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May Mary

May mary sat at her bower door
Wi' flowers art' herbs on her knee.
O' a' the herbs she counted there,
The sweetest was sweet rosemary.

"O maidens, bring me my green mantel,
An' fetch me my hood o' cramoisie;
I will go walk in yon green wood,
An' I charge ye, no one follow me."

She walked far intil the wood,
Hearing the birds sing high an' low;
When oot there sprang a faerie man
Wha' held an' wadna' let her go.

"Why walk ye thus within the wood
An' ask na leave o' mine or me?
Sin I be king o' a' this land
I trow my prisoner thou maun be."

"My daddie is laird o' d this land;
King Jamie is its king, I trow;
An' ill day will it be for ye
Gin ye will na let me go.

"I walk na thus within the wood
To hear the birds sing in the tree,
Nor yet to gather herb an' flower
But to greet my true love, young Henrie.

"Gin he should see ye bold me here,
Gin he should hear ye speak wi' me,
He'd wind his arblast to the heid
An' lichtly let his quarrel fee."

He has seized her by her grass-green sleeve,
I wis she can neither speak nor cry.
He has grippit her by her milk-white hand,
An' lookit in her clear grey eye.

"There stands a kist within thy bower.
'Tis iron without an' oak within,
An' there thy mother lays thy dower
Against the time o' thy weddin'.

"Gin ye bring me d within that kist,
An' fetch me thy dower ere the moon be set,
I'll set ye free tae gang awa,
But say na how we twa hae met.

"But gin ye fail tae keep your aitk
Or come ower late tae the trysting tree,
I'll lay my curse on thy bonnie heid
An' cruel sall be the weird ye'll dree."

She has flown like a bird to her bower door,
She has reached the kist where lay her gear,
An' wha' should she see when she liftit the lid,
But bonnie wee Annet, her sister dear.

"O dinna he angered, my ain sister,
I played but a game wi' my brithers three.
They bade me hide in some secret place,
An' high an' low they seek for me."

"I had liefer ha' stayed in yon green wood,
Where the eldrich faerie held my wrist;
I had liefer tie dead in my grave, sweet bairn,
Than hae found ye here in my dowry kist.

"The moon shines high above my bower.
Ere an hour be past 'twill be pale an' wan.
But it sall fall frae oot the sky
Ere I give a bairn to the faerie man.

"Go, rin awa' to your brithers three
An' come nae mair within my power,
But say a prayer for your ae sister
To save her soul frae the faerie's power."

Ere the dawn had lichtened May Mary's bower
She heard a hand at the window-pin,
An', "Sleep ye or wake ye, May Mary?
Open your door an' let me in."

May Mary opened the shot window.
From her girdle-knot her dirk she drew;
She leaned above him in the dark
An' thrice she pierced him, through an' through.

"Gin ye curse me, eldrich faerie man,
Ye'll get nae mair frae mine or me."
"Why ca' ye me faerie, ye cruel May:
Ye hae slain your true love, young Henrie."

When they carried his corpse to the high kirkyaird
An' the dead-bell swung in St. Mary's Tower,
The bonnie May followed her ain true love
In a wind in' sheet o' her linen dower.

—L.M.P.