Ī possible origin is a centuries-old, possibly Old Saxon, divination rhyme, argued for in 1957 by the Dutch philologists Jan Naarding and Klaas Heeroma of the Nedersaksisch Instituut (Low Saxon Institute) at the University of Groningen. Īnother possible origin is from a Swahili poem brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans: Iino ya mmiini maiini mo. Īnother possibility is that British colonials returning from India introduced a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards:īaji neki baji thou, elim tilim latim gou. One theory about the origins of the rhyme is that it is descended from Old English or Welsh counting, similar to the old shepherd's count ' Yan Tan Tethera' or the Cornish 'Eena, mena, mona, mite'.

Ī Cornish version collected in 1882 runs:Įna, mena, mona, mite, Bascalora, bora, bite, Hugga, bucca, bau, Eggs, butter, cheese, bread. This was one of many variants of 'counting out rhymes' collected by Bolton in 1888.

Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this one, which includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version:Įenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe Olla bolla Domino, Okka, Pokka dominocha, Hy! Pon! Tush! Bolton also found a similar rhyme in German:Įne, tene, mone, mei, Pastor, lone, bone, strei, Ene, fune, herke, berke, Wer? Wie? Wo? Was? 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. Hana, man, mona, mike Barcelona, bona, strike Hare, ware, frown, vanac Harrico, warico, we wo, wac. The first record of a similar rhyme, called the 'Hana, man,' is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme: spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea' or 'My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are it' while another source cites 'Out goes Y-O-U.' ' Tigger' is also used instead of 'tiger' in some versions of the rhyme. The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words such as '. If he hollers, let him go, Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. A common modern version is: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Catch a tiger by the toe.

Eni mini miny mo