[When we cam there, wi wee wee knichts]
30 War ladies dancing, jimp and sma;
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 unmöglichen Dingen, Erk's Liederhort, p. 334-37; Uhland, Eitle Dinge, No. 4, A, B; Wunderhorn, ii. 410.