Chapter XXXVII: Part I: , 8, 1707. (W. Macmath.) (1)

40. The Queen of Elfan’s Nourice.

P. 358 f., II, 505 b.

Mortal women as midwives to fairies, elves, water-sprites, etc. Further examples are: Sébillot, Littérature orale de la Haute-Bretagne, pp. 19–23; the same, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 89, 109; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays Basque, pp. 40, 41; Meier, Deutsche Sagen, u. s. w., aus Schwaben, pp. 16–18, 59, 62; Mrs Bray, Traditions of Devonshire, 1838, I, 184–188 (in the new ed., which is called The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy, I, 174 ff.); “Lageniensis” [J. O’Hanlon], Irish Folk Lore, Glasgow, n. d., pp. 48, 49; U. Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen, pp. 50, 72; Vonbun, Die Sagen Vorarlbergs, p. 16, cf. p. 6; Vernaleken, Alpensagen, p. 183.—Mortal woman as nurse for fairy child. Sébillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 121. (G. L. K.)

41. Hind Etin.

P. 361 f. #Danish.# Add: ‘Jomfruen og dværgen,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, III, 98, No 393. A fragment of four stanzas, IV, 193, No 570.

364. #Danish.# Add: ‘Angenede og havmanden,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, III, 17, No 34.

42. Clerk Colvill.

P. 379 a, II, 506. Breton #F# is now printed entire (twenty-one stanzas instead of eleven) by Gaidoz, in Mélusine, IV, 301 ff. (The language appears to be Cornish.)

380, II, 506. #A# is printed by Rolland, III, 39; #P#, #Q#, _ib._, p. 41, p. 37; #T#, _ib._, p. 32, and in Revue des Traditions pop., #I#, 33; #X#, by Rolland, III, 45; #GG#, in Revue des T. p., III, 195. The five stanzas in Poés. pop. de la F., MS., VI, 491 (#MM#), by Rolland, III, 36.

Add: #NN#, 38 verses, without indication of place, by C. de Sivry in Rev. des T. p., II, 24; #OO#, ‘Le roi Léouis,’ Haute-Bretagne, 60 verses, P. Sébillot, in the same, III, 196.

A Basque version, with a translation, in Rev. des Trad. pop., III, 198.

382 a. #Italian.# #C-F#, #H-K# now in Nigra’s collection, ‘Morte Occulta,’ #A-G#, No 21, p. 142, in a different order. #C#, #D#, #E#, #F#, #H#, #I#, #K# are in Nigra now #A#, #C#, #D#, #E#, #G#, #F#, #B#. The fragment spoken of p. 383 b is now Nigra’s No 22, p. 149, ‘Mal ferito.’ The tale which follows this is given p. 148 f.

384 a. There are two good Asturian versions in Pidal, ‘Doña Alda,’ Nos 46, 47, pp. 181, 183. The editor mentions a copy in the second number of Folk-Lore Betico-Extremeño, much injured by tradition, which is more like the Catalan than the Asturian versions.

43. The Broomfield Hill.

P. 392 b. Sleep-thorns.

Sleep-thorns, or something similar, occur in the West Highland tales. In a story partly reported by Campbell, I, xci, “the sister put gath nimh, a poisonous sting or thorn, into the bed, and the prince was as though he were dead for three days, and he was buried. But Knowledge told the other two dogs what to do, and they scraped up the prince and took out the thorn, and he came alive again and went home.” So in “The Widow’s Son,” Campbell, II, 296: “On the morrow he went, but the carlin stuck a bior nimh, spike of hurt, in the outside of the door post, and when he came to the church he fell asleep.” In another version of The Widow’s Son, II, 297, a “big pin” serves as the “spike of hurt.” Cf. the needle in Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen, 3d ed., p. 141, No 32. (G. L. K.)

393. Italian ballad. Add: Righi, p. 33, No 96; Nigra, No 77, p. 393, ‘La Bevanda sonnifera,’ #A-H#; Giannini, ‘Il Cavaliere ingannato,’ p. 157; Ferrari, Biblioteca di Lett. pop. italiana, I, 218, ‘La bella Brunetta;’ Finamore, in Archivio, I, 89, La Fandell’ e lu Cavaljiere (mixed); Nerucci, in Archivio, II, 524, ‘La Ragazza Fantina;’ Julia, in Archivio, VI, 244, ‘La ‘nfantina e lu Cavalieri;’ Rondini, in Archivio, VII, 189.

Ricordi, Canti p. Lombardi, No 9, ‘La Moraschina,’ gives the first half of the story, with a slight alteration for propriety’s sake.

44. The Twa Magicians.

P. 400 a, II, 506 b. #E#, #F#, partly, in Revue des Traditions populaires, I, 104 f. (#Q# was previously cited as #J#.) #Q.# ‘Les Transformations,’ Avenay, Marne, Gaston Paris, in Rev. des Trad. pop., I, 98; #R#, Haute-Bretagne, Sébillot, the same, p. 100; #S#, Le Morvan, Tiersot, p. 102; #T#, Tarn-et-Garonne, the same, II, 208. #U.# ‘Les Métamorphoses,’ Finistère, Rolland, IV, 32, _c_; #V#, environs de Brest, the same, p. 33, _d_. #E# is printed by Rolland, IV, 30, _b_.

#Italian.# A ballad in Nigra, No 59, p. 329, ‘Amore inevitabile.’

401 a. Vuk, I, No 602, is translated in Bowring’s Servian Popular Poetry, p. 195.

In a Magyar-Croat ballad the lover advises the maid, who has been chidden by her mother on his account, if her mother repeats the scolding, to turn herself into a fish, then he will be a fisherman, etc. Kurelac, p. 309, XV, 2. (W. W.)

401 b, last two paragraphs.

Other specimens of the first kind (not in Köhler’s note to Gonzenbach, II, 214) are:

Luzel, Annuaire de la Société des Traditions populaires, II, 56; Baissac, Folk-Lore de l’Île Maurice, p. 88 ff.; Wigström, Sagor ock Äfventyr uppt. i Skåne, p. 37; Luzel, Revue des Traditions populaires, I, 287, 288; Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, II, 13, 41 ff., cf. 64–66; Vernaleken, Kinder- u. Hausmärchen, No 49, p. 277; Bladé, Contes pop. de la Gascogne, II, 26–36; Carnoy, Contes populaires picards, Romania, VIII, 227. Cf. also Ortoli, Contes pop. de l’Île de Corse, pp. 27–29, and Cosquin’s notes (which do not cite any of the above-mentioned places), Contes pop. de Lorraine, I, 105 ff.

