GAELIC AND SCOTS WOMEN IN TRADITIONAL SONG LYRICS

I have earlier considered Gaelic and Scots songmakers, and traditional ballads. But these are just a small part of Scotland’s wealth of song, the large and small narrative songs, lullabies, courting and love songs, historical songs, Jacobite songs, songs of work and family life and more I have sampled below from many credited sources. See my Sources list.
Here as elsewhere I have for space reasons not given full texts, but samples to offer a taste.

LULLABIES
‘Ba, Ba, Mo Leanabh Beag’ A lullaby that may date from the 1848 potato famine.
Ba ba my little babe, you will be big though you are little, I cannot soothe you. What will I do, for I have no breast milk. I fear you will get the crop from the softness of the potatoes. Shaw
‘Coulter’s Candy’
Ally bally, ally bally bee, sittin on yer mammie’s knee
Greetin for a wee bawbee tae buy some Coulter’s Candy 101 Songs
‘O Ba O I, O Mo Leanabh’
A lullaby that curses the rival who has stolen away the baby’s father.
You have slept my dearest, may thy waking be healthy. Miserable, wretched, tearful disease on the one who lured the young man on whom I had better right. Black disease on the pillow attacking the one I chose for seven years, and the disease that affects fat pigs. Let her be away on a strange land. Shaw
‘Can Ye Sew Cushions?’
Can ye sew cushions, and can ye sew sheets?
And can ye sing ballooloo when the bairn greets?
And hee and haw birdie, and hee and haw lamb
Hee and haw, birdie, my bonnie wee lamb
Some sources credit this small gem to Burns. Others do not.

CHILD CARE
‘Ye Canny Shove Yer Grannie’
Ye canny shove yer grannie aff a bus, cause she’s yer mammy’s mammy
A 20th C Glasgow squib to the American tune of ‘She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain’
‘Today Is Hogmanay’
Today is Hogmanay, tomorrow’s Hogmananny
And ah’m gaun doon the brae tae see ma Irish granny
Ah’ll tak her tae a ball, ah’ll tak her tae a supper
And when ah get her there ah’ll stick her nose in the butter
The writer’s mother sang this version in Plean Primary playground in the 1920s.
‘Last Night There Was a Murder’
Last night there was a murder in the chip shop, a wee dog stole a haddie bone
A big dog tried tae tak it off him so ah hit it wi a tattie scone
Ah went roon tae see ma Auntie Sarah, but ma Auntie Sarah wisnae in
So ah keeked though a hole in the windae and a shouted ‘Auntie Sarah, are ye in?’
Her false teeth were lyin on the table, her curly wig wis lyin on the bed
And ah laughed an ah laughed till ma heid fell aff when ah saw her screwin aff her wudden leg
Another Glasgow squib.

COURTING
‘Cha Deid Mi Do Dh’fhear Gun Bhata’ (I’ll Not Go To A Man Without A Boat)
She prefers a man of gentle speech, she won’t have the tongs-mending blacksmith, the scaffold-climbing stone-mason, the farmer who worries about
his rent, the carpenter of pine-wood, the fisher of the river, or the tailor.
Never, so long as I live, will I go to a young man who’s with his mother.
Much more do I prefer the skipper who who climbs deftly the ship.
Sung by Mrs Penny Morrison and chorus to Alan Lomax in 1951. Bennett.
Scots songs of courting abound. In ‘Fee Him Father’ the farmer’s daughter fancies a potential employee. In ‘Tam Booie’ a widow tries to entice a rudely reluctant fellow. ‘The Lichtbob’s Lassie’ tells the dyster lad she prefers the soldier.
Oh my back is sair, shearin Craigie’s corn. I winna see him the nicht but ah’ll see him the morn.
Oh for Saturday nicht, syne I’ll see my dearie, he’ll come whistlin in fan I am sad and weary. 101 Songs
The ‘Collier Lassie’ is wooed by a wealthy landowner, by prefers a lad who wears the collar of coal-mine slavery.
Where live ye ma bonny lass, an tell me what they ca ye?
Bonny Jean Gordon is ma name an ah’m followin ma collier laddie.
See ye not thon hills and dales that the sun shines on fu brawly?
They are mine an shall be thine, if ye’ll leave yer collier laddie.
Love for love is the bargain for me, tho the wee cot hoose should haud me.
I’ll mak my bed in the collier’s neuk an lie doon wi ma collier laddie.
’Bonny Jeannie Cameron’
Ye’ll aa hae heard o bonnie Jeannie Cameron
How she fell sick, an she was like to dee
And aa that they could recommend her
Was ae blythe blink o the Young Pretender Ford

