common property of personal experience, no interesting or influential or
significant thing can befall a man that is not accompanied by a desire
to communicate it to others. 

The word legend has a very interesting history, which sheds light not
only on its origin but on early habits of thought and customs.  It is
derived from the Latin verb _legere_, which means "to read." As
legends are often passed down by word of mouth and are not reduced to
writing until they have been known for centuries by great numbers of
people, it seems difficult at first glance to see any connection between
the Latin word and its English descendant.  In Russia and other
countries, where large populations live remote from cities and are
practically without books and newspapers, countless stories are told by
peasant mothers to their children, by reciters or semi-professional
story-tellers, which have since been put into print.  For a good many
hundred years, probably, the vast majority of legends were not read;
they were heard. 

When we understand, however, what the habits of people were in the early
Christian centuries and what the early legends were about, the original