ey hae been kenn'd, [known]
In holy rapture,
A rousing whid at times to vend, [fib]
And nail't wi' Scripture.

But this that I am gaun to tell, [going]
Which lately on a night befell,
Is just as true's the Deil's in hell
Or Dublin city:
That e'er he nearer comes oursel
'S a muckle pity. [great]

The clachan yill had made me canty, [village age, cheerful]
I wasna fou, but just had plenty; [full]
I stacher'd whyles, but yet took tent aye [staggered, heed]
To free the ditches; [clear]
An' hillocks, stanes, an' bushes kent aye
Frae ghaists an' witches.

The rising moon began to glowre [stare]
The distant Cumnock hills out-owre; [above]
To count her horns, wi' a' my pow'r,
I set mysel;
But whether she had three or four
I cou'd na tell.

I was come round about the hill,
And todlin' down on Willie's mill,
Setting my staff, wi' a' my skill,
To keep me sicker; [secure]
Tho' leeward whyles, against my will,
I took a bicker. [run]

I there wi' _Something_ does forgather, [meet]
That pat me in an eerie swither; [put, ghostly dread]
An awfu' scythe, out-owre ae shouther, [across one shoulder]
Gear-dangling, hang; [hung]
A three-tae'd leister on the ither [-toed fish-spear]
Lay large an' lang.

Its stature seem'd lang Scotch ells twa,
The queerest shape that e'er I saw,
For fient a wame it had ava: [devil a belly, at all]
And then its shanks,
They were as thin, as sharp an' sma'
As cheeks o' branks. [sides of an ox's bridle]

'Guid-een,' quo' I; 'Friend! hae ye been mawin, [Good-evening, mowing]
When ither folk are busy