POPULAR TALES AND FICTIONS THEIR MIGRATIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS BY W. A CLOUSTON EDITOR OF ARABIAN POETRY FOR ENGLISH READERS;' IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXXXVII All Rights reserved TALES have wings, whether they come from the East or from the North, and they soon become denizens wherever they alight. Thus it has happened, that the tale which charmed the wandering Arab in his tent, or cheered the Northern peasant by his winter's fireside, alike held on its journey to England and Scotland.— ISAAC D'ISRAELI. 26405 PREFACE. THE following papers are designed as a contribution to the history of European popular tales, the study of which-and it is both instructive and fascinating-has been, until within comparatively recent years, much neglected in this country, though its importance has long been recognised by eminent Continental scholars, the value of whose researches it would not be easy to overrate. The illustrations of the pedigree and modifications of our popular fictions adduced in these volumes are the result of many years' special as well as promiscuous reading, but, no doubt, they are in some instances very far from being exhaustive: it is little, after all, that a single labourer can accomplish in exploring so vast a field. I venture to think, however, that the papers will prove both useful to English students of comparative folklore and folk tales and interesting to intelligent readers generally. |