Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

Fairy Tales
I think that their quaintness is a sufficient apology for the following little
children's stories. With the exception of that of the "Elves and the Envious
Neighbour," which comes out of a curious book on etymology and
proverbial lore, called the Kotowazagusa, these stories are found printed
in little separate pamphlets, with illustrations, the stereotype blocks of
which have become so worn that the print is hardly legible. These are the
first tales which are put into a Japanese child's hands; and it is with
these, and such as these, that the Japanese mother hushes her little ones
to sleep. Knowing the interest which many children of a larger growth
take in such Baby Stories, I was anxious to have collected more of them. I
was disappointed, however, for those which I give here are the only ones
which I could find in print; and if I asked the Japanese to tell me others,
they only thought I was laughing at them, and changed the subject. The
stories of the Tongue-cut Sparrow, and the Old Couple and their Dog,
have been paraphrased in other works upon Japan; but I am not aware of
their having been literally translated before.
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