huts, and instead of riding in a shell wagon, drawn by
griffins, through the blue skies, they ride through the mist astride of
a broomstick. They also have gnomes and spirits of the earth, who are
small, undersized people, and cause all kinds of apparitions. Such are
the fairy tales; but of far different composition are the narratives
commonly called stories. These are located in an orderly way on the
earth, treat of the usual affairs of life, the wonderful part mostly
made up of the links of fate drawn about a human being, who is made
rich or poor, happy or unhappy, not by magic or the displeasure of
fairies, as in the tale, but by his own action, or by a singular
combination of circumstances."

"Most true!" responded one of the young men; "and such stories are also
to be found in the glorious tales of Scheherazade called 'The Thousand
and One Nights.' Most of the events that befel King Haroun-al-Raschid
and his vizier were of that nature. They go out disguised and see this
and that very singular incident, which is afterwards solved in a
natural manner."

"And yet you must admit," continued the old man "that those stories did
not constitute the least interesting part of 'The Thousand and One
Nights.' And still, how they differ in their motive, in their
development and in their whole nature from the tales of a Prince
Biribinker, or the three dervishes with one eye, or the fisher who drew
from the sea the chest fastened with the seal of Salomo! But after all
there is an original cause for the distinctive charms possessed by both
styles--namely, that we live to experience many things striking and
unusual. In the fairy tales, this element of the unusual is supplied by
the introduction of a fabulous magic into the ordinary life of mortals;
while in the stories something happens that, although in keeping with
the natural laws, is totally unexpected and out of the usual course of
events."

"Strange!" cried the writer, "strange, that this natural course of
events proves quite as attractive to us as the supernatural in the
tales. What is the explanation of that?"

"That lies in the delineation of the individual mortal,"
replied the old man. "In the tales, the miraculous forms the chief
feature, while the mortal is deprived of the power of shaping his
course; so that the individual figures and their character can only be
drawn hastily. It is otherwise with the simple narrative, where the
manner in which each one speaks and