M
Similar to F-H: Notes and Queries, 4th Series, III, 605, communicated by W. F., Glasgow, from a manuscript collection.
1
As I went up to the top o yon hill,
Every rose springs merry in' t' time
I met a fair maid, an her name it was Nell.
An she langed to be a true lover o mine
2
'Ye'll get to me a cambric sark,
An sew it all over without thread or needle.
Before that ye be, etc.
3
'Ye'll wash it doun in yonder well,
Where water neer ran an dew never fell.
4
'Ye'll bleach it doun by yonder green,
Where grass never grew an wind never blew.
5
'Ye'll dry it doun on yonder thorn,
That never bore blossom sin Adam was born.'
6
'Four questions ye have asked at me,
An as mony mair ye'll answer me.
7
'Ye'll get to me an acre o land
Atween the saut water an the sea sand.
8
'Ye'll plow it wi a ram's horn,
An sow it all over wi one peppercorn.
9
'Ye'll shear it wi a peacock's feather,
An bind it all up wi the sting o an adder.
10
'Ye'll stook it in yonder saut sea,
An bring the dry sheaves a' back to me.
11
'An when ye've done and finished your wark,
Ye'll come to me, an ye'se get your sark.'
An then shall ye be true lover o mine
3. The Fause Knight upon the Road.
P. [20] a. Add: C. 'The False Knight,' communicated by Mr Macmath, of Edinburgh.
For the fool getting the last word of the princess, see, further, Köhler, Germania, XIV, 271; Leskien u. Brugman, Litauische Volkslieder u. Märchen, p. 469, No 33, and Wollner's note, p. 573.
[21], note. I must retract the doubly hasty remark that the Shetland belief that witches may be baffled by fliting with them is a modern misunderstanding.
Mr George Lyman Kittredge has called my attention to Apollonius of Tyana's encounter with an empusa between the Caucasus and the Indus. Knowing what the spectre was, Apollonius began to revile it, and told his attendants to do the same, for that was the resource, in such cases, against an attack. The empusa went off with a shriek. Philostratus's Life of Apollonius, II, 4. Mr Kittredge referred me later to what is said by Col. Yule (who also cites Philostratus), Marco Polo, I, 183, that the wise, according to Mas'udi, revile ghúls, and the ghúls vanish. Mr Kittredge also cites Luther's experience: how, when he could not be rid of the Devil by the use of holy writ and serious words, "so hätte er ihn oft mit spitzigen Worten und lächerlichen Possen vertrieben; ... quia est superbus spiritus, et non potest ferre contemptum sui." Tischreden, in Auswahl, Berlin, 1877, pp 152-154.
Sprites of the more respectable orders will quit the company of men if scolded: Walter Mapes, De Nugis Curialium, ed. Wright, p. 81, Alpenburg, Deutsche Alpensagen, p. 312, No 330. So Thetis, according to Sophocles, left Peleus when he reviled her: Scholia in Apollonii Argonautica, IV, 816. (Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte, II, 60, 68.) 22.