Jock, Speak, and Sandy
Jock, Speak, and Sandy,
Wi' a' their lousy train
Round about by Errinborra,
We'll never meet again.
Gae head 'im, gae hang 'im,
Gae lay 'im in the sea;
A' the birds o' the air
Will bear him companee.
With a nig-nag, widdy- [or worry-] bag,
And an e'endown trail, trail;
Quoth he.
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Jamieson [1825, per Gomme I.228]; also Ford CR 72. A
rhyme repeated by a player in the game of "Hornie
Holes", (Roxburgh) described thus:
A game in which four play, a principal and an assistant
on each side. A. stands with his assistant at one hole,
and throws what is called a Cat (a piece of stick, and
frequently a sheep's horn) with the design of making it
alight in another hole at some distance, at which B. and
his assistant stand ready to drive it aside. The bat or
driver is rod resembling a walking-stick. [The rhyme] is
repeated by a player on the one side, while they on the
other are gathering in the Cats, and is attested by old
people as of great antiquity.
The game is also called "Kittie-cat"; Gomme compares
"Cat and Dog, "Cudgel", "Tip-cat". Worry-bag seems to
be a nonce word, but widdy-bag might be a bag made of
withies, soft pliant twigs.
MS
APR99
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!