For many thousand years grandmothers and grandfathers have told these stories to growing boys and girls at bed time. With minor variations, the same stories constitute the folk-lore heritage of all parts of India, from Kashmir to Cape Comorin, from Assam and Darjeeling to the Wester Ghats.

The seventeen stories collected in this volume belong to the domain of India folk-lore proper in the sense that none of them have been taken either from the great epics or the classics of India—the Ramayana, Mahabharata, the Jatakas, Panchatantra, Hitopadesa and other rich respositories of Indian lore and legend.

The author maintains that several stories in the Arabian Nights, the Aesop's Fables and the Decameron, originated in this country. His stand-point gains support from the very pattern and presentation of his own stories, for his fascinating, 'Beloved of the Universe', 'The Notorious Pair of Sandals', and 'The Three Bags of Gold' carry one to the enchanted atmosphere of the Arabian Nights.

From the dust jacket