LXVIII. THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD
Source.—Percy, Reliques. The ballad form of the story has become such a nursery classic 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 personæ of this domestic tragedy. Androgus was the wicked uncle, Pisaurus his brother who married Eugenia, and their children in the wood were Cassander 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 assurance 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 Lass 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 passages insisting upon the gypsy origin of the three helpful brothers.
Parallels.—The king and his three sons are familiar figures in European märchen. Slavonic parallels are enumerated by Leskien Brugman in their Lithauische Märchen, 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 Cox’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 title “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 titles. I have done the same with “Nix Nought Nothing,” “Molly Whuppie,” and “Johnny Gloke.”
Parallels.—Miss Cox’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 God-mother through the Test of a Slipper”—such might be the explanatory title of a chap-book dealing with the pure type of Cinderella. This is represented in Miss Cox’s book, so far as the British Isles are concerned, by no less than seven variants, as follows: (1) Dr. Blind, in Archæological Review, iii., 24-7, “Ashpitell” (from neighbourhood of Glasgow). (2) A. Lang, in Revue Celtique, t. iii., reprinted in Folk-Lore, September, 1890, “Rashin Coatie” (from Morayshire). (3) Mr. Gregor, in Folk-Lore Journal, ii., 72-4 (from Aberdeenshire), “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 Cox’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, “Rashie Coat,” though Miss Cox assimilates them to Type B. Catskin; and (10) a variant of Dr. Blind’s version, unknown to Miss Cox, but given in 7 Notes and Queries, x., 463 (Dumbartonshire). 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).
GREGOR. || LANG. || CHAMBERS, I. and II. || BLIND.
Ill-treated heroine (by parents). || Calf given by dying mother. || Heroine dislikes husband. || Ill-treated heroine (by step-mother).