J. W. Wolff (Leipzig, 1845), Deutsche Märchen und Sagen, ii. p. 52, "Die betrogenen Schelme."
Kletke, Märchensaal aller Völker, i. p. 98, "Herr Scarpacifico."
Il Pentamerone, ii. 10, "Lo compare."
Grimm, vol. i. "Clever Elsie," p. 138; Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales; "Foolish Sachúli," pp. 27, 257; Folk-Lore Record, 1884, p. 40, Variant of "The Three Noodles." See also Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes, "Mr. Vinegar," p. 149, and the well-known verses about the pedlar called Stout, and "The Wise Men of Gotham," pp. 24, 56.
Amongst the numerous other simpleton stories we may note those where people harrow up their feelings about that which might happen to as yet unborn children.
The following are Magyar simpleton tales:—
The people in one village tried to carry a ladder through a forest across their shoulders and cut all the trees down so as to get through.
In another: A stork soiled the new gold nob on the spire and they shot it so awkwardly that it hung there and disfigured the place worse than ever.
In another: Some grass was growing upon an old church: so, instead of cutting it and throwing it down, they erected an elaborate scaffold and pulled a bull up by a rope tied round his neck. The poor brute, half strangled, put out his tongue, whereupon they said, "See, he wants it already."
In another: When the Turks were coming they put a foal in a little grotto, and when it grew they could not get it out.