Chapter XXXVII: Part 37

| 44
| 'Is this the way, Young Bichen,' she says,
| 'Is this the way you've guided me?
| I relieved you from prison strong,
| And ill have you rewarded me.

| 45
| 'O mind ye, Young Bichen,' she says,
| 'The vows and oaths that ye made to me,
| When ye lay bound in prison strong,
| In a deep dungeon of misery?'

| 46
| He took her by the milk-white hand,
| And led her into the palace fine;
| There was not a lady in all the palace
| But Susan Py did all outshine.

| 47
| The day concluded with joy and mirth,
| On every side there might you see;
| There was great joy in all England
| For the wedding-day of Susan Py.

* * * * *

#B.#

17^1. bids me.

22^{5, 6}. _Connected with 23 in MS._

22^6. send he.

#C. a.#

15^2. How y you.

#b.#

3^3. _omits_ house.

4^2. _omits_ foot.

7^1. _omits_ dear.

7^3. For she's ... of the prison.

7^4. And gane the dungeon within.

8^1. And when.

8^2. Wow but her heart was sair.

9^1. She's gotten.

11^1. thir twa.

13^2. I kenna.

13^4. kensnae.

14^1. fell out.

15^2. How y you.

16^1. till.

16^2. As fast as ye can gang.

16^3. tak three.

16^4. To haud ye unthocht lang.

18^1. Syne ye.

18^3. And bonny.

19^3. And I will.

20^2. As fast as she could gang.

20^3. she's taen.

20^4. To haud her unthocht lang.

22^3. And sae bonny did.

22^4. till.

24^3. And her mind misgae by.

24^4. That 't was.

25^2. markis three.

25^4. Bid your master.

27^4. did never.

29^1. and spak.

29^3. be fine.

29^4. as fine.

32^3. out of.

34^3. at the first.

35^2. gang.

36^4. Send her back a maid.

#D.#

_Written throughout without division into stanzas._

7. _A like repetition occurs again in the Skene MSS: see
No 36, p. 316._

10^{1, 2}. _One line in the MS. The metre, in several
places where it is incomplete, was doubtless made full by
repetition: see 19^{1, 3}._

14^1. _This line thus: (~an a Leash of guid gray hounds~).
The reciter evidently could remember only this point in
the stanza._

16, 17.
Whan she cam to Young Beachens gate
Is Young Beachen at hame
Or is he in this countrie
He is at hame is hearly (?) said
Him an sigh an says her Susie Pay
Has he quite forgotten me

19^{1, 3}. _Probably sung_, the stair, the stair; win up,
win up.

22^{3, 4}. _The latter half of the stanza must be supposed
to be addressed to ~Young Beachen~._

26^{1, 2}. He took her down to yon gouden green.

27^4. Sh's.

29^2. my name.

_After 29 a stanza belonging apparently to some other
ballad:_

Courtess kind, an generous mind,
An winna ye answer me?
An whan the hard their lady's word,
Well answered was she.

#E.#

_6^{4-6} was introduced, with other metrical passages,
into a long tale of '~Young Beichan and Susy Pye~,' which
Motherwell had heard related, and of which he gives a
specimen at p. xv. of his Introduction_: "Well, ye must
know that in the Moor's castle there was a massymore,
which is a dark dungeon for keeping prisoners. It was
twenty feet below the ground, and into this hole they
closed poor Beichan. There he stood, night and day, up to
his waist in puddle water; but night or day it was all one
to him, for no ae styme of light ever got in. So he lay
there a lang and weary while, and thinking on his heavy
weird, he made a murnfu sang to pass the time, and this
was the sang that he made, and grat when he sang it, for
he never thought of ever escaping from the massymore, or
of seeing his ain country again:

'My hounds they all run masterless,
My hawks they flee from tree to tree;
My youngest brother will heir my lands,
And fair England again I'll never see.

'Oh were I free as I hae been,
And my ship swimming once more on sea,
I'd turn my face to fair England,
And sail no more to a strange countrie.'

"Now the cruel Moor had a beautiful daughter, called Susy
Pye, who was accustomed to take a walk every morning in
her garden, and as she was walking ae day she heard the
sough o Beichan's sang, coming as it were from below the
ground," etc., etc.

#F.#

3^3. dungeon (donjon).

6^1. only lands.

6^2. only castles.

8^1. Oh.

10^3. ha she has gane in: _originally_ has she gane in.

13^2. _~Many~, with ~Seven~ written over: ~Seven~ in
14^2._

20. _After this stanza_: Then the porter gaed up the stair
and said.

25. _After this stanza_: Then Lord Beichan gat up, and was
in a great wrath, and said.

31. _~ae~: indistinct, but seems to have been ~one~
changed to ~ae~ or #a#._

#H.#

4^3. _~carts and wains~ for ~carts o wine~ of #A# 2^3, #B#
2^3. We have ~wine~ in #H# 4^3, #I# 3^3, and ~wine~ is in
all likelihood original._

_Christie, #I#, 31, abridges this version, making "~a few
slight alterations from the way he had heard it sung~:"
these, and one or two more._

2^4. wadna bend nor bow.

7^1. The Moor he had.

25^1. But Beichan courted.

#I.#

1^1. _~Bechin~ was pronounced ~Beekin~._

#K.#

1. _Before this, as gloss, or remnant of a preceding
stanza_: She came to a shepherd, and he replied.

2. _After this, in explanation_: She gave Lord Bechin a
slice of bread and a bottle of wine when she released him
from prison, hence the following.

3^1. to him.

4. _After this_: He had married another lady, not having
heard from his Sophia for seven long years.

#L.#

"This affecting legend is given ... precisely as I have
frequently heard it sung on Saturday nights, outside a
house of general refreshment (familiarly termed a
wine-vaults) at Battle-bridge. The singer is a young
gentleman who can scarcely have numbered nineteen
summers.... I have taken down the words from his own mouth
at different periods, and have been careful to preserve
his pronunciation." [_Attributed to Charles Dickens._] _As
there is no reason for indicating pronunciation here, in
this more than in other cases, the phonetic spelling is
replaced by common orthography. Forms of speech have,
however, been preserved, excepting two, with regard to
which I may have been too nice._

1^3. his-self.

5^2, 9^2. guv.

