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Eetum Peetum

Date 08 August 1961
Track ID 42022
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1961.89.B64; SA1961.89.B65; SA1961.89.B66

Original Tape ID

SA1961.089

Summary

A rhyming proverb, a sung rhyme and a counting-out rhyme from the Shetland Folk Society collection, collected by M. G. Scott.

A proverb:

When the drink is in the man,
The wit is i the can.

A song:

We're da boys for kickin up a row,
Swats an treacle, swats an treacle,
We're da boys for kickin up a row,
Swats an shappit tatties [mashed potatoes].

A counting-out rhyme:

Eetum peetum, penny pump,
Aa da ladies in a lump,
First she sang and dan she blew
And den she said, "It must be you. Du's oot."

Item Notes

'Swats' is originally weak beer, but in Shetland the word has also been used for a beer substitute "made from molasses and water boiled and fermented with the addition of yeast" or the liquid "in which oatmeal husks have been steeped in the making of sowans ('The Scottish National Dictionary', available online [[http://www.dsl.ac.uk]], accessed 20 April 2009, s.v. swats). Sowans is a fermented oatmeal dish known in English as flummery.

For 'Eetum Peetum' (Roud Folk Song Index no. 20441), see:
'Nursery Rhymes of England' (J. Halliwell, 1886) p. 188
'Miscellanea of the Rymour Club' vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1928) p. 107

Recording Location

County - Shetland

Parish - Lerwick

Island - Shetland Mainland

Village/Place - Lerwick

Item Location

County - Shetland

Language

Scots

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R20441

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good