13^2. the farmer's daughter Kate.
_Instead of 14_:
The sister she sailed over the sea,
And died an old maid of a hundred and three.
The lover became a beggar man,
And he drank out of a rusty tin can.
#b# _8, 11, 12, 14, 15 are cited in ~Popular Tales of the
West Highlands~, IV, 127._
#c.#
1.
A varmer he lived in the west countree,
Hey-down, bow-down
A varmer he lived in the west countree,
And he had daughters one, two, and dree.
And I'll be true to my love,
If my love'll be true to me.
2, 3. _wanting._
4^1. As thay wur walking by the river's brim.
5^1. pray gee me thy hand.
7^1. So down she sank and away she swam.
8.
The miller's daughter stood by the door,
As fair as any gilly-flower.
9.
here swims a swan,
Very much like a drownded gentlewoman.
10.
The miller he fot his pole and hook,
And he fished the fair maid out of the brook.
11^1. O miller, I'll gee thee guineas ten.
12^2. pushed the fair maid in again.
_Between 12 and 13 #c# has_,
But the crowner he cum and the justice too,
With a hue and a cry and a hullaballoo.
They hanged the miller beside his own gate
For drowning the varmer's daughter, Kate.
_Instead of 14_:
The sister she fled beyond the seas,
And died an old maid among black savagees.
So I've ended my tale of the west countree,
And they calls it the Barkshire Tragedee.
#S.#
1^2. _MS._ Or less (?).
#T.#
"Sung to a peculiar and beautiful air." _Allingham, p.
xxxiii._
[126] Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands, IV, 126, 1862.
[127] Jamieson, in his Popular Ballads, II, 315, prints the ballad, with
five inconsiderable variations from the broadside, as from Musarum
Deliciæ, 2d edition, 1656. The careful reprint of this book, and of the
same edition, in "Facetiæ," etc., 1817, does not contain this piece, and
the first edition, of 1655, differed in no respect as to contents,
according to the editor of "Facetiæ." Still it is hardly credible that
Jamieson has blundered, and we may suppose that copies, ostensibly of
the same edition, varied as to contents, a thing common enough with old
books.
[128] Cunningham has re-written Scott's version, Songs of Scotland, II,
109, 'The Two Fair Sisters.' He says, "I was once deeply touched with
the singing of this romantic and mournful song.... I have ventured to
print it in the manner I heard it sung." There is, to be sure, no reason
why he should not have heard his own song sung, _once_, and still less
why he should not have been deeply touched with his own pathos.
Cunningham adds one genuine stanza, resembling the first of #G#, #J#,
#P#:
Two fair sisters lived in a bower,
Hey ho my nonnie O
There came a knight to be their wooer.
While the swan swims bonnie O
[129] English #M# is confused on this point. The sisters live in a hall.
The burden in st. 1 makes them love a miller-lad; but in 14, 15, calls
the drowned girl "the bonnie miller's-lass o Binorie."
[130] The sisters, #D#, #I#, walk by, up, a linn; #G#, go to a sand
[strand]; #Q#, go to the stream; #R a#, walk on the bryn.
[131] Swedish #H# begins, "Dear sister, come follow me to the
clapping-stone:" "Nay, I have no foul clothes." So #F# 6, 7, #G# 4, 5,
Färöe #A# 6, nearly; and then follows the suggestion that they should
wash themselves. Another of Rancken's copies begins, "Two sisters went
to the bucking-stone, to buck their clothes snow-white," #H#; and so
Rancken's #S# nearly.
[132] There are, besides the two fishermen, in Norwegian #A#, two
"twaddere," i.e., landloupers, possibly (Bugge) a corruption of the word
rendered pilgrims, Färöe vallarar, Swedish vallare. The vallarar in
these ballads are perhaps more respectable than those whose acquaintance
we shall make through the Norse versions of 'Babylon,' and may be
allowed to be harmless vagrants, but scarcely better, seeing that they
are ranked with "staff-carls" in Norges Gamle Love, cited by Cleasby and
Vigfusson at 'vallari.'
