Unto the merman she then did say:
“May I go up to the kirk to pray?”
“Yes, thou shalt go, and pray withal;
But see thou come back to thy children small.
“When thou hast entered the kirkyard fair,
Then shalt thou not let down thy shining golden hair.
“And when thou hast entered the door so wide,
Then sit not down by thy mother’s side.
“When the priest names the Name of dread,
Thou shalt not bow thy head.”
He has stopped her ears, and stopped her mouth amain;
So he bore her up to the English strand again.
When she came to the kirkyard fair,
Then she let down her shining golden hair.
And when she entered the door so wide,
She sat her down by her mother’s side.
When she heard the Name of dread,
Then she bowed down her head.
“Hearken now, Agnes, to what I ask of thee—
Where hast thou been eight years away from me?”