THE WATER O' WEARIE'S WELL.
From Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, ii. 201. Repeated in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, Percy Society, xvii. 63.
The three ballads which follow, diverse as they may now appear, after undergoing successive corruptions, were primarily of the same type. In the first (which may be a compound of two ballads, like the preceding, the conclusion being taken from a story of the character of May Colvin in the next volume) the Merman or Nix may be easily recognized: in the second he is metamorphosed into the Devil; and in the third, into a ghost. Full details upon the corresponding Scandinavian, German, and Slavic legends, are given by Grundtvig, in the preface to Noekkens Svig, Danmarks G. Folkeviser, ii. 57: translated by Jamieson, i. 210, and by Monk Lewis, Tales of Wonder, No. 11.
There came a bird out o' a bush,
On water for to dine;
And sighing sair, says the king's daughter,
"O waes this heart o' mine!"
5 He's taen a harp into his hand,
He's harped them all asleep;
Except it was the king's daughter,
Who ae wink cou'dna get.
He's luppen on his berry-brown steed,
10 Taen her on behind himsell;
Then baith rade down to that water,
That they ca' Wearie's well.
"Wide in, wide in, my lady fair,
Nae harm shall thee befall;
15 Aft times hae I water'd my steed,
Wi' the water o' Wearie's well."
The first step that she stepped in,
She stepped to the knee;
And sighing sair, says this lady fair,
20 "This water's nae for me."
"Wide in, wide in, my lady fair,
Nae harm shall thee befall;
Aft times hae I water'd my steed,
Wi' the water o' Wearie's well."