Other specimens of the second kind:

Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, II, 92–95, and note; Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande, u. s. w., 3d ed., 1882, No 14, p. 52 f.. (G. L. K.)

402 a, last paragraph. “The pursuit in various forms by the witch lady has an exact counterpart in a story of which I have many versions and which I had intended to give if I had room. It is called ‘The Fuller’s Son,’ ‘The Cotter’s Son,’ and other names, and it bears a strong resemblance to the end of the Norse tale of ‘Farmer Weathersky.’” Campbell, Pop. Tales of the West Highlands, IV, 297. (G. L. K.)

46. Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship.

P. 415, note [391]. A version from Scotland has been printed in the Folk-Lore Journal, III, 272, ‘I had six lovers over the sea.’ (G. L. K.)

417, note [396], II, 507 b.

The _one_ stake with no head on it occurs also in Wolfdietrich B. The heathen, whom Wolfdietrich afterwards overcomes at knife-throwing, threatens him thus:

“Sihstu dort an den zinnen fünf hundert houbet stân,
Diu ich mit mînen henden alle verderbet hân?
Noch stât ein zinne lære an mînem türnlîn:
Dâ muoz dîn werdez houbet ze einem phande sîn.”

(St. 595, Jänicke, Deutsches Heldenbuch, III, 256.)

Two cases in Campbell’s Pop. T. of the West Highlands. “Many a leech has come, said the porter. There is not a spike on the town without a leech’s head but one, and may be it is for thy head that one is.” (The Ceabharnach, I, 312.) Conall “saw the very finest castle that ever was seen from the beginning of the universe till the end of eternity, and a great wall at the back of the fortress, and iron spikes within a foot of each other, about and around it; and a man’s head upon every spike but the one spike. Fear struck him and he fell a-shaking. He thought that it was his own head that would go on the headless spike.” (The Story of Conall Gulban, III, 202.) In Crestien’s Erec et Enide, Erec overcomes a knight in an orchard. There are many stakes crowned with heads, but one stake is empty. Erec is informed that this is for _his_ head, and that it is customary thus to keep a stake waiting for a new-comer, a fresh one being set up as often as a head is taken. Ed. by Bekker in Haupt’s Ztschr., X, 520, 521, vv. 5732–66. (G. L. K.)

49. The Twa Brothers.

P. 435. There is a copy in Nimmo, Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, p. 131, made from #D#, #E#, with half a dozen lines for connection.

437 b. It is #E# (not #A#) that is translated by Grundtvig; and #D# by Afzelius, Grimm, Talvj, Rosa Warrens.

436 f. In one of the older Croat ballads Marko Kraljević and his brother Andrija, who have made booty of three horses, quarrel about the third when they come to dividing, and Marko fells Andrija with a stab. Andrija charges Marko not to tell their mother what took place, but to say that he is not coming home, because he has become enamored of a girl in a foreign country. Bogišić p. 18, No 6. There is a Magyar-Croat variant of this, in which two brothers returning from war fall out about a girl, and the older (who, by the way, is a married man) stabs the younger. The dying brother wishes the mother to be told that he has staid behind to buy presents for her and his sisters. The mother asks when her son will come home. The elder brother answers, When a crow turns white and a withered maple greens. The (simple) mother gets a crow and bathes it daily in milk, and irrigates the tree with wine; but in vain. Other Slavic examples of these hopeless eventualities: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 74, No 30, 97, No 7, 164, No 12, 173, No 23, 229, No 59; II, 41, No 61, 585, No 18, 592, No 27; III, 12, No 9, 136, No 256, 212, No 78; Bohemian, Erben, p. 182, No 340; Polish, Roger, p. 3, No 2; Servian, Vuk, I, No 364, Herzegovine, p. 209, No 176, p. 322, No 332; Bulgarian, Verković, No 226; Dozon, p. 95; Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 11, No 61, p. 130, No 430, p. 156, No 457 (and note), p. 157, No 459, p. 244, No 557. (W. W.)

53. Young Beichan.

P. 454. The modern street or broadside ballad #L# (see II, 508) is given from singing by Miss Burne, Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 547.

459 b. The Färöe ballad (of which there are four copies) is printed in Hammershaimb’s Færøsk Anthologi, p. 260, No 33, ‘Harra Pætur og Elinborg.’

462 a. ‘Gerineldo,’ also in Pidal, Asturian Romances, p. 90 f.

462 a, b. ‘Moran d’ Inghilterra,’ with a second version, in Nigra, No 42, p. 263.

VOL. II.

55. The Carnal and the Crane.

P. 7 f., 510 a. Legend of the Sower. Catalan (with the partridge), Miscelánea Folk-Lórica, 1887, p. 115, No 6.

Moravian, Sušil, p. 19, No 16; Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 9, No 13. (W. W.)

56. Dives and Lazarus.

P. 10 b. ‘Il ricco Epulone,’ Nigra, No 159, p. 543, with Jesus and the Madonna for Lazarus.

Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 737, No 5; III, 263, No 1, and 267, No 2. Lazarus and the rich man are represented as brothers. (W. W.)

57. Brown Robyn’s Confession.

P. 13 b, 5th line. #A# is not a manuscript of the ‘fifteenth’ century, but of the date 1590 or 1591. (Note of Mr Axel Olrik.)

59. Sir Aldingar.

Pp. 37–43. The first adventure of the fragmentary romance of Joufrois affords this story. Count Richard of Poitiers has a son Joufrois. The boy begs his father to send him to the English court, that King Henry may knight him. The English king receives him well, but he remains a _vaslet_ for some time. The seneschal of the court endeavors to win the queen’s _amisté_, but fails. He tells the king that he has seen the queen in bed with a kitchen-boy, and Henry swears that she shall hang or burn. The vaslet Joufrois offers to prove the seneschal a liar, and begs to be knighted for that purpose. Everybody thinks him mad to undertake battle with the seneschal, who is an unmatched man-at-arms: li biaus vaslet estoit enfens. The fight takes place at Winchester. Joufrois’ sword is broken, but he picks up a piece of a huge lance and disables his adversary with a blow on the arm. Joufrois then threatens to cut off the felon’s head if he does not retract, and as the seneschal prefers death to eating his words, this is done. Joufrois, Altfranzösisches Rittergedicht, ed. Hofmann und Muncker, vv. 91–631, pp. 3–18. (G. L. K.)

