6
'O mither dear, when this ye had done,'
Alone by, etc.
'Ye unkirtled yersel, and ye wrapt us in 't.'
Down by the, etc.
7
'Neist ye houkit a hole fornent the seen.'
All alone and alone O
'And tearless ye stappit your little babes in'
Down by the, etc.
8
'But we are in the heavens high,'
And far frae the loch o the Loanie
'But ye hae the pains o hell to d[r]ie.'
Before ye leave the green-wood sidie
[226] a. C. Cunningham, as Mr Macmath has reminded me, has made this stanza a part of another ballad, in Cromek's Remains, p. 223.
[231]. Catalan. The Romancerillo Catalan, in the new edition, p. 10, No 12, 'Magdalena,' gives another version, with the variations of eight more copies, that of the Observaciones being now C.
[232]. Add: Italian. Ive, Canti popolari istriani, p. 366, No 14, 'S. Maria Maddalena.' Mary's father, dying, left her a castle of gold and silver, from which one day she saw Jesus pass. She wept a fountain of tears to wash his feet, and dried his feet with her tresses. Then she asked for a penance. She wished to go into a cave without door or windows, sleep on the bare ground, eat raw herbs, and drink a little salt water; and this she did. In 'La Maddalena,' Guerrini, Alcuni C. p. romagnoli, p. 7, there is no penance.
22. St Stephen and Herod.
P. [236] a. Spanish. Milá's new edition, Romancerillo Catalan, No 31, 'El romero acusado de robo,' pp 36-38, adds six copies, not differing in anything important. In C, the youth, un estudiant, n'era ros com un fil d'or, blanch com Santa Catarina.
I may note that Thomas Becket stands by his votaries when brought to the gallows as effectually as St James. See Robertson, Materials, etc., I, 369, 471, 515, 524.