Here are the lyrics as given in the book which was edited by Sheila Douglas: and it also gives the singer as Angus Russell of Kilwinning! So maybe he sang it differently on different occasions? Quite a lot of differences. Note that it loses half a verse compared with the version above
BURKE AND HARE
For the help o' folk in Medical School Word is pit aroon That a body nae mair than ten days cold Can fetch ye a guid ten pound. Oh sad it is, but true to say In our wicked warld o' greed A man's worth nothing when alive But plenty when he's deid.
chorus They went up the close an doon the stair A but and ben with Burke an Hare. Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief Knox is the man wha buys the beef.
so in the dark o' mony a nicht When a' guid folk are sleepin', Alang the dyke an through the kirkyaird There cam twa shadows creepin'. An mony a corpse that's stark and cauld An safely laid away, Ne'er thinking it wis no the last It had seen the licht o' day.
Chorus
But no content wi howkin deid - A ploy that aye gets harder - They cast their een on living folk An' start committin' murder. But Reekie toon can sleep at last The twa sall hunt nae mair: It's the gallows-tree for William Burke And a pauper's grave for Hare