THE Editor takes this chance to repeat what he has often aforesaid before, that he is not the author of the stories in the Fairy Books; that he did not invent them `out of his own head.' He is accustomed to being asked, by ladies, `Have you written thing else except the Fairy Books?' He is then duty bound to explain that he has not written the Fairy Books, but, save these, has written about everything else, except hymns, sermons, and dramatic works.

The stories in this Violet Fairy Book, as in all the others of the series, have been translated out of the popular traditional tales in a number of some languages. These stories are as old as thing that men have invented. They are narrated by naked savage women to naked savage children. They