I read somewhere that the rhyme "eenie, meenie, mini, mo" may be the oldest bit of recited poetry in the world, that it came from the builders of Stonehenge, that part of England. "eenie, meenie, mini, mo" is supposedly the first four syllables of a ceremonial and/or astronomical chant that began with counting 1-4. So "eenie, meenie, mini, mo" is "one, two, three, four" and the "catch a tiger by the toe" part and all the rest is the rest of the verse of the chant , all the correct syllables, but the words were lost.
Considering this goes back about what, 5000 yrs, it's amazing. And perfectly plausible to me, I mean "ring around the rosie" is from the Middle Ages and refers to the bubonic plague. But of course we don't remember that. Fascinating that we still have sayings, folk wisdom, etc that is passed down and we don't even remember where it came from .