HIGHLAND WOOING
In ‘Skippin Barfit Though The Heather’, Cairn O Mount’ and ‘Queen Among The Heather’ a good-looking Highland lassie is importuned by a passing stranger.
Noo as I roved out one summer’s day, among lofty hills and moorland and mountain
It was there I spied the lovely maid while I wi others was out a-hunting
No shoes nor stockings did she wear, neither had she a hat not had she favour
But her golden locks aye and her ringlets rare on the gentle breeze played aroon her shoulders
As sung by Belle Stewart of Blairgowrie
‘Mairi Nic A Phi’ Sung by Agnes Currie
Mary MacPhee, well I like that maiden, she is sweet and bonny, not haughty, since she came here. It is a joy to find her with her pleasant talk and good temper. If put in a room with a light at your back you would embroider flowers finely on linen. She can count (threads in) hundreds, spinning them with skill. Shaw
‘Leezie Lindsay’ is won by a Highland nobleman. So is the lass of ‘Kilbogie Toon’ who ‘lay in her bed till her breakfast was ready’. She is carried north and tested like Shakespeare’s Shrew, and threatened with having to spin the thread to weave her own blanket, but the lad is in fact ‘Ardonald of all the Isles, rich in land and sheep’.

LOWLAND WOOING
In ‘Mormond Braes’ and many others the girl is won over then abandoned.
He promised aft tae marry me, I for a while did think it
But now he’s courting anither sweetheart, an ye see how I’ve been blinkit
There are as good fish in the sea as ever yet were taken
I’ll cast my net and try again, for I’ver been bit ance forsaken Ford
More happily, sailors and other men coming home are unrecognised till they reveal themselves in ‘The Bleacher Lassie Of Kelvinhaugh’ and other songs.
As I was walkin one fine summer’s evenin, a-walkin doon by the Broommielaw
It ws there I met wi a fair young maiden, she’d cherry cheeks and skin like snaw
Sas’s I ‘My lassie, is it you that wanders all alone by the Broomielaw?’
‘O indeed, kind sir, it’s the truth I’ll tell ye, I’m a bleacher lassie on Kelvinhaugh’. 101 Songs

More local padding of the road leads to marital harmony in ‘The Road And The Miles To Dundee’ and ‘The Baker Frae Mulguy’. The driver of the slow-moving 'Soor Mulk Cairt' gives a lass a lift towards Glesca, courts her, they agree to marry and he suggests to hire 'a coach and pair o greys' but she prefers 'the jooglin o the soor mulk cairt'. 101 Songs
‘Turus Dhomhnuill Do Ghlasco’ (Donald's Trip to Glasgow)
I'd my eye on a neat one; From top-knot to brogues, Take my word, not a black Nor a yellow was on her! Eyes blue as blae-berries, under brows smooth and mild; her lips and her cheeks were as bright as the roses a-top the twig. Murray
Poet Robert Tannahill invites his lassie to go to 'The Braes o Balquidder'
Where the blaeberries grow mang the bonnie bloomin heather
Where the deer and the roe [are] lightly bounding together
The refrain line ‘Will ye go lassie go' confirms that shows this was the source for the Irish song 'Wild Mountain Thyme'. 101 Songs
A ‘Wee Gallus Bloke’ meets lowsed lassies from the sweet factory, wearing their ‘flashy dashy’ petticoats and shawls and five and a tanner gutty boots. They deride his ‘bell blue strides and yer bunnet tae the side’. 101 Songs
‘The Dundee Weaver’
I’m a Dundee weaver and I come frae bonnie Dundee
I met a Glesca feller and he came courtin me
He took me oot a-walking doon by the Kelvin Ha
And there the dirty wee rascal stole ma thingumyjig awa Songs Of Dundee
In ‘Will Ye Go Tae Flanders?’ a soldier tells his girl of the delights of campaigning.
Will you go to Flanders, my Mally Oh?
There we’ll get wine and brandy, and sack and sugar candy
You’ll see the bullets fly, and the soldiers how they die
And the ladies loudly cry, my Mally oh Chambers

NIGHT COURTING
A night courter comes to grief in ‘The Ceech In The Creel’, also known as ‘The Wee Toun Clerk’.
He gets into the locked house by a hanging basket, but on trying to leave the auld wife falls into the creel, and in fright soils herself.
‘Maighdeannan Na H-airigh’ (The Maidens Of The Sheiling)
Last night I was dreaming, Mary the sheiling lass, she of the beautiful hair, singing beautifully on the sheiling. Last night on the sheiling I had a joyful loving time. From Celtic Lyrics Corner

