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INTRODUCTION.

Bushman Folk-lore (Trübner, 1875), and his Reynard the Fox in Africa, and Steere's Swahili Tales. Madagascar is represented by the collections of the Rev. James Sibree, published in the Folk Lore Record (1883). Some Basuto tales are given by Casalis (Les Bassoutos, ou 23 ans de séjour au Sud de l'Afrique, 1860). Some Ananzi stories from West Africa are printed in Sir George Dasent's Tales from the Norse (1859). From the Kaffirs we derive Theal's Kaffir Folk-lore (Sonnenschein, London, n.d.). Mr. Gill has given us some South Sea examples in his Myths and Songs from the South Pacific. (London, 1876.[1]) The Folk Lore Society of South Africa, in a little periodical now extinct, gave other African examples. Jülg's Kalmückische Märchen are Indian in origin. Schoolcraft and his associates collected North American Indian examples in Algic Researches. Samoyed Märchen have been published by Castren (Ethnologische Vorlesungen, St. Petersburg, 1857); and examples of Märchen magnified and elaborated, occur in Japanese mythology (Transactions of Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. x.); in New Zealand Myths (Taylor's New Zealand); and in the accounts of Melanesian and Andaman myth, by Mr. Codrington and other writers, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute. While Mr. Mitford has given us Tales of Old Japan, Prof. Hartt has collected the Märchen of the Indians on the Amazon. Rink has published those of the Eskimo; and scattered examples are to be found in Bancroft's large compilation on the Native Races of the Pacific, and in the old Relations of the Jesuit fathers and other missionaries. Thus there are gleanings which may be provisionally used as samples of a large harvest of savage children's tales. The facts already in our possession are important enough to demand attention, particularly as the savage tales (in Africa especially)

  1. Turner's Samoa (1884) also contains some South Sea Märchen.