462

II.

Such fond conceit, half said, half sung,
Love prompted to the bridegroom's tongue.
All while he stripp'd the wild-rose spray,
His axe and bow beside him lay,
For, on a pass 'twixt lake and wood,
A wakeful sentinel he stood.

Hark! on the rock a footstep rung,
And instant to his arms he sprung.

"Stand, or thou diest!-What, Malise?-soon
Art thou return'd from Braes of Doune.
By thy keen step and glance I know,
Thou bring'st us tidings of the foe."-
(For while the Fiery Cross hied on,
On distant scout had Malise gone.)

"Where sleeps the Chief?" the henchman said. 'Apart, in yonder misty glade;

66

To his lone couch I'll be your guide."
Then call'd a slumberer by his side,

And stirr'd him with his slacken'd bow-
"Up, up, Glentarkin! rouse thee, ho!
We seek the Chieftain; on the track,
Keep eagle watch till I come back."

[MS." And rapture dearest when obscured by fears."] [MS.-"Tis well advised-a prudent plan

Worthy the father of his clan."]

I The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various supersti tious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly slain bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation, he revolved in his mind the question proposed; and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination, passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits, who haunt the desolate recesses. In some of these Hebrides, they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities, and considered the first fancy which came into their own minds, after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone, and, as such, to be, if possible, punctually complied with. Martin has recorded the following curious modes of Highland augury, in which the Taghairm, and its effects upon the person who was subjected to it, may serve to illustrate the text.

It was an ordinary thing among the over-curious to consult an invisible oracle, concerning the fate of families and battles. &c. This was performed three different ways: the first was by a company of men, one of whom, being detached by lot, was af terwards carried to a river, which was the boundary between two villages; four of the company laid hold on him, and, having shut his eyes, they took him by the legs and arms, and then, tossing him to and again, struck his hips with force against the bank. One of them cried out, What is it you have go: here? another answers, A log of birch-wood. The other cries again, Let his invisible friends appear from all quarters, and let them relieve him by giving an answer to our present demands: and in a few minutes after, a number of little creatures came from the sea, who answered the question, and disappeared suddenly. The man was then set at liberty, and they all returned home, to take their measures according to the prediction of their false prophets; but the poor deluded fools were abused, for their answer was still ambiguous. This was always practised in the night, and may literally be called the works of darkness.

"I had an account from the most intelligent and judicious men in the Isle of Skie, that about sixty-two years ago, the oracle was thus consulted only once, and that was in the parish of Kilmar tin, on the east side. by a wicked and mischievous race of people,

who are now extinguished, both root and branch.

"The second way of consulting the oracle was by a party of men, who first retired to solitary places, remote from any house,

"Varying reports from near and far This certain, that a band of war Has for two days been ready boune,

At prompt command, to march from Doune;
King James, the while, with princely powers,
Holds revelry in Stirling towers.

Soon will this dark and gathering cloud
Speak on our glens in thunder loud.
Inured to bide such bitter bout,
The warrior's plaid may bear it out;
But, Norman, how wilt thou provide
A shelter for thy bonny bride?"-
"What! know ye not that Roderick's care
To the lone isle hath caused repair
Each maid and matron of the clan,
And every child and aged man
Unfit for arms; and given his charge,
Nor skiff nor shallop, boat nor barge,
Upon these lakes shall float at large,
But all beside the islet moor,

That such dear pledge may rest secure?"

IV.

""Tis well advised-the Chieftain's plant Bespeaks the father of his clan.

But wherefore sleeps Sir Roderick Dhu
Apart from all his followers true?"
"It is, because last evening-tide
Brian an augury hath tried,

Of that dread kind which must not be
Unless in dread extremity,

The Taghairm call'd; by which, afar,
Our sires foresaw the events of war.t
Duncraggan's milk-white bull they slew."-

MALISE.