60. King Estmere.

Pp. 51, 510 b. Mr Kittredge has noted for me some twenty other cases in metrical romances of knights riding into hall.

Aiol’s steed is stabled in the hall, Aiol et Mirabel, ed. Förster, vv. 1758–61, p. 51. So Gawain’s horse in the ‘Chevalier à l’Espée,’ vv. 224–236, Méon, Nouveau Recueil, I, 134. Cf. ‘Perceval le Gallois,’ ed. Potvin, II, 255 ff., vv. 16803–42. In ‘Richars li Biaus,’ the hero evidently has his horse with him while at dinner in the hall of the robber-castle: ed. Förster, v. 3396, p. 93; cf. the editor’s note, p. 182. In ‘Perceval le Gallois,’ a knight takes his horse with him into a bedchamber and ties him to a bed-post: ed. Potvin, III, 34, v. 21169 f.. Cf. Elie de Saint Gille, ed. Förster, pp. 377, 379, 380, vv. 2050–55, 2105, 2129–42. (G. L. K.)

61. Sir Cawline.

P. 56 b. Amadas, while watching at the tomb of Ydoine, has a terrific combat with a highly mysterious stranger knight, whom he vanquishes. The stranger then informs Amadas that Ydoine is not really dead, etc., etc. He gives sufficient evidence of his elritch character, and the author clinches the matter by speaking of him as “the maufé” (v. 6709). Amadas et Ydoine, ed. Hippeau, vv. 5465 ff., p. 189 ff.. (G. L. K.)

60. Stanzas 42 ff.. It might have been remarked that this feat of tearing out a lion’s heart belongs to King Richard (see Weber’s Romances, II, 44), hence, according to the romance, named Cœur de Lion, and that it has also been assigned to an humbler hero, in a well-known broadside ballad, ‘The Honour of a London Prentice,’ Old Ballads, 1723, I, 199 (where there are two lions for one).

63. Child Waters.

P. 83. #Italian.# ‘Ambrogio e Lietta,’ Nigra, No 35, p. 201. The Piedmontese ballad, though incomplete, has the rough behavior of the man to the woman, the crossing of the water, the castle and the mother, the stable, and twins brought forth in a manger.

84 b. #Danish.# ‘Hr. Peders stalddreng,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 121, No 441; ‘Liden Kirsten som stalddreng,’ V, 98, No 645.

‘Hr. Grönnevold,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VII, 49, No 177, is an imperfect copy of the second sort of Scandinavian ballads.

64. Fair Janet.

P. 103, note. ‘La Fidanzata Infedele’ is now No 34 of Nigra’s collection. See above the addition to No 5, I, 65 b.

65. Lady Maisry.

P. 113 a, last paragraph. Burning, etc. See Amis e Amiloun (the French text), v. 364, p. 134, ed. Kölbing; Elie de St Gille, ed. Förster, vv. 2163–69, p. 381. Amadis de Gaule, Nicolas de Herberay, Anvers, 1573, I, 8 f., book 1, chap. 2, maid or wife; but Venice, 1552, I, 6 b, and Gayangos, Libros de Caballerias, p. 4, wife. (G. L. K.)

113 b. Only certain copies, and those perverted, of Grundtvig Nos 108, 109 have the punishment of burning for simple incontinence. This is rather the penalty for incest: cf. Syv, No 16,==Kristensen, I, No 70, II, No 49,==Grundtvig, No 292, and many other ballads. (Note of Mr Axel Olrik.)

Note §. ‘Galanzuca,’ ‘Galancina,’ Pidal, Asturian Romance, Nos 6, 7, pp. 92, 94, belong here. They have much of the story of ‘Lady Maisry,’ with a happy ending.

66. Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet.

P. 127 a, 9th line of the second paragraph. A copy of ‘Fru Margaretha’ in Harald Oluffsons Visbok. Nyare Bidrag, o. s. v., p. 36, No 16, stanzas 21, 22.

127 b, 511 b. In a Breton ballad, Mélusine, III, 350 f., a priest jumps a table, at the cry of his sister, who is in a desperate extremity.

But the greatest achievements in this way are in Slavic ballads. A bride, on learning of her bridegroom’s death, jumps over four tables and lights on the fifth, rushes to her chamber and stabs herself: Moravian, Sušil, p. 83. According to a variant, p. 84, note, she jumps over nine. A repentant husband who had projected the death of his wife, on hearing that she is still living, leaps nine tables without touching the glasses on them: Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 184, No 479. (W. W.)

Mr Kittredge has given me many cases from romances.

127 b, note. Sword reduced to a straw: add Nigra, No 113, etc. ‘Gerineldo:’ add Pidal, Asturian Romances, Nos 3, 4, 5.

67. Glasgerion.

P. 137 b. ‘Poter del Canto’ is now No 47, p. 284, of Nigra’s collection.

68. Young Hunting.

P. 142. A copy in A. Nimmo’s Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, ‘Young Hyndford,’ p. 155, is made up (with changes) from Scott, Kinloch, Buchan, Motherwell and Herd, #E#, #J#, #B#, #K#, #F#, #G#.

143, 512 a. Discovery of drowned bodies. See Revue des Traditions populaires, I, 56; Mélusine, III, 141.

69. Clerk Saunders.

P. 157. There are four copies of the Färöe ‘Faðir og dóttir,’ and Hammershaimb has printed a second (with but slight variations) in his Færøsk Anthologi: p. 253, No 31.

158. Spanish. Add: ‘La Esposa infiel,’ Pidal, Asturian Romances, No 33, p. 154.

71. The Bent Sae Brown.

P. 170. Nine versions of ‘Jomfruens Brødre’ in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, II, 145 ff., Nos 717–23, V, 81 ff., Nos 633, 634.

72. The Clerk’s Twa Sons o Owsenford.

Pp. 174, 512. Add to the French ballads one from Carcassonne, first published in a newspaper of that place, Le Bon Sens, August 10, 1878, and reprinted in Mélusine, II, 212. The occurrence which gave rise to the ballad is narrated by Nigra, C. p. del Piemonte, p. 54 f., after Mary Lafon, and the Italian version is No 4 of that collection, ‘Gli Scolari di Tolosa.’ The ballad is originally French, the scene Toulouse.

73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet.

