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Scots Sangs An Tunes Fur Schools

Traditional and new Scots songs and tunes
for use in Scottish schools - and everywhere else

The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede


The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede, she was very sweet

She was ever so proud of every one of her hundred feet

Early every morning her neighbours came to glance

She always entertained them with a beautiful little dance


Chorus

As leg number ninety four gave ninety five a shunt

Legs number one and two were twistin out in front

As legs numbers nine and ten were wriggling up the side

Legs seventy three and four were doing the Palais Glide


Her neighbour Jenny Longlegs with jealousy was mad

She went out and bought herself a pencil and a pad

She came a month of mornings and made careful note

Of every step the centipede made and this is what she wrote


Armed with exact notation young Jenny Longlegs tried

To dance just like the centipede, she failed and nearly cried

She grabbed a hold of the centipede, she says ‘Now, have a look

And tell me how you do these steps I've written in my book?’


Said the centipede ‘Do I do that?’, and tried to demonstrate

She'd never thought on the thing before, she got into a terrible state

Her hundred legs were twisted, she got tied up in a fankle

She fractured seven shinbones, fourteen kneecaps and an ankle


As legs number one and two were tied to three and four

Legs number five and six were trampled on the floor

Leg number fifteen was attacked by number ten

Ninety seven and ninety eight will never dance again


The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede, she suffered terrible pain

And some of us were very surprised she ever danced again

But now she tells her neighbours, every one that calls to see

Never try an explanation of what comes naturally


A bouncing dancing tale of doing what comes naturally, written by Glasgow’s Matt McGinn.