Digital Tradition Mirror

Reidcap

Reidcap

Noo Reidcap he was there,
And he was there indeed;
And grimly he girned and glowered,
Wi his reid cap on his heid.

Then Reidcap gied a yell,
It was a yell indeed;
That the flesh neath ma oxter grew cauld,
It grew as cauld as leid.

Auld Bluidie-cowl gied a girn,
It was a girn indeed;
Syne ma flesh it grew mizzled for fear,
And I stood like a thing that is deid.

Last Reidcowl gied a leugh,
It was a leugh indeed;
Twas mair like a hoarse, hoarse scraugh,
Syne a tooth fell oot o his heid.

SC (1948), 175 (330), slightly Scottified from a poem
in Border Magazine Aug. 1863, 117.
(Cf. the same sort of sprite in Ukrainian folklore; see
Gogol.)MS

MS
                                                 apr96

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