Page:English Fairy Tales.djvu/302

 276 discussed by Prof. Köhler, Occ.u. Orient.,ii.,33o; by Prof. Child, i., 298; and by Messrs. Jones and Kropf, I.e., 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 ot sources which shows how widespread 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 title "The Clever Apprentice," in Folk-Lore Journal, vii., 166. An Irish version with the Gaelic was given in Folk-Lore for March, 1891. Mr. Hartland, in Notes and Queries, l.c., 87 refers to Pitré's Fiabi sieil., 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 (16th century). In passionate Sicily, a wife disgusted with her husband's pedantry sets the house on fire, and informs her husband of the fact in his own 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, from a chap-book. The second wish has been somewhat euphemised.

Parallels.—The story forms part of Peele's Old Wives' Tale. where the rhyme was