ening. Willie does so (in stanzas lost between our 33 and 34); the
witch, believing the wax-baby to be flesh and blood, betrays all her
craft by asking who has loosed the knots, ta'en out the kaims, ta'en
down the woodbine, etc., these being the magic rites by which she has
suspended birth. Willie instantly looses the knots and takes out the
kaims, and his wife presents him with a bonny young son.

The story is common in Danish ballads, and occasional in Swedish. In the
classics, Juno (Hera) on two occasions delayed childbirth and cheated
Ilithyia, the sufferers being Latona and Alcmene. But the latest version
of the story is said to have occurred in Arran in the nineteenth
century. A young man, forsaking his sweetheart, married another maiden,
who when her time came suffered exceedingly. A packman who chanced to be
passing heard the tale and suspected the cause. Going to the discarded
sweetheart, he told her that her rival had given birth to a fine child;
thereupon she sprang up, pulled a large nail out of the beam, and called
to her mother, 'Muckle good your craft has done!' The labouring wife was
delivered forthwith. (See _The Folklore Record_, vol. ii. p. 117.)

WILLIE'S LADY

1.
Willie has taen him o'er the fame,
He's woo'd a wife and brought her hame.

2.
He's woo'd her for her yellow hair,
But his mother wrought her mickle care,

3.
And mickle dolour gard her dree,
For lighter she can never be.

4.
But in her bower she sits wi' pain,
And Willie mourns o'er her in vain.

5.
And to his mother he has gone,
That vile rank witch of vilest kind.

6.
He says: 'My ladie has a cup
Wi' gowd and silver set about.

7.
'This goodlie gift shall be your ain,
And let her be lighter o' her young bairn.'

8.
'Of her young bairn she'll ne'er be lighter,
Nor in her bower to shine the brighter.

9.
'But she shall die and turn to clay,
And you shall wed another may.'

10.
'Another may I'll never wed,
Another may I'll ne'er bring home.'

11.
But sighing says that weary wight,
'I wish my life were at an end.'

12.
'Ye doe [ye] unto your mother again,
That vile rank witch of vilest kind.

13.
'And say your ladie has a steed,
The like o' 'm's no in the lands of Leed.

14.
'For he's golden shod before,
And he's golden shod behind.

15.
'And at ilka tet of that horse's main
There's a golden chess and a bell r