"Ah! well the gallant brute I knew!
The choicest of the prey we had,
When swept our merry-men Gallangad.§
His hide was snow, his horns were dark,
His red eye glowed like fiery spark;
So fierce, so tameless, and so fleet,
Sore did he cumber our retreat,
And kept our stoutest kernes in awe,
Even at the pass of Beal 'maha.

and there they singled out one of their number, and wrapt him in a big cow's hide, which they folded about him; his whole body was covered with it, except his head, and so left in this posture all night, until his invisible friends relieved him, by giving a proper answer to the question in hand; which he received, as he fancied, from several persons that he found about him all that time. His consorts returned to him at the break of day, and then he communicated his news to them; which often proved fatal to those con cerned in such unwarrantable inquiries.

There was a third way of consulting, which was a confirma. tion of the second, above mentioned. The same company who put the man into the hide, took a live cat, and put him on a spit: one of the number was employed to turn the spit, and one of his consorts inquired of him, What are you doing? he answered, I roast this cat, until his friends answer the question; which must be the same that was proposed by the man shut up in the hide. And afterwards, a very big cat comes, attended by a number of lesser cats, desiring to relieve the cat turned upon the spit, and then answers the question. If this answer proved the same that was given to the man in the hide, then it was taken as a confirma tion of the other, which, in this case, was believed infallible.

"

Mr. Alexander Cooper, present minister of North Vist, told me that one John Erach, in the Isle of Lewis, assured him, it was his fate to have been led by his curiosity with some who consult ed this oracle, and that he was a night within the hide, as above mentioned during which time he felt and heard such terrible things, that he could not express them: the impression it made on him was such as could never go off, and he said for a thousand worlds he would never again be concerned in the like perform ance, for this had disordered him to a high degree. He confessed it ingenuously, and with an air of great remorse, and seemed to be very penitent under a just sense of so great a crime: he de clared this about five years since, and is still living in the Lewis for any thing I know." -Description of the Western Isles, p. 110. See also PENNANT'S Scottish Tour, vol. ii. p. 361.

I know not if it be worth observing, that this passage is taken almost literally from the mouth of an old Highland Kern, or Ket teran, as they were called. He used to narrate the merry doings of the good old time when he was follower of Rob Roy McGregor. This leader, on one occasion, thought proper to make a descent upon the lower part of the Loch Lomond district, and summoned all the heritors and farmers to meet at the Kirk of Drymen, to pay him black-mail, i. e. tribute for forbearance and protection. As this invitation was supported by a band of thirty or forty stout fellows, only one gentlernan, an ancestor, if I mistake not, of the present Mr. Grahame of Gartmore, ventured to decline compli

The reader may have met with the story of the "King of the Cats," is Lord Littleton's Letters. It is well known in the Highlands as a nursery tale

But steep and flinty was the road,
And sharp the hurrying pikeman's goad,
And when we came to Dennan's Row,
A child might scatheless stroke his brow."-
V.

NORMAN.

"That bull was slain : his reeking hide
They stretch'd the cataract beside,
Whose waters their wild tumult toss
Adown the black and craggy boss
Of that huge cliff, whose ample verge
Tradition calls the Hero's Targe.*
Couch'd on a shelve beneath its brink,
Close where the thundering torrents sink.
Rocking beneath their headlong sway,
And drizzled by the ceaseless spray,
Midst groan of rock, and roar of stream,
The wizard waits prophetic dream.
Nor distant rests the Chief;- but hush!
See, gliding slow through mist and bush,
The hermit gains yon rock, and stands
To gaze upon our slumbering bands.
Seems he not, Malise, like a ghost,
That hovers o'er a slaughter'd host?
Or raven on the blasted oak,

That, watching while the deer is broke,t
His morsel claims with sullen croak?"

MALISE.

-"Peace! peace! to other than to me,
Thy words were evil augury;
But still I hold Sir Roderick's blade
Clan-Alpine's omen and her aid,

Not aught that, glean'd from heaven or hell,
Yon fiend-begotten monk can tell.
The Chieftain joins him, see-and now,
Together they descend the brow."

