From Herd’s MS. Versions occur in Polish, German, Magyar, Portuguese,
Scandinavian, and in French. The ballad is here localised on the Carrick
coast, near Girvan. The lady is called a Kennedy of Culzean. Prof.
Bugge regards this widely diffused ballad as based on the Apocryphal
legend of Judith and Holofernes. If so, the legend is _diablement changé
en route_. More probably the origin is a _Märchen_ of a kind of
_Rakshasa_ fatal to women. Mr. Child has collected a vast mass of
erudition on the subject, and by no means acquiesces in Prof. Bugge’s
ingenious hypothesis.