#M.#

10^3. _~in~ for ~wi~ (?): ~wi~ in 5^3._

12^2, 46^2. bend. _Possibly, however, understood to be
~bend==leather~, instead of ~ben==bane, bone~._

13^4, 47^4. on thought.

#N. a.#

Susan Py, or Young Bichens Garland. Shewing how he went to
a far country, and was taken by a savage Moor and cast
into prison, and delivered by the Moor's daughter, on
promise of marriage; and how he came to England, and was
going to be wedded to another bride; with the happy
arrival of Susan Py on the wedding day. Falkirk, Printed
by T. Johnston, 1815.

#b.#

3^4. his own.

4^2. A week, a week, but only.

7^3. own land.

7^4. And foreign lands no more.

11^1. young man.

13^2. he lay.

24^3. her trunks.

25^4. was the.

28^2. that stood hard by.

28^4. thou shalt.

29^2. She knocked.

31^4. waiting-maid.

32^2. For this is his.

34^1. up the stairs.

34^3. will you.

36^4. Ye might.

37^2. Sae loud as I hear ye lie.

39^4. And a sight of him you cannot see.

40^4. To bring.

42^3. I'll lay.

44^2. way that you've used me.

47^4. wedding of.

[403] Mr Macmath has ascertained that Mrs Brown was born in 1747. She learned most of her ballads before she was twelve years old, or before 1759. 1783, or a little earlier, is the date when these copies were taken down from her singing or recitation.

[404] The Borderer's Table Book, VII, 21. Dixon says, a little before, that the Stirling broadside of 'Lord Bateman' varies but slightly from the English printed by Hoggett, Durham, and Pitts, Catnach, and others, London. This is not true of the Stirling broadside of 'Young Bichen:' see #N b#. I did not notice, until too late, that I had not furnished myself with the broadside 'Lord Bateman,' and have been obliged to turn back the Cruikshank copy into ordinary orthography.

[405] We have this repetition in two other ballads of the Skene MSS besides #D#; see p. 316 of this volume, sts 1-9; also in 'The Lord of Learne,' Percy MS., Hales and Furnivall, I, 192 f, vv 269-304.

[406] "An old woman who died in Errol, Carse of Gowrie, about twenty years ago, aged nearly ninety years, was wont invariably to sing this ballad: 'Young Lundie was in Brechin born.' Lundie is an estate now belonging to the Earl of Camperdoun, north from Dundee." A. Laing, note to #G#. That is to say, the old woman's world was Forfarshire.

Mr Logan had heard in Scotland a version in which the hero was called Lord Bangol: A Pedlar's Pack, p. 15.

[407] Cf. 'The Fair Flower of Northumberland,' #B# 2, #E# 2, pp 115 f.

[408] She does not get away without exciting the solicitude or wrath of her father, #F#, #M#, #J#, #N#, and in the first two has to use artifice.

[409] A point borrowed, it well may be, from 'Hind Horn,' #E# 5 f, #A# 10.

[410] So Torello's wife upsets the table, in Boccaccio's story: see p. 198. One of her Slavic kinswomen jumps over four tables and lights on a fifth.

[411] In #C# 34, #M# 49, she is recognized by one of the hounds which she had given him. So Bos, seigneur de Bénac, who breaks a ring with his wife, goes to the East, and is prisoner among the Saracens seven years, on coming back is recognized only by his greyhound: Magasin Pittoresque, VI, 56 b. It is scarcely necessary to scent the Odyssey here.

[412] Ridiculously changed in #J# 6, #K# 6, #L# 20, to a coach _and_ three, reminding us of that master-stroke in Thackeray's ballad of 'Little Billee,' "a captain of a seventy-three." 'Little Billee,' by the way, is really like an old ballad, fallen on evil days and evil tongues; whereas the serious imitations of traditional ballads are not the least like, and yet, in their way, are often not less ludicrous.

[413] In #M#, to make everything pleasant, Bondwell offers the bride five hundred pounds to marry his cousin John. She says, Keep your money; John was my first love. So Bondwell is married at early morn, and John in the afternoon.

[414] Harleian MS. 2277, from which the life of Beket, in long couplets, was printed by Mr W. H. Black for the Percy Society, in 1845. The story of Gilbert Beket is contained in the first 150 vv. The style of this composition entirely resembles that of Robert of Gloucester, and portions of the life of Beket are identical with the Chronicle; whence Mr Black plausibly argues that both are by the same hand. The account of Beket's parentage is interpolated into Edward Grim's Life, in Cotton MS. Vitellius, C, XII, from which it is printed by Robertson, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, II, 453 ff. It is found in Bromton's Chronicle, Twysden, Scriptores X, columns 1052-55, and in the First Quadrilogus, Paris, 1495, from which it is reprinted by Migne, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, CXC, cols 346 ff. The tale has been accepted by many writers who would have been better historians for a little reading of romances. Angustin Thierry sees in Thomas Beket a Saxon contending in high place, for the interests and with the natural hatred of his race, against Norman Henry, just as he finds in the yeoman Robin Hood a leader of Saxon serfs engaged in irregular war with Norman Richard. But both of St Thomas's parents were Norman; the father of Rouen, the mother of Caen. The legend was introduced by Lawrence Wade, following John of Exeter, into a metrical life of Beket of about the year 1500: see the poem in Englische Studien, III, 417, edited by Horstmann.

[415] Richard, the proud porter of the ballads, is perhaps most like himself in #M# 32 ff.

[416] Neither her old name nor her Christian name is told us in this legend. Gilbert Beket's wife was Matilda, according to most authorities, but Roësa according to one: see Robertson, as above, IV, 81; Migne, cols 278 f. Fox has made Roësa into Rose, Acts and Monuments, I, 267, ed. 1641.

Gilbert and Rose (but Roësa is not Rose) recall to Hippeau, Vie de St Thomas par Garnier de Pont Sainte Maxence, p. xxiii, Elie de Saint Gille and Rosamonde, whose adventures have thus much resemblance with those of Beket and of Bekie. Elie de Saint Gille, after performing astounding feats of valor in fight with a horde of Saracens who have made a descent on Brittany, is carried off to their land. The amiral Macabré requires Elie to adore Mahomet; Elie refuses in the most insolent terms, and is condemned to the gallows. He effects his escape, and finds himself before Macabré's castle. Here, in another fight, he is desperately wounded, but is restored by the skill of Rosamonde, the amiral's daughter, who is Christian at heart, and loves the Frank. To save her from being forced to marry the king of Bagdad, Elie fights as her champion. In the end she is baptized, as a preparation for her union with Elie, but he, having been present at the ceremony, is adjudged by the archbishop to be gossip to her, and Elie and Rosamonde are otherwise disposed of. So the French romance, but in the Norse, which, as Kölbing maintains, is likely to preserve the original story here, there is no such splitting of cumin, and hero and heroine are united.