[133] A harp in the Icelandic and Norwegian ballads, Färöe #A#, #B#,
#C#, Swedish #A#, #B#, #D#, #G#, #H#; a harp in English #B#, #C#, #G#,
#J#. A harp is not named in any of the Danish versions, but a fiddle is
mentioned in #C#, #E#, #H#, is plainly meant in #A#, and may always be
intended; or perhaps _two_ fiddles in all but #H# (which has only one
fiddler), and the corrupted #G#. #D# begins with two fiddlers, but
concludes with only one. We have a fiddle in Swedish #C#, and in English
#A#, #D#, #E#, #F#, #I#, #J#, #K#, #L#, #O#, #P#; both harp and fiddle
in #H#.
[134] Some of the unprinted Norwegian ballads are not completely
described, but a departure from the rule of the major part would
probably have been alluded to.
[135] The stanza, 9, in which this is said is no doubt as to its form
entirely modern, but not so the idea. #I# has "the first spring that he
playd, _it_ said," etc.
[136] The fourth string is _said_ to speak in Färöe #A# 30, but no
utterance is recorded, and this is likely to be a mistake. In many of
the versions, and in this, after the strings have spoken individually,
they unite in a powerful but inarticulate concord.
[137] #I# has lost the terminal stanzas.
[138] Not #M#, and apparently not #D#, which ends:
When he kissed the harp upon the mouth, his heart broke.
[139] So the traitor John pushes away Catherine's hands in 'Lady Isabel
and the Elf Knight,' Polish #Q# 25 (see p. 40). In the French versions
#A#, #C#, #E# of the same, the knight catches at a branch to save
himself, and the lady cuts it off with his sword.
[140] The miller begins to lose character in #H#:
14
He dragged her out unto the shore,
And stripped her of all she wore.
[141] Neus also refers to an Esthonian saga of Rögutaja's wife, and to
'Die Pfeiferin,' a tale, in Das Inland, 1846, No 48, Beilage, col. 1246
ff, 1851, No 14, col. 230 ff; and to a Slovenian ballad in Tielemann,
Livona, ein historisch-poetisches Taschenbuch, 1812, p. 187.
[142] All these are cited in Köhler's note, Gonzenbach, II, 235.
11
THE CRUEL BROTHER
#A.# '[The] Cruel Brother, or the Bride's Testament.' #a.#
Alex. Fraser Tytler's Brown MS. #b.# Jamieson's Popular
Ballads, I, 66.
#B.# The Kinloch MSS, I, 21.
#C.# 'Ther waur three ladies,' Harris MS., p. 11 b.
#D. a.# Notes and Queries, 1st S., VI, 53. #b.# 2d S., V,
171.
#E.# Notes and Queries, 4th S., V, 105.
#F.# 'The Three Knights,' Gilbert's Ancient Christmas
Carols, 2d ed., p. 68.
#G.# 'Fine Flowers of the Valley.' #a.# Herd's MSS, I, 41.
#b.# Herd's Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 88.
#H.# Fragment appended to #G#.
#I.# The Kinloch MSS, I, 27.
#J.# As current in County Meath, Ireland, about 1860.
#K.# Notes and Queries, 4th S., IV, 517.
#A a# was obtained directly from Mrs Brown of Falkland, in 1800, by
Alexander Fraser Tytler. Jamieson says that he gives #b# verbatim from
the recitation of Mrs Arrott; but it would seem that this must have been
a slip of memory, for the two agree except in half a dozen words. #B#,
#C#, #I#, #J# are now for the first time printed. #G# only was taken
down earlier than the present century.
Aytoun remarks (1858): "This is, perhaps, the most popular of all the
Scottish ballads, being commonly recited and sung even at the present
day." The copy which he gives, I, 232, was "taken down from recitation,"
but is nevertheless a compound of #G# and #A b#, with a few unimportant
variations, proceeding, no doubt, from imperfect recollection.[143] The
copy in Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs, p. 56, repeated in
Bell's volume of the same title, p. 50, is Gilbert's #F#. Dixon informs
us that the ballad was (in 1846) still popular amongst the peasantry in
the west of England. Cunningham gives us a piece called 'The Three
Ladies of Leithan Ha,' Songs of Scotland, II, 87, which he would fain
have us believe that he did not know he had written himself. "The common
copies of this tragic lyric," he truly says, "differ very much from
this; not so much in the story itself as in the way it is told."
