Chapter I: Tom Tit Tot

_Source_.--Unearthed by Mr. E. Clodd from the “Suffolk Notes and Queries” of the _Ipswich Journal_, and reprinted by him in a paper on “The Philosophy of Rumpelstiltskin” in _Folk-Lore Journal_, vii. 138-43. I have reduced the Suffolk dialect.

_Parallels_.--In Yorkshire this occurs as “Habetrot and Scantlie Mab,” in Henderson's _Folk-Lore of Northern Counties_, 221-6; in Devonshire as “Duffy and the Devil” in Hunt's _Romances and Drolls of the West of England_, 239-47; in Scotland two variants are given by Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, under the title “Whuppity Stourie.” The “name-guessing wager” is also found in “Peerifool”, printed by Mr. Andrew Lang in _Longman's Magazine_, July 1889, also _Folk-Lore_, September, 1890. It is clearly the same as Grimm's “Rumpelstiltskin” (No. 14); for other Continental parallels see Mr. Clodd's article, and Cosquin, _Contes pop. de Lorraine_, i. 269 _seq_.

_Remarks_.--One of the best folk-tales that have ever been collected, far superior to any of the continental variants of this tale with which I am acquainted. Mr. Clodd sees in the class of name-guessing stories, a “survival” of the superstition that to know a man's name gives you power over him, for which reason savages object to tell their names. It may be necessary, I find, to explain to the little ones that Tom Tit can only be referred to as “that,” because his name is not known till the end.