fair Nightingale, thou little woodbird, thou shalt be my messenger.'

It is she who warns the girl against false love, or is the silent
witness of caresses.

There were a great many wishing songs: 'Were I a little bird and had
two wings, I would fly to thee,' or 'Were I a wild falcon, I would
take flight and fly down before a rich citizen's house--a little maid
is there,' etc. 'And were my love a brooklet cold, and sprang out of
a stone, little should I grieve if I were but a green wood; green is
the wood, the brooklet is cold, my love is shapely.' The betrayed
maiden cries: 'Would God I were a white swan! I would fly away over
mountain and deep valley o'er the wide sea, so that my father and
mother should not know where I was.'

Flowers were used symbolically in many ways; roses are always the
flowers of love. 'Pretty girls should be kissed, roses should be
gathered,' was a common saying; and 'Gather roses by night, for then
all the leaves are covered with cooling dew.' 'The roses are ready to
be gathered, so gather them to-day. He who does not gather in summer,
will not gather in winter.' There is tenderness in this: 'I only know
a little blue flower, the colour of the sky; it grows in the green
meadow, 'tis called forget-me-not.'

These are sadder:

There is a lime tree in this valley,
O God! what does it there?
It will help me to grieve
That I have no lover.