Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/416

 ■y^A Co7'respondence.

In " Bonnie Annie " the lady refuses her lover's help at a similar time, but apparently more on the ground of his inexperience :—

«' She hadna sailed far till the young thing cried ' Women ! '

'What women can do, my dear, I'll do for you.' ' O haud your tongue, foolish man, dinna talk vainly, For ye never icent what a woman driet for you.' "

Again in "Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter" we have, under

like circumstances : —

" O for a few of yon junipers To cheer my heart again, And likewise for a gude midwife. To ease me of my pain."

When the lover proffers his services the lady replies :—

" Had far away frae me, Archibald, For this will never dee. That's nae the fashion o' our land And it's nae be used by me."

In " Rose the Red and White Lily " the lady refuses small help

thus: —, ^ L- , u

" ' 'Tvvas never my mither s fashion, she says,

' Nor sail it ever be mine.

That belted knights should e'er remain.

Where ladies dreed their pine.' "

In " Prince Heathen " the coarseness of the lover in outraging the woman's feelings is shewn by the fact that he refuses female

aid to her : —

" He's taen her out upon the green, When she saw women never ane. But only him and's merry young men

Till she brought hame a bonny young son."

The reverse of this is shewn in " Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick "

when the proper course is carried out : —

" It fell ance upon a day She fell in travail pain. He has gane to the stair-head. Some ladies to call in."

But while the man himself is banished at such times, it is curious to note how his clothing may exercise a protective and beneficial