their mother, and Burd Ellen never went round a church widershins
again.



MOLLY WHUPPIE

Once upon a time there was a man and a wife had too many children, and
they could not get meat for them, so they took the three youngest and
left them in a wood. They travelled and travelled and could see never
a house. It began to be dark, and they were hungry. At last they saw a
light and made for it; it turned out to be a house. They knocked at
the door, and a woman came to it, who said: "What do you want?" They
said: "Please let us in and give us something to eat." The woman said:
"I can't do that, as my man is a giant, and he would kill you if he
comes home." They begged hard. "Let us stop for a little while," said
they, "and we will go away before he comes." So she took them in, and
set them down before the fire, and gave them milk and bread; but just
as they had begun to eat a great knock came to the door, and a
dreadful voice said:

"Fee, fie, fo, fum,
I smell the blood of some earthly one.

Who have you there wife?" "Eh," said the wife, "it's three poor
lassies cold and hungry, and they will go away. Ye won't touch 'em,
man." He said nothing, but ate up a big supper, and ordered them to
stay all night. Now he had three lassies of his own, and they were to
sleep in the same bed with the three strangers.