All versions but #K#, which has pretty nearly lost all point, agree
after the opening stanzas. #A-E# have three ladies and only one knight;
#F# has three knights and one lady; #G#, #I#, #J#, #K# have three ladies
and three knights [lords in #G#, "bonny boys" in #I#, the first line
being caught from 'Sir Hugh.'] Three knights are to no purpose; only one
knight has anything to do. The reason for three ladies is, of course,
that the youngest may be preferred to the others,--an intention somewhat
obscured in #B#. The ladies are in colors in #B#, #C#, #I#, #J#, and
this seems to be the better interpretation in the case of #G#, though a
strict construction of the language would rather point to the other. The
colors are transferred to the knights in #F# because there is only one
lady. In #K# this is a part of the general depravation of the ballad.
'Rizzardo bello,' Wolf, Volkslieder aus Venetien, No 83, seems to be the
same story, with a change of relations such as we often find in ballad
poetry. Rizzardo is conducting his bride home, and on the way embraces
and kisses her. Her brother witnesses "questo onore," and thrusts his
sword into the happy bridegroom's heart. Rizzardo tells his bride to
come on slowly; he will go before to make preparation. He begs his
mother to open the doors, for his bride is without, and he is wounded to
death. They try to make the bride eat. She says she can neither eat nor
drink: she must put her husband to bed. He gives her a ring, saying,
Your brother has been the death of me; then another ring, in sign that
she is to be wife of two brothers. She answers him as Guldborg answers
Ribold, that she would die rather: "Rather die between two knives than
be wife of two brothers." This ballad was obtained from a peasant woman
of Castagnero. Another version, which unfortunately is not printed, was
sung by a woman at Ostiglia on the Po.
Dr Prior remarks that the offence given by not asking a brother's assent
to his sister's marriage was in ballad-times regarded as unpardonable.
Other cases which show the importance of this preliminary, and the
sometimes fatal consequences of omitting it, are: 'Hr. Peder og
Mettelille,' Grundtvig, No 78, II, 325, sts 4, 6; 'Jomfruen i Skoven,'
Danske Viser, III, 99, st. 15; 'Jomfru Ellensborg og Hr. Olof,' ib.,
III, 316, st. 16; 'Iver Lang og hans Søster,' ib., IV, 87, st. 116;
'Herr Helmer Blaa,' ib., IV, 251, st. 8; 'Jomfru Giselmaar,' ib., IV,
309, st. 13. See Prior's Ancient Danish Ballads, III, 112, 232 f, 416.
There is a very common German ballad, 'Graf Friedrich,' in which a bride
receives a mortal wound during the bringing-home, but accidentally, and
from the bridegroom's hand. The marriage train is going up a hill; the
way is narrow; they are crowded; Graf Friedrich's sword shoots from its
sheath and wounds the bride. The bridegroom is exceedingly distressed;
he tries to stop the bleeding with his shirt; she begs that they may
ride slowly. When they reach the house there is a splendid feast, and
everything is set before the bride; but she can neither eat nor drink,
and only wishes to lie down. She dies in the night. Her father comes in
the morning, and, learning what has happened, runs Graf Friedrich
through, then drags his body at a horse's heels, and buries it in a bog.
Three lilies sprang from the spot, with an inscription announcing that
Graf Friedrich was in heaven, and a voice came from the sky commanding
that the body should be disinterred. The bridegroom was then buried with
his bride, and this act of reparation was attended with other miraculous
manifestations. As the ballads stand now, the kinship of 'Graf
Friedrich' with 'The Cruel Brother' is not close and cannot be insisted
on; still an early connection is not improbable.
The versions of 'Graf Friedrich' are somewhat numerous, and there is a
general agreement as to all essentials. They are: #A#, a Nuremberg
broadside "of about 1535," which has not been made accessible by a
reprint. #B#, a Swiss broadside of 1647, without place, "printed in
Seckendorf's Musenalmanach für 1808, p. 19;" Uhland, No 122, p. 277;
Mittler, No 108; Wunderhorn, II, 293 (1857); Erk's Liederhort, No
15^a, p. 42; Böhme, No 79, p. 166: also, in Wunderhorn, 1808, II, 289,
with omission of five stanzas and with many changes; Simrock, No 11,
p. 28, omitting four stanzas and with changes; as written down by
Goethe for Herder, Düntzer u. Herder, Briefe Goethes, u.s.w., Aus
Herder's Nachlass, I, 167, with the omission of eight stanzas and with
some variations. #C#, Wunderhorn (1857), II, 299, from the
Schwarzwald,==Erlach, IV, 291, Mittler, No 113. #D#, Taschenbuch für
Dichter, u.s.w., Theil VIII, 122, from Upper Lusatia,==Erlach, III,
448, Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 421. #E#, from the Kuhländchen,
Meinert, p. 23,==Mittler, No 109. #F#, Hoffmann u. Richter,
Schlesische V. L., No 19, p. 35,==Mittler, No 112, Erk's Liederhort,
No 15, p. 40. #G#, Zingerle, in Wolf's Zeitschrift für deutsche
Mythologie, I, 341, from Meran. #H#, from Uckermark, Brandenburg,
Mittler, No 114. #I#, Hesse, from oral tradition, Mittler, No 111.
