"Mary Mack", also known as "Miss Mary Mack", is aclapping game of unknown origin. It is well known in various parts of theUnited States,Australia,Canada, and inNew Zealand and has been called "the most common hand-clapping game in the English-speaking world".[1]
In the game, two children stand or sit opposite to each other, and clap hands according to therhyming song. In some places, the repeated notes are given aquarter note triplet rhythmic value or sounded early to syncopate the rhythm.
The same song is also used as askipping-rope rhyme,[2] although rarely so, according to one source.[3]
Other early sources (1902, 1905) show variations of "She asked her mother for fifty cents to see the elephant jump the fence" with no mention of Mary Mack.[5][6]
The origin of the name Mary Mack is obscure, and various theories have been proposed. One theory is that Miss Mary Mack was a performer inEphraim Williams’s circus in the 1880s; the song may be reference to her and the elephants in the show.[7][failed verification] According to another theory, Mary Mack originally referred to theUSSMerrimack, an American warship of the mid-1800s named after theMerrimack River, that would have been black, with silvery rivets.[citation needed]
