The Pink Fairy Book

Edited by Andrew Lang





Preface



All people in the world tell nursery tales to their children. The
Japanese tell them, the Chinese, the Red Indians by their camp
fires, the Eskimo in their dark dirty winter huts. The Kaffirs of
South Africa tell them, and the modern Greeks, just as the old
Egyptians did, when Moses had not been many years rescued out of
the bulrushes. The Germans, French, Spanish, Italians, Danes,
Highlanders tell them also, and the stories are apt to be like
each other everywhere. A child who has read the Blue and Red and
Yellow Fairy Books will find some old friends with new faces in
the Pink Fairy Book, if he examines and compares. But the
Japanese tales will probably be new to the young student; the
Tanuki is a creature whose acquaintance he may not have made
before. He may remark that Andersen wants to 'point a moral,' as
well as to 'adorn a tale; ' that he is trying to make fun of the
follies of mankind, as they exist in civilised countries. The
Danish story of 'The Princess in the Chest' need not be read to a
very nervous child, as it rather borders on a ghost story. It has
been altered, and is really much more horrid in the language of