Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/83

 Rh chance on "The Three Feathers". Mr. Jacobs roundly declares it "is an Eastern tale, the peregrinations of which have been studied by Mr. Clouston in his Popular Tales and Fictions". Now the essence of Mrs. Gomme's tale of "The Three Feathers" (which is a variant of the Norse tale of "The Mastermaid") is the magical power whereby the lady keeps her inconvenient lovers at ridiculous tasks until all danger from them has passed away. We readily concede that Mr. Clouston's book is a remarkable one; but its most remarkable feature seems to be one of which not even the author is aware, namely, the singular divergence of the copies. In our copy, which evidently differs from Mr. Jacobs', not a single Eastern example of the tale in question is found. At the place cited Mr. Clouston furnishes a number of variants, including Eastern variants, of "The Wright's Chaste Wife". "The Wright's Chaste Wife" is analogous, it is true, to "The Three Feathers", in so far as it relates how a woman rid herself of several importunate suitors; but she does so in a very different manner from that of the heroine of "The Three Feathers", and without the latter's magical apparatus. Mr. Clouston, when he wrote Popular Tales and Fictions, was a believer in the Buddhist origin of tales, and would have been glad to trace the story of "The Three Feathers" to the East. But he does not do so in our copy. Perhaps it was a copy specially prepared for an unbeliever's reading. Mr. Jacobs falls foul of M. Bedier for denying the Eastern origin of the fabliau corresponding to "The Wright's Chaste Wife", gently remarking that "in his Indiaphobia M. Bedier is capable de tout". Are not certain Indiamaniacs capable of something?

Mr. Nutt has criticised with destructive power Mr. Jacobs' theories about the curious versions of "The Pied Piper" and "Cinderella". They may be left for the present where he has left them, though in respect of the latter the argument might be carried further. In any case, Mr. Jacobs' notes are worthy of careful study, especially by