_Source_.--From _Folk-Lore Journal_, ii. 40-3; to which it was
communicated by Miss C. Burne.
_Parallels_.--Prof. Stephens gave a variant from his own memory in
_Folk-Lore Record_, iii. 155, as told in Essex at the beginning of the
century. Mr. Toulmin Smith gave another version in _The Constitutional_,
July 1, 1853, which was translated by his daughter, and contributed
to _Mélusine_, t. ii. An Oxfordshire version was given in _Notes and
Queries_, April 17, 1852. It occurs also in Ireland, Kennedy, _Fireside
Stories_, p. 9. It is Grimm's _Kluge Else_, No. 34, and is spread
through the world. Mr. Clouston devotes the seventh chapter of his _Book
of Noodles_ to the Quest of the Three Noodles.