The Folk Process
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¯The Twa Magicians
(Child 44)

In his monumental anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Francis James Child notes this story of the dueling magicians is known throughout Europe, in Turkey and Persia, and may ultimately be traced to Buddhist legendry.   His single English language text was from the north of Scotland, and was gathered by one of the earliest folksong scholars, David Buchan prior to 1828.

The lady stands in her bower door,/As straight as willow wand;
The blacksmith stood a little forebye,/Wi hammer in his hand.

"Well may ye dress ye, lady fair,/Into your robes o red;
Before the morn at this same time,/I'll gain your maidenhead."

"Awa, awa, ye coal-black smith,/Would ye do me the wrang
To think to gain my maidenhead,/That I hae kept sae lang!"

Then she had hadden up her hand,/And she sware by the mold,
"I wudna be a blacksmith's wife/For the full o a chest o gold.

"I'd rather I were dead and gone,/And my body laid in grave,
Ere a rusty stock o coal-black smith/My maidenhead shoud   					have."

But he has hadden up his hand,/And he sware by the mass,
"I'll cause ye be my light leman/For the hauf of that and					less."

Chorus:
O bide, lady, bide,/And aye he bade her bide;
The rusty smith your leman shall be,/For a' your muckle pride.

Then she became a turtle dow,/To fly up in the air,
And he became another dow,/And they flew pair and pair.
	O bide, lady, bide, &c.

She turnd hersell into an eel,/To swim into yon burn,
And he became a speckled trout,/To gie the eel a turn.
	O bide, lady, bide, &c.

Then she became a duck, a duck,/To puddle in a peel,
And he became a rose-kaimed drake,/To gie the duck a dreel.
	O bide, lady, bide, &c.

She turnd hersell into a hare,/To rin upon youn hill,
And he became a gude grey-hound,/And boldly he did fill.
	O bide, lady, bide, &c.

Then she became a gay grey mare,/And stood in yonder slack,
And he became a gilt saddle./And sat upon her back
	Was she wae, he held her sae,/And still he bade her bide;
	The rusty smith her leman was,/For a' her muckle pride.

Then she became a het girdle,/And he became a cake,
And a' the ways she turnd hersell,/The blacksmith was her 					make.
	Was she wae, &c.

She turned hersell into a ship,/To sail out ower the flood;
He ca'ed a nail intil her tail,/And syne the ship she stood.
	Was she wae, &c.

Then she became a silken plaid,/And stretchd upon a bed,/
And he became a green covering,/And gaind her maidenhead.
	Was she wae, &c.

forebye - nearby
hadden - held
mold - earth
rusty - surly 
stock - a "term of disparagement" meaning lacking in vitality or youth (Child V, p. 379)
light - wanton, unchaste (OED)
leman - lover, mistress, paramour
muckle - great
puddle - swim
peel - pool
rose-kaimed - rose-combed
make - mate, consort, match
het - hot
ca'ed - drove
syne - then, afterwards
stood - arrested progress or thought (OED); in this case, perhaps a double-entendre

The Two Magicians

This version of the ballad was collected some 75 years after Buchan's by Cecil Sharp in Somerset.  He published an arrangement for voice and piano in his One Hundred English Folksongs in 1916.  Sharp's asymmetrical melody, by the way, is a mixture of "John Dory" and the ubiquitous "Lincolnshire Poacher."

O, she look'd out of the window as white as any milk;
But he look'd into the window as black as any silk.

Chorus:
Hulloa, hulloa, hulloa, hulloa, you coal black smith! You have done me no harm.
You never shall change my maiden name [sic] that I have kept so long.
I'd rather die a maid, yes, but then she said, and be buried all in my grave
Than I'd have such a nasty, husky, dusky, musty, fusky coal-black smith, a maiden I will die.

Then she became a duck,/A duck all on the stream;
And he became a waterdog/And fetch'd her back again.

Then she became a hare,/A hare upon the plain;
And be became a grey-hound dog/And fetch'd her back again.

And she became a fly,/A fly all in the air;
And he became a spider/And fetch'd her to his lair.

Oh, Sally, My Dear

Sharp also collected a song/ballad, which he published only in expurgated fashion, clearly descended from "The Twa Magicians."

Oh, Sally, my dear, I mean for to wed you. (2)
Then try if you must, but don't say I misled you.
	Sing whack fol-the-diddle-di-do,
	Sing whack fol-the-day.

If all them young girls was hares on the mountain, (2)
The men would take guns and would set to a-huntin'.
	Sing whack &c.

If all them young girls was rushes a-growin, (2)
The men would take scythes and would set to a-mowin'.
	Sing whack &c.

Hares on the Mountain

George Gardiner and Robert and Henry Hammond, clergymen who combed Wiltshire and Dorset for folksongs about the turn of the century, gathered this obvious descendant of "Sally."  The text is from Stephen Sedley's The Seeds of Love (London: 1967).

If pretty maids could run like hares on the mountain,
They would laguh for to see the young men run a hunting.
	Sing whack fol the diddle whack fol the didle
	Whack fol the diddle-i-do.

If pretty maids could fly like blackbirds and thrushes
They would laugh for to see the young men beat the bushes.

If pretty maids could swim like ducks on the water
They would laugh for to see the young men wobbling after.