Page:Wife of Beith (10).pdf/5

5 Where smoke and darkness did abound,

And pitch and sulphur burned still,

With yells and cries hills did rebound,

The fiend himself came to the gate,

And asked him where he had been?

Do ye not know and have forgot,

Seeking his wife could not be seen.

Good dame, he said, would you be here,

I pray you then tell me your name?

The wife of Beith, since that you speer,

But to come in I were to blame.

I will not have you here good dame,

For you were mistress of the flyting,

If once within this gate you come,

I will be troubled with your bitings

Cummer, go back, and let me be,

Here are too many of your rout,

For women lewd like unto thee,

I cannot turn my foot about.

Sir, thief, I say I shall bide out,

But gossip thou wast ne'er to me;

For to come in, I’m not so stout.

And of my biting thou’st be free:

But, Lucifer, what’s that on thee,

Hast thou no water in this place?

Thou look’st so black, it seems to me

Thou ne’er dost wash thy ugly face.

If we had water for to drink,