[417] There is one in the Gesta Romanorum, cap. 5, Österley, p. 278, of about the same age as the Beket legend. It is not particularly important. A young man is captured by a pirate, and his father will not send his ransom. The pirate's daughter often visits the captive, who appeals to her to exert herself for his liberation. She promises to effect his freedom if he will marry her. This he agrees to. She releases him from his chains without her father's knowledge, and flies with him to his native land.

[418] Nor Guarinos in the Spanish ballad, Duran, No 402, I, 265; Wolf and Hofmann, Primavera, II, 321. Guarinos is very cruelly treated, but it is his horse, not he, that has to draw carts. For the Sire de Créqui see also Dinaux, Trouvères, III, 161 ff (Köhler).

[419] And in 'Der Herr von Falkenstein,' a variety of the story, Meier, Deutsche Sagen aus Schwaben, p. 319, No 362. A Christian undergoes the same hardship in Schöppner, Sagenbuch, III, 127, No 1076. For other cases of the wonderful deliverance of captive knights, not previously mentioned by me, see Hocker, in Wolf's Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, I, 306.

[420] A meisterlied of Alexander von Metz, of the second half of the fifteenth century, Körner, Historische Volkslieder, p. 49; the ballad 'Der Graf von Rom,' or 'Der Graf im Pfluge,' Uhland, p. 784, No 299, printed as early as 1493; De Historie van Florentina, Huysvrouwe van Alexander van Mets, 1621, van den Bergh, De nederlandsche Volksromans, p. 52. And see Goedeke, Deutsche Dichtung im Mittelalter, pp 569, 574; Uhland, Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung, IV, 297-309; Danske Viser, V, 67.

[421] Øster-kongens rige, Østerige, Østerland, Austrríki, understood by Grundtvig as Garðaríki, the Scandinavian-Russian kingdom of the tenth and eleventh centuries. Austrríki is used vaguely, but especially of the east of Europe, Russia, Austria, sometimes including Turkey (Vigfusson).

[422] In Swedish #K#, as she pushes off from land, she exclaims:

'Gud Fader i Himmelens rike
Skall vara min styresman!'

Cf. #M# 28:

And she's tuen God her pilot to be.

[423] See 'The Red Bull of Norroway,' Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland, 1870, p. 99; 'Mestermø,' Asbjørnsen og Moe, No 46; 'Hass-Fru,' Cavallius och Stephens, No 14; Powell, Icelandic Legends, Second Series, p. 377; the Grimms, Nos 56, 113, 186, 193; Pentamerone, II, 7, III, 9; Gonzenbach, Nos 14, 54, 55, and Köhler's note; Hahn, Griechische u. Albanesische Märchen, No 54; Carleton, Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, 10th ed., I, 23; Campbell, West Highland Tales, I, 25, No 2, and Köhler's notes in Orient u. Occident, II, 103-114, etc., etc.

[424] This passage leads the editors of Primavera to remark, II, 52, that 'El Conde Sol' shows distinct traits of 'Le Chat Botté.' Similar questions are asked in English #G#, the other Spanish versions, and the Italian, and in nearly all the Greek ballads referred to on pp 199, 200; always under the same circumstances, and to bring about the discovery which gives the turn to the story. The questions in 'Le Chat Botté' are introduced for an entirely different purpose, and cannot rationally suggest a borrowing on either side. The hasty note would certainly have been erased by the very distinguished editors upon a moment's consideration.

[425] Puymaigre finds also some resemblance in his 'Petite Rosalie,' I, 74: see his note.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS

1. Riddles Wisely Expounded.

P. 1 b. #A.# Add: Mündel, Elsässische Volkslieder, p. 27, No 24. Second line from the bottom, for seven read ten.

2 a. Add: #H.# J. H. Schmitz, Sitten u. s. w. des Eifler Volkes, I, 159; five pairs of riddles and no conclusion. (Köhler.) #I.# Alfred Müller, Volkslieder aus dem Erzgebirge, p. 69; four pairs of riddles, and no conclusion. #J.# Lemke, Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen, p. 152; seven riddles guessed, "nun bin ich Deine Frau."

2 b. (The Russian riddle-ballad.) So a Kosak: "I give thee this riddle: if thou guess it, thou shalt be mine; if thou guess it not, ill shall it go with thee." The riddle, seven-fold, is guessed. Metlinskiy, Narodnyya yuzhnorusskiya Pyesni, pp 363 f. Cf. Snegiref, Russkie prostonarodnye Prazdniki, II, 101 f.

2 b, note. For Kaden substitute Casetti e Imbriani, C. p. delle Provincie meridionali, I, 197 f. (Köhler.)

2. The Elfin Knight.

#P.# 6 b. #J.# Read: Central New York; and again in #J#, p. 19 a. Add: #M.# Notes and Queries, 4th Series, III, 605.

7 a, note. Another ballad with a burden-stem is a version of 'Klosterrovet,' #C#, MSS of 1610, and later, communicated to me by Svend Grundtvig.

7 b. Add: #O.# 'Ehestandsaussichten' [Norrenberg], Des Dülkener Fiedlers Liederbuch, 1875, p. 88, No 99. (Köhler.)

8-12. Jagić, in Archiv für slavische Philologie, 'Aus dem südslavischen Märchenschatz,' V, 47-50, adds five Slavic stories of the wench whose ready wit helps her to a good marriage, and Köhler, in notes to Jagić, pp 50 ff, cites, in addition to nearly all those which I have mentioned, one Slavic, one German, five Italian, one French, one Irish, one Norwegian, besides very numerous tales in which there is a partial agreement. Wollner, in Leskien and Brugman's Litauische Volkslieder und Märchen, p. 573, cites Slavic parallels to No 34, of which the following, not previously noted, and no doubt others, are apposite to this ballad: Afanasief, VI, 177, No 42, a, b; Trudy, II, 611-614, No 84, 614-616, No 85; Dragomanof, p. 347, No 29; Sadok Baracz, p. 33; Kolberg, Lud, VIII, 206; Kulda, II, 68.

