More English Fairy Tales Part 29

_Source._--Mrs. Balfour's "Legends of the Lincolns.h.i.+re Cars" in _Folk-Lore_, ii., somewhat abridged and the dialect removed. The story was derived from a little girl named Bratton, who declared she had heard it from her "grannie." Mrs. Balfour thinks the girl's own weird imagination had much to do with framing the details.

_Remarks._--The tale is noteworthy as being distinctly mythical in character, and yet collected within the last ten years from one of the English peasantry. The conception of the moon as a beneficent being, the natural enemy of the bogles and other dwellers of the dark, is natural enough, but scarcely occurs, so far as I recollect, in other mythological systems. There is, at any rate, nothing a.n.a.logous in the Grimms' treatment of the moon in their _Teutonic Mythology_, tr.

Stallybra.s.s, pp. 701-21.

LXVII. A SON OF ADAM

_Source._--From memory, by Mr. E. Sidney Hartland, as heard by him from his nurse in childhood.

_Parallels._--Jacques de Vitry _Exempla_, ed. Prof. Crane, No. xiii., and references given in notes, p. 139. It occurs in Swift and in modern Italian folk-lore.

_Remarks._--The _Exempla_ were anecdotes, witty and otherwise, used by the monks in their sermons to season their discourse. Often they must have been derived from the folk of the period, and at first sight it might seem that we had found still extant among the folk the story that had been the original of Jacques de Vitry's _Exemplum_. But the theological basis of the story shows clearly that it was originally a monkish invention and came thence among the folk.

LXVIII. THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD

_Source._--Percy, _Reliques_. The ballad form of the story has become such a nursery cla.s.sic that I had not the heart to "prose" it. As Mr.

Allingham remarks, it is the best of the ballads of the pedestrian order.

_Parallels._--The second of R. Yarrington's _Two Lamentable Tragedies_, 1601, has the same plot as the ballad. Several chap-books have been made out of it, some of them enumerated by Halliwell's _Popular Histories_ (Percy Soc.) No. 18. From one of these I am in the fortunate position of giving the names of the _dramatis personae_ of this domestic tragedy.

Androgus was the wicked uncle, Pisaurus his brother who married Eugenia, and their children in the wood were Ca.s.sander and little Kate. The ruffians were appropriately named Rawbones and Woudkill. According to a writer in _3 Notes and Queries_, ix., 144, the traditional burial-place of the children is pointed out in Norfolk. The ballad was known before Percy, as it is mentioned in the _Spectator_, Nos. 80 and 179.

_Remarks_.--The only "fairy" touch--but what a touch!--the pall of leaves collected by the robins.

LXIX. THE HOBYAHS

_Source._--_American Folk-Lore Journal_, iii., 173, contributed by Mr.

S.V. Proudfit as current in a family deriving from Perth.

_Remarks._--But for the a.s.surance of the tale itself that Hobyahs are no more, Mr. Batten's portraits of them would have convinced me that they were the bogles or spirits of the comma bacillus. Mr. Proudfit remarks that the cry "Look me" was very impressive.

LXX. A POTTLE O' BRAINS

_Source._--Contributed by Mrs. Balfour to _Folk-Lore_, II.

_Parallels._--The fool's wife is clearly related to the Clever La.s.s of "Gobborn Seer," where see Notes.

_Remarks._--The fool is obviously of the same family as he of the "Coat o' Clay" (No. lix.) if he is not actually identical with him. His adventures might be regarded as a sequel to the former ones. The Noodle family is strongly represented in English folk-tales, which would seem to confirm Carlyle's celebrated statistical remark.

LXXI. THE KING OF ENGLAND

_Source._--Mr. F. Hindes Groome, _In Gypsy Tents_, told him by John Roberts, a Welsh gypsy, with a few slight changes and omission of pa.s.sages insisting upon the gypsy origin of the three helpful brothers.

_Parallels._--The king and his three sons are familiar figures in European _marchen_. Slavonic parallels are enumerated by Leskien Brugman in their _Lithauische Marchen_, notes on No. 11, p. 542. The Sleeping Beauty is of course found in Perrault.

_Remarks._--The tale is scarcely a good example for Mr. Hindes Groome's contention (in _Transactions Folk-Lore Congress_) for the diffusion of all folk-tales by means of gypsies as _colporteurs_. This is merely a matter of evidence, and of evidence there is singularly little, though it is indeed curious that one of Campbell's best equipped informants should turn out to be a gypsy. Even this fact, however, is not too well substantiated.

