Page:More English Fairy Tales.djvu/276

 Tot," which see. The latter part is more novel, and is best compared with the Grimms' Spinners.

Remarks.—Henderson makes out of Habetrot a goddess of the spinning-wheel, but with very little authority as it seems to me.

LXXXII. OLD MOTHER WIGGLE WAGGLE.

Source.—I have inserted into Halliwell's version one current in Mr. Batten's family, except that I have substituted "Wiggle-Waggle" for "Slipper-Slopper." The two versions supplement one another.

Remarks.—This is a pure bit of animal satire, which might have come from a rural Jefferies with somewhat more of wit than the native writer.

LXXXIII. CATSKIN.

Source.—From the chapbook reprinted in Halliwell I have introduced the demand for magic dresses from Chambers's "Rashie Coat," into which it had clearly been interpolated from some version of Catskin.

Parallels.—Miss Cox's admirable volume of variants of Cinderella also contains seventy-three variants of Catskin, besides thirteen "indeterminate" ones which approximate to that type. Of these eighty-six, five exist in the British Isles, two chap-books given in Halliwell and in Dixon's Songs of English Peasantry, two by Campbell. Nos. xiv. and xixa., "The King who wished to marry his Daughter," and one by Kennedy's Fireside Stories, "The Princess in the Catskins." Goldsmith knew the story by the name of "Catskin," as he refers to it in the Vicar. There is a fragment from Cornwall in Folk-Lore, i. App. p. 149.

Remarks.—"Catskin, or the Wandering Gentlewomen," now exists in English only in two chapbook ballads. But Chambers's first variant of "Rashie Coat" begins with the Catskin formula in a euphemised form. The full formula may be said to run in abbreviated form—Death-bed promise—Deceased wife's resemblance marriage test—Unnatural father (desiring to marry his own daughter)—Helpful animal Counter Tasks—Magic dresses—Heroine flight—Heroine disguise—Menial heroine—Meeting-place—Token objects named—Threefold flight—Lovesick prince—Recognition ring—Happy marriage. Of these the chapbook versions contain scarcely anything of the opening