Paddywhack

Singing "This Old Man" in a slower tempo helps put Alab to sleep. It's quite a convenient song rhyme to sing since it can get pretty long.

This old man, he played one,
He played knick-knack on my thumb;

With a knick-knack paddywhack
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.

You just repeat the verse while replacing the numbers and the last word of the next line with the corresponding rhyme.
Two - shoe
Three - tree
Four - door
Five - hive
Six - sticks
Seven - heaven
Eight - gate
Nine - line
Ten - all over again

Honestly, I have no idea what the song is supposed to mean. I don't even know what the numbers are counting. A quick wikipedia search did not really reveal much on the song. So I'm stumped to this day.

I did, however, research what a paddywhack is. Mainly due to Alon's insistent asking of what it means rather than my own curiosity. Apparently it's the nuchal ligament of a sheep or cattle. From wikipedia, "it is a strong elastic ligament in the midline of the neck of the sheep or cattle which relieves the animal of the weight of its head. It is pale yellow in color." Apparently, it's used as a dog treat.

It ain't pretty.

Image taken from reddit

Knowing the dark past of many nursery rhymes, this really makes me wonder the deeper meaning of the song. Anyone got ideas?