2. Shame, shame! Double shame!

Turn your back and tell your beau's name. (Girl complies)

[name] is a fine young man,

He comes to the door with his hat in his hand.

3. The bosom in his shirt is white as milk.

Out comes she, all dressed in silk.

She takes off her glove, shows a gold ring.
To-morrow! To-morrow! The wedding begins.

Rose on her bosom white as milk.

Takes off her glove and shows her ring,

"Bob, Bob, when will the wedding begin?"

1 Tune the same as that given by Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, p. 60. For other versions, see Folk-Lore, 25: 358, collected in Aberdeenshire; Gomme, Traditional Games, 2: 322, 329 (“Uncle John is Ill in Bed"), the last five lines, a common formula, identical; Gutch and Peacock, County Folk-Lore, 5: 253 (Lincolnshire); Maclagan, Games of Argyllshire, pp. 84, 86, 257 last six lines; Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, pp. 67–70 (No. 12); Northall, English Folk Rhymes, p. 367.

(Version c.)

(Edna Hardie, Hudson.)

Water, water, wild-flower,

Growing up so high;

We are all young ladies,

And all are sure to die.

2. All except Miss

3.

- [name],

She's a fine young lady.

[name] time for shame.

Turn your back and tell your beau's name! (Girl complies)

[name] is a fine young man,

| Came to the door with his hat in his hand. :| [three times]

4. Down came she, all dressed in silk,

Carrying a cat and a bottle of milk.

Now they're married, and live happily by the sea.

The game is played by any number of players joining hands and circling round as the first eight lines are sung. After that, the players stop and drop hands, while the girl who had been previously chosen turns her back to the ring and shyly does as the song suggests. Then, facing out, she joins hands with the players in the ring. The remaining lines are sung as the players skip and dance round and round. The climax of the game is the confession of the beau's name. The choosing is done prior to the beginning of the song by means of the counting-out rhyme.

DETROIT, MICH.

YIDDISH PROVERBS, SAYINGS, ETC., IN ST. LOUIS, MO.

BY LEAH RACHEL YOFFIE.

AMONG the Yiddish-speaking Jews of St. Louis there are found a great many proverbs and proverbial sayings which add charm and piquancy to that peculiar dialect of a peculiar people. Jewish proverbs are, of course, older than King Solomon. The wisdom-lore of the ancient Hebrews is known to all the world. It is not with that that this paper is to deal, but rather with the mass of sayings which has sprung up among this scattered people since the time of the Wisdom Books in the Bible and the Apocrypha. The newer proverbs have not taken the place of the ancient wisdom: they have merely supplemented it. The Yiddish proverbs are fast dying out in the speech of the Jews in this country: it is only the older people who still use them. The younger generation of Russian and Polish Jews, especially those born in this country, do not speak Yiddish.

However, these proverbs are not to be entirely lost, for a number of Russian Jewish scholars have made collections of Yiddish folkproverbs. The most notable of these compilations are those of Bernstein ("Idische Sprichwerter," Warsaw, 1908), who has 2050 of these sayings, and Pirozknikov ("Idische Sprichwerter," Vilna), also that of Priluzki ("Samelbicher far Folklor," Warsaw, 1912), which contains 1061 proverbs and proverbial phrases about towns, places, and their inhabitants. There is also a collection by M. Spektor in "Jüdisches Volksblatt" (vol. 6); and many Yiddish proverbs are published in "Mitteilungen zur Jüdischen Volkskunde," edited by Dr. M. Grünwald, Vienna.

How old this great number of sayings is, nobody can tell. They have developed in many countries and through a number of centuries. Some of them are direct translations of foreign proverbs picked up from the nations among whom the Jews have lived, although it is well known that proverbs are practically universal, and that the same sayings are found among many different peoples and in widely scattered places. Many of the Yiddish sayings are an outgrowth of the conditions and varied life of the Jews in different places. They are sad and gay, contemplative, cynical, fervid, and scoffing, and they are most interesting and illuminating in reflecting the life of the people. This study of Yiddish proverbs in St. Louis, Mo., is, I believe, nearly exhaustive. It took two years to gather this material, and the collection contains about four hundred proverbs and sayings. I have collected about two hundred additional expressions, which are,

however, more in the nature of Yiddish slang than proverbial sayings, and are not included in this paper.

