I do not recollect to have seen anywhere noticed the somewhat singular fact, that our ancestors had distinct names for each of the five fingers—the thumb being generally called a finger in old works. Yet such was the case; and it may not displease the reader to have these cognominations duly set forth in order, viz. thumb, toucher, longman, leche-man, little-man. This information is derived from a very curious MS. quoted in my Dictionary of Archaisms, p. 357; and the reasons for the names are thus set forth:—The first finger was called toucher because "therewith men touch i-wis;" the second finger longman, "for longest finger it is," (this, I beg to say, is intended for rhyme). The third finger was called leche-man, because a leche or doctor tasted everything by means of it. This is very curious; though we find elsewhere another reason for this appellation, on account of the pulsation in it, which was at one time supposed to communicate directly with the heart. The other finger was, of course, called littleman because it was the least of all. It is rather curious that some of these names should have survived the wrecks of time, and be still preserved in a nursery-rhyme; yet such is the fact; for one thus commences, the fingers being kept in corresponding movements:

Dance, thumbkin, dance,

Dance, thumbkin, dance;

Dance, ye merry men all around:

But thumbkin he can dance alone;

But thumbkin he can dance alone.

Dance, foreman, dance,

Dance foreman, dance;

Dance, ye merry men all around:

But thumbkin he can dance alone;

But thumbkin he can dance alone.

And so on, substituting in succession middleone, longman, or middleman, ringman, and littleman, and each verse terminating with "thumbkin he can dance alone." In some instances the original name for the third finger, lecheman, is preserved in the rhyme, but ringman is most generally adopted.

It is worthy of remark too, that there is, even at the present day, amongst many of the old women of the Peak of Derbyshire, a strong belief in the superiority of lecheman over foreman in all matters of taste. They say that the forefinger is venomous, and that the superiority of the third is to be ascribed to its being possessed of a nerve; and as they appear to pay a most superstitious reverence to a nerve, whether in the finger, the tooth, or the ear, they do not fail to impress upon their daughters the importance of tasting anything of consequence with the third finger.

The names given to the fingers vary considerably in the different counties. In Essex they call them

Tom Thumbkin,

Bess Bumpkin,

Bill Wilkin,

Long Linkin,

And little Dick!

And in some parts of Yorkshire,

Tom Thumbkins,

Bill Wilkins,

Long Daniel,

Bessy Bobtail,

And little Dick.

Similar appellations for the fingers are common in Denmark. Thus, Thiele, iii. 136,—

Tommeltot,

Slikkepot,

Langemand,

Guldbrand,

Lille Peer Spilleman.

"Little Peer Spilleman" is "little Peter the fiddler," not a bad name for the little finger. A slight variation of this is current in Sweden,—

Tomme tott,

Slicke pott;

LÅnge man,

Hjertlig hand;

Lille, lille, lille, gullvive!

The following song for the four fingers is obtained from Lancashire:

This broke the barn,

This stole the corn,

This got none:

This went pinky-winky

All the way home!