Same here, with differences

hello all~

i'm not sure if I spelled it correctly but I was wondering if anybody knows the origination of eeney meeney miney moe or knows of a different version than:

eeney meeney miney moe
catch a tiger by its toe
if he hollers let him go
eeney meeney miney moe

thanks!
nici

The version of "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" that was current in playgrounds when I was a child (1960's Britain), replaced the word "tiger" with [word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy]. This is of course totally unacceptable by today's standards, given the massively pejorative and racist overtones that the word has gained over the ensuing years. At the time, however, it was used in total innocence.

The "n____" version was current among U.S. children in the 1950s. As I understand it, the word hasn't gained racist overtones since then: it had them all the time. No, that's not strong enough. Not just overtones. The whole meaning of the word was just plain racist. What has changed is people's sensibilities about racism--including the words that help to perpetuate it. (In the U.S., we had a civil rights movement that got national attention inthe 1960s, followed by other changes in the culture.)
There were more lyrics. The next verse started "If he hollers, make him pay / Fifty dollars every day." I don't rememer the rest. It might be in a book I don't have, Iona and Peter Opie, "The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren."