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17

Das Ausland, Jahrgang 1832. Märchen und Kinderspiele in Griechenland, von Dr. Zuccarini. No. 58, p. 230. (Collected amongst the lowest orders.)

"STAETOPOUTA."

ABSTRACT

Elder sisters kill and eat mother. Youngest, Staetopouta (Aschenputtel), refuses to partake; collects mother's bones and buries them under tree. Bird sings overhead--Help at grave-- Magic dresses--Ill-treated heroine (by envious sisters)--Menial
heroine--Meeting-place (church)--Sisters go together; prince falls in love with heroine--Trap (honey not pitch)--Every woman loses a shoe: heroine's is the smallest-- -Lost shoe--Shoe marriage test--Sisters hide heroine in hen-house; prince discovers her--Happy marriage--Old woman sent by sisters transforms heroine into bird whilst dressing her hair. Bird escapes from her on to roof. Prince hears it singing and has it caught. Bird tells him what has happened. Old woman, compelled to remove spell, bids prince pluck out feathers, whereupon heroine is re transformed--Villain Nemesis.

TABULATION

(1) Three sisters live with mother in great poverty. Elder sisters kill mother, and feast on her flesh. The youngest, Staetopouta (Aschenputtel), will not partake of the meal. She collects mother's bones, fetches priest, incense, and tapers, and buries bones under a tree. A wonderful bird sings overhead (song not given).-- (2) Heroine finds golden clothes, and all sorts of finery, and is made very beautiful. Has to suffer much from envious sisters, who make her do menial work.-- (3) Once they all three go to church, and prince falls in love with heroine. He has threshold of the church smeared with honey, and, as they come out, every woman's shoe is left sticking.-- (4) Heroine's is the smallest, and prince takes it and proclaims that he will wed the owner. Sisters keep heroine out of sight. When prince comes to their house she is in hen-house; but he discovers her, and presently marries her.-- (5) An old woman, sent by sisters, comes to do heroine's hair, and meanwhile tells her stories. Her hair turns to feathers, and she is transformed into a little bird. Old woman sets all manner of traps, but cannot catch it. It flies on to the roof, and sings, "Basilapule, basilapule!" and relates, in singing, its history. Prince has bird caught, and it repeats its song to him.-- (6) He has old woman seized and compelled to remove spell, he must do this himself, by plucking out the feathers, whereupon heroine regains human form. Old woman is killed, and sisters are hanged.

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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