14 a, line 4. The Baba-Yaga, a malignant female spirit, has the ways of the Rusalka and the Vila, and so the Wendish Pšezpolnica, the 'Mittagsfrau,' and the Serpolnica: Afanasief, II, 333; Veckenstedt, Wendische Sagen, p. 107, No 14, p. 108 f, No 19, p. 109 f, No 4. The Red Etin puts questions, too, in the Scottish tale, Chambers, Popular Rhymes, 1870, p. 92. There is certainly no occasion to scruple about elf or elf-knight. Line 16 f. The same in Snegiref, IV. 8.

14 b. For the legend of St Andrew, etc., see, further, Gering, Íslendzk Æventyri, I, 95, No 24, 'Af biskupi ok puka,' and Köhler's references, II, 80 f. (Köhler.)

15 a. #A, B.# Dr Davidson informs me that the introductory stanza, or burden-stem, exists in the form:

Her plaidie awa, her plaidie awa,
The win blew the bonnie lassie's plaidie awa.

16 a. #C.# This version is in Kinloch MSS, VII, 163. _3 is wanting._

6.
Married ye sall never get nane
Till ye mak a shirt without a seam.

7.
And ye maun sew it seamless,
And ye maun do it wi needle, threedless.

10. _wanting._

12^1. I hae a bit o land to be corn.

_14 is wanting._

16. loof--glove.

17 _is wanting_.

3, 10, 14, 17, are evidently supplied from some form of #B#.

20.

M

Similar to #F-H#: Notes and Queries, 4th Series, III, 605,
communicated by W. F., Glasgow, from a manuscript
collection.

1
As I went up to the top o yon hill,
Every rose springs merry in' t' time
I met a fair maid, an her name it was Nell.
An she langed to be a true lover o mine

2
'Ye'll get to me a cambric sark,
An sew it all over without thread or needle.
Before that ye be, etc.

3
'Ye'll wash it doun in yonder well,
Where water neer ran an dew never fell.

4
'Ye'll bleach it doun by yonder green,
Where grass never grew an wind never blew.

5
'Ye'll dry it doun on yonder thorn,
That never bore blossom sin Adam was born.'

6
'Four questions ye have asked at me,
An as mony mair ye'll answer me.

7
'Ye'll get to me an acre o land
Atween the saut water an the sea sand.

8
'Ye'll plow it wi a ram's horn,
An sow it all over wi one peppercorn.

9
'Ye'll shear it wi a peacock's feather,
An bind it all up wi the sting o an adder.

10
'Ye'll stook it in yonder saut sea,
An bring the dry sheaves a' back to me.

11
'An when ye've done and finished your wark,
Ye'll come to me, an ye'se get your sark.'
An then shall ye be true lover o mine

3. The Fause Knight upon the Road.

#P.# 20 a. Add: #C.# 'The False Knight,' communicated by Mr Macmath, of Edinburgh.

For the fool getting the last word of the princess, see, further, Köhler, Germania, XIV, 271; Leskien u. Brugman, Litauische Volkslieder u. Märchen, p. 469, No 33, and Wollner's note, p. 573.

21, note. I must retract the doubly hasty remark that the Shetland belief that witches may be baffled by fliting with them is a modern misunderstanding.

Mr George Lyman Kittredge has called my attention to Apollonius of Tyana's encounter with an _empusa_ between the Caucasus and the Indus. Knowing what the spectre was, Apollonius began to revile it, and told his attendants to do the same, for that was the resource, in such cases, against an attack. The empusa went off with a shriek. Philostratus's Life of Apollonius, II, 4. Mr Kittredge referred me later to what is said by Col. Yule (who also cites Philostratus), Marco Polo, I, 183, that the wise, according to Mas'udi, revile ghúls, and the ghúls vanish. Mr Kittredge also cites Luther's experience: how, when he could not be rid of the Devil by the use of holy writ and serious words, "so hätte er ihn oft mit spitzigen Worten und lächerlichen Possen vertrieben; ... quia est superbus spiritus, et non potest ferre contemptum sui." Tischreden, in Auswahl, Berlin, 1877, pp 152-154.

Sprites of the more respectable orders will quit the company of men if scolded: Walter Mapes, De Nugis Curialium, ed. Wright, p. 81, Alpenburg, Deutsche Alpensagen, p. 312, No 330. So Thetis, according to Sophocles, left Peleus when he reviled her: Scholia in Apollonii Argonautica, IV, 816. (Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte, II, 60, 68.) 22.

C

Obtained by Mr Macmath from the recitation of his aunt,
Miss Jane Webster, formerly of Airds of Kells, Stewartry
of Kirkcudbright, Galloway, who learned it many years ago
from the wife of Peter McGuire, then cotman at Airds.

1
'O whare are ye gaun?'
Says the false knight upon the road:
'I am gaun to the schule,'
Says the wee boy, and still he stood.

2
'Wha's aught the sheep on yonder hill?'
'They are my papa's and mine.'

3
'How many of them's mine?'
'A' them that has blue tails.'

4
'I wish you were in yonder well:'
'And you were down in hell.'

4. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight.

#P.# 22 b. #D.# Add: #d.# 'The historical ballad of May Culzean,' an undated stall-copy.

26 b. Another Dutch version (Frisian), spirited, but with gaps, is given by Dykstra and van der Meulen, In Doaze fol alde Snypsnaren, Frjentsjer, 1882, p. 118, 'Jan Alberts,' 66 vv. (Köhler.)

#D.# Jan Alberts sings a song, and those that hear it know it not. It is heard by a king's daughter, who asks her mother's leave to go out for a walk, and is told that it is all one where she goes or stays, if she keeps her honor. Her father says the same, when she applies for his leave. She goes to her bedroom and dresses herself finely, dons a gold crown, puts her head out of the window, and cries, Now am I Jan Alberts' bride. Jan Alberts takes her on his horse; they ride fast and long, with nothing to eat or drink for three days. She then asks Jan why he gives her nothing, and he answers that he shall ride to the high tree where hang fourteen fair maids. Arrived there, he gives her the choice of tree, sword, or water. She chooses the sword, bids him spare his coat, for a pure maid's blood goes far, and before his coat is half off his head lies behind him. The head cries, Behind the bush is a pot of grease; smear my neck with it. She will not smear from a murderer's pot, nor blow in a murderer's horn. She mounts his horse, and rides far and long. Jan Alberts' mother comes to meet her, and asks after him. She says he is not far off, and is sporting with fourteen maids. Had you told me this before, I would have laid you in the water, says the mother. The maid rides on till she comes to her father's gate. Then she cries to her father to open, for his youngest daughter is without. The father not bestirring himself, she swims the moat, and, the door not being open, goes through the glass. The next day she dries her clothes.

