Little Fire, Little Flame

In this jump rope game, two people swing the jump rope while another stands in the centre and jumps. The song is sung rhythmically, timed to match the rhythm of the jump rope hitting the ground. When the line, “run and run until you’re out” is sung, the jumper jumps out and runs a lap around the children swinging the rope. When the children start counting from 1 to 10, the jumper needs to jump back in and continue jumping. If they miss the jump or don’t jump in before the singers hit ten, they must run around the children swinging the rope, pretending as they run to be on fire. The song originates from an ancient tale about the fields surrounding the city of Zibern. The fields surrounding Zibern were the site of an ancient battle where many, many soldiers died. The dead were buried in these fields, and years later people began to report glowing lights hovering over the meadows. People claimed that if you got close enough, you would see these flames being held in the long, bony fingers of skeletons.
People began turning up in the fields looking perfectly normal on the outside, but dissections of the bodies showed that internally these people were burned to a crisp. One night, an old farmer named Janus was out rescuing one of his sheep who had gotten mired in the muddy bank of a small pond at the bottom of the meadow near his home when he saw a light glowing nearby. Janus tried to ignore it, instead focusing on rescuing his sheep. After the sheep was free of the muck, Janus noticed that the light was much closer, and was being held in the hands of a looming skeleton. “Thank you for shining that light so I could see what I was doing,” Janus said. “You’re a very helpful fellow.” The skeleton moved out of Janus’s way, allowing him to bring the sheep back to the barn. Janus went inside his house and went to bed.
The next morning at breakfast, he mentioned the helpful skeleton to his wife, Lenna. That same day, Lenna visited a neighbour, Dadala. Dadala was in great distress. One of her farmhands, Maryus, had been found on the property that very morning, dead. Dadala claimed that she had seen a glowing light in the fields the night before. Lenna relayed Janus’s encounter. “What could be the difference?” Dadala asked. “Perhaps it was the compliment,” Lenna replied, laughing.
Several weeks later Dadala, forced to work later due to the loss of her farmhand, found herself in her barn past nightfall. She finished milking the goats, cleaned up, and was beginning the short walk to her house when she saw the glowing light in the hands of a tarnished looking skeleton. Remembering Lenna’s comment, Dadala said, “How lucky I am to encounter such a fine looking skeleton on this fortuitous evening.” Immediately, she began to feel a burning in her core such that she collapsed on the ground, crying out in pain. The skeleton looked over her body, holding his light aloft. Panicking, Dadala tried again, this time being sincere. “At the very least, skeleton,” she whispered, “thank you for providing a light for me to follow into this twilight of my life.” With those words, the pain stopped. The skeleton turned and walked away, and Dadala was able to return to her home and recover. Soon, her story and Janus’s had spread far and wide, and more people began to survive their encounters with the skeletons. Over time, the skeletons were seen less often, and these days the last vestiges of them are found only in story and within the lines of this popular children’s skipping song.

Little fire
Little flame
The skeletons are out again


Little flame
Little fire
They can spot a little liar


They can spot what you’re about,
Run and run until you’re out!


Can you dodge the cursed flame,
By the count of ten, jump in again!


1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!

-children’s jump rope song, originating in Zibern