Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/75

Rh one adopted from an old Lowland melody, called "I fee'd a lad at Michaelmas," and now entitled in Gow's collection of Reels, "Sir Alexander Don's Strathspey."]

[ following words are given in Johnson's museum to the well-known tune of "The Campbells are coming." From the mention of Lochleven, they are absurdly supposed by some to belong to the days of Queen Mary's imprisonment there. They were with much greater probability composed when "the great Argyle and a' his men" marched, northward to suppress the insurrection of 1715.]

[ by to the tune of "The Campbells are coming."]

the Nick o' the Balloch lived Muirland Tam,

Weel stentit wi' brochan and braxie-ham;

A breist like a buird, and a back like a door,

And a wapping wame that hung down afore.

But what's come ower ye, Muirland Tam?

For your leg's now grown like a wheel-barrow tram;

Your e'e it's faun in—your nose it's faun out,

And the skin o' your cheek's like a dirty clout.

O ance, like a yaud, ye spankit the bent,

Wi' a fecket sae fu', and a stocking sae stent,

The strength o' a stot—the wecht o' a cow;

Now, Tammy, my man, ye're grown like a grow.

I mind sin' the blink o' a canty quean

Could watered your mou and lichtit your een;

Now ye leuk like a yowe, when ye should be a ram;

O what can be wrang wi' ye, Muirland Tam?

Has some dowg o' the yirth set your gear abreed?

Ha'e they broken your heart or broken your head?

Ha'e they rackit wi' rungs or kittled wi' steel?

Or, Tammy, my man, ha'e ye seen the deil?

Wha ance was your match at a stoup and a tale?

Wi' a voice like a sea, and a drouth like a whale?

Now ye peep like a powt; ye glumph and ye gaunt;

Oh, Tammy, my man, are ye turned a saunt?