P. 179 f. #D.# The Roxburghe copy of ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor,’ III, 554, is printed by Mr J. W. Ebsworth in the Ballad Society’s edition of the Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 647. (Mr Ebsworth notes that the broadside occurs in the Bagford Ballads, II, 127; Douce, I, 120 v., III, 58 v., IV, 36; Ouvry, II, 38; Jersey, III, 88.) ‘The Unfortunate Forrester,’ Roxburghe, II, 553, is printed at p. 645 of the same volume. A copy from singing is given (with omissions) in Miss Burne’s Shropshire Folk-Lore, 1883–86, p. 545; another, originally from recitation, in Mr G. R. Tomson’s Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888, p. 82. Both came, traditionally, from print. Still another, from the singing of a Virginian nurse-maid (helped out by her mother), was communicated by Mr W. H. Babcock to the Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 33, 1889, and may be repeated here, both because it is American and also because of its amusing perversions.

THE BROWN GIRL

1
‘O mother, O mother, come read this to me,
And regulate all as one,
Whether I shall wed fair Ellinter or no,
Or fetch you the brown girl home.’

2
‘Fair Ellinter she has houses and wealth,
The brown girl she has none;
But before I am charged with that blessing,
Go fetch me the brown girl home.’

3
He dressed himself in skylight green,
His groomsmen all in red;
And every town as he rode through
They took him to be some king.

4
He rode and he rode until he came to fair Ellinter’s door;
He knocked so loud at the ring;
There was none so ready as fair Ellinter herself
To rise and let him in.

5
‘O what is the news, Lord Thomas?’ she said,
‘O what is the news to thee?’
‘I’ve come to invite you to my wedding,
And that is bad news to thee.’

6
‘God forbid, Lord Thomas,’ she said,
‘That any such thing should be!
For I should have been the bride myself,
And you should the bridegroom be.

7
‘O mother, O mother, come read this to me,
And regulate all as one,
Whether I shall go to Lord Thomas’ wed,
Or stay with you at home.’

8
‘Here you have one thousand friends,
Where there you would but one;
So I will invite you, with my blessing,
To stay with me at home.’

9
But she dressed herself in skylight red,
Her waiting-maids all in green,
And every town as she rode through
They took her to be some queen.

10
She rode and she rode till she came to Lord Thomas’s door;
She knocked so loud at the ring;
There was none so ready as Lord Thomas himself
To rise and let her in.

11
He took her by her lily-white hand,
He led her across the hall;
Sing, ‘Here are five and twenty gay maids,
She is the flower of you all.’

12
He took her by her lily-white hand,
He led her across the hall,
He sat her down in a big arm-chair,
And kissed her before them all.

13
The wedding was gotten, the table was set,
. . . . . . .
The first to sit down was Lord Thomas himself,
His bride, fair Ellinter, by his side.

14
‘Is this your bride, Lord Thomas?’ she said;
‘If this is your bride, Lord Thomas, she looks most wonderfully
dark,
When you could have gotten a fairer
As ever the sun shone on.’

15
‘O don’t you despise her,’ Lord Thomas said he,
‘O don’t you despise her to me;
Yes, I like the end of your little finger
Better than her whole body.’

16
The brown girl, having a little penknife,
And being both keen and sharp,
Right between the long and short ribs,
She pierced poor Ellinter’s heart.

17
‘O what is the matter, fair Ellinter,’ said he,
‘That you look so very dark,
When your cheeks used to have been so red and rosy
As ever the sun shined on?’

18
‘Are you blind, or don’t you see,
My heart-blood come trickling down to my knee?’

3^{1,2}. green _and_ red _should be interchanged: cf. 9_.

13, 14. _Rearranged._

15^1. said she.

181. Add to the French ballads, ‘La Délaissée,’ V. Smith, Romania, VII, 82; Legrand, Romania, X, 386, No 32; ‘La triste Noce,’ Thiriat, Mélusine, I, 189; and to the Italian ballad, Nigra, No 20, p. 139, ‘Danze e Funerali.’

75. Lord Lovel.

P. 205 b. Other copies of ‘Den elskedes Død’ (‘Kjærestens Død’), Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VII, 1, 2, Nos 1, 2; Bergström ock Nordlander, in Nyare Bidrag, o. s. v., pp. 92, 100; and ‘Olof Adelen,’ p. 98, may be added, in which a linden grows from the common grave, with two boughs which embrace.

Note. With the Scandinavian-German ballads belongs ‘Greven og lille Lise,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, V, 20, No 14.

206, 512 b. To the southern ballads which have a partial resemblance may be added: French, Beaurepaire, p. 52, Combes, Chants p. du Pays castrais, p. 139, Arbaud, I, 117, Victor Smith, Romania, VII, 83, No. 32; Italian, Nigra, ‘La Sposa morta,’ No 17, p. 120 ff. (especially #D#).

215. I ought not to have omitted the σήματα by which Ulysses convinces Penelope, Odyssey, xxiii, 181–208; to which might be added those which convince Laertes, xxiv, 328 ff. See also the romance of Don Bueso, Duran, I, lxv:

¿Qué señas me dabas
Por ser conocida? et cét.

76. The Lass of Roch Royal.

II, 213. There is a version of this ballad in the Roxburghe collection, III, 488, a folio slip without imprint, dated in the Museum Catalogue 1740. I was not aware of the existence of this copy till it was printed by Mr Ebsworth in the Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 609. He puts the date of issue _circa_ 1765. It is here given from the original. Compare #H#.

THE LASS OF OCRAM

1
I built my love a gallant ship,
And a ship of Northern fame,
And such a ship as I did build,
Sure there never was seen.

2
For her sides were of the beaten gold,
And the doors were of block-tin,
And sure such a ship as I built
There sure never was seen.

3
And as she was a sailing,
By herself all alone,
She spied a proud merchant-man,
Come plowing oer the main.

4
‘Thou fairest of all creatures
Under the heavens,’ said she,
‘I am the Lass of Ocram,
Seeking for Lord Gregory.’

5
‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,
As I take you for to be,
You must go to yonder island,
There Lord Gregory you’ll see.’

6
‘It rains upon my yellow locks,
And the dew falls on my skin;
Open the gates, Lord Gregory,
And let your true-love in!’

7
‘If you’re the Lass of Ocram,
As I take you not to be,
You must mention the three tokens
Which passd between you and me.’

8
‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,
One night on my father’s hill,
With you I swaft my linen fine?
It was sore against my will.

