The Magic Bed: A Book of East Indian Fairy-Tales

ALTEMUS' FAIRY-TALES SERIES
EDITED with an INTRODUCTION By HARTWELL JAMES WITH FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS ByJOHN R. NEILL
PHILADELPHIA HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
India is undoubtedly the home of the fairy-tale. Of those now in existence, probably one-third of them came from India. Gypsies, missionaries, travelers, and traders carried them to other countries where they were told and retold until much of their original form was obliterated, and many of their titles lost.
The Jatakas, or birth-stories of Buddha, form the earliest collection of fairy-tales in the world, and were gathered together more than two thousand years before the Brothers Grimm—well and justly beloved of children—began to write the stories which have delighted a world of readers, young and old.
It is from these, and from others told by native nurses, or ayahs, to children in India--where the belief in fairies, gnomes, ogres, and monsters is still widespread--that five stories most likely to interest young people have been selected to form this volume. They are stories which have aroused the wonder and laughter of thousands of children in the far East, and can hardly fail to produce the same effect upon the children of America.
H.J.
The Ant-King extols the beauty of the Princess Lalun, the Tiger gives the Prince the best of advice, and by the aid of the Magic Bed wonderful things occur.
NE very hot day, a young Prince, or Rajah as they are called in India, had been hunting all the morning in the jungle, and by noon had lost sight of his attendants. So he sat down under a tree to rest and to eat some cakes which his mother had given him.
When he broke the first one he found an ant in it. In the second there were two ants, in the third, three, and so on until in the sixth there were six ants and the Ant-King himself.
I think these cakes belong to you more than they do to me, said the Prince to the Ant-King. Take them all, for I am going to sleep.
After a while the Ant-King crawled up to the Prince's ear as he lay there dreaming, and said, We are much obliged for the cakes and have eaten them up. What can we do for you in return?