9_The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)

Says, Carterhaugh it is mine ain,

My daddie gave it me;

I'll come and gang to Carterhaugh,

And ask nae leave o thee.

He's taen her by the milk-white hand,

Among the leaves sae green,

And what they did I cannot tell,

The green leaves were between.

He's taen her by the milk-white hand,

Among the roses red,

And what they did I cannot say,

She neer returnd a maid.

When she cam to her father's ha,

She looked pale and wan;

They thought she'd dreed some sair sickness,

Or been with some leman.

She didna comb her yellow hair

Nor make meikle o her head,

And ilka thing that lady took

Was like to be her deid.

It's four and twenty ladies fair

Were playing at the ba;

Janet, the wightest of them anes,

Was faintest o them a'.

Four and twenty ladies fair

Were playing at the chess;

And out there came the fair Janet,

As green as any grass.

Out and spak an auld grey-headed knight,

Lay oer the castle wa:

'And ever, alas! for thee, Janet,

But we'll be blamed a'!'

'Now haud your tongue, ye auld grey knight,

And an ill deid may ye die!

Father my bairn on whom I will,

I'll father nane on thee.'

Out then spak her father dear,

And he spak meik and mild:

'And ever, alas! my sweet Janet,

I fear ye gae with child.'

'And if I be with child, father,

Mysell maun bear the blame;

There's neer a knight about your ha

Shall hae the bairnie's name.

'And if I be with child, father,

'T will prove a wondrous birth,

For weel I swear I'm not wi bairn

To any man on earth.

'If my love were an earthly knight,

As he's an elfin grey,

I wadna gie my ain true love

For nae lord that ye hae.'

She prinkd hersell and prinnd hersell,

By the ae light of the moon,

And she's away to Carterhaugh,

To speak wi young Tamlane.

And when she cam to Carterhaugh,

She gaed beside the well,

And there she saw the steed standing,

But away was himsell.

She hadna pu'd a double rose,

A rose but only twae,

When up and started young Tamlane,

Says, Lady, thou pu's nae mae.

Why pu ye the rose, Janet,

Within this garden grene,

And a' to kill the bonny babe

That we got us between?

'The truth ye'll tell to me, Tamlane,

A word ye mauna lie;

Gin eer ye was in haly chapel,

Or sained in Christentie?'

'The truth I'll tell to thee, Janet,

A word I winna lie;

A knight me got, and a lady me bore,

As well as they did thee.

'Randolph, Earl Murray, was my sire,

Dunbar, Earl March, is thine;

We loved when we were children small,

Which yet you well may mind.

'When I was a boy just turnd of nine,

My uncle sent for me,

To hunt and hawk, and ride with him,

And keep him companie.

'There came a wind out of the north,

A sharp wind and a snell,

And a deep sleep came over me,

And frae my horse I fell.

'The Queen of Fairies keppit me

In yon green hill to dwell,

And I'm a fairy, lyth and limb,

Fair ladye, view me well.

'Then would I never tire, Janet,

In Elfish land to dwell,

But aye, at every seven years,

They pay the teind to hell;

And I am sae fat and fair of flesh,

I fear 't will be mysell.

'This night is Halloween, Janet,

The morn is Hallowday,

And gin ye dare your true love win,

Ye hae nae time to stay.

'The night it is good Halloween,

When fairy folk will ride,

And they that wad their true-love win,

At Miles Cross they maun bide.'

'But how shall I thee ken, Tamlane?

Or how shall I thee knaw,

Amang so many unearthly knights,

The like I never saw?'

'The first company that passes by,

Say na, and let them gae;

The next company that passes by,

Say na, and do right sae;

The third company that passes by,

Then I'll be ane o thae.

'First let pass the black, Janet,

And syne let pass the brown,

But grip ye to the milk-white steed,

And pu the rider down.

'For I ride on the milk-white steed,

And aye nearest the town;

Because I was a christend knight,

They gave me that renown.

'My right hand will be gloved, Janet,

My left hand will be bare;

And these the tokens I gie thee,

Nae doubt I will be there.

'They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,

An adder and a snake;

But had me fast, let me not pass,

Gin ye wad be my maik.

