XLIII. THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
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.