344 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MYTHS. 



been brought forward in two of its American versions^^ taken 

 down at periods two centuries apart^ and among tribes not 

 only separated by long distance, but speaking languages of 

 two distinct families, and yet in both cases embodying also the 

 story of the Sun- Catcher. A further examination of the story 

 of Jack and the Bean Stalk, and the analogous tales which are 

 spread through the Malay and Polynesian districts and North 

 America, will bring into view the vast ramifications of a mythic 

 episode flourishing far and wide in these distant regions, though 

 so scantily represented in the folk-lore of Europe. 



Once upon a time there was a poor widow, and she had one 

 sou, and his name was Jack. One day she sent him to sell the 

 cow, but when he saw some pretty-coloured beans that the 

 butcher had, he was so delighted that he gave the cow for them 

 and brought his prize home in triumph. When the poor mother 

 saw the beans that Jack had brought home she flung them 

 away, and they grew and grew till next morning they had 

 grown right up into the sky. So Jack chmbed up sorely against 

 his mother^s will, and saw the fairy, and went to the house 

 of the giant who had killed his father, and stole the hen that 

 laid the golden eggs, and did various other wonderful things, 

 till at last the giant came running after him and followed him 

 down the bean-stalk, but Jack was just in time to cut the 

 ladder through, and the wicked Giant tumbled down head first 

 into the well, and there he was drowned. 



So runs the good old nursery tale of Jack and the Bean- 

 stalk. That it is found in England and yet is not general in 

 the folk-lore of the rest of our race in Europe is remarkable. 

 Mr. Campbell says it is not known in the Highlands of Scot- 

 land, while in Germany Wilhelm Grimm only compare^ it with 

 two poor, dull little stories, one a version distinctly connected 

 with our English tale, the other perhaps so, but neither worth 

 repeating here.^ 



In another American tradition, found current among the 

 Mandaus, the ascent is not from the earth to the sky, but from 

 the regions underground to the surface. It is thus related in 



' See also Schoolcraft, part iii. p. 547 ; part i. plate 52, p. 378. 



=* J. & W. Grimm, ' Marchen,' vol. ii. p. 133 ; vol. iii. pp. 193, 321. 



