NOTES. 351 14 2, 15 2. She swears by corn and by moon ; in another version by 'grass sae greene and by the corn ' ; again (K, 26) by the thorn. Glasgerion's oath (see above, p. 342) was * by oak and ash and thorn,* — a * full-great * oath, with distinctly heathen elements. 16 3. duckers = divers. 17 1. the tae = the one. 18 3, 4. From K. — For a bird revealing secrets, cf. the parrot in Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight (Child, I, 22 ff.), C, 13 ff. (p. 57); D, 22 ; E, 14 ff., where a cage is promised ; and especially The Bonnie Birdy (Child, III, 260 f.), a Scottish pendant to the English Little Musgrave. Here the bird tells the knight of his wife's sin because the latter has treated the bird ill. Birds carry messages ; cf. Johnie Cocky 20, and Gay Goshawk^ with Professor Child's note, IV, 356 f. 20 3, 4. Scott thinks these are * unquestionably * the corpse-lights
- which are sometimes seen to illuminate the spot where a dead body
is concealed ' ; but Professor Child urges that the meaning * is as likely to be that a candle, floated on the water, would bum brighter when it came to the spot where the body lay.' 23 6. Note the dative with substantive force. 25 6. hokey-gren. In Scott's version, hollin green = green holly. FAIR JANET. Printed in Sharpe's Ballad Book ; Child, Ballads, III, 100 ff. 4 4. AV'.f= he shall. 5 4. y^= sweetheart. 18 4. the morn = the morrow. 19. Cf. Mary Hamilton , 6. 20 3. White steeds have sacred associations (Tacitus, Germania, c. 10), are reserved for royalty, and are the best of three colors in times of need: see Lady Maisry, B (Child, III, 116), and Fair Mary of Livingston, 20-22. Tam Lin, too, rides not the black, nor the brown, but — he is a favorite of the queen — a milk-white steed : 27, 28. * Saddle white Surrey for the field to-morrow,' commands the king, Richard III, v, 3. * Dem Pabst ist gesetzt,' ran an old regulation, * dass er reyte auf einem blancken Pferde.^ For a deeper glimpse, see Hehn. Kulturpflanzen u. Haustiere, pp. 44 f., 478. 24. In came, etc. Digitized by LjOOQIC
