Half a pound of tuppenny rice
Half a pound of treacle
That’s the way the money goes
Pop! goes the weasel
Who is the weasel, and why does he pop? In London’s textile industry in the 1600s, “a spinner’s weasel was a mechanical thread-measuring device in the shape of a spoked wheel, that accurately measured out yarn by making a popping sound to indicate the correct length had been reached. The mind-numbing and repetitive nature of the work is captured in the final line of each verse, indicating that whatever you were doing, or wherever your mind had wandered to, reality was never far away with the weasel to pop you alert again.” Read more

Raised By Weasels by GodfreyTemple
QUICK LINKS:
Why Does the Weasel Go Pop? The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes
Plush Sock Monkey Jack-in-the Box (Plays “Pop Goes the Weasel”)