all the European folks.

But while I have attempted thus to restore the original substance of
the European Folk-Tales, I have ever had in mind that the particular
form in which they are to appear is to attract English-speaking
children. I have, therefore, utilized the experience I had some years
ago in collecting and retelling the Fairy Tales of the English
Folk-Lore field (_English Fairy Tales_, _More English Fairy Tales_),
in order to tell these new tales in the way which English-speaking
children have abundantly shown they enjoy. In other words, while the
plot and incidents are "common form" throughout Europe, the manner in
which I have told the stories is, so far as I have been able to
imitate it, that of the English story-teller.

I have indeed been conscious throughout of my audience of little ones
and of the reverence due to them. Whenever an original incident, so
far as I could penetrate to it, seemed to me too crudely primitive for
the children of the present day, I have had no scruples in modifying
or mollifying it, drawing attention to such Bowdlerization in the
somewhat elaborate notes at the end of the volume, which I trust will
be found of interest and of use to the serious student of the
Folk-Tale.

It must, of course, be understood that the tales I now give are only
those found practically identical in all European countries. Besides
these there are others which are peculiar to each of the countries or
only found in areas covered by cognate languages like the Celtic or
the Scandinavian. Of these I have already covered the English and the
Celtic fields, and may, one of these days, extend my collections to
the French and Scandinavian or the Slavonic fields. Meanwhile it may
be assumed that the stories that have pleased all European children
for so long a time are, by a sort of international selection, best
fitted to survive, and that the Fairy Tales that follow are the
choicest gems in the Fairy Tale field. I can only express the hope
that I have succeeded in placing them in an appropriate setting.

It remains only to thank those of my colleagues and friends who have
aided in various ways in the preparation of this volume, though of
course their co-operation does not, in the slightest, imply
responsibility for or approval of the method of treatment I have
applied to the old, old stories. Miss Roalfe Cox was good enough to
look over my reconstruction of "Cinderella" and suggest alterations in
it. Prof.