Chapter XXV: Tom Thumb

_Source_.--From the chap-book contained in Halliwell, p. 199, and Mr. Hartland's _English Folk and Fairy Tales_. I have omitted much of the second part.

_Parallels_.--Halliwell has also a version entirely in verse. “Tom Thumb” is “Le petit Poucet” of the French, “Daumling” of the Germans, and similar diminutive heroes elsewhere (_cf._ Deulin, _Contes de ma Mère l'Oye_, 326), but of his adventures only that in the cow's stomach (_cf._ Cosquin, ii. 190) is common with his French and German cousins. M. Gaston Paris has a monograph on “Tom Thumb.”