"The humorous satire of the piece is at the expense of popular Scottish Calvinism."-J L. Robertson.

"Spairges is the best Scots word in its place I ever met with. The dei is not standing flinging the liquid brimstone on his friends with a ladle, but we see him standing at a

large boiling vat, with something like a golf

This word

bat, striking the liquid this way and that way aslant, with all his might, making it fly through the whole apartment, while the inmates are winking and holding up their arms to defend their faces." (James Hogg.) interpretation admirably fits the spairges (Latin, spargere, to sprinkle; English, asperge, asperse); if it is correct, the word cootie, which properly means a wooden kitchen dish of any size from a ladle to a small tub, is used rather boldly for the contents of the cootie.

405

SOLOMON.-Eccles. vii, 16.

1

O ye wha are sae guid yoursel', Sae pious and sae holy,

1 Job

2 loosed

9 tripping

G since

7 latch

11 bustle

12 smoked garments and singed face

*This spelling represents the broad Scotch pronunciation rather better than the spelling bonny.

3 scold

4 fighting

5 Par. Lost vi, 325

6 baffle a lowland

7 Gaelic

8 hoofs (Satan)

10 dodging 11 perhaps

12 sad

13 dressed, winnowed

14 grains of chaff

15 merriment

The word unco (for uncouth, "unknown") is used both as an adjective, meaning "unusual, strange," and as an adverb, meaning "extremely, wonderfully."

6

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble

Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!

4

Now haud20 you there, ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt 'rels,21 snug and tight;

9

Ev'n thou who mourn 'st the Daisy's fate,
That fate is thine-no distant date;
Stern Ruin's plough-share drives elate,
Full on thy bloom,

Till crush'd beneath the furrow's weight
Shall be thy doom!

TAM O'SHANTER

A TALE

"Of Brownyis and of Bogillis full is this Buke." -GAWIN DOUGLAS.

When chapman1 billies2 leave the street,
And drouthys neibors neibors meet,
As market-days are wearing late,
And folk begin to tak the gate;
While we sit bousin at the nappy,5
An' getting fous and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps, and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Whare sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

This truth fand honest Tam o' Shanter,
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter:
(Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonie lasses).

5

10

15

O Tam! had'st thou but been sae wise,
As taen thy ain wife Kate's advice!
She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum,10
A bletherin,11 blusterin, drunken blellum;12 20
That frae November till October,
Ae market-day thou was na sober;
That ilka melder13 wi' the miller,
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;
That ev'ry naig was ca'd14 a shoe on,
The smith and thee gat roarin fou on;
That at the Lord's house, ev 'n on Sunday,
Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean till Monday.
She prophesied that, late or soon,

Thou would be found, deep drown'd
Doon,

Or catch'd wi' warlocks15 in the mirk,16
By Alloway's auld, haunted kirk.

Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet,17
To think how mony counsels sweet,

3 barren

8 gates

4 compass-card

9 found

10 rascal

11 idly-talking

12 babbler

25

in

30

13 every grinding of

corn

14 driven

15 wizards

16 dark

17 make me weep