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199

La Société de Litterature Finnoise. MS. Collections. Helsingfors. By Kaarle Krohn, 1884. (From Varpakyla. Narrated by Ogafja Vasiljovoa, aged twenty-seven years.)

[NO TITLE]

ABSTRACT

Unnatural father--Mother help at grave--Heroine flight-- Heroine asks leave to take bath before wedding; escapes; throws (1) brush, (2) comb, (3) looking-glass behind her as obstacles to pursuit. Father must each time go home to fetch sword to cut way through insurmountable wall; little bird obliges him to take sword back each time - -Heroine reaches king's stable-yard-- Heroine disguise (pigskin)--Menial heroine--Heroine carries (1) soap, (2) water, (3) shirt to king; he throws each at her-- Rank dresses kept at foot of oak-tree--Meeting-place (church)--King sends sister to question heroine--Token objects named--Threefold flight --Pitch traps--Lost hat, glove, and shoe-- Hat, glove, and shoe marriage tests-- - On way to church heroine alights from carriage to doff pigskin and don splendid dress-- Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) Man loses his wife, and wants to marry his own daughter. --- (2) She bids him wait awhile, as she wishes to visit her mother's grave before the nuptial benediction. Heroine weeps long at mother's grave; mother asks why, then bids her return home, and, when father is ready for the wedding, say that she must have the stove heated so as to take a bath before being married. Also, when she starts for church, she must take with her her dresses, a brush and comb, a looking-glass, and a sword. Then she will go to the stove and escape. Her lather will pursue her she must throw brush behind her, bidding it turn into an insurmountable wall. Heroine goes home and does as bidden.-- (3) When father thinks she has been too long at the bath he goes to seek her; she is riot there. I in starts in pursuit; the brush is thrown, and turns into a wall like a brush, which he can neither leap nor go round. He is furious; rushes home to get a sword; makes a big hole in the wall; is about to hide sword, when little bird sings, "I shall tell the (laughter what the father is hiding." "You wretched bird! if I had a caldron here I'd boil you." He goes home to hide sword, then continues pursuit.¹-- (4) Heroine looks round, and, seeing father close behind, throws comb, bidding it turn into wall of bones, which father can neither leap nor go round. Father goes home to fetch sword; makes a hole in wall; is about to hide sword, when bird sings as before; so he takes it home.-- (5) Again he nearly overtakes heroine; she throws the looking-glass, which turns into a wall of glass, which he can neither surmount nor go round. Again he fetches sword to make a hole; bird obliges him to return home with it.-- (6) He almost overtakes daughter just as sire is nearing king's stable-yard. She sees a pigskin hanging on the fence, throws it over her shoulders, and, transformed into a pig, rushes into the stable belonging to king's son. Next morning she gets up before the king's servants, and feeds the cattle, and does all the household duties.-- (7) King's son is going to church, and calls to his sister to bring him some soap, that he may wash first. His sister has not time, so pig takes soap to king's son, who throw it at her, saying he will not use soap which pig has brought. Sister brings some more, and they go together to church. Heroine doffs the pigskin and goes too, dressed in her tine clothes. King's son notices lovely girl in church, and tells sister to go and ask her where her palace is. Heroine answers, "I come from the palace where they throw soap about." She repeats this to brother, who is mystified. At once he has the doorway of the church tarred, and, as heroine leaves, her pretty hat sticks to it, and she has not time to get it back, She hurries home, throws down her clothes at the foot of an oak-tree, and dons the pigskin.-- (8) Next day king's son asks his sister to bring him some water for washing before he goes to church. She has not time; pig fills a basin and carries it to king, who upsets water, because pig has brought it, and calls his sister to bring more. They go to church together. Heroine doffs pigskin and dresses herself at the oak. Kings son looks up from his book and sees lovely girl in church; he sends sister to inquire whence she carries. Heroine replies, "From the palace where they upset water and fling soap about." King's son has the latch of the church-door tarred; heroine's glove sticks to it, and she does not care to recover it, having plenty more gloves at home. She returns and resumes pigskin, and sets to work as usual.-- (9) Next day, before going to church, king's son asks sister for his shirt. Pig takes it, and he won't wear it. Sister fetches another. They go to church, and heroine to the oak, as before. Sister asks whence she comes: "From the palace where they throw water, soap, and shirts about." King's son has the threshold of the church tarred, and heroine's shoe remains sticking to it. She won't trouble to return for such a trifle as that, and hurries home.-- (10) King's son proclaims throughout the kingdom that he will marry the girl whom this hat, this glove, and this shoe fit. Everyone tries them on in vain. The pig comes and mixes in the crowd; all of a sudden she puts on the shoe; she hides again in the crowd, and presently puts on the glove; she goes in and out amongst the people, and puts on the hat. So king's son must keep his word, but is very sad at having to marry a pig.-- (11) They set out to church for the nuptial benediction. Pig says, "Stop, I must get out for a moment." "Get out by all means," says the king's son-"and don't come back," he adds under his breath. Heroine doffs pigskin, and returns to king's son splendidly dressed. "All right off we go!" she says, "I'm ready now." He bursts out laughing when he sees the pig's transformation. They go to church. Everyone accompanies them home, and they have a grand wedding.

NOTES

1: See Note 63.

Note 63

(P. 393.) Similarly, the hoodie makes the giant return the axe in "The Battle of the Birds" (Campbell, i, 33); and in "Schwester und Bruder" (Toeppen, p. 146) a bird each time makes the witch-mother take back home the axe and spade, which she has fetched to demolish the obstacles to pursuit.
Return to place in text.

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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