9
‘For mine was of the Holland fine,
And yours but Scotch cloth;
For mine cost a guinea a yard,
And yours but five groats.’

10
‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,
As I think you not to be,
You must mention the second token
That passd between you and me.’

11
‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,
One night in my father’s park,
We swaffed our two rings?
It was all in the dark.

12
‘For mine was of the beaten gold,
And yours was of block-tin;
And mine was true love without,
And yours all false within.’

13
‘If you are the Lass of Ocram,
As I take you not to be,
You must mention the third token
Which past between you and me.’

14
‘Don’t you remember, Lord Gregory,
One night in my father’s hall,
Where you stole my maidenhead?
Which was the worst of all.’

15
‘Begone, you base creature!
Begone from out of the hall!
Or else in the deep seas
You and your babe shall fall.’

16
‘Then who will shoe my bonny feet?
And who will close my hands?
And who will lace my waste so small,
Into a landen span?

17
‘And who will comb my yellow locks,
With a brown berry comb?
And who’s to be father of my child
If Lord Gregory is none?’

18
‘Let your brother shoe your bonny feet,
Let your sister close your hands,
Let your mother lace your waist so small,
Into a landen span.

19
‘Let your father comb your yellow locks,
With a brown berry comb,
And let God be father of your child,
For Lord Gregory is none.’

20
‘I dreamt a dream, dear mother,
I could wish to have it read;
I saw the Lass of Ocram
A floating on the flood.’

21
‘Lie still, my dearest son,
And take thy sweet rest;
It is not half an hour ago,
The maid passd this place.’

22
‘Ah! cursed be you, mother!
And cursed may you be,
That you did not awake me,
When the maid passd this way!

23
‘I will go down into some silent grove,
My sad moan for to make;
It is for the Lass of Ocram
My poor heart now will break.’

(4^1. Perhaps the reading was: The fairest, etc.)

Mr W. H. Babcock has printed a little ballad as sung in Virginia, in which are two stanzas that belong to ‘The Lass of Roch Royal:’ The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 31.

‘Come along, come along, my pretty little miss,
Come along, come along,’ said he,
‘And seat yourself by me.’

‘Neither will I come, and neither sit down,
For I have not a moment’s time;
For I heard that you had a new sweetheart,
And your heart is no more mine.’

‘It never was, and it never shall be,
And it never was any such a thing;
For yonder she stands, in her own father’s garden,
The garden of the vine,
Mourning for her own true love,
Just like I’ve mourned for mine.’

I laid my head in a little closet-door,
To hear what my true love had to say,
So that I might know a little of his mind
Before he went away.

I laid my head on the side of his bed,
My arms across his breast;
I made him believe, for the fall of the year,
The sun rose in the west.

‘I’m going away, I’m coming back again,
If it is ten thousand miles;
It’s who will shoe your pretty little feet?
And who will glove your hand?
And who will kiss your red, rosy lips,
While I’m in a foreign land?’

‘My father will shoe my pretty little feet,
My mother glove my hand,
My babe will kiss my red, rosy lips,
While you’re in a foreign land.’

Mr James Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology, obtained two very similar stanzas in the ‘Carolina Mountains.’

‘O who will shoe your feet, my dear?
Or who will glove your hands?
Or who will kiss your red rosy cheeks,
When I’m in the foreign lands?’

‘My father will shoe my feet, my dear,
My mother will glove my hands,
And you may kiss my red rosy cheeks
When you come from the foreign lands.’

78. The Unquiet Grave.

P. 234.

E

‘In Gipsy Tents,’ by Francis Hindes Groome, 1880, p. 141, as sung by
an old woman.

1
‘Cold blows the wind over my true love,
Cold blows the drops of rain;
I never, never had but one sweet-heart,
In the green wood he was slain.

2
‘But I’ll do as much for my true love
As any young girl can do;
I’ll sit and I’ll weep by his grave-side
For a twelvemonth and one day.’

3
When the twelvemonth’s end and one day was past,
This young man he arose:
‘What makes you weep by my grave-side
For twelve months and one day?’

4
‘Only one kiss from your lily cold lips,
One kiss is all I crave;
Only one kiss from your lily cold lips,
And return back to your grave.’

5
‘My lip is cold as the clay, sweet-heart,
My breath is earthly strong;
If you should have a kiss from my cold lip,
Your days will not be long.’

6
‘Go fetch me a note from the dungeon dark,
Cold water from a stone;
There I’ll sit and weep for my true love
For a twelvemonth and one day.

7
‘Go dig me a grave both long, wide and deep;
I will lay down in it and take one sleep,
For a twelvemonth and one day;
I will lay down in it and take a long sleep,
For a twelvemonth and a day.’

F

‘Cold blows the wind,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte
Sophia Burne, 1883–86, p. 542; “sung by Jane Butler, Edgmond,
1870–80.”

‘Cold blows the wind over my true love,
Cold blow the drops of rain;
I never, never had but one true love,
And in Camvile he was slain.

‘I’ll do as much for my true love
As any young girl may;
I’ll sit and weep down by his grave
For twelve months and one day.’

But when twelve months were come and gone,
This young man he arose:
‘What makes you weep down by my grave?
I can’t take my repose.’

‘One kiss, one kiss, of your lily-white lips,
One kiss is all I crave;
One kiss, one kiss, of your lily-white lips,
And return back to your grave.’

‘My lips they are as cold as my clay,
My breath is heavy and strong;
If thou wast to kiss my lily-white lips,
Thy days would not be long.

‘O don’t you remember the garden-grove
Where we was used to walk?
Pluck the finest flower of them all,
‘Twill wither to a stalk.’

‘Go fetch me a nut from a dungeon deep,
And water from a stone,
And white milk from a maiden’s breast
[That babe bare never none].’

G

From the singing of a wandering minstrel and story-teller of the
parish of Cury, Cornwall. After the last stanza followed “a stormy
kind of duet between the maiden and her lover’s ghost, who tries to
persuade the maid to accompany him to the world of shadows.” Hunt,
Popular Romances of the West of England, First Series, 1865, p. xvi.

1
‘Cold blows the wind to-day, sweetheart,
Cold are the drops of rain;
The first truelove that ever I had
In the green wood he was slain.

2
‘’Twas down in the garden-green, sweetheart,
Where you and I did walk;
The fairest flower that in the garden grew
Is witherd to a stalk.