30 a, 37 a. There is a Low German version of the first class, #A-F#, in Spee, Volksthümliches vom Niederrhein, Köln, 1875, Zweites Heft, p. 3, 'Schöndili,' 50 vv. (Köhler.)

#AA.# Schöndili's parents died when she was a child. Schön-Albert, knowing this, rides to her. She attires herself in silk, with a gold crown on her hair, and he swings her on to his horse. They ride three days and nights, with nothing to eat or drink. She asks whether it is not meal-time; he replies that they are coming to a linden, where they will eat and drink. Seven women are hanging on the tree. He gives her the wale of tree, river, and sword. She chooses the sword; would be loath to spot his coat; whips off his head before the coat is half off. The head says there is a pipe in the saddle; she thinks no good can come of playing a murderer's pipe. She meets first the father, then the mother; they think that must be Schön-Albert's horse. That may be, she says; I have not seen him since yesterday. She sets the pipe to her mouth, when she reaches her father's gate, and the murderers come like hares on the wind.

#BB.# Alfred Müller, Volkslieder aus dem Erzgebirge, p. 92, 'Schön Ulrich' [und Trautendelein], 36 vv. (Köhler.) Like #T#, without the song.

#CC.# A. Schlosser, Deutsche Volkslieder aus Steiermark, 1881, p. 338, No 309, 'Der Ritter und die Maid.' (Köhler: not yet seen by me.)

#DD.# Curt Mündel, Elsässische Volkslieder, p. 12, No 10, a fragment of fifteen verses. As Anna sits by the Rhine combing her hair, Heinrich comes along on his horse, sees her weep, and asks why. It is not for gold and not for goods, but because she is to die that day. Heinrich draws his sword, runs her through, and rides home. He is asked why his sword is red, and says he has killed two doves. They say the dove must be Anna.

32 b. #H#, line 10. Read: umbrunnen.

39 a, line 1. Read: contributed by Hoffmann.

39 a, third paragraph. Kozlowski, Lud, p. 54, No 15, furnishes a second and inferior but still important form of #A# (Masovian).

#A b.# Ligar (afterwards Jasia, Golo) bids Kasia take all she has. She has already done this, and is ready to range the world with him. Suddenly she asks, after they have been some time on their way, What is that yonder so green? Jasia replies, Our house, to which we are going. They go on further, and Kasia again inquires abruptly, What is that yonder so white? "That is my eight wives, and you shall be the ninth: you are to die, and will be the tenth." "Where is the gold, the maidens' gold?" "In the linden, Kasia, in the linden; plenty of it." "Let me not die so wretchedly; let me draw your sword for once." She drew the sword, and with one stroke Jasia's head was off.

39 b. To the Polish versions are further to be added: #NN#, Piosnki wieśniacze znad Dzwiny, p. 41, No 51; #OO#, Roger, p. 78, No 138; #PP#, Roger, p. 69, No 125; #QQ#, ib., p. 79, No 140; #RR#, p. 81, No 142; #SS#, p. 79, No 139. The last three are imperfect, and #QQ#, #RR#, have a beginning which belongs elsewhere. Jasia suggests to Kasia to get the key of the new room from her mother by pretending headache, and bids her take gold enough, #NN#, #OO#. They go off while her mother thinks that Kasia is sleeping, #NN#, #OO#, #QQ#. They come to a wood, #NN#, #PP# (which is corrupt here), #SS#; first or last, to a deep stream, #NN#, #OO#, #QQ#, #SS#; it is red sea in #RR#, as in #J#. Jasia bids Kasia return to her mother, #NN# (twice), #RR#; bids her take off her rich clothes, #OO#, to which she answers that she has not come here for that. John throws her into the water, #NN#, #OO#, #QQ#, #SS#, from a bridge in the second and third. Her apron catches on a stake or post; she begs John for help, and gets for answer, "I did not throw you in to help you: you may go to the bottom," #OO#. She swims to a stake, to which she clings, and John hews her in three, #QQ#. Fishermen draw out the body, and carry it to the church, #NN#, #OO#. She apostrophizes her hair in #QQ#, #SS#, as in #G#, #I#, #J#, and in the same absurd terms in #QQ# as in #J#. John is pursued and cut to pieces in #OO#, _also_ broken on the wheel. #PP# closely resembles German ballads of the third class. Katie shouts three times: at her first cry the grass curls up; at the second the river overflows; the third wakes her mother, who rouses her sons, saying, Katie is calling in the wood. They find John with a bloody sword; he says he has killed a dove. They answer, No dove, but our sister, and maltreat him till he tells what he has done with his victim: "I have hidden her under the yew-bush; now put me on the wheel."

39 b, line 13 of the middle paragraph. Read Piosnki for Piesni, and omit the quotation marks in this and the line before.

40 b, line 2 (the girl's adding her hair to lengthen the cord). In the tale of the Sea-horse, Schiefner, Awarische Texte, Memoirs of the St Petersburg Academy, vol. XIX, No 6, p. 11 f, a sixty-ell rope being required to rescue a prince from a well into which he had been thrown, and no rope forthcoming, the daughter of a sea-king makes a rope of the required length with her hair, and with this the prince is drawn out. Dr Reinhold Köhler, who pointed out this incident to me, refers in his notes to the texts, at p. vii f, to the song of Südäi Märgän, Radloff, II, 627-31, where Südäi Märgän's wife, having to rescue her husband from a pit, tries first his horse's tail, and finds it too short, then her hair, which proves also a little short. A maid is then found whose hair is a hundred fathoms long, and her hair being tied on to the horse's tail, and horse, wife, and maid pulling together, the hero is drawn out. For climbing up by a maid's hair, see, further, Köhler's note to Gonzenbach, No 53, II, 236.

