FOOTNOTES:
[300] Of these Dr Reinhold Köhler has given me a note of more than twenty. The French tale itself had, in all likelihood, a popular foundation.
[301] B. Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, pp 100 f, 107, 123. Euphemistically the nereids are called [Greek: hê kalais archontissais, hê kalais kyrades, hê kalokardais, hê kalotychais]; their sovereign is [Greek: hê megalê kyra, hê prôtê], etc.
[36]
THE LAILY WORM AND THE MACHREL OF THE SEA
Skene MS., p. 30: taken down from recitation in the north of Scotland, in 1802 or 1803.
Somewhat mutilated, and also defaced, though it be, this ballad has certainly never been retouched by a pen, but is pure tradition. It has the first stanza in common with '[Kemp Owyne],' and shares more than that with '[Allison Gross].' But it is independent of 'Allison Gross,' and has a far more original sound.
Maisry's services in washing and combing are more conceivable when rendered by a maid in her proper shape, as in 'Allison Gross,' than when attributed to a machrel of the sea; and it is likely that the machrel returned to her own figure every Saturday, and that this is one of the points lost from the story. It is said, here as in 'Allison Gross,' that Maisry kames the laily head on her knee.[302] It would be a mere cavil to raise a difficulty about combing a laily worm's head. The fiery beast in 'Kemp Owyne,' A, has long hair, and the laily worm may have had enough to be better for combing.[303]
It is only natural that the transformed maid should not wish to trust herself again in the hands of the stepmother, but it is not according to poetical justice that she should remain a machrel of the sea, and here again we may suppose something to have dropped out.
We have had a double transformation, of sister and brother, in the '[Marriage of Gawain]' and in the 'Wedding of Gawen and Dame Ragnell,' and again, with a second sister added, in the story of Álsól. Brother and sister are transformed in the Danish 'Nattergalen,' Grundtvig, No 57. It is an aggravation of stepmother malice that the victim of enchantment, however amiable and inoffensive before, should become truculent and destructive; so with the brother of Gawain's bride, and with the Carl of Carlile. The stepmother is satisfactorily disposed of, as she is in 'Kemp Owyne,' B, and the 'Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heughs.'
1
'I was but seven year auld
When my mither she did die;
My father married the ae warst woman
The warld did ever see.
2
'For she has made me the laily worm,
That lies at the fit o the tree,
An my sister Masery she's made
The machrel of the sea.
3
'An every Saturday at noon
The machrel comes to me,
An she takes my laily head
An lays it on her knee,
She kaims it wi a siller kaim,
An washes't in the sea.
4
'Seven knights hae I slain,
Sin I lay at the fit of the tree,
An ye war na my ain father,
The eight ane ye should be.'
5
'Sing on your song, ye laily worm,
That ye did sing to me:'
'I never sung that song but what
I would it sing to thee.
6
'I was but seven year auld,
When my mither she did die;
My father married the ae warst woman
The warld did ever see.
7
'For she changed me to the laily worm,
That lies at the fit o the tree,
And my sister Masery
To the machrel of the sea.
8
'And every Saturday at noon
The machrel comes to me,
An she takes my laily head
An lays it on her knee,
An kames it wi a siller kame,
An washes it i the sea.
9
'Seven knights hae I slain,
Sin I lay at the fit o the tree,
An ye war na my ain father,
The eighth ane ye shoud be.'
10
He sent for his lady,
As fast as send could he:
'Whar is my son that ye sent frae me,
And my daughter, Lady Masery?'
11
'Your son is at our king's court,
Serving for meat an fee,
An your daughter's at our queen's court,
. . . . . . . '
12
'Ye lie, ye ill woman,
Sae loud as I hear ye lie;
My son's the laily worm,
That lies at the fit o the tree,
And my daughter, Lady Masery,
Is the machrel of the sea!'
13
She has tane a siller wan,
An gien him strokes three,
And he has started up the bravest knight
That ever your eyes did see.
14
She has taen a small horn,
An loud an shrill blew she,
An a' the fish came her untill
But the proud machrel of the sea:
'Ye shapeit me ance an unseemly shape,
An ye's never mare shape me.'
15
He has sent to the wood
For whins and for hawthorn,
An he has taen that gay lady,
An there he did her burn.
22, 72. lays: but lies, 124.
33. ducks, but compare 83.