Sandy,

"McGinn of the Calton" is still available - I think! My husband brought a copy back from Scotland last year. It's published by:

GLASGOW DISTRICT LIBRARIES
THE MITCHELL LIBRARY
NORTH STREET
GLASGOW
G3 7DN

In the meantime, here's the words to:

THE BEE FROM THE OLD TOWN OF EFFEN

(Just outside Ecclefechan, just nine hundred and twenty-two and a half miles outside Ecclefechan, in fact, in France lies the sleepy little town of EFFEN, the curative qualities of whose honey is renowned all over the civilised world - and in Glasgow. The very extraordinary bees who produce this honey are not unnaturally referred to as EFFEN Bees in and around the town whose quaint architecture is marred by the factory in its centre where half the population are employed in the manufacturing of Gendarmes' truncheons or, as the French choose to call them, policemen's batons.)

1. He kept bees in the old town of Effen,
An Effen beekeeper was he,
And one day this Effen beekeeper,
Was stung by a big Effen bee.

2. Now this big Effen beekeeper's wee Effen wife,
For the big Effen polis she ran,
For there's nobody can sort out a big Effen bee,
Like a big Effen polisman can.

3. This big Effen polisman he did his nut,
And he ran down the main Effen street,
In his hand was a big Effen baton,
He had big Effen boots on his feet.

4. The polis got hold of this big Effen bee,
And he twisted the Effen bees wings,
But this big Effen bee got his own back,
For this big Effen bee had two stings.

5. Now they're both in the Effen museum,
Where the Effen folk often come see,
The remains of the big Effen polis,
Stung to death by the big Effen bee.

6. That's the end of that wee Effen story,
'Tis an innocent wee Effen tale,
But if you ever tell it in Effen,
You'll end up in the old Effen jail.

Enjoy,

Anne

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 12-Feb-03.