Children's Rhymes

 

Cf. the geometric progression in the famous Mother Goose Rhyme:1

 

                        As I was going to St. Ives,

                        I met a man with seven wives,

                        Each wife had seven sacks,

                        Each sack had seven cats,

                        Each cat had seven kits,

                        Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,

                        How many were going to St. Ives?

 

1 The sequence in this riddle is the same as the house inventory calculations in problem 79 of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian Dyn. XIII), as noted in R. J. Gillings, Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs (MIT, 1972/Academic Press, 1981/Dover, 1982), 168-170.; also discussed in www.jimloy.com/puzz/stives.htm .

 

HICKORY, DICKORY, DOCK 

                        Hickory, dickory, dock.

                        The mouse ran up the clock.

                        The clock struck one,

                        The mouse ran down,

                        Hickory, dickory, dock.