From the bonny bells of heather They brewed a drink long-syne, Was sweeter far than honey, Was stronger far than wine. They brewed it and they drank it, And lay in a blessed swound For days and days together In their dwellings underground.

From

There rose a king in Scotland, A fell man to his foes, He smote the Picts in battle, He hunted them like roes. p. 124Over miles of the red mountain He hunted as they fled, And strewed the dwarfish bodies Of the dying and the dead.

p. 124

Summer came in the country, Red was the heather bell; But the manner of the brewing Was none alive to tell. In graves that were like children’s On many a mountain head, The Brewsters of the Heather Lay numbered with the dead.

The king in the red moorland Rode on a summer’s day; And the bees hummed, and the curlews Cried beside the way. The king rode, and was angry, Black was his brow and pale, p. 125To rule in a land of heather And lack the Heather Ale.

p. 125

It fortuned that his vassals, Riding free on the heath, Came on a stone that was fallen And vermin hid beneath. Rudely plucked from their hiding, Never a word they spoke: A son and his aged father—  Last of the dwarfish folk.

The king sat high on his charger, He looked on the little men; And the dwarfish and swarthy couple Looked at the king again. Down by the shore he had them; And there on the giddy brink— “I will give you life, ye vermin, For the secret of the drink.”

p. 126There stood the son and father And they looked high and low; The heather was red around them, The sea rumbled below. And up and spoke the father, Shrill was his voice to hear: “I have a word in private, A word for the royal ear.

p. 126

“Life is dear to the aged, And honour a little thing; I would gladly sell the secret,”  Quoth the Pict to the King. His voice was small as a sparrow’s, And shrill and wonderful clear: “I would gladly sell my secret, Only my son I fear.

“For life is a little matter, And death is nought to the young; p. 127And I dare not sell my honour Under the eye of my son. Take him, O king, and bind him, And cast him far in the deep; And it’s I will tell the secret That I have sworn to keep.”

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