XLIII. THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL.

_Source_.--Halliwell, p. 158. The second wish has been somewhat

euphemised.

_Parallels_.--The story forms part of Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_, where

the rhyme was

_A Head rises in the well_,

Fair maiden, white and red,

Stroke me smooth and comb my head,

And thou shalt have some cockell-bread.

It is also in Chambers, _l.c._, 105, where the well is at the World's

End (_cf._ No. xli.). The contrasted fates of two step-sisters, is the

Frau Holle (Grimm, No. 24) type of Folk-tale studied by Cosquin, i. 250,

_seq._ “Kate Crackernuts” (No. xxxvii.) is a pleasant contrast to this.

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