4
‘I have not brought you gold, true-love,
Nor yet have I brought fee,
But I am come to save thy life
From off this gallows-tree.’
5
‘Gae hame, gae hame, father,’ she says,
‘Gae hame and saw yer seed;
And I wish not a pickle of it may grow up,
But the thistle and the weed.
6
‘Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, mother,
Gae hame and brew yer yill;
And I wish the girds may a’ loup off,
And the Deil spill a’ yer yill.
7
‘Gae hame, gae hame, gae hame, brother,
Gae hame and lie with yer wife;
And I wish that the first news I may hear
That she has tane your life.
8
‘Gae hame, gae hame, sister,’ she says,
‘Gae hame and sew yer seam;
I wish that the needle-point may break,
And the craws pyke out yer een.’
* * * * *
J
Communicated by Dr George Birkbeck Hill, May 10, 1890, as learned forty
years before from a schoolfellow, who came from the north of
Somersetshire and sang it in the dialect of that region. Given from
memory.
1
‘Hold up, hold up your hands so high!
Hold up your hands so high!
For I think I see my own father
Coming over yonder stile to me.
2
‘Oh father, have you got any gold for me?
Any money for to pay me free?
To keep my body from the cold clay ground,
And my neck from the gallows-tree?’
3
‘Oh no, I’ve got no gold for thee,
No money for to pay thee free,
For I’ve come to see thee hangd this day,
And hangëd thou shalt be.’
4
‘Oh the briers, prickly briers,
Come prick my heart so sore;
If ever I get from the gallows-tree,
I’ll never get there any more.’
[“The same verses are repeated, with mother, brother, and sister
substituted for father. At last the sweetheart comes. The two first
verses are the same, and the third and fourth as follows.”]
5
‘Oh yes, I’ve got some gold for thee,
Some money for to pay thee free;
I’ll save thy body from the cold clay ground,
And thy neck from the gallows-tree.’
6
‘Oh the briers, prickly briers,
Don’t prick my heart any more;
For now I’ve got from the gallows-tree
I’ll never get there any more.’
[“I do not know any title to this song except ‘Hold up, hold up your
hands so high!’ It was by that title that we called for it.”]
Julius Krohn has lately made an important contribution to our knowledge
of this ballad in an article in Virittäjä, II, 36–50, translated into
German under the title ‘Das Lied vom Mädchen welches erlöst werden
soll,’ Helsingfors, 1891. Professor Estlander had previously discussed
the ballad in Finsk Tidskrift, X, 1881 (which I have not yet seen), and
had sought to show that it was of Finnish origin, a view which Krohn
disputes and refutes. There are nearly fifty Finnish versions. The curse
with which #I# ends, and which is noted as occurring in Swedish #C#
(compare also the Sicilian ballad), is never wanting in the Finnish, and
is found also in the Esthonian copies.