  "From Ghaisties, Ghoulies, and long-leggity Beasties The ballads that follow have all been selected from The Oxford Book of Ballads, edited by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1910. Alison Gross. She's turned me into an ugly worm And gar'd me toddle about the tree. Clerk Saunders. The most notable of the ballads of the supernatural, from the dramatic quality of its story and a certain wild pathos in its expression. "Is there ony room at your head, Saunders, Is there ony room at your feet? Or ony room at your side, Saunders, Where fain, fain I wad sleep?" The Daemon Lover. And aye as she turned her round about, Aye taller he seemed to be; Until that the tops o' that gallant ship Nae taller were than he. King Henry. O he has doen him to his ha' To make him bierly cheer, An' in it came a griesly ghost Steed stappin' i' the fleer. The Laily Worm. For she has made me the laily worm, That lies at the fit o' the tree, And my sister Masery she's made The machrel of the sea. A Lyke-wake Dirge. This ae nighte, this ae nighte, —Every nighte and alle, Fire and sleet and candle-lighte, And Christ receive thy saule. Tam Lin. And pleasant is the fairy land For those that in it dwell, But ay at end of seven years They pay a teind to hell; I am sae fair and fu' of flesh I'm fear'd 'twill be mysell. |
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