Yowie wi the Crookit Horn

Elizabeth Stewart: On Autumn Harvest ah003: Old Songs & Bothy Ballads: For Friendship and for Harmony. Live from the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2005.

The song is claimed as composed by Rev John Skinner (1721-1807) but he may well have added verses to an older song. Glen (1900) believes the tune to date from around 1780 and was published that year in Angus Cumming's Collection of Strathspeys or Old Highland Reels where it was called Carron's Reel or U Choira Chruim. In a letter to Burns about the song dated 14 November 1787 Skinner says: My daughters plagued me for words to some of their favourite tunes. It has been suggested that the song is nothing to do with a sheep with a crooked horn - but instead refers to the curved tubing of a whisky still - but Elizabeth had never heard such an explanation and considers it nonsense (Roud 2140).

1: Ma yowie wi the crookit horn, Ma yowie wi the crookit horn; A siccan a yowie ne'er wis born, She's taen fae me and taen awa. 2: But wad ye think for a' my keepin, There came a nickem when I wis sleepin, There came a nickem when I was sleepin, And stole my yowie, horn an aa. [nickem - a young rogue, mischievous boy Chorus: Ma yowie wi the crookit horn, Ma yowie wi the crookit horn; A siccan a yowie ne'er wis born, She's taen fae me and taen awa. 3: She'd neither not carf nor keel, For to mark upon her hip or heel; Her little horn it did as weel, To ken her oot abeen them aa. [carf - cut mark; keel - red ochre for marking sheep Chorus: Ma yowie wi the crookit horn, Ma yowie wi the crookit horn; A siccan a yowie ne'er wis born, She's taen fae me and taen awa. 4: If I haed the lad that did it, I was swear by the een that said it; Though the laird himsel he should forbid it, I'd gie tae him his neck a thraw. Chorus: Ma yowie wi the crookit horn, Ma yowie wi the crookit horn; A siccan a yowie ne'er wis born, She's taen fae me and taen awa.

c p 2006 Autumn Harvest
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