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O ken ye na our lass, Bess? An' ken ye na our lass, Bess? Between her lily white thies She's biggit a magpie's nest. An' ken ye na our lad, Tam? An' ken ye na our lad, Tam? He's on o' a three-fitted stool, An' up to the nest he clamb. An' what did he there, think ye? An' what did he there, think ye? He brak a' the eggs o' the nest, An' the white's ran down her thie.
This is a song by Robert Burns. It was written in and is read here by Simon Donald.
Pauline Mackay'Ken ye na our Lass, Bess?' first appeared in the collection of bawdy song, The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799).
Although there is no manuscript evidence to attribute this particular song to Robert Burns, it is thought that the poet collected many, if not all of the songs in The Merry Muses that he did not write himself.
Elaborate metaphors for sexual organs (here 'a magpie's nest') and sexual activity ('He brak a' the eggs o' the nest') are common in bawdy humour.
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