The stories
           in the Fairy Books
          have generally been
         such as old women
               in country places
              tell to their grandchildren.

    Nobody knows
         how old they are,
           or who told them first.

    The children of Ham,
           Shem and Japhet
            may have listened to them
                   in the Ark,
         on wet days.

    Hector's little boy
        may have
              heard them in Troy Town,
           for it is certain
             that Homer knew them,
         and that some of them
            were written down in Egypt
                   about the time of Moses.

    People in different countries
          tell them differently,
           but they
            are always the same stories,
         really,
           whether among little Zulus,
         at the Cape,
           or little Eskimo,
         near the North Pole.

    The changes
        are only
               in matters of manners
                   and customs;
        such as wearing
               clothes or not,
           meeting lions
             who talk
                   in the warm countries,
         or talking bears
               in the cold countries.

    There are plenty of kings
           and queens
         in the fairy tales,
           just because long ago
            there were plenty of kings
                   in the country.

    A gentleman
         who would be
               a squire now
            was a kind of king
                   in Scotland
                 in very old times,
           and the same
               in other places.

    These old stories,
           never forgotten,
         were taken
               down in writing
                   in different ages,
           but mostly in this century,
         in all sorts of languages.

    These ancient stories
        are the contents
               of the Fairy books.

    Now
         "The Arabian Nights,"
            some of which,
         but not nearly all,
         are given in this volume,
           are only fairy tales
               of the East.

    The people of Asia,
           Arabia,
         and Persia
              told them
                   in their own way,
           not for children,
         but for grown-up people.

    There were no novels then,
           nor any printed books,
         of course;
        but there were people
             whose profession it
                was to amuse men
                       and women
                     by telling tales.

    They dressed
           the fairy stories up,
         and made
               the characters good Mahommedans,
         living in Bagdad or India.

    The events
        were often supposed
              to happen
                   in the reign
                       of the great Caliph,
           or ruler of the Faithful,
         Haroun al Raschid,
           who lived
               in Bagdad
             in 786-808 A.D.

    The vizir
         who accompanies the Caliph
            was also a real person
                   of the great family
                 of the Barmecides.

    He was
          put to death
               by the Caliph
                   in a very cruel way,
           nobody ever knew why.

    The stories
        must have been told
               in their present
             shape a good long
         while after the Caliph died,
           when nobody knew very exactly
             what had really happened.

    At last some storyteller
          thought of writing
               down the tales,
           and fixing them
               into a kind of framework,
         as if
             they had all
                been narrated
                       to a cruel Sultan
                     by his wife.

    Probably the tales
        were written down
               about the time
         when Edward I.
            was fighting Robert Bruce.

    But changes
        were made
               in them
             at different times,
           and a great deal
             that is very dull
                   and stupid
                was put in,
         and plenty of verses.

    Neither the verses
          nor the dull pieces
        are given in this book.

    People in France and England
        knew almost nothing about
         "The Arabian Nights"
            till the reigns
               of Queen Anne
             and George I.,
           when they
            were translated into French
                   by Monsieur Galland.

    Grown-up people
        were then very fond
               of fairy tales,
           and they thought
               these Arab stories the best
             that they had ever read.

    They were delighted with Ghouls
         (who lived among the tombs)
            and Geni,
               who seemed
                  to be a kind
                       of ogres,
             and with Princesses
                 who work magic spells,