Digital Tradition Mirror

Four anÄ Twenty Tailors

Four and Twenty Tailors

     1.
     Four-an-twenty tailors
     Chasin at a snail,
     The snail shot oot its horns
     Like a hummil coo.
     "Ah," cried the foremost tailor,
     We're a' stickit noo."

     2.
     Five and twenty tailors,
     Ridin' on a snail,
     Says the foremost to the hindmost,
     We'll a' be owre the tail;

     The snail put oot her horns,
     Like ony hummil coo,
     Says the foremost to the hindmost,
     We'll a' be stickit noo!

     3.
     Fower-an'-twenty tailor lads
     Were fechtin' wi' a slug,
     `Hallo, sirs!' said ane o' them,
     `Just haud him by the lug!'
     But the beastie frae his shell cam' oot,
     An' shook his fearsome heid.
     `Rin, rin, my tailors bold
     Or we will a' be deid!'
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     (1) Gregor (1881), 19; (ref. to Henderson, p. 26);
     Montgomerie SNR (1946), 116 (no. 147) (Fower-and-twenty
     Hielandmen). Hummil really means "hornless" (SND).
     (2) Rymour Club Misc. I (1906-11), 53 (in 4 lines).
     (3) Gullen Trad. Number Rhymes (1950), 106 (no. 342).
This occurs as part of the "Lying Song", q.v.  ODNR 401
(no. 496), earliest ref. Gammer Gurton's Garland, 1784.

MS
oct96

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!