Verse 1
Gruel thin and meagre, gruel thin from sowans.
Verse 2
Give ye bread to the young men with sowans-gruel
Verse 3
This is what we used to get from the smith's daughter at the Dun

This above was a jocular song that arose about some ill-made porridge, which being very thin was declared to be like gruel, or even 'sowans' (the fermented juice of oatmeal husks boiled, in bygone times a favoutite article of food in Scotland. Frances Tolmie.

From One Hundered and Five Songs of Occupation from the Western isles of Scotland.