English Fairy Tales Part 30

XLI. THE WELL OF THE WORLD'S END.

_Source_.--Leyden's edition of _The Complaynt of Scotland_, p. 234 _seq._, with additional touches from Halliwell, 162-3, who makes up a slightly different version from the rhymes. The opening formula I have taken from Mayhew, _London Labour_, iii. 390, who gives it as the usual one when tramps tell folk-tales. I also added it to No. xvii.

_Parallels_.--Sir W. Scott remembered a similar story; see Taylor's _Gammer Grethel, ad fin_. In Scotland it is Chambers's tale of _The Paddo_, p. 87; Leyden supposes it is referred to in the _Complaynt_, (c.

1548), as "The Wolf of the Warldis End." The well of this name occurs also in the Scotch version of the "Three Heads of the Well," (No.

xliii.). Abroad it is the Grimms' first tale, while frogs who would a-wooing go are discussed by Prof. Kohler, _Occ. u. Orient_ ii. 330; by Prof. Child, i. 298; and by Messrs. Jones and Kropf, _l.c._, p. 404. The sieve-bucket task is widespread from the Danaids of the Greeks to the leverets of _Uncle Remus_, who, curiously enough, use the same rhyme: "Fill it wid moss en dob it wid clay." _Cf._, too, No. xxiii.

XLII. MASTER OF ALL MASTERS.

_Source_.--I have taken what suited me from a number of sources, which shows how wide-spread this quaint droll is in England: (i) In Mayhew, _London Poor_, iii. 391, told by a lad in a workhouse; (ii) several versions in 7 _Notes and Queries_, iii. 35, 87, 159, 398.

_Parallels_.--Rev. W. Gregor gives a Scotch version under the t.i.tle "The Clever Apprentice," in _Folk-Lore Journal_, vii. 166. Mr. Hartland, in _Notes and Queries_, _l.c._, 87, refers to Pitre's _Fiabi sicil._, iii.

120, for a variant.

_Remarks_.--According to Mr. Hartland, the story is designed as a satire on pedantry, and is as old in Italy as Straparola (sixteenth century).

In pa.s.sionate Sicily a wife disgusted with her husband's pedantry sets the house on fire, and informs her husband of the fact in this unintelligible gibberish; he, not understanding his own lingo, falls a victim to the flames, and she marries the servant who had taken the message.

XLIII. THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL.

_Source_.--Halliwell, p. 158. The second wish has been somewhat euphemised.

_Parallels_.--The story forms part of Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_, where the rhyme was

_A Head rises in the well_, Fair maiden, white and red, Stroke me smooth and comb my head, And thou shalt have some c.o.c.kell-bread.

It is also in Chambers, _l.c._, 105, where the well is at the World's End (_cf._ No. xli.). The contrasted fates of two step-sisters, is the Frau Holle (Grimm, No. 24) type of Folk-tale studied by Cosquin, i. 250, _seq._ "Kate Crackernuts" (No. x.x.xvii.) is a pleasant contrast to this.