Danish A, E are translated by Prior, I, 381, 384. English B, with use of C, is translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. 104, No 15; C, by Afzelius, III, 22. C, by Talvj, Versuch, u. s. w., p. 532; by Schubart, p. 133; by Gerhard, p. 143; by Doenniges, p. 81; Arndt, p. 238. C, with use of Aytoun's compounded version, by R. Warrens, Schottische V. L. der Vorzeit, p. 65; Allingham's version by Knortz, Lieder u. Romanzen Alt-Englands, p. 180.
A.
A. a. Broadside "printed for Francis Grove, 1656," reprinted in Notes and Queries, 1st S., V, 591. b. Wit Restor'd, 1658, "p. 51," p. 153 of the reprint of 1817. c. Wit and Drollery, ed. 1682, p. 87, == Dryden's Miscellany, Part 3, p. 316, ed. 1716. d. Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 315.
1
There were two sisters, they went playing,
With a hie downe downe a downe-a
To see their father's ships come sayling in.
With a hy downe downe a downe-a
2
And when they came unto the sea-brym,
The elder did push the younger in.
3
'O sister, O sister, take me by the gowne,
And drawe me up upon the dry ground.'
4
'O sister, O sister, that may not bee,
Till salt and oatmeale grow both of a tree.'
5
Somtymes she sanke, somtymes she swam,
Until she came unto the mill-dam.