Little girls, without any idea of the meaning, employ the following formula of asseveration:—
Certain, true,
Black and blue.
A variant of the first line: “Certain and true.”
Massachusetts.

Little girls, without any idea of the meaning, employ the following formula of asseveration:—
Certain, true,
Black and blue.
A variant of the first line: “Certain and true.”
Source: Current Superstitions (1896), entry 66.
Fanny D. Bergen, editor.
Modern normalized navigation; the historical attribution above remains unchanged.