XLII. MASTER OF ALL MASTERS.
Source.—I have taken what
suited me from a number of
sources, which shows how wide-spread this quaint droll is in
England: (i) In Mayhew,
London Poor, iii. 391, told by a lad
in a workhouse; (ii) several versions in 7
Notes and Queries,
iii. 35, 87, 159, 398.
Parallels.—Rev. W. Gregor gives a Scotch version under the
title “The Clever Apprentice,” in
Folk-Lore Journal, vii. 166.
Mr. Hartland, in
Notes and Queries,
l.c., 87, refers to Pitré’s
Fiabi sicil., iii. 120, for a variant.
Remarks.—According to Mr. Hartland,
the story is designed
as a satire on pedantry, and is as old in Italy as Straparola
(sixteenth century). In passionate Sicily a wife disgusted with
her husband’s pedantry
sets the house on fire, and informs
her husband of the fact in this unintelligible gibberish; he,
not understanding his own lingo,
falls a victim to the flames,
and she marries the servant who had taken the message.
169
Joseph Jacobs
XLIII. THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL.
Source.—Halliwell, p. 158. The second wish has been some-
what euphemised.
Parallels.—The story forms part of Peele’s
Old Wives’ Tale,
where the rhyme was
A Head rises in the well,
Fair maiden, white and red,
Stroke me smooth and comb my head,
And thou shalt have some cockell-bread.
It is also in Chambers,
l.c., 105, where the well is at the
World’s End (
cf. No. xli.). The contrasted
fates of two step-
sisters, is the Frau Holle (Grimm, No. 24) type of Folk-tale
studied by Cosquin, i. 250,
seq. “Kate Crackernuts” (No.
xxxvii.) is a pleasant contrast to this.
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