r tale, still with the beast in place of the
Fairy Godmother, is quoted by Mr. Ralston from the Servian (_Vuk
Karajich_, No. 32). Three maidens were spinning near a cleft in the
ground, when an old man warned them not to let their spindles fall into
the cleft, or their mother would be changed into a cow. Mara's spindle
fell in, and the mother instantly shared the fate of Io. Mara tended the
cow that had been her mother lovingly, but the father married again, and
the new wife drove Mara to dwell among the cinders (_pepel_), hence she
was called _Pepelluga_, cinderwench[78]. The cruel Servian stepmother
had the cow slain, but not before it had warned Mara to eat none of the
kindred flesh[79], and to bury the bones in the ashes of the hearth.
From these bones sprang two white doves, which supplied Mara with
splendid raiment, and, finally, won for her the hand of the prince,
after the usual incidents of the lost slipper, the attempt to substitute
the stepmother's ugly daughter, and the warning of the fowls, 'Ki erike,
the right maiden is under the trough.'

In a modern Greek variant (Hahn, ii.), the Mother (not in vaccine form)
is eaten by her daughters, except the youngest, who refuses the hideous
meal. The dead woman magically aids the youngest from her tomb, and the
rest follows as usual, the slipper playing its accustomed part.

In Gaelic a persecuted stepdaughter is aided by a Ram. The Ram is
killed, his bones are buried by his _protegee_, he comes to life again,
but is lame, for his bones were not all collected, and he plays the part
of Fairy Godmother[80].

Turning from the Gaelic to the Lowland Scotch, we find _Rashin Coatie_
as a name under which either _Peau d'Ane_ or _Cendrillon_ may be
narrated. We discovered Cendrillon as _Rashin Coatie_, in
Morayshire[81]. Here a Queen does not become a _cow_, indeed, but dies,
and leaves to her daughter a _Red Calf_, which aids her, till it is
slain by a cruel stepmother.

The dead calfy said

_Tak me up, bane by bane
And pit me aneth yon grey stane,_

and whatever you want, come and seek it frae me, and I will
give you it.

The usual adventures of Cinderella ensue, the birds denouncing the False
Bride, whose foot is pinched to make it fit the 'beautiful satin
slipper' of the heroine.

In most of these versions the heroine is aided by a beast, and even when
that beast is dead, it continues helpful, in one case actually coming to