VI.

And, as they came, with Alpine's Lord
The Hermit Monk held solemn word:
"Roderick! it is a fearful strife,
For man endow'd with mortal life,
Whose shroud of sentient clay can still
Feel feverish pang and fainting chill,
Whose eye can stare in stony trance,
Whose hair can rouse like warrior's lance,-
Tis hard for such to view, unfurl'd,
The curtain of the future world.
Yet, witness every quaking limb,
My sunken pulse, mine eyeballs dim,
My soul with harrowing anguish torn,
This for my Chieftain have I borne!-
The shapes that sought my fearful couch,
A human tongue may ne'er avouch;

ance. Rob Roy instantly swept his land of all he could drive away, and among the spoil was a bull of the old Scottish wild breed, whose ferocity occasioned great plague to the Ketterans. But ere we had reached the Row of Dennan," said the old man, a child might have scratched his ears." The circumstance is a minute one, but it paints the times when the poor beeve was compelled

"To hoof it o'er as many weary miles,
With goading pikemen hollowing at his heels,
As e'er the bravest antler of the woods." Ethicald.

*There is a rock so named in the forest of Glenfinlas, by which a tumultuary cataract takes its course. This wild place is said in former times to have afforded refuge to an outlaw, who was supplied with provisions by a woman, who lowered them down from the brink of the precipice above. His water he procured for himself, by letting down a flagon tied to a string, into the black pool beneath the fall.

Quartered.-Every thing belonging to the chase was matter of solemnity among our ancestors; but nothing was more so than the mode of cutting up, or, as it was technically called, breaking the slaughtered stag. The forester had his allotted portion; the hounds had a certain allowance; and, to make the division as general as possible, the very birds had their share also "There a little gristle," says Turberville, which is upon the spoone of the brisket, which we call the raven's bone; and I have seen in some places a raven so wont and accustomed to it, that she would never fail to croak and cry for it all the time you were in breaking up of the deer, and would not depart till she had it." In the very ancient metrical romance of Sir Tristrem, that peerless knight, who is said to have been the very deviser of all rules of chase, did not omit the ceremony:

This anecdote was, in former editions, inaccurately ascribed to Gregor Macgregor of Glengyle, called Ghlune Dhu, or Black-knee, a relation of Rob Roy, et, as I have been assured, not addicted to his predatory excesses.—

Note to Third Edition.

No mortal man,-save he, who, bred
Between the living and the dead,
Is gifted beyond nature's law,-
Had e'er survived to say he saw.
At length the fateful answer came,
In characters of living flame!

Not spoke in word, nor blazed in scroll,
But borne and branded on my soul;-

WHICH SPILLS THE FOREMOST FOEMAN'S LIFE,‡
THAT PARTY CONQUERS IN THE STRIFE."—§

VII.

"Thanks, Brian, for thy zeal and care!
Good is thine augury, and fair.
Clan-Alpine ne'er in battle stood,

But first our broadswords tasted blood.
A surer victim still I know,

Self-offer'd to the auspicious blow:
A spy has sought my land this morn,-
No eve shall witness his return!
My followers guard each pass's mouth,
To east, to westward, and to south;
Red Murdoch, bribed to be his guide,!!
Has charge to lead his steps aside,
Till, in deep path or dingle brown,

He light on those shall bring him down. T
-But see, who comes his news to show!
Malise! what tidings of the foe?"-

'At Doune, o'er many a spear and glaive Two Barons proud their banners wave.

I saw the Moray's silver star,

And mark'd the sable pale of Mar.".
"By Alpine's soul, high tidings those!
I love to hear of worthy foes.

When move they on?"-"To-morrow's noon✶✶
Will see them here for battle boune."-tt
"Then shall it see a meeting stern!—

But, for the place-say, couldst thou learn
Naught of the friendly clans of Earn?
Strengthen'd by them, we well might bide
The battle on Benledi's side.