LXXII. KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT

_Source._--"Prosed" from the well-known ballad in Percy. I have changed the first query: What am I worth? Answer: Twenty-nine pence--one less, I ween, than the Lord. This would have sounded somewhat bold in prose.

_Parallels._--Vincent of Beauvais has the story, but the English version comes from the German Joe Miller, Pauli's _Schimpf und Ernst_, No. lv., p. 46, ed. Oesterley, where see his notes. The question I have omitted exists there, and cannot have "independently arisen." Pauli was a fifteenth century worthy or unworthy.

_Remarks._--Riddles were once on a time serious things to meddle with, as witness Samson and the Sphynx, and other instances duly noted with his customary erudition by Prof. Child in his comments on the ballad, _English and Scotch Ballads_, i, 403-14.

LXXIII. RUSHEN COATIE

_Source._--I have concocted this English, or rather Scotch, Cinderella from the various versions given in Miss c.o.x's remarkable collection of 345 variants of _Cinderella_ (Folk-Lore Society, 1892); see _Parallels_ for an enumeration of those occurring in the British Isles. I have used Nos. 1-3, 8-10. I give my composite the t.i.tle "Rushen Coatie," to differentiate it from any of the Scotch variants, and for the purposes of a folk-lore experiment. If this book becomes generally used among English-speaking peoples, it may possibly re-introduce this and other tales among the folk. We should be able to trace this re-introduction by the variation in t.i.tles. I have done the same with "Nix Nought Nothing," "Molly Whuppie," and "Johnny Gloke."

_Parallels._--Miss c.o.x's volume gives no less than 113 variants of the pure type of Cinderella--her type A. "Cinderella, or the Fortunate Marriage of a Despised Scullery-maid by Aid of an _Animal_ G.o.d-mother through the Test of a Slipper"--such might be the explanatory t.i.tle of a chap-book dealing with the pure type of Cinderella. This is represented in Miss c.o.x's book, so far as the British Isles are concerned, by no less than seven variants, as follows: (1) Dr. Blind, in _Archaeological Review_, iii., 24-7, "Ashpitell" (from neighbourhood of Glasgow). (2) A.

Lang, in _Revue Celtique_, t. iii., reprinted in _Folk-Lore_, September, 1890, "Ras.h.i.+n Coatie" (from Morays.h.i.+re). (3) Mr. Gregor, in _Folk-Lore Journal_, ii., 72-4 (from Aberdeens.h.i.+re), "The Red Calf"--all these in Lowland Scots. (4) Campbell, _Popular Tales_, No. xliii., ii., 286 _seq._, "The Sharp Grey Sheep." (5) Mr. Sinclair, in _Celtic Mag._, xiii., 454-65, "Snow-white Maiden." (6) Mr. Macleod's variant communicated through Mr. Nutt to Miss c.o.x's volume, p. 533; and (7) Curtin, _Myths of Ireland_, pp. 78-92. "Fair, Brown, and Trembling"--these four in Gaelic, the last in Erse. To these I would add (8, 9) Chambers's two versions in _Pop. Rhymes of Scotland_, pp. 66-8, "Ras.h.i.+e Coat," though Miss c.o.x a.s.similates them to Type B. Catskin; and (10) a variant of Dr. Blind's version, unknown to Miss c.o.x, but given in 7 _Notes and Queries_, x., 463 (Dumbartons.h.i.+re). Mr. Clouston has remarks on the raven as omen-bird in his notes to Mrs. Saxby's _Birds of Omen in Shetland_ (privately printed, 1893).

ENGLISH VARIANTS OF CINDERELLA

GREGOR. LANG. CHAMBERS, I. and II. BLIND.

Ill-treated Calf given by _Heroine dislikes_ Ill-treated heroine dying mother. _husband._ heroine (by parents). (by step-mother).

Helpful Ill-treated _Henwife aid._ Menial heroine.

animal heroine (by (red calf). stepmother and sisters).

Spy on Heroine disguise _Countertasks._ Helpful animal heroine. (ras.h.i.+n (black sheep).

coatie).

Slaying of Hearth abode. _Heroine Ear cornucopia.

helpful disguise._ animal threatened.

Heroine Helpful animal. _Heroine Spy on heroine.

flight. flight._

Heroine Slaying of Menial heroine. Slaying of disguise helpful animal. helpful animal.

(ras.h.i.+n coatie).

Menial Revivified bones. (Fairy) aid. Old woman advice.

heroine.

Help at grave. Revivified bones.

Dinner cooked Task performing (by helpful animal.

animal).

Magic dresses Magic dresses. Magic dresses. Meeting-place (given by (church).

calf).