"Married with me if thou would'st be, A curtisie thou must do to me.
"It's ye maun mak a sark to me, 15 Without any cut or seam," quoth he;
"And ye maun shape it, knife-, sheerless, And also sew it needle-, threedless."
"If that piece of courtisie I do to thee, Another thou must do to me. 20
"I have an aiker of good ley land, Which lyeth low by yon sea strand;
"It's ye maun till't wi' your touting horn, And ye maun saw't wi' the pepper corn;
"And ye maun harrow't wi' a thorn, 25 And hae your wark done ere the morn;
"And ye maun shear it wi' your knife, And no lose a stack o't for your life;
"And ye maun stack it in a mouse hole, And ye maun thrash it in your shoe sole; 30
"And ye maun dight it in your loof, And also sack it in your glove;
"And ye maun bring it over the sea,[L33] Fair, and clean, and dry to me;
"And when that ye have done your wark, 35 Come back to me, and ye'll get your sark."
"I'll not quite my plaid for my life; It haps my seven bairnes and my wife."
"My maidenhead I'll then keep still, Let the Elfin knight do what he will. 40
"My plaid awa, my plaid away, And owre the hills and far awa, And far awa to Norowa', My plaid shall not be blawn awa."
A fragment of this ballad was printed in Herd's Collection, ("_I'll wager, I'll wager_," i. 226.) The present version is from the _Border Minstrelsy_, (iii. 28,) and we have added another from Kinloch's _Ancient Scottish Ballads_. A somewhat longer copy is given in Buchan's _Ballads_, (ii. 291,) and a modernized English one, of no value, (_The West Country Wager_,) in _Ancient Poems_, &c., Percy Society, vol. xvii. p. 116.
_Brume, brume on hil_, is mentioned in the _Complaynt of Scotland_, and formed part of Captain Cox's well-known collection.
A Danish ballad exhibits the same theme, though differently treated: _Sövnerunerne_, Grundtvig, No. 81.
There was a knight and a lady bright, Had a true tryst at the broom; The ane ga'ed early in the morning, The other in the afternoon.
And aye she sat in her mother's bower door, 5 And aye she made her mane, "O whether should I gang to the Broomfield hill, Or should I stay at hame?
"For if I gang to the Broomfield hill, My maidenhead is gone; 10 And if I chance to stay at hame, My love will ca' me mansworn."--