HERE are published in the Panjab Gazette official catalogues quarterly—generally long after date—of all the books published during the quarter in the Panjab.
From these lists, and also from the catalogues issued periodically in the vernacular by the great Lucknow publishing firm of Munshi Nawal Kishor, and from odd bookstalls, I have long been in the habit of collecting publications relating to history, folk-lore, and religion. I have now a collection of some 350 such, in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Panjabi, Pashto, and Sanskrit. By far the larger portion relate to folk-lore, and are mere chap-books, sold for a few pence, and consisting of a few badly lithographed and tattered sheets, but some are solid and ponderous volumes. In any case the collection faithfully represents the current popular literature of the day in the Panjab; and, as the taste of the poorer classes that can read and write runs to marvellous stories, the current folk-tales are dished up to suit it in every imaginable style—a circumstance of some value and interest to this Society.
A catalogue of all these has been prepared in the rough, and, when fit for publication, I propose publishing it in this Journal, as a guide to any future students of Indian folk-lore that may arise. I am also having abstracts of the books prepared, which has proved a much slower and troublesome task than I apprehended. I did not intend publishing these except as a whole, but, as the time when the entire set will be completed must be a distant one, I have thought it advisable to publish by instalments, and the abstracts appended hereto are intended as a commencement.
