The version of this song that Linn and I do was gotten from the Watersons, with a variant penultimate line from Dave Diamond.

But the "offending" third verse is not, nor ever was, racist, except in the ear of some listeners. It is a long and widely held folk belief that the Devil is black, not a dark shade of brown, but "...black as the coal." Also, "Many braw thanks to the muckle black de'il..." and "a long tailed black man come up behind."

Not that there's anything really wrong with some slight alteration, but a footnote before singing does treat the song better - Tom