298 b, second paragraph. "In an unpublished story of the Monferrato, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, a beautiful girl, when plucking up a cabbage, sees under its roots a large room, goes down into it, and finds a serpent there, who promises to make her fortune if she will kiss him and sleep with him. The girl consents. After three months the serpent begins to assume the legs of a man, then a man's body, and finally the face of a handsome youth, the son of a king, and marries his young deliverer." De Gubernatis, Zoölogical Mythology, II, 418. G. L. K.
34. Kemp Owyne.
P. 307 f. Caspar Decurtius, Märchen aus dem Bündner Oberlande, nach dem Räto-Romanischen erzählt, Jecklin, Volksthümliches aus Graubünden, Zürich, 1874, p. 126, has a tale of a Schlangenjungfrau who is a maid by day and a serpent by night, and is disenchanted by three kisses. G. L. K.
311. The Rev. Robert Lambe sent Percy, under date of January 29, 1768, "the best copy of 'The Laidley Worm' that he could procure from many incorrect, imperfect, and nonsensical ones." There are differences between this and the copy printed in Hutchinson,[188] but one is about as good as the other. In this earlier copy 2 follows 3 and 37 is wanting. 6 and 7 read:
O up then spake the queen herself:
Who's this that welcoms me?
A lord replied, The king's daughter,
The flower of the North Country.
'Wo be to thee, thou gray-haird man,
Thou mightst have excepted me;
Before the morn at this same time
I'll bring her to low degree.'
And 17, 22:
He straightway built a bonny ship,
And set her on the sea;
Her sails were made of silk so fine,
Her masts of rowan-tree.
The hags came back, finding their charms
Most powerfully withstood;
For warlocks, witches, cannot work
Where there is rowan-tree wood.