_Source_.--I give this as it was told me in Australia in 1860. The fun consists in the avoidance of all pronouns, which results in jaw-breaking sentences almost equal to the celebrated “She stood at the door of the fish-sauce shop, welcoming him in.” _Parallels_.--Halliwell, p. 151, has the same with the title “Chicken-Licken.” It occurs also in Chambers's _Popular Rhymes_, p. 59, with the same names of the _dramatis personae_, as my version. For European parallels, see Crane, _Ital. Pop. Tales_, 377, and authorities there quoted. XXI. CHILDE ROWLAND. _Source_.--Jamieson's _Illustrations of Northern Antiquities_, 1814, p. 397 _seq._, who gives it as told by a tailor in his youth, _c._ 1770. I have Anglicised the Scotticisms, eliminated an unnecessary ox-herd and swine-herd, who lose their heads for directing the Childe, and I have called the Erlkönig's lair the Dark Tower on the strength of the description and of Shakespeare's reference. I have likewise suggested a reason why Burd Ellen fell into his power, chiefly in order to introduce a definition of “widershins.” “All the rest is the original horse,” even including the erroneous description of the youngest son as the Childe or heir (_cf._ “Childe Harold” and Childe Wynd, _infra_, No. xxxiii.), unless this is some “survival” of Junior Right or “Borough English,” the archaic custom of letting the heirship pass to the youngest son. I should add that, on the strength of the reference to Merlin, Jamieson calls Childe Rowland's mother, Queen Guinevere, and introduces references to King Arthur and his Court. But as he confesses that these are his own improvements on the tailor's narrative I have eliminated them. _Parallels_.--The search for the Dark Tower is similar to that of the Red Ettin, (_cf_. Köhler on Gonzenbach, ii. 222). The formula “youngest best,” in which the youngest of three brothers succeeds after the others have failed, is one of the most familiar in folk-tales amusingly parodied by Mr. Lang in his _Prince Prigio_. The taboo against taking food in the underworld occurs in the myth of Proserpine, and is also frequent in folk-tales (Child, i. 322). But the folk-tale parallels to our tale fade into insignificance before its brilliant literary relationships. There can be little doubt that Edgar, in his mad scene in _King Lear_, is alluding to our tale when he breaks into the lines: “Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower came....” His word was still: “Fie, foh and fum, I smell the blood of a British man.” _King Lear_, act iii. sc. 4, _ad fin_. [Footnote: “British” for “English.” This is one of the points that settles the date of the play; James I. was declared King of Great _Britain_, October 1604. I may add that Motherwell in his _Minstrelsy_, p. xiv. note, testifies that the story was still extant in the nursery at the time he wrote (1828).]