The presence of the yacht Cutty Sark in Shanghai must have sent the minds of most of the Scots in our midst back to the days when they first read that delightful creation of Burns, "Tam o' Shanter." To other minds the name Cutty Sark probably suggests few such associations, for in his "Tam o' Shanter'' mood Burns is no easy reading except to one with a working acquaintance of the doric. It is a roistering tale, this account of Tam o' Shanter's adventures, and it is always worth recalling. Market day in the town of Ayr, and Tam sitting long into the night over his cups with his boon companion Souter Johnny. Then a ride home to his farm through a wild night of wind and storm. But before he gets home, lights in the auld kirk of Alloway attract his attention, and riding up to the door a wondrous sight meets his eyes. Auld Nick (the endearing term by which the Scots refer to the devil) is playing the pipes, and while coffins stand open, each corpse holding a light in his hand, warlocks and witches dance hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys and reels. Evidently it is warm work, and the poet thus describes the operation of dispensing with a few unnecessary garments:
They reeled, they set, they crossed, they cleekit, Till ilka carlin swat and reekit, And coost her duddies to the wark, And link it at it im her sark.
Among the throng is only one witch with any pretensions to beauty, and her "'sark" proves to be the most exiguous of all the garments on view. She is. moreover, the best of all dancers, and fascinated by her, performance, Tam in an unguarded moment offers his applause by shouting Weel done, Cutty Sark!
He has now to make a dash for it on his mare Maggie, nor will he be safe until he has crossed running water. He all but succeeds, he is actually half way over the bridge, when Cutty Sark, who has led the chase. lays hold on Maggie's tail." Maggie leaves it with her, and Tam escapes, giving Burns the opportunity to moralize for half a dozen lines to his readers:
Whene'er to drink you are inclined Or cutty-sarks run in your mind.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.