'They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,

An adder and an ask;

They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,

A bale that burns fast.

'They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,

A red-hot gad o airn;

But haud me fast, let me not pass,

For I'll do you no harm.

'First dip me in a stand o milk,

And then in a stand o water;

But had me fast, let me not pass,

I'll be your bairn's father.

'And next they'll shape me in your arms

A tod but and an eel;

But had me fast, nor let me gang,

As you do love me weel.

'They'll shape me in your arms, Janet,

A dove but and a swan,

And last they'll shape me in your arms

A mother-naked man;

Cast your green mantle over me,

I'll be myself again.'

Gloomy, gloomy, was the night,

And eiry was the way,

As fair Janet, in her green mantle,

To Miles Cross she did gae.

About the dead hour o the night

She heard the bridles ring,

And Janet was as glad o that

As any earthly thing.

And first gaed by the black black steed,

And then gaed by the brown;

But fast she gript the milk-white steed,

And pu'd the rider down.

She pu'd him frae the milk-white steed,

And loot the bridle fa,

And up there raise an erlish cry,

'He's won amang us a'!'

They shaped him in fair Janet's arms

An esk but and an adder;

She held him fast in every shape,

To be her bairn's father.

They shaped him in her arms at last

A mother-naked man,

She wrapt him in her green mantle,

And sae her true love wan.

Up then spake the Queen o Fairies,

Out o a bush o broom:

'She that has borrowd young Tamlane

Has gotten a stately groom.'

Up then spake the Queen o Fairies,

Out o a bush o rye:

'She's taen awa the bonniest knight

In a' my cumpanie.

'But had I kennd, Tamlane,' she says,

'A lady wad borrowd thee

I wad taen out thy twa grey een,

Put in twa een o tree.

'Had I but kennd, Tamlane,' she says,

'Before ye came frae hame,

I wad taen out your heart o flesh,

Put in a heart o stane.

'Had I but had the wit yestreen

That I hae coft the day,

I'd paid my kane seven times to hell

Ere you'd been won away.'

* * * * *

#A.#

_Divided in the Museum into 45-1/2 four-line stanzas,

without heed to rhyme or reason, 3^{5,6} making a stanza

with 4^{1,2}, etc._

3^1. has belted.

4^2. _~Tom~, elsewhere ~Tam~._

17^4. brie.

34^2. burning lead.

#B.#

"An Old Song called Young Tom Line." _Written in

twenty-six stanzas of four [three, two] long, or double,

lines._

19^3. yon bonny babes.

26^2. and do right sae.

26^4. and let them gae. _See 36._

_26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 stand in MS. 31, 26, 27,

32, 28, 29, 33, 30._

#D.#

_#b# has 26 stanzas, #c# has 12. The first 12 stanzas of

#a# and #b# and the 12 of #c#, and again the first 22

stanzas of #a#, and #b#, are almost verbally the same, and

#a# 23==#b# 24. #b# has but 26 stanzas._

#a.# _15 stands 24 in MS._

17^1. Miles Cross: #b#, Moss.

17^3. the holy.

19^2. So(?)clad: #b#, is clad.

22^1. twa.

25^1. ride.

#b.# 4^4. let abeene.

6^4. I'll ask no.

7^8. her down.

10^4. gotten in.

11^1. to me.

11^3. at a.

12^4. his land.

15^3. and through.

16^5. if that.

16^6. _Rides Cross, as in #a#._

17^8. Take holy.

20^4. next the.

_After 23_:

'I'll grow into your arms two

Like ice on frozen lake;

But hold me fast, let me not go,

Or from your goupen break.'

25.

And it's next night into Miles Moss

Fair Margaret has gone,

When lo she stands beside Rides Cross,

Between twelve hours and one.

26.

There's holy water in her hand,

She casts a compass round,

And presently a fairy band

Comes riding oer the mound.

#c.# _1^3, and always, ~Chester's wood~._

3^1. the seam.

4^4. let alane.

6^1. will pluck.

6^4. ask no.

9^4. has been.

11^1. me, Tom o Lin.

12^4. his land.

