_Source_.--From the chap-book contained in Halliwell, p. 199, and Mr.
Hartland's _English Folk and Fairy Tales_. I have omitted much of the
second part.
_Parallels_.--Halliwell has also a version entirely in verse. “Tom
Thumb” is “Le petit Poucet” of the French, “Daumling” of the Germans,
and similar diminutive heroes elsewhere (_cf._ Deulin, _Contes de ma
Mère l'Oye_, 326), but of his adventures only that in the cow's stomach
(_cf._ Cosquin, ii. 190) is common with his French and German cousins.
M. Gaston Paris has a monograph on “Tom Thumb.”