ORN SEER

_Source._--Collected by Mrs. Gomme from an old woman at Deptford. It is
to be remarked that "Gobborn Seer" is Irish (Goban Saor = free
carpenter), and is the Irish equivalent of Wayland Smith, and occurs in
several place names in Ireland.

_Parallels._--The essence of the tale occurs in Kennedy, _l.c._, p. 67,
_seq._ Gobborn Seer's daughter was clearly the clever lass who is found
in all parts of the Indo-European world. An instance in my _Indian Fairy
Tales_, "Why the Fish Laughed" (No. xxiv.). She has been made a special
study by Prof. Child, _English and Scotch Ballads_, i., 485, while an
elaborate monograph by Prof. Benfey under the title "Die Kluge Dirne"
(reprinted in his _Kleine Schriften_, ii., 156, _seq._), formed the
occasion for his first presentation of his now well-known hypothesis of
the derivation of all folk-tales from India.

_Remarks._--But for the accident of the title being preserved there
would have been nothing to show that this tale had been imported into
England from Ireland, whither it had probably been carried all the way
from India.

LV. LAWKAMERCYME

_Source._--Halliwell, _Nursery Rhymes_.

_Parallels._--It is possible that this is an Eastern "sell": it occurs
at any rate as the first episode in Fitzgerald's translation of Jami's
_Salaman and Absal_. Jami, _ob._ 1492, introduces the story to
illustrate the perplexities of the problem of individuality in a
pantheistic system.

Lest, like the simple Arab in the tale,
I grow perplext, O God! 'twixt ME and THEE,
If I--this Spirit that inspires me whence?
If THOU--then what this sensual impotence?

In other words, M. Bourget's _Cruelle Enigme_. The Arab yokel coming to
Bagdad is fearful of losing his identity, and ties a pumpkin to his leg
before going to sleep. His companion transfers it to his own leg. The
yokel awaking is perplexed like the pantheist.

If I--the pumpkin why on YOU?
If YOU--then where am I, and WHO?

LVI. TATTERCOATS

_Source._--Told to Mrs. Balfour by a little girl named Sally Brown, when
she lived in the Cars in Lincolnshire. Sally had got it from her mother,
who worked for Mrs. Balfour. It was originally told in dialect, which
Mrs. Balfour has omitted.

_Parallels._--Miss Cox has included "Tattercoats" in her exhaustive
collection of parallels of _Cinderella_ (Folk-Lore Society Publications,
1892), No. 274 from the MS. which I had lent her. Miss Cox rightly
classes