Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/215

Rh Thy daddie now is far awa',

A sailor laddie o'er the sea;

But Hope aye hechts his safe return

To you, my bonnie lamb, an' me.

Baloo, baloo, my wee wee thing,

O saftly close thy blinkin' e'e!

Baloo, baloo, my wee wee thing,

For thou art doubly dear to me.

Thy face is simple, sweet, an' mild.

Like ony simmer e'ening fa';

Thy sparkling e'e is bonnie black;

Thy neck is like the mountain snaw.

Baloo, baloo, my wee wee thing,

O saftly close thy blinkin' e'e!

Baloo, baloo, my wee wee thing,

For thou art doubly dear to me.

O but thy daddie's absence lang.

Might break my dowie heart in twa,

Wert thou na left a dawtit pledge,

To steal the eerie hours awa'.

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mony lang year I ha'e heard frae my grannie,

Of brownies an' bogles by yon castle wa',

Of auld wither'd hags, that were never thought cannie.

An' fairies that danced till they heard the cock craw.

I leugh at her tales; an' last owk, i' the gloamin',

I dander'd, alane, down the Hazlewood green:

Alas! I was reckless, an' rue sair my roaming,

For I met a young witch wi' twa bonnie black een.

I thought o' the starns in a frosty night glancing,

Whan a' the lift round them is cloudless and blue;

I look'd again, an' my heart fell a dancing,

Whan I wad ha'e spoken, she glamour'd my mou'.

O wae to her cantraips! for dumpish'd I wander;

At kirk or at market there's nought to be seen;

For she dances afore me wherever I dander,

The Hazlewood Witch wi' the bonnie black een.

[ is given in the last volume of Johnson's Museum, adapted to an air by Allan Masterton, as a production of Robert Burns. It was, however, in reality written by, and the following particulars regarding it are given by Mr. Starke, the intimate friend of Gall, in his sketch of the life of that young song-writer, printed in the Biographica Scotica, at Edinburgh, in 1805.—"One of Mr. Gall's songs, in particuiar, the original manuscript of which I have by me, has acquired a high degree of praise, from its having been printed among the works of Burns, and generally thought the production of that poet. The reverse, indeed, was only known to a few of Mr. Gall's friends, to whom he communicated the verses before they were published. The fame of Burns stands in no need of the aid of others to support it; and to render back the song in question to its true author, is but an act of distributive justice due alike to both these departed poets, whose ears are now equally insensible to the incense of flattery or the slanders of malevolence. At the time when the Scots Musical Museum was pubhshed at Edinburgh by Mr. Johnson, several of Burns's songs made their appearance in that publication. Mr. Gall wrote the following song, entitled, 'A Farewell to Ayrshire,' pretixed Burns's name to it, and sent it anonymously to the publisher of that work. From thence it has been copied into the later editions of the works of Burns. In publishing the song in this manner, Mr. Gall probably thought that it might, under the sanction of a name known to the world, acquire some notice; while, in other circumstances, its fate might have been 'to waste its sweetness in the desert air.]

of woe and scenes of pleasure,

Scenes that former thoughts renew,

Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure,

Now a sad and tast adieu!

Bonnie Doon, sae sweet at gloamin',

Fare thee weel before I gang!

Bonnie Doon, whare, early roaming,

First I weaved the rustic sang!

Bowers, adieu! whare love decoying,

First enthrall'd this heart o' mine;

There the saftest sweets enjoying,

Sweets that memory ne'er shall tine.