PREFACE.
It is no longer thought needful to apologise for a collection of folk-tales. They are not even the peculiar property of the children any longer; the gravest scholars do not disdain to examine and discuss them, and all parts of the world, from Mongolia to Cafraria, are ransacked to produce them. Here is presented a little gathering of these wild flowers, plucked not for their scientific interest,—though that they possess,—but for the wild fresh perfume that clings about them.
Poland, Russia, Bohemia, and Servia have contributed stories to this little collection. It may be said that the Bohemian tales, perhaps through the genius of the poets who have preserved them, have, in their original form, more art, more grace, more completeness of outline, than the others. Those from Poland reflect the passive virtues and genial warmth of the peasants whose lives they illustrate. A greater simplicity, amounting
