Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/23

 PORTUGUESE FOLK-TALES.

INTRODUCTORY.

ITH the object of making known to the English public the rich Folk-Lore of Portugal, I purpose offering a few specimens which I have extracted from my vast inedited collection. This collection, which is far from exhausting the subject, has already commenced to be published in Portuguese under the titles of Contribuiçoes para uma Mythologia popular Portuguesa (fascicules I.—IX. saidos já). Contributions towards a Portuguese popular Mythology (Livraison I.—IX. already published), and Contribuiçoes para um Cancioneiro e Romanceiro popular Portuguez (Contributions for a Portuguese popular Songster and Romanceiro); the first number of which will be shortly published in the Romania of Senhor Gaston-Paris. These publications, therefore, which are continuing uninterruptedly, especially comprise Mythology and Popular Poetry. The stories that I have collected in different parts of the country, and which at present number more than 500, still remain altogether inedited. The thirty which we now publish here are a specimen of this collection, in which are found different note-worthy versions indicative of the principal European types. I do not subjoin to each story the variants to be found elsewhere, in the first place because English mythographs would have nothing to learn by this new work, and in the second place, because this comparative commentary which I am preparing ought to appear in the most exhaustive manner possible, in the complete edition in