Thou couldst not?-well! Clan Alpine's men
Shall man the Trosach's shaggy glen;
Within Loch Katrine's gorge we'll fight,
All in our maids' and matrons' sight,
Each for his hearth and household fire,
Father for child, and son for sire,-
Lover for maid beloved!-but why-
Is it the breeze affects mine eye?
Or dost thou come, ill-omen'd tear!
A messenger of doubt or fear?
No! sooner may the Saxon lance
Unfix Benledi from his stance,

"The rauen he yaue his yiftes
Sat on the fourched tre."

See Sir Tristrem, ante, p. 264. The raven might also challenge his rights by the Book of St. Albans; for thus says Dame Juliana Berners: "Slitteth anon

The bely to the side, from the corbyn bone; That is corbyn's fee, at the death he will be." Jonson, in "The Sad Shepherd," gives a more poetical ac count of the same ceremony.

Marian.He that undoes him,

Doth cleave the brisket bone, upon the spoon
Of which a little gristle grows-you call it-
Robin Hood. The raven's bone.

Marian. Now o'er head sat a raven

On a sere bough, a grown, great bird, and hoarse,
Who, all the while the deer was breaking up,
So croaked and cried for't, as all the huntsmen,
Especially old Scathlock, thought it ominous."

I [MS." Which foremost spills a foeman's life."] Though this be in the text described as a response of the Taghairm, or Oracle of the Hide, it was of itself an augury frequently attended to. The fate of the battle was often anticipated in the imagination of the combatants, by observing which party first shed blood. It is said that the Highlanders under Montrose were so deeply imbued with this notion, that on the morning of the battle of Tippermoor, they murdered a defenceless herdsman, whom they found in the fields, merely to secure an advantage of so much consequence to their party.

[MS. The clansman vainly deem'd his guide."] TIMS." He light on those shall stab him down."]

* [MS.-" When move they on?'. This sun at noon

To-day

'Tis said will see them march from Doune.'

"To-morrow then {makes meeting stern.""

+ For battle boune-ready for battle.

Than doubt or terror can pierce through
The unyielding heart of Roderick Dhu!
'Tis stubborn as his trusty targe.-*
Each to his post!-all know their charge."
The pibroch sounds, the bands advance,
The broadswords gleam, the banners dance,
Obedient to the Chieftain's glance.
-I turn me from the martial roar,
And seek Coir-Uriskin once more.
IX.

Where is the Douglas ?-he is gone;
And Ellen sits on the gray stone
Fast by the cave, and makes her moan;
While vainly Allan's words of cheer
Are pour'd on her unheeding ear.-
"He will return-Dear lady, trust!-
With joy return;-he will-he must.
Well was it time to seek, afar,
Some refuge from impending war,
When e'en Clan-Alpine's rugged swarm
Are cow'd by the approaching storm.
I saw their boats with many a light,
Floating the live-long yesternight,
Shifting like flashes darted fortht
By the red streamers of the north;
I mark'd at morn how close they ride,
Thick moor'd by the lone islet's side,
Like wild-ducks couching in the fen,
When stoops the hawk upon the glen.
Since this rude race dare not abide
The peril on the mainland side,
Shall not thy noble father's care
Some safe retreat for thee prepare ?"-
X.

ELLEN.

"No, Allan, no! Pretext so kind‡
My wakeful terrors could not blind.
When in such tender tone, yet grave,
Douglas a parting blessing gave,
The tear that glisten'd in his eye
Drown'd not his purpose fix'd on high.
My soul, though feminine and weak,
Can image his; e'en as the lake,
Itself disturb'd by slightest stroke,S
Reflects the invulnerable rock.
He hears report of battle rife,

He deems himself the cause of strife.
I saw him redden, when the theme
Turn'd, Allan, on thine idle dream,
Of Malcolm Græme, in fetters bound,
Which I, thou saidst, about him wound.

