The old dame piked for the chigrel nook For gorms for her ball belljeemer; The gorms had shied, the nook was strung, And the ball belljeemer had neemer.

NEITHER doubletalk nor a long-lost quote from Lewis Carroll, that strange verse is really an old familiar nursery rhyme. Its translation, and the history of its colorful but dying language, is reported this week by Los Angeles Correspondent Timothy Tyler. See THE NATION: "Harpin' Boont in Boonville."

Before he went to work on this week's cover story, TIME Cinema Critic Stefan Kanfer made a point of meeting his subjects--Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman. "No matter how good the reporting," he explains, "it's important to find some things out for yourself. I like to get people's music, to see at first hand what they look and sound like." Kanfer visited the set of John & Mary, had lunches with Farrow and Hoffman, and came away with new enthusiasm for his assignment. Hoffman he found a "natural," Farrow a "supernatural." Cinema Reporter Jay Cocks, who spent a good deal more time with Mia, agrees. After at least a dozen interviews, on set and off, he is sure that she is "something of a medieval enchantress."

Reporter Carey Winfrey trailed Hoffman for weeks. He put in so much time at rehearsals that he even managed to contribute a line to the script. He shared dinners and lunches with his subject and spent long evenings playing pool on Hoffman's own table. "When we first met, I was winning consistently," says Winfrey. "By the time I had filed my reports, the real competitor had emerged. He beat me regularly."

Researchers Mary Cronin and Catherine Rafferty completed the reporting, which included visits with Mia's mother and several of Dustin's close friends. The resulting picture of the two stars (or anti-stars) was a tantalizing study in contrasts. To sum up the contrasts, says Peter Bird Martin who edited the story, he and the Cinema staff started a kind of game of far-out comparisons--for example, Titania and Bottom. Other, even more ambitious efforts were worked into the story.

The Cover: Photograph by Philippe Halsman.

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