"Six days she lay in murder,
Before that she was found;30
Six days she lay in murder,
Upon the cursed ground;
Six days she lay in murder,
Before that she was found,
And it's for mine offence I must die.35
"O all the neighbours round about,
They said it had been I;
I put my foot on gude shipboard,
The county to defy;
The ship she wadna sail again,40
But hoisted to and fro,
And it's for mine offence I must die.
"O up bespak the skipper-boy,
I wat he spak too high;
'There's sinful men amongst us,45
The seas will not obey;'
O up bespak the skipper-boy,
I wat he spak too high,
And it's for mine offence I must die.
"O we cuist cavels us amang,50
The cavel fell on me;
O we cuist cavels us amang,
The cavel fell on me;
O we cuist cavels us amang,
The cavel fell on me,55
And it's for mine offence I must die.
"I had a loving mother
Who of me took gret care;
She wad hae gien the gold sae red,
To have bought me from that snare;60
But the gold could not be granted,
The gallows pays a share,
And it's for mine offence I must die."
THE ENCHANTED RING
Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, i. 169. Annexed is a fragment published by Jamieson, under the title of Bonny Bee-Ho'm.