#E.#

_18, 19, 20 are not written out. We are directed to

understand them to be "~as in preceding stanzas, making

the necessary grammatical changes~."_

#F.#

11^2, 15^2. _~ass~, somebody's blunder for ~ask~._

#G.#

21^2. _~elfin gray~, Motherwell, but see #H#, 7^2._

26^1. Ay.

31^1. began.

58^2. _Motherwell_: far's the river Tay.

58^4. _Motherwell_: she gained.

_Motherwell, as usual, seems to have made some slight

changes in copying._

#I.#

_Scott's copy having been "~prepared from a collation of

the printed copies~," namely, those in Johnson's Museum

and Herd's Scottish Songs, "~with a very accurate one in

Glenriddell's MS., and with several recitals from

tradition~," what was not derived from tradition, but from

the Museum, Glenriddell, and Herd, is printed in smaller

type._

#a.# _3, 20, not in #b.#_

_After 31 are omitted five stanzas of the copy obtained by

Scott "~from a gentleman residing near Langholm~," and

others, of the same origin, after 46 and 47._

'But we that live in Fairy-land

No sickness know nor pain;

I quit my body when I will,

And take to it again.

'I quit my body when I please,

Or unto it repair;

We can inhabit at our ease

In either earth or air.

'Our shapes and size we can convert

To either large or small;

An old nut-shell's the same to us

As is the lofty hall.

'We sleep in rose-buds soft and sweet,

We revel in the stream;

We wanton lightly on the wind

Or glide on a sunbeam.

'And all our wants are well supplied

From every rich man's store,

Who thankless sins the gifts he gets,

And vainly grasps for more.'

40^4. _~buy me maik~, a plain misprint for the ~be my

maik~ of #b# 57._

46. _After this stanza are omitted:_

The heavens were black, the night was dark,

And dreary was the place,

But Janet stood with eager wish

Her lover to embrace.

Betwixt the hours of twelve and one

A north wind tore the bent,

And straight she heard strange elritch sounds

Upon that wind which went.

47. _After this stanza are omitted:_

Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill,

The hemlock small blew clear,

And louder notes from hemlock large,

And bog-reed, struck the ear;

But solemn sounds, or sober thoughts,

The fairies cannot bear.

They sing, inspired with love and joy,

Like skylarks in the air;

Of solid sense, or thought that's grave,

You'll find no traces there.

Fair Janet stood, with mind unmoved,

The dreary heath upon,

And louder, louder waxd the sound

As they came riding on.

Will o Wisp before them went,

Sent forth a twinkling light,

And soon she saw the fairy bands

All riding in her sight.

#b# _6-12 is a fragment of '~The Broomfield-Hill~,'

introduced by a stanza formed on the sixth, as here

given:_

And she's away to Carterhaugh,

And gaed beside the wood,

And there was sleeping young Tamlane,

And his steed beside him stood.

_After the fragment of '~The Broomfield-Hill~' follows:_

13.

Fair Janet, in her green cleiding,

Returned upon the morn,

And she met her father's ae brother,

The laird of Abercorn.

_And then these two stanzas, the first altered from Herd's

fragment of '~The Broomfield Hill~,' '~I'll wager, I'll

wager~,' p. 310, ed. 1769, and the second from Herd's

fragment, '~Kertonha~,' or version #C# of this ballad:_

14.

I'll wager, I'll wager, I'll wager wi you

Five hunder merk and ten,

I'll maiden gang to Carterhaugh,

And maiden come again.

15.

She princked hersell, and prin'd hersell,

By the ae light of the moon,

And she's away to Carterhaugh

As fast as she could win.

_Instead of #a# 10, 11, #b# has:_

He's taen her by the milk-white hand,

And by the grass-green sleeve,

He's led her to the fairy ground,

And spierd at her nae leave.

_Instead of 14 of #a#, #b# has something nearer to #A#,

#B# 9:_

23.

It's four and twenty ladies fair

Were in her father's ha,

Whan in there came the fair Janet,

The flower amang them a'.

_After 21 of #a# follows in #b# a copy of '~The Wee Wee

Man~,' 32-39, attached by these two stanzas, which had

been "~introduced in one recital only~:"_

30.

