Francis James Child

“ In the bed-chamber where he lay:
"What ails the pretty parrot,
That prattles so long or day?"
"There came a cat to my cage door,
It almost a worried me,
And I was calling on May Colven
To take the cat from me."
D: May Collin/False Sir John
O HEARD ye of a bloody knight,
Lived in the south country?
For he has betrayed eight ladies fair
And drowned them in the sea.
Then next he went to May Collin,
She was her father's heir,
The greatest beauty in the land,
I solemnly declare.
"I am a knight of wealth and might,
Of townlands twenty-three ”

“ We are come to the place where ye are to die.
"Hae mercy, hae mercy, kind sir, on me,
Till ance my dear father and mother I see."
"Seven king's-daughters here hae I slain,
And ye shall be the eight o them."
"O sit down a while, lay your head on my knee,
That we may hae some rest before that I die."
She stroakd him sae fast, the nearer he did creep,
Wi a sma charm she lulld him fast asleep.
Wi his ain sword-belt sae fast as she ban him,
Wi his ain dag-durk sae sair as she dang him.
"If seven king's-daughters here ye hae slain,
Lye ye here, a husband to them a'." ”