The Lost Children is a French

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

collected by Antoinette Bon in ''Revue des traditions populaires''.Paul Delarue, ''The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales'', p 365, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York 1956 It is Aarne-Thompson type 327A.Heidi Anne Heine,
Tales Similar to Hansel And Gretel
" Another tale of this type is '' Hansel and Gretel''; ''The Lost Children'' combines with that type several motifs typical of ''

Hop o' My Thumb Hop-o'-My-Thumb (Hop-on-My-Thumb), or Hop o' My Thumb, also known as Little Thumbling, Little Thumb, or Little Poucet (french: Le petit Poucet), is one of the eight fairytales published by Charles Perrault in ''Histoires ou Contes du temps pass� ...

'', which is typical of French variants.

Synopsis

She hid them, but her husband could smell them because they were Christians. He beat his wife and put Jean into the barn to fatten him up before eating him, making Jeanette bring him food. The Devil was too fat to get into the barn, so he ordered Jeanette to bring him the tip of Jean's finger to test how fat he was; Jeanette brought him a rat's tail. The

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

time, he noticed the trick and pulled Jean out. He made a

sawhorse In woodworking, a saw-horse or sawhorse (saw-buck, trestle, buck) is a trestle structure used to support a board or plank for sawing. A pair of sawhorses can support a plank, forming a scaffold. In certain circles, it is also known as a ''m ...

to lay Jean on to bleed, and went for a walk. Jeanette and Jean pretend not to understand how he was to be put on the sawhorse. The Devil's wife showed them, and Jean tied her on and cut her throat. They took the Devil's gold and silver and fled in his carriage. The Devil chased them. On the way, he met various people – a laborer, a shepherd, a beadle, some laundresses – and asked whether they had seen the children. The first time he asked, they each misheard him, but then told him they hadn't, except for the laundresses, who told him they crossed the river. The Devil could not cross it, so one laundress offered to cut her hair to let him cross on it, but when he was in the middle, the laundresses dropped it, so he drowned. The children got home and took care of their parents, despite what they had done.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Children Lost Children The Devil in fairy tales Child characters in fairy tales ATU 300-399