strongest words at the points where the eye would most readily see
them; as, "But just then up came the big Billy-Goat Gruff." The
coherence is fine, and is secured largely by the cumulative plan in a
threefold sense. The relation of the parts is unmistakable. The
similarity and contrast evident in the episodes of the three
Billy-Goats makes this relation very clearly defined. To make doubly
sure the end has been reached the tale concludes:--

Snip, snap, snout,
This tale's told out.

Let us examine the folk-tale generally as to its literary form. The
folk-tale originally did not come from the people in literary form.
The tale was first told by some nameless primitive man, who, returning
from some adventure of everyday life, would narrate it to a group of
his comrades. First told to astonish and interest, or to give a
warning of the penalty of breaking Nature's laws, or to teach a moral
lesson, or to raise a laugh, later it became worked up into the
fabulous stories of gods and heroes. These fabulous stories developed
into myth-systems, and these again into household tales. By constant
repetition from one generation to another, incidents likely to happen
in everyday life, which represented universal experiences and
satisfied common needs of childhood, were selected and combined. These
gradually assumed a form of simplicity and literary charm, partly
because, just as a child insists on accuracy, savage people adhered
strictly to form in repeating the tale, and because it is a law of
permanence that what meets the universal need will survive. The great
old folk-tales have acquired in their form a clearness and precision;
for in the process of telling and re-telling through the ages all the
episodes became clearly defined. And as irrelevant details dropped