[MS.-""Tis stubborn as his Highland targe."] + [MS.-" Thick as the flashes darted forth By morrice-dancers of the north; barges ride, And saw at morn their little fleet, Close moor'd by the lone islet's side. Since this rude race dare not abide Upon their native mountain side, 'Tis fit that Douglas should provide For his dear child some safe abode, And soon he comes to point the road." [MS." No, Allan, no! His words so kind Were but pretexts my fears to blind.

When in such solemn tone and grave, Douglas a parting blessing gave."] [MS.-"Itself disturb'd by slightest shock,

Reflects the adamantine rock."]

This little fairy tale is founded upon a very curious Danish ballad, which occurs in the Kæmpe Viser, a collection of heroic songs, first published in 1591, and reprinted in 1695, inscribed by Anders Sofrensen, the collector and editor, to Sophia, Queen of Denmark. I have been favoured with a literal translation of the original, by my learned friend Mr. Robert Jamieson, whose deep knowledge of Scandinavian antiquities will, I hope, one day be displayed in illustration of the history of Scottish Ballad and Song, for which no man possesses more ample materials. The story will remind the readers of the Border Minstrelsy of the tale of Young Tamlane. But this is only a solitary and not very marked instance of coincidence, whereas several of the other ballads in the same collection find exact counterparts in the Kampe Viser. Which may have been the originals will be a question for future antiquaries. Mr. Jamieson, to secure the power of literal translation, has adopted the old Scottish idiom, which approaches so near to that of the Danish, as almost to give word for word, as well as line for line, and indeed in many verses the orthography alone is altered. As Wester Haf, mentioned in the first stanza of the ballad, means the West Sea, in opposition to the Baltic, or East Sea, Mr. Jamieson inclines to be of opinion, that the scene of the disenchantment is laid in one of the Orkney, or Hebride Islands. To each verse in the original is added a burden,

Think'st thou he trow'd thine omen aught?
Oh no! 'twas apprehensive thought
For the kind youth,-for Roderick too-
(Let me be just) that friend so true;
In danger both, and in our cause!
Minstrel, the Douglas dare not pause.
Why else that soleinn warning given,
'If not on earth, we meet in heaven!
Why else, to Cambus-kenneth's fane,
If eve return him not again,

Am I to hie, and make me known?
Alas! he goes to Scotland's throne,
Buys his friend's safety with his own:-
He to do what I had done,
goes
Had Douglas' daughter been his son !"-

XI.

"Nay, lovely Ellen !-dearest, nay!
If aught should his return delay,
He only named yon holy fane
As fitting place to meet again.

Be sure he's safe: and for the Græme,-
Heaven's blessing on his gallant name!-
My vision'd sight may yet prove true,
Nor bode of ill to him or you.
When did my gifted dream beguile?
Think of the stranger at the isle,
And think upon the harpings slow,
That presaged this approaching wo!
Sooth was my prophecy of fear;
Believe it when it augurs cheer.
Would we had left this dismal spot!
Ill luck still haunts a fairy grot.
Of such a wondrous tale I know-
Dear lady, change that look of wo,
My harp was wont thy grief to cheer."-

Now Eline, the husbande's huswife, has
Cour'd a' her grief and harms;
She's mither to a noble queen
That sleeps in a kingis arms.
GLOSSARY.

St. 1. Wold, a wood; woody fastness.
Husbande, from the Dan. how, with,
and bonde, a villain, or bondsman,
who was a cultivator of the ground,
and could not quit the estate to
which he was attached, without the
permission of his lord. Tins is the
sense of the word, in the old Scottish
records. In the Scottish "Burghe
Laws," translated from the Reg.
Majest. (Auchinleck MS. in the
Adv. Lib.) it is used indiscriminately
with the Dan, and Swed, bonde.
Bigg, build.

Ligg, lie.
Daes, does.
2. Shaw, wood.

Sairly, sorely.

3. Aik, oak.

Grewsome, terrible. Bald, bold.

