All people in the world tell nursery tales to their
children. The Japanese tell them, the Chinese, the Red
Indians by their camp fires, the Eskimo in their dark
dirty winter huts. The Kaffirs of South Africa tell
them, and the modern Greeks, just as the old Egyptians
did, when Moses had not been many years rescued out of
the bulrushes. The Germans, French, Spanish, Italians,
Danes, Highlanders tell them also, and the stories are
apt to be like each other everywhere. A child who has
read the Blue and Red and Yellow Fairy Books will find
some old friends with new faces in the Pink Fairy Book,
if he examines and compares. But the Japanese tales will
probably be new to the young student; the Tanuki is a
creature whose acquaintance he may not have made before.
He may remark that Andersen wants to 'point a moral,' as
well as to 'adorn a tale; ' that he is trying to make
fun of the follies of mankind, as they exist in
civilised countries. The Danish story of 'The Princess
in the Chest' need not be read to a very nervous child,
as it rather borders on a ghost story. It has been
altered, and is really much more horrid in the language
of the Danes, who, as history tells us, were not a
nervous or timid people. I am quite sure that this story
is not true. The other Danish and Swedish stories are
not alarming. They are translated by Mr. W. A.
Craigie.
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