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197

La Société de Litterature Finnoise. MS. Collections. Helsingfors. By J. Soini, 1878. (From Wähäkyrö, in Ostrobotbnia. Narrated by Kaarlo Tronti, peasant. Collection du lycee finnois d'Helsingfors, No. III, 3.)

"THE THREE DRESSES."

ABSTRACT

Unnatural father--[Countertasks]--Heroine to procure (1) gold dress, (2) silver dress, (3) crow's-beak gown; then father will release her--Dead mother help at grave --Magic dresses--Old man aid--Heroine disguise (crow's-beak gown) -Heroine flight, in carriage obtained by means of magic ball given by old man-- Menial heroine (swineherd at palace)-- -King's son throws at heroine (1) water, (2) towel, (3) boots--Table served by means of magic ball--Meeting-place (church)-- Token objects named-- Threefold flight --Pitch trap --Lost shoe- -Shoe test- - Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) King's wife dies and is buried. King torments his daughter with wanting to marry her. She is greatly distressed.-- (2) Father will let her off if she can procure clothes like gold. Heroine, in despair, goes weeping to mother's grave. Mother rises from grave, asks why she weeps; then bids her go to her room and the clothes will be brought to her. Heroine goes to sleep, and next morning finds clothes hanging up on wall. She dons them, and goes to father, who now wants her more titan ever for his wife, but will leave her in peace if she can get some clothes like silver. She again goes to grave, and obtains silver clothes in like manner. Father finds her so much more lovely dressed in these that he really must marry her. But if she can get dress of crows' beaks, he will have nothing more to do with her. Dead mother helps her to this as before; but when father sees her in crow's-beak dress he is quite determined to marry her. Heroine goes to her room, puts pillow on the table in window, buries her head in it, and saturates it with tears.-- (3) Old man passes window, and asks why she weeps. "What is the use of telling, you can't help me?" Old man throws her ball, saying if she strikes it on staircase she will get two black horses and a carriage. Heroine puts on gold and silver dresses and crow's-beak gown outside, then sets out in carriage.-- (4) She stops at another king's palace, and there becomes swineherd.-- (5) Sunday morning she is told to take water for washing to king's son, he throws it in her face, not liking to be served by swineherd. She is left alone, whilst the rest go to church. She dons gold dress, strikes staircase with ball to get carriage and horses, and goes to church. Prince sees her arrive, and asks whence she comes. "From the country where they throw water." King makes public inquiry about country; no one knows of it.-- (6) Next Sunday she is sent with towel to king's son, who throws it at her face, because she is too dirty to serve him. She goes to church in gold dress as before; says she comes from "Throw-towel land"; leaves before the rest, strikes table with ball "Table, be served," and it is furnished sumptuously. Everyone is astonished. Third Sunday king's son throws boots at her, calling her "Lousy-head". She goes to church in gold dress as before; says she comes from "Throw-boot land". No one can find it. He has the church-steps tarred; heroine's shoe sticks; he picks it up and invites all the world to come and try it on.-- (8) Swineherd is watching all the ladies try it in vain; king's son, for a joke, tells her to come and try. "What's the good for poor me, swineherd, lousy-head, to try?" King's son insists; the shoe fits her, and he notices as she puts it on that there is a gold dress underneath the crow's-beak gown.-- (9) He marries her. (it was not much of a wedding. I was there; but they only gave me a couple of cold potatoes, a herring, and a piece of bread. So I left.)

Cox, Marian Roalfe. Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O' Rushes, abstracted and tabulated. London: David Nutt for the Folklore Society, 1893.

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