Cover of ‘Games and songs of American children’ by William Newell in 1884
Hemp Follows the Needle
Our culture with hemp is so intertwined within the human experience that to this day, we still teach hemp culture to our children in classrooms around the world.
Thread the Needle illustration from ‘The Little Pocket Book’ by John Newbery in 1744
In 1744, John Newbery published ‘The Little Pocket Book’ in England, this little book is considered to be the first modern book ever written directly intended for a child audience. The simple book gathered a collection of children’s stories, games and songs to entertain young minds, many with the intention of teaching the youth’s a underlying life lesson.
The children’s book was the first to publish many games and songs now loved and enjoyed around the world including the very first mention of a all American pastime, ‘Base-ball’! But tucked within the pages we find mention of a much older game who’s roots are firmly planted in Hemp.
With a woodcut of children playing the game, the book is the first to describe the game ‘Thread the Needle’ in a simple artistic poetry.
“Here hand in hand the boys unite,
And form a very pleasing sight;
Then thro’ each other’s arms they fly,
As the Thread does thro’ the Needle’s eye.”
The author adds a life lesson to be learned from the dance or what he calls a ‘Rule of Life’.
“Talk not too much; sit down content,
That your discourse be pertinent.”
‘The Little Pocket Book’ became such a sensation in Europe it was reprinted in Massachusetts for the New World youth forever changing the way we would play.
Thread the Needle game from ‘The Little Pocket Book’ by John Newbery in 1744
“To ‘Thread the Needle’,
Now their skill they try;
All, joined and rushing,
shout an eye! An eye!
The hindmost stop,
the foremost wheel about,
An eye! An eye!!
More loudly still they shout.
The eye is formed;
the couple in the rear stand wide apart,
their hands clasped high in air; this arch, or eye,
the foremost swift pass through,
and draw the living thread as if it flew.”
– from ‘Dolly Pentreath, and other humorous Cornish tales’ in 1854
The game/dance began, in most cases, with a line of children locked hand in hand. After the singing began the first pair would hold up their arms to form an arch or eye.
Seeing this the end of the line locked hand in hand dances through the opening taking the whole line with them through the eye of the needle. The pattern is repeated until the chain/hands are broken.
The dance symbolized the threading of the needle by weavers with many of the early songs reflecting this message. While the dance steps stayed generally consistent , the songs varied greatly with region, time and culture.
“Thread the needle thro’ the skin,
Sometimes out and sometimes in.”
– taken from Warcickshire in ‘Northall’s Folk Rhymes
Thread the Needle from ‘The traditional games of England, Scotland and Ireland’ by Alice Gomme in 1894
With time, many differing versions of the song emerged including a popular story involving King George III or sometimes replaced with ‘Queen Victoria’ refereed to as the ‘Lady’ needing the gates opened quick.
“Open your gates as wide as high,
And let King George’s horses by;
For the night is dark and we cannot see,
But thread your long needle and sew.”
– Thread the needle song recorded in Belfast
Versions of the song also emerged that tried to erase hemp from its roots all together, like in this victorian version titled ‘How many miles to Babylon’.
“How many miles to Babylon?
Threescore and ten
Can I get there by candle light?
Yes, and back again
Then open the gates without more ado,
and let the king and his men pass through.”
– printed in ‘The Playground or Outdoor Games for Boys’ in 1866
Thread the Needle song/game printed in ‘The Playground or Outdoor Games for Boys’ in 1866
After the original game was enjoyed for more than a century in the New World, American youth would tweak the game to revolve around something else entirely… Love!
Recorded in ‘Games and songs of American Children in 1884, “A boy and girl, standing each on a stool, make an arch of their hands, Under which an endless chain passes, until the hands are dropped, and one of the players is enclosed.”
A paired version of the game was enough to set the stage for a great elementary romance tale ending in with a pair trapped within the arms, if you were lucky the reward was a kiss!
“The needle’s eye
that doth supply
The thread that runs so true;
Ah! many a lass
Have I let pass
Because I wanted you.”
– Thread the Needle song recorded in Massachusetts from ‘Games and songs of American children’ by William Newell in 1884
Thread the needle from ‘Games and songs of American children’ by William Newell in 1884
In 1917, the version of the song most of us would recognize today was published in ‘The Song Play Book; Singing Games for Children’. This version titled ‘Thread Follows the Needle’ can still be heard echoed through the halls of preschools and classrooms around the world to this day!
“The thread follows the needle,
The thread follows the needle,
In and out the needle goes
As mother mends the children’s cloths”
– The song play book; singing games for children 1917
Thread Follows the Needle song from ‘The song play book; singing games for children’ in 1917
Traditionally the dance were performed throughout Europe in village squares between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. According to Alice Gomme in her book ‘The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland’ in 1894, “all these customs occur in the early spring of the year, there is reason to think that in this game we have a relic of the oldest sacred dances”.
On the afternoon of Easter in towns like Kendal and Evesham in England, children would gather in the ‘vicars fields’ joining hands as they began to play ‘thread the needle’. With the chain of children becoming too large for the field the procession of weaving youths would arch through the streets gaining eager participants as they danced by like a long conga line.
On Shrove Tuesday in the English towns of Trowbridge, Bradford and South Petherton, children meet in the streets to play thread the needle. When the chain of children was at its peak, the weaving line of linked children encircled the local church while the singing and dancing continued. In this Shrove holiday tradition, the game is played singing an extra verse including the holidays much loved treat, pancakes!
“Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, when Jack went to plough,
His mother made pancakes, she didn’t know how;
She tipped them, she tossed them, she made them so black,
She put so much pepper she poisoned poor Jack.”
– from the magazine ‘Notes and Queries’ in 1879
Cover of the book ‘The Playground or Outdoor Games for Boys’ in 1866
The true purpose of the dance may have been lost to history forever if it wasn’t for one little French girl…
The story is documented in ‘Games and songs of American children’ written in 1884. As hundreds of villagers locked hand to hand danced through the streets of the picturesque French town La Châtre in central France, a bewildered man stopped one of the dancing children and asked the little girl,
‘Why is everyone dancing?’
The little girl answered simply,
“To make the Hemp grow!”
‘Playing at thread the needle’ Engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi after a picture by William Hamilton in 1787
Next time you ask a child what they learned in school today, listen carefully, they may just be teaching you our hemp history!
Illustration in ‘Games and songs of American children’ by William Newell in 1884