Page:Guy Mannering Vol 1.djvu/74

64 was very gloomy. Equipt in a habit which mingled the national dress of the Scottish common people with something of an eastern costume, she spun a thread, drawn from wool of three different colours, black, white, and grey, by assistance of those ancient implements of housewifery now almost banished from the land, the distaff and spindle. As she spun, she sung what seemed to be a charm. Mannering, after in vain attempting to make himself master of the exact words of her song, afterwards attempted the following paraphrase of what, from a few intelligible phrases, he concluded was its purport: Twist ye, twine ye! even so

Mingle shades of joy and woe,

Hope, and fear, and peace, and strife,

In the thread of human life.

While the mystic twist is spinning,

And the infant's life beginning,

Dimly seen through twilight bending

Lo, what varied shapes attending!