This thread is really incredible! Reiver 1 and I used to sing a version of this. Lovely melody. I don't remember whose singing we learned it from -- possibly Finbar and Eddie Furey. Reiver 1, though a Liverpudlian by birth was from a Scots family and explained to me that "curly pow" was a reference to a head with curly hair. I always thought that the "dainty" term was just an alliterative expression. I had no idea that in the original the song might have been based on an actual event and real people. I always took it to be just a bawdy ballad. We first learned a badly bowdlerized version which I haven't seen here. Perhaps because it's poorly done (even to the point where Dainty Davie is given as the man's name!):
DAINTY DAVIE
Once there was a tender maid She was mistress of her trade She fell in wi' a roving blade And his name was Dainty Davie.
CHO: Leeze me on thy curly pow Bonnie Davie, dainty Davie Leeze me on thy curly pow He was her Dainty Davie.
In through the window brought Weel's the pleasure she might tote The sweetest kiss she ever got Was from her Dainty Davie.
CHO:
Doon amang her faether's leas E'ee below the cherry trees There he kissed her as he pleased He was her Dainty Davie.
CHO: (twa times)
Later we found this, obviously earlier, version which we took to be the original. I think now that it wasn't, but at least it makes more sense than the "expurgated" version above. We Reivers always referred to this version as "Dirty Davie." The girl is speaking in this version. I'll only print the verses as the chorus is the same.