Maureen Robertson wrote:When E wis only ten yirs auld, A left the parish schail,
ma mither sent me tae the fairm tae earn ma milk an mail.
A then put on ma narra breechs an happed ma spinnel trams
an A wumpled roond ma knobly knees a pair o nicky-tams.
When E wis coortin Jeanie, noo, Jill Tamsen's kitchen maid,
a-she wis five-an-forty, an E wis seventeen.
She made a muckle piece fir me wi different kinds o jam,
an A wumpled roond ma knobly knees a pair o nicky-tams.
The Internet has a version in what looks like a west coast dialect, or maybe one from further up the east coast. The regional variation in Scots is crazy. In retrospect, given the bit about the protagonist's dalliance with a much older woman for sandwiches, it might not have been totally appropriate. But I had no idea what any of it meant.
Were you ever sung any peculiar songs as a child?