The second of this year’s 18th century Outlander Inspired mittens, from the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon.

Yan Tan Tethera is a rhyming counting system used by shepherds in the north and highlands and immortalized in the folk song the The Lincolnshire Shepherd (which is available on iTunes, much to my surprise) or you can hear it on youtube. I like to think Jamie, as Mac, would have heard this rhyming count as he exercised the horses at Helwater, and it would have sounded familiarly of home. It would not have been perfect, there are regional variations to the system, but the rolling rhyming sound would have reminded him of shepherds in the Highlands.

According to Wikipedia the language is Brythonic Celtic, which means the language originated in Britain, and is not Germanic in origin. The counting system fell out of use around a century ago but you can still hear the sounds of the language in the pronunciation of certain words, “home” for example as “hame,” which derives from the Old English hám.

I am modestly proud of this piece of work. The folk song refrain counts:

Yan Tan Tethera, Tethera Pethera Pim : or 1 2 3, 3 4 5.. added together, that’s 18 sheep. And there are 18 sheep on the left mitten.

Sethera, Lethera Hovera and Covera up to Dik : 6 7 8 9 10 .. added together that’s 40 sheep. And there are 22 sheep on the right mitten.. 18+22=40