Davie-Drap Lyrics
On a sunny Scottish hillside, a child hides a tiny black-topped flower inside a circle marked with one finger and dares the others to find it.
Davie-Drap
Athin the bounds o' this I hap,
My black and bonny davie-drap;
Wha is here the cunning yin
My davie-drap to me will fin.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/davie-drap/
- Type
- Action Songs
- Tune
- Chanted in Scots
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Athin the bounds o' this I hap | Draw a circle in the dirt or sand with your forefinger. |
| My black and bonny davie-drap | Tuck a small flower or pebble out of sight inside the circle. |
| Wha is here the cunning yin | Look slowly round the group. |
| My davie-drap to me will fin | Point at the seekers to start the hunt. |
What Does Davie-Drap Mean?
The rhyme is in Scots. Athin is within, hap probably means to cover or tuck away, wha is who, yin is one and fin is find. The davie-drap is, according to Gomme, a little black-topped field flower. Put together: inside the bounds of this circle I hide my black and bonny little flower, so which of you is clever enough to find it for me?
History and Origin
Alice Bertha Gomme took the rhyme from Mactaggart's Gallovidian Encyclopedia, a book about the words and customs of Galloway in south-west Scotland, and printed it in The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894). The children played on the braesides, or grassy hillsides, "in the sun", and they marked out the circle where the flower was hidden with a forefinger while they said the rhyme.
Learning Activities
- Play it: mark a circle on the ground with your finger, hide a small object somewhere inside it under a leaf or a pinch of sand, and let the others look.
- Leave wildflowers growing: use a pebble, a button or a fallen petal rather than picking a wild flower.
- Say it in English: have the child put the rhyme into everyday words, line by line.