4. Kipples, (couples,) beams joined at the top, for supporting a roof, in building.

Backs, balks; cross beams.
Moil, laborious industry.
Speer'd, asked.
Knock, hillock.

5. Weiest, smallest.
Crean'd, shrunk, diminished;
the Gaelic, crian, very small
Immert, emmet; ant.
Christian, used in the Danish ballads,
&c. in contradistinction to demo-
niac, as it is in England, in contra
distinction to brute; in which sense,
a person of the lower class in Eng-
land, would call a Jew or a Turk, a
Christian.

Fley, frighten.
6. Glowr'd, stared
Hald, hold.

466

"Now must I teach to hew the beech,
The hand that held the glaive,
For leaves to spread our lowly bed,
And stakes to fence our cave.

17. An, if.

Bide, abide

Leminan, mistress.

18. Nae-gate, nowise.

19. Couth, could, knew how to.

Lat be, let alone.

Gude, goods; property. 20. Aneath, beneath. Dialling-stead, dwelling-place 21. Sary, sorrowful. Rede, counsel; consultation. Forfairn, forlorn; lost; gone. Tyne, (verb neut.) be lost: perish. 22 Will of rede, bewildered in thought; in the Danish original "piltraadige," Lat. "inops consihi," Gr. anopy. This expression is left among the desiderata in the Glossary to Ritson's Romances, and has never been explained. It is obsolete in the Danish as well as in English. Fare, go.

23. Rud, red of the cheek. Clem', in the Danish, klemt; (which, in the north of England, is still in use, as the word starred is with us :) brought to a dying state. It is used by our old comedians.

Harm, grief; as in the original, and

in the old Teutonic, English, and Scottish poetry.

21. Waefu, woful.

Rew, take ruth; pity.
Unseely, unhappy; unbleet.
Weird, fate.

Fa, (Isl. Dan. and Swed.) take; get; acquire; procure; have for my lot. -This Gothic verb answers, in its direct and secondary significations, exactly to the Latin capio; and Allan Ramsay was right in his definition of it. It is quite a different word from fa', an abbreviation of 'fall, or befall; and is the principal root in fangen, to fang, take, or lay hold of.

25. Fay, faith.

Mold, mould; earth.

Mat, mote; might.
Maun, must.
Mell, mix.

El, an elf. This term, in the Welsh, signifies what has in itself the power of motion; a moving principle; an intelligence; a spirit; an angel. In the Hebrew, it bears the same ìmport

26. Minted, attempted; meant; showed a mind, or intention to. The original is:

"Hand mindte, hende forst-og anden gang;

Hun giordis i hiortet sa vee:

End blef hand den lediste deifvel
Mand kunde med oyen see.

Der hand vilde minde den tredie gang," &c.

Syth, tide; time.

Kyth, appear.

28. Stound, hour; time; moment.
29. Merry, (old Teut. mere,) famous;
renowned; answering, in its ety-
mological meaning, exactly to the
Latin mactus. Hence merry-men,
as the address of a chief to his fol-
lowers; meaning, not men of mirth,
but of renown. The term is found
in its original sense in the Gael.
mara, and the Welsh mawr, great;
and in the oldest Teut. Romances,
mar, mer, and mere, have some
times the same signification.
31. Mends, amends; recompense.
33. Maik, match; peer; equal.
Propine, pledge; gift.

35. oe, an island of the second magni-
tude; an islan1 of the first magni-
tude being called a land, and one of
the third magnitude a holin

Moody, strongly and wilfully passion- 36. Cour'd, recover'd.

ate.

THE GHAIST'S WARNING.

TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH KÆMPE VISER, p. 721. By the permission of Mr. Jamieson, this ballad is added from the same curious Collection. It contains some passages of great pathos.

Svend Dyring hand rider sig op under oe,

(Vare jeg selver ung)

Der faste hand sig saa ven en moe.

(Mig lyster udi lunden at ride,) &c.

