The tasks set are somewhat like those in "[Fisher Joe]."
In the Lapp story, "Gutten, som tjente hos Kongen" (Friis, p. 167), the hero is ordered to bring all the wild beasts of the forest into the King's courtyard. Animals help Hans in the "Maiden on the Crystal Mountain;" Vernaleken, p. 276. Cf. also notes to "[Fisher Joe]" and "[Handsome Paul]."
[THE THREE VALUABLE THINGS. Erdélyi, ii. 9.]
Cf. Naaké, Slavonic Fairy Tales, "The wise judgment." Caballero, Spanish Fairy Tales, "A girl who wanted three husbands." Sagas from the far East: "Five to one," p. 112; and "Who invented Woman," p. 298. Denton, Serbian Folk-Lore, "The three Suitors." Geldart, Folk-Lore of Modern Greece, "The Golden Casket," pp. 112 and 115, and Arabian Nights, "Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Banou."
[THE LITTLE MAGIC PONY. Erdélyi, ii. 10.]
A curious story of a magic horse is still told in Lincolnshire, which I heard the other day in Boston. This is verbatim. "Near Lincoln is a place called Biard's Leap; near there an old witch lived in a cave, who enticed people in and eat them. One day a man offered to go and kill her. He had his choice of a dozen horses, so he took them all to a pond, where he threw a stone into the water, and then led the horses to have a drink, and the one which lifted its head first he chose. It was blind. He got on its back, and, taking his sword, set off. When he got to the cave's mouth, he shouted to the witch to come out.
"Wait till I've buckled my shoe,
And suckled my cubs,"
cried the witch. She then rushed out, and jumping on to the horse stuck her claws into its rump, which made it jump over thirty feet (the so-called Biard's leap). The man struck behind him with his sword, which entered the old woman's left breast, and killed her."