Variant forms:
a. Bȯᶇᶇa sat upo happəna tərlBonna sat paa tap də tərl
kallɩn aa bam bərəl
luta kuᶊᶊa hə‘ltər skɩə‘ltər
ondər a kåŋgalū.
(about a man sitting upon the top of a house, and seeing a mouse ruuning[errata 1] in under a heather-bush).
b. Bȯᶇᶇa sat upo happəna tərlBȯᶇᶇa sɩt upo tap tirrəl
kailɩ in a bambɩrrəl
hei‘ltər tei‘ltər lēdi kȯᶊᶊən
ondər kɔŋgalū.
The cat (bȯᶇᶇa) was sitting on the top of the corn-stack; the
mouse came out of the corn-stack and ran in under a heather-bush;
the man was laying down sheaves.
Mrs. Peter Anderson, Klebergswick.
c. Bȯᶇᶇa sat upo happəna tərl
cryin’ oot for båmba bərl
kom and see häi‘lki
rɩnnɩn æftər skäi‘lki
raamētəna skūi.
d. Bȯᶇᶇa sat upo happəna tərlBȯnni sɩts upo tappa tɩrl
kalla ɩnn a bamba bɩrl
baa hɩ‘lka tūni
lēdi ko hɩ‘lka tɩ‘lka
runnɩn undɩ kåŋgalū.
A man, sitting on the top of a corn-stack, is calling in to his wife, that he saw a mouse running in under a heather-bush.
Bonna (bonja) site po tappatirl.
“The farmer sits on the top of a high heap.”
Bonna (bonja) is doubtless O.N. bóndi, farmer. “bóndi” elsewhere is found in the forms bund and bonder in Shetland, but with reference to the definition given: “man or cat on a hay-stack”, bonna, bonja cannot here, as elsewhere, be the word child. It may have been developed from “bóndi” in the same way as *honnin, -en (*honnens) has been developed from O.N. hundinn (accus.), the dog, by assimilation of nd to nn which has then been liquified.
As the verse is supposed to be a riddle in which figures a man or a cat, together with a mouse, and as that which has to be guessed must not be mentioned by its proper name, the farmer here can scarcely be an actual farmer or head of a family. The expression then may stand as a designation for the cat.
tappatirl, high, pointed pile, evidently the same word as Lowland Scottish tappie-tourie (-toorie), sb., “any thing raised very high to a point” (Jam.), and quite suitable as a periphrasis for “hay-stack”.
