Page:Ancient and modern history of Buck-haven in Fifeshire.pdf/8

8 het coals, he'll never burn, we'll go to him in a civil manner, and see what he wants: get out Eppie the ale-wife, and lingle-tail'd Nancy, wi' the Bible and the Saum-book. Soaff they came in a croud, either to kill the de'il or catch him alive, and as they came near the place the ass fell a crying, which caused many of them to faint and run back: Na, na, co' Willy, that's no the deil's words ava, it's my Lord's trumpeter touting on his brass whistle. Willy ventured till he saw the ass's twa lugs: Now, cried Willy back to the rest, come forward and haud him fast, I see his twa horns, hech sirs, he has a white beard like an auld beggar man; so they enclosed the poor ass on all sides, thinking it was the deil: but when Wise Willy saw he had nae cloven feet, he cried out, Fearna', lads, this is no the de'il, it's some living beast,'tis neither a cow nor a horse: And what is it then, Willy? Indeed, co' Willy, 'tis the father o'a' the maukens, I ken by its lugs.

Now some say, this is too satirical a history, but it is according to the knowledge of those times, not to say in any place by another; old wives will yet tell us of many such stories, as the devil appearing to their grandfathers and grandmothers, and dead wives coming again to visit their families, long after their being buried: but this Bucky-haven, which was once noted for droll exploits, is now become more knowing, and is a place said to produce the best and hardiest watermen or sailors of any town on the Scots coast, yet many of the old people in it still retain the old tincture of their old and uncultivated speech, as, be-go laddie, also a fiery nature: if you ask any of the wives where their college stands, they'll tell you if your nose were in their arse, your mouth would be at the door of it.

Now it happened, when Wise Willy turned old he took a great swelling in his wame, and casting up