Up then spake the pretty parrot: "May Colvin, where have you been? What has become of false Sir John, 55 That wooed you so late yestreen?" Up then spake the pretty parrot, In the bonnie cage where it lay: "O what hae ye done with the false Sir John, That he behind you does stay? 60 "He wooed you butt, he wooed you ben, He wooed you into the ha', Until he got your own consent For to mount and gang awa'." "O hold your tongue, my pretty parrot, 65 Lay not the blame upon me; Your cage will be made of the beaten gold, And the spakes of ivorie." Up then spake the king himself, In the chamber where he lay: 70 "O what ails the pretty parrot, That prattles so long ere day?" "It was a cat cam to my cage door; I thought 't would have worried me; And I was calling on fair May Colvin 75 To take the cat from me." BABYLON, OR, THE BONNIE BANKS O' FORDIE. "This ballad is given from two copies obtained from recitation, which differ but little from each other. Indeed, the only variation is in the verse where the outlawed brother unweetingly slays his sister. One reading is,-- 'He's taken out his wee penknife, _Hey how bonnie_; And he's twined her o' her ain sweet life, _On the bonnie banks o' Fordie_.' The other reading is that adopted in the text. This ballad is popular in the southern parishes of Perthshire: but where the scene is laid the editor has been unable to ascertain. Nor has any research of his enabled him to throw farther light on the history of its hero with the fantastic name, than what the ballad itself supplies." Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, p. 88. Another version is subjoined, from Kinloch's collection. This ballad is found in Danish; _Herr Truels's Doettre_, _Danske Viser_, No. 164. In a note the editor endeavors to show that the story is based on fact! There were three ladies lived in a bower, _Eh vow bonnie_, And they went out to pull a flower, _On the bonnie banks o' Fordie_. They hadna pu'ed a flower but ane, 5 _Eh vow bonnie_, When up started to them a banisht man, _On the bonnie banks o' Fordie_. He's ta'en the first sister by her hand, _Eh vow bonnie_, 10 And he's turned her round and made her stand, _On the bonnie banks o' Fordie_. "It's whether will ye be a rank robber's wife, _Eh vow bonnie_, Or will ye die by my wee penknife," 15 _On the bonnie banks o' Fordie_?