Chapter intro

Craw

- crow. In Scotland it is often applied to the rook and the hooded crow or hoodie craw as well as the carrion crow. A sixteenth-century saying warns of partiality:

The black craw thinks her ain bird whitest.

A later saying warns of consequences:

Whaur the craw flees her tail follows.

The Scots version of 'I have a bone to pick with you' is:

A hae a craw tae pluck wi ye.

A craw in yer throat denotes a thirst especially one induced by an excess of alcohol the night before. A monumental hangover is described by James Smith in Habbie and Madge (1872):

For it's no a craw I'm fashed [troubled] wi' this mornin'; it's mair like an eagle or a vulture.

For the Crow Road means about to die - a gone corbie!

Corbie Cushat