"Mary Mack" ("Miss Mary Mack") is a clapping game of unknown origin. It is first attested in the book The Counting Out Rhymes of Children by Henry Carrington Bolton (1888), whose version was collected in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It is well known in various parts of the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and in New Zealand and has been called "the most common hand-clapping game in the English-speaking world".[1]
In the game, two children stand or sit opposite to each other, and clap hands in time to a rhyming song.
The same song is also used as a skipping rope rhyme,[2] although rarely so according to one source.[3]
Various versions of the song exist; a common version goes;[4]
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons (or "butt'ns, butt'ns, butt'ns")
All down her back, back, back (or "Up and down her back, back, back")
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For 15 cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants (or "hippos, hippos, hippos")
Jump over the fence, fence, fence
They jumped so high, high, high
They reached the sky, sky, sky
And didn't (or never) come back, back, back (or come down, down, down)
Till the 4th of July ly ly
Alternate versions use "15 cents", "never came down" and end with repeating "July, July, July".[5]
An alternate version, sung in Canada and England, includes the words:
She could not read, read, read
She could not write, write, write
But she could smoke, smoke, smoke
Her father’s pipe, pipe, pipe
An alternate version, sung in the American South:
Mary Mack,
Dressed in black,
Silver buttons all down her back.
She combed her hair
And broke the comb
She's gonna get a whoopin' when her Momma comes home
Gonna get a whoopin' when her Momma comes home
A common version of the accompanying clap is as follows:
Another version:[6]
Another Version:
Another Version:
repeat
The song originated in Virginia. Miss Mary Mack was a performer in Ephraim Williams’ circus in the 1880s; the song may be reference to her and the elephants in the show.[7]
The first verse, the repetition, is also a riddle with the answer "coffin".[8]
Early mentions of the part about the elephant do not include the part about Mary Mack.[9] [10]
. Joanna Cole (author). 1989 . Anna Banana: 101 Jump-rope Rhymes . HarperCollins . 13 . 0-688-08809-0 . 2011-04-08.
. Howard W. Odum . 1928 . 2006 . Rainbow Round My Shoulder: The Blue Trail of Black Ulysses . Indiana University Press . 33 . 0-253-21854-3 . 2011-04-08.
. Holman Day . 1905 . Squire Phin: A Novel . A. L. Burt Co . 21 . 2011-04-08.