40 b, line 7. A message is sent to a father by a daughter in the same way, in Chodzko, Les Chants historiques de l'Ukraine, p. 75; cf. p. 92, of the same. Tristram sends messages to Isonde by linden shavings inscribed with runes: Sir Tristrem, ed. Kölbing, p. 56, st. 187; Tristrams Saga, cap. 54, p. 68, ed. Kölbing; Gottfried von Strassburg, vv 14427-441.

40 b, line 36. For #G#, #I#, read #G#, #J#.

40, note [61]. In a Ruthenian ballad a girl who runs away from her mother with a lover tells her brothers, who have come in search of her, I did not leave home to go back again with you: Golovatsky, Part I, p. 77, No 32; Part III, I, p. 17, No 4, p. 18, No 5. So, "I have not poisoned you to help you," Part I, p. 206, No 32, p. 207, No 33.

41 a, second paragraph. Golovatsky, at I, 116, No 29, has a ballad, found elsewhere without the feature here to be noticed, in which a Cossack, who is watering his horse while a maid is drawing water, describes his home as a Wonderland, like John in Polish #Q#. "Come to the Ukraine with the Cossacks," he says. "Our land is not like this: with us the mountains are golden, the water is mead, the grass is silk; with us the willows bear pears and the girls go in gold." She yields; they go over one mountain and another, and when they have crossed the third the Cossack lets his horse graze. The maid falls to weeping, and asks the Cossack, Where are your golden mountains, where the water that is mead, the grass that is silk? He answers, No girl of sense and reason engages herself to a young Cossack. So in Zegota Pauli, P. l. ruskiego, p. 29, No 26==Golovatsky, I, 117, No 30, where the maid rejoins to the glowing description, I have ranged the world: golden mountains I never saw; everywhere mountains are of stone, and everywhere rivers are of water; very like the girl in Grundtvig, 82 #B#, st. 7; 183 #A# 6, #E# 5, 6.

41 b, last paragraph. Several Bohemian versions are to be added to the single example cited from Waldau's Böhmische Granaten. This version, which is presumed to have been taken down by Waldau himself, may be distinguished as #A#. #B#, Sušil, Moravské Národní Písně, No 189, p. 191, 'Vrah,' 'The Murderer,' is very like #A#. #C#, Sušil, p. 193. #D#, Erben, Prostonárodni české Písně a Říkadla, p. 480, No 16, 'Zabité děvče,' 'The Murdered Maid.' #E#, p. 479, No 15, 'Zabitá sestra,' 'The Murdered Sister.' #B# has a double set of names, beginning with Black George,--not the Servian, but "king of Hungary,"--and ending with Indriasch. The maid is once called Annie, otherwise Katie. At her first call the grass becomes green; at the second the mountain bows; the third the mother hears. #C# has marvels of its own. Anna entreats John to allow her to call to her mother. "Call, call," he says, "you will not reach her with your call; in this dark wood, even the birds will not hear you." At her first call a pine-tree in the forest breaks; at the second the river overflows; at the third her mother rises from the grave. She calls to her sons to go to Anna's rescue, and _they_ rise from their graves. The miscreant John confesses that he has buried their sister in the wood. They strike off his head, and put a bat on the head, with an inscription in gold letters, to inform people what his offence has been. There is a gap after the seventh stanza of #D#, which leaves the two following stanzas unintelligible by themselves: 8, Choose one of the two, and trust nobody; 9, She made her choice, and shouted three times towards the mountains. At the first cry the mountain became green; at the second the mountain bowed backwards; the third the mother heard. She sent her sons off; they found their neighbor John, who had cut off their sister's head. The law-abiding, and therefore modern, young men say that John shall go to prison and never come out alive. In #E# the man, a young hunter, says, Call _five_ times; not even a wood-bird will hear you. Nothing is said of the first call; the second is heard by the younger brother, who tells the elder that their sister must be in trouble. The hunter has a bloody rifle in his hand: how he is disposed of we are not told. All these ballads but #C# begin with the maid cutting grass, and all of them have the dove that is "no dove, but our sister."

Fragments of this ballad are found, #F#, in Sušil, p. 112, No 113, 'Nevěsta nešt' astnice,' 'The Unhappy Bride;' #G#, p. 171, No 171, 'Zbojce,' 'The Murderer;' and there is a variation from #B# at p. 192, note 3, which is worth remarking, #H#. #F#, sts 11-14: "Get together what belongs to you; we will go to a foreign land;" and when they came to the turf, "Look my head through."[426] Every hair she laid aside she wet with a tear. And when they came into the dark of the wood he cut her into nine [three] pieces. #G.# Katie meets John in a meadow; they sit down on the grass. "Look my head through." She weeps, for she says there is a black fate impending over her; "a black one for me, a red one for thee." He gets angry, cuts off her head, and throws her into the river, for which he is hanged. #H.# He sprang from his horse, robbed the maid, and laughed. He set her on the grass, and bade her look his head through. Every hair she examined she dropped a tear for. "Why do you weep, Katie? Is it for your crants?" "I am _not_ weeping for my crants, nor am I afraid of your sword. Let me call three times, that my father and mother may hear." Compare German #H# 10, 11; #Q# 8-10, etc., etc.

42 a. These Ruthenian ballads belong with the other Slavic parallels to No 4: #A#, Zegota Pauli, P. l. ruskiego, p. 21==Golovatsky, III, I, 149, No 21; #B#, Golovatsky, III, I, 172, No 46. #A.# A man induces a girl to go off with him in the night. They wander over one land and another, and then feel need of rest. Why does your head ache? he asks of her. Are you homesick? "My head does not ache; I am not homesick." He takes her by the white sides and throws her into the deep Donau, saying, Swim with the stream; we shall not live together. She swims over the yellow sand, crying, Was I not fair, or was it my fate? and he dryly answers, Fair; it was thy fate. In #B# it is a Jew's daughter that is wiled away. They go in one wagon; another is laden with boxes [of valuables?] and pillows, a third with gold pennies. She asks, Where is your house? Over those hills, he answers. He takes her over a high bridge, and throws her into the Donau, with, Swim, since you were not acquainted with our way, our faith!

42 a. #A#, line 2. Read: Puymaigre.

