Algonquin Indian Tales

GEORGINA ISLAND, LAKE SIMCOE. REV. EGERTON R. YOUNG.
DEAR FRIEND: Your book of stories gathered from among my tribe has very much pleased me. The reading of them brings up the days of long time ago when I was a boy and heard our old people tell these tales in the wigwams and at the camp fire.
I am very glad that you are in this way saving them from being forgotten, and I am sure that many people will be glad to read them.
With best wishes,
KECHE CHEMON (Charles Big Canoe),
Chief of the Ojibways.
In all ages, from the remotest antiquity, the story-teller has flourished. Evidences of his existence are to be found among the most ancient monuments and writings in the Orient. In Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, and other ancient lands he flourished, and in the homes of the noblest he was ever an honored guest.
The oldest collection of folklore stories or myths now in existence is of East Indian origin and is preserved in the Sanskrit. The collection is called Hitopadesa , and the author was Veshnoo Sarma. Of this collection, Sir William Jones, the great Orientalist, wrote, The fables of Veshnoo are the most beautiful, if not the most ancient, collection of apologues in the world. As far back as the sixth century translations were made from them.
The same love for myths and legends obtains to-day in those Oriental lands. There, where the ancient and historic so stubbornly resist any change—in Persia, India, China, and indeed all over that venerable East—the man who can recite the ancient apologues or legends of the past can always secure an audience and command the closest attention.
While the general impression is that the recital of these old myths and legends among Oriental nations was for the mere pastime of the crowds, it is well to bear in mind that many of them were used as a means to convey great truths or to reprove error. Hence the recital of them was not confined to a merely inquisitive audience that desired to be amused. We have a good example of this in the case of the recital by Jotham, as recorded in the book of Judges, of the legend of the gathering of the trees for the purpose of having one of them anointed king over the rest. Of this legend Dr. Adam Clarke, the commentator, says, This is the oldest and, without exception, the best fable or apologue in the world.