Having the guisers round this evening reminded me of the party piece I used to recite when I was going round chapping on doors with a poke for snashters:
The horny golloch is an awesome craitur
Souple and scaly
He has twa horns and a hantle o feet
And a forkie tailie
The earwig
The earwig is an awesome creature
Supple and scaly
He has two horns and lots of feet
And a forked tail.
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Posted by: Gavin Greig (
 ggreig) Posted at: October 31st, 2006 11:15 pm (UTC)
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And I was so sure they would be an Ísland beast after encountering hordes of them on Barra. :-)
When I was in the Scouts we went for a summer camp on Barra, and the two-inch ridge pole of a six-man tent turned from pale green to black at night. There was also the sporadic patter of tiny paratroopers descending onto sleeping bags.
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Posted by: Nik Whitehead (
sharikkamur) Posted at: October 31st, 2006 11:26 pm (UTC)
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Yup. I had a tent full of them at Guide camp in Wales one year. I less-than-fondly remember pulling three or four of them out of my sleeping bag every night that year.
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Posted by: silverwhistle (
silverwhistle) Posted at: November 1st, 2006 09:50 am (UTC)
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And people wonder why I have never, ever had a desire to sleep in a tent in my entire 41 years!
I remain a firm believer in camping up, not out! ;-D
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Posted by: pictishqueen (
pictishqueen) Posted at: November 1st, 2006 01:08 am (UTC)
clipshears |
They like tents. I found a lot of them in mine when I was an archaeological volunteer living in a field near Silchester. They obviously think kind people put them up as clipshear amenity centres. (We call them clipshears where I come from.) In other news, I see Darth Vader is having problems selling his Francis Gay Book of Friendship. I've always suspected he was a secret Sunday Post reader.
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Posted by: Gavin Greig (
ggreig) Posted at: November 1st, 2006 09:17 am (UTC)
Re: clipshears |
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I think earwigs are a good target for local names, since they look fairly distinctive. I'm not sure which part of Scotland golloch actually comes from, as I found the poem in a book I was given.
Clipshear seems to be from the Edinburgh airt, which likely could stretch as far as Dunfermline!
Poor Darth!
Golloch? That's a new one on me. We don't have earwigs here so unfortunately I can't check to see if the Icelandic is anything close.
Somehow I can imagine you reciting it now - in best Private Fraser manner. :)