43 a. #D.# Add: Poésies populaires de la France, IV, fol. 332, Chanson de l'Aunis, Charente Inférieur; but even more of the story is lost.

44 a. A ballad in Casetti e Imbriani, C. p. delle Provincie meridionali, II, 1, begins like 'La Contadina alla Fonte' (see p. 393 a), and ends like 'La Monferrina Incontaminata.' Of the same class as the last is, I suppose, Nannarelli, Studio comparativo sui Canti popolari di Arlena, p. 51, No 50 (Köhler), which I regret not yet to have seen.

45 a. Portuguese #C, D#, in Alvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo, Romanceiro do Archipelago da Madeira, p. 57, 'Estoria do Bravo-Franco,' p. 60, 'Gallo-frango.'

47. A story from Neumünster about one Görtmicheel, a famous robber, in Müllenhoff, p. 37, No 2, blends features of 'Hind Etin,' or 'The Maid and the Dwarf-King,' No 41, with others found in the Magyar ballad, p. 45 f. A handsome wench, who had been lost seven years, suddenly reappeared at the home of her parents. She said that she was not at liberty to explain where she had been, but her mother induced her to reveal this to a stone near the side-door, and taking up her station behind the door heard all. She had been carried off by a robber; had lived with him seven years, and borne him seven children. The robber, who had otherwise treated her well, had refused to let her visit her home, but finally had granted her this permission upon her promising to say nothing about him. When the time arrived for her daughter to go back, the mother gave her a bag of peas, which she was to drop one by one along the way. She was kindly received, but presently the robber thought there was something strange in her ways. He laid his head in her lap, inviting her to perform the service so common in like cases. While she was doing this, she could not but think how the robber had loved her and how he was about to be betrayed by her, and her remorseful tears dropped on his face. "So you have told of me!" cried the astute robber, springing up. He cut off the children's heads and strung them on a willow-twig before her eyes, and was now coming to her, when people arrived, under the mother's conduct, who put a stop to his further revenge, and took their own. See the note, Müllenhoff, p. 592 f.

57 a. #D.# Insert: #d.# A stall-copy lent me by Mrs Alexander Forbes, Liberton, Edinburgh. (See p. 23, note §.)

62 b. Insert after #c#:

#d.#

1^{1,2}.
Have ye not heard of fause Sir John,
Wha livd in the west country?

_After 2 a stanza nearly as in #b.#_

5 _wanting._

6^1. But he's taen a charm frae aff his arm.

6^3. follow him.

7^2. five hundred.

7^3. the bravest horse.

8^1. So merrily.

8^4. Which is called Benan Bay.

9, 11, _wanting._

12^1. Cast aff, cast aff.

12^4. To sink.

13. _Nearly as in #b.#_

14.
'Cast aff thy coats and gay mantle,
And smock o Holland lawn,
For thei'r owre costly and owre guid
To rot in the sea san.'

15.
'Then turn thee round, I pray, Sir John,
See the leaf flee owre the tree,
For it never befitted a book-learned man
A naked lady to see.'

_Sir John being a Dominican friar, according to the historical preface._

16.
As fause Sir John did turn him round,
To see the leaf flee owre the [tree],
She grasped him in her arms sma,
And flung him in the sea.

17.
'Now lie ye there, ye wild Sir John,
Whar ye thought to lay me;
Ye wad hae drownd me as naked 's I was born,
But ye's get your claes frae me!'

18.
Her jewels, costly, rich and rare,
She straight puts on again;
She lightly springs upon her horse,
And leads his by the rein.

21^3. O that's a foundling.

22.
Then out and spake the green parrot,
He says, Fair May Culzean,
O what hae ye done wi yon brave knight?

23.
'Haud your tongue, my pretty parrot,
An I'se be kind to thee;
For where ye got ae handfu o groats,
My parrot shall get three.'

25.
'There came a cat into my cage,
Had nearly worried me,
And I was calling on May Culzean
To come and set me free.'

27 _wanting_.

28^3. Carleton sands.

29^2. Was dashed.

29^3. The golden ring.

5. Gil Brenton.

#P.# 62 a, last three lines. Read: said by Lockhart to be Miss Christian Rutherford, his mother's half-sister.

66 b, lines 2, 3. Read: 37 #G#, 38 #A#, #D#, and other versions of both.

66 b, line 4. 'Bitte Mette,' Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, V, 57, No 7, affords another version.

66 b, last line. For other cases of this substitution see Legrand, Recueil de Contes populaires grecs, p. 257, 'La Princesse et sa Nourrice;' Köhler, Romania, XI, 581-84, 'Le conte de la reine qui tua son sénéchal;' Neh-Manzer, ou Les Neuf Loges, conte, traduit du persan par M. Lescallier, Gènes, 1808, p. 55, 'Histoire du devin Afezzell.' (Köhler.) The last I have not seen.

67 a, note [99], line 37. Read: a Scotch name.

84 b. The same artifice is tried, and succeeds, in a case of birth delayed by a man's clasping his hands round his knees, in Asbjørnsen, Norske Huldre-Eventyr, I, 20, 2d ed.

85 a, first paragraph. A story closely resembling Heywood's is told in the Zimmerische Chronik, ed. Barack, IV, 262-64, 1882, of Heinrich von Dierstein; Liebrecht in Germania XIV, 404. (Köhler.) As the author of the chronicle remarks, the tale (Heywood's) is in the Malleus Maleficarum (1620, I, 158 f).

85 a, third paragraph. Other cases resembling Gonzenbach, No 54, in Pitré, Fiabe, Novelle, etc., I, 173, No 18; Comparetti, Novelline popolari, No 33, p. 139. (Köhler.)

85, note. Add: (Köhler.)

85 b. Birth is sought to be maliciously impeded in Swabia by crooking together the little fingers. Lammert, Volksmedizin in Bayern, etc., p. 165. (Köhler.)

7. Earl Brand.

#P.# 88. Add:

#G.# 'Gude Earl Brand and Auld Carle Hude,' the Paisley Magazine, 1828, p. 321, communicated by W. Motherwell.

#H.# 'Auld Carle Hood, or, Earl Brand,' Campbell MSS, II, 32.

#I.# 'The Douglas Tragedy,' 'Lord Douglas' Tragedy,' from an old-looking stall-copy, without place or date.

