"When lads and lasses merry be, With possets and with junkets fine; Unknown to all the company, I eat their cake and drink their wine; Then to make sport, I snore and snort, And all the candles out I blow; The maids I kiss; they ask who's this? I answer, laughing, ho, ho, ho! "If that my fellow elf and I In circle dance do trip it round, And if we chance, by any eye There present, to be seen or found, Then if that they do speak or say, But mummes continue as they go,[1] Then night by night I them affright, With pinches, dreams, and ho, ho, ho! "Since hag-bred Merlin's time have I Continued night-sports to and fro, That, for my pranks, men call me by The name of Robin Goodfellow. There's neither hag nor spirit doth wag, The fiends and goblins do me know; And beldames old my tales have told; Sing Vale, Vale, ho, ho, ho!" _The Latine of the foregoing verses_. "Ab Oberone lemurum Coemetriorum regulo, Spectator veni lubricum, Illius jussu, Robbio; Quodcunque joci, sit hic loci, Quocunque vado in angulo, Id speculabor, et conjocabor, Sonorem boans, ho, ho, ho! "Praeceps feror per aerem Telo trisulco citius, Et translunaria penetrem Momento brevi ocyus; Larvatus frater non vagatur Quocunque vado in angulo, Nam Robbio, huic obvio, Et facta exploro, ho, ho, ho! "Nunc canis nunc accipiter, Et homo nunc obambulo, Nunc equi forma induor Et levis circumcursito; {404} Si quis me prendat, et ascendat, Velocius aura rapio, Per prata, montes, vada, fontes, Risumque tollo, ho, ho, ho! "Cum juvenes convivio Admiscent se puellulis, Ignotus vinum haurio Et impleor bellariis; Tunc sterto, strepo, et dum crepo, Lucernam flatu adventillo, Haec basiatur; hic quis? clamatur, Cachinnans reddo, ho, ho, ho! "Si quando cum consorte larva In circulum tripudio, Et observemur nos per arva Acutiori oculo; Et si spectator eloquatur Nec os obhaeret digito, Nocte terremus et torquemus Ungue spectris, ho, ho, ho! "Post incubiginam Merlinum Nocturni feci ludicra, Et combibonem me Robbinum Vocent ob jocularia, Me daemones, me lemures, Me novite tenebrio, Decantant me veneficae; Vale! Valete! ho, ho, ho!" [Footnote 1: This line is distinctly so written. We should probably read _or_ instead of _but_. _Mummes_ may mean _mumbling_, muttering.] * * * * * FOLK LORE. DEVONSHIRE FOLK LORE.