The Arabian Nights
Lang, Andrew

Published: 1898 Categorie(s): Fiction, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Mythology, Juvenile Source: http://www.gutenberg.org

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About Lang: Andrew Lang (March 31, 1844, Selkirk – July 20, 1912, Banchory, Kincardineshire) was a prolific Scots man of letters. He was a poet, novelist, and literary critic, and contributor to anthropology. He now is best known as the collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at St Andrews University are named for him. Source: Wikipedia Also available on Feedbooks for Lang: • The Blue Fairy Book (1889) • The Red Fairy Book (1890) • The Grey Fairy Book (1900) • The Violet Fairy Book (1901) • The Crimson Fairy Book (1903) • The Yellow Fairy Book (1894) • Helen of Troy (1882) Copyright: This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. Note: This book is brought to you by Feedbooks http://www.feedbooks.com Strictly for personal use, do not use this file for commercial purposes.

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Preface
The stories in the Fairy Books have generally been such as old women in country places tell to their grandchildren. Nobody knows how old they are, or who told them first. The children of Ham, Shem and Japhet may have listened to them in the Ark, on wet days. Hector's little boy may have heard them in Troy Town, for it is certain that Homer knew them, and that some of them were written down in Egypt about the time of Moses. People in different countries tell them differently, but they are always the same stories, really, whether among little Zulus, at the Cape, or little Eskimo, near the North Pole. The changes are only in matters of manners and customs; such as wearing clothes or not, meeting lions who talk in the warm countries, or talking bears in the cold countries. There are plenty of kings and queens in the fairy tales, just because long ago there were plenty of kings in the country. A gentleman who would be a squire now was a kind of king in Scotland in very old