h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Plague victims & carriers were isolated as quickly as possible. Eyam is the only recorded example of a communal isolation - and so the only example where a group of infected children continued to associate with each other. They recorded their observations of the symptoms in a nursery rhyme:

Ring a ring a roses
(The first symptom is a spotty rash around the neck)
A pocket full of posies
(A posy of sweet-smelling flowers and herbs was supposed to provide protection)
Atishoo, atishoo
(A more advanced symtom)
We all fall down

I would like to state that another version of the poem exists in the Midwest part of the United States:

Ring around the rosie
Pocket full of posies
Ashes Ashes
We all fall down

this is the one I know -

Ring a ring a roses
A pocket full of posies
Atishoo, atishoo
We all fall down

Ashes in the water
Ashes in the sea
we all fall down
with a 1, 2,3!

you get sick, you sneeze, you die, you get burnt, ta da! thats how I understood it!