he Meal of
Frothi.

V--PERSIAN FOLK-LORE

The Persian and Arabian folk-lore is really one, and stands quite by
itself. It is unusually rich in well developed stories, many well worth
study. The original myths of light and darkness were typified under the
names of Ormuzd and Ahriman. The Zend-Avesta embodied their religion and
literature, and is full of beauty. Later, however, the early and simple
mythology degenerated into something complicated and almost puerile. The
legends, preserved for us in The Thousand and One Nights, are marked by
Oriental splendor. Often the setting of a story will be in a palace with
wonderful gardens and fountains. We read of great merchants, gorgeous
silks, jewels and ornaments; of money, horses and camels; of sheiks,
caliphs, viziers, magicians, and genii. In every respect the stories
differ from those of other lands. Read Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp,
and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, from Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book.

VI--CELTIC FOLK-LORE

The peoples of Brittany, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have folk-tales
full of a certain mysticism. They have few nature myths, such as belong
to earlier races, but they have drawn from their own imagination stories
of beauty and charm, which are distinctly poetic, both in substance and
form. Their legends deal largely with fairies, wishing-stones, haunted
glens, and changelings. There are water fairies, some with human souls,
and dwarfs who have homes in caves, and live and work like human beings.
The whole of their folk-tales are filled with these little creatures,
benign or malicious, who are closely in touch with the real lives about
them.

The superstitions of these countries in regard to the reappearance of
the dead as ghosts or spirits of one kind or another, also enter
largely into the literature of the Celtic races. This subject, a very
large one, may be taken up here, or later by itself.

There is a delightful book called Fairy and Folk-Lore of the Irish
Peasantry, by W. B. Yeats, and another on the Fairy Legends of Ireland,
by T. C. Crocker. Duncan Anderson has one on Scottish Folk-Lore, also.
Read from any of these, and also a story in Little Classics called The
Fairy Finder, by Samuel Lover.

VII--FOLK-LORE OF THE SLAVS

There is much that is curious about the folk-lore of the Russians and
kindred peoples. They have the old, original nature myths, with hero
stories added. There is the same setting as in Scandinavian myt