Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/14

viii been selected carefully with the object of securing a good story in what appears to be its best form; but they have