PREFACE.

N offering these few Indian tales to the public,

IN

I cannot refrain from adding a few words atthe beginning to express to Pandit Natêśa Sástrímy gratitude for the great assistance he has givenme in collecting them, assistance without whichthey would never have seen the light in the shapeof a complete volume. When I began writingdown these tales, my only means of collectingthem was through my native servants, who usedto get them from the old women in the bazaars;but the fables they brought me were as full ofcorruptions and foreign adaptions as the miscel-laneous ingredients that find their way into adish of their own curry and rice, and had it notbeen for Mr. Sástrî's timely aid, my small workwould have gone forth to the world laden with

inaccuracies.

Mr. Sástrî not only corrected the errors of myown tales, but allowed me to add to them many