illed with gold and precious jewelry,
the richest she had ever seen. "All these," she said to the eldest
dochter, "I will give you, on condition that you put off your marriage
for ae day, and allow me to go into his room alone at night." So
the lady consented; but meanwhile the auld wife had prepared a
sleeping-drink, and given it to the knight, wha drank it, and never
wakened till next morning. The lee-lang night ther damosel sabbed and
sang:
"Seven lang years I served for thee,
The glassy hill I clamb for thee,
The bluidy shirt I wrang for thee;
And wilt thou no wauken and turn to me?"
Next day she kentna what to do for grief. She then brak the pear, and
found it filled wi' jewelry far richer than the contents o' the apple.
Wi' thae jewels she bargained for permission to be a second night in
the young knight's chamber; but the auld wife gied him anither
sleeping-drink, and he again sleepit till morning. A' night she kept
sighing and singing as before:
"Seven lang years I served for thee," &c. Still he sleepit, and she
nearly lost hope a'thegither. But that day when he was out at the
hunting, somebody asked him what noise and moaning was yon they heard
all last night in his bedchamber. He said he heardna ony noise. But they
assured him there was sae; and he resolved to keep waking that night
to try what he could hear. That being the third night, and the damosel
being between hope and despair, she brak her plum, and it held far the
richest jewelry of the three. She bargained as before; and the auld
wife, as before, took in the sleeping-drink to the young knight's
chamber; but he telled her he couldna drink it that night without
sweetening. And when she gaed awa' for some honey to sweeten it wi', he
poured out the drink, and sae made the auld wife think he had drunk it.
They a' went to bed again, and the damosel began, as before, singing:
"Seven lang years I served for thee,
The glassy hill I clamb for thee,
The bluidy shirt I wrang for thee;
And wilt thou no wauken and turn to me?"
He heard, and turned to her. And she telled him a' that had befa'en her,
and he telled her a' that had happened to him. And he caused the auld
washerwife and her dochter to be burned. And they were married, and he
and she are living happy till this day, for aught I ken.(1)
(1) Chambers, Popular Traditions of Scotland.
THE RED ETIN
There were ance twa widows that lived on a small bit o' ground, w
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