discussed by Prof. Köhler, Occ.u. Orient.,ii.,33o; by Prof. Child, i., 298; and by Messrs. Jones and Kropf, I.e., p. 404. The sieve-bucket task is widespread from the Danaids of the Greeks to the leverets of Uncle Remus, who, curiously enough, use the same rhyme: "Fill it wid moss en dob it wid clay." Cf., too, No. xxiii.
Source.—I have taken what suited me from a number ot sources which shows how widespread this quaint droll is in England: (i) In Mayhew, London Poor, iii., 391, told by a lad in a workhouse; (ii) several versions in 7 Notes and Queries, iii., 35, 87, 159, 398.
Parallels.—Rev. W. Gregor gives a Scotch version under the title "The Clever Apprentice," in Folk-Lore Journal, vii., 166. An Irish version with the Gaelic was given in Folk-Lore for March, 1891. Mr. Hartland, in Notes and Queries, l.c., 87 refers to Pitré's Fiabi sieil., iii., 120, for a variant.
Remarks.—According to Mr. Hartland, the story is designed as a satire on pedantry, and is as old in Italy as Straparola (16th century). In passionate Sicily, a wife disgusted with her husband's pedantry sets the house on fire, and informs her husband of the fact in his own unintelligible gibberish; he not understanding his own lingo, falls a victim to the flames, and she marries the servant who had taken the message.
Source.—Halliwell, p. 158, from a chap-book. The second wish has been somewhat euphemised.
Parallels.—The story forms part of Peele's Old Wives' Tale. where the rhyme was
"A Head rises in the well.
Fair maiden, white and red,
Stroke me smooth and comb my head.
And thou shalt have some cockell-bread."
