But grip ye to the milk-white steed,
And pu' the rider down.'
Compare the first two of these stanzas with the queries put by the gay gos-hawk to his master:
'But how shall I your true love find,
Or how suld I her know?
I bear a tongue ne'er wi' her spoke,
An eye that ne'er her saw.'
'O weel sall ye my true love ken,
Sae sore as ye her see,' &c.
As to the latter three stanzas, they exhibit a formula of description, which appears in several of the suspected ballads, consisting of a series of nearly identical statements, apparently for the sake of amplitude. For example, the progress of the seeming funeral of the lady in the Gay Gos-hawk: