How Many Miles to Babylon?

Failing Christian duty? - Off to Babylon

From: Oxford Today: The University Magazine

http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/archive/0102/14_1/10.shtml

“Children certainly had rhymes of their own. One is mentioned in a Latin sermon from the end of the thirteenth century, also preserved in Balliol Library. The preacher was criticizing those who vow to become good Christians, then fail to do so. He compared them to children who play 'How many leagues do I have to Beverleyham?' Another says 'eight'. The first says, 'Can I come by daylight?' The other says, with an oath 'Yes, you can', and the former begins a good run, as fast as he wishes to go, and then dances back and is in his original position and says, 'Ha, ha, petty pace, yet I am where I was'.

“The game is one we have all played: trying to cross an open space without being caught. The words too have passed down the centuries, but they have undergone change, for this is what we now call 'How many miles to Babylon?'. Its original function as part of a game has been lost.”