English and Scottish Ballads Volume I Part 19

They shaped him in her arms at last, 215 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-- 220 "She that has borrow'd young Tamlane, Has gotten a stately groom."--

Up then spake the Queen o' Fairies, Out o' a bush o' rye-- "She's ta'en awa the bonniest knight 225 In a' my c.u.mpanie.

"But had I kenn'd, Tamlane," she says, "A lady wad borrow'd thee-- I wad ta'en out thy twa grey een, Put in twa een o' tree. 230

"Had I but kenn'd, Tamlane," she says, "Before ye came frae hame-- I wad ta'en out your heart o' flesh, Put in a heart o' stane.

"Had I but had the wit yestreen 235 That I hae coft the day-- I'd paid my kane seven times to h.e.l.l Ere you'd been won away!"

130, See _Thomas of Ersseldoune_, (p. 107,) v. 225, 226.

V. 161-172, v. 208-214. The same process of disenchantment is found in the Danish ballad _Nattergalen_, st. 20-22, Grundtvig, No. 57 (also _Svenska Folk-visor_, No. 41). The comparison with the transformations of Proteus is curious.

[Grk: amphi de cheiras ballomen; oud' ho geron dolies epeletheto technes; all' etoi protista leon genet' eugeneios, autar epeita drakon kai pordalis ede megas sus; gigneto d' hygron hydor kai dendreon hypsipetelon.

hemeis d' astempheos echomen tetleoti thymo.]

_Odyssey_, iv. 454-59.

Verum ubi correptum manibus vinclisque tenebis, Tum variae eludent species atque ora ferarum: Fiet enim subito sus horridus atraque tigris, Squamosusque draco, et fulva cervice leaena, Aut acrem flammae sonitum dabit, atque ita vinclis Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit.

Sed quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes, Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla.

_Georgics_, iv. 405-12.

THE WEE WEE MAN.

This ballad will be found, in forms slightly varying, in Herd, (i.

156;) Caw's _Poetical Museum_, (p. 348;) Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, (p. 343;) and Buchan's _Ancient Ballads_, (i. 263.) It bears some resemblance to the beginning of the remarkable poem, _Als Y Yod on ay Mounday_, (see Appendix). The present version is from the _Poetical Museum_.

As I was walking by my lane, Atween a water and a wa, There sune I spied a wee wee man, He was the least that eir I saw.

His legs were scant a shathmont's length, 5 And sma and limber was his thie; Atween his shoulders was ae span,[L7]

About his middle war but three.

He has tane up a meikle stane, And flang't as far as I cold see; 10 Ein thouch I had been Wallace wicht, I dought na lift it to my knie.

"O wee wee man, but ye be strang!

Tell me whar may thy dwelling be?"

"I dwell beneth that bonnie bouir, 15 O will ye gae wi me and see?"

On we lap, and awa we rade, Till we cam to a bonny green; We lichted syne to bait our steid, And out there cam a lady sheen; 20

Wi four and twentie at her back, A' comely cled in glistering green; Thouch there the King of Scots had stude, The warst micht weil hae been his queen.

On syne we past wi wondering cheir, 25 Till we cam to a bonny ha; The roof was o the beaten gowd, The flure was o the crystal a.

When we cam there, wi wee wee knichts[L29]

War ladies dancing, jimp and sma; 30 But in the twinkling of an eie, Baith green and ha war clein awa.

7. Much better in Motherwell.

Between his een there was a span, Betwixt his shoulders there were ells three.

29-32.

There were pipers playing in every neuk, And ladies dancing, jimp and sma'; And aye the owreturn o' their tune Was, "Our wee wee man has been lang awa!"-- MOTHERWELL.

THE ELFIN KNIGHT.

Reprinted from _A Collection of Curious Old Ballads and Miscellaneous Poetry_, Edinburgh. David Webster, 1824.

Other versions are given in Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, (see the Appendix to this volume;) Kinloch's _Ancient Scottish Ballads_, (p.

145;) Buchan's _Ancient Ballads_, (ii. 296.)

Similar collections of impossibilities in _The Trooper and Fair Maid_, Buchan, i. 230; _Robin's Tesment_, _id._, i. 273, or Aytoun, 2d ed. ii.

197; _As I was walking under a grove_, _Pills to purge Melancholy_, v.

370. See also _post_, vol. ii. 224, 352, vol. iv. 132, 287; and in German, _Von eitel unmoglichen Dingen_, Erk's _Liederhort_, p. 334-37; Uhland, _Eitle Dinge_, No. 4, A, B; _Wunderhorn_, ii. 410.

The Elfin knight sits on yon hill, _Ba, ba, ba, lillie ba._ He blaws his horn baith loud and shrill.

_The wind hath blawn my plaid awa._

He blaws it east, he blaws it west, He blaws it where he liketh best.

"I wish that horn were in my kist, 5 Yea, and the knight in my arms niest."

She had no sooner these words said, Than the knight came to her bed.

"Thou art o'er young a maid," quoth he, "Married with me, that thou would'st be." 10

"I have a sister, younger than I, And she was married yesterday."

"Married with me if thou would'st be, A curtisie thou must do to me.

"It's ye maun mak a sark to me, 15 Without any cut or seam," quoth he;

"And ye maun shape it, knife-, sheerless, And also sew it needle-, threedless."