Neuf, je tiens mon pied de bœuf. (Mo., p. 351.) "Nine, I hold my ox's foot"; the number nine in this case being also mentioned. The meting out of punishments by nines goes far back in history. It was associated with a Yule-tide sport which is still practised in Denmark and in Schleswig, and is known as _Ballerrune_ or _Balderrune_. Every member of the assembled company repeated a formula on "Balder Rune and his wife," and he who made a mistake received nine blows, as in our game. The custom was explained by the legend that the god Balder, incensed at his wife's loquacity, chastised her by giving her nine blows, and ordered that this should be repeated every year, so that women be reminded that it is their duty to be silent when their husbands speak (H., p. 44). In the game of _Dump_ also, it is the person who speaks first that is punished, but there is nothing to suggest that this was a woman, for the game is essentially a boys' game. The story of _The Woman and her Pig_ (_or Kid_), like that of Jack, is told over a wide geographical area. In the Scottish version the woman lived in a wee house and found two pennies and bought a kid. On coming home she saw a bush and wished to pull off its berries, and could not. She set the kid to watch the house, and went to seek the help of dog, stick, fire, water, ox, axe, smith, rope, mouse, cat, milk, in her hope of breaking the spell that had fallen on the bush. Each animal or object refused "to do the next one harm, saying that it never did it any harm itself"; but the cat finally could not resist the temptation of lapping the milk (1870, p. 57). Thus the tale introduced a moral element which is not found elsewhere. In Sweden the tale of _The Old Woman and her Pig_ is called _Konen och Grisen Fick_, "the woman and her pig Fick," and the pig refused to leave off eating acorns. A similar tale is called _Gossen och Geten Näppa_, "the lad and the kid Näppa," (1849, p. 6). In Elsass the pig is called _Schnirrchele_ (St., p. 93), in Transylvania it is _Mischka_ or _Bitschki_ (Sch., p. 372). And a version from the north of France tells how _Biquette_ got into a cabbage-patch from which stick, fire, water, were summoned to expel her. _Biquette_ is described as a kid (D., p. 122). In Languedoc _Biquette_ reappears as _Bouquaire-Bouquil_, who is furnished with horns and does havoc in a millet-field from which he is expelled with the help of wolf, dog, stick, fire, water, ox, rope (M. L., p. 538). In all cases the animal is one that is provided with horns. Millet is one of the oldest cereals that were cultivated in Europe, the displacement of which by the cultivation of corn had begun in England when Pytheas visited these shores in the fourth century B.C. Can the "malt" of _This is the House that Jack built_ stand for millet?