This ballad was, therefore, not first given to the world by Mr Robert Bell, in 1857, but nearly thirty years earlier by Motherwell, in the single volume of the Paisley Magazine, a now somewhat scarce book. I am indebted for the information and for a transcript to Mr Murdoch, of Glasgow, and for a second copy to Mr Macmath, of Edinburgh.

92 a. Add: #I.# 'Hildebrand,' Wigström, Folkdiktning, II, 13. #J.# 'Fröken Gyllenborg,' the same, p. 24.

96 a. Böðvar Bjarki, fighting with great effect as a huge bear for Hrólfr Kraki, is obliged to return to his ordinary shape in consequence of Hjalti, who misses the hero from the fight, mentioning his name: Saga Hrólfs Kraka, c. 50, Fornaldar Sögur, I, 101 ff. In Hjálmtèrs ok Ölvers Saga, c. 20, F. S. III, 506 f, Hörðr bids his comrades not call him by name while he is fighting, in form of a sword-fish, with a walrus, else he shall die. A prince, under the form of an ox, fighting with a six-headed giant, loses much of his strength, and is nigh being conquered, because a lad has, contrary to his prohibition, called him by name. Asbjørnsen og Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr, 2d ed., p. 419. All these are cited by Moe, in Nordisk Tidskrift, 1879, p. 286 f. Certain kindly domestic spirits renounce relations with men, even matrimonial, if their name becomes known: Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte, I, 103.

97 b. Insert: #Spanish.# Milá, Romancerillo Catalan, 2d ed., No 206, #D#, p. 164: olivera y oliverá, which, when grown tall, join.

#Servian.# Add: Karadshitch, I, 345, vv 225 ff, two pines, which intertwine. In #I# 309, No 421, they plant a rose over the maid, a vine over the man, which embrace as if they were Jani and Milenko. The ballad has features of the Earl Brand class. (I, 239, No 341==Talvj, II, 85.)

#Russian.# Hilferding, Onezhskya Byliny, col. 154, No 31, laburnum (?) over Basil, and cypress over Sophia, which intertwine; col. 696, No 134, cypress and willow; col. 1242, No 285, willow and cypress.

Little Russian (Carpathian Russians in Hungary), Golovatsky, II, 710, No 13: John on one side of the church, Annie on the other; rosemary on his grave, a lily on hers, growing so high as to meet over the church. Annie's mother cuts them down. John speaks from the grave: Wicked mother, thou wouldst not let us _live_ together; let us rest together. Golovatsky, I, 186, No 8: a maple from the man's grave, white birch from the woman's, which mingle their leaves.

#Slovenian.# Štúr, O národnich Písních a Pověstech Plemen slovanských, p. 51: the lovers are buried east and west, a rose springs from the man's grave, a lily from the maid's, which mingle their growth.

#Wend.# Add: Haupt and Schmaler, II, 310, No 81.

#Breton.# Add: Villemarqué, Barzaz Breiz, 'Le Seigneur Nann et La Fée,' see p. 379, note §, of this volume.

98 a. #Armenian.# The ashes of two lovers who have been literally consumed by a mutual passion are deposited by sympathetic hands in one grave. Two rose bushes rise from the grave and seek to intertwine, but a thorn interposes and makes the union forever impossible. (The thorn is _creed_. The young man was a Tatar, and his religion had been an insuperable obstacle in the eyes of the maid's father.) Baron von Haxthausen, Transkaukasia, I, 315 f. (Köhler.)

A Middle High German poem from a MS. of the end of the 14th century, printed in Haupt's Zeitschrift, VI, makes a vine rise from the common grave of Pyramus and Thisbe and descend into it again: p. 517. (Köhler.)

J. Grimm notes several instances of this marvel (not from ballads), Ueber Frauennamen aus Blumen, Kleinere Schriften, II, 379 f, note **.

104.

G

The Paisley Magazine, June 2, 1828, p. 321, communicated
by William Motherwell. "Sung to a long, drawling,
monotonous tune."

* * * * * * *

1
'Gude Earl Brand, I long to see
Faldee faldee fal deediddle a dee
All your grey hounds running over the lea.'
And the brave knights in the valley

2
'Gude lady fair, I have not a steed but one,
But you shall ride and I shall run.'

3
They're ower moss and they're ower mure,
And they saw neither rich nor pure.

4
Until that they came to auld Karl Hude;
He's aye for ill and never for gude.

5
'Gude Earl Brand, if ye love me,
Kill auld Karl Hude, and gar him die.'

6
'O fair ladie, we'll do better than sae:
Gie him a penny, and let him gae.'

7
'Gude Earl Brand, whare hae ye been,
Or whare hae ye stown this lady sheen?'

8
'She's not my lady, but my sick sister,
And she's been at the wells of Meen.'

9
'If she was sick, and very sair,
She wadna wear the red gold on her hair.

10
'Or if she were sick, and like to be dead,
She wadna wear the ribbons red.'

11
He cam till he cam to her father's gate,
And he has rappit furious thereat.

12
'Where is the lady o this hall?'
'She's out wi her maidens, playing at the ball.'

13
'If you'll get me fyfteen wale wight men,
Sae fast as I'll fetch her back again.'

14
She's lookit ower her left collar-bane:
'O gude Earl Brand, we baith are taen,'

15
'Light down, light down, and hold my steed;
Change never your cheer till ye see me dead.

16
'If they come on me man by man,
I'll be very laith for to be taen.

17
'But if they come on me one and all,
The sooner you will see me fall.'

18
O he has killd them all but one,
And wha was that but auld Karl Hude.

19
And he has come on him behind,
And put in him the deadly wound.

20
O he has set his lady on,
And he's come whistling all along.

21
'Gude Earl Brand, I see blood:'
'It's but the shade o my scarlet robe.'

22
They cam till they cam to the water aflood;
He's lighted down and he's wushen aff the blood.

23
His mother walks the floor alone:
'O yonder does come my poor son.

24
'He is both murderd and undone,
And all for the sake o an English loon.'

25
'Say not sae, my dearest mother,
Marry her on my eldest brother.'

26
She set her fit up to the wa,
Faldee faldee fal deediddle adee
She's fallen down dead amang them a'.
And the brave knights o the valley

H

Campbell MSS, II, 32.

1
Did you ever hear of good Earl Brand,
Aye lally an lilly lally
And the king's daughter of fair Scotland?
And the braw knights o Airly