English Fairy Tales

Joseph Jacobs

XLIII. THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL.

Source.—Halliwell, p. 158. The second wish has been some-
what 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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