Fairy Tales From Far Japan

Excerpt from the book for the reader's information:PREFATORY NOTE By Mrs. Isabella L. Bishop, F.R.Q.S. Author of 'Unbeaten Tracks in Japan,' etc. I HOPE that the readers of this book will find it as attractive as I have done. It takes me back to long journeys in 1878, through the then scarcely known interior of Northern Japan, when, far away from Europeans, I lived among the common people, hearing their talk through my clever boy interpreter, and listening during the long evenings by many a family hearth to these and similar tales, which became as familiar to me as the ' Blue-Beard ' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk' of my childhood. On such stories the quaint, quiet children of Japan are brought up, and in this harmless myth-world they live, till the cares of life begin to press upon them ; and in their turn they tell the same in the long winter evenings to grave-eyed gentle children of their own, and it is difficult to say whether the myths are dearer to the adult or the child. This Kindl