The ballads which exhibit this pleasant conception that, after death, the spirits of unfortunate lovers pass into plants, trees, or flowers springing from their graves, are not confined to European folklore. Besides appearing in English, Gaelic, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, French, Roumanian, Romaic, Portuguese, Servian, Wendish, Breton, Italian, Albanian, Russian, etc., we find it occurring in Afghanistan and Persia. As a rule, the branches of the trees intertwine; but in some cases they only bend towards each other, and kiss when the wind blows. In an Armenian tale a curious addition is made. A young man, separated by her father from his sweetheart because he was of a different religion, perished with her, and the two were buried by their friends in one grave. Roses grew from the grave, and sought to intertwine, but a _thorn-bush_ sprang up between them and prevented it. The thorn here is symbolical of religious belief. +Pin.+ ‘thrilled upon a pin,’ _Glasgerion_, 10.2. ‘knocked at the ring,’ _Fair Margaret and Sweet William_, 11.2. (_Cp._ ‘lifted up the pin,’ _Fair Janet_, 14.2.) Throughout the Scottish ballads the expression is ‘tirl’d at the pin,’ _i.e._ rattled or twisted the pin. The pin appears to have been the external part of the door-latch, attached by day thereto by means of a leathern thong, which at night was disconnected with the latch to prevent any unbidden guest from entering. Thus any one ‘tirling at the pin’ does not attempt to open the door, but signifies his presence to those within. The ring was merely part of an ordinary knocker, and had nothing to do with the latching of the door. +Sword.+ ‘bright brown sword,’ _Glasgerion_, 22.1; _Old Robin of Portingale_, 22.1; _Child Maurice_, 26.1, 27.1; ‘good browne sword,’ _Marriage of Sir Gawaine_, 24.3; etc. ‘dried it on his sleeve,’ _Glasgerion_, 22.2; _Child Maurice_, 27.2 (‘on the grasse,’ 26.2); ‘straiked it o’er a strae,’ _Bonny Birdy_, 15.2; ‘struck it across the plain,’ _Johney Scot_, 32.2; etc. In Anglo-Saxon, the epithet ‘brún’ as applied to a sword has been held to signify either that the sword was of bronze, or that the sword gleamed. It has further been suggested that sword-blades may have been artificially bronzed, like modern gun-barrels. ‘Striped it thro’ the straw’ and many similar expressions all refer to the whetting of a sword, generally just before using it. Straw (unless ‘strae’ and ‘straw’ mean something else) would appear to be very poor stuff on which to sharpen swords, but Glasgerion’s sleeve would be even less effective; perhaps, however, ‘dried’ should be ‘tried.’ Johney Scot sharpened his sword on the ground. +Miscellaneous.+ ‘gare’ = gore, part of a woman’s dress; _Brown Robin_, 10.4; cp. _Glasgerion_, 19.4. Generally of a knife, apparently on a chatelaine. But in _Lamkin_ 12.2, of a man’s dress.