Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Wash Weel the Fresh Fish

Wash Weel the Fresh Fish

Wash Weel the Fresh Fish

     Wash weel the fresh fish, wash weel the fresh fish,
     Wash weel the fresh fish,
               An' skim weel the bree,
     For there's mony a foul-fitted thing, mony a foul-fitted
        thing,
     Mony a foul-fitted thing, I' the saut sea.
     I'll catch the white fish, I'll catch the white fish,
     I'll catch the white fish.
               To please my lassie's ee;
     But the bonny black-backit fish, the bonny black-backit
        fish,
     The bonny black-backit fish
               Has aye the sweetest bree.
    ________________________________________________________

     Paul Past & Present of Aberdeenshire (1881), 152 (no. 18)
     [lines regularised]; Rymour Club Misc. III (1928), 184;
     Nicht at Eenie (1932), 15; Montgomerie SNR (1946), 39
     (no. 25).

     Cf. a rhymed saying/proverb from the Mintlaw district of
Buchan, in Rymour Club Misc. II (1912-19), 16: "Wash weel
your fresh fish, and scum weel your bree;/ For there's mony a
foul-fitted beast swims in the sea."

MS
APR99