d behave
like, real human beings.... Many a Finn woman has got into the power of
a Shetlander, and borne children to him; but if the Finn woman succeeded
in re-obtaining her sea-skin, or seal-skin, she escaped across the
water' (Karl Blind in the _Contemporary Review_, September 1881, pp.
399-400). The same writer, in quoting a verse of this ballad, says,
'Shool Skerry means Seal's Isle.' The whole article is of great
interest.

'G. S. L.,' the author of _Shetland Fireside Tales, or the Hermit of
Trosswickness_ (1877), remarks: 'The belief that witches and wizards
came from the coast of Norway disguised as seals was entertained by many
of the Shetland peasantry even so late as the beginning of the present
century.' He goes on to prove the supernatural character of seals by
relating an exploit of his own, in which a gun pointed at a seal refused
to go off.

Sule Skerrie is a lonely islet to the north-east of Cape Wrath, about as
far therefrom as from the Shetland Isles.

Another version of this ballad, unknown to Child, is given in the
Appendix.

THE GREAT SILKIE OF SULE SKERRIE

1.
An eartly nourris sits and sings,
And aye she sings, 'Ba, lily wean!
Little ken I my bairnis father,
Far less the land that he staps in.'

2.
Then ane arose at her bed-fit.
An' a grumly guest I'm sure was he:
'Here am I, thy bairnis father,
Although that I be not comelie.

3.
'I am a man, upo' the lan',
An' I am a silkie in the sea;
And when I'm far and far frae lan',
My dwelling is in Sule Skerrie.'

4.
'It was na weel,' quo' the maiden fair,
'It was na weel, indeed,' quo' she,
'That the Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie
Suld hae come and aught a bairn to me.'

5.
Now he has ta'en a purse of goud,
And he has pat it upo' her knee,
Sayin', 'Gie to me my little young son,
An' tak thee up thy nourris-fee.

6.
'An' it sall come to pass on a simmer's day,
When the sin shines het on evera stane,
That I will tak my little young son,
An' teach him for to swim the faem.

7.
'An' thu sall marry a proud gunner,
An' a proud gunner I'm sure he'll be,
An' the very first schot that ere he schoots,
He'll schoot baith my young son and me.'

[Annotations:
1.1: 'nourris,' nurse, nursing-mother.
2.2: 'grumly,' muddy, dreggy. --Jamieson.
3.2: 'silkie,' seal.
4.4: 'aught,' have.]

CLERK SANDERS

+The Tex