Cam’ ye by the salmon fishers?
Cam’ ye by the roperee?
Saw ye a sailor laddie
Waiting on the coast for me?
I ken fahr I’m gyain,
I ken fahs gyain wi’ me;
I ha’e a lad o’ my ain,
Ye daurna tack ’im fae me.
Stockings of blue silk,
Shoes of patent leather,
Kid to tie them up,
And gold rings on his finger.
Oh for six o’clock!
Oh for seven I weary!
Oh for eight o’clock!
And then I’ll see my dearie.
—Fochabers (Rev. W. Gregor).
III.
Come ye by the salmon fishers?
Come ye by the roperee?
Saw ye my dear sailor laddie
Sailing on the raging sea?
Tip for gold and tip for silver,
Tip for the bonnie laddie I do adore;
My delight’s for a sailor laddie,
And shall be for evermore.
Sit you down, my lovely Elsie,
Take your baby on your knee;
Drink your health for a jolly sailor,
He will come back and marry you.
He will give you beads and ear-rings,
He will give you diamonds free;
Sailors they are bonnie laddies,
Oh, but they are neat and clean!
They can kiss a bonnie lassie
In the dark, and A, B, C;
When the sailors come home at evening
They take off their tarry clothes,
They put on their light blue jackets,
That is the way the sailors go.
—Rev. W. Gregor.
A circle is formed, and the children dance round singing. Before beginning they agree which of the players is to be named in the fifth line of the Rosehearty version.
Jamieson’s Dictionary (sub voce), “Schamon’s Dance,” says, “Some particular kind of dance anciently used in Scotland.”
Blaw up the bagpyp than,
The schamon’s dance I mon begin,
I trow it sall not pane.
—“Peblis to the Play,” Chronicles of Scottish Poetry, i. 135.
Pinkerton defines salmon as “probably show-man, shaw-man.”