A new Irish/Scottish band, called the Knockabouts, has formed in Flagstaff. At a pub performance a couple weeks ago they played Mairi's Wedding as an instrumental number. One of the band members noticed me in the audience singing along as they played. At the break she asked me for the words saying they'd been unable to find them. (!) I was happy to oblige and wrote out the words the Reivers used to sing. They're pretty much as those given by Murray on Saltspring in this thread with one exception. Here in North America a creel is a small wicker basket in which anglers deposit fish that they've caught and we learned the line as "...plenty fish tae fill her creel." I see in the version here and others that I've seen it's sung as "...plenty peat..." instead of fish. The type of creel I've seen on this side of the pond would perhaps hold one turf of peat. Does creel have a different meaning in Scotland? Perhaps a larger and stronger rack for carrying peat? I checked the Scots Glossary here on the Mudcat and found creel to mean basket and also "an osier basket". Osier, according to my dictionary refers to "any of various willows producing long flexible shoots used in wickerwork." So is there a particular kind of wicker basket used in the Western Islands for carrying peat? Many thanks for any help on this.

Reiver 2