Wi' doors ajar, and candle light,
And torches burning clear,
The streikit corpse, till still midnight,
They waked, but naething hear.60
About the middle o' the night,
The cocks began to craw;
And at the dead hour o' the night,
The corpse began to thraw.
"O whae has done the wrang, sister,65
Or dared the deadly sin?
Whae was sae stout, and fear'd nae dout,
As thraw ye o'er the linn?"
"Young Benjie was the first ae man
I laid my love upon;70
He was sae stout and proud-hearted,
He threw me o'er the linn."—
"Sall we young Benjie head, sister,
Sall we young Benjie hang,
Or sall we pike out his twa gray een,75
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.80
"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,85
Ye'l tak him to the linn;
For that's the penance he maun dree,
To scug his deadly sin."