FAIRY-TALES AND FOLK-LORE.*
IN Lady Ann's Fairy Tales' we have an agreeable mixture, composed of the homeliness of the old stories, with an added flavour of modern allegory. Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell says in her introduction that these fairy-tales were told to * (1) Lady Ann's Fairy Tales. By Lady Catherine Milne. Gaskell. With Illustrations in Colour by Maud T. Atkinson. London : Grant Richards. [41 la. net.] — (2) The Book of Magic Talcs. By Mary Carruthers. London : The Pilgrim Press. [3s. 6d. net.] — (3) The Violet Book of Romance. By Althea Chaplin. Illustrated by M. M. Johnson. London Heath, Cranton, and Ouseley. [3a. 6d. net.] (4) Deccan Nursery Tales. By C. A. Kincaid, C.V.O. Illustrations by IL V. Dhurandhar. London : Macmillan and Co. [4s. 6d. net.]—(5) Black Tales for White Children. By Captain C. H. Stigurid. Illustrated by John Ilargrave. London : A. Constable and Co. [5s. net.]—(6) Outs Karel's Stories. By Sanni Metelerkamp. Illustrated by Constance Penstone. London: Macmillan and Co. [Ss. 6d. net.]—(7) More Russian Picture Tales. By Valery Carrick. Translated by Nevin. Forbes. Oxford : B. H. Blackwell. [2s. 6d. net.]— (8) Stories from Northern Mytka, By Emilie Rip Baker. London: Macmillan and Co. [5*. 8d. net.] a little girl of seven by Lady Ann Chaloner, "an old lady approaching seventy summers," and that, "as all the little boys and girls of England can never• hear the stories from Aunt Ann's own lips," she has " ventured to write some down and offer• these to all good children." And very grateful her readers should be for this charming book, where all the familiar but ever-welcome company of Princes and Princesses, goose girls and shepherd boys, walk through its pages, to the music of fairies and elves. Magic birds and beasts are also to be found here. Matchless steeds of Araby, birds that sing with the sweetness of enchantment, a large and fierce tawny yellow cat, wise and good dogs—all act their parts to our• complete satisfaction. Miss Atkinson's full-page illustrations are pleasing, except when the crudities of the three-colour process have dealt unkindly with them. The volume is very prettily bound in white and gold, and is dedicated to "the young sons of my dear mistress the Queen, T.R.H. Prince Henry and Prince George . . . in aid of the St. John's Ambulance Fund for the care of the sick and wounded."—Some of the stories in The Book of Magic Tales recall the atmosphere of Hans Andersen, not that they are in any way copies of the master's work, but that, like him, Mrs. Carruthers takes the reader into an authentic land of romance and enchantment. Some of the stories ar•e about English nursery fairies and children, such as " The Lost Doll's House "; others tell us of "the old time," of fisher- folk and mermaids, while the longest and perhaps the best takes us to a King's castle, where we meet fairy godmothers and lovely ladies and where much delectable entertainment awaits us. The book has a coloured frontispiece and black- and-white illustrations.—The Violet Book of Romance' is called "a Tapestry of Old Tales," and Miss Althea Chaplin has proved a skilful weaver of the golden threads of fairyland. She has given us well-written versions of a dozen stories, from " Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" to "The Wild Swans." Children can here make friends with such famous people as Goldielocks or Rapunzel, and those of an older generation will find pleasure in renewing their acquaintance with the White Cat and her compeers in these pleasant pages. There are a number of coloured illustrations by M. M. Johnson.
