He offers

"Heil Gerstensaft! Heil dir Hans Gerstenkorn,
Der Sättigung, der Kraft, des Muthes Born.
So mächtig schäumt der Muth dem Tam im Kopfe,
Dass er den Bösen packen könnt' am Schopfe.
Doch sie, die Nichts getrunken hatte, Meg
Ward scheu, als hätt' sie einen grossen Schreck,
Bis sie von Tam ermahnt mit Faust und Fuss,
Doch endlich hin zur hellen Kirche muss.
Der Reiter stieg von seines Rosses Rücken,
Um besser in die Kirche hin zu blicken.
Da sah er einen Ball von grimmen Geistern,
Von alten Hexen, und von Hexenmeistern.
Es war kein Modetanz aus Frankreich, neu,
Nur Springen, vaterländisch, mancherlei.
Der Teufel sass auf einem Brett am Fenster
Und machte die Musik für die Gespenster,
Als Ziegenbock gekleidet und im Frack,
So spielte er auf einem Dudelsack
Viel Variationen und Etüden,

Die muntersten der Hörer zu ermüden."1

Hail, Barley juice! Hail to thee, John Barleycorn!

The fountain of satiety, of power, of courage!

So mightily foamed the courage in Tam's head

That he could have seized the Evil One by the nape of the neck;

But she-Meg-who had drunk nothing,

Was timorous, as if she were greatly frightened,

Until she was admonished by Tam with fist and foot,

And forced at last forward to the church.

The rider alighted from his horse's back
In order to see better into the church.
There he saw à Ball of grim ghosts,

Of old witches and wizards.

It was no fashionable dance new from France:
Only leaps-fatherlandish, and of various kinds.

The Devil sat on a board by the window

And made music for the ghosts.

As a he-goat clothed, and in a dress coat,

He played upon the bagpipe

Many variations and studies,

To tire the most lively of the hearers.

The landlord is again banished from the picture, and his characteristic laugh is lost.

The pungent lines

"Care, mad to see a man sae happy,

E'en drown'd himsel' amang the nappy,"

are not recognisable in

"Wohl selten war ein Mann so selig

Am Wirthshaustisch so froh und wählich." 1

This shows both weakness and carelessness as compared with E. Ruete's literal rendering—

Then

"Die Sorge sah's und rasend schier

Ersäufte sie sich flugs im Bier." 2

"The deil had business on his hand,"

is wretchedly rendered by

Whilst

"Dass Hexen auf den Beinen sind." 3

"The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle"

can only by sheer carelessness be rendered

"Der Schweiz rann schon von Tammie's Stirn." •

Equally careless and more absurd is

"And coost her duddies to the wark,

And linket at it in her sark!"

rendered by

"Und warfen ihre Hemden fort,

Nun geht's daohne-auf mein Wort"!"

1A man was indeed seldom so happy

At the table of an Inn, so glad and jovial.

2 Care saw it, and perfectly mad,

Drowned herself quickly in the beer.

That witches are on their legs.

The perspiration already ran from Tammie's brow.
And cast away their shifts,

And went on at it without them-upon my word!

No! Mr. Winterfeld, we don't take your word! for it does not agree with that of Burns. He makes the witches show a little more decency, and you also contradict yourself in the following third line by telling the quality of that particular garment which they wore.

Mr. Ruete renders this quite literally, without difficulty, "Da rissen sie vom Leib die Kleider

Und tanzten bloss im Hemde weiter"! 1

Mr. Winterfeld lays upon poor Nannie a crime which Burns does not add to her many delinquencies, nor even hint at, viz.,

"Macht Manchem untreu seine Frau";2

but towards the end he seems to get helplessly mixed, and renders

"Ah, little kenn'd thy reverend grannie,"

by the inane line

"Ah! Guten Morgen, Mutter Grannie"! 3

and then mixes up Auld Nick, Nannie, and her Grannie in hopeless confusion. Instead of Tam's well-known exclamation, "Weel done, Cutty-sark !" which brought about the dénouement, Mr. Winterfeld makes him cry out, "Brav, alter Nick"! (Bravo! Auld Nick), carefully explaining by a foot note that "Auld Nick" means the Devil. It is, according to this translation, not Nannie but her dead old grandmother who pursues Tam, and pulls off Maggie's tail, which, even to those who do not know the original, cannot but seem ridiculous. cannot on account of these grave defects and proofs of

'Then tore off their clothes from their bodies

And danced on only in "their sarks."

* Makes to many a one his wife unfaithful.
Ah! good morning-Mother Grannie.

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