ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editor and publishers wish to express their appreciation to the following firms for permission to use the material indicated:

To Messrs. G.P. Putnam's Sons for "Why the Sea is Salt," "The Lad Who Went to the North Wind," "The Lad and the Deil," and "Ananzi and the Lion," by Sir George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L.; to the Macmillan Company, New York, for "The Grateful Foxes" and "The Badger's Money," by A.B. Mitford; to Messrs. Macmillan & Company, London, for "The Origin of Rubies," by Rev. Lal Behari Day; to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for "The Dun Horse," by George Bird Grinnell; to Messrs. Little, Brown & Company for "The Peasant Story of Napoleon," by Honoré de Balzac; to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Company for "Why Brother Bear Has No Tail," by Joel Chandler Harris, and for the following selections from "Sixty Folk Tales, from Exclusively Slavonic Sources," translated by A.H. Wratislaw, M.A.:—"Long, Broad, and Sharpsight," "Intelligence and Luck," "George and the Goat," "The Wonderful Hair," "The Dragon and the Prince," and "The Good Children."


CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction[xi]
CHAPTER
I.Hans in Luck
From Grimm's Fairy Tales.
[3]
II.Why the Sea is Salt
From "Popular Tales from the
Norse," by Sir George Webbe
Dasent, D.C.L.
[13]
III.The Lad Who Went to the North Wind
From "Popular Tales from the
Norse," by Sir George Webbe
Dasent, D.C.L.
[22]
IV.The Lad and the Diel
From "Popular Tales from the
Norse," by Sir George Webbe
Dasent, D.C.L.
[28]
V.Ananzi and the Lion
From "Popular Tales from the
Norse," by Sir George Webbe
Dasent, D.C.L.
[30]
VI.The Grateful Foxes
From "Tales of Old Japan," by
A.B. Mitford.
[37]
VII.The Badger's Money
From "Tales of Old Japan," by
A.B. Mitford.
[52]
VIII.Why Brother Bear Has no Tail
From "Nights with Uncle Remus,"
by Joel Chandler Harris.
[60]
IX.The Origin of Rubies
From "Folk Tales of Bengal,"
by Rev. Lal Behari Day.
[66]
X.Long, Broad, and Sharpsight
Translated from the Bohemian
by A.H. Wratislaw, M.A., in
"Sixty Folk Tales, from Exclusively
Slavonic Sources."
[74]
XI.Intelligence and Luck
Translated from the Bohemian
by A.H. Wratislaw, M.A., in
"Sixty Folk Tales, from Exclusively
Slavonic Sources."
[92]
XII.George with the Goat
Translated from the Bohemian
by A.H. Wratislaw, M.A., in
"Sixty Folk Tales, from Exclusively
Slavonic Sources."
[99]
XIII.The Wonderful Hair
Translated from the Serbian by
A.H. Wratislaw, M.A., in
"Sixty Folk Tales, from Exclusively
Slavonic Sources."
[107]
XIV.The Dragon and the Prince
Translated from the Serbian by
A.H. Wratislaw, M.A., in
"Sixty Folk Tales, from Exclusively
Slavonic Sources."
[112]
XV.The Good Children
A Little Russian story of Galicia.
Translated by A.H.
Wratislaw, M.A., in "Sixty
Folk Tales, from Exclusively
Slavonic Sources."
[124]
XVI.The Dun Horse
From "Pawnee Hero Stories
and Folk Tales," by George
Bird Grinnell.
[130]
XVII.The Greedy Youngster
From the Norwegian tale of
Peter Christen Asbjörnsen.
[142]
XVIII.Hans, Who Made the Princess Laugh
From the Norwegian tale of
Peter Christen Asbjörnsen.
[162]
XIX.The Story of Tom Tit Tot
An old Suffolk Tale, given in the
dialect of East Anglia. From
"Tom Tit Tot. An Essay on
Savage Philosophy in Folk
Tale," by Edward Clodd.
[172]
XX.The Peasant Story of Napoleon
From "The Country Doctor,"
by Honoré de Balzac. Translated
by Katharine Prescott
Wormeley.
[182]

INTRODUCTION

When the traveller looks at Rome for the first time he does not realize that there have been several cities on the same piece of ground, and that the churches and palaces and other great buildings he sees to-day rest on an earlier and invisible city buried in dust beneath the foundations of the Rome of the Twentieth Century. In like manner, and because all visible things on the surface of the earth have grown out of older things which have ceased to be, the world of habits, the ideas, customs, fancies, and arts, in which we live is a survival of a younger world which long ago disappeared. When we speak of Friday as an unlucky day, or touch wood after saying that we have had good luck for a long time, or take the trouble to look at the new moon over the right shoulder, or avoid crossing the street while a funeral is passing, we are recalling old superstitions or beliefs, a vanished world in which our remote forefathers lived.