The people who contributed to this collection were Russian-Jewish immigrants who have lived in this city for twenty years or more. They were mainly older people, or young people who were born abroad and have grown up in Yiddish-speaking households in this country. These proverbs were taken from both dialects of the Russian Jews, the south-west Russian Yiddish, and the Lithuanian Yiddish, - but in transcribing them I have used the Lithuanian dialect entirely, since I am most familiar with that form of Yiddish. Besides, it is more easily understood by outsiders, as it is more like German than the south-west Russian Yiddish.

In setting down these sayings in the original Yiddish, the German spelling is followed wherever the words are pronounced as they are in German or approximately so. Where the pronunciation differs from the German, a more phonetic spelling is used. Yiddish, as is now generally known, is the vernacular of the Russian and Polish Jews. It goes back to Middle-High German for its origin, although many changes and additions have occurred in the years since these Jews lived in the mediaval ghettos of Germany. A brief guide for pronunciation will be useful to readers who wish to follow the original:

S

2.

W

ch.

before p and t, like sh, as in German.

. pronounced as in English, except in German words like zu.

as in German.

-

.. like final ch in German doch, more guttural than the usual ch sound in German.

German words are pronounced as they are in that language.

Russian and Hebrew words are spelled as they are pronounced in the Lithuanian Yiddish dialect; there is no attempt to spell them as they are in the original Russian or Hebrew.

All other sounds as in English.

A great deal of the charm and flavor of these proverbs is bound to be lost in translating. I shall not attempt, therefore, to translate literally in every case, but shall give a free translation where it is. necessary to preserve the spirit of these sayings. It will be impossible, of course, to retain all the savor of the originals. Moreover, a great many of these sayings are in rhyme, and no attempt has been made in this paper to reproduce that.

In presenting these proverbs, I have tried to follow the classiVOL. 33.-NO. 128.-10.

fication drawn up by the Rev. J. Long1 for the English Folk-Lore Society, and based on the Russian collection of Snegiref. I have also been helped by the "Table for the Scientific Classification of Proverbs" found in an article on "Proverbs and Sayings of the Isle of Man," by G. W. Wood, in "Folk-Lore," vol. 5 (1894). Nevertheless I have had to make deviations from both of these classifications to fit the special requirements of the subject-matter.

I. Gott fiert die ganze welt.

GOD AND FATE.

(God governs the whole world [All's right with the world].)

2. Gott weist dem emess.

(God knows the truth [said by a person who is unjustly accused].)

3. Gott is a dayin emess.

(God is a just judge.)

4. Gott vet helfen.

(The Lord will provide [help].)

5. Es is baschert.

(It is fated [foreordained].)

6. Alles is baschert.

(Everything is predestined.)

7. Der mensch tracht, un Gott lacht.

(Man thinks, and God laughs [Man proposes and God disposes].)

8. (a) Gott nemmt mit ein hand, un git mit der andere.
(God takes with one hand, and gives with the other.)

(b) Gott stroft mit ein hand, un benscht mit der andere.
(God punishes with one hand, and blesses with the other.)

9. Gott schickt die refue far der make.

(God sends the remedy before the disease.)

10. Wemen Gott will erquicken, kennen menschen nit dersticken. (Whom God wishes to succor, men cannot destroy.)

II. Az Gott will geben, git er breit mit putter; un az er will nit, git er kein breit eich nit.

(When God wishes to give, he gives bread and butter; when he does not wish to, he does not give even bread.)

12. Az Gott git breit, giben menschen putter. (When God gives bread, men give butter.)

13. Ein Gott af alle sonim.

(One God [to punish] all my enemies.)

14. Af morgen zoll Gott zorgen.

(Let God care for the morrow.)

1 Handbook of Folk-Lore, edited by G. L. Gomme (London, 1890).