Within this little volume you will find 10 unique folk tales and children's stories from the African mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Here you will find the story of Takane, who, despite having an arranged marriage, became a happy and devoted wife. The tale of how Khosi chooses Polomahache (Crocodile Child) to be his wife and of Mokete and Morongoe the Snake and many more. Included in these tales are stories of the Sun Chief, evil Witchdoctors, or Ngaka, the equivalent of an Evil Wizard, spells being cast and broken and beautiful maidens being set free. There are also tales of malevolent chiefs who rule their people with a fist of iron, not caring how much innocent blood they shed - and how their comeuppance is delivered by the hero of the day. These tales were collected by Minnie Martin, wife of a Government Official, who came to South Africa and Basutoland, from England, in 1891. To enable a better understanding of the people and their customs, she began to study the language, collected these tales and became fairly fluent in the language. Because the Bantu peoples of Southern Africa had no written language, it must be noted that the first people to record the various languages (the Boers and the British) did so phonetically, writing the language as they heard it being spoken. Unlike most European languages, there has been no influence of Latin, Greek or Arabic, which makes the learning of those languages that little more difficult. Here you speak the word the way it is written e.g. Ngaka is read as In-gaa-kah, Takane as Tak-aan-eh, Khosi as Koh-see etc So sit back and enjoy this unique collection of tales, customs and lore from a little known place, unseen or heard in the West for many generations. 33% of the net profit will be donated to SENTEBALE - a charity supporting children in Lesotho orphaned by AIDS.

Herein are 6 richly illustrated tales, or rather, Greek Myths rewritten for children. The book includes the myths of: Theseus and the Minotaur (Chapter : "The Minotaur") Antaeus and the Pygmies (Chapter: "The Pygmies") Dragon's Teeth (Chapter: "The Dragon's Teeth") Circe's Palace (Chapter: "Circe's Palace") Proserpina, Ceres, Pluto, and the Pomegranate Seed (Chapter: "The Pomegranate Seed") Jason and the Golden Fleece (Chapter: "The Golden Fleece") Hawthorne wrote this book while renting a small cottage in the Berkshires, a vacation area in Massachusetts for industrialists during the Gilded Age. The owner of the cottage, a railroad baron, renamed the cottage "Tanglewood" in honour of the book having been written there. Later, a nearby mansion was renamed Tanglewood, where outdoor classical concerts were held, which became a Berkshire summer tradition. Ironically, Hawthorne hated living in the Berkshires. The Tanglewood neighbourhood of Houston was also named after the book. The book was a favourite of Mary Catherine Farrington, the daughter of Tanglewood developer William Farrington. It also reportedly inspired the name of the thickly wooded Tanglewood Island in the state of Washington. Not a bad legacy for a book of Greek myths rewritten for children…..! =========== KEYWORDS/TAGS: Children’s stories, Children’s Books, Folklore, Fairy, Folk, Tales, bedtime story, legends, storyteller, fables, moral tales, myths, happiness, laughter, greek, Theseus, Minotaur, Antaeus, Pygmies, Dragon's Teeth, Circe's Palace, Proserpina, Ceres, Pluto, Pomegranate Seeds, Jason, Golden Fleece, , Æetes, Ægeus, Æthra, Agenor, Antæus, Argonauts, Ariadne, Athens, banquet, beautiful, brave, bull, Cadmus, cavern, Cerberus, Ceres, Chiron, Cilix, Circe, Colchis, companions, comrades, creatures, Crete, dragon, earth, enchanted, enchantress, Europa, Eurylochus, flowers, galley, Giant, goblet, Golden, gormandizers, gown, Hecate, Hercules, heroes, Iolchos, island, Jason, King, kingdom, labyrinth, little, magic, magnificent, maidens, marble, Medea, Minos, Minotaur, monster, Mother, nymphs, Orpheus, palace, peacock, Pelias, Phœbus, Phœnix, Pluto, pomegranate, Prince, Proserpina, Pygmies, Pygmy, Queen, quest, Quicksilver, royal, scepter, sorrow, spear, strength, Strong, sun, sword, Telephassa, Thasus, Theseus, thousand, three-headed, throne, Ulysses, vessel, victory, voyagers, water, white, wicked, world