THE TROUBLES OF LOVE
‘The Bonny Lass O Fyvie’ will have none of her captain’s begging, and he dies for love. So does the suitor of ‘Barbara Allen’. A girl weeps for Walter Scott’s ‘Jock O Hazeldean’, accepts another’s hand but Jock pops up just in time.
‘‘S Muladach Mi ‘S Mi Air M’aineoil’ A waulking song.
I am sad in a strange place. One day as I went through the little glen I met a company of men. They asked which of them I would follow. I chose the son of the Tacksman, I bent my knee for him and my breasts gave milk. Hunter of the wild goose, the seal and the swan, the leaping trout and the bellowing deer. Shaw
‘M Faca Sibh A’ Mhaighdean Bheusach’ A waulking song.
Did you see the modest maiden whom young Neil ravished – on the top of a mountain of a sunny day, no-one near them by a child too young to walk. Alas, oh King, that I was not his. I would not shout or cry though the bosom of my dress were torn. I would sew it with the little needle and pure white threads, wash it in a leaping river and dry it on top of the branches. Shaw
'An Auld Maid In A Garret' complains though she has home-keeping skills no-one will have her. Her unattractive sister Jean gets a man, but she is resolved to live in her garret. If I canna get a man I'll shairly get a parrot. 101 Songs
The ‘Good-Looking Widow’ has buried three men and seeks a fourth.
In 'Will Ye Gang Love?'' the girl can see him as he combs his yellow hair, ignoring her now she is pregnant.
As lang as my apron did bide doon he followed me frae toon tae toon. She wishes she were dead. 101 Songs
‘Dh’thalbh Mo Run’s Dh’thag E ‘N Cala’ (My lover went away, he left the harbour) A waulking song.
I heard you had married and hadn’t even invited me to your wedding. I heard you had found a wife who will come, wearing her kerchief to the land of heroes. If it’s true I wish you joy of her, and that you’ll never be in danger at sea. Shaw
‘Cha Direach Mi Bruthach’ I will not go down)
I'm not sorrowing for my lover Even were he staying from me; I am sorrowing for my brother with the locks of curling hair. I'm grieving that thy bonnie locks should be fondled by the waves; for the ringlets of thy head. and the wild foam waulking them. Murray
A grey-eyed girl sang this song to Amy Murray, saying ‘Here's the lament of another sister, for her brother who was drowned.’ This is a waulking-song.
An older man sighs for ‘Bonny Bessie Logan’, and all the gents sigh for ‘Bonny Mally Lee’.
‘Lament Of The Border Widow’
I took his body on my back, and whiles I ga’ed, an whiles I sat.
I digged a grave and laid him in, an happed him wi the sod sae green.
But think na ye my heart was sair, when I laid the moul on his yellow hair?
O think ye na my heart was wae when I turned about, away to gae? Buchan & Hall

FAMILY AND STRIFE
‘Seathan mac Righ Eireann’ (Sean, The King Of Ireland’s Son)
Dr Gillies gives 12 verses, saying ‘there are hundreds more lines of this magnificent song in Carmina Gadelica Vol 5 and it is difficult to make a selection’. Her verses make it a waulking song of love for Sean, but she then tells the associated story of Sean, an adulterous outlaw who is betrayed by his envious aunt who sends the six strongest men in Ireland to kill him. He kills five but the sixth kills him.

MARRIAGE PROBLEMS
‘Eirich ‘S Na Dean Tionndadh Rium’
Get up and don’t turn to me, you have earned my anger. Go to sleep, tonight there will be no love-making. You are always coming home drunk, and spending your worldly goods. Such a husband vexes me. Shaw
In ‘An Auld Man Come Coortin Me’ she marries him but when he falls asleep she slips out to a boyfriend.
When he lay fast asleep I frae his side did creep, me bein young
Straight tae the arms o my handsome young man
Where ah lay aa the night in rapture and delight
Maids, when you’re young never wed an auld man

DOMESTIC STRIFE
Domestic discord and strife is told of in ‘Get Up And Bar The Door’ and ‘John Grumlie’. Wives drink immoderately in ‘Hoolie An Fairly’ and ‘This Is No
Me’, while a wife must stand at ‘The Ale House’ door to call her husband home.
Oh Johnnie my man, do you no think on risin?
The day is far spent an the night’s comin on.
Yer siller’s near dune, and the stoup’s toom before ye
Oh rise up my Johnnie, and come awa hame. Ford
In 'Get Up And Bar The Door' an old couple content who will rise and shut the North Wind out. Two 'gentlemen' come in, eat their food and torment them till the gudeman rises in anger. Will ye kiss my my wife afor ma e'en and scaud me wi puddin Bree? The gudewife skips three times on the floor in glee. 101 Songs
‘Mo Ghrain A’ Chailleach’ (My Spiteful Old Woman)
If myself's at the bothy nor buying a mutchkin, at table am sitting and never a dram, she'll come sniffing her nose and shaking her fist; The folk will be crowding about us. Murray
In 'The Toon O Kelso' The wife blinds her man with marrow bone, he decides to drown himself, she runs to help him in but she lands in the river instead, calls for help but he pushes her further in. Ah’ll gang whistling hame again and another wife I'll find. 101 Songs

