Chapter intro

Yellalintie, yite, yallayite, yoldrin

 - yellow-hammer Emberiza citrinella. The yellow-hammer in England may sing 'a little bit of bread and no cheese' but Scottish ones are said to repeat deil [devil], deil, deil tak ye.

Hew Ainslie, in A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns (1822), recalls an old superstition:

I never dream o' yites, but I meet auld frien's.

The diminutive form yolty is a nickname for a first-year student at Aberdeen University. Bajan or bejan (bec jaune or yellow beak) is a name for first years in several Scottish Universities:

He no longer allows the evil-minded fry on the streets to insult his hat, or tug the yolty's gown with impunity

(Tait's Magazine May 1833)

Whin-lintie