Annotation:Fear A Figue

Find traditional instrumental music

Back to Fear A Figue


FEAR A FIGUE. Scottish, Strathspey. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Nigel Gatherer learned from one of his students that a a 'pig' is an old Scots term for a stone bottle meant to be filled with hot water and placed under the sheets to warm them. The Gaelic word for bottle is phige, and the man who supplied them was know as fear a' phige, or the bottle man. A versatile tune, it has served as an air, strathspey, hornpipe and Highland Schottische, and is popular with Scottish Ceilidh bands. Words begin:

Fear a' phige, fear a' phige, fear a' phige as fheàrr leam,
Fear a' phige, fear a' phige, fear a' phige as fheàrr leam,
Fear a' phige, fear a' phige, fear a' phige as fheàrr leam,
Ma ghabhas mi gin idir dhiubh 's e fear a' phige as fheàrr leam.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources:




Back to Fear A Figue