SOCIAL STRIFE, INJUSTICE AND ADVENTURE
‘Bonny Susie Clelland’ is burnt to death in Dundee for loving an Englishman – which was never illegal, there must have been more to the case.
There lived a lady in Scotland, hey my jo and ho my jo, and dearly she loved me.
She’s fa’en in love wi an Eglishman, and bonny Susie Cleland is tae be burnt in Dundee.
Her father he ca’d up the stake, her brither he the fire did make. Ford
A new husband is taken by the press gang and sent to ‘The Lowlands Of Holland’, [New Holland, now Indonesia].
The night that I was married and in my married bed
There came a cruel ship’s captain and stood at my bedhead
The Lowlands of Holland have twined my love and me.
Framed as a thief, ‘Jamie Raeburn’ is deported lamenting his mother and sweetheart.
Nae mair we’ll walk by Clyde’s clear streams or by the Broomielaw
This is the day we are tae stray frae Caledonia Chambers
Gypsy outlaw James MacPherson of ‘MacPherson’s Rant’ is caught by a woman dropping a blanket down on him to bind his arms.
A man going, perhaps escaping, across ‘The Gallawa Hills’ asks his lass to go with him. She agrees.
Ah’ll sell my rock, ah’ll sell my reel, ah’ll sell my grannie’s spinnin wheel
Ah’ll sell them all when doon faas aa, and ah’ll gan oot ower he hills tae Gallawa. 101 Songs
Girls don male clothing to become ‘The Soldier Maid’, ‘The Handsome Cabin Boy’ and ‘The Female Highwayman’.
A’ Bhean Eudaich’ (The Jealous Woman)
The boat will come early tomorrow, my father will be on board and my three brothers, my brown-haired husband on the forward oar. They will find me drowned, my brown hair among the seaweed. It wasn’t desire that sent me to the shore, but to collect dulse and limpets. Farewell to my children. Jealous woman, shame on you, you have left me on the rock, drowned. Do you feel no pity? I do not pity, I care little, tonight I will be in your place, in your blankets, soft, white. Gillies and Tolmie
A song ‘of great antiquity’, from the early 17th Century, surviving as a lullaby or waulking song.

WORK
‘Cuigeal Na Maighdin’ A spinning song.
The maiden’s distaff, a stocking on knitting pins, while sooty drops ooze (from the thatch). Sleep little baby, not a morsel have I in bag or sacks. You did not spin the white cloth, you slept all night. Shaw
In ‘The Roke And Wee Pickle Tow’ the old wife’s carded wool on her distaff catches light.
There was an auld wife had a wee pickle tow, and she wad gae try the spinnin o’t
She louted her down and her rock took a-low, and that was a bad beginning o’t
She sat and she grat, and she flat and she flang,
And she threw and she blew, and she wriggled and wrang
And she chokit an boakit, and cried like to mang
Alas for the dreary beginning o’t. Chambers
Fisherman’s Wife
Wha wad be a fisherman’s wife, tae gang wi a creel an a scrubbier an a knife?
A ravelled bed an a de’ed oot fire an away tae the mussels in the morning Douglas

FUN AND FROLIC
‘Maggie Lauder’ meets piper Rab the Ranter, he blows up his bags and she frisks and wallops brawly.
I’ve lived in Fife, baith maid and wife, these ten years and a quarter
Gin ye should come to Anster Fair spier ye for Maggie Lauder 101 Songs
‘The Beefcan Close’ is the site of attempted robbery of a visiting lad by a good-time girl who hides his money in he tail of his shirt, while in ‘The Merchant’s Son’ the slumming lad gets so tricked he goes home in women’s clothing.
‘Whistle O’er The Lave O’t’
Faither fee’d me tae the sea, for tae gaither mussels free
A sailor lad fell in wi me, whistle ower the lave o’t.
Faither fee’d me tae the moss, for tae gaither pease and dross
Ah coupit the cairt an hangit the horse, whistle ower the lave o’t.

LANDLADIES
Landlady ‘Nancy Whisky’ is a weaver’s ruin.
Other urban landladies include a Big Aggie who is is ‘The Pride Of The Shaws’, and another ‘Big Aggie’ who runs the worst boarding house in Glasgow.
Ah wis ludgin wi Big Aggie, jist me an ither ten
We aa slept thegither in a wee bit single end
There were no beds at aa, we jist leant against the wa
An we were aa that seek we didny waken for a week, in wir ain wee hoose.
We hid rabbit for wir supper, ah could hardly stan the pain
In fact one fella’s snuffed it, an anither’s gone insane
Aggie says it wis ra flu, bit ah don’t think that is true
For wir tomcat Prince has been missin ever since, frae wir ain wee hoose. Buchan & Hall