"Ye little skelpie'-limmer's face! "Ae Hairst1 afore the Sherra-moor,5 The simmer had been cauld an' wat, An' ay a rantin kirn we gat, An' just on Halloween It fell that night. "Our stibble-rig7 was Rab M'Graen, That vera night.” Then up gat fechtin Jamie Fleck, An' he swoor by his conscience, The auld guidman raught down the pock, Syne bad him slip frae 'mang the folk, 1 A word of scolding. 2 Prophesy. 5 Sheriff-moor, the battle fought in the Rebellion, 1715. 6 A romping girl. 7 Head reaper. 8 Steal out unperceived, and sow a handful of hemp-seed; harrowing it with any thing you can conveniently draw after you. Repeat now and then, "Hemp-seed, I saw thee, hemp-seed, I saw thee; and him (or her) that is to be my true-love, come after me and pou thee." Look over your left shoulder, and you will see the appearance of the person invoked, in the attitude of pulling hemp. Some traditions say, "Come after me, and shaw thee," that is, show thyself: in which case it simply appears. Others omit the harrowing, and say, "Come after me, and harrow thee."-R. B. He marches thro' amang the stacks, He whistl'd up Lord Lenox' marchı, 6 Out-owre that night. He roar'd a horrid murder-shout, An' young an' auld came rinnin out, He swoor 'twas hilchin Jean M'Craw, Asteer1o that night! Meg fain wad to the barn hae gaen To watch, while for the barn she sets, 1 Frightened. 2 Stable fork. 3 Drags. 5 Scared. 6 A peep. 7 Stagger. 4 Crupper. 8 Halting. 9 Crook-backed. t 11 This charm must likewise be performed unperceived, and alone. You go to the barn, and open both doors, taking them off the hinges, if possible; for there is danger, that the being, about to appear, may shut the doors, and do you some mischief. Then take that instrument used in winnowing the corn, which, in our country dialect, we call a wecht; and go through all the attitudes of letting down corn against the wind. Repeat it three times; and the third time an apparition will pass through the barn, in at the windy door, and out at the other, having both the figure in question, and the appearance or retinue, marking the employment or station in life.-R. B. She turns the key, wi' cannie thraw, Syne bauldly in she enters; An' she cry'd, Lord preserve her! They hoy't out Will, wi' sair advice ; Aff's nieves" that night. A wanton widow Leezie was, As cantie12 as a kittlen; But, Och! that night, amang the shaws,13 She thro' the wins, an' by the cairn, An' owre the hill gaed scrievin, Whare three lairds' lands met at a burn,14 To dip her left sark-sleeve in, Was bent that night. Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays, 3 Urged. 1 Rat. Unseen that night. 2 Gutter at the bottom of a dung-hill. 5 Fathomed. 6 Take an opportunity of going, unnoticed, to a bean-stack, and fathom it three times round. The last fathom of the last time you will catch in your arms the appearance of your future conjugal yoke-fellow.-R. B. 8 Knotty. 9 Oath. 10 Shreds. 7 Timber. 11 Fists. 12 Merry. 13 Woods. 14 You go out, one or more, (for this is a social spell,) to a south running spring or rivulet, where "three lairds' lands meet," and dip your left shirt sleeve. Go to bed in sight of a fire, and hang your wet sleeve before it to dry. Lie awake; and some time near midnight, an apparition, having the exact figure of the grand object in question, will come and turn the sleeve, as if to dry the other side of it.-R. B. 15 Small whirlpool, or eddy. 16 Appeared and vanished. 1 Fern. Amang the brachens,1 on the brae, Poor Leezie's heart maist lap the hool :3 Wi' a plunge that night. In order, on the clean hearth-stane, Because he gat the toom? dish thrice, In wrath that night. Wi' merry sangs, an' friendly cracks, 8 Their sports were cheap an' cheary; Syne, wi' a social glass o' strunt,12 Fu' blythe that night. 2 A deep moan. 3 Leaped out of the case. 5 Small wooden dishes with handles. 4 Ears. 6 Take three dishes; put clean water in one, foul water in another, leave he third empty: blindfold a person, and lead him to the hearth where the dishes are ranged; he (or she) dips the left hand: if by chance in the clean water, the future husband or wife will come to the bar of matrimony, a maid: if in the foul, a widow : if in the empty dish, it foretells, with equal certainty, no marriage at all. It is repeated three times; and every time the arrangement of the dishes is altered.-R. B. 7 Empty. 8 Sowens, with butter instead of milk to them, is always the Halloween Supper.-R. B. Sowens is a kind of oatmeal pudding. 10 Mouths. 9 Smoke. 11 A-stirring. THE JOLLY BEGGARS.1 A CANTATA. RECITATIVO. WHEN lyart leaves bestrew the yird, First, neist the fire, in auld red rags, An' aye he gies the tozies drab While she held up her greedy gab,10 Ilk smack still, did crack still, He roar'd this ditty up— 1 Sir Walter Scott was unable to conceive any good reason why Dr. Currie did not introduce this Cantata into his collection. For humorous description and nice discrimination of character, he thought it inferior to no poem of the same length in the whole range of English verse; and the mirth of the songs, combined with the vividness of the pictures, he considered to be unequalled. This is very exaggerated praise; and few readers, I should suppose, will admit the truth of Scott's remark, that "even in describing the movements of such a group, the native taste of the poet has never suffered his pen to slide into anything coarse or disgusting." See Scott's "Prose Works," xvii. 244. Mr. Lockhart is yet more profuse of admiration, and doubts if Shakspeare, out of such materials, could have constructed a piece, "in which the sympathy-awakening power could have been displayed more triumphantly." And Allan Cunningham outstrips his predecessors, by affirming that "nothing in the language, in life and character, approaches this song." The "Beggar's Opera" being a "burial, compared to it." Surely this is the burlesque of criticism, and only brings it into contempt. 2 Discoloured. 3 Bat. 4 Hoar-frost. 5 Vagrant. 6 Frolic. 7 The iron plate for baking cakes. 11 The beggar's alms-dish. |