<< The second way of consulting the oracle was by a❘ party of men, who first retired to solitary places, remote from any house, and there they singled out one of their number, and wrapt him in a big cow's hide, which they folded about him; his whole body was covered with it except his head, and so left in this posture all night, until his invisible friends relieved him, by giving a proper answer to the question in hand; which he received, as he fancied, from several persons that he found about him all that time. His consorts returned to him at the break of day, and then he communicated his news to them; which often proved fatal to those concerned in such unwarrantable inquiries. The << There was a third way of consulting, which was a confirmation of the second above-mentioned. same company who put the man into the hide took a live cat, and put him on a spit: one of the number was employed to turn the spit, and one of his consorts inquired of him, What are you doing? he answered, I roast this cat, until his friends answer the question; which must be the same that was proposed by the man shut up in the hide. And afterwards, a very big cat comes, attended by a number of lesser cats, desiring to relieve the cat turned upon the spit, and then answers the question. If this answer proved the same that was given to the man in the hide, then it was taken as a confirmation of the other, which, in this case, was believed infallible. of all he could drive away, and among the spoil was a bull of the old Scottish wild breed, whose ferocity occasioned great plague to the Ketterans. <<< But ere we had reached the Row of Dennan» said the old man, « a child might have scratched his ears.>> The circumstance is a minute one, but it paints the times when the poor beeve was compelled To hoof it o'er as many weary miles, With goading pikemen hollowing at his heel, « Mr Alexander Cooper, present minister of North-lemnity among our ancestors, but nothing was more Vist, told me that one John Erach, in the Isle of Lewis, assured him, it was his fate to have been led by his curiosity with some who consulted this oracle, and that he was a night within the hide, as above-mentioned; during which time he felt and heard such terrible things, that he could not express them: the impression it made on him was such as could never go off, and he said for a thousand worlds he would never again be concerned in the like performance, for this had disordered him to a high degree. He confessed it ingenuously, and with an air of great remorse, and seemed to be very penitent under a just sense of so great a crime; he declared this about five years since, and is still living in the Lewis, for any thing I know.»-Description of the Western Isles, p. 110. See also PENNANT'S Scottish Tour, vol. II, p. 361. Note 2. Stanza iv. The choicest of the prey we bad, When swept our merry-men Gallangad. so than the mode of cutting up, or, as it was technically called, breaking, the slaughtered stag. The forester had his allotted portion; the hounds had a certain allowance; and, to make the division as general as possible, the very birds had their share also. <<< There is a little gristle,» says Tuberville, « which is upon the spoone of the brisket, which we call the raven's bone; and I have seen in some places a raven so wont and accustomed to it, that she would never fail to croak and cry for it all the time you were in breaking up of the deer, and would not depart till she had it.»' In the very ancient metrical romance of Sir Tristrem, that peerless knight, who is said to have been the very deviser of all rules of chase, did not omit this ceremony: The raven he yaf his yiftes The raven might also Sir Tristrem, ad edition, p. 34. challenge his rights by the for thus says Dame Juliana Slitteth anon I know not if it be worth observing, that this passage The bely to the side from the corbyn bone; Jonson, in «< The Sad Shepherd,» gives a more poci The reader may have met with the story of the King of the Cats, in Lord Lyttleton's Letters. It is well known in the Highlands as a nursery-tale. Marian. He that undoes him Marian. Now o'er head sat a raven 1 This anecdote was, in former editions, inaccurately ascribed to Gregor Macgregor of Glengyle, called Ghiune Dhu, or Black-knee. a relation of Rob Roy, but, as I have been assured, not addicted to his predatory excesses. Note 5. Stanza vi. Which spills the foremost foeman's life, That party conquers in the strife. It Though this be in the text