"The Cruel Brother", also known as "The Three Ladies" or "The Rose and the Lily" is a Scottish ballad. It appears in F. J. Child The English and Scottish Popular Ballads as #11 and the Roud Folk Song Index as #26. It is probably from Cornwall although documentation for early collections is missing. The two versions in Sharp's collection from North Carolina resemble the Cornish text. Duncan MacLennan notes to The Gaugers Beware of the Aberdonian album: In ballad times, vague as that term may be, it was apparently regarded as unpardonable not to ask a brother’s assent to his sister’s marriage. The story here revolves round such a failure on the part of the suitor. The brother’s consequent murder of his sister seems to be a somewhat extreme reaction, but perhaps becomes credible when we consider that in a patriarchal society he would naturally have a vested interest in who became part of the family. It was printed in Barry's Folk Songs of the North Atlantic States (1908), Niles' The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles (1961) and Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1917). It was recorded by The Gaugers on Beware of the Aberdonian (1976), Archie Fisher on The Man with a Rhyme (1976), Battlefield Band on Battlefield Band (1977), Five Hand Reel on For A’ That (1977), Crucible on Love & Money (2008) (as "Three Maidens"), Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson on Gift (2010) (as "The Rose and the Lily"), Steeleye Span on Dodgy Bastards (2016) and by many others.