* * * * *

“Blow up the fire, my maidens! 
Bring water from the well;
For a’ my house shall feast this night,
Since my three sons are well.”

And she has made to them a bed,
She’s made it large and wide;
And she’s taen her mantle her about,
Sat down at the bedside.

* * * * *

Up then crew the red, red cock,
And up and crew the gray;
The eldest to the youngest said,
“’Tis time we were away.”

The cock he hadna crawd but once,
And clapp’d his wings at a’,
Whan the youngest to the eldest said,
“Brother, we must awa.

“The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,
The channerin worm doth chide;
Gin we be mist out o our place,
A sair pain we maun bide.

“Fare ye weel, my mother dear! 
Fareweel to barn and byre! 
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
That kindles my mother’s fire!”

Ballad:  The Twa Corbies

(Child, vol. i.)

As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies making a mane;
The tane unto the t’other say,
“Where sall we gang and dine the day?”

“In behint yon auld fail dyke,
I wot there lies a new-slain knight;
And naebody kens that he lies there
But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.

“His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame,
His lady’s ta’en another mate,
So we may make our dinner sweet.

“Ye’ll sit on his white hause-bane,
And I’ll pike out his bonny blue een;
Wi ae lock o his gowden hair
We’ll theek our nest when it grows bare.

“Mony a one for him makes mane,
But nane sall ken whae he is gane,
Oer his white banes, when they are bare,
The wind sall blaw for evermair.”

Ballad:  The Bonnie Earl Moray

(Child, vol. vi.)

A.

Ye Highlands, and ye Lawlands
Oh where have you been? 
They have slain the Earl of Murray,
And they layd him on the green.

“Now wae be to thee, Huntly! 
And wherefore did you sae? 
I bade you bring him wi you,
But forbade you him to slay.”

He was a braw gallant,
And he rid at the ring;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
Oh he might have been a King!

He was a braw gallant,
And he playd at the ba;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
Was the flower amang them a’.

He was a braw gallant,
And he playd at the glove;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
Oh he was the Queen’s love!

Oh lang will his lady
Look oer the castle Down,
Eer she see the Earl of Murray
Come sounding thro the town! 
Eer she, etc.

B.

“Open the gates
and let him come in;
He is my brother Huntly,
he’ll do him nae harm.”

The gates they were opent,
they let him come in,
But fause traitor Huntly,
he did him great harm.