Her fair colour was wan.

11.
Then up bespak her eldest brother,
'O see na ye what I see?'
And out then spak her second brother,
'It's our sister Marjorie!'

12.
Out then spak her eldest brother,
'O how shall we her ken?'
And out then spak her youngest brother,
'There's a honey mark on her chin.'

13.
Then they've ta'en up the comely corpse,
And laid it on the grund:
'O wha has killed our ae sister,
And how can he be found?

14.
'The night it is her low lykewake,
The morn her burial day,
And we maun watch at mirk midnight,
And hear what she will say.'

15.
Wi' doors ajar, and candle-light,
And torches burning clear,
The streikit corpse, till still midnight,
They waked, but naething hear.

16.
About the middle o' the night,
The cocks began to craw,
And at the dead hour o' the night,
The corpse began to thraw.

17.
'O wha has done the wrang, sister,
Or dared the deadly sin?
Wha was sae stout, and feared nae dout,
As thraw ye o'er the linn?'

18.
'Young Benjie was the first ae man,
I laid my love upon;
He was sae stout and proud-hearted,
He threw me o'er the linn.'

19.
'Sall we young Benjie head, sister,
Sall we young Benjie hang,
Or sall we pike out his twa gray een,
And punish him ere he gang?'

20.
'Ye mauna Benjie head, brothers,
Ye mauna Benjie hang,
But ye maun pike out his twa gray een,
And punish him ere he gang.

21.
'Tie a green gravat round his neck,
And lead him out and in,
And the best ae servant about your house,
To wait young Benjie on.

22.
'And ay, at every seven years' end,
Ye'll tak him to the linn;
For that's the penance he maun drie,
To scug his deadly sin.'

[Annotations:
2.4: 'plea,' quarrel.
7.3: 'sets,' befits.
9.4: 'linn,' stream.
10.3: 'dang,' overcome.
15.3: 'streikit,' stretched out.
15.4: 'wake,' watch.
16.4: 'thraw,' twist.
22.4: 'scug,' expiate.]

THE LYKE-WAKE DIRGE

+The Text+ is given _verbatim et literatim_ from John Aubrey's MS. of
his _Remains of Gentilisme & Judaisme_ (1686-7) in the Lansdowne MSS.,
No. 231, folio 114 _recto_ and _verso_. This text has often been printed
before (see Appendix), but always with errors. The only change made here
is the placing of Aubrey's marginal notes among the footnotes: the
spelling i