described as a response of the Taghairm, or Oracle of the Hide, it was of itself an augury frequently attended to. The fate of the battle was often anticipated in the imagination of the combatants, by observing which party first shed blood. is said that the Highlanders under Montrose were so deeply imbued with this notion, that on the morning of the battle of Tippermoor, they murdered a defenceless herdsman, whom they found in the fields, merely to secure an advantage of so much consequence to their party. Note 6. Stanza xii. Alice Brand. This little fairy tale is founded upon a very curious Danish ballad, which occurs in the KIEMPE VISER, a collection of heroic songs, first published in 1591, and reprinted in 1695, inscribed by Anders Sofrensen, the collector and editor, to Sophia Queen of Denmark. I have been favoured with a literal translation of the original, by my learned friend Mr Robert Jamieson, whose deep knowledge of Scandinavian antiquities will, I hope, one day be displayed in illustration of the history of Scottish Ballad and Song, for which no man possesses more ample materials. The story will remind the readers of the Border Minstrelsy of the tale of Young Tamlane. But this is only a solitary and not very marked instance of coincidence, whereas several of the other ballads in the same collection find exact counterparts in the KIEMPE VISER. Which may have been the originals will be a question for future antiquarians. Mr Jamieson, to secure the power of literal translation, has adopted the old Scottish idiom, which approaches so near to that of the Danish, as almost to give word for word, as well as line for line, and indeed in many verses the orthography alone is altered. As Wester Haf, mentioned in the first stanza of the ballad, means the West Sea, in opposition to the Baltic, or East Sea, Mr Jamieson inclines to be of opinion, that the scene of the disenchantment is laid in one of the Orkney or Hebride Islands. To each verse in the original is added a burden, having a kind of meaning of its own, but not applicable, at least not uniformly applicable, to the sense of the stanza to which it is subjoined: this is very common both in Danish and Scottish song. THE ELFIN GRAY. TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH KÆMPE VISER, p. 143, AND FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1591. Der ligger an vold i Vester Haf, Der agter en bondè at biggè: Hand forer did baade hog og hund, Og agter dar om vinteren at liggè. (DE VILDE DIUR Og diurene udi sCOFVEN.) There liggs a wold in Wester Haf, There a husbande means to bigg, And thither he carries baith bawk and hound, There meaning the winter to ligg. (The wild deer and daes i' the shaw out.) He taks wi' him baith hound and cock, The wild deer in the shaws that are (The wild deer, etc.) It was then the weiest elf, In at the door braids he; The huswife she was a canny wife, She set before him baith ale and meat, Hear thou, Gudeman o' Villenshaw, Wha bade thee bigg within our bounds, . But, an thou in our bounds will bigg, And bide, as well as may be, Then thou thy dearest huswife maun Up spak the luckless husbande then, As God the grace him gae: Eline she is to me sae dear, Her thou may nagate hae." Till the elf he answer'd as he couth; And tak whate'er o' gude or gear Is mine, awa wi' thee." Then I'll thy Eline tak, and thee The husbande and his househald a' Far better that she be now forfairn, Up, will of rede, the husbande stood Then blyth grew he, aud sprang about; The rud it left her comely cheek; A waefu' woman then she was ane, And the moody tears loot fa': ■ God rew on me, unseely wife, How hard a wierd I fa! My fay I plight to the fairest wight He minted ance-he minted twice, Syne the laidliest fiend he grew that e'er When he the thirden time can mint, To Mary's son she pray'd, And the laidly elf was clean awa, And a fair knight in his stead. This fell under a linden green, That again his shape he found; O' wae and care was the world nae mair, A' were sae glad that stound. "O dearest Eline, hear thou this, And a' the goud in merry England Whan I was a little wee bairn, My mither died me frae; My stepmither sent me awa frae her; I turn'd till an elfin gray. To thy husband I a gift will gie, Thou nobil knyght, we thank now God Syne I to thee na maik can be, My dochter may be thine; And thy gude will right to fulfill, Lat this be our propine.» "I thanke thee, Eline, thou wise woman My praise thy worth shall hae; And thy love gin I fail to win, Thou here at hame sall stay." The husbande biggit now on his oe, And nae ane wrought him wrang; His dochter wore crown in Engeland, And happy lived and lang. St. Now Eline the husbande's huswife has Cour'd a' her grief and harms; She's mither to a noble queen That sleeps in a kingis arms. GLOSSARY. 