And he bred up that bonny boy,
   Called him his sister’s son;
  And he thought no eye could ever see
   The deed that he had done.

  O so it fell, upon a day,
   When hunting they might be,
  They rested them in Silverwood,
   Beneath that green aik tree.

  And mony were the green-wood flowers
   Upon the grave that grew,
  And 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.