The Auld Doctor and other Poems and Songs in Scots | Page 9

an auld wife used to
bide.

Wi' ae lang stride he passed her door,
Nor sign he niver gae nane,

Save pu'in' a sprig o' the rowan tree
To flick on her window pane.
"An' is this to be a' my warnin', Death?
I'm fourscore year an' four,

Yet niver a drogue has crossed my lips
Nor a doctor crossed my
door."
"I dinna seek to be forcy, wife,
But I hinna a meenute to tyne,
An'
ye see ye're due for a transfer noo
To the Session books frae mine."
"At ilka cryin' I'm handy wife,
Wi' herbs I hae trokit awa',
An' weel
ye may dae's a gude turnie, lad,
That's dune ye ane or twa!"
"At the hin'er en' Fair Hornie then!
Fair Hornie lat it be!
An'
Govy-dick! ye can tak your pick
O' the ways fowk chance to dee!"
He rattled them owre till weel on fowre
An' the cock gae signs o' life,

On ilka ill he spak' his fillBut
nane o' them pleased the wife.
"Wi' siccan a ch'ice ye're unco nice!
Hoots! came awa woman!" says
Death,
"Gin ye canna wale ane o' the fancy kin's,
What think ye o'
'Want o' breath?'"
Noo, Faith! the auld jade was a humoursome taed,
As an auld wife
weel can be,
An' she leugh sae sair at his fleechin' air
It fairly gar't
her dee!
Wi' a gey teuch sinon in your neck
Ye'll lang keep clear o' skaith,

But the craftiest carle in a' the warl',
An' the kin'liest whiles, is Death.
GLOSSARY
A
acquaint, acquainted.
ae, one.
aff, off.
afore, before.
a'gate,
everywhere.
ain, own.
aince, once.
ang-bang-pang, embonpoint.

argy-bargy, argument.
attour, out, over.
auld, old.
ava', at all.

awa', away; fair awa' wi' it, fairly done for.

awyte, an affirmative

exclamation.
ayont, beyond.
B
Ba', ball; to get on the ba', to go on a jollification, to get drunk.
bade, stayed.
bairnie, child.
baith, both.
bane-doctorin',
bone-setting.
banned, cursed.
barley-bree, whisky.
bathered,
bothered.
bauchles, old shoes, slippers.
bedfast, bed-ridden.

beelin', suppurating.
beerit, buried.
besom, broom; a woman of
loose character.
bide, stay.
biggin', building.
biled, boiled.
billy,
fellow.
birled, moved quickly.
birr, vigour, force.
birse, bristle; to
get one's birse set up, to get in a rage. bit, at the bit, at the finish.

bleeze, blaze, fire.
blude, blood.
body, person; beast or body, beast
or man.
bogie-roll, Irish twist tobacco.
bonnet-laird, small
proprietor.
braw, beautiful.
breeks, breeches.
brithers, brothers.

brizzin', pressing.
brose, oatmeal mixed with water.
bubbly-jock,
turkey.
Buchan, Buchan's "Domestic Medicine."
bude, behoved.

buits, boots.
bullerin', roaring.
buskit, dressed.
but-an-ben,
two-roomed cottage.
byordnar, extraordinary.
C
ca', call; work.
cahoochy, india-rubber.
cankert, ill-natured.

canny-like, gently.
carle, old man.
chappit, struck.

cheeky-on,
sideways.
cheenge, change.
cheep, whisper, faint noise.
chiel,
fellow.
chowed, chewed.
clachan, hamlet.
claes, clothes.
clarty,
dirty.
cloot, mend, patch.
clour, dint caused by a blow.

cockernony, woman's hair twisted up.
cod, pillow.
coorse, coarse.

crack, talk.
craigie, throat.
crambo-clink, rhyme, doggerel.
crap,
crop.
cratur, creature.
creishy, fat.
crockaneetion, smithereens,
bits.
croochin', crouching.
cry, bear (a child).
cryin',
accouchement.
cuits, shins.
cutty, pipe.
D
daddin', knocking.
dae, do.
dandrin', sauntering.
dang, broke,
driven.
darkenin', darkness.
daur, dare.
Daylicht has mony een,
daylight reveals many things,
explains mysteries.
deaved, deafened.

dee, die.
deevil, deil, the Devil.
deid, dead.
deleerit, delirious.


denners, dinners.
devauled, ceased.
dichtit, wiped.
dingin',
dingin' on, falling.
dinna, do not.
dirk, dagger.
distrackit,
distracted.
dizzen, dozen.
doobled, doubled.
doon-settin',
settlement, start in life.
doo's cleckin, pigeon's hatch, two of a family.

doot, doubt.
dootna, do not doubt.
dour, obstinate, hard, severe.

dree, suffer.
drogues, drugs.
drooth, thirst.
droothy, thirsty.

