In introducing “Simla Village Tales” to my readers, I wish to acknowledge gratefullythe valuable assistance given me by my sister Mabel Baldwin, who, when I was obligedto leave India suddenly owing to nervous breakdown after the terrible earthquake whichvisited the Punjaub in April 1905, kindly undertook to complete, from the same sourceswhere I had got them, my collection of folk-tales. Twenty excellent stories contributedby her include “Tabaristan,” “The Priest and the Barber,” “The Fourth Wife is Wisest,”and “Abul Hussain.”

Of the down-country tales my husband kindly contributed “Anar Pari,” “The Dog Temple,”“The Beautiful Milkmaid,” and “The Enchanted Bird, Music, and Stream.” Both my sisterand my husband can speak ...