Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes. Eckenstein Lina

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      Kit and Kitterit and Kitterit's mother,

      All went over the bridge together.

      The bridge broke down, they all fell in,

      "Good luck to you," says Tom Bolin.

      A modern collection of rhymes (1873, p. 136) gives this as follows: —

      The two grey cats and the grey kits' mother,

      All went over the bridge together;

      The bridge broke down, they all fell in,

      May the rats go with you, sings Tom Bowlin.

      The association of cats with Tommy Linn reappears in the rhyme in which Tommy, who in the romantic ballad begged immersion for himself, practised immersion on a cat. Perhaps the cat was figured as a witch, who, being suspected, was cast into the water in order to prove her witchcraft.