Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/597

 TABULATION OF FOLKTALES. 149

(3), comes out of it and cats prince's supper (4), discovered by prince (5), by queen and married to prince (6). Supper disappears (4). Ugly old king, princess to marry (1).

Where published. Folklore of Home, by K. H. Busk. London, 1874. Talc No. 11, pp. 915.

Nature Of Collection, whether :

1. Original or translation. Told in Italian to Miss Busk.

2. If by word of mouth, state narrator's name.

3. Other particulars.

Special Points noted by the Editor of the above." The mode of

telling adopted by Eoman narrators makes a way out of the difficulty which this group of stories presents at first sight in the king seeming to be fated by supernatural appointment to marry his daughter .... one says the slipper was a supernatural slipper and would not fit any one whom he could marry. Whether this was part of the traditional story or the gloss of the repeater, I do not pretend to decide." Author's notes, p. 95. Remarks by the Tabulator. The following variant with a point of re- semblance to Maria Wood (No. 2) was told to myself and sisters when we were children by a servant from the Lizard district of Cornwall. It will be seen that there is no trace of any spell or trick to force the king into his unusual course, as in the Italian versions, nor did the narrator seem to sec that any explanation or gloss was necessary, but began as follows:

" THE PRINCESS AND THE GOLDEN Cow.

" Once there was a king who had a daughter, being very beautiful, and he loved her so much he wanted to marry her." Here I forget details, but the princess was in great trouble, especially as she loved a prince who lived a long way off, and he loved her. She had made (or got her father to give her) " a beautiful golden cow as large as a real one." She made arrange- ments in some manner (details forgotten) to have the golden cow conveyed under pretence of its being a parting gift or token of remembrance to the prince. She got inside it, and went in the cow a long journey by sea. There was a signal prearranged (details forgotten) of three knocks on the cow to show when she could come out safely. But when she had gone a long way the cow was landed (I think the captain of the ship was in the secret, and was to see to her reaching the prince), but people came to see the cow, for it was very curious, amongst them three gentlemen who wanted to be able to say they had touched it, " and one poked it with his umbrella (sic) and said, ' I've touched the golden cow,' and the next poked it with his umbrella, and said, ' I've touched the golden cow,' and the third poked it with his umbrella and said, ' I've touched the golden cow.' With that the princess opened the door and came out, for she thought those three knocks were the signal." Then the prince turned up, after some adventures that I have forgotten, and all ended happily.

(Signed) ISABELLA BARCLAY,