27. ‘What ails ye, what ails ye, Fair Annie, That ye make sic a moan? Has your wine barrels cast the girds, Or is your white bread gone? 28. ‘O wha was’t was your father, Annie, Or wha was’t was your mother? And had ye ony sister, Annie, Or had ye ony brother?’ 29. ‘The Earl of Wemyss was my father, The Countess of Wemyss my mother; And a’ the folk about the house To me were sister and brother.’ 30. ‘If the Earl of Wemyss was your father, I wot sae he was mine; And it shall not be for lack o’ gowd That ye your love sall tyne. 31. ‘For I have seven ships o’ mine ain, A’ loaded to the brim, And I will gie them a’ to thee, Wi’ four to thine eldest son: But thanks to a’ the powers in heaven That I gae maiden hame!’ [Annotations: 15.3: ‘scoup,’ fly, hasten. 17.4: ‘had’ = haud, hold. 22.1: ‘forbye,’ apart. 24.2: ‘lilly lee,’ lovely lea. 30.4: ‘tyne,’ lose.] THE CRUEL MOTHER +The Text+ is given from Motherwell’s _Minstrelsy_, earlier versions being only fragmentary. +The Story+ has a close parallel in a Danish ballad; and another, popular all over Germany, is a variation of the same theme, but in place of the mother’s final doom being merely mentioned, in the German ballad she is actually carried away by the devil. In a small group of ballads, the penknife appears to be the ideal weapon for murder or suicide. See the _Twa Brothers_ and the _Bonny Hind_. THE CRUEL MOTHER 1. She leaned her back unto a thorn; _Three, three, and three by three_ And there she has her two babes born. _Three, three, and thirty-three_. 2. She took frae ’bout her ribbon-belt, And there she bound them hand and foot. 3. She has ta’en out her wee pen-knife, And there she ended baith their life. 4. She has howked a hole baith deep and wide, She has put them in baith side by side. 5. She has covered them o’er wi’ a marble stane, Thinking she would gang maiden hame. 6. As she was walking by her father’s castle wa’, She saw twa pretty babes playing at the ba’. 7. ‘O bonnie babes, gin ye were mine, I would dress you up in satin fine. 8. ‘O I would dress you in the silk, And wash you ay in morning milk.’ 9. ‘O cruel mother, we were thine, And thou made us to wear the twine. 10. ‘O cursed mother, heaven’s high, And that’s where thou will ne’er win nigh. 11. ‘O cursed mother, hell is deep, And there thou’ll enter step by step.’ [Annotations: 9.2: ‘twine,’ coarse cloth; _i.e._ shroud.] CHILD WATERS +The Text+ is here given from the Percy Folio, with some emendations as suggested by Child. +The Story+, if we omit the hard tests imposed on the maid’s affection, is widely popular in a series of Scandinavian ballads,--Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian; and Percy’s edition (in the _Reliques_) was popularised in Germany by Bürger’s translation.