EAST INDIAN FAIRY TALES
ALTEMUS' FAIRY-TALES SERIES
The Magic Bed
A Book of East Indian
Fairy Tales
EDITED with an INTRODUCTION
By HARTWELL JAMES
WITH FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS
ByJOHN R. NEILL
PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
Altemus'Illustrated Fairy Tales SeriesThe Magic Bed The Cat and the Mouse The Jeweled Sea The Magic Jaw Bone The Man Elephant The Enchanted Castle Fifty Cents Each Copyright, 1906 |
Introduction
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 ay