Mr. Jacobs’ new book of fairy tales is as beautiful, and will prove as acceptable to his little friends, as those that have preceded it. They will have grown accustomed to the annual gift of Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Batten, and will be sorry to read, that for the present, this is the last “selection of Fairy Tales once and still existing among them” which they must expect from the same skilful hands; especially as neither the pen of the one nor the pencil of the other has lost anything of its cunning.
With regard to the alterations he has made in the text of the tales, the Editor, while stating that he has continued the practice adopted in the previous volumes of altering where it seemed necessary goes on to say: “As former statements of mine on this point have somewhat misled my folk-lore friends, I should perhaps add, that the alterations on this score have been much slighter than they have seemed, and have not affected anything of value to the science of folk-lore.” It is right to quote this explanation in justice to Mr. Jacobs, since the reference is (possibly among others) to my remarks on the preface to his last volume.
The notes appended, though valuable, are hardly so full as on some previous occasions; and, whether for this reason, or because Mr. Jacobs has been favoured with glimpses of a different—I will not venture to say a better—faith, the theory of the Indian origin of the stories has almost vanished. When it appears, it is sheltered under the name and enunciated in the words of J. F. Campbell. This is the case with the fine story of “The Black Horse”, given from Mr. Campbell’s manuscript. Shortly, the story is of a bride won by the hero for a king, with the help of a certain black horse. The lady declines to be married until she has certain magical gifts, which one after the other are fetched by the hero. When at length she has them, she puts an end to the king and marries the lad who has dared so much for her. The horse’s head is cut off at his own request, and he resumes his proper form as the bride’s
