Dinna laugh, an' dinna smile
But hunt the gowk another mile.

The 'gowk' is another name for the cuckoo, which is a silly bird. At each place the message bearer is sent on to someone else.

On the Curious Customs web site it says.

In Scotland April 1 is generally known as ‘Huntigowk Day’. Thus a 12-year-old girl in Edinburgh writes:
‘Huntigowk is a day I love. I like to put a basin of water at the side of my sister’s bed and hear her let out a yell when she puts her feet into it. I also put an empty eggshell in an eggcup so that when she opens it she finds that there is nothing inside it. I played a joke on my aunt once. She has a good sense of humour and can take any kind of a joke. When the butcher rang for the order I told my aunt that it was her boy-friend (my aunt is only in her twenties). So she rushed to the telephone and asked where he would meet her tonight. She did get a fright when the man said,

"Madam ! What is the order for the butcher?" "I’ll go and ask," she stuttered, and when she walked into the kitchen to ask my mother I shouted "Huntigowk!"’

You can find more articles in the archive under Fada 's Farsaing (Far and Wide)

Since April 1, 2000