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 enquiries. "There was a third way of consulting, which was a confirmation of the second above mentioned. The 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 enquired 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. "Mr. Alexander Cooper, present minister of North-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. The reader may have met with the story of the "King of the Cats," in Lord Littleton's Letters. It is well known in the Highlands as a nursery tale. NOTE K. Alice Brand.-P. 168. This little fairy tale is founded upon a very curious Danish ballad, which occurs in the Kæmpe viser, a collection of heroic songs, first published in 1594, 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 Kæmpe Viser. Which may have been the originals, will be a question for future antiquaries. 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 Vester 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 Der ligger en vold i Vester Haf, Hand forer did baadè hog og hund, 1. There liggs a wold In Wester Haf, There a busbande means to bigg, And thither he carries baith hawk and hound, There meaning the winter to ligg. (The wild deer and daes i'the shaw out.) 2. He taks wi' him baith bound and cock, The langer he means to stay, The wild deer in the shaws that are May sairly rue the day. (The wild deer, etc.) 3. He's hew'd the beech, and he's fell'd the aik, Sae bas be the poplar gray; And grim in mood was the grewsome elf, That be sae bald he may. 4. lle hew'd him kipples, he hew'd him bawks, Wi' mickle moil and haste; Syne speer'd the Elf i' the knock that bade, "Wha's hacking here sae fast? 5. Syne up and spak the weiest Elf, Crean'd as an immert sma: "It's here is come a Christian man ; I'll fley him or be ga." 6. It's up syne started the firsten Elf, And glowr'd about sae grim : "It's we'll awa to the husbande's house, And bald a court on him. 7. "Here hews be down balth skugg and shaw, And works us skaith and scorn: His buswife be sall gie to me; They's rue the day they were born!" 8. The Elfen a'i' the knock that were, Gaed dancing in a string; They nigbed near the husband's house; 9. The hound be yowls i' the yard, The herd toots in his horn; The earn scraichs, and the cock craws, As the husbande had gi'en bim his corn.' 10. The Elfen were five score and seven, Sae laidly and sae grim; And they the husbande's guests maun be, 11. The husbande, out o' Villenshaw, 12. In every nook a cross he coost, In his chalmer maist ava; The Elfen a' were fley'd thereat, And flew to the wild-wood shaw. 'This singular quatrain stands thus in the original : "Hunden hand gior i gaarden; Hlorden tudè i sit horn; OErnen skriger, og hanen galer, Som bonden hafdè gifvet sit korn." 43. And some flew east, and some flew west, And some they flew to the deep dale down, 14. It was then the weiest Elf, In at the door braids he; Agast was the husbaude, for that Elf For cross nor sign wad flee. 15. The huswife she was a canny wife, She set before him baith ale and meat, 16. "Hear thou, Gudeman o' Villenshaw, What now I say to thee; Wha bade thee bigg within our bounds, 17. "But, an thou in cur bounds will bigg. Then thou thy dearest huswife maun To me for a lemman gie." 18. Up spak the luckless husbande then, As God the grace him gae : "Eline she is to me sae dear, Her thou may nae-gate hae." In the Danish : "Sommè floyè oster, og sommè floyé vester, Nogle floyè nor paa; Nogle floyé ned i dybenè dalè, Jeg troer de erè der endnu." |
