Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/281

 Rh of tradition. But this is a digression, and we must again turn to the particular case of folk-tradition we have before us in the diffusion of tales of the Cinderella type through Great Britain and Ireland.

A. "Cinderella, or the Fortunate Marriage of a despised Scullery-maid by aid of an Animal Godmother 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, "Ashpitel" (from neighbourhood of Glasgow). (2) A. Lang, in Revue Celtique, t. iii, reprinted in, 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. 534; 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' 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'', xi, 461.

Now in going over these various versions, the first and perhaps most striking thing that comes out is the substantial agreement of the variants in each language. The English, i.e., Scotch, variants go together; the Gaelic ones agree to differ from the English. I can best display this important agreement and difference by the accompanying two tables, which give, in parallel columns. Miss Cox's abstracts of her tabulations, in which each incident is shortly given in technical phraseology. These abstracts