Сорока-ворона

Magpie, magpie cooked some porridge. She hopped about on the threshold and looked out for guests. To this one she gave some, and to this one too, but to this one she gave none: he was careless. Here is a stump, here is a well, here is warm little water.

Draw a circle on the baby's palm with your finger. Then bend down the baby's fingers one at a time while saying who gets porridge, and stop at the little finger, which gets none. Finish with a gentle tickle along the palm, the inside of the elbow and under the arm, as the old text describes.

This is a classic finger game of Russian nurseries. The adult traces the baby's palm, bends the fingers one by one and ends with a tickle that makes the baby laugh. Count Rostopchin wrote the whole verse down in a book of 1812, and the dictionary maker Vladimir Dal later described the game as a pastime with small children. In 1902 another writer quotes it beginning with the words "Сорока-ворона" and ending differently, so the wording has always varied. We show the text of 1812 with modern spelling. Versions with extra lines about chopping wood or fetching water are not in the old sources we found.