THE |
Copyright, 1921, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company
———
All Rights Reserved
| BOOKS IN THE “FAIRY SERIES” |
| The English Fairy Book The Welsh Fairy Book The Irish Fairy Book The Scottish Fairy Book The Italian Fairy Book The Hungarian Fairy Book The Indian Fairy Book The Jewish Fairy Book The Swedish Fairy Book The Chinese Fairy Book |
“THE CROWS COME FLYING AND FORM A BRIDGE OVERWHICH THE WEAVING MAIDEN CROSSES THESILVER RIVER.”
—Page 40
PREFACE
The fairy tales and legends of olden China have incommon with the “Thousand and One Nights” anoriental glow and glitter of precious stones and goldand multicolored silks, an oriental wealth of fantasticand supernatural action. And yet they strike an exoticnote distinct in itself. The seventy-three storieshere presented after original sources, embracing“Nursery Fairy Tales,” “Legends of the Gods,”“Tales of Saints and Magicians,” “Nature and AnimalTales,” “Ghost Stories,” “Historic Fairy Tales,”and “Literary Fairy Tales,” probably represent themost comprehensive and varied collection of orientalfairy tales ever made available for American readers.There is no child who will not enjoy their novel color,their fantastic beauty, their infinite variety of subject.Yet, like the “Arabian Nights,” they will amply repaythe attention of the older reader as well. Some areexquisitely poetic, such as “The Flower-Elves,” “TheLady of the Moon” or “The Herd Boy and the WeavingMaiden”; others like “How Three Heroes CameBy Their Deaths Because Of Two Peaches,” carry usback dramatically and powerfully to the Chinese ageof Chivalry. The summits of fantasy are scaled in thequasi-religi