59 
TRANSLATION 
1 “O Gossip dear, please, teach me how, 
O please, teach me how, 
Please, teach me how to brew a drink, 
0 please teach me how to brew a deadly drink,” 
2 “A deadly drink you must distil, 
Your husband to kill, 
Who tortures you with jealousy. 
And yonder you must climb upon the steepest hill. 
3 There you will find an evil snake. 
Now cut off its head. 
Between two gold and silver plates 
You must crush the snake until it is quite dead. 
4 And in a pint of white sweet wine 
You must place it first, 
And when your husband home returns, 
Home from the woods, then very great will be his thirst. 
5 And he will say, ‘Sweet Isabel, 
Some cold water, please!’ 
Then you will say, ‘Not water cold, 
Dear husband, let this sweet wine your thirst appease’.” 
6 And while she poured for him the wine, 
O so black it turned, 
The babe that in the cradle lay 
He spoke up suddenly and his dear father warned. 
7 “O father, father, do not drink! 
It will make you die.” 
“Sweet Isabel, you drink this first.” 
“No, no,” she said, “dear husband, no! No thirst have I.” 
8 “If death should come, my pretty sweet. 
You will drink this first.” 
“My neighbour who has taught me this, 
O now I pray that she may be forever cursed!” 
97380—5 
