Each  in  his  cauld  hand  held  a  light,  —


NOTES.  211

By  which  heroic  Tain  was  able
To  note  upon  the  haly  table,
A  murderer's  banes  in  gibbit  aims :
Twa  span-lang,  wee,  unchristen'd  bairns;
A  thief,  new  cutted  frae  a  rape,
Wi'  his  last  gasp  his  gab  did  gape ;
Five  tomahawks  wi'  bluid  red-rusted ;
Five  scymitars,  wi'  murder  crusted  ;
A  garter,  which  a  babe  had  strangled  ;
A  knife,  a  father's  throat  had  mangled.
Whom  his  ain  son  o'  life  bereft,
The  gray  hairs  yet  stack  to  the  heft."

Hayward  is  incorrect  in  stating  that  Goethe's  poem  of
"  The  Dance  of  Death  "  clearly  preceded  "  Tarn  O'Shanter."
The  correspondence  with  Knebel  shows  that  the  former
poem  was  written  in  October,  1813.  Its  character,  more-
over, is  quite  distinct  and  original :  not  a  line  in  it  suggests
either  Burns  or  the  Walpurgis-Night.
141 .     Adani's  first  wife  is  she.
Burton,  in  his  "  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  says  :  "  The
Talmudists  say  that  Adam  had  a  wife  called  Lilis  before  he
married  Eve,  and  of  her  he  begat  nothing  but  devils.
