Wi' the white bread and the wine;
And aye she drank the wan water,
To keep her colour fine.
The expression, the wan water, occurs in several of this group of ballads. Thus, in Johnie of Bradislee:
Is there ever a bird in this hale forest
Will do as mickle for me,
As dip its wing in the wan water,
And straik it o'er my ee-bree?
And in the Douglas Tragedy:
O they rade on, and on they rade,