The words and music of this nursery song were communicated by Burns to the publisher of the Museum, in which it first appeared in print; but the bard has left us no hints respecting the history of the song. The late Mr Urbani of Edinburgh, an excellent musician and composer, who was very fond of the melody, afterwards introduced it, with new accompaniments by himself, in the second volume of his valuable Collection of Scottish Songs. Since that period it has always been a favourite. I have heard another verse of this ditty: It runs--
I've placed my cradle on yon holly top,
And aye as the wind blew, my cradle did rock;
O hush a ba, baby, O ba lilly loo,
And hee and ba, birdie, my bonnie wee dow.
Hee O! wee O!
What will I do wi' you, &c.

In The Scots Musical Museum (1797) appears a nursery song 'O can ye sew cushions?', which Burns submitted. In his second edition of the Scots Minstrel (1823, IV) R.A. Smith gives, as the second stanza of 'O can ye sew cushions?':

I biggit the cradle on the tree top,
And the wind it did blow, and the cradle did rock,
And hee and baw, birdie, &c.

and William Stenhouse produced a similar second verse to the song in 1839. This seems to be another hint that long ago, in Britain, as in other countries, cradles were rocked by wind power. (Cf. also the 1915 quote of 'Bye, baby bunting')

O, CAN YE SEW CUSHIONS?

O, can ye sew cushions,
Can ye sew sheets,
Can ye sing Ba-loo-loo,
When the bairnie greets?

An hee an ba, birdie,
An hee an ba, lamb;
An hee an ba, birdie,
My bonnie lamb!

Hee O, wee O,
Whit wad I dae wi ye?
Black is the life
That I lead wi ye.

Ower mony o ye,
Little for tae gie ye;
Hee O, wee O,
Whit wad I dae wi ye?

Cradle Song (p. 268).--This lullaby, so full of womanly tenderness and sweet simplicity, was contributed by Lady Nairne to R.A. Smith's "Scottish Minstrel." So anxious was she to preserve her incognito, that she wrote thus to her confidential correpondent:--"I beg the publisher will make no mention of a lady; as you observe, the more mystery the better, and still the balance is in favour of the lords of creation. I cannot help, in some degree, undervaluing beforehand what is said to be a feminine production.." So far as this song is concerned, the public, we imagine, would have difficulty in believing it to be anything but a "feminine production." How beautifully the sentiment of the poetry is re-echoed in the air?

This exquisite bairn song (lullaby) was first printed with music in 1803 ["1796" is the date according to James Kinsley--MS], in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum. It has since been sung to the spinet by generations of young ladies in the drawing room, and crooned to generations of babies by their mothers. Isla Cameron's version was learned from a 90-year-old grandmother of Edinburgh.

O CAN YE SEW CUSHIONS?

O can ye sew cushions,
An can ye sew sheets,
And can ye sing Ba-la loo loo
When the bairn greets?

And hey the baw birdie,
Hey and baw lamb,
Hey and bow birdie,
My bonnie wee lamb.

Ee-o, wee-o, what can I do with you?
Black's the life that I lead wi' you.
Mony o' you, little for to gie you,
Ee-o, wee-o, what can I do wi' you?

I've biggit [built] a cradle
Up on the tree top,
And the wind it did blow,
And the cradle did rock.

And hey the baw birdie, etc.
Ee-o, wee-o,... etc.