3
‘The stalk will bear no leaves, sweetheart,
The flowers will neer return,
And since my truelove is dead and gone,
What can I do but mourn?’

4
A twelvemonth and a day being gone,
The spirit rose and spoke:
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .

5
‘My body is clay-cold, sweetheart,
My breath smells heavy and strong,
And if you kiss my lily-white lips
Your time will not be long.’

235 f. Add: Gaspé, Les anciens Canadiens, Québec, 1877, I, 220 ff.; cited by Sébillot, Annuaire des Traditions populaires, 1887, p. 38 ff..

236. #A# 5, etc. So Nigra, ‘La Sposa morta,’ p. 122, No 17, #D# 12: ‘Mia buca morta l’à odur di terra, ch’a l’era, viva, di roze e fiur.’

Little-Russian tale, Trudy, II, 416, No 122. A girl who is inconsolable for the death of her mother is advised to hide herself in the church after vespers on Thursday of the first week in Lent, and does so. At midnight the bells ring, and a dead priest performs the service for a congregation all of whom are dead. Among them is the girl’s godmother, who bids her begone before her mother remarks her. But the mother has already seen her daughter, and calls out, You here too? Weep no more for me. My coffin and my grave are filled with your tears; wretched it is to bathe in them! (W. W.) After this the mother’s behavior is not quite what we should expect. Cf. the tale in Gaspé, just cited.

79. The Wife of Usher’s Well.

II, 238.

C

‘The Widow-Woman,’ Shropshire Folk-Lore, edited by Charlotte Sophia
Burne, 1883–86, p. 541; “taken down by Mr Hubert Smith, 24th March,
1883, from the recitation of an elderly fisherman at Bridgworth, who
could neither read nor write, and had learnt it some forty years
before from his grandmother in Corve Dale.”

“The West and South Shropshire folk say _far_ for _fair_.”

1
There was a widow-woman lived in far Scotland,
And in far Scotland she did live,
And all her cry was upon sweet Jesus,
Sweet Jesus so meek and mild.

2
Then Jesus arose one morning quite soon,
And arose one morning betime,
And away he went to far Scotland,
And to see what the good woman want.

3
And when he came to far Scotland,
. . . . . . .
Crying, What, O what, does the good woman want,
That is calling so much on me?

4
‘It’s you go rise up my three sons,
Their names, Joe, Peter, and John,
And put breath in their breast,
And clothing on their backs,
And immediately send them to far Scotland,
That their mother may take some rest.’

5
Then he went and rose up her three sons,
Their names, Joe, Peter, and John,
And did immediately send them to far Scotland,
That their mother may take some rest.

6
Then she made up a supper so neat,
As small, as small, as a yew-tree leaf,
But never one bit they could eat.

7
Then she made up a bed so soft,
The softest that ever was seen,
And the widow-woman and her three sons
They went to bed to sleep.

8
There they lay; about the middle of the night,
Bespeaks the youngest son:
‘The white cock he has crowed once,
The second has, so has the red.’

9
And then bespeaks the eldest son:
‘I think, I think it is high time
For the wicked to part from their dead,’

10
Then they laid [==led] her along a green road,
The greenest that ever was seen,
Until they came to some far chaperine,
Which was builded of lime and sand;
Until they came to some far chaperine,
Which was builded with lime and stone.

11
And then he opened the door so big,
And the door so very wide;
Said he to her three sons, Walk in!
But told her to stay outside.

12
‘Go back, go back!’ sweet Jesus replied,
‘Go back, go back!’ says he;
‘For thou hast nine days to repent
For the wickedness that thou hast done.’

13
Nine days then was past and gone,
And nine days then was spent,
Sweet Jesus called her once again,
And took her to heaven with him.

80. Old Robin of Portingale.

P. 240 a. ‘Sleep you, wake you.’ Add: ‘Young Beichan,’ No 53, #B# 5; Duran, Romancero, I, 488, Nos 742, 743.

240 a, II, 513 a.

The very wicked knight Owen, after coming out of St Patrick’s Purgatory, lay in his orisons fifteen days and nights before the high altar,

“And suþþe in is bare flech þe holi crois he nom,
And wende to þe holi lond, and holi mon bicom.”

Horstmann, Altengl. Legenden, 1875, p. 174, vv. 611–612; also p. 208, v. 697, and p. 209, v. 658. In a mediæval traveller’s tale the Abyssinians are said to burn the cross in their children’s foreheads. “Vort wonent da andere snoide kirsten in deme lande ind die heischent Ysini; wan man yr kinder douft ind kirsten macht, dan broet der priester yn eyn cruce vor dat houft.” Ein niederrheinischer Bericht über den Orient, ed. Röhricht u. Meier, in Zacher’s Zeitschrift, XIX, 15. (G. L. K.)

83. Child Maurice.

P. 272. #F.#

Mr Macmath has found the edition of 1755, and has favored me with a copy. Substitute for #F. a.#, p. 263: Gill Morice, An Ancient Scottish Poem. Second Edition. Glasgow, Printed and sold by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1755. (Small 4º, 15 pages.) The copy mentioned p. 263 b, note, is a reprint of this or of the first edition; it has but two variations of reading. The deviations from the text of 1755 will be put in the list of things to be corrected in the print.

84. Bonny Barbara Allen.

P. 276. In Miss Burne’s Shropshire Folk-Lore, 1883–86, p. 543, there is a copy, taken from singing, which I must suppose to be derived ultimately from print.

85. Lady Alice.

P. 279. The following version is printed by Mr G. R. Tomson in his Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888, p. 434, from a MS. of Mrs Rider Haggard.

GILES COLLINS AND LADY ANNICE

1
Giles Collins said to his own mother,
‘Mother, come bind up my head,
And send for the parson of our parish,
For to-morrow I shall be dead.

2
‘And if that I be dead,
As I verily believe I shall,
O bury me not in our churchyard,
But under Lady Annice’s wall.’

3
Lady Annice sat at her bower-window,
Mending of her night-coif,
When passing she saw as lovely a corpse
As ever she saw in her life.

4
‘Set down, set down, ye six tall men,
Set down upon the plain,
That I may kiss those clay-cold lips
I neer shall kiss again.

5
‘Set down, set down, ye six tall men,
That I may look thereon;
For to-morrow, before the cock it has crowd,
Giles Collins and I shall be one.

6
‘What had you at Giles Collins’s burying?
Very good ale and wine?
You shall have the same to-morrow night,
Much about the same time.’

