ON THE BAGPIPES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 59

ON THE BAGPIPES.

Gae me the skirlin' bagpipes' strain, 'Tis music sweet tae me — The music o' the Hieland clans O' the moors and mountains nee. The strains that thrilled alang the lulls An' echoed on the gale, Calhn' the Hieland cans to war O'er mountain, moor, and dale They make the Hieland eye to flash, The Hieland heart to beat, When he hears the pealin' pibroch And the tramp o' marchin feel. It fairly sets me a' on fire. It thrills me through and through, An' when my Hieland blood is ap, There's naught I daurna do. The Scottish strathspeys, jigs and reels They tingle in my teet, An' when I hear them on the pipes I canna keep my seat. I'll Teel and cross and fling and haugh As lang's the pipes '11 blaw. An 1 faith I've seen me dancing, lads, Till I was like tae fa 1 . There's some folk think the Hielund Uds Are jusl a wee bit saft, When a drap o" whisky and the pipes Will pit them nearly daft. But they're the lads charged Alma's heights, Tae the bagpipes' stirrin' «tnun, And Dargai, too, wi' gleamm' stool; An' they'll do the same again. Folk «ay they canna. bide the pipes, Nor bear their skirlin' din We canna help but pity them, Because they dinua ken. They canna feel the same, my lads As our boys at Waterloo, When they won the day wi' bayoi.ei L .ides And won theL freedom, too. All those wha speak ill o' the pipeBut show their ignorance ; For the pipes hae saved the Emmie, boys An' .saved it more than a nee. And as I've often said before, I'll say the same again: We hae the pipes to thank, my UcK, That Britain's now oiu -am. -W. C. F. Quariy Hills 3lay 2G.