Thousand and One Tales of the Arabian Nights, the narratives of
giants, and dwarfs, and enchanters; of men and maidens
transformed by magic arts into beasts and birds; of riches
hidden in the caves and bowels of the earth, and guarded by
trolls and gnomes; of blessed lands where all is bright and
sunny, and where there is neither work nor care. Whatever,
indeed, is strange or fanciful, or takes us straight from our
grey, hard-working world into the sweet and peaceful country of
Once Upon a Time, is to be found in these ancient Hindu books,
and is repeated, from the source whence they were drawn, in many
countries of the East and West; for the people whose traditions
the Vedas record were the forefathers of those who now dwell in
India, in Persia, in the border-lands, and in most parts of
Europe. Yes; strange as it may seem, all of us, who differ so
much in language, in looks in customs and ways of thought, in
all that marks out one nation from another--all of us have a
common origin and a common kindred. Greek and Roman, and Teuton
and Kelt and Slav, ancient and modern, all came from the same
stock. English and French, Spanish and Germans, Italians and
Russians, all unlike in outward show, are linked together in
race; and not only with each other, but also claim kindred with
the people who now fill the fiery plains of India, and dwell on
the banks of her mighty rivers, and on the slopes of her great
mountain-chains, and who still recite the sacred books, and sing
the ancient hymns from which the mythology of the West is in
great part derived, whence our folk-lore comes, and which give
life and colour and meaning to our legends of romance and our
Tales of Fairyland.

By taking a number of stories containing the same idea, but