It is these stories that have shaped Africa as we know it.

    these ancient northern deities gave their names to the very days of our week. Nevertheless, most of us know far more of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and the classical deities. Recent researches in archaeology and mythology have added to what was already a fairly consistent picture (largely derived from a twelfth-century Icelandic account) of the principal Scandinavian gods and goddesses. This new study - the first popular treatment of the subject to appear in English for many years - is the work of a scholar who has long specialized in Norse and Germanic mythology. She describes the more familiar gods of war, of fertility, of the sky and the sea and the dead, and also discusses those puzzling figures of Norse mythology - Heimdall, Balder, and Loki. All these deities were worshipped in the Viking Age, and the author has endeavoured to relate their cults to daily life and to see why these pagan beliefs gave way in time to the Christian faith.

    Contents: Nibbly-Quibbly the Goat / The Magic Mitten / The Little Round Bun / Sister Fox and Brother Wolf / The Little Straw Bull with the Tarred Back / The Cat and the Cock / Sir Cat-o-Puss / The Fox and the Bear / How the Dog Found Himself a Master / The Fox and the Crane / Why the Stork Eats Frogs and the Wolf Hunts Sheep / The Fox and her Children and Nekhailo the Loafer / The Crow and the Snake / Why Geese Bather in Water, Cats Wash on the Top of the Stove, and Chickens Take Dust Baths / The Mice and the Cock / The Lion and the Mosquitoes / The Bear and the Bees / How a Squirrel Helped a Bear / The Ox, the Ram and the Cock / The Wolf Who Wanted To be the Village Head / The Goat and the Ram / Sister Fox / The Wolf and the Kids / Sirko / The Lion Who Drowned in a Well / The Fox and the Crayfish / The Heron, the Fish and the Crayfish / The Fly that Ploughed a Field / The Swan, the Pike and the Crayfish / The Little Fish and the Big Fat Bean / Danilo-Burmilo the Bear / The Bee and the Pigeon / The Lion Who Was Made Tsar / Little Grey Wolf True-Beaten Black and Blue / Telesik-Little Stick / The Frog Princess / The Magic Egg / The Seven Brothers - Sevens Raven and Their Sister / The Brother, the Sister and the Devil-Dragon / Kirilo the Tanner / Illya of Murom and Solovei the Whistler-Robber / Ivan the Bohatyr / The Magic Pumpkins / The Princess's Ring / Pea-Roll Along / The Pipe and the Whip / The Soldier and the Tsar / Ivan the Peasant's Son / How a Hutzul Taught a Princess to Keep House / Oh / Ivan the Dragon Killer / The Fire-Bird and the Wolf / The Shepherd / The Flying Ship / Ivan Not-A-Stitch-On and His Brother / The Youth and the Eagle / Ivanko and Duliana the Wise / Ivanko, Tsar of the Beasts / The Poor Man and His Sons / The Iron Wolf / The Twelve Brothers / The Blacksmith and the Devil / How a Farmwife Outwitted the Devil / The Pipe, the Fiddle and the Dulcimer / The Old Man's Daughter and the Wold Woman's Daughter / The Greedy Old Woman and the Lime Tree / The Foster Father / The Rich Miser / Death and the Soldier / The Tsar's Goats / The Serf and the Devil / Mistress Death and the Cossacks / How a Peasant Got the Better of a Devil / The Clever Maid / The Honest Nephew and the Dishonest Uncle / The Man Who Ransomed an Enemy of the King / Sad Songs and Gay / Ivan the Fool.

