Does Anyone Know the Croatian Rhyme "Mala Misica"?
November 30th, 2011

Maury wrote looking for help with a nursery rhyme game from Croatia.  Here’s his letter:

Dear Lisa,

I am trying to locate the correct wording / spelling of the Croatian Nursery game, Mala Misica  ( Little Mouse ).

Goes something like,

Mala Misica kuhali kava,  ( Stirring motion in palm of child’s hand )   ( Meesheetsa )
Ovaj Macka dao   ( grab thumb )
Ovaj Macka dao   ( grab 1st finger )
Ovaj Macka dao   ( grab 2nd finger )
Ovaj Macka dao   ( grab 3rd finger )
Ovaj Macka dao   ( grab pinkie finger ),  
Naj  Manje !
Onda, isao, isao, isao  ( slowly walking two fingers up child’s arm )
Kaj se Skrive !   ( suddenly shout and laugh and tickle child’s neck ! )

Hope you can help, thanks !

Maury

Please let us know if you can help with the words to this rhyme and/or an English translation in the comments below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

This article was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, Croatia, Croatian, Croatian Nursery Rhymes, Languages, Readers Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

3 Responses to “Does Anyone Know the Croatian Rhyme "Mala Misica"?”

  1. sherrylee Says:
    January 15th, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    My mom would play Little Mouse …
    On the palm..make a circle as you say
    Round about round about wee little mouse
    (moving up the arm) up the tree ,up the tree into the house (tickle under arm)
    If you want it longer use the fingers first going up and down each one saying…(palm)Round about Round about wee little mouse,he needs our help to find his house(move to pinky finger)
    down to the market,(ring)up to the fair,(middle 2x)round the town circle(circle middle finger)we’re almost there,jump to the stonewall as fast as you can and up to the meadow and run home again..(back to palm but this time go up the arm to a tickle spot :) ).Saying round about,round about wee little mouse up the tree up the tree into your house.

  2. Kimberly Says:
    February 21st, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    I do believe this might be the rhyme my mother used to say to me. I’ve been told the way we say it is off now from the correct way to say it though. It’s nice to see it written out. Very cool for me. Never knew what it meant. Thanks!

  3. Lisa Says:
    February 16th, 2020 at 7:34 pm

    Carolin T. wrote:

    Hi, My dad use to sing my niece a song in Croatian that started with “Mali or Mala Katarina” – could be known as a rhyme or song looking for the rest of the lyrics to it. Thanks! Carolin

    Can anyone help?

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