He stood still to listen, and heard a gruff voice say--or rather intone--the following mysterious couplet: Ramsdam pammydiddle larrybonnywigtail Wigtaillarrybonny keimo.
This could be no other than an incantation, and Bilk stood rooted to the spot, unable to advance or retreat.

He heard a rustling in the hedge, and the incantation suddenly ceased.

Then a figure like that of an old man bent with age and clad in a ragged coat which nearly touched the ground advanced slowly, saying in croaking accent as he did so-- "Ah, young gentleman, we've waited for ye.

We couldn't go till we'd seen ye; for we've something to tell ye.

Come quietly this way, and say not a word, or the spell's broken--come, young gentleman; come, young gentleman;" and the old man went on crooning the words to himself as he led the way with tottering steps round the hedge, and discovered a sort of tent in which sat, with her face half shrouded in a shawl, an old woman who wagged her head incessantly and chattered to herself in a language of her own.