    Paul and St. Peter reached Rome they encountered a state-sponsored religion that had been established for centuries. Amid the shrines and temples of Rome, the Romans sought to preserve and strengthen a religion especially suited to the ambitious city. But Roman religion had also proved permeable to many influences, from Greece, Egypt, Persia, and other parts of Italy. What then was truly Roman, and what had Romans done with their borrowings to stamp them with Roman character?By exhaustive study of texts, inscriptions, and archaeology of Roman sacred places, Dumezil traces the formation of archaic Roman religion from Indo-European sources through the development of the rites and beliefs of the Roman republic. He describes a religion that was not only influenced by the other religions with which it came into contact, but influenced them as well, in mutual efforts to distinguish one nation from another. Even so, certain continuities were sustained in order to achieve a religion that crossed generations and ways of life. The worship of certain gods became the special concerns of certain parts of society, all of which needed attention to assure Rome's success in war, civil administration, and the production of food and goods.

    These stories have provided inpiration for poems, plays, and operas. Russian children of today still enjoy listening to the tales of magic and wonder--the stories once told to pass the hours during the cold, dark Russian winters. Supernatural figures--witches, demons, and the like--are important in Russian folklore and appear often in this book. One of the most vivid of these characters is ugly Baba Yaga, the witch who lives in the forest. Children will enjoy reading of the way she is outwitted by beautiful Vasilisa.Several of the tales included in Stories from Old Russia have become world-famous. Alexander Pushkin, the Russian poet, turned the story of the golden cock into a long poem. This same story is the basis of Rimshki-Korsakov's opera, The Golden Cockerel. Rimski-Korsakov also told, in operatic form, the take of Sadko of Novgorod, who sang while he played the gusli.These stories and many more are in this selection of Russian folktales. They have long delighted Russian children, and will charm American boys and girls.

    Catriona is nine, and an orphan. Her parents were drowned in India, and she is being raised in a country house in Wales, by a young, pretty, but ferociously spinsterish governess, Jane. Jane forbids her to read myths, play with animals or her country friends, and sets a strict regime of study. Catriona rebels and is punished. A tutor is sent for; he proves to be a good, gentle man named Morgan, with whom the child Catriona falls in love. Despite Jane's jealous efforts at interfering, Catriona grows up, and the improbable love becomes reality. [Kirkus Review]

    

    

    All the well-known rhymes are included as well as many rare ones. Special sections are devoted to lullabies and dandling rhymes, toe rhymes, catches, charms, traditional street cries, riddle verses, nursery maxims, and humorous ballads.

    These are the Texans of the don’t-fence-me-in era, their faces pinched by years of squinting into the desert glare, tanned by the sun, and coarsened by the dust of the Chisholm Trail.

    

    AmbrusAll the stories in this book were told by gypsies. A few of them ("Brian and the Fox" and "The Little Bull-Calf," for example), were told in English. But most of the stories were told by the gypsies in their own language, which is Romani, and were taken down and translated by scholars. The stories came from many different countries; for the gypsies, who are believed to have lived originally in India, have wandered all over the world. And, as they wandered, they picked up more stories from whatever country they happened to be in, as well as repeating to the people of that country the stories they had brought with them.Through the years, as they were told and retold, the stories became altered, sometimes not very much, sometimes greatly. It all depended on the particular fancies of the narrator: an ogre might become a dragon, a prince might be put in the place of a princess, or a poor boy in the place of a poor girl; but the idea at the back of the story would remain. For instance, you all know the story of "Cinderella," but you may not know "The Tale of a Foolish Brother and of a Wonderful Bush," which is just a Polish gypsy's version of the same idea.And now, since it may interest you to see what the gypsy language looks like, here is a familiar fairy tale ending in Romani:"T'a doi jivena kano misto."(And they live there happily to this day.)

    Everyone thinks she is a witch because of the strange things that have happened since she went to see the monster rise. Everyone believes it was she who managed to raise Nessie. Only Torquil, who lives behind Morag's cottage, knows better.

    In this 1964 version, Miss Hodges relates the several accidental discoveries and achievements of the three princes in descriptive prose; the elaborate palaces of Persia, the heavily jewelled princesses and golden clothed king form sharp contrasts to the pastoral green forests and black, foaming sea which the princes face on their way. While many of the devices and personages hail from a familiar fairy land, some of the bizarre adventures are distinctive.