'Is it to a man of might, Janet,

Or is it to a man o mean?

Or is it unto young Tamlane,

That 's wi the fairies gane?'

31.

''T was down by Carterhaugh, father,

I walked beside the wa,

And there I saw a wee, wee man,

The least that eer I saw.'

_Instead of 22, which had been used before, we have in

#b#:_

40.

Janet's put on her green cleiding,

Whan near nine months were gane,

And she's awa to Carterhaugh,

To speak wi young Tamlane.

#b# _has in place of #a# 28-30:_

46.

Roxburgh was my grandfather,

Took me with him to bide,

And as we frae the hunting came

This harm did me betide.

47.

Roxburgh was a hunting knight,

And loved hunting well,

And on a cauld and frosty day

Down frae my horse I fell.

#b# _49 has #A# 24 instead of #a# 37, #I# 32._

#b# _61^2==#a# 49^2==#I# 44^2 has ~toad~, and so has #C#

9^2, from which the stanza is taken. ~Tod~ is an

improvement, but probably an editorial improvement._

[323] These are the concluding verses, coming much nearer to the

language of this world than the rest. They may have a basis of

tradition:

Whar they war aware o the Fairy King,

A huntan wi his train.

Four an twenty gentlemen

Cam by on steeds o brown;

In his hand ilk bore a siller wand,

On his head a siller crown.

Four an twenty beltit knichts

On duiplit greys cam by;

Gowden their wands an crowns, whilk scanct

Like streamers in the sky.

Four an twenty noble kings

Cam by on steeds o snaw,

But True Thomas, the gude Rhymer,

Was king outower them a'.

[324] "Tamlane: an old Scottish Border Ballad. Aberdeen, Lewis and James

Smith, 1862. "I am indebted for a sight of this copy, and for the

information as to the editor, to Mr Macmath.

[325] Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, II, 221-24, ed. 1802.

[326] Restoration from enchantment is effected by drinking blood, in

other ballads, as Grundtvig, No 55, II, 156, No 58, II, 174; in No 56,

II, 158, by a maid in falcon shape eating of a bit of flesh which her

lover had cut from his breast.

[327] Volksleben der Neugriechen, pp 115-17, "from Chourmouzis,

Κρητικα, p. 69 f, Athens, 1842." Chourmouzis heard this story, about

1820 or 1830, from an old Cretan peasant, who had heard it from his

grandfather.

[328] The silence of the Cretan fairy, as #B#. Schmidt has remarked,

even seems to explain Sophocles calling the nuptials of Peleus and

Thetis "speechless," αφθογγους γαμους. Sophocles gives the

transformations as being lion, snake, fire, water: Scholia in Pindari

Nemea, III, 60; Schmidt, as before, p. 116, note. That a firm grip and a

fearless one would make any sea-god do your will would appear from the

additional instances of Menelaus and Proteus, in Odyssey, IV, and of

Hercules and Nereus, Apollodorus, II, 5, 11, 4, Scholia in Apollonii

Argonaut., IV, 1396. Proteus masks as lion, snake, panther, boar,

running water, tree; Nereus as water, fire, or, as Apollodorus says, in

all sorts of shapes. Bacchus was accustomed to transform himself when

violence was done him, but it is not recorded that he was ever brought

to terms like the watery divinities. See Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte,

II, 60-64, who also well remarks that the tales of the White Ladies,

who, to be released from a ban, must be kissed three times in various

shapes, as toad, wolf, snake, etc., have relation to these Greek

traditions.

[329] The significance of the immersion in water is shown by Mannhardt,

Wald-u. Feldkulte, II, 64 ff. The disorder in the stanzas of #A# at this

place has of course been rectified. In Scott's version, #I#,

transformations are added at random from #C#, _after_ the dipping in

milk and in water, which seems indeed to have been regarded by the

reciters only as a measure for cooling red-hot iron or the burning

gleed, and not as the act essential for restoration to the human nature.

[330] Possibly the holy water in #D# 17, #G# 32, is a relic of the

water-bath.

