Ballads; Great Britain -- History; Scotland -- History
Says—’Carterhaugh it is mine ain;
My daddy gave it me:
I’ll come and gang to Carterhaugh,
And ask nae leave o’ thee.’"
But Tamlane took her by the hand and worked upon her his spells, which
no maiden might resist, however proud she might be.
When she came back to her father’s hall, she looked pale and wan; and it
seemed that she had some sore sickness. She ceased to take any pleasure
in combing her yellow hair, and everything she ate seemed like to be her
death. When her ladies played at ball, she, once the strongest player,
was now the faintest. One day her father spoke out, and said he, "Full
well I know that you must have some lover." She said:—
"’If my love were an earthly knight,
As he’s an elfin grey,
I wouldna give my own true love
For no lord that ye hae.’"
Then she prinked herself, and preened herself, all by the light of the
moon alone, and went away to Carterhaugh, to speak with Tamlane. When
she got to the well, she found the steed standing, but Tamlane was away.
She had barely pulled a double rose, when up started the elf.
"Why pull ye the rose, Janet?" says he; "why pull ye the rose within
this garden green?" "The truth ye’ll tell me, Tamlane; were ye ever in
holy chapel, or received into the Christian Church?" "The truth I’ll
tell thee, Janet; a knight was my father, and a lady was my mother, like
your own parents. Randolph, Earl Moray, was my sire; Dunbar, Earl
March, is thine. We loved when we were children, which yet you may
remember. When I was a boy just turned nine, my uncle sent for me to
hunt, and hawk, and ride with him, and keep him company. There came a
wind out of the north, a deep sleep came over me, and I fell from my
horse. The queen of the fairies took me off to yon green hill, and now
I’m a fairy, lithe and limber. In Fairyland we know neither sickness
nor pain. We quit our body, or repair unto them, when we please. We can
inhabit, earth, or air, as we will. Our shapes and size we can convert
to either large or small. We sleep in rose-buds, revel in the stream,
wanton lightly on the wind, or glide on a sunbeam. I would never tire,
Janet, to dwell in Elfland, were it not that every seven years a tithe
is paid to hell, and I am so fair of flesh, I fear ’twill be myself. If
you dare to win your true love, you have no time to lose. To-night is
Hallowe’en, and the fairy folk ride. If you would win your true love,
bide at Miles Cross." Miles Cross is about half a mile from
Carterhaugh, and Janet asked how she should know Tamlane among so many
unearthly knights. "The first company that passes by, let them go. The
next company that passes by, let them go. The third company that passes
by, I’ll be one of those. First let pass the black steed, Janet, then
let pass the brown; but grip the milk-white steed, and pull down the
rider—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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