_Source_.--I have taken what suited me from a number of sources, which
shows how wide-spread this quaint droll is in England: (i) In Mayhew,
_London Poor_, iii. 391, told by a lad in a workhouse; (ii) several
versions in 7 _Notes and Queries_, iii. 35, 87, 159, 398.
_Parallels_.--Rev. W. Gregor gives a Scotch version under the title “The
Clever Apprentice,” in _Folk-Lore Journal_, vii. 166. Mr. Hartland, in
_Notes and Queries_, _l.c._, 87, refers to Pitré's _Fiabi sicil._, iii.
120, for a variant.
_Remarks_.--According to Mr. Hartland, the story is designed as a satire
on pedantry, and is as old in Italy as Straparola (sixteenth century).
In passionate Sicily a wife disgusted with her husband's pedantry
sets the house on fire, and informs her husband of the fact in this
unintelligible gibberish; he, not understanding his own lingo, falls
a victim to the flames, and she marries the servant who had taken the
message.