Child Dyring has ridden him up under oe,*
(And O gin I were young!)
There wedded he him sae fairt a may.

(I the greenwood it lists me to ride.)
Thegither they lived for seven lang year,
(And O, &c.)

And they seven bairns hae gotten in fere.
(I the greenwood, &c.)

Sae Death's come there intill that stead,

And that winsome lily flower is dead.

That swain he has ridden him up under oe,
And syne he has married anither may.
He's married a may, and he's fessen her hame;
But she was a grim and a laidlie dame.
When into the castell court drave she,
The seven bairns stood wi' the tear in their ee.
The bairns they stood wi' dule and doubt:-
She up wi' her foot, and she kick'd them out.
Nor ale nor mead to the bairnies she gave.
"But hunger and hate frae me ye's have."
She took free them the bowster blae.

And said, "Ye sall ligg i' the bare strae!"

"Under oe."-The original expression has been preserved here and else where, because no other could be found to supply its place. There is just as Juuch meaning in it in the translation as in the original; but it is a standard Danish ballad phrase; and as such, it is hoped, will be allowed to pass. +"Fair."-The Dan. and Swed. ven, can, or venne, and the Gael. ban, in the oblique cases bhan (van) is the origin of the Scottish bonny, which has sonuch puzzled all the etymologists.

"And for vest of pall, thy fingers small, That wont on harp to stray,

A cloak must shear from the slaughter'd deer To keep the cold away."

She took frae them the groff wax-light:

Says, "Now ye sall ligg i' the mirk a' night!"
"Twas lang i' the night, and the bairnies grat:
Their mither she under the mools heard that;
That heard the wife under the eard that lay:
For sooth maun I to my bairnies gae!"
That wife can stand up at our Lord's knee,
And "May I gang and my bairnies see?"
She prigged sae sair, and she prigged sae lang,
That he at the last ga'e her leave to gang.

"And thou sall come back when the cock does craw; For thou nae langer sall bide awa.'

Wi' her banes sae stark a bowt she gae;
She's riven baith wa' and marble gray.*
Whan near to the dwalling she can gang,
The dogs they wow'd till the lift it rang.
Whan she came till the castell yett,
Her eldest dochter stood thereat.
"Why stand ye here, dear dochter mine?
How are sma brithers and sisters thine?"-

For sooth ye're a woman baith fair and fine;
But ye are nae dear mit..er of mine."-
"Och! how should I be fine or fair?
My cheek it is pale, and the ground's my fair."-

My mither was white, wi' cheek sae red;
But thou art wan, and liker ane dead."—
"Och! how should I be white and red,
Sae lang as I've been cauld and dead?"
When she cam tail the chalmer in,
Down the bairns' cheeks the tears did rin.
She buskit the tane, and she brush'd it there;
She kem'd and plaited the tither's hair.
The thirden she doodl'd upon her knee,
And the fourthen she dichted sae cannilie.
She's ta'en the fifthen upon her lap,
And sweetly suckled it at her pap.
Till her eldest dochter syne said she,
"Ye bid Child Dyring come here to me."
Whan he cam till the chalmer in,
Wi' angry mood she said to him:
"I left you routh o' ale and bread;
My bairnies quail for hunger and need.
"I left ahind me braw bowsters blae;
My bairnies are liggin i' the bare strae.
"I left ye sae mony a groff wax-light;
My bairnies ligg i' the mirk a' night.
"Gin aft I come back to visit thee,
Wae, dowy, and weary thy luck shall be."
Up spak little Kirstin in bed that lay:

To thy bairnies I'll do the best I may."

Aye when they heard the dog nirr and bell,
Sae ga'e they the bairnies bread and ale.

Aye whan the dog did wow, in haste

They cross'd and sain'd themsells frae the ghaist

Aye whan the little dog yowl'd, with fear
(And O gin I were young !)

They shook at the thought that the dead was near.
(I the green1oood it lists me to ride.)