VOL. I.
1. Riddles Wisely Expounded.
I, 2 b. Russian riddle-songs: Trudy, III, 314, No 44; V, 1073, No 208, 1190, No 6.
The Russian riddle-ballad of the merchant's son. Add: Shein, Russkiya Narodnuiya Pyesni, Plyasovuiya, Dance Songs, Nos 88, 87, 89, p. 233 f.
2. The Elfin Knight.
P. 8 a, second paragraph. Russian ballad of Impossibilities propounded reciprocally by youth and maid (including a shirt): Shein, Russkiya N. P., Plyasovuiya, Nos 85, 86, p. 231 f.
13. Another Clever Wench, in Hurwitz's Hebrew Tales, New York, 1847, p. 154, Nos 61, 62; or Sagen der Hebräer aus dem Englischen, u. s. w., Leipzig, 1828, p. 129, Nos 56, 57.
14 a, line 16. The Rusalka ballad, also in Trudy, III, 190, No 7.
14 a, the first paragraph. In the third or "Forest" book of the Mahā-bhārata, chapters 311-313, is a story that bears marks of being an ancient part of the compilation. Yudhishthira and his four younger brothers are distressed with thirst. The eldest sends these one after another in quest of water. Each reaches a lake and hears a voice of a sprite in the air, "I have the first claim on this lake. Do not drink till you have answered my questions," drinks notwithstanding, and falls as if dead. At last Yudhishthira goes himself, answers the questions, and is offered boons by the sprite. He is very modest, and asks the life of one of his two half-brothers only, not that of either of his full brothers. Whereupon the sprite rewards his virtue by bringing all four to life.
The riddles and questions are spun out at great length, and many are palpable interpolations. A few examples may be given. What is weightier (more reverend) than the earth? One's mother. What is loftier than the heavens? One's father. What is fleeter than the wind? The mind. What are more numerous than the blades of grass? Thoughts. What does not close its eyes while asleep? A fish. What is that which does not move after birth? An egg. What is that which is without heart? A stone. And so on. A paraphrase of parts of these chapters is given by Ed. Arnold, Indian Idylls, Boston, 1883, pp. 212-235.
Similarly, in the Kathā-sarit-sāgara, chapter v, a man escapes death by resolving an ogre's riddle. See Tawney's translation, I, 26, and especially the note, where Benfey is cited as comparing Mahā-bhārata, XIII, 5883 ff.
14 b. Legend of St Andrew: Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, 1881, p. 8.
18. A variety of F, G, Bruce and Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy, p. 79. 'Whittingham Fair,' popular in the north and west of the county of Northumberland; usually sung as a nursery-ballad.
1 'Are you going to Whittingham fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there;
For once she was a true-love of mine.
2 'Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Without any seam or needlework.
3 'Tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Where never spring-water nor rain ever fell.
4 'Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born.'
5 'Now he has asked me questions three,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
I hope he will answer as many for me;
For once he was a true-love of mine.
6 'Tell him to find me an acre of land
Betwixt the salt water and the sea-sand.
7 'Tell him to plough it with a ram's horn,
And sow it all over with one pepper-corn.
8 'Tell him to reap it with a sickle of leather,
And bind it up with a peacock's feather.
9 'When he has done, and finished his work,
O tell him to come, and he 'll have his shirt.'
Another variety of F, G, communicated by Mr Frank Kidson, Leeds, 1884; from tradition.
1 'Oh where are you going?' 'To Scarbro fair.'
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme
'Remember me to a lass who lives there;
For once she was a true lover of mine.
2 'And tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Without a needle or thread or ought else;
And then she shall be a true lover of mine.
3 'And tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Where water neer sprung nor a drop of rain fell;
And then, etc.
4 'And tell her to hang it on yonder stone,
Where moss never grew since Adam was born.
5 'And when she has finished and done, her I'll repay,
She can come unto me and married we'll be.'
6 'Oh where are you going?' 'To Scarbro fair.'
'Remember me to a lad who lives there;
For once he was a true lover of mine.
7 'And tell him to buy me an acre of land
Between the wide ocean and the sea-sand;
And then he, etc.
8 'And tell him to plough it with a ram's horn,
And sow it all over with one pepper-corn.
9 'And tell him to reap't with a sickle of leather,
And bind it up with a peacock's feather.
10 'And when he has finished, and done his work,
He can come unto me for his cambric shirt.'
Variations in a fragment of the same, remembered by another person: F. Kidson.
