Macmath MS., p. 96. Taken down by Mr Macmath from the recitation of his aunt, Miss Jane Webster, Crossmichael, Kirkcudbrightshire, August 27th, 1892; learned many years ago, at Airds of Kells, from the singing of Samuel Galloway. 1 The auld Deil cam to the man at the pleugh, Rumchy ae de aidie Saying, I wish ye gude luck at the making o yer sheugh. Mushy toorin an ant tan aira. 2 ‘It’s neither your oxen nor you that I crave; It’s that old scolding woman, it’s her I must have.’ 3 ‘Ye’re welcome to her wi a’ my gude heart; I wish you and her it’s never may part.’ 4 She jumped on to the auld Deil’s back, And he carried her awa like a pedlar’s pack. 5 He carried her on till he cam to hell’s door, He gaed her a kick till she landed in the floor. 6 She saw seven wee deils a sitting in a raw, She took up a mell and she murdered them a’. 7 A wee reekit deil lookit owre the wa: ‘O tak her awa, or she’ll ruin us a’.’ 8 ‘O what to do wi her I canna weel tell; She’s no fit for heaven, and she’ll no bide in hell.’ * * * * * 9 She jumpit on to the auld Deil’s back, And he carried her back like a pedlar’s pack. * * * * * 10 She was seven years gaun, and seven years comin, And she cried for the sowens she left in the pot. 279 THE JOLLY BEGGAR =A.= ‘Ther was a wife in yon toun,’ “Old Lady’s Collection,” No. 36. =B.= =a.= ‘The Jolly Beggar,’ Herd, The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 46; ed. 1776, II, 26. =b.= ‘The Jolly Beggars,’ Curious Tracts, Scotland, British Museum, 1078. m. 24. No 30 (a collection made by James Mitchell at Aberdeen in 1828). =c.= ‘The Jolly Beggar-Man,’ Macmath MS., p. 103, a fragment. =d.= The same, a fragment. I have not found this piece in any printed collection older than Herd, 1769, but it is cited in the second edition of Percy’s Reliques, 1767, II, 59 (preface to ‘The Gaberlunyie-Man’) and was known before that to Horace Walpole, who, as Percy remarks, confounds it with ‘The Gaberlunyie-Man,’ or gives it that title: Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, II, 202 f., second edition, 1759 (not mentioned in the first edition). It was probably in circulation as a flying-sheet.[93] We are regularly informed by editors that tradition imputes the authorship of both ‘The Jolly Beggar’ and ‘The Gaberlunyie-Man’ to James Fifth of Scotland. ‘The Gaberlunyie-Man’ was, so far as can be ascertained, first printed in the Tea-Table Miscellany (in 1724), and I am not aware that it is mentioned anywhere before that date. Ramsay speaks of it as an old piece, but says nothing about the authorship. The tradition as to James Fifth is, perhaps, not much older than the publication in either case, and has no more plausibility than it has authority.