SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Marian Roalfe Cox: Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O' Rushes, abstracted and tabulated

Unnatural father--Mother help at grave--Counter-tasks; talking-sticks, ball of mist, sledge of wind--Heroine repairs to bath. Heroine flight--Sticks answer father--Dog sent after heroine, brings back heart of hare--Menial heroine (swineherd at palace)--Token objects thrown; afterwards named-- Magic dresses from treasure-oak-- Meeting-place (church)-- Threefold flight-- Pitch trap--Lost shoe--[Shoe marriage test]--King recognises heroine; spies magic dress beneath rags--Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) Father seeks to marry daughter.-- (2) She goes to mother's tomb; mother bids her demand from father talking-sticks, a ball of mist, and a sledge of wind. Father procures all.-- (3) Heroine consents to the marriage, but says she must first go to the bath.¹ There she places the four talking- sticks, throws the ball, and escapes in the sledge enveloped in mist. Father, goes to bath-room door; sticks tell him he must wait.-- (4) Not finding daughter, father sends his dog after her to bring him her heart. The good dog takes back the heart of a hare.-- (5) Heroine reaches a marvellous oak-tree, and enters it. Then she goes to the queen, sc service, and is engaged as swineherd.-- (6) When king's son is dressing, heroine takes him first some water, then a towel, and thirdly, some straw for his boots;² each time he beats her, because she is so dirty.-- (7) On Sundays heroine runs to her oak, gets magnificent clothes, and goes in her sledge to church. On leaving, she covers herself in mist. In answer to prince's three questions whence she comes, she says, "From Spilt-water"; "From Towel-beat"; "From Straw. beat."-- (8) Prince has tar spread in front of church, and on third Sunday heroine loses her shoe. Search is made throughout the kingdom for the owner.-- (9) Prince recognises heroine whilst she is washing up the dishes, for as she stoops, her splendid clothes, which she has kept on, show beneath her rags. He marries her.

1: It is customary with the Letts to take a hot bath.-- Dr. Karlowicz
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2: The Lithuanian and Lett peasants wear very large boots in winter, and put a little straw inside to make them extra warm. ---Dr. Karlowicz.
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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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