the two incidents, as in her version Tommy Grimes was a clever carver and carried about with him a carven leg. This seemed to me to exceed the limits of vraisemblance even for a folk-tale.
Parallels.—Getting out of an ogre's clutches by playing on the simplicity of his wife, occurs in "Molly Whuppie" (No. xxii.), and its similars. In the Grimms' Hansel and Grethel, Hansel pokes out a stick instead of his finger that the witch may not think him fat enough for the table.
Remarks.—Mr. Miacca seems to have played the double rôle of a domestic Providence. He not alone punished bad boys, as here, but also rewarded the good, by leaving them gifts on appropriate occasions, like Santa Claus or Father Christmas, who, as is well known, only leaves things for good children. Mrs. Abrahams remembers one occasion well when she nearly caught sight of Mr. Miacca, just after he had left her a gift; she saw his shadow in the shape of a bright light passing down the garden.
Source.—I have cobbled this up out of three chap-book versions: (1) that contained in Mr. Hartland's English FolkTales; (2) that edited by Mr. H. B. Wheatley for the Villon Society; (3) that appended to Messrs. Besant and Rice's monograph.
Parallels.—Whittington's cat has made the fortune of his master in all parts of the Old World, as Mr. W. A. Clouston, among others, has shown. Popular Tales and Fictions, ii., 65—78 (cf. Köhler on Gonzenbach, ii., 251).
Remarks.—If Bow Bells had pealed in the exact accurate nineteenth century, they doubtless would have chimed
Turn again, Whittington,
Thrice and a half Lord Mayor of London.
For besides his three mayoralties of 1397, 1406, and 1419, he served as Lord Mayor in place of Adam Bamme, deceased, in
