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with his stories, after having successfully accomplished his mission and secured in his possession the two objects of his master's affection. By giving the conclusion of "And must not such a youth marry you my gem of womankind" to every story, he prepares them to accept their lord for the future.
The idea of a wife relating stories, and the husband listening to them, is not quite in keeping with the traditions of the Hindus. So here, in the Dravidian Nights, we find the relator a male, the husband or apparent husband and the listeners his seeming wives.
Every original story must be read and appreciated in its original language. And Tamil stories have so many peculiarities and beauties that it is almost impossible to produce a translation which, while retaining the many idioms peculiar to the Tamil, shall, nevertheless, be in strict grammatical accord with the language in which 1 have written it. Fortunately for me, these stories are devoid of the several indecencies, we so often meet with in the Arabian Nights, which always produce a sort of disgust to the readers of both sexes, but especially to those of the softer sex. Bearing in mind that many of these expressions which now shock persons in this more refined age were not by any means considered indelicate in the time at which they were written, I have tried to avoid these as much as possible, but in the translation generally I have made it as literal as I can. I trust therefore that, on this ground, any expression which are not strictly in
