wash, ye wash, ye bonny may,
And ay's ye wash your sark o' silk':
'It's a' for you, ye gentle knight,
My skin is whiter than the milk.'

6.
He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand,
He's ta'en her by the sleeve sae green,
And he's forgotten his gay ladie,
And away with the fair maiden.

*** *** ***

7.
'Ohon, alas!' says Clark Colven,
'And aye sae sair's I mean my head!'
And merrily leugh the mermaiden,
'O win on till you be dead.

8.
'But out ye tak your little pen-knife,
And frae my sark ye shear a gare;
Row that about your lovely head,
And the pain ye'll never feel nae mair.'

9.
Out he has ta'en his little pen-knife,
And frae her sark he's shorn a gare,
Rowed that about his lovely head,
But the pain increased mair and mair.

10.
'Ohon, alas!' says Clark Colven,
'An' aye sae sair's I mean my head!'
And merrily laugh'd the mermaiden,
'It will ay be war till ye be dead.'

11.
Then out he drew his trusty blade,
And thought wi' it to be her dead,
But she's become a fish again,
And merrily sprang into the fleed.

12.
He's mounted on his berry-brown steed,
And dowy, dowy rade he home,
And heavily, heavily lighted down
When to his ladie's bower-door he came.

13.
'Oh, mither, mither, mak my bed,
And, gentle ladie, lay me down;
Oh, brither, brither, unbend my bow,
'Twill never be bent by me again.'

14.
His mither she has made his bed,
His gentle ladie laid him down,
His brither he has unbent his bow,
'Twas never bent by him again.

[Annotations:
1.3: 'gimp,' slender.
2.4: 'well-fared may,' well-favoured maiden.
7.3: 'leugh,' laughed.
8.2: 'gare,' strip. See First Series, Introduction, p. 1.
8.3: 'Row,' roll, bind.
10.4: 'war,' worse.
11.4: 'fleed,' flood.
12.2: 'dowy,' sad.]

TAM LIN

=all' e: toi pro:tista leo:n genet' e:ugeneios,
autar epeita drako:n kai pardalis e:de megas sus;
gigneto d' hugron hudo:r kai dendreon hupsipete:lon.=

_Odyssey_, IV. 456-8.

+The Text+ here given is from Johnson's _Museum_, communicated by Burns.
Scott's version (1802), _The Young Tamlane_, contained certain verses,
'obtained from a gentleman residing near Langholm, which are said to be
very ancient, though the language is somewhat of a modern cast.' --'Of a
grossly modern invention,' says Child, 'and as