Ancient Scottish ballads, recovered from tradition, and never before ...

10
They were also believed to be the favourite haunts
of water-nymphs and spirits, who delighted in their
secluded beauty, and wantoned in their limpid streams.
The reader need scarcely be reminded, that this be-
lief, which is evidently derived from the heathen mythology,
is alluded to in the tales of the Bride of Lam-
mermoor, and the Monastery. In the latter of these
(vol. 1, p. 312), the naiad of the fountain is invoked
by the following charm:— " He cast the leathern
brogue or buskin from his right foot, planted himself in
a firm posture, unsheathed his sword, and first looking
around to collect his resolution, he bowed three times
deliberately towards the holly-tree, and as often to the
little fountain, repeating at the same time, with a de-
termined voice, the following rhyme:
" Thrice to the holly brake
Thrice to the well :
I bid thee awake,
White maid of Avenel
" Noon gleams on the Lake
— ! —
Noon glows on the Fell,
Wake thee, O wake,
White maid of Avenel."
But as the traitor she cam near,
His wounds they gushed out.—p. 8, v. 21.
The superstitious belief that blood would issue from
the wounds of a murdered person, at the approach, or
touch of the murderer, is of great antiquity", and is still