silk mantil the waft gaed never through;
A sparrow's horn ye soon may find, there's ane on ev'ry claw,
And twa upo' the gab o' it, and ye shall get them a'.

14.
'The priest he stands without the yett, just ready to come in;
Nae man can say he e'er was born, nae man without he sin;
He was haill cut frae his mither's side, and frae the same let fa':
Sae we'll baith lie in ae bed, and ye'se lie at the wa'.'

15.
'O haud awa' frae me, kind sir, I pray don't me perplex,
For I'll na lie in your bed till ye answer questions six:
Questions six ye maun answer me, and that is four and twa,
Before I lie in your bed, at either stock or wa'.

16.
'O what is greener than the gress, what's higher than thae trees?
O what is worse than women's wish, what's deeper than the seas?
What bird craws first, what tree buds first, what first does on
them fa'?
Before I lie in your bed, at either stock or wa'.'

17.
'Death is greener than the gress, heaven higher than thae trees;
The devil's waur than women's wish, hell's deeper than the seas;
The cock craws first, the cedar buds first, dew first on them
does fa';
Sae we'll baith lie in ae bed, and ye'se lie at the wa','

18.
Little did this lady think, that morning whan she raise,
That this was for to be the last o' a' her maiden days.
But there's na into the king's realm to be found a blither twa,
And now she's Mrs. Wedderburn, and she lies at the wa'.

[Annotations:
2.4: The 'stock' of a bed is the outer side, and the 'wa''
(= wall) the inner. Ancient beds were made like boxes with the
outer side cut away.
7.1: 'quartering-house,' lodging-house.
9.3: 'gaw,' gall. It is an ancient superstition that the dove or
pigeon has no gall, the fact being that the gall-bladder is
absent. See Sir Thomas Browne's _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_, iii. 3.
10.3: 'genty,' neat, limber. --Jamieson.
14.1: 'yett,' gate.]

THE ELPHIN KNIGHT

+The Text+ is from a broadside in black letter in the Pepysian Library
at Cambridge; bound up at the end of a book published in 1673.

+The Story+ of this ballad but poorly represents the complete form of
the story as exhibited in many German and other ballads, where alternate
bargaining and riddling ensues between a man and a maid. This long
series of ballads is akin to the still longer series in which the person
upon whom an impossible task is imposed