tak,
The right or the wrang?
Guess or it be lang,
Plot awa' and plan,
I'll cheat ye gif I can.

Hana, Man is the first record of a similar rhyme, from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme:

Hana, man, mona, mike;
Barcelona, bona, strike;
Hare, ware, frown, vanac;
Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.

Henry Carrington Bolton discovered this version to be in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century.

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe is the most common, modern, English speaking, version of a counting-out rhyme still used by children:

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

Akka Bakka Bonka Rakka is a Norwegian nursery rhyme of mostly nonsense words used to select or point out a participant in children's games, such as who will be "it" in a game like hide-and-seek.

It is classified as a counting rhyme in Nora Kobberstad's Norsk Lekebok (Book of Norwegian Games) from 1901.

The following version of this rhyme was recorded in Elverum in the early 1920s by Sigurd Nergaard:

Akka bakka,
banka ranka,
etla metla, sang dang,
fil i fang, isa, bisa, topp!

Children Playing The Counting Game Of "Akkad Bakkad Bambe Bo", 2016

The Online Scots Dictionary Translate Scots To English.
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Nievie Nievie Nick Nack article on Wikipedia.
Text from this original Eeny, meeny, miny, moe article on Wikipedia.
Text from this original Akka Bakka Bonka Rakka article on Wikipedia.
Text from this original https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41727/41727-h/41727-h.htm (This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at https://www.gutenberg.org)
Image copyright Seema Periwal, Creative Commons Licence 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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