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141

Variant of No. 134.¹ Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni popolari. Palermo, 1882, vol. i, pp. 196-200.

VII. "LA GIORGIA"
(From Pratovecchio.)

ABSTRACT

Heroine sets out to see the world--Heroine disguise (skin of Corpse obtained from grave-digger)--Menial heroine (goose-herd at palace)--Geese sing of her loveliness. Prince spies from behind hedge--Love-sick prince--Recognition food (heroine puts in royal signet ring, etc.)--Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) La Giorgia is a young lady who sets out to see the world. She reaches a Certain city where the king's goose-herd has just died.-- (2) She makes a grave-digger sell her the skin of a corpse, and disguised in this she goes to the court and obtains the post of goose-girl.-- (3) Geese, seeing the new herd, sing:

"Cro-cro, cre-cre!
What a very lovely herd have we!
She is as lovely as the sun,
Would not our master's heart be won!"

King's son becomes suspicious, and goes behind a hedge to spy.-- (4) Then he feigns illness, and wants sweetmeats made for him by the goose herd, who puts in them a ring engraved with royal arms, and other trinkets.-- (5) Finally the prince marries her, and on the wedding-day she appears in her own undisguised loveliness.

EDITOR'S NOTE. -- The narrator made no mention of the three festivals, but the conclusion of the story would lead one to suspect that she had forgotten them.

NOTES

1: See Note 1.

Note 1

Stories 137, 138, 140, and 141, although not strictly within the Catskin group, are retained here as variants of the type-story, No. 134.

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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