AULD SCOTS BALLANTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6383, 4 December 1907, Page 2

AULD SCOTS BALLANTS.

(By Robert Hogg.)

Oa one of the fev exceptionally fine days in tlie mouth of October, being fortunate enough to obain a day e release from the toil and moil of life. I eagerly sped away to spend a few hours in a lovely hit of bushlaud overlooking Wellington hartjour. It is not, however, my intention to enter into a description of mv spring holiday on tho hillside the blythesome birds, tho crooning creeks, tho arometio breath of burning buds, tho cheery voices of tho workers in the valley beyond, and the thousand and one like joys that charm the senses on such a day. As is the wont of many on such rambles, I carried with me my indispensable volume, on this occasion “Auid Scots Ballante," which a friend of other days had sent roe from the "laud of my fathers.” It is of -hie volume, or rather the pleasure I derived from it, of which I am about to speak. _ . . On reaching my favourite spot, I tat down and opened my “beuk. Jew ct tho "ballants” which it contained wore new to me, but these few gave me so much pleasure that since that first reading of them I have, once and ( again, lengthened my days by stealing a few hours from the .night" to renew ray acquaintanc© with them. Those that wero old were old favourites, and right glad was I to meet with them again, th© more welcome, mayhap, in that it Vet? so far from tho land of f their nativity and of min©. How vividly I recall my first reading, or, to speak correctly, my first hearing my old schoolmaster (a gentleman of fin© poetical sensibility -and himself a “makfear of the best grit and taste) read those weird, uncanny stories! How my young heart throbbed for the woes of ‘Sir James the Rose” and “Sir Patrick Spcns I And there in that volume that day 1 rc-rcad those and others, and enjoyed them as much as ever I did in the years gone by. What marvelous adventures bv land and sea do tney chronicle] What wonderful deeds of ' darting do, in love and life, in peace and war! Hairbreath 'scapes, mysterious doing* of spirits, brownies, wator-kelpies, goblins, witches, fairies, and eo forth. The volume lies before m© as ,1 write. 1 pton and open it, and again read the unco story of “Young Tamlane." “Young Tamlane," th© son of Earl Murray, w© are informed, had been spirited away by the fairies, and had grown to manhood under their spellThe favourite rendezvous of this < band of fairies was Caxtcrhaugh, a plain, at th© conflux of the Ettrick and the Yarrow, in Selkirkshire, and Janet, the fair daughter of Earl March,.heroine of tho ballad, was strictly forbidden to venture near the place. Prompted by curiosity, however,

She has kilted her green mantl© A little ahune her knee; And eh© has braided her yellow hair A little abuno her bree. She has prink'd herseT, and preen'd hertcT,

By the a© licht o' the mune. And she's awa' to Carterhaugh.— .And, of course, meets “Tnmlane." and falls in love with him, as he with her. Yet she had some misgivings, and so she pleads with him to tell her how he came to bo a fairy, promising to do so .without “a word" of a “lee. ' “Tamlane" gives tho necessary promise, and proceeds— When I was a boy just turned of nine, My uncle sent for me. To hunt and hawk and ride wi him. And keep him companie. There cam' a win' oot o' the north, A sharp win' and a snell. And a died sleep cam' over me And frae my horse I fell.

The Queen o' fairies keppit me, In yon green hill to dwell. I am a fairy, lith and limb. Fair, lady view me well.. But we that live in Fairyland

No sickness know, nor pain, I quit my body when I will, And take it back again. , We sleep in rosebuds, .soft and sweet, We rovel in the stream, . W© wanton llchtly on the win'. Or ride on a sunbeam.

But life in Fairyland, with all its miraculous advantages, is, nevertheless, not an unmixed good. _ It has one very serious drawback —“ilka seyen years they pay a teind to hell, and “Young Tamlane" is “sae fat and fair o' flesh" he fears he will be selected as the next victim. Ho, therefore, bogs th© fair damsel to aid him in regaining hie liberty, and instruct* her how best she may accomplish this. She is to repair bo the Miles Cross “between twal hours and ane/' taking some holy water with her, which she must sprinkle in a circle around her. He will ride past with the fairies, and she has to let the first and second companies pass unmolested, but ho will be one of the third company.

For I ride on the milk-white steed, Wi' a gold star in my crown. Because I am a christened knight They gl’© me that renown. First let paw the black, Janet, And syne let pass the brown; But grip ye to the milk-white- steed, And pu' th© rider down.

They’ll turn me in..your arms, Janet, An adder and a snake; But haud ye fast, let me not pass, Gin y© wad be my maik. They II turn me in your arms, Janet, An adder and an ask; They'll turn me in your arms, Janet, A bale that burns fast. They'll turn me in your arms, Janet, A red hot gad o* aim; But haud ye fast, let me not pass. For I'll da© ye nae harm.

They'll shape mo in your arms, Janet, A dove, but and a swan;.

And la*tthc-y'll shape me in your arms A mother-naked man:

Cast your green mantl© over me—--111 be mysel’ again.

Strong in her love, at midnight Janet repairs to Miles Cross, aftef carefully attending to the preliminary arrangements, on the which it would seem the success of her venture chiefly der. if. wains uatiently .or the. sequel. Soon the band of fairies make their appearance. Janet permits the til aok ana the brown steeds to pass without interruption—

But fast she gript the milk-white steed And pu’d the rider down. And lo! in her arms her lover is transformed into an adder, a snake, an ask. etc and last of all, a “mother-naked man,” then Janet casts her green mantle over him, the' mystic spell is broken, and the fairies' dominion over her lover is at an end.

Up then spate the Queen of the Fairies, ■ Out of a bush of rye: . "She's ta’en away the oonniest knight In. all my cempanic; "But had I kenn’d, Tamlane.” she says, "A lady wad borrow thee, I wad ha'e ta'en out thy twa grey een. Put in twa een of tree! "Had I but term'd, Tamlane/* shesays, '‘Before ye cam’ fra© ham©, I wad ta'en <mt your heart of flesh, Put in a heart of stanc. Had I but had the wit yestreen That I ha'© coft this day, I'd paid my kane seren times to hell, Ere you'd been won away! And who ear. read and e?er forget that melancholy ballad, "Edom cr Gordon"? The excitement and horror of tl © burning tower, the distressed mother Mishins for "a© blast o' the western win'," etc., all related in language that "dirls" the blood of the reader. Or "Gil Morice" with its tragic ending? Peallr a wonderful creation, and one well calculated to- make a lasting un-

pression on the mind of its readers, bo they young or old. What could be_ more exquisite than the following description of the horo:— '

His hair was like the threads o gowd Drawn frae Minerva’s loom; Hie Ups like roses drappin’ dew, His breath a sweet perfume. His brow was like the mountain snaw Gilt by the momiti’ beam; His cheeks like livin’ roses glowed, His een like azure stream. The bay was clad in robes o’ green, Sweet as the infant Spring; And like the mavis on the bush. Ho gar’t the valleys ring. “Tls well over and anon to steal away from life’s realities, its cark and care, ’its bitter sectarian strife, and class struggles, to mingle with bravo knights and ladyeo gay of a by-gone age, when the fairies danced in the moonlight, the “witch woman" cut her uncanny can>s, and ths brownie (unlike latterday spirit manifestations) unsought and unostentatiously performed some useful human service. So for a time we may forget this very modern world of ours, where the power of pelf is ever present ; whore the cash nexus is the only bond between man and hie brother maim Brave indeed were those “bold barons, t and the love of their “fayre ladyes their one remead. Superstitious? Maybe; but who are we to contemn them?