“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.”
With doors ajar, and candles light,
And torches burning clear,
The streekit corpse, till still midnight,
They waked, but naething hear.
About the middle of the night
The cocks began to craw;
And at the dead hour of the night,
The corpse began to thraw.
“Oh, wha has done thee wrang, sister,
Or dared the deadly sin?
Wha was sae stout, and fear’d nae dout,
As throw ye o’er the linn?”
“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.”
“Shall we young Benjie head, sister?
Shall we young Benjie hang?
Or shall we pike out his twa gray een,
And punish him ere he gang?”
“Ye maunna Benjie head, brothers,
Ye maunna Benjie hang;
But ye maun pike out his twa gray een.
And punish him ere he gang.
“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.
“And aye at every seven years’ end,
Ye’ll take him to the linn;
For that’s the penance he maun dree,
To scug his deadly sin.”