> > There are still "magic incantations" in use today - "Red
> sky in morning,
> > Sailor take warning", or "Always cross on a new green light" (I
> don't know
> > if that was part of kindergarten in Britain, but it was drummed into
> us here in the states).
>
> Well, it's a shepherd, not a sailor, where I come from,
"Red sky at night, shepherd's delight, red sky at morning, shepherd's warning" was what I learnt. Observation suggests that in fact the colour of sunrise or sunset has next to nothing to do with the weather the next day (though if sunrise is red, it probably isn't raining *now*).
> and the other
> one is, I assume, some sort of variant of the Green Cross Code.
"look right, look left, look right again" was what we got drummed in. Nothing to do with lights. After all, if there's a crossing of some sort available, you no longer have a problem to solve.
And as far as I know both of those illustrate the principle of chants, rhythmic and rhyming, being used to aid memorisation. Very useful for non-literate societies and the under-fours. They're not magic. Now pressing that white button on the wall so as to summon powers I don't understand so as to light up the room - that's magic! (OK, yes, I do understand it now, but I didn't for the first few years of doing it.)
Powered by hypermail