+The Text+ is given from Scott's _Minstrelsy_ (1803). He remarks, 'The
ballad is given from tradition.' No. 29 in the Abbotsford MS., 'Scotch
Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,' is _Young Benjie_ (or Boonjie
as there written) in thirteen stanzas, headed 'From Jean Scott,' and
written in William Laidlaw's hand. All of this except the first stanza
is transferred, with or without changes, to Scott's ballad, which is
nearly twice as long.
+The Story+ of this ballad, simple in itself, introduces to us the
elaborate question of the 'lyke-wake,' or the practice of watching
through the night by the side of a corpse. More about this will be found
under _The Lyke-Wake Dirge_, and in the Appendix at the end of this
volume. Here it will suffice to quote Sir Walter Scott's introduction:--
'In this ballad the reader will find traces of a singular superstition,
not yet altogether discredited in the wilder parts of Scotland. The
lykewake, or watching a dead body, in itself a melancholy office, is
rendered, in the idea of the assistants, more dismally awful, by the
mysterious horrors of superstition. In the interval betwixt death and
interment, the disembodied spirit is supposed to hover around its mortal
habitation, and, if provoked by certain rites, retains the power of
communicating, through its organs, the cause of its dissolution. Such
enquiries, however, are always dangerous, and never to be resorted to
unless the deceased is suspected to have suffered _foul play_, as it is
called.... One of the most potent ceremonies in the charm, for causing
the dead body to speak, is setting the door ajar, or half open. On this
account, the peasants of Scotland sedulously avoid leaving the door ajar
while a corpse lies in the house. The door must either be left wide open
or quite shut; but the first is always preferred, on account of the
exercise of hospitality usual on such occasions. The attendants must be
likewise careful never to leave the corpse for a moment alone, or, if it
is left alone, to avoid, with a degree of superstitious horror, the
first sight of it.' --(Ed. 1803, vol. iii. pp. 251-2.)