Each chapter contains a string of stories, one emerging from the other, with each designed to render counsel on ethical worldly-wise conduct. The characters are living beings including humans and animals in the wild. The latter too are endowed with the reason and emotions of human beings. Thereby they come to represent types of human nature and behavior and one can draw morals from the stories. In this collection, a tiger finds a gold bangle with which he allures a traveler to cross the river; stuck in mire, the greedy man falls easy prey to the tiger. In another story, a jackal feigns friendship with a deer who despite warnings from a wise crow joins the jackal and meets with a tragedy. An old blind vulture is offered shelter by birds in the hollow of a tree. He protects their fledglings. A cat pleads for living with them and the vulture agrees. The cat finishes the fledglings one by one and goes away. The birds suspecting the vulture kill him. Moral: Do not give shelter to the unknown. This collection is treasure house of such stories.

    

    Eighteen traditional fairy tales representing women as intelligent, brave, and versatile human beings.

    Dorson's Folktales Told around the World were recorded by expert collectors, and the majority of them are published here for the first time. The tales presented are told in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North and South America, and Oceania. Unlike other collections derived in large part from literary texts, this volume meets the criteria of professional folklorists in assembling only authentic examples of folktales as they were orally told. Background information, notes on the narrators, and scholarly commentaries are provided to establish the folkloric character of the tales.