xvii.). This is a specifically Celtic formula, and would seem therefore
to claim Cinderella for the Celts. But the welding of the Sea Maiden
ending on to the Cinderella formula is clearly a later and inartistic
junction, and implies rather imperfect assimilation of the Cinderella
formula. To determine the question of origin we must turn to the purer
type given by the other two Celtic versions.
Campbell's tale can clearly lay no claim to represent the original type
of Cinderella. The golden shoes are a gift of the hero to the heroine
which destroys the whole point of the _Shoe marriage test_, and cannot
have been in the original, wherever it originated. Mr. Macleod's
version, however, contains an incident which seems to bring us nearer to
the original form than any version contained in Miss Cox's book.
Throughout the variants it will be observed what an important function
is played by the helpful animal. This in some of the versions is left as
a legacy by the heroine's dying mother.
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