Filipino Popular Tales

The folk-tales in this volume, which were collected in the Philippines

during the years from 1908 to 1914, have not appeared in print

before. They are given to the public now in the hope that they will be

no mean or uninteresting addition to the volumes of Oriental Märchen

already in existence. The Philippine archipelago, from the very nature

of its geographical position and its political history, cannot but be a

significant field to the student of popular stories. Lying as it does

at the very doors of China and Japan, connected as it is ethnically

with the Malayan and Indian civilizations, Occidentalized as it has

been for three centuries and more, it stands at the junction of East

and West. It is therefore from this point of view that these tales

have been put into a form convenient for reference. Their importance

consists in their relationship to the body of world fiction.