gends, the cat is owned by a
poor widow, who had been impoverished through her sons, and was left
with only a cat. The sale of the cat produces great wealth; and the
widow, Kayser, immediately sends for her sons to share her
newly-acquired fortune. What follows is different to the other versions
of these wonderful cat stories. The sons only too eager to share the
wealth of their mother, fit out many vessels, and begin to trade largely
with India and Arabia. Thinking that to acquire wealth by commerce
alone, rather slow work, they turned pirates, and were a source of
trouble and annoyance to the neighbouring states, till about 1230 A.D.,
when they were reduced to vassalage under Persian rule.

"The House that Jack Built" has its prototype in a sacred hymn in the
Talmud of the Hebrews.

"Jack, the Giant Killer" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" are two very
ancient themes coming from the North, of the time, it is said, of King
Arthur, and of the days when "Giants were upon the earth." The
well-known cry of the giants in these legends--

"Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman;
Be he alive or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread,"

is also referred to by Shakespeare in "King Lear," in Act III., Scene 5,
when Edgar sings:--

"Child Rowland to the dark Tower came;
His word was still, fee, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman."

The English version of the story of "Jack the Giant Killer," must,
therefore, be older than the time of Elizabeth. It is also a strange and
significant fact that amongst the Zulus, and the inhabitants of the Fiji
Islands, there are similar legends of the story of "Jack and the
Beanstalk."

The story of "Jack and the Beanstalk" is also to be found in old Hindoo
tales, in which the beans denote abundance. The Russians have a story in
which a bean falls to the ground, and an old man, the Sun, climbs up by
it to heaven. "The ogre in the land above the skies," observes Mr.
Baring Gould, "who was once the all-father, possessed three treasures--a
harp, which played of itself enchanting music; bags of gold and
diamonds; and a hen which daily laid a golden egg. The harp is the
wind, the bags of gold are the clouds dropping the sparkling rain, and
the golden egg laid every day by the red hen is the producing sun." The
same idea in "Jack and the Beanstalk" occurs in the fairy legends of the
North and the East, as well as in Grecian stories.