INTRODUCTION

“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

Bearded With moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,

Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and pro- phetic,

Stand like harpers bear, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neigh- bouring ocean

Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.”

The stories told in this book Will be read with greater sympathy and understanding if one knows something about the people who pro- duced them—about their history and the ori- gin of their legends. For these tales are not merely stories; they are fragments of the men- tal life of an ancient race. If one is to enter into the spirit of the stories, he must, so far as he can, forget for the moment the environment of- civilised life; he must place himself, in fancy, in the ancient forest before the coming of the White man, and partake of the life and the thought and the feelings of its people.

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