It has been suggested that the story originated in a nature-myth, Cinderella being the dawn, oppressed by the night clouds (cruel relatives) and finally rescued by the sun (prince).
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910. From All There Is to Know by Alexander Coleman, 1994.
The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang, 1972.
Answer: hours of sleep.
Mystic divinities anciently worshiped in Egypt, Phoenicia, Asia Minor and Greece. They were regarded as inferior in dignity to the great gods, and were probably representatives of the powers of nature.
A Dictionary of the Noted Names in Fiction by William A. Wheeler, 1865.
An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper, 1978.
Before lying down, nature prompts the dog to turn several times in order to bend the leaves away from his body, and thus secure a flat resting space.
5000 Facts and Fancies by William Henry P. Phyfe, 1901.
A magic ring worn by Solomon, which enabled him to understand the speech of birds and beasts, and give him power over all living things, all the forces of nature, and the unseen world of the supernatural.
Whose What? by Dorothy Rose Blumberg, 1969.
The debt to nature. A euphemism for death and evocative of “ashes to ashes and dust to dust” in suggesting that all of us are merely on loan to the world.
Veni, Vidi, Vici by Eugene Ehrlich, 1995.
Manito, or Manitou, was the Algonquian name for the spirit or force that pervades all nature, being either good or evil. Manito in one form or another, and under other names, was a concept believed in by virtually every Indian tribe. Manito was not thought of as a formal personality, and its nature is indicated by such equivalent names for it as Great Spirit, Great Mystery, and Master of Life.
American Indian Legends, Myths and Legends of All Nations by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox Wilson, 1960.
Chinese characters adopted by Triads as emblem.