11 Oh are you going to...
7 Tell her ...
Sow it all over with sand.
9 Reap it with ...
And tie it ...
And then she shall be ...
3(after 9):
And tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
Where no water sprung nor a drop of rain fell,
And tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
Or never be a true lover of mine.
3. The Fause Knight upon the Road.
P. 21, note, and p. 485. "Die Windsbraut soil man brav schelten, sich selber aber bekreuzigen, dann weicht sie. Sie ist des Teufels Braut. Wo eine Windsbraut auffährt, ist eine Hexe aufgesprungen." Birlinger u. Buck, Volksthümliches aus Schwaben, I, 192, No 304. G. L. K.
21. Finnur is a trold in a corresponding Icelandic story, Árnason, Íslenzkar Þjóðsögur, I, 58. G. L. K.
See, for Finn and Finns, Karl Blind in The Contemporary Review, XL, 402ff., 1881; also, '[The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry],' No 113, II, 494.
4. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight.
P. 24. May Colvin in Ireland. According to a Connemara story given briefly in Once a Week, II, 53 f, July 2, 1864, one Captain Webb was wont to ill-use young women, and then strip them and throw them into the Murthering Hole, not far from Maarn. At last a girl induced him to turn his back, and then thrust him into the Hole. P. Z. Round.
24 b. The Flemish ballad is given by Fétis, Histoire Générale de la Musique, V, 59, "d'après un texte ancien qui a deux strophes de plus que celui de Willems." G. L. K.
28 b. 'Ásu kvaeði' in Íslenzk fornkvæði, II, 226, No 60, A-M: this copy D (E-M). Published in 1885.
41, and p. 487 f. Russian form, corrupted.
On the oaken bridge stood Galya, there Galya stood and drew water, she drew water and spoke with Marko. "O Marko mine, what dost thou say to me? Come wander with me, youth; let us wander on foot through the dark night." One field traversed, a second they crossed, and in the third lay down on the grass to sleep. The rain began to sprinkle, the fierce rain to fall, and Marko began to slumber. "O Marko mine, sleep not while with me; bare your sword and fight with me." Young Galya vanquished Marko; she conquered Marko, and rode, she mounted and rode over the level field. Galya arrives at the new gate; there stands Marko's mother, more beautiful than gold. "Young Galya, what can I say? Have you seen Marko near my house?" "Oh, hush, mother; weep not, mourn not. Thy Marko has married in the field; he has taken to himself a fine young lady, a grave in the meadow." Trudy, V, 425, No 816.
A man beguiles a girl with tales of a land where the rivers are of honey, where pears grow on willows, and maidens are clothed in gold. Trudy, V, 335, No 660.
In one version of this ballad a cuckoo flies up and bids the maid not listen to the Cossack's tales: "I have flown all over the world, and I have never seen golden mountains, nor eaten pears from willow-trees, nor beheld maidens clad in gold."
41 a, and 487 a. A maid going to the ford for water meets Marko, and suggests that he should propose for her; if her mother will not consent, they will roam. They cross one field and two, and lie down on the grass in a third. He is falling asleep, when she wakes him with a cry that they are pursued. Marko is overtaken and his head cut off. Trudy, V, 226, No 454. No 548, p. 278, is nearly the same. No 690, p. 352, resembles in part No 454, and partly Golovatsky, I, 116.
42 a and 488 a, A. A lover takes his love by her white hands, leads her to the Danube, seizes her by the white sides, and flings her in. She asks whether she is ugly, or whether it is her ill fate. Trudy, V, 166, No 339.
In Poésies pop. de la France, MS., VI, 278, Poésies pop. de la Corrèze, a ballad called 'Chanson du brave Altizar' is mentioned as a variant of 'Dion et la Fille du Roi,' and, fol. 321 of the same volume, a version from Mortain, Basse Normandie, is said to have been communicated, which, however, I have not found. These may both belong with the French ballads at II, 356.
43 a. E. Another copy in Guillon, Chansons pop. de l'Ain, p. 85.
Add I: 'Monsieur de Savigna,' Decombe, Chansons pop. d'Ille-et-Vilaine, p. 264, No 92. The ballad begins like A, B, but the conclusion is inverted. The fair one is thrown into a pond; M. Savigna cuts away with his sword the plant she seizes when she comes up from the bottom the fourth time; she asks, If you ever go back, where will you say you left me? and he answers, In the big wood full of robbers.
59. F. In the catalogue of the British Museum, "London? 1710?"
60.