they resemble well-known tales from other lands, although great care
has been taken to collect only those from original sources.

The tales here presented were collected during the spring of 1904, in
the island of Panay, belonging to the Visayan group of the Philippine
Islands, and were obtained in our own class rooms, from native teachers
and pupils. Mr. Maxfield was stationed at Iloilo, and Mr. Millington
at Mandurriao, places five miles apart. We daily came in contact with
about one thousand pupils. The tales were gathered in both places,
and were found to be substantially alike, the differences being
only in petty details. After collecting one version, we endeavored
to ascertain whether the same narrative was current among natives
in other localities of the island. We were surprised to discover
that they seemed to be known wherever we became acquainted with the
people and had obtained their confidence sufficiently to induce them
to talk freely. There were often variations, but the framework was
always the same. If any stories were obtained from native teachers
who knew Spanish, we have always verified them by getting children
or natives from other places, who knew no Spanish, to relate them,
in order to assure ourselves that the narrative could not be a mere
translation of a Spanish tale.

We who have collected these stories can claim little credit for any
more than the mere arrangement of them, as, so far as possible, even
the wording of the original manuscripts has been retained. Doubtless,
much of the interest we have felt in the work is due to our personal
acquaintance with the writers who put on paper for us these simple
tales, yet we hope that they will not be wholly unattractive to those
for whose sake they have been collected.