INDIAN FAIRY TALES
_Selected and edited by_
JOSEPH JACOBS
_Illustrated by_
JOHN D. BATTEN
TO MY DEAR LITTLE PHIL
PREFACE
From the extreme West of the Indo-European world, we go this year to
the extreme East. From the soft rain and green turf of Gaeldom, we seek
the garish sun and arid soil of the Hindoo. In the Land of Ire, the
belief in fairies, gnomes, ogres and monsters is all but dead; in the
Land of Ind it still flourishes in all the vigour of animism.
Soils and national characters differ; but fairy tales are the same in