+The Text+ is taken from Scott's _Minstrelsy_ (1803). It would be of
great interest if we could be sure that the reference to 'Hive Hill' in
8.1 was from genuine Scots tradition. In Wager's comedy _The Longer thou
Lived the more Fool thou art_ (about 1568) Moros sings a burden:--
'Brome, brome on hill,
The gentle brome on hill, hill,
Brome, brome on Hive hill,
The gentle brome on Hive hill,
The brome stands on Hive hill a.'
Before this date 'Brume, brume on hil' is mentioned in _The Complaynt of
Scotlande_, 1549; and a similar song was among Captain Cox's 'ballets
and songs, all auncient.'
+The Story+, of a youth challenging a maid, and losing his wager by
being laid asleep with witchcraft, is popular and widespread. In the
_Gesta Romanorum_ is a story of which this theme is one main incident,
the other being the well-known forfeit of a pound of flesh, as in the
_Merchant of Venice_. Ser Giovanni (_Pecorone_, IV. 1) tells a similar
tale, and other variations are found in narrative or ballad form in
Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Germany.
Grimm notes the German superstition that the _rosenschwamm_ (gall on the
wild rose), if laid beneath a man's pillow, causes him to sleep until it
be taken away.