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

NOTE
JOHNIE OF COCKLESMUIR.
Johnie lookit east, and Johnie lookit west,
And a little below the sun p. 39 v. 6.
In those stanzas of this ballad published in the " Min-
strelsy, Ancient and Modern," the last line runs thus :
And its lang before the sun, sun.
But the Editor is inclined to hold the former as the
true reading ;
it being a well known practice, especially
among huntsmen, in order to discover an object in the
twilight, to bend downwards, and look low between
the dark ground and the faint glimmering light from
the heavens,—which is termed looking below the shy.
In the Highlands, where the mountain roads are dan-
gerous, and almost impassable in winter, long black
poles, with white tops, are placed at intervals along
the path, to guide the traveller ; and these are only
discernible in the dark, by " looking below the sky" at
every shorj distance.