1. Wold, a wood; woody fastness. Husbande, from the Dan. hos, with, and bonde, a villain, or bondsman, who was a cultivator of the ground, and could not quit the estate to which he was attached, without the permission of his lord. This is the sense of the word, in the old Scottish records. In the Scottish << Burghe Laws,» translated from the Reg. Majest. (Auchinleck MS. in the Adv. Lib.) it is used indiscriminately with the Dan. and Swed. bonde. Bigg, build. Ligg, lie. Daes, does. 2. Shaw, wood. Sairly, sorely. 3. Aik, oak. Grousome, terrible. Bald, bold. 4. Kipples (couples), beams jointed at the top, for supporting a roof in building. Bawks, balks; cross beams. Moil, laborious industry. Speer'd, asked. Knock, hillock. 5. Weiest, smallest. Crean'd, shrunk, diminished; from the Gaelic, crian, very small. Immert, emmit; ant. Christian, used in the Danish ballads, etc. in contradistinction to demoniac, as it is in England, in contradistinction to brute; in which sense, a person of the lower class in England would call a Jew or a Turk a Christian. Fley, frighten. 6. Glowr'd, stared. Hald, hold. 7. Skugg, shade. Skaith, harm. 8. Nighed, approached. 9. Yowls, howls. Toots-in the Dan. tude, 11. Winnock, window. 13. Norwart, northward. Bide, abide. 18. Nagate, nowise. starved is with us); brought to a dying state. It is used by our old comedians. Harm, grief; as in the original, and in the old Teutonic, English, and Scottish poetry. 24. Waefu', woeful. Moody, strongly and wilfully passionate, Rew, take ruth; pity. Unseely, unhappy; unblest. Wierd, fate. Fa (Icel. Dan. and Swed.), take; get; acquire; procure; have for my lot.This Gothic verb answers, in its direct and secondary significations, exactly to the Latin capio; and Allan Ramsay was right in his definition of it. It is quite a different word from fa', an abbreviation of fall, or befall; and is the principal root in FANGEN, to fang, take, or lay hold of. 25. Fay, faith. El, an elf. This term, in the Welch, signifies what has in itself the power of motion; a moving principle; an intelligence; a spirit; an angel. In the Hebrew, it bears the same import. 26. Minted, attempted; meant; showed a mind, or intention to. The original is : <«< and mindte, hende forst -og anden gang;Hun giordis i hiortet sa vee: End blef hand den lediste deifvel Mand kunde med oyen see. Der hand vil de minde den 28. Stound, hour; time; moment. 29. Merry (old. Teut. mere), famous; renown- the 31. Mends, amends; recompense. 33. Maik, match; peer; equal. Propine, pledge; gift. 35. oe, an island of the second magnitude; an island of the first magnitude being called a land, and one of the third magnitude a holm. 36. Cour'd, recovered. THE GHAIST'S WARNING. TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH KÆMPE VISER, p. 721. By the permission of Mr Jamieson, this ballad is added from the same curious collection. It contains some passages of great pathos. Svend Dyring hand ridar sig op under oè, (Varè jeg selver ung) Der fæste hand sig saa ven en moè, (Mig lyster udi lunden at ridè,) etc. Child Dyring has ridden him up under oe.1 1. Under oe."-The original expression has been preserved here and elsewhere, because no other could be found to supply its place. There is just as much meaning in it in the translation as in the original; but it is a standard Danish ballad phrase; and as such, it is hoped, will be allowed to pass. There wedded he him sae fair1 a may. And they seven bairns hae gotten in fere. Sae Death's come there intil that stead, That swain he has ridden him up under oe, He's married a may, and he 's fessen her hame; When into the castell court drave she, Nor ale nor mead to the bairnies she gave, That wife can stand up at our Lord's knee, And thou sall come back when the cock does craw, For thou nae langer sall bide awa.» Wi' her banes sae stark, a bowt she gae; Whan near to the dwalling she can gang, "Why stand ye here, dear dochter mine? Forsooth ye 're a woman baith fair and fine; But ye are nae dear mither of mine." « Och! how should I be fine or fair? My cheek it is pale, and the ground's my lair.» My mither was white, wi' lire sae red; Och! how should I be white and red, She buskit the tane, and she brush'd it there; The thirden she doodl'd upon her knee. She's ta'en the fiften upon her lap, Till her eldest dochter syne said she, When he cam till the chalmer in, « I left you routh o' ale and bread; Up spak little Kirstin in bed that lay: To my bairnies I'll do the best I may." Aye whan the dog did wow, in haste They cross'd and sain'd themsells frae the ghaist. Aye whan the little dog yowl'd wi' fear, They shook at the thought that the dead was near. or, (Fair words sae mony a heart they cheer.) GLOSSARY. Winsome, engaging; giving joy (old Teut.). 