Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
The Task / The Devil and the Maid / Blaw, Ye Winds, Blaw / The Elfin Knight (Child No. 2) - Sung by Mrs. Martha "Peasie" Johnstone (Martha Reid), a Traveller of Birnam, Perthshire, Scotland. She learned the song from her great-grandfather David Whyte from Aberdeenshire. Recorded by Hamish Henderson in February 1957 for the School of Scottish Studies.
Note by Kevin W.:
The interlaced refrain has almost disappeared from this version. It isn't explicitly mentioned in the text but after the song Martha explains that it is the devil who is giving the impossible tasks to a girl and then she gives him an impossible question in return and he does not get her. She called the song "The Task".
Martha Johnstone learned the old songs from her grandparents and from older Travellers. We're indebted to her for sharing her songs with people and to Maurice Fleming and Hamish Henderson in the 1950s, Peter Shepheard in the 1960s and Linda Williamson in later years for visiting and recording her.
Martha told Linda Williamson how she tried to teach The Golden Vanity to her grandchildren, to get them interested in the old songs, but they had more interest in television than singing. Most singers, and especially Travellers felt regret at not being able to pass their songs on to a new generation. A song wasn't only a song, it was a living memory of their parents, their forebears. While singing there was a strong emotional connection with the person the song was learned from. When that person passed their memory lived on whenever the song was sung.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/21693?l=en
A biography of Martha Johnstone along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/2719?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it is well worth your time if you are interested in Martha Johnstone's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Song transcription:
O make to me aye a Holland shirt,
Without either seam nor needle-work.
You'll wash it in to yon draw-well,
Where there never was water, nor one drap o' dew fell,
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
O you'll dry it ow'r yon thorn-haw bush,
Where there never was thorn since Adam was born,
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
You'll fetch to me two acres o' land,
Between thon salt sea and yon salt sea strand.
You'll plou' it up with the Divil tap's horn,
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
You'll sow it o'er with one grain o' corn,
You'll ripen it up with one blink o' sun,
[You'll cut it down with a pea-hen's feather,] *
You'll stook it up by the sting of an ether [adder],
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
You'll yoke two sparrows in a match-box,
You'll cart it home to your own farmyard,
Ho, ho the wind'll blow.
For surely when you pit sich tasks on me,
I'll surely pit aye as hard on you:
How many strawberries grows on the salt sea?
And how many ships sails in the forest?
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
The two questions in the last verse are taken from "The False Bride" (Roud No. 154).
* This line was sung on other occasions but missed this time.
The Task / The Devil and the Maid / Blaw, Ye Winds, Blaw / The Elfin Knight (Child No. 2) - Sung by Mrs. Martha "Peasie" Johnstone (Martha Reid), a Traveller of Birnam, Perthshire, Scotland. She learned the song from her great-grandfather David Whyte from Aberdeenshire. Recorded by Hamish Henderson in February 1957 for the School of Scottish Studies.
Note by Kevin W.:
The interlaced refrain has almost disappeared from this version. It isn't explicitly mentioned in the text but after the song Martha explains that it is the devil who is giving the impossible tasks to a girl and then she gives him an impossible question in return and he does not get her. She called the song "The Task".
Martha Johnstone learned the old songs from her grandparents and from older Travellers. We're indebted to her for sharing her songs with people and to Maurice Fleming and Hamish Henderson in the 1950s, Peter Shepheard in the 1960s and Linda Williamson in later years for visiting and recording her.
Martha told Linda Williamson how she tried to teach The Golden Vanity to her grandchildren, to get them interested in the old songs, but they had more interest in television than singing. Most singers, and especially Travellers felt regret at not being able to pass their songs on to a new generation. A song wasn't only a song, it was a living memory of their parents, their forebears. While singing there was a strong emotional connection with the person the song was learned from. When that person passed their memory lived on whenever the song was sung.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/21693?l=en
A biography of Martha Johnstone along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/2719?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it is well worth your time if you are interested in Martha Johnstone's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Song transcription:
O make to me aye a Holland shirt,
Without either seam nor needle-work.
You'll wash it in to yon draw-well,
Where there never was water, nor one drap o' dew fell,
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
O you'll dry it ow'r yon thorn-haw bush,
Where there never was thorn since Adam was born,
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
You'll fetch to me two acres o' land,
Between thon salt sea and yon salt sea strand.
You'll plou' it up with the Divil tap's horn,
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
You'll sow it o'er with one grain o' corn,
You'll ripen it up with one blink o' sun,
[You'll cut it down with a pea-hen's feather,] *
You'll stook it up by the sting of an ether [adder],
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
You'll yoke two sparrows in a match-box,
You'll cart it home to your own farmyard,
Ho, ho the wind'll blow.
For surely when you pit sich tasks on me,
I'll surely pit aye as hard on you:
How many strawberries grows on the salt sea?
And how many ships sails in the forest?
An' it's ho, ho the wind'll blow.
The two questions in the last verse are taken from "The False Bride" (Roud No. 154).
* This line was sung on other occasions but missed this time.
