In offering these few Indian tales to the public, I cannot refrain from
adding a few words at the beginning to express to Pandit Natesa Sastri
my gratitude for the great assistance he has given me in collecting
them, assistance without which they would never have seen the light in
the shape of a complete volume. When I began writing down these tales,
my only means of collecting them was through my native servants, who
used to get them from the old women in the bazaars; but the fables
they brought me were as full of corruptions and foreign adaptions as
the miscellaneous ingredients that find their way into a dish of their
own curry and rice, and had it not been for Mr. Sastri's timely aid, my
small work would have gone forth to the world laden with inaccuracies.
Mr. Sastri not only corrected the errors of my own tales, but allowed
me to add to them many that he had himself collected, and that had
already been published, either in small volumes or in numbers of
The Indian Antiquary. For this reason I have left several notes which
Mr. Cowper Temple, Mr. Clowston, and others had added to the tales that
had already been printed, as they were too valuable to dispense with,
and may be of service to students of folklore. In conclusion, I would
crave the indulgence of my readers with regard to the style in which
the tales are written, which has been left as nearly as possible in the
form of a literal translation, in order to lend the Stories a "couleur
locale," which is characteristic of the country they spring from.