_Chat Noir_, a Breton tale,
in which a stepmother kills a cow that befriends Yvonne. Within the dead
cow were found two golden slippers. Then comes in the formula of the
False Bride (_Rev. Celtique_, 1870, p. 373).]

[Footnote 84: Among the Basutos this happens in 'The Murder of
Maciloniane.' Casalis, p. 309: 'The bird was the heart of
Maciloniane.']

[Footnote 85: Apoll. Rhod. i. 256. The story of Athamas is an ingenious
medley of _Maerchen_, including, as will be shown, part of _Hop o' my
Thumb_.]

[Footnote 86: Gubernatis, _Zoolog. Myth._ ii. 5.]

[Footnote 87: A Zulu tale in Callaway, pp. 64, 65, is proof that this
was once the Zulu custom.]

[Footnote 88: Elton, _op. cit._ p. 190.]

[Footnote 89: Callaway, p. 121.]

[Footnote 90: _Revue Celtique_, Jan., Nov. 1878, p. 366.]

RIQUET A LA HOUPPE.

_Riquet of the Tuft._

Of all Perrault's tales _Riquet_ is the least popular. Compared with the
stories of Madlle. L'Heritier or of the Comtesse de Murat, even _Riquet_
is short and simple. But it could hardly be told by a nurse, and it
would not greatly interest a child. We want to know what became of the
plain but lively sister, and she drops out of the narrative unnoticed.
The touch of the traditional and popular manner in the story is the love
of a woman redeeming the ugliness of a man. In one shape or another,
from the Kaffir _Bird who made Milk_, or _Five Heads_, to what was
probably the original form of _Cupid and Psyche_, this is the
fundamental notion of _Beauty and the Beast_[91]. But Perrault hints
that the miracle was purely 'subjective.' 'Some say that the Princess,
reflecting on the perseverance of her lover, and all his good qualities,
ceased to see that his body was deformed, and his face ugly.' There is
therefore little excuse for examining here the legends of ladies, or
lords, who marry a Tick (in Portugal), a Frog (in Scotland and India), a
Beaver (in North America), a Pumpkin (in Wallachia), an Iron Stove (in
Germany), a Serpent (in Zululand), and so forth. These tales are
usually, perhaps, of moral origin, and convey the lesson that no magic
can resist kindness. The strange husbands or wives are enchanted into an
evil shape, till they meet a lover who will not disdain them. Moral,
don't disdain anybody. Some have entertained angels unawares. But this
apologue could only have been invented when there was a general belief
in powers of enchantment and metamorphosis, a belief always more