drumlie-like, showing a sediment.
druve, drove.
duds, clothes.

dune, done.
dunt, a stroke causing a hollow sound.
dwalt, dwelt.

dwam, faint turn.
dwinin', wasting, fading.
E
Eck, contraction for Alexander.
e'e, eye.
een, eyes.
e'en, even.

e'enins, evenings.
efterhan', afterwards.
eident, diligent.
elbuck,
elbow.
eneuch, enough.
ense, otherwise.
ettlin', inclined to.

expeckin', expecting, enceinte.
F
fa', fall.
fand, found.
fash, trouble.
faurer, farther.
fearsome,
frightful.
fecht, fight.
feckless, weak, spiritless, worthless.
fegs,
an affirmative exclamation, a corruption of Faith.

fell, hot, acute.

ferlies, wonders.
fesh, fetch.
fin', find, feel.
finger't, fingered,
palpated.
fire (in his e'e), a foreign body.
firin', fire-wood.
firstlins,
first products.
fish-hake, a wooden frame on which to hang fish.

flang, flung.
flannen, flannel.
flee, fly; flee out on, scold.
fleechin',
wheedling.
fleg, frighten.
fleggit, frightened.
forbye, over and
above, besides.
forcy, forceful.
forebears, ancestors.
fore-handit,
paid in advance.
fore-nune, forenoon.
forfaughen, exhausted.

forrit, forward; even forrit, straight on.
fosh, fetched.
fowk, folk.

fowre, four; weel on fowre, nearly four o'clock.
freen's, relations.

fricht, fright.
fu', full.
G
gae, go.
gaed, went; gaed owre, went beyond the power of.

gaffer, foreman, overseer.
gait, way.
gaithrin', crowd.
gang, go.

gangrels, wanderers, tramps.
gant, yawn.
gar, make, cause.
gaun,
going.
gaun-aboot, wandering.
gey, very.
ghaistly, ghostly.

gibbles, tools.
gie, give; gie him the name, name the child after him.


gillie-callum, a variety of Scots dance.
gin, if.
girnin', whining,
complaining.
gloamin', twilight.
glow'red, stared.
govy-dick,
govy-ding, an exclamation of surprise.
gowpin', throbbing.
granes,
groans.
granin', groaning.
gree, agree.
greenin', longing for.

greet, cry, weep.
grew, shiver.
grewsin', shivering.
grup, grip.

gruppit, gripped.
gude, good.
gude-gaun, good-going.

gude-mither, mother-in-law.
guff, smell.
gully, large pocket knife.
H
hae, have.
Hae! Here.
hail, pour down.
haill, whole; haill
apotheck, whole affair.
hame, home; the nicht that the bairnie cam'
hame, the night that the child was born.
hame-owre, homely.
hantle,
a considerable number.
harns, brains.
haud, hold.
hauf, half.

heedin', paying attention to.
heicher, higher.
heicht, height.
heid,
head.
heidin', heading.
heirskep, heredity, inheritance.
herts,
hearts; gart the hert rise, made one sick.
het, hot.
hielant, Highland.

hin'er, hinder.
hinna, have not.
hirplin', limping.
hives,
bowel-trouble of children.
hoast, cough.

holin', cutting coal.

hoodie-craws, hooded crows.
hoor, hour.
hoose, house.
hornie,
fair hornie, fair exchange.
howdie, mid-wife.
howk, dig.

humoursome, humorous.
hungert, hungry, starved.
hunner, hundred.

hurdies, buttocks.
hurl, a lift, a drive in a conveyance.
I
ilk, ilka, each.
ingans, onions.
ingle, fire.
intil, into.
I'se, I.

iver, ever.
J
joukery-pawkery, trickery.
jucks, ducks.
juist, just.
K
kebbuck, cheese.
keepit, kept.
kens, knows.
kent, knew.

kentna, did not know.
keppit, met.
kilmarnock, a night cap.

kimmer, gossip (Fr. commere).
kin', kind.
kinkhoast,
whooping-cough.
kin'liest, kindliest.
kintraside, countryside.
kirk,
church,
kist, chest.
kists o' whistles, organs.
knock, clock.
L
langer, longer.
lang-leggit, long-legged.
lappers, clots.
lat, let.


lauchin', laughing.
lave, the rest.
law-wer, lawyer.
lear, lore,
knowledge.
learnin', teaching.
leear, liar.
leech, physician.
lees,
lies.
leggit, legged.
leuch, laughed.
libel, label.
licht, light.

lichtsome, cheerful.
lilt, a cheerful air.
linkit, linked, united.

littlens, children.
losh, an exclamation, corruption of Lord.
losh
keep's, Lord keep us.
loup, jump.
loupin', jumping.
lowsed,
stopped