_Le Petit Poucet._--This story, under the titles of _Hop o' my Thumb_,
_Little Thumb and his Brothers_, &c., has been continually reprinted
amongst our English nursery tales; and as I have already spoken of
ogres and seven-leagued boots, there is little else in it that calls
for observation. The latter are said to have been "fées"--_i.e._
enchanted, as the key in _Blue Beard_. The attempt of the parents to
lose the children in the wood is an incident in Madame d'Aulnoy's story
of _Finette Cendron_, drawn, no doubt, from the same source, as Cambry,
in his _Voyage au Finisterre_, bears witness to _Le Petit Poucet_
having been an "ancien conté populaire," which has for ages amused "les
enfans de la Basse Bretagne." I think it is quite unnecessary for me
to go into the question of this story being founded on an episode in
Homer's _Odyssey_, to prove that Perrault was not thinking of Ulysses
in the cave of Polyphemus, or that the pebbles and bread were not
suggested by the clue of Ariadne.
In Grimm's _Kinder und Hausmärchen_ are several stories about
Thumbling; and I need scarcely remind the reader that England has her
own renowned _Thomas Thumb_.