their present shape for
thousands of years to the little copper-colored Sanskrit
children, listening to their mothers under the palm-trees by
the banks of the yellow Jumna--their Brahmin mother, who
softly narrated them through the ring in her nose. The very
same tale has been heard by the northern Vikings as they lay
on their shields on deck; and the Arabs couched under the
stars on the Syrian plains when their flocks were gathered
in, and their mares were picketed by the tents.

In his _Roundabout Papers_, Thackeray gives a picture of a score of
white-bearded, white-robed warriors or grave seniors of the city,
seated at the gate of Jaffa or Beyrout, listening to the story-teller
reciting his marvels out of _Arabian Nights_. "A Reading from Homer,"
by Alma Tadema, is a well-known picture which portrays the Greeks
listening to the _Tales of Homer_. In the _Lysistrata_ of
Aristophanes, the chorus of old men begins with, "I will tell ye a
story!" Plutarch, in his _Theseus_ says, "All kinds of stories were
told at the festival Oschophoria, as the mothers related such things
to their children before their departure, to give them courage." In
his _Symposium_ he mentions a child's story containing the proverb,
"No man can make a gown for the moon."--

The Moon begged her Mother to weave her a little frock which
would fit her.

The Mother said, "How can I make it fit thee, when thou art
sometimes a Full Moon, and then a Half Moon, and then a New
Moon?"--

In the works of the German, Schuppius (1677), appeared this:--

Your old folks can remember how, in the olden times, it was
customary at vespers on Easter day, to tell some Easter
tidings from the pulpit. These were foolish fables and
stories such as are told to children in the spinning-room.
They were intended to make people merry.

In England, _Chaucer's Tales_ reflect the common custom of the times
for the pilgrim, the traveler, the lawyer, the doctor, the monk, and
the nun, to relate a tale. _The Wife of Bathes Tale_ is evidently a
fairy tale. In Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_ we learn how the smith's
goodwife related some nursery tales of Old England to the two
travelers her husband brought to the cottage for the night. In
Akenside's _Pleasures of Imagination_ we find:--

Hence, finally by night,
The village matres, round the blazing hearth
Susp