aun not be touched by thee,
For a' the plagues that are in hell
Light on the fruit of this countrie.

10.
'But I have a loaf here in my lap,
Likewise a bottle of claret wine,
And now ere we go farther on,
We'll rest a while, and ye may dine.'

11.
When he had eaten and drunk his fill;
'Lay down your head upon my knee,'
The lady sayd, 'ere we climb yon hill,
And I will show you fairlies three.

12.
'O see not ye yon narrow road,
So thick beset wi' thorns and briers?
That is the path of righteousness,
Tho' after it but few enquires.

13.
'And see not ye that braid braid road,
That lies across yon lillie leven?
That is the path of wickedness,
Tho' some call it the road to heaven.

14.
'And see not ye that bonny road,
Which winds about the fernie brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland,
Where you and I this night maun gae.

15.
'But, Thomas, ye maun hold your tongue,
Whatever you may hear or see,
For gin ae word you should chance to speak,
You will ne'er get back to your ain countrie.'

16.
He has gotten a coat of the even cloth,
And a pair of shoes of velvet green,
And till seven years were past and gone
True Thomas on earth was never seen.

[Annotations:
2.3: 'tett,' lock or bunch of hair.
7: 7 is 15 in the MS.
8.2: 'garden': '_golden green_, if my copy is right.' --Child.
11.4: 'fairlies,' marvels.
13.2: 'lillie leven,' smooth lawn set with lilies.
16.1: 'even cloth,' cloth with the nap worn off.]

THE QUEEN OF ELFAN'S NOURICE

+The Text.+--As printed in Sharpe's Ballad Book, from the Skene MS.
(No. 8). It is fragmentary--regrettably so, especially as stanzas 10-12
belong to _Thomas Rymer_.

+The Story+ is the well-known one of the abduction of a young mother to
be the Queen of Elfland's nurse. Fairies, elves, water-sprites, and
nisses or brownies, have constantly required mortal assistance in the
nursing of fairy children. Gervase of Tilbury himself saw a woman stolen
away for this purpose, as she was washing clothes in the Rhone.

The genuineness of this ballad, deficient as it is, is best proved by
its lyrical nature, which, as Child says, 'forces you to chant, and will
not be read.'

'Elfan,' of course, is Elfland; 'nourice,' a nurse.

THE QUEEN OF ELFAN'S NOURICE

1.
'I heard a cow low, a bonnie cow low,
An' a cow low down in y