FOLK SONGS
Through the darkness comes no light;
While my lover, far away,
Line or letter will not write.
* * *
Snowless hang the clouds to-night,
Through the darkness comes no light;
On this lonely pillow now,
Never more shall sleep alight.
* * *
Like a star whose brightness grows
On the earth my beauty shows;
Thou shalt long for yet, and seek
My dark eyes and arching brows.
* * *
I beheld a dream last night,
Saw these haystacks all alight;--
They have borne thy love away,--
Wilt not come and for her fight?
* * *
Soft winds move beneath the trees
And thy locks wave in the breeze.
Whilst thou roamest hill and field
Sleep my eyelids ever flees.
67:1 A great number of these little poems exist. They are traditional, and are used for fortune-telling. On the Eve of Ascension Day all those who wish to have their fortunes told place some little trinket into a bowl containing seven different kinds of flowers and water from seven springs. The bowl is left open to the stars until dawn, when the party assemble and select a child who cannot tell where the sun rises to take the trinkets out as the verses are repeated. The owner of the token takes the verse preceding its being brought out as his or her fortune.
