A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
A queen sends her daughter to a prince in an incense box, with instructions not to open it for seven days. When opened, a little female mouse emerges and lives among the cooking pots. She eats carefully, cooks for the household and summons many other mice to reap the prince’s rice field overnight.
Following the queen’s advice, the prince hides and watches her remove a mouse-jacket, put on human clothes and prepare to cook. He burns the jacket. The girl weeps on discovering the surviving sleeve in the hearth, but remains a princess thereafter. The ending does not state that she requested the destruction. Parker attributes the telling to a Tom-tom Beater in the North-western Province and notes that Mī Paeṭikkī could denote a rat or a mouse; the English heading’s species choice is not certain.
Origins & earliest records
Sri Lankan narratives collected and translated by H. Parker
Records & interpretation
Complete tale and all its printed variants/comparative notes read; relevant introduction passages on collection and translation directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
No. 54, The Mouse Maiden, pp. 308–311; comparative notes to p. 312
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
Volume I. No. 54, The Mouse Maiden, pp. 308–311; comparative notes to p. 312
Full printed section read including all regional variants and comparative notes; missing passage from truncated initial output reread. Introduction’s collection/translation paragraphs directly inspected, not claimed as a full reading of its long ethnographic survey. Regional outcomes and narrator attributions kept separate.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected oral narrative translationParker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon I — No. 54, The Mouse Maiden, pp. 308–311; comparative notes to p. 312Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.