7
Giles Collins died upon the eve,
This fair lady on the morrow;
Thus may you all now very well know
This couple died for sorrow.

Lt-Col. Prideaux has sent me this copy, from Fly-Leaves, London, John Miller, 1854, Second Series, p. 98.

GILES COLLINS

1
Lady Annis she sat in her bay-window,
A-mending of her night-coif;
As she sat, she saw the handsomest corpse
That ever she saw in her life.

2
‘Who bear ye there, ye four tall men?
Who bear ye on your shouldyers?’
‘It is the body of Giles Collins,
An old true lovyer of yours.’

3
‘Set’n down, set’n down,’ Lady Annis she said,
‘Set’n down on the grass so trim;
Before the clock it strikes twelve this night,
My body shall lie beside him.’

4
Lady Annis then fitted on her night-coif,
Which fitted her wondrous well;
She then pierced her throat with a sharp-edgd knife,
As the four pall-bearers can tell.

5
Lady Annis was buried in the east church-yard,
Giles Collins was laid in the west,
And a lily grew out from Giles Collins’s grave
Which touched Lady Annis’s breast.

6
There blew a cold north-westerly wind,
And cut this lily in twain;
Which never there was seen before,
And it never will again.

89. Fause Foodrage.

P. 298 a. Add, ‘Sönnens hævn,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, IV, 113, No 284; a fragment.

90. Jellon Grame.

Pp. 303 b, 513 b. Marvellous growth, etc. Ormr Stórólfsson very early attained to a great size, and at seven was a match for the strongest men: Flateyjarbok, I, 521, Fornmanna Sögur, III, 205, cited by Bugge in Paul u. Braune’s Beiträge, XII, 58. Wolfdietrich gains one man’s strength every year, and amazes everybody in his infancy even. Wolfdietrich A, ed. Amelung, sts 31, 38–41, 45, 233, 234, pp. 84, 85, 86, 108. (Some striking resemblances to Robert le Diable.) Cf. also Wigalois, ed. Pfeiffer, 36, 2 f.,==Benecke, 1226 f.:

In einem jâre wuchs ez mêr
dan ein anderz in zwein tuo.

Elias (afterwards the Knight of the Swan), who is to avenge his mother, astonishes by his rapid growth the old hermit who brings him up:

“A! Dieu! dist ly preudons, à qui est cest enfant?
Il est sy jouènes d’âge et s’a le corps sy grant:
S’il croist sy faitement, ce sera ung gaiant.”

Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Reiffenberg, vv. 960–963, I, 45. “The little Malbrouk grew fast, and at seven years old he was as tall as a tall man.” Webster, basque Legends, 2d ed., p. 78; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays basque, p. 81. The Ynca Mayta Ccapac “a few months after his birth began to talk, and at ten years of age fought valiantly and defeated his enemies.” Markham, Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas, Hakluyt Society, p. 83. A Tête-Rasée infant in four days grows to the full size of man. Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, pp. 241–243. (G. L. K.)

91. Fair Mary of Wallington.

P. 310. #Danish.# Another copy of ‘Malfreds Død,’ Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, VI, 195, No 804.

93. Lamkin.

P. 320. The negroes of Dumfries, Prince William County, Virginia, have this ballad, orally transmitted from the original Scottish settlers of that region, with the stanza found in #F# (19) and #T# (15):

Mr Lammikin, Mr Lammikin,
oh, spare me my life,
And I’ll give you my daughter Betsy,
and she shall be your wife.

“They sang it to a monotonous measure.” (Mrs Dulany.)

94. Young Waters.

P. 343. By the kindness of Mr Macmath, I have now a copy of the original edition.

Young Waters, an Ancient Scottish Poem, never before printed. Glasgow, Printed and sold by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1755. (Small 4º, 8 pages.) The few differences of reading will be given with corrections to be made in the print.

95. The Maid Freed from the Gallows.

P. 346. Mr Alfred Nutt has communicated to the Folk-Lore Journal, VI, 144, 1888, the outline of a ballad in which, as in some versions of the European continent, the man has the place of the maid. But this may be a modern turn to the story, arising from the disposition to mitigate a tragic tale. The ballad was obtained “from a relative of Dr Birbeck Hill’s, in whose family it is traditional. Mother, father, and brethren all refuse him aid, but his sweetheart is kinder, and buys him off.” For the burden see #C# 6, which, as well as #B# 12, might better have been printed as such.

1
‘Hold up, hold up your hands so high!
Hold up your hands so high!
For I think I see my own mother coming
Oer yonder stile to me.
Oh the briars, the prickly briars,
They prick my heart full sore;
If ever I get free from the gallows-tree,
I’[ll] never get there any more.

2
‘Oh mother hast thou any gold for me,
Any money to buy me free,
To save my body from the cold clay ground,
And my head from the gallows-tree?’

3
‘Oh no, I have no gold for thee,
No money to buy thee free,
For I have come to see thee hanged,
And hangëd thou shalt be.’

Struppa’s text of ‘Scibilia Nobili’ is repeated in Salomone-Marino’s Leggende p. siciliane in Poesia, p. 160, No 29. The editor supplies defects and gives some varying readings from another version, in which Scibilia is the love, not the wife, of a cavalier.—Mango, Calabria, in Archivio, I, 394, No 75 (wife).—‘La Prigioniera,’ Giannini, No 25, p. 195, two copies, reduces the story to four or five stanzas. The sequel, No 26, p. 197, is likely to have been originally an independent ballad. It is attached to ‘Scibilia Nobili,’ but is found separately in Bernoni, XI, No 3, ‘La Figlia snaturata,’ Finamore, Archivio, I, 212, ‘Catarine.’

347 b. ‘Frísa vísa’ is reprinted by Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, p. 268, No 34. The editor expressly says that the ballad is used as a children’s game, like the English #F#. So also are Danish #A#, and a Magyar ballad of like purport, to be mentioned presently.

348 b. #Danish.# #A#, in Kristensen’s Skattegraveren, ‘Jomfruens udløsning,’ II, 49, No 279, 1884; #B#, III, 5, No 3, 1885. From tradition. Both versions agree with the Swedish in all important points, and the language of #B# points to a Swedish derivation.

349 a. Ransom for maid refused by father, mother, brother, sister, and paid by lover: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 50, No 11; II, 245, No 7. (W. W.)

349 b, 514 a. Man redeemed by maid when abandoned by his own blood: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 250, No 26; Servian, Vuk, III, 547, No 83; Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 254, No 61, p. 352, No 96. (W. W.)

