Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/143

Rh Analysing the ten various versions of Cinderella which have been discovered in these Isles, I found that they could be divided up into three different sections of incidents. The first set contained the archaic incidents of the animal aid, in one case of the animal mother; but this series of incidents is almost a tale by itself, a tale resembling that known in the collection of the brothers Grimm as “One eye, two eyes, and three eyes.” Then come another series of incidents, the real Cinderella story with the menial heroine and the shoe recognition. Finally, in some of the Celtic variants, the tale was expanded by a number of incidents obviously derived from the Celtic story of the “Sea Maiden”; this, we could all agree, is a late and inartistic accretion.

Now I am of opinion that the first set of incidents was not originally a part of the tale of Cinderella, but was somewhat inartistically tacked on to it as a convention of the folk-tale; for it will be observed that in one of Chambers’s variants this set of incidents is altogether omitted, and that in the other it is replaced by an entirely different set taken from the Catskin type of story. Now, if these incidents can be so easily removed or replaced, it shows, I think, that they are not a necessary and integral part of the story. This statement does not disagree, as Mr. Nutt seems to think it does, with my view that the folk-tale is a definite combination of incidents. The definite combination in the case of Cinderella consists of the following sequel of incidents:—Menial Heroine; Fairy Aid; Magic Dresses; Meeting-Place; Flight; Lost Shoe; Shoe Marriage Test; Mutilated Foot; False Bride; Bird Witness; Happy Marriage.

These are the essence of Cinderella; and when I speak of Cinderella I mean that particular sequel of incidents. I contend that that sequel must have at one time been hit upon by one definite folk-artist, and from him has spread throughout the Indo-European world, wherever that sequel of incidents is found. But early in the history of its