Whistle, Whistle, Auld Wife Lyrics
Someone offers an old Scottish woman a hen, a cock, a gown and a cow if she will only whistle. She refuses each offer, until the fifth gift changes her mind.
Whistle, Whistle, Auld Wife
"Whistle, whistle, auld wife.
An' ye'se get a hen."
"I wadna whistle," quo' the wife,
"Though ye wad gi'e me ten."
"Whistle, whistle, auld wife,
An' ye'se get a cock."
"I wadna whistle," quo' the wife,
"Though ye'd gi'e me a flock."
"Whistle, whistle, auld wife,
And ye'se get a goun."
"I wadna whistle," quo' the wife,
"For the best ane i' the toun."
"Whistle, whistle, auld wife,
An' ye'se get a coo."
"I wadna whistle," quo' the wife,
"Though ye wad gi'e me two."
"Whistle, whistle, auld wife,
An' ye'se get a man."
"Wheeple-whauple" quo' the wife,
"I'll whistle as I can."
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/whistle-whistle-auld-wife/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken or sung as a call and answer between two voices
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Whistle, whistle, auld wife | Purse the lips and point to the old wife (played by a grown-up or a friend). |
| I wadna whistle | The old wife shakes her head firmly and folds her arms. |
| An' ye'se get a man | Hold out both hands, as if offering the best gift of all. |
| I'll whistle as I can | The old wife purses her lips and blows a wobbly, windy whistle. |
What Does Whistle, Whistle, Auld Wife Mean?
This is a rhyme for two voices. One voice makes an offer and the other answers, five times over. The offers get bigger: a hen, then a cock, then a gown, then a cow, and in the last verse a man. The old woman's answers get stubborn in a funny way. She would not whistle for ten hens, nor for a whole flock of cocks, nor for the best gown in the town, nor for two cows.
The twist is in the last verse. When the offer is a man, she does not say no. She says Wheeple-whauple, a sound-word the book does not explain, and promises to whistle as well as she can. The first four verses build her up as someone who cannot be bought, so the last one lands as the joke.
A few Scots words help: auld is old, wife is a woman, ye'se get means you shall get, wadna is would not, quo' is said, gi'e is give, goun is gown, ane is one, coo is cow and toun is town. The book does not explain wheeple-whauple; it sounds like a whistle that will not quite come out.
History and Origin
The rhyme comes from Robert Ford's Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories, a book for bairns and big folk published in Paisley in 1904 (the second edition). Ford collected Scottish nursery rhymes, and he says that sung with vocal mimicry the verses make a strikingly effective entertainment. In practice that means taking the two parts in two different voices.
Whistling turns up in other rhymes here too. In Whistle, Daughter, Whistle a mother keeps asking her daughter to whistle and gets no sound at all.
Learning Activities
- Two voices: one person plays the asker with a sweet voice and another plays the old wife with a gruff one, then swap parts.
- Offer cards: draw a hen, a cock, a gown, a cow and a man on five cards and turn one over for each verse.
- Whistle practice: after the last verse, practise whistling, or blowing like a whistle, and give a gold star for the wobbliest.
- Your own offers: make up new gifts for a new verse and see whether the old wife says yes.