[331] In the MS. of #B# also the transformation into a het gad of iron

comes just before the direction to dip the object into a stand of milk;

but we have the turning into a mother-naked man several stanzas earlier.

By reading, in 33^1, I'll turn, and putting 33 after 34, we should have

the order of events which we find in #A#.

That Tam Lin should go into water or milk as a dove or snake, or in some

other of his temporary forms, and _come out_ a man, is the only

disposition which is consistent with the order of the world to which he

belongs. Mannhardt gives us a most curious and interesting insight into

some of the laws of that world in Wald-u. Feldkulte, II, 64-70. The wife

of a Cashmere king, in a story there cited from Benfey's Pantschatantra,

I, 254, § 92, is delivered of a serpent, but is reported to have borne a

son. Another king offers his daughter in marriage, and the Cashmere

king, to keep his secret, accepts the proposal. In due time the princess

claims her bridegroom, and they give her the snake. Though greatly

distressed, she accepts her lot, and takes the snake about to the holy

places, at the last of which she receives a command to put the snake

into the water-tank. As soon as this is done the snake takes the form of

a man. A woman's giving birth to a snake was by no means a rare thing in

Karst in the seventeenth century, and it was the rule in one noble

family that all the offspring should be in serpent form, or at least

have a serpent's head; but a bath in water turned them into human shape.

For elves and water nymphs who have entered into connections with men in

the form of women, bathing in water is equally necessary for resuming

their previous shape, as appears from an ancient version of the story of

Melusina: Gervasius, ed. Liebrecht, p. 4 f, and Vincentius

Bellovacensis, Speculum Naturale, 2, 127 (from Helinaudus), cited by

Liebrecht, at p. 66.

A lad who had been changed into an ass by a couple of witches recovers

his shape merely by jumping into water and rolling about in it: William

of Malmesbury's Kings of England, c. 10, cited by Vincent of Beauvais,

Speculum Naturale, iii, 109; Düntzer, Liebrecht's Dunlop, p. 538. Simple

illusions of magic, such as clods and wisps made to appear swine to our

eyes, are inevitably dissolved when the unrealities touch water.

Liebrecht's Gervasius, p. 65.

[332] Cf. 'Allison Gross.'

THE QUEEN OF ELFAN'S NOURICE

Skene MSS, No 8, p. 25. Sharpe's Ballad Book, ed. Laing,

p. 169.

We see from this pretty fragment, which, after the nature of the best

popular ballad, forces you to chant and will not be read, that a woman

had been carried off, four days after bearing a son, to serve as nurse

in the elf-queen's family. She is promised that she shall be permitted

to return home if she will tend the fairy's bairn till he has got the

use of his legs. We could well have spared stanzas 10-12, which belong

to 'Thomas Rymer,' to know a little more of the proper story.

That elves and water-spirits have frequently solicited the help of

mortal women at lying-in time is well known: see Stewart's Popular

Superstitions of the Highlands, p. 104; Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, Nos 41,

49, 68, 69, 304; Müllenhoff, Nos 443, 444; Thiele, Danmarks Folkesagen,

1843, II, 200, Nos 1-4; Asbjørnsen, Norske Huldre-Eventyr, 2d ed., I,

16; Maurer, Isländische Volkssagen, p. 6 f; Keightley's Fairy Mythology,

pp 122, 261, 275, 301, 311, 388, 488.[333] They also like to have their

offspring suckled by earthly women. It is said, writes Gervase of

Tilbury, that nobody is more exposed to being carried off by

water-sprites than a woman in milk, and that they sometimes restore

such a woman, with pay for her services, after she has nursed their

wretched fry seven years. He had himself seen a woman who had been

abducted for this purpose, while washing clothes on the bank of the

Rhone. She had to nurse the nix's son under the water for that term, and

then was sent back unhurt. Otia Imperialia, III, 85, Liebrecht, p. 38.

