FAREWELL TO TARWATHIE
Traditional (Scotland) - early 1850
(Writer : George Scroggie, one-time miller at Federate in the parish of New Deer, Aberdeenshire)
Judy Collins
 

Farewell to Tarwathie,
Adieu, Mormond Hill,
And the dear land of Crimmond,
I bid ye farewell;
I'm bound out for Greenland
And ready to sail,
In hopes to find riches
In hunting the whale.

Adieu to my comrades,
For a while we must pairt,
And likewise the dear lass
Wha fair won my hairt;
The cold ice of Greenland
My love will not chill,
And the longer my absence,
More loving she'll feel.

Our ship is weel rigged
And she's ready to sail,
Our crew they are anxious
To follow the whale;
Where the icebergs do float
And the stormy winds blaw,
Where the land and the ocean
Are covered wi' snaw.

The cold coast of Greenland
Is barren and bare,
No seed-time or harvest
Is ever known there;
And the birds here sing sweetly
On mountain and dale,
But there isna a birdie
To sing to the whale.

There is no habitation
For a man to live there,
And the king of that country
Is the fierce Greenland bear;
And there'll be no temptation
To tarry long there,
Wi' our ship bumper full we
Will homeward repair.