In spite of the fact that in English we are likely to speak of all tales of wonder as fairy tales, the truth is that fairies appear rarely in such stories. Occasionally in some literary reworking of a tale, one hears of a fairy god-mother, but most accounts of fairies appear as legends or traditions. In one well-known tale, however (Type 503), the central incident does concern fairies. Sometimes they are spoken of as "the little folk" and sometimes they are called dwarfs. A hunchback comes across the fairies as they are dancing. He gains their favor by joining in their dance or by making music for them. Sometimes in their song they are trying to name the days of the week, but can never get beyond a certain point : he supplies the names of the missing days. Sometimes he submits peacefully while they cut his hair or shave him. The fairies reward him by taking off his hump and sometimes by giving him gold. He has an avaricious companion who thinks he will imitate the hero's good fortune. But the angry fairies give him the hump they have taken from the other, and where he had expected to get gold they give him some worthless coals.

In much its present form, this tale appeared in the 17th century in the literature of both Italy and Ireland. Earlier there had been an Arabic literary story dating from the 14th century in which a demon (afrit) removes the hump and puts it on the second man. [40] Within a relatively small area the story is very popular in folk tradition. In France it is one of the most frequently told of all folktales, and it is well known in Ireland, Belgium, Italy, and Germany. It does not, however, seem to have reached Scandinavia, the Baltic states, or Russia except sporadically. In spite of the assiduous collection in Lithuania and Finland, where most folktales are reported by the scores, there appear only five versions for Lithuania and none for Finland. By some accident of long-distance transmission, the story appears with fair faithfulness in a Japanese collection. Otherwise it seems to be confined to western Europe. The relations of the oral and the literary forms should make an [p. 50] interesting study, but this has not been undertaken except by Joseph Bédier, who does little more than suggest the problem and scoff at those who would seriously undertake its solution. [41]

In some other versions the helpful little folk are dwarfs, whom we shall meet again when we discuss the tale of Snow White (Type 709). The envious companion who is punished for attempting to imitate the hero's good luck (N471) appears in several other popular European stories (Types 461, 503, 613, 676).