(The 'swiffling' described in Mr. Sharp's earliest noted version suggests that Polly swan was either swimming or bathing in a pool in the dusk when shot, before her white apron was offered as an explanation of the blunder.)
Agree?
She later adds:
The 'fountain of snow' which takes the place of the swan-apparition in court in one of the Appalachian versions of "The Shooting of his Dear" is more likely to be a late corruption of "the form of a swan," or possibly a "fawn white as snow" than any wraith of snow or white mist.-A. G. G.