Mr. C. H. Kincaid's Deccan Nursery Tales* takes us into another world, where we move among Indian gods and goddesses, wood-nymphs and serpent-maidens. The human beings who play the chief parts in the stories are mothers and little girls, the men and boys of the family often serving more as useful adjuncts to the narrative than as heroes of romance. Though we occasionally bear of a handsome Prince, most of the stories describe the daily lives of poor hard- working people, whose patience, perseverance, and good temper are their most striking qualities. The little boys are rarely mischievous, and the girls are wise and careful beyond their years. Even a Snake-Queen can here be mild and gentle in trying circumstances, as for instance when, having just " given birth to a fresh litter of little snake-princes," their tails are accidentally burnt off by a clumsy girl. We would not have the reader think that these stories are monotonously sweet, for there is a subtle charm about them which is very attractive. Mr. Kincaid tells us in his interesting preface that in order to conform to English canons of taste he has "had in a very few places to slightly change the sense" of the original Maratbi. He might perhaps have gone a little farther and have omitted the short and not remarkably interesting "Tale of the Lamps and the King's Daughter-in-law." Mr. M. V. Dhurandhar's pictures are delightful, and really illus- trate the stories. He shows us the supple bodies of the Indians in their graceful draperies and picturesque attitudes, surrounded by strange household plenishings, with a realism that only the brush of an Oriental artist can attain.
The two next books on our list are of stories from the folk- lore of Africa. We now leave the perfumed and charming intricacies of the East for• the rougher cunning of primitive man. Black Tales for White Children' is "a collection of Swahili stories translated and arranged by Captain C. H. Stigand, interpreter in Swahili." He says in his foreword that this "language is derived partly from Arabic, partly from several African Bantu tongues," and " as the Swahili is himself a mixture of the Arab and the African, so his stories form a curious combination of the elements of both races." We can here make acquaintance with Br•er Rabbit's ancestor, the wily hare, with the great cat Nunda, and other beasts of the jungle, whose behaviour the natives watch with deep concern, and with whom they wage a perpetual struggle. The story of "Pemba Muhori" is an amusing example of primitive tit-for-tat, in which first the husband and then the wife seek for apparently impossible things, such as a snake- skin dress, and " water no frog has touched with his claw." The adventures of the sailor who, while thinking that he is wedding a new wife in every port, is really setting up house over and over again with his original wife, is a curious example of the practical matter-of-factness of people who live on their wits. The illustrations, by Mr. John Hargrave, are all in black-and-white. They are clever and full of life and fun. The puzzled faces of some of the excellent, but not overwise black, people are in delightful contrast to the knowing expressions of many of the wild beasts.--Outa Karel's Stories 6 is a collection of South African folk-lore tales, told by an old native servant to his master's little boys on a farm in the Great Karroo. Outa and his stories are more primitive than Uncle Remus and his circle, but there is a certain like- ness between them. Miss Sanni Metelerkamp shows us the old native sitting by the fire telling his stories to the wondering children, and we are sure that other boys and girls will gladly listen to the marvellous doings of lions and jackals, hares and tortoises. There is a short glossary of Taal words and some black-and-white illustrations by Miss C. Penstone. The frontispiece is evidently a good likeness of old Outa.
More Russian Picture Tales? is an excellent book of nursery stories for little children. The Northern men and beasts have very different customs from those of the South, but they have one thing in common, and that is that the man generally does what the woman tells him to do. This is a very natural state of things when we consider that the story-teller is often a grandmother and the listeners little children, who thus uncon- sciously and very pleasantly learn lessons of obedience. The pictures in this small oblong volume are delightful. The peasants are drawn with quaintly expressive faces, and as we see them going about their absorbing affairs, with much industry, good sense, and good nature, we cannot help a feeling of satisfaction that people such as these are our allies.—Stories from Northern Mythss is a well-written book for older children, in which Miss Emilie Kip Baker gives us interesting versions of the adventures of the gods, and the grim straggles against fate, and the frost giants, which took up much of the time and energy of the dwellers in Asgard. They, unlike the happier children of the sunshine, had little inclination for the gentle arts of life, and so their stories lack something of the queer and engaging details that abound in the heroic tales of other nations. But readers who find exhilaration in the cold glitter of icicles will enjoy this collection of Northern mythology, which is introduced by a sketch of "How All Things Began," and ends with an "index and pronouncing vocabulary." The book is illus- trated in black-and-white.
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