Courtship, Marriage, and Raising Children

This chapter begins with two of Williamson’s love songs, then introduces a song in Travellers’ cant, “My Wee Maggie,” about a runaway marriage involving two of Duncan’s relatives from a prior generation. Duncan then tells of how he and his first wife Jeannie were married in Glasgow when she was sixteen years old, and of how he encouraged his own children to respect wildlife while learning about sex and birth by growing up around domesticated animals. He speaks disparagingly of parents who try to shape children to their own mold, and the laments the practice whereby Traveller children used to be taken from their parents by civil authorities. The chapter concludes with a story, “The Boy and the Horn Spoon,” about an infant of Traveller parentage who was adopted by a wealthy settled couple but whose identity as a Traveller found expression all the same once he grew into boyhood.