Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan (Penguin Classics) by Gordon Jarvie Page B

pu’d a double rose,
A rose but only twa ,
Till up then started young Tam Lin,
Saying, ‘Lady, don’t pu’ them a’ .
    ‘Why pu’s thou the rose, Janet?
And why breaks thou my wand ?
Or why comes thou to Carterhaugh
Withouten my command?’
    ‘Carterhaugh it is my ain,
My daddie gave it me.
I’ll come and gang at Carterhaugh
And ask nae leave of thee.’
    Janet has kilted her green kirtle
A little aboon her knee,
And she has snooded her yellow hair
A little aboon her bree,
And she is to her father’s ha’
As fast as she can hie.
    Four and twenty ladies fair
Were playing at the ba’,
When out came the fair Janet,
Aince the flower amang them a’.
    Four and twenty ladies fair
Were playing at the chess,
And out then came the fair Janet,
As green as ony grass.
    Out then spak an auld grey knight,
Lent o’er the castle wa’,
And says, ‘Alas, fair Janet for thee,
But we’ll be blamèd a’!’
    ‘ Haud your tongue, ye auld-faced knight,
Some ill death may ye die!
Father my bairn on whom I will,
I’ll father nane on thee.’
    Out then spak her father dear,
And he spak meek and mild:
‘And ever alas, sweet Janet!’ he says,
‘I think thou gaes wi’ child.’
    ‘If that I gae wi’ child, father,
Myself maun bear the blame.
There’s ne’er a laird aboot your ha’
Shall give my bairn his name.
    ‘If my love were an earthly knight,
As he’s an elfin grey,
I wadna gie my ain true-love
For nae lord that ye hae.
    ‘The steed that my true-love rides on
Is lighter than the wind.
Wi’ siller he is shod before,
Wi’ burning gowd behind.’
    Janet has kilted her green kirtle
A little aboon her knee,
And she has snooded her yellow hair
A little aboon her bree,
And she’s awa’ to Carterhaugh
As fast as she can hie.
    When she came to Carterhaugh
Tam Lin was at the well,
And there she fand his steed standing,
But away was himsel’.
    She hadna pu’d a double rose,
A rose but only twa,
Till up then started young Tam Lin,
Saying, ‘Lady, don’t pu’ them a’.
    ‘Why pu’s thou the rose, Janet,
Amang the groves sae green,
And a’ to kill the bonnie babe
That we gat us between?’
    ‘O tell me, tell me, Tam Lin,’ she says,
‘For His sake that died on tree,
If e’er ye was in holy chapel
Or Christendom did see?’
    ‘Roxburgh was my grandfather,
Took me with him to bide ,
And aince it fell upon a day
That wae did me betide.
    ‘And aince it fell upon a day,
A cauld day and a snell ,
When we were frae the hunting come,
That frae my horse I fell.
The Queen o the Fairies she caught me
In yon green hill to dwell.
    ‘And pleasant is the fairy land,
But an eerie tale to tell –
Aye, at the end o seven years
We pay a tiend to hell.
I’m feared, being fair and fu’ of flesh,
The tiend may be mysel’.
    ‘But the night is Halloween, lady,
The morn is Hallowday.
Then win me, win me, if you will,
For weel I ken ye may.
    ‘Just at the mirk and midnight hour,
The fairy folk will ride.
And they that wad their true-love win
At Miles Cross they maun bide .’
    ‘But how shall I ken thee, Tam Lin,
Or how my true-love know,
Amang sae mony unco knights,
The like I never saw?’
    ‘O first let pass the black, lady,
And syne let pass the brown,
But quickly run to the milk-white steed
And pu’ his rider down.
    ‘For I’ll ride on the milk-white steed
And ay nearest the town,
Because I was an earthly knight
They gie me that renoun .
    ‘My right hand will be gloved, lady,
My left hand will be bare,
Cocked up shall my bonnet be
And kaim’d down shall my hair,
And thae’s the tokens I gie to thee,
Without doubt I’ll be there.
    ‘They’ll turn me in your arms, lady,
Into an esk and adder;
But hold me fast, and fear me not,
I am your bairn’s father.
    ‘They’ll turn me into a bear sae grim,
And then a lion bold;
But hold me fast, and fear me not,
As ye shall love your child.
    ‘Again they’ll turn me in your arms
To a red- het gaud of airn ;
But hold me fast, and fear me not,
and I’ll do you nae harm.
    ‘At