Chapter LXXIV: King O' Cats

_Source._--I have taken a point here and a point there from the various English versions mentioned in the next section.

I have expanded the names, so as to make a jingle from the Dildrum and Doldrum of Hartland.

_Parallels._--Five variants of this quaint legend have been collected in England: (1) Halliwell, _Pop. Rhymes_, 167, "Molly Dixon"; (2) _Choice Notes--Folk-Lore_, p. 73, "Colman Grey"; (3) _Folk-Lore Journal_, ii., 22, "King o' the Cats"; (4) _Folk-Lore--England_ (Gibbings), "Johnny Reed's Cat"; (5) Hartland and Wilkinson, _Lancashire Legends_, p. 13, "Dildrum Doldrum." Sir F. Palgrave gives a Danish parallel; _cf._ Halliwell, _l.c._

_Remarks._--An interesting example of the spread and development of a simple anecdote throughout England. Here again we can scarcely imagine more than a single origin for the tale which is, in its way, as weird and fantastic as E.A. Poe.