Up the airy mountain, down the rushing glen, we dare not go a hunting, for fear of little men! You see, nobody ever goes in and nobody ever comes out!

The lilting mountain-and-glen rhyme makes the warning sound playful, but fear runs through it. Little men turn a possible adventure into somewhere people dare not go. The final insistence that nobody enters or leaves gives the place an eerie sense of being sealed off.

Context reviewed 24 September 2026