in India, or an _ogre_ in France, or a _weendigo_ in Labrador, the
notion is the same, and the trick played by the hero is simple and
obvious[55]. Therefore _Hop o' My Thumb_ may have been invented
anywhere, by any people on a low level of civilisation. But _Puss in
Boots_ cannot have been invented by savages of a very backward race or
in a really 'primitive' age. The very essence of _Puss in Boots_ is the
sudden rise of a man, by aid of a cunning animal, from the depths of
poverty to the summit of wealth and rank. Undeniably this rise could
only occur where there were great differences of social status, where
rank was a recognised institution, and where property had been amassed
in considerable quantities by some, while others went bare as lackalls.

These things have been of the very essence of civilisation (the more's
the pity), therefore _Puss in Boots_ must have been invented by a more
or less civilised mind; it could not have been invented by a man in the
condition of the Fuegians or the Digger Indians. Nay, when we consider
the stress always and everywhere laid in the story on snobbish pride and
on magnificence of attire and equipment, and on retinue, we may conclude
that _Puss in Boots_ could hardly have been imagined by men in the
middle barbarism; in the state, for example, of Iroquois, or Zulus, or
Maoris. Nor are we aware that _Puss in Boots_, in any shape, is found
among any of these peoples. Thus the area in which the origin of _Puss
in Boots_ has to be looked for is comparatively narrow.

_Puss in Boots_, again, is a story which, in all its wonderfully varying
forms, can only, we may assume, have sprung from one single mind. It is
extremely difficult to assert with confidence that any plot can only
have been invented once for all. Every new successful plot, from _Dr.
Jekyl_ to _She_, from _Vice Versa_ to _Dean Maitland_, is at once
claimed for half a dozen authors who, unluckily, did not happen to write
_She_ or _Dr. Jekyl_. But if there can be any assurance in these
matters, we may feel certain that the idea of a story, wherein a young
man is brought from poverty to the throne by aid of a match-making and
ingenious beast, could only have been invented once for all. In that
case _Puss in Boots_ is a story which spread from one centre, and was
invented by one man in a fairly civilised society. True, he used certain
hereditary and established _formulae_; the notion of a beast that can
talk, and surprises