114
STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
the common conversational idiom of the dear old town half a century ago.
O, it buitie be an ogly thing
That mougres thus o'er me,
For I scrabed at mysel' thestreen,
And could not bab an e'e.
My heart is a' to muilins minched,
Brye, smuirach, daps, and gum,
I'm a poor cruicbach, spalyin' scrae,
My horts have struck me dumb.
Dear Flory Loynachan, if thou
Thro' Saana's soun' wert toss'd.
And rouchled like a shougie-shoo.
In a veshal with one most;
Though the nicht were makan' for a roil,
Tho' ralliach were the sea.
Though scorlins warpled my thowl pins.
My shallop would reach thee.
Gloss by a Native of Campbeltown.
- Buitie, must be. Sc. bude, behoved.
- Mougres, creeps over.
- Scrabed, scratched. Celt, sgrob, a scratch, furrow. Cognate Lat. scribo, I write. Eng. scrape.
- Bab, close, Ayrsh.
- Muilins, bread crumbs; minched, Go. mins = small.
- Brye, pounded sandstone. Cf. briz, bruise, bray, snaw-bree.
- Smuirach, very small coal. Sc. and Celt. cf. smoor, smore, smother.
- Daps, for dabs, small flounders.
- Gum, coal dust. Fifesh. coom.
- Cruichach, crooked and bent. Cf. cruck, crook.
- Spalyin' flat-footed, splay.
- Scrae, skinny fellow, a shrivelled old shoe. In the Boer "Tarn o' Shanter " the witches are skraal, lean.
- Horts, hurts.
- Soun=sound, or Strait of Sanna.
- Rouchled, tossed about. Cf. roch, rough.
- Shougie-shoo, cf. Ger. Sheuchel-stuhl, a rocking-chair.
- Ralliach, slightly stormy.