#J#, Erk u. Irmer, II, 54, No 54, from the neighborhood of
Halle,==Mittler, No 110. #K#, from Estedt, district of Magdeburg,
Parisius, p. 31, No 9.
A Danish ballad, 'Den saarede Jomfru,' Grundtvig, No 244, IV, 474, has
this slight resemblance with 'Graf Friedrich:' While a knight is dancing
with a princess, his sword glides from the scabbard and cuts her hand.
To save her partner from blame, she represents to her father that she
had cut herself with her brother's sword. This considerateness so
touches the knight (who is, of course, her equal in rank) that he offers
her his hand. The Danish story is found also in Norwegian and in Färöe
ballads.
The peculiar testament made by the bride in 'The Cruel Brother,' by
which she bequeaths good things to her friends, but ill things to the
author of her death, is highly characteristic of ballad poetry. It will
be found again in 'Lord Ronald,' 'Edward,' and their analogues. Still
other ballads with this kind of testament are: 'Frillens Hævn,'
Grundtvig, No 208 #C#, 16-18, IV, 207; a young man, stabbed by his
leman, whom he was about to give up in order to marry, leaves his lands
to his father, his bride-bed to his sister, his gilded couch to his
mother, and his knife to his leman, wishing it in her body. 'Møen paa
Baalet,' Grundtvig, No 109 #A#, 1821, II, 587; Ole, falsely accused by
her brother, and condemned to be burned, gives her mother her silken
sark, her sister her shoes, her father her horse, and her brother her
knife, with the same wish. 'Kong Valdemar og hans Søster,' Grundtvig, No
126, III, 97, has a testament in #A-E# and #I#; in #I#, 14-19 (III,
912), Liden Kirsten bequeaths her knife, with the same imprecation, to
the queen, who, in the other copies, is her unrelenting foe: so Lillelin
to Herr Adelbrand, Danske Viser, III, 386, No 162, 16-18, Kristensen, I,
262, No 100, #A# 20-23, having been dragged at a horse's heels in
resentment of a taunt. 'Hustru og Mands Moder,' Grundtvig, No. 84, II,
404, has a testament in #A#, #B#, #D#, #H#, and in the last three a
bequest of shoes or sark to a cruel mother-in-law or foster-mother, with
the wish that she may have no peace or much pain in the wearing.
'Catarina de Lió,' Briz y Candi, Cansons de la Terra, I, 209, has been
beaten by her mother-in-law while in a delicate state. When she is at
the point of death, the mother-in-law asks what doctor she will have and
what will she will make. "My will," says Catherine, "will not please you
much. Send back my velvet dress to my father's; my gala dress give my
sister; give my working dress to the maid, my jewels to the Virgin."
