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This ballad will be found, in forms slightly varying, in Herd, (i. 156;) Caw's Poetical Museum, (p. 348;) Motherwell's Minstrelsy, (p. 343;) and Buchan's Ancient Ballads, (i. 263.) It bears some resemblance to the beginning of the remarkable poem, Als Y Yod on ay Mounday, (see Appendix). The present version is from the Poetical Museum.

As I was walking by my lane,

Atween a water and a wa,

There sune I spied a wee wee man,

He was the least that eir I saw.

5 His legs were scant a shathmont's length,

And sma and limber was his thie;

Atween his shoulders was ae span, About his middle war but three.

He has tane up a meikle stane,

10 And flang't as far as I cold see;

Ein thouch I had been Wallace wicht,

I dought na lift it to my knie.

"O wee wee man, but ye be strang!

Tell me whar may thy dwelling be?"

15 "I dwell beneth that bonnie bouir,

O will ye gae wi me and see?"

On we lap, and awa we rade,

Till we cam to a bonny green;

We lichted syne to bait our steid,

20 And out there cam a lady sheen;

Wi four and twentie at her back,

A' comely cled in glistering green;

Thouch there the King of Scots had stude,

The warst micht weil hae been his queen.

25 On syne we past wi wondering cheir,

Till we cam to a bonny ha;

The roof was o the beaten gowd,

The flure was o the crystal a.

When we cam there, wi wee wee knichts 30 War ladies dancing, jimp and sma; But in the twinkling of an eie, Baith green and ha war clein awa.

7. Much better in Motherwell. Between his een there was a span Betwixt his shoulders there were ells three

29–32. There were pipers playing in every neuk, And ladies dancing, jimp and sma'; And aye the owreturn o' their tune Was, "Our wee wee man has been lang awa!"— Motherwell.