at all times easier, even for experienced collectors, to
obtain sagas than _maerchen_. But among the lower races, a vastly
preponderating number of tales recorded by Europeans who have lived with
them on the terms of the greatest intimacy is told to account for the
phenomena of nature, or their own history and organization. From many
savage peoples we have no other stories at all; and it is not uncommon
to find narratives at bottom identical with some of these told as
_maerchen_ among nations that have reached a higher plane. In these
cases, at all events, it looks as if the tales, or tales from which they
had been derived, had been originally believed as true, and, having
ceased to be thus received, had continued to be repeated, in a shape
more or less altered, for mere amusement. If we may venture to affirm
this and to generalize from such cases, this is the way in which
_maerchen_ have arisen.

But sagas are not only perhaps the most ancient of tales, they are
certainly the most persistent. By their attachment to places and to
persons, a religious sanction is frequently given to them, a local and
national pride is commonly felt in preserving them. Thus they are
remembered when nursery tales are forgotten; they are more easily
communicated to strangers; they find their way into literature and so
are rendered imperishable.

Fairy Tales of both these classes are compounded of incidents which are
the common property of many nations, and not a few whereof are known all
over the habitable globe. In some instances the whole plot, a more or
less intricate one, is found among races the most diverse in
civilization and character. Where the plot is intricate, or contains
elements of a kind unlikely to have originated independently, we may be
justified in suspecting diffusion from one centre. Then it is that the
history and circumstances of a nation become important factors in the
inquiry; and upon the purity of blood and the isolation from
neighbouring races may depend our decision as to the original or
derivative character of such a tradition. Sometimes the passage of a
story from one country to another can be proved by literary evidence.
This is markedly the case with Apologues and Facetious Tales, two
classes of traditions which do not come within the purview of the
present work. But the story has then passed beyond the traditional
stage, or else such proof could not be given. In tracing the history of
a folk-tale which ha