| Ye'se never get Janet jo, Janet jo, Janet jo; Ye'se never get Janet jo, Janet, my jo. |
The wooer hereupon retires, singing a verse expressive of mortification, but soon re-enters with a re-assured air, singing:—
| I'll gie ye a peck o' gowd, A peck o' gowd, peck o' gowd; I'll gie ye a peck o' gowd, For Janet, my jo. |
The matron gives him a rebuff as before, and he again enters, singing an offer of "twa pecks o' gowd," which, however, is also refused. At his next entry he offers "three pecks o' gowd," at which the gudewife brightens up, and sings:—
| Come ben beside Janet Jo, Janet jo, Janet jo; Ye're welcome to Janet jo, Janet, my jo. |
The suitor then advances gaily to his sweetheart, and the affair ends in a scramble for kisses.
"The Goloshans." This is a Hogmanay play, and not confined to children alone, which for that, as well as other reasons, will not inaptly close this chapter. In some parts it was called "The Galatians," to be sure, I say was, because one never sees it now-a-days, though fifty years ago, under the one designation or the other, it was played annually by the Hogmanay guizards, who, dressed for the occasion, set it forth with deliciously unsophisticated swagger and bluster in every house they visited that had a kitchen floor broad and wide enough for the operation. It formed the material of a chap-book which was regularly on sale at the "Johnnie-a'-thing" shops in the middle of last century, though now, I suppose, a copy could scarcely be had for love or money. Sir Walter Scott, who delighted to keep up old customs, and could condescend to simple things without losing genuine dignity, invariably had a set of guizards to perform the play before his family both at Ashestiel and at Abbotsford. The dramatis personæ of "The Goloshans," after the character in the title-role—who was inevitable on all occasions—differed somewhat in the various districts. Chambers gives a fairly adequate version in his Popular Rhymes of Scotland; but the fullest and best I have seen is contained in Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions, edited by "Andrew Cheviot," and recently published by Mr. Alexander Gardner, of Paisley, and which I take the liberty of quoting mainly, though part also is taken from Chambers's version. The characters are Sir Alexander; Farmer's Son; Goloshan; Wallace; Dr. Brown; and Beelzebub.
Enter Sir Alexander, and speaks:—