_The red, that's on my true love's cheik,
Is like blood drops on the snaw._--P. 362. v, 5.
This simile resembles a passage in a MS. translation of an Irish Fairy
tale, called _The Adventures of Faravla, Princess of Scotland, and
Carral O'Daly, Son of Donogho More O'Daly, Chief Bard of Ireland._
"Faravla, as she entered her bower, cast her looks upon the earth, which
was tinged with the blood of a bird which a raven had newly killed;
'Like that snow,' said Faravla, 'was the complexion of my beloved, his
cheeks like the sanguine traces thereon; whilst the raven recals to my
memory the colour of his beautiful locks."
There is also some resemblance, in the conduct of the story, betwixt the
ballad and the tale just quoted. The Princess Faravla, being desperately
in love with Carral O'Daly, dispatches in search of him a faithful
confidant, who, by her magical art, transforms herself into a hawk, and,
perching upon the windows of the bard, conveys to him information of the
distress of the princess of Scotland.
In the ancient romance of _Sir Tristrem_, the simile of the "blood drops
upon snow" likewise occurs:
A bride bright thai ches
As blod open snoweing.