ag of money!"

When his mother heard him she went to meet him and took the money and
said: "Take care you don't drown yourself in these puddles of
rain-water." The mother went home, and turned back to look for Cecino,
but he was not to be seen. She told her husband what Cecino had done,
and they went and searched everywhere for him, and at last found him
drowned in a puddle.[4]

* * * * *

The next story is one that has always enjoyed great popularity over the
whole of Europe, and is a most interesting example of the diffusion of
nursery tales. It is also interesting from the attempt to show that it
is of comparatively late date, and has been borrowed from a people not
of European extraction.[5] The story belongs to the class of what may be
called "accumulative" stories, of which "The House that Jack built" is a
good example. It is a version of the story so well known in English of
the old woman who found a little crooked sixpence, and went to market
and bought a little pig. As she was coming home the pig would not go
over the stile. The old woman calls on a dog to bite pig, but the dog
will not. Then she calls in turn on a stick, fire, water, ox, butcher,
rope, rat, and cat. They all refuse to help her except the cat, which
promises help in exchange for a saucer of milk. "So away went the old
woman to the cow. But the cow said to her: 'If you will go to yonder
hay-stack and fetch me a handful of hay, I'll give you the milk.' So
away went the old woman to the hay-stack; and she brought the hay to the
cow. As soon as the cow had eaten the hay, she gave the old woman the
milk; and away she went with it in a saucer to the cat.

"As soon as the cat had lapped up the milk, the cat began to kill the
rat; the rat to gnaw the rope; the rope began to hang the butcher; the
butcher began to kill the ox; the ox began to drink the water; the water
began to quench the fire; the fire began to burn the stick; the stick
began to beat the dog; the dog began to bite the pig; the little pig in
a fright jumped over the stile, and so the old woman got home that
night."[6]

The Italian versions may be divided into two classes: first, where the
animals and inanimate objects are invoked to punish some human being;
second, where all the actors are animals. The first version of the first
class that we shall give is from Sicily, Pitre, No. 131, and is called:

LXXVIII. PITIDDA.

Once upon a time there was a