Herein are 14 famous, illustrated, stories about Princes, Princesses and other famous rulers from history compiled and retold by Mrs Leonora "Nora" Lang, wife to the great Andrew Lang. The stories gathered here have appealed and will continue to appeal to every age. Nowhere in the realm of fiction are there stories to compare with those which actually happened and which had such a significant effect on the course of the human race. These stories are so intimately connected with the life, history and religion of the great peoples of history, both recent and ancient, that they have become an integral part of our own civilization. These are now the heritage of wealth to every child that is born into the world. Here you will find stories of: Napoleon His Majesty The King Of Rome The Princess Jeanne Hacon The King Mi Reina! Mi Reina! Henriette The Siege Baby The Red Rose The White Rose Richard The Fearless Frederick And Wilhelmine Une Reine Malheureuse The 'Little Queen' Two Little Girls And Their Mother The Troubles Of The Princess Elizabeth This volume is sure to keep you and your young ones enchanted for hours, if only not because of the content, but because of their quality. They will have you and your young wards coming back for more time-and-again. ============ KEYWORDS/TAGS: folklore, fairy tales, myths, legend, land, , children’s stories, bedtime, fables, wonder tales, All nations, Napoleon, His Majesty, King of Rome, Princess Jeanne, Hacon the King, Mi Reina, Henriette, Siege Baby, Red Rose, White Rose, Richard the Fearless, Frederick, Wilhelmine, Wilhelmina, Une Reine Malheureuse, Little Queen, Two Little Girls, Mother, Troubles, Princess Elizabeth

A multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It fully covers 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, and it indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals.

Africa has a wonderfully rich store of folk tales that have been passed down from one generation to the next. There are stories about how the world came into being, stories that tell of the relationships between human beings and between man and his environment, and of the lessons to be learned from everyday experience. The tales are like the fairy talkes told all over the world, but they have a strong African flavour that is as real as the smell of rain on hot earth. The Best of African Folklore takes the reader into an enchanted world where animals can talk and humans are often changed into different forms, where magic is commonplace and reality is turned delightfully on its head. Despite numerous setbacks, things usually turn out all right in the end. Wicked and greedy people (and animals) come off worst and the good receive their just rewards. The gods are stern but fair, and every story has a moral for those who are wise enough to see it.

MANY years ago a book on the Folk-Tales of the Eskimo was published, and the editor of The Academy (Dr. Appleton) told one of his minions to send it to me for revision. By mischance it was sent to an eminent expert in Political Economy, who, never suspecting any error, took the book for the text of an interesting essay on the economics of "the blameless Hyperboreans." Mr. Dayrell's "Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria" appeal to the anthropologist within me, no less than to the lover of what children and older people call "Fairy Tales." The stories are full of mentions of strange institutions, as well as of rare adventures. I may be permitted to offer some running notes and comments on this mass of African curiosities from the crowded lumber-room of the native mind. I. The Tortoise with a Pretty Daughter.--The story, like the tales of the dark native tribes of Australia, rises from that state of fancy by which man draws (at least for purposes of fiction) no line between himself and the lower animals. Why should not the fair heroine, Adet, daughter of the tortoise, be the daughter of human parents? The tale would be none the less interesting, and a good deal more credible to the mature intelligence. But the ancient fashion of animal parentage is presented. It may have originated, like the stories of the Australians, at a time when men were totemists, when every person had a bestial or vegetable "family-name," and when, to account for these hereditary names, stories of descent from a supernatural, bestial, primeval race were invented. In the fables of the world, speaking animals, human in all but outward aspect, are the characters. The fashion is universal among savages; it descends to the Buddha's jataka, or parables, to sop and La Fontaine. There could be no such fashion if fables had originated among civilised human beings. The polity of the people who tell this story seems to be despotic. The king makes a law that any girl prettier than the prince's fifty wives shall be put to death, with her parents. Who is to be the Paris, and give the fatal apple to the most fair? Obviously the prince is the Paris. He falls in love with Miss Tortoise, guided to her as he is by the bird who is "entranced with her beauty." In this tribe, as in Homer's time, the lover offers a bride-price to the father of the girl. In Homer cattle are the current medium; in Nigeria pieces of cloth and brass rods are (or were) the currency. Observe the queen's interest in an affair of true love. Though she knows that her son's life is endangered by his honourable passion, she adds to the bride-price out of her privy purse. It is "a long courting"; four years pass, while pretty Adet is "ower young to marry yet." The king is very angry when the news of this breach of the royal marriage Act first comes to his ears. He summons the whole of his subjects, his throne, a stone, is set out in the market-place, and Adet is brought before him. He sees and is conquered.