Choice is naturally made of the healthiest and handsomest mothers for

this office. "A fine young woman of Nithsdale, when first made a mother,

was sitting singing and rocking her child, when a pretty lady came into

her cottage, covered with a fairy mantle. She carried a beautiful child

in her arms, swaddled in green silk. 'Gie my bonnie thing a suck,' said

the fairy. The young woman, conscious to whom the child belonged, took

it kindly in her arms, and laid it to her breast. The lady instantly

disappeared, saying, 'Nurse kin', an ne'er want.' The young mother

nurtured the two babes, and was astonished, whenever she awoke, at

finding the richest suits of apparel for both children, with meat of

most delicious flavor. This food tasted, says tradition, like loaf mixed

with wine and honey," etc. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway

Song, p. 302.

I heard a cow low, a bonnie cow low,

An a cow low down in yon glen;

Lang, lang will my young son greet

Or his mither bid him come ben.

I heard a cow low, a bonnie cow low,

An a cow low down in yon fauld;

Lang, lang will my young son greet

Or his mither take him frae cauld.

* * * * * * *

. . . . . . .

Waken, Queen of Elfan,

An hear your nourice moan.'

'O moan ye for your meat,

Or moan ye for your fee,

Or moan ye for the ither bounties

That ladies are wont to gie?'

'I moan na for my meat,

Nor moan I for my fee,

Nor moan I for the ither bounties

That ladies are wont to gie.

. . . . . . .

But I moan for my young son

I left in four nights auld.

'I moan na for my meat,

Nor yet for my fee,

But I mourn for Christen land,

It's there I fain would be.'

'O nurse my bairn, nourice,' she says,

'Till he stan at your knee,

An ye's win hame to Christen land,

Whar fain it's ye wad be.

'O keep my bairn, nourice,

Till he gang by the hauld,

An ye's win hame to your young son

Ye left in four nights auld.'

* * * * * * *

'O nourice lay your head

Upo my knee:

See ye na that narrow road

Up by yon tree?

. . . . . . .

That's the road the righteous goes,

And that's the road to heaven.

'An see na ye that braid road,

Down by yon sunny fell?

Yon's the road the wicked gae,

An that's the road to hell.'

* * * * * * *

1^1. an a bonnie cow low, _with ~an~ crossed out_.

2^2. yon fall: _~fauld~ in margin_.

6^4. _~auld~ not in MS., supplied from 9^4._

7^3. Christend.

8^1. _~she says~ is probably the comment of the singer or

reciter._

[333] Many of these instances are cited by Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,

1875, I, 378. In Thiele's first example the necessity of having

Christian aid comes from the lying-in woman being a Christian who had

been carried off by an elf. In Asbjørnsen's tale, the woman who is sent

for to act as midwife finds that her own serving-maid is forced, without

being aware of it, to work all night in the elfin establishment, and is

very tired with double duty.

HIND ETIN

#A.# 'Young Akin,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of

Scotland, I, 6. Motherwell's MS., p. 554.

#B.# 'Hynde Etin,' Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p.

228.

#C.# 'Young Hastings,' Buchan, Ballads of the North of

Scotland, II, 67. 'Young Hastings the Groom,' Motherwell's

MS., p. 450; Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 287.

It is scarcely necessary to remark that this ballad, like too many

others, has suffered severely by the accidents of tradition. #A# has

been not simply damaged by passing through low mouths, but has been

worked over by low hands. Something considerable has been lost from the

story, and fine romantic features, preserved in Norse and German

ballads, have been quite effaced.

Margaret, a king's daughter, #A#, an earl's daughter, #B#, a lady of

noble birth, #C#, as she sits sewing in her bower door, hears a note in

Elmond's wood and wishes herself there, #A#. The wood is Amon-shaw in

#C#, Mulberry in #B#: the Elmond (Amond, Elfman?) is probably

significant. So far the heroine resembles Lady Isabel in No 4, who,

sewing in her bower, hears an elf-horn, and cannot resist the enchanted

tone. Margaret makes for the wood as fast as she can go. The note that

is heard in #A# is mistaken in #B# for _nuts_: Margaret, as she stands

in her bower door, spies some nuts growing in the wood, and wishes

herself there. Arrived at the wood, Margaret, in #A# as well as #B#,

immediately takes to pulling nuts.[334] The lady is carried off in #C#

under cover of a magical mist, and the hero in all is no ordinary hind.