e, but it also seeks to search the motive back
of the action, it is a psychological romance. The early modern animal
tales such as _Black Beauty_ show sympathy with animals, but their
psychology is human. In Seton Thompson's _Krag_, which is a
masterpiece, the interest centers about the personality and the
mentality of the animal and his purely physical characteristics.
Perhaps it is true that these physical characteristics are somewhat
imaginary and over-drawn and that overmuch freedom has been used in
interpreting these physical signs. In Kipling's tales we have a later
evolution of the animal tale. His animals possess personality in
emotion and thought. In the forest-friends of Mowgli we have humanized
animals possessing human power of thinking and of expressing. In real
life animal motives seem simple, one dominant motive crowds out all
others. But Kipling's animals show very complex motives, they reason
and judge more than our knowledge of animal life justifies. In the
_Just-So Stories_ Kipling has given us the animal _pourquois_ tale
with a basis of scientific truth. Of these delightful fairy tales,
_The Elephant's Child_ and _How the Camel Got His Hump_ may be used in
the kindergarten. Perhaps the latest evolution of the animal tale is
by Charles G.D. Roberts. The animal characters in his _Kindred of the
Wild_ are given animal characteristics. They have become interesting
as exhibiting these traits and not as typifying human motives; they
show an animal psychology. The tales have a scientific basis, and the
interest is centered in this and not in an exaggeration of it.

Having viewed the animal tale as a growth let us look now at a few
individual tales:--

One of the most pleasing animal tales is _Henny_ _Penny_, or _Chicken
Lichen_, as it is sometimes called, told by Jacobs in _English Fairy
Tales_. Here the enterprising little hen, new to the ways of the
world, ventures to take a walk. Because a grain of corn falls on her
top-knot, she believes the sky is falling, her walk takes direction,
and thereafter she proceeds to tell the king. She takes with her all
she meets, who, like her, are credulous,--Cocky Locky, Ducky Daddies,
Goosey Poosey, and Turky Lurky,--until they meet Foxy Woxy, who leads
them into his cave, never to come out again. This is similar to the
delightful Jataka tale of _The Foolish Timid Rabbit_, which before has
been outlined for telling, which has been re-told by Ellen C. Babbit.
In this t