The old song

The attribution of this brief Writing to the so-called Historian, dear friend of young Egderus, is quesionable, however ancient in origin, but no alternative has yet to be convincingly lodged.

Be that as it may, the impression it leaves on the mind is impossible to dismiss: a weird dance of children in a ring, accompanied by a song with chilling words, at the end of which 'all fall down', presumably amid hilarity among its participants and the (disturbing) amusement of adult onlookers, for whom the children have learned to perform it. Indeed, our hair should stand on end...