Jeannie Hutchison    SA1980.03.14

What with Thelma’s baby and others present, it’s difficult at first to hear Jeannie’s words to this old dandling song.  The tune is the well-known Reel of Stumpie which many Whalsay fiddlers could play.

Hap and row, hap an row, hap an row the feeties o’it;                 [cover and  wrap up]
I never kent I hed a bairn until I heard the greetins o’it.
Hap an row etc..
—————

Here are a couple of verses from Robert Burns’ The Merry Muses of Caledonia:

Hap an row, hap an row, hap an rowe the feetie o’t
I thocht I was a maiden fair, till I heard the greetins o’t;

My faither was a fiddler fine, my minnie she made mantie-o        [loose gowns}
An I mysel, a thumpin quean wha danced the reel o Stumpie-o

And another version:-

The wife put on the wee pan,   To boil the bairn’s meatie-o;
Out fell a cinder  And burnt a’ its feetie-o.

Roud Index no. 7252.