How dare you question me! As I am a merciful witch, I will not strike you down with boils upon your hinder parts, but will instead inflict the horrors of choice upon you and you alone. And the subsequent consequences … all choices come with consequences. Or you could just count them out - yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dik, yan-a-dik, tan-a dik, tethera-dik, pethera-dik, bumfit, yan-a-bumfit, tan-a-bumfit, tethera-bumfit, pethera-bumfit, jiggit. Depending of course on how many sheep you have.
I didn’t make that up. And some of the regional variations are far worse to modern ears. It’s the old celtic numerals - after a millennium or so of speaking english instead, and a traditional counting out “rhyme”. If you are counting real live sheep, you count each one and at the end of the series tie a knot in a piece of string. The number of knots at the end give you the number of sheep in multiples of 20. This is how you count sheep to fall asleep - recite the list in your head. Over and over.
How dare you question me! As I am a merciful witch, I will not strike you down with boils upon your hinder parts, but will instead inflict the horrors of choice upon you and you alone. And the subsequent consequences … all choices come with consequences. Or you could just count them out - yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dik, yan-a-dik, tan-a dik, tethera-dik, pethera-dik, bumfit, yan-a-bumfit, tan-a-bumfit, tethera-bumfit, pethera-bumfit, jiggit. Depending of course on how many sheep you have.
Bumfit-dik?
I didn’t make that up. And some of the regional variations are far worse to modern ears. It’s the old celtic numerals - after a millennium or so of speaking english instead, and a traditional counting out “rhyme”. If you are counting real live sheep, you count each one and at the end of the series tie a knot in a piece of string. The number of knots at the end give you the number of sheep in multiples of 20. This is how you count sheep to fall asleep - recite the list in your head. Over and over.
Look up scots (NOT gaelic), lotta these words survive
I have zero sheep if that helps, but I do enjoy lamb on occasion