ss in the Catskins."
Goldsmith knew the story by the name of "Catskin," as he refers to it in
the _Vicar_. There is a fragment from Cornwall in _Folk-Lore_, i., App.
p. 149.

_Remarks._--_Catskin, or the Wandering Gentlewomen_, now exists in
English only in two chap-book ballads. But Chambers's first variant of
_Rashie Coat_ begins with the Catskin formula in a euphemised form. The
full formula may be said to run in abbreviated form--_Death-bed
promise--Deceased wife's resemblance marriage test--Unnatural father_
(desiring to marry his own daughter)--_Helpful animal--Counter
tasks--Magic dresses--Heroine flight--Heroine disguise--Menial
heroine--Meeting-place--Token objects named--Threefold flight--Lovesick
prince--Recognition ring--Happy marriage_. Of these the chap-book
versions contain scarcely anything of the opening _motifs_. Yet they
existed in England, for Miss Isabella Barclay, in a variant which Miss
Cox has overlooked (_Folk-Lore_, i., _l.c._), remembers having heard the
Unnatural Father incident from a Cornish servant-girl. Campbell's two
versions also contain the incident, from which one of them receives its
name. One wonders in what form Mr. Burchell knew Catskin, for "he gave
the [Primrose] children the Buck of Beverland,[3] with the history of
Patient Grissel, the adventures of Catskin and the Fair Rosamond's
Bower" (_Vicar of Wakefield_, 1766, c. vi.). Pity that "Goldy" did not
tell the story himself, as he had probably heard it in Ireland, where
Kennedy gives a poor version in his _Fireside Stories_.

Yet, imperfect as the chap-book versions are, they yet retain not a few
archaic touches. It is clear from them, at any rate, that the Heroine
was at one time transformed into a Cat. For when the basin of water is
thrown in her face she "shakes her ears" just as a cat would. Again,
before putting on her magic dresses she bathes in a pellucid pool. Now,
Professor Child has pointed out in his notes on Tamlane and elsewhere
(_English and Scotch Ballads_, i., 338; ii., 505; iii., 505) that
dipping into water or milk is necessary before transformation can take
place. It is clear, therefore, that Catskin was originally transformed
into an animal by the spirit of her mother, also transformed into an
animal.

If I understand Mr. Nutt rightly (_Folk-Lore_, iv, 135, _seq._), he is
inclined to think, from the evidence of the hero-tales which have the
unsavoury _motif_ of the Unnatural Father, that the original home