d marvell'd much that bonny boy
To see their lovely hue.

"What's paler than the prymrose wan?
"What's redder than the rose?
"What's fairer than the lilye flower
"On this wee know[B] that grows?"

O out and answered Jellon Grame,
And he spak hastelie--
"Your mother was a fairer flower,
"And lies beneath this tree.

"More pale she was, when she sought my grace,
"Than prymrose pale and wan;
"And redder than rose her ruddy heart's blood,
"That down my broad sword ran."

Wi' that the boy has bent his bow,
It was baith stout and lang;
And thro' and thro' him, Jellon Grame,
He gar'd an arrow gang.

Says--"Lie ye there, now, Jellon Grame!
"My malisoun gang you wi'!
"The place my mother lies buried in
"Is far too good for thee."

[Footnote A: Silverwood, mentioned in this ballad, occurs in a medley
MS song, which seems to have been copied from the first edition of the
Aberdeen caurus, _penes_ John G. Dalyell, esq. advocate. One line only
is cited, apparently the beginning of some song:

Silverwood, gin ye were mine.]

[Footnote B: _Wee know_--Little hillock.]

WILLIE'S LADYE.

ANCIENT COPY.

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

Mr Lewis, in his _Tales of Wonder_, has presented the public with a copy
of this ballad, with additions and alterations. The editor has also seen
a copy, containing some modern stanzas, intended by Mr Jamieson, of
Macclesfield, for publication in his Collection of Scottish Poetry. Yet,
under these disadvantages, the editor cannot relinquish his purpose of
publishing the old ballad, in its native simplicity, as taken from Mrs
Brown of Faulkland's MS.

Those, who wish to know how an incantation, or charm, of the distressing
nature here described, was performed in classic days, may consult the
story of Galanthis's Metamorphosis, in Ovid, or the following passage in
Apuleius: _"Eadem (Saga scilicet quaedam), amatoris uxorem, quod in sibi
dicacule probrum dixerat, jam in sarcinam praegnationis, obsepto utero,
et repigrato faetu, perpetua praegnatione damnavit. Et ut cuncti
numerant, octo annorum onere, misella illa, velut elephantum paritura,
distenditur."_--APUL. Metam. lib. 1.

There is also a curious tale about a count of Westeravia, whom a
deserted concubine bewitched upon his marriage, so as to preclude all
hopes of his becoming a father. The spell continued to operate for
three years, till one day, the count happening to meet wit