Not much is known about the author Hartwell James, other than he was an avid collector of stories for children and fairy tales from different regions. He published a number of books from areas he felt were rich in folklore. He likely lived in the 1800 to the 1900’s, with most of his books published in 1906.
His titles included The Magic Bed: A Book of East Indian Tales, The Cat and the Mouse: A Book of Persian Tales, The Jeweled Sea: A Book of Chinese Tales, The Magic Jaw Bone: A Book of South Sea Islands Tales, The Man Elephant: A Book of African Tales, and The Enchanted Castle: A Book of Tales from Flower Land. It’s obvious from his work that James was a passionate traveler who saw worth in sharing the folklore of areas he visited.
How when Maui was cast away by his mother, the winds and the waves took care of him. On a dark summer night, many hundreds of years ago, a woman was standing on the shore of the South Pacific Ocean. She was not a white woman, for that was long before any white people had…
A great many years ago there was a king who talked too much. His name was Badahur, and from his beautiful palace he ruled many millions of people. There was also a turtle who was even fonder of talking than the King, and he lived in a pond in the King’s garden. But for all…
Once there were a king and queen who had two sons. The older of the two was a very short and ugly man with only one eye, and that was in the middle of his forehead. His brother was tall and handsome and carried himself like a prince. Naturally the king preferred his handsome son…
In the very heart of the jungle there stood a very old tree. It was older than any other tree there and had seen many wonderful things. It was very wise, too, and knew many secrets. Every spring it put out fresh green leaves and lovely white blossoms, but one year the flowers were more…
Once there were two princesses whose father, the Rajah, was too busy with affairs of state to look after them. They were lonely and neglected, for they had a stepmother who treated them very cruelly. They lived in a beautiful palace, but nothing was done to make them happy or contented, for even the servants…
One very hot day, a young Prince, or Rajah as they are called in India, had been hunting all the morning in the jungle, and by noon had lost sight of his attendants. So he sat down under a tree to rest and to eat some cakes which his mother had given him. When he…