"And what will you leave to me?" "What I leave you will not please you
much: my husband to be hanged, my mother-in-law to be quartered, and my
sister-in-law to be burned." 'Le Testament de Marion,' another version
of this story from the south of France, Uchaud, Gard, Poésies pop. de la
France, MS., IV, fol. 283, bequeaths "my laces to my sister Marioun, my
prettiest gowns to my sister Jeanneton; to my rascal of a husband three
fine cords, and, if that is not enough (to hang him), the hem of his
shirt." The Portuguese ballad of 'Dona Helena' rather implies than
expresses the imprecation: Braga, C.P. do Archipelago Açoriano, p. 225,
No 15, p. 227, No 16; Almeida-Garrett, III, 56; Hartung, I, 233-43, No
18. Helena leaves her husband's house when near childbirth, out of fear
of his mother. Her husband, who does not know her reason, goes after
her, and compels her to return on horseback, though she has just borne a
son. The consequences are what might be expected, and Helena desires to
make her shrift and her will. She leaves one thing to her oldest sister,
another to her youngest. "And your boy?" "To your bitch of a mother,
cause of my woes." "Rather to yours," says the husband, "for I shall
have to kill mine" (so Braga; Garrett differs somewhat). 'Die Frau zur
Weissenburg' (#A#), Uhland, p. 287, No 123 #B#, Scherer's Jungbrunnen,
p. 94, No 29; 'Das Lied von der Löwenburg' (#B#), Simrock, p. 65, No 27;
'Hans Steutlinger' (#C#), Wunderhorn, II, 168 (1857), all one story,
have a bitterly sarcastic testament. A lady instigates her paramour to
kill her husband. The betrayed man is asked to whom he will leave his
children [commit, #A#, bequeath, #B#, #C#]. "To God Almighty, for he
knows who they are." "Your property?" "To the poor, for the rich have
enough." "Your wife?" "To young Count Frederic, whom she always liked
more than me (#A#)." "Your castle?" "To the flames."
In some cases there is no trace of animosity towards the person who has
caused the testator's death; as in 'El testamento de Amelia' (who has
been poisoned by her mother), Milá, Observaciones, p. 103, No 5, Briz y
Saltó, Cansons de la Terra, II, 197 (two copies); 'Herren Båld,'
Afzelius, I, 76, No 16 (new ed. I, 59, No 15); a Swedish form of
'Frillens Hævn,' Grundtvig, IV, 203; 'Renée le Glaz' and 'Ervoanik Le
Lintier,' Luzel, C.P. de la Basse Bretagne, I, 405, 539, 553. There are
also simple testaments where there is no occasion for an ill
remembrance, as in 'Ribold og Guldborg,' Grundtvig, No 82, #I#, #K#,
#L#, #U#, #X#, #Æ#, Kristensen, II, No 84 B; 'Pontplancoat;' Luzel, I,
383, 391. And, again, there are parodies of these wills. Thus the fox
makes his will: Grundtvig, Gamle danske Minder, 1854, 'Mikkels
Arvegods,' p. 24, and p. 25 a copy from a manuscript three hundred years
old; Kristensen, Jyske Folkeviser, II, 324, No 90; 'Reven og Bjönnen,'
'Reven og Nils fiskar,' Landstad, Nos 85, 86, p. 637, 639: and the
robin, 'Robin's Tesment,' Buchan, I, 273, Herd's MSS, I, 154, and
Scottish Songs (1776), II, 166, Chambers' Popular Rhymes, p. 38, "new
edition."
* * * * *
Translated in Grundtvig's Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, No 33, p. 212,
#F#, with use of #A# and #G b#; Aytoun's copy, with omissions, by Rosa
Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder der Vorzeit, No 17, p. 80; after
Allingham and others, by Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, No 5,
p. 16.
A
#a.# Alex. Fraser Tytler's Brown MS. #b.# Jamieson's
Popular Ballads, I, 66, purporting to be from the
recitation of Mrs Arrot of Aberbrothick.
1
There was three ladies playd at the ba,
With a hey ho and a lillie gay
There came a knight and played oer them a'.
As the primrose spreads so sweetly
2
The eldest was baith tall and fair,
But the youngest was beyond compare.
3
The midmost had a graceful mien,
But the youngest lookd like beautie's queen.
4
The knight bowd low to a' the three,
But to the youngest he bent his knee.
5
The ladie turned her head aside,
The knight he woo'd her to be his bride.
6
The ladie blushd a rosy red,
And sayd, 'Sir knight, I'm too young to wed.'
7
'O ladie fair, give me your hand,
And I'll make you ladie of a' my land.'
8
'Sir knight, ere ye my favor win,
You maun get consent frae a' my kin.'
9
He's got consent frae her parents dear,
And likewise frae her sisters fair.
10
He's got consent frae her kin each one,
But forgot to spiek to her brother John.
11
Now, when the wedding day was come,
The knight would take his bonny bride home.
12
And many a lord and many a knight
Came to behold that ladie bright.
13
And there was nae man that did her see,
But wishd himself bridegroom to be.
14
Her father dear led her down the stair,
And her sisters twain they kissd her there.
15
Her mother dear led her thro the closs,
And her brother John set her on her horse.
