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300

La Société de Litterature Finnoise. MS. Collections. Helsingfors. By B. A. Paldani. No. I, 16. 1852. (From Ylojärvi, in West Finland. Narrated by Vilhelmina Lindfelt.)

"THE SERVANTS' PLACES."

ABSTRACT

Two girls go as king's servants. First meets (1) ram, and will not shear it, (2) cow, and will not milk it, (3) old man, and will not comb him, (4) well, and will not cleanse it, because she has washed hands and feet for three days. Talking-bird at palace foretells her doom. She disobeys, and enters guarded room full of hones and blood, second room full of pain and woe. In third room is set Task, to prepare dinner from eight grains, three peas, and eight grains of salt. Begrudges salt to white-haired old man; he eats it all. She cannot make dinner is slain in room of bones and blood. Heroine milks cow, shears ram, combs old man's hair, cleanses well, and reaches palace. Talking-bird prophesies happiness. Heroine finds gold and silver in first room. Is set same task; gives salt to old man; prepares excellent dinner; is installed in gold-and-silver room.

TABULATION

(1) Two young girls wish to he king's servants. One sets out to palace before the other, and meets a ram with shears on its horns asking to he shorn. Girl refuses, saying: "I have washed hands and feet for three days, so as to enter king's service."-- (2) Next she meets cow asking to he milked, and gives same answer.-- (3) Then she meets old man, who asks her to comb his hair, and refuses him in same words.-- (4) A little further on she comes to a well, which says, "Clean me out," but she will not.-- (5) When she reaches palace, a bird at the entrance sings: "Wicked servant, you won't fare well here." A guard at the door of the first room says: "Don't go there!" but she goes. A man in the room says: "Come not here; only blood and bones are in this room!" She goes to another room, but they say: "Come not here; there is naught but pain and woe in here." Then she goes to a third room, where they give her eight grains, three peas, and eight grains of salt, and bid her make food out of it for the whole household.-- (6) An old man, with white hair, then appears, and says: "Let me the salt." "Don't you take it all." If the servant had not said this he would have acted differently. He takes it all, and as she cannot prepare a meal for palace-folk, she is taken to the room of bones anti blood, and slain.-- (7) The second young girl meets the cow and milks it; shears the rain; combs the old man's hair; cleanses the well, and reaches the palace.-- (8) The bird on the door sings: "Good Servant, all will go well with you here!" She enters first room, where there is gold and silver, and is told that is where she is to live. Then they give her eight grains, three peas, and eight grains of salt, with which to serve king's table.-- (9) Old man comes, and asks to taste salt. "Do taste it, then I shall know if it is nice!" He tastes it, and she says: "Take a little more!" Then she prepares the meal, and is very well received for being able to make food out of so little. She is installed in the room where there is gold and silver.

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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