Filipino Popular Tales

Collected and Edited with Comparative Notes

By

Dean S. Fansler,


1921





Preface.

The folk-tales in this volume, which were collected in the Philippines
during the years from 1908 to 1914, have not appeared in print
before. They are given to the public now in the hope that they will be
no mean or uninteresting addition to the volumes of Oriental Maerchen
already in existence. The Philippine archipelago, from the very nature
of its geographical position and its political history, cannot but be a
significant field to the student of popular stories. Lying as it does
at the very doors of China and Japan, connected as it is ethnically
with the Malayan and Indian civilizations, Occidentalized as it has
been for three centuries and more, it stands at the junction of East
and West. It is therefore from this point of view that these tales
have been put into a form convenient for reference. Their importance
consists in their relationship to the body of world fiction.