Liz wrote asking for help with a German Hand Game. Here’s her email:
Hi,
My name is Liz, & I’ve been searching and searching for an old German hand game my dad has done with us since we were tiny – that was done with him when he was little by my grandmother. I’m sure over the years it has fractured, but this is what’s left-maybe you’ve heard of it or something close? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The child sits in front of the one doing the finger game & makes 2 fingers slowly crawl up the others back, at the nape of the neck is the end of it & the fingers gently rustle the neck at the "baaaahhh" part. It sounds like:
"Krable mously Steimen hausley niemen greim steimen elime…baaaahhh."
I’ve looked all over for years & spoken to many from Germany or knowing the culture though I’ve had no luck. I’m so hoping you can help-this little word play means a lot to me. Thank you for taking the time to read this-I appreciate it.
Thanks again,
Liz
If you can help with Liz’s question, please comment below.
Thanks!
Mama Lisa
This artilce was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2013 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, German, German Nursery Rhymes, Germany, Handplays, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 1st, 2013 at 11:32 am
Oh I wish someone could answer this!!! I found this because I think we are looking for the same thing. My grandmother was German and my grandfather (who wasn’t) would always mimic some rhyme her family would play with the babies where they would slowly walk their fingers up your side or back then at the end they would start tickling you. It sounded similar to what you posted and in not knowing any German we just substituted some words that made it sound like it was about catching a mouse in a house.
March 29th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
Just reading what you have and trying to figure out what would make sense, from english pronunciation to my very limited German.
“Krabbel Mausli steigen Hausli niemand ??? steigen ???”
“Crawl little mouse climb the little house, no one ??? climbs ???”
It’s possible that different areas or countries have different words used in place of “crawl” (krabbel), like “go” (geht) or “come” (kommt) or “walk” (läuft). Have you tried talking to anyone who is Swiss? The “li” ending makes me think this is Swiss German.
I know that doesn’t answer your question, but I hope it gives you some more information to help in your research! Best of luck!
May 23rd, 2013 at 12:34 am
I only know this one: Kommt die kleine Krabbelmaus, krabbelt dem/der … (Name des Kindes) alle Ecken aus!