SCOTCH RHYMES.
The great and alluring exercise of "Through the needle-e'e, boys" has
this immemorial rhyme:--
"As I went up the Brandy Hill
I met my father wi' gude will;
He had jewels, he had rings,
He had many braw things,
He'd a cat-and-nine-tails,
He'd a hammer wantin' nails.
Up Jock, down Tam,
Blaw the bellows, auld man,
Through the needle-e'e, boys!
Brother Jock, if ye were mine,
I would give you claret wine;
Claret wine's gude and fine,
Through the needle-e'e, boys!"
THE SCOTCH VERSION OF BRYAN O'LYNN.
"Tam o' the Lin and a' his bairns
Fell n' i' the fire in other's arms!
Oh, quo' the bunemost, I ha'e a het skin!!
It's hetter below, quo' Tam o' the Lin."
* * * * *
"Cripple Dick upon a stick,
Sand your soo, ride away
To Galloway
To buy a pound o' woo."
* * * * *
"Pan, pan, play,
Pan, pan, play,
And gi'e the bairn meal,
It's gotten nane the day."
* * * * *
"The robin and the wren
Are God's cock and hen."
* * * * *
"Gi'e a thing, tak' a thing,
Auld man's deid ring;
Lie butt, lie ben,
Lie amang the dead men."
The above is said by Scotch children as a reproach to one who takes
back what he gave.
A GRUESOME RIDDLE.
"I sat wi' my love and I drank wi' my love,
And my love she gave me licht;
I'll gi'e any mon a pint o' wine
That'll read my riddle right."
A person sitting in a chair made of the bones of a relation, drinking
out of the skull, and reading by the light of a candle made from the
marrow-bones.
* * * * *
Street game rhyme, something like the well-known "How many miles to
Wimbledon?":--
"King and Queen of Cantelon,
How many miles to Babylon?
It's eight and eight and other eight,
Try to win these wi' 'candle licht.'"
To discover a particular person in the company wearing a ring, Scotch
children of last century used to say--
"Two before 1, and 3 before 5,
Now 2, and then 2, and 4 come _belive_.
Now 1, and then 1, and 3 at a cast,
Now 1, and _twise_ 2, and Jack up at last."
In the game of Hidee the laddies and lassies cry--
"Keep in, keep in, where'ver ye be,
The greedy gled's seekin' ye."
"WHA'S YOUR DADDIE?"
"Little wee laddie,
Wha's your daddie?
I cam out o' a buskit, lady,
A buskit, lady's owre fine;
I cam out o' a bottle o' wine,
A bottle o' wine's owre dear;
I cam out o' a bottle o' beer,
A bottle o' beer's owre thick;
I cam out o' a gauger's stick,
A gauger's stick's butt and ben;
I cam out o' a peacock hen."
In Lancashire, where this rhyme is a popular one, the reading differs,
"candlestick" being used for "gauger's stick."
"A candlestick is over-fat,
I came out of a gentleman's hat;
A gentleman's hat is over-tall,
I came over the garden wall;
The garden wall is over-high,
An angel dropped me from the sky."
The Scotch "Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe" is a sad jumble of "Old
Mother Hubbard" and "Little Blue Betty."
"There was a wee bit wifie
Who lived in a shoe,
She had so many bairns
She kenn'd na what to do.
"She gaed to the market
To buy a sheep's head,
When she came back
They were a' lying dead.
"She went to the wright
To get them a coffin,
When she came back
They were a' lying laughin'.
"She gaed up the stair
To ring the bell,
The bell-rope broke,
And down she fell."
"THE MOON IS A LADY."
"The moon is a lady who reigns in the sky
As queen of the kingdom of night;
The stars are her army she leads forth on high
As bright little soldiers of light.
"Her captains are Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars,
Three glittering warriors bold;
And the Milky Way's studded with forces of stars
In numbers that cannot be told.
"When Aurora comes up through the Orient gate,
And chanticleer crows to the sun,
The moon will retire, and the stars in her wake
Will follow their queen every one."
R. A. FOSTER.[J]
FOOTNOTES:
[J] When I asked my friend, Robert Adams Foster, whose _Boy Ballads_ are
being read with unusual interest in Scotland, to write a Scotch lullaby,
he sent me the above verses.