LL-L: "Songs" LOWLANDS-L, 06.FEB.2000 (03) [E/S]

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Songs"

I wonder if I could garner some advice or opinion on a classification
problem with this collection of Scottish songs I'm making up for the
ScotsteXt website?

You may remember some time ago when we were discussing bawdy songs here, I
quoted parts of a song called "Wap an Rowe" from the Merry Muses of
Caledonia. Imagine my surprise to find this selfsame song turning up in not
one but two collections of nursery rhymes, one published in the
mid-nineteenth century, one in the mid-twentieth (but the later one
acknowledges copying from the earlier one). What the "nursery" version lacks
in sex it makes up for in violence, but then again, a lot of nursery rhymes
are violent. Presumably it must be that Scottish mothers/nannies actually
sang this song to their little charges, but I'm loth to include it in the
nursery rhyme index. I wonder if anyone would like to offer an opinion on
whether this is the sort of thing little brats would enjoy or whether it
needs to be assigned to more adult company?

Here it is - the sources seem to imply that the original melody has been
lost, so if anyone happens to know it and can supply it, or to know of any
airs that it's been traditionally sung to, you'd be doing a service to our
Scots heritage which would be duly acknowledged on the page. Remember that
this is presented with the sort of spelling and grammar I'm going to use, so
if there's anything you object to, feel free to lodge a complaint!

HAP AN ROWE

    Hap an rowe, hap an rowe,
    Hap an rowe the feetie o't;
    A never kent A haed a bairn,
    Until A heard the greetie o't.

The wife pat on the wee pan
Ti byle the bairn's meatie, O,
When doun fell a cinder
An burnt aa it's feetie, O.

    Hap an rowe, hap an rowe,
    Hap an rowe the feetie o't;
    A never kent A haed a bairn,
    Until A heard the greetie o't.

Sandy's mither she cam in
As suin's she heard the greetie o't,
She teuk the mutch fae aff her heid
An rowed it roond the feetie o't.

    Hap an rowe, hap an rowe,
    Hap an rowe the feetie o't;
    A never kent A haed a bairn,
    Until A heard the greetie o't.

hap - wrap
rowe - wrap/roll
feetie - diminutive of "feet"
o't - of it
kent - knew
haed - had
bairn - child
greetie - crying sound
wife - woman
pat - put
wee - small
byle - boil
meatie - diminutive of "food"
mither - mother
cam - came
suin - soon
mutch - cap once worn by married women
fae - from
aff - off
heid - head
roond - round

(Soory if my vocabularies seem _too_ comprehensive sometimes - I've found
from experience that words, even near-English ones  like "roond" and "cam"
that seem obvious to me, aren't obvious to all).

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
http://www.fleimin.demon.co.uk

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