The stories in the Fairy Books have generally been such as old women in country places tell to their grandchildren. Cipher knows how old they are, or who told them first. The children of Ham, Adult male and Japhet may have listened to them in the Ark, on wet days. Hector's little boy may have detected them in Troy Town, for it is certain that Homer knew them, and that several of them were written down in Egypt just about the time of Moses.

People in several 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 apparel or not, meeting lions who talk in the warm countries, or talking bears