26.1: Motherwell gives _did stand_.
28.4: 'brain,' mad.
30.2: 'tree,' wood.
31.1: 'a' = ae, each.]

THE TWA SISTERS O' BINNORIE

+Texts.+--The version here given is compounded from two different
sources, almost of necessity. Stanzas 1-19 were given by Scott,
compounded from W. Tytler's Brown MS. and the recitation of an old
woman. But at stanza 20 Scott's version becomes eccentric, and he prints
such verses as:--

'A famous harper passing by
The sweet pale face he chanced to spy ...

The strings he framed of her yellow hair,
Whose notes made sad the listening air.'

Stanzas 20-25, therefore, have been supplied from the Jamieson-Brown
MS., which after this point does not descend from the high level of
ballad-poetry.

+The Story.+--This is a very old and a very popular story. An early
broadside exists, dated 1656, and the same version is printed in _Wit
Restor'd_, 1658. Of Scandinavian ballads on the same subject, nine are
Danish, two Icelandic, twelve Norwegian, four Faeroee, and eight or nine
Swedish.

THE TWA SISTERS O' BINNORIE

1.
There were twa sisters sat in a bour,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
There came a knight to be their wooer,
_By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie._

2.
He courted the eldest wi' glove and ring,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
But he lo'ed the youngest aboon a' thing,
_By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie._

3.
He courted the eldest with broach and knife,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
But he lo'ed the youngest aboon his life,
_By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie._

4.
The eldest she was vexed sair,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
And sair envied her sister fair,
_By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie._

5.
The eldest said to the youngest ane,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
'Will ye go and see our father's ships come in?'
_By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie._

6.
She's ta'en her by the lilly hand,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
And led her down to the river-strand,
_By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie._

7.
The youngest stude upon a stane,
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
The eldest came and pushed her in,
_By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie._

8.
She took her by the middle sma',
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
And dashed her bonnie back to the jaw,
_By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie/_

9.
'O sister, sister, reach your hand!'
_Binnorie, O Binnorie!_
'And ye shall be heir