Her hands for dule she wrang--
"O Johnie! for my benison,
"To the grenewood dinna gang!

"Eneugh ye hae o' the gude wheat bread,
"And eneugh o' the blude-red wine;
"And, therefore, for nae venison, Johnie,
"I pray ye, stir frae hame."

But Johnie's busk't up his gude bend bow,
His arrows, ane by ane;
And he has gane to Durrisdeer
To hunt the dun deer down.

As he came down by Merriemass,
And in by the benty line,
There has he espied a deer lying
Aneath a bush of ling.[A]

Johnie he shot, and the dun deer lap,
And he wounded her on the side;
But, atween the water and the brae,
His hounds they laid her pride.

And Johnie has bryttled[B] the deer sae weel,
That he's had out her liver and lungs;
And wi' these he has feasted his bludy hounds,
As if they had been erl's sons.

They eat sae much o' the venison,