that the shoe in question must have been of a hard or metallic
substance which could not be pressed out of shape. In the form
endeared to most European children of the upper classes by Charles
Perrault, the slipper is made of glass. It was first suggested by
Balzac that Perrault's _pantoffles de verre_ was due to his
misunderstanding of the _pantoffles de vair_, or fur (the word _vair_
is still used to indicate this in heraldry), which he had heard from
his nurse or other folk-tale informant. But the step-sisters would not
have been compelled to hack their heels to get inside a fur slipper,
and, from this point of view, the glass shoe would be preferable. I
have had, however, to reject it because it occurs in only six of the
variants obviously derived directly, or indirectly, from Perrault. The
majority of the versions prefer _gold_ (see Miss Roalfe Cox's
enumeration p. 342).

The Shoe Marriage Test again involves the previous meetings of the
high-born lover and the menial heroine, transformed for the nonce by
her dress into a dame of equal standing. In some of the variants these
meetings are in church and not at a ball, royal or otherwise. But the
Shoe Marriage Test involves a highly desirable _parti_ who can
practically command any wife he desires; this points to some
super-chief or king. I have, therefore, reserved the church meetings
for the Catskin type of story in which the heroine is scullery-maid in
the young lord's own household. The obtaining of the dresses needed
for the Royal Balls involves some animal or supernatural aid (in
Perrault it is, of course, a fairy god-mother, unknown to the folk
mind), while the menial condition of the heroine is best explained in
the usual folk-tale manner by the envious step-mother or sisters.

I have pointed out in _English Fairy Tales_ (Note to "Childe Rowland")
that in most folk-tales of a romantic type the mode of telling is by
prose narrative interspersed with rhyming formulae analogous to the
cante-fable as in "Aucassin and Nicolete." The Cinderella formula
shows clear traces of such rhymes, especially at the stages of the
narrative where incidents are repeated--the appeal for aid at the
mother's grave (Dress Rhyme), the avoidance of pursuit by the guards
(Pursuit Rhyme), and the calling attention of the Prince to the
mutilated feet of the step-sisters (Feet Rhyme).

Now some of these rhymes are found in similar and almost identical
shape in collections made in differ