Robert Peters wrote:

>Yes, absolutely.  That's it.  "Kauz" in this context here means "strange
>person, oddball".

That would make no sense! The text goes:

Und obm uffm Berche, nu gugge,          On the mountain, beware
Da gammt sichn Freilein ihrn Zopp,      A fair girlie is combing her hair
Se striecheltn feste mit Spugge         She's stroking it with a bit of spit
Und glabtn als Gauz aufn Kopp.          And sticks it as??? on her head

This does not mean she put her hair (actually in the poem it means
this thing girls make out of the hair; my dictionary says its called
plait, Zopf-Zopp) in a way that she looked strange or odd, but she put the
plait(s) in a way that she looked like an owl (a Kauz).  In fact some old
German way to put a plait is to make two of them and somehow wind them to
two circles near the ears.  Then from the front one might say she looks
like an owl with ear tufts!

Achim Breiling