16
She leand her oer the saddle-bow,
To give him a kiss ere she did go.
17
He has taen a knife, baith lang and sharp,
And stabbd that bonny bride to the heart.
18
She hadno ridden half thro the town,
Until her heart's blude staind her gown.
19
'Ride softly on,' says the best young man,
'For I think our bonny bride looks pale and wan.'
20
'O lead me gently up yon hill,
And I'll there sit down, and make my will.'
21
'O what will you leave to your father dear?'
'The silver-shod steed that brought me here.'
22
'What will you leave to your mother dear?'
'My velvet pall and my silken gear.'
23
'What will you leave to your sister Anne?'
'My silken scarf and my gowden fan.'
24
'What will you leave to your sister Grace?'
'My bloody cloaths to wash and dress.'
25
'What will you leave to your brother John?'
'The gallows-tree to hang him on.'
26
'What will you leave to your brother John's wife?'
'The wilderness to end her life.'
27
This ladie fair in her grave was laid,
And many a mass was oer her said.
28
But it would have made your heart right sair,
To see the bridegroom rive his haire.
B
Kinloch's MSS, I, 21, from Mary Barr, May, 1827,
Clydesdale.
1
A gentleman cam oure the sea,
Fine flowers in the valley
And he has courted ladies three.
With the light green and the yellow
2
One o them was clad in red:
He asked if she wad be his bride.
3
One o them was clad in green:
He asked if she wad be his queen.
4
The last o them was clad in white:
He asked if she wad be his heart's delight.
5
'Ye may ga ask my father, the king:
Sae maun ye ask my mither, the queen.
6
'Sae maun ye ask my sister Anne:
And dinna forget my brither John.'
7
He has asked her father, the king:
And sae did he her mither, the queen.
8
And he has asked her sister Anne:
But he has forgot her brother John.
9
Her father led her through the ha,
Her mither danced afore them a'.
10
Her sister Anne led her through the closs,
Her brither John set her on her horse.
11
It's then he drew a little penknife,
And he reft the fair maid o her life.
12
'Ride up, ride up,' said the foremost man;
'I think our bride comes hooly on.'
13
'Ride up, ride up,' said the second man;
'I think our bride looks pale and wan.'
14
Up than cam the gay bridegroom,
And straucht unto the bride he cam.
15
'Does your side-saddle sit awry?
Or does your steed ...
16
'Or does the rain run in your glove?
Or wad ye chuse anither love?'
17
'The rain runs not in my glove,
Nor will I e'er chuse anither love.
18
'But O an I war at Saint Evron's well,
There I wad licht, and drink my fill!
19
'Oh an I war at Saint Evron's closs,
There I wad licht, and bait my horse!'
20
Whan she cam to Saint Evron's well,
She dought na licht to drink her fill.
21
Whan she cam to Saint Evron's closs,
The bonny bride fell aff her horse.
22
'What will ye leave to your father, the king?'
'The milk-white steed that I ride on.'
23
'What will ye leave to your mother, the queen?'
'The bluidy robes that I have on.'
24
'What will ye leave to your sister Anne?'
'My gude lord, to be wedded on.'
25
'What will ye leave to your brither John?'
'The gallows pin to hang him on.'
26
'What will ye leave to your brither's wife?'
'Grief and sorrow a' the days o her life.'
27
'What will ye leave to your brither's bairns?'
'The meal-pock to hang oure the arms.'
28
Now does she neither sigh nor groan:
She lies aneath yon marble stone.
C
Harris MS., p. 11 b, No 7.
1
There waur three ladies in a ha,
Hech hey an the lily gey
By cam a knicht, an he wooed them a'.
An the rose is aye the redder aye
2
The first ane she was cled in green;
'Will you fancy me, an be my queen?'
3
'You may seek me frae my father dear,
An frae my mither, wha did me bear.
4
'You may seek me frae my sister Anne,
But no, no, no frae my brither John.'
5
The niest ane she was cled in yellow;
'Will you fancy me, an be my marrow?'
6
'Ye may seek me frae my father dear,
An frae my mither, wha did me bear.
7
'Ye may seek me frae my sister Anne,
But no, no, no frae my brither John.'
8
The niest ane she was cled in red:
'Will ye fancy me, an be my bride?'
9
'Ye may seek me frae my father dear,
An frae my mither wha did me bear.