How Many Miles to Babylon? In the 1824 edition of "The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia" there's a description of the rhyme and the game, giving the distance as "six, seven or a lang eight". The rhyme was originally accompanied by a singing game in which two lines face each other, with one player in the middle. At the end of the rhyme the players have to cross the space and any caught help the original player in the middle catch the others. The game seems to have fallen out of use in the twentieth century. In literature In film In music How Many Miles to Babylon?
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Suite Part II: Let It Grow", a song from the 1973 Grateful Dead album Wake of the Flood, includes the line "As well to count the angels dancing on a pin." In the comic book "The Crow" by James O'Barr, the main character asks this question to one of his victims before killing them, answering himself, "Depends on the tune". The song "Velodrome" from Minnesota rapper Dessa's 2018 album Chime, references this question in the first verse asking, "Aquinas, call on me/ How many angels on the/ Head of your pin?" How many angels can dance on the head of