4. Syne, then. 5. Fessen, fetched; brought. 6. Drave, drove. 7. Dule, sorrow. Dout, fear. like that of a bolt or ar- Wa', wall. 17. Wow'd, howled. 18. Yett, gate. 19. Sma, small. 22. Lire, complexion. published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the most valuable part of which was supplied by my learned and indefatigable friend Dr John Leyden, most of the circumstances are collected which can throw light upon the popular belief which even yet prevails respecting them in Scotland. Dr Graham, author of an entertaining work upon the Scenery of the Perthshire Highlands, already frequently quoted, has recorded, with great accuracy, the peculiar tenets held by the Highlanders on this topic, in the vicinity of Loch Katrine, The learned author is inclined to deduce the whole mythology from the druidical system,-an opinion to which there are many objections. << The Daoine Shi', or Men of Peace of the Highlanders, though not absolutely malevolent, are believed to be a peevish, repining race of beings, who possessing themselves but a scanty portion of happiness, are supposed to envy mankind their more complete and substantial enjoyments. They are supposed to enjoy, in their subterraneous recesses, a sort of shadowy happiness,-a tinsel grandeur, which, however, they would willingly exchange for the more solid joys of mortality. They are believed to inhabit certain round grassy eminences, where they celebrate their nocturnal [festivities by the light of the moon. About a mile beyond the source of the Forth, above Loch Con, there is a place called Coirshi'an, or the Cove of the Men of Peace, which is still supposed to be a favourite place of their residence. In the neighbourhood are to be seen many round conical eminences; particularly one, near the head of the lake, by the skirts of which many are still afraid to pass after sunset. It is believed, that if on Lift, sky; firmament; air. Hallow-eve, any person, alone, goes round one of these hills nine times, towards the left hand (sinistrorsum), a door shall open, by which he will be admitted into their subterraneous abodes. Many, it is said, of mortal race have been entertained in their secret recesses. There they have been received into the most splendid apartments, and regaled with the most sumptuous banquets, and delicious wines. Their females surpass the daughters of men in beauty. The seemingly happy inhabitants pass their time in festivity, and in dancing to notes of the softest music. But unhappy is the mortal who joins in their joys, or ventures to partake of their dainties. By this indulgence, he forfeits for ever the society of men, and is bound down irrevocably to the condition of a Shi'ich or man of peace. 9. Bowster, bolster; cush- 25. Buskit, dressed. ion; bed. Blae, blue. Strae, straw. Kem'd, combed. 10. Groff, great; large in Quail, are quelled; die. girt. Need, want. 31. Ahind, Behind. Note 7. Stanza xiii. Up spoke the moody elfin king, Who won'd within the hill. In a long dissertation upon the fairy superstition, << A woman, as is reported in the Highland tradition, was conveyed, in days of yore, into the secret recesses of the men of peace. There she was recognized by one who had formerly been an ordinary mortal, but who had, by some fatality, become associated with the Schi'ichs. This acquaintance, still retaining some portion of human benevolence, warned her of her dauger, and counseiled her, as she valued her liberty, to abstain from eating and drinking with them, for a certain space of time. She complied with the counsel of her friend; and when the period assigned was elapsed, she found herself again upon earth, restored to the society of mortals. It is added, that when she examined the viands, which had been presented to her, and which had appeared so tempting to the eye, they were found, now that the enchantment was removed, to consist only of the refuse of the earth.»-P. 107-111. |