In a Slovak ballad in Kollár, Národnie Zpiewanky, II, 13, translated by Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen, col. 42 f., John, in prison, writes to his father to ransom him; the father asks how much would have to be paid; four hundred pieces of gold and as many of silver; the father replies that he _has not_ so much, and his son must perish. An ineffectual letter to mother, brother, sister, follows; then one to his sweetheart. She brings a long rope, with which he is to let himself down from his dungeon. If the rope proves too short, he is to add his long hair (cf. I, 40 b, line 2, 486 b); and if it be still too short, he may light upon her shoulders. John escapes. Nearly the same is the Polish ballad translated in Waldbrühl’s Balalaika, which is referred to II, 350 b.

A fragment of a Székler ransom-ballad is found in Arany and Gyulai’s collection, III, 42: Herrmann, as above, col. 49. Another form of love-test is very popular in Hungary, of which Herrmann gives eight versions. In one of these, from a collection made in 1813, Arany and Gyulai, I, 189 (Herrmann’s IV), the story is told with the conciseness of the English ballad. A snake has crept into a girl’s bosom: she entreats her father to take it out; he dares not, and sends her to her mother; the mother has as little devotion and courage as the father, and sends her to her brother; she is successively passed on to sister-in-law, brother-in-law, sister; then appeals to her lover, who instantly does the service. This is the kernel, and perhaps all that is original, in versions, I (of Herrmann), col. 34 f., contributed by Kálmány; II, 36 f., contributed by Szabó; V, col. 38, Kálmány, Koszorúk az Alföld vad Virágaiból, I, 21, translated into German by Wlislocki, Ungarische Revue, 1884, p. 344; VIII, col. 39, Kálmány, Szeged Népe, II, 13. In Herrmann, VI, col. 38, Kálmány, Koszorúk, II, 62; VII, col. 38 f., Kálmány, Szeged Népe, II, 12; and III, col. 37 (a fragment), young man and maid change parts. In I, III, V (?), VI, VII, the father says he can better do without a daughter (son) than without one of his hands, and the youth (maid) would rather lose one of his (her) hands than his (her) beloved.[326] In I the snake has been turned to a purse of gold when the maid attempts to take it out; in II, according to a prose and prosaic comment of the reciter, there was no snake, but the girl had put a piece of gold in her bosom, and calls it a yellow adder to experiment upon her family; in VII, again, there is no snake, but a rouleau of gold, and the snake is explained away in like manner in a comment to VIII. Even the transformation in I is to be deprecated; the money in the others is a modern depravation.

A brief ballad of the Transylvania Gipsies, communicated and translated by Wlislocki, Ungarische Revue, 1884, p. 345 f., agrees with the second series of those above. A youth summons mother and sister to take a reptile from his breast; they are afraid; his sweetheart will do it if she dies. A very pretty popular Gipsy tale to the same effect is given by Herrmann, col. 40 f.

A Roumanian ballad, ‘Giurgiu,’ closely resembling the Magyar I, VII, from Pompiliu Miron’s Balade populare române, p. 41, is given in translation by Herrmann, col. 106 ff.; a fragment of another, with parts reversed, col. 213.

A man, to make trial of his blood-relations, begs father, mother, etc., to take out a snake from his breast, and is refused by all. His wife puts in her hand and takes out a pearl necklace, which she receives as her reward: Servian, Vuk, I, No 289, Herzegovine, No 136, Petranović, Serajevo, 1867, p. 191, No 20; Slavonian, Stojanović, No 20. (W. W.)

There are many variations on this theme, of which one more may be specified. A drowning girl given over by her family is saved by her lover: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 80, No 14, 104, No 18, 161, No 15, 726, No 11; Servian, Vuk, I, Nos 290, 291; Bulgarian, Dozon, p. 98, No 61; Polish, Kolberg, Lud, 1857, I, 151, 12^a. Again, man is saved by maid: Little-Russian, Golovatsky, I, 114, No 28; Waclaw z Oleska, p. 226. (W. W.)

96. The Gay Goshawk.

P. 356 a. (1.) (2.) (4.) are now printed in Mélusine, II, 342, III, 1, II, 341. (15.) (16.) ‘La Fille dans la Tour,’ Victor Smith, Chansons du Velay et du Forez, Romania, VII, 76, 78. (17.) Bladé, Poésies p. rec. dans l’Armagnac, etc., p. 23, ‘La Prisonnière.’

There is an Italian form of ‘Belle Isambourg’ in Nigra, No 45, p. 277, ‘Amor costante.’

356 b. For other forms of ‘Les trois Capitaines,’ see, French, Puymaigre, I, 131, 134 and note; Tiersot, in Revue des Traditions populaires, III, 501, 502; Rolland, III, 58 ff., _a_, _b_, _d_; Italian, Marcoaldi, p. 162, ‘La Fuga e il Pentimento;’ Nigra, No 53, p. 309, ‘L’Onore salvato.’

357 b, second paragraph.

On messenger-birds, see Nigra, p. 339 f., and note.

A girl feigns death simply to avoid a disagreeable suitor. Proof by fire, etc.; cf. #C# 23 f., #D# 7 f., #E# 27 f., #F# 1–3, #G# 36–38. Servian. (1.) Mara, promised to the Herzog Stephen, and wishing for good reasons to escape him, pretends death. Stephen is incredulous; puts live coals into her bosom, then a snake; she does not flinch. He then tickles her face with his beard; she does not stir. Stephen is convinced and retires; Mara springs from the bier. Her mother asks her what had given her most trouble. She had not minded the coals or the snake, but could hardly keep from laughing when tickled with the beard. Vuk, I, 551, No 727. (2.) The suitor tests the case by thrusting his hands into the girl’s bosom, fire, snake. The first is the worst. Vuk, Herzegovine, No 133. (3.) The same probation, with the same verdict (in this case the girl loves another), Petranović, Srpske n. pjesme, Serajevo, 1867, No 362. Cf. Rajković, p. 176, No 211.—Bulgarian. Proofs by snow and ice laid on the heart; a snake. She stands both. Miladinof, No 68, cf. No 468. In the same, No 660, the girl holds out under ice and snake, but when kissed between the eyes wakes up.—Bohemian, Erben, p. 485, No 20, ‘The Turk duped,’ and Moravian, Sušil, No 128, the tests are lacking. (W. W.)