Girl:
Then I shall go as an autumn hare,
With sorrow and sighing and mickle care;
And I shall go in our Lady's name
Until I come to my home again.

Chorus:
But we shall follow as swift greyhounds
And dog thy tracks by leaps and bounds;
But we shall go in our master's name
Until we fetch thee home again.

Fig. 49a: Greyhound and Hare, the Book of Kells

Girl:
Then I shall go as a winter trout,
With sorrow and sighing and mickle doubt;
And I shall go in our Lady's name
Until I come to my home again.

Chorus:
But we shall follow as otters swift
And snare thee fast ere thou canst shift;
But we shall go in our master's name
Until we fetch thee home again.

Later, I asked the children about the game, but they could tell me little or nothing except that they had learned it from a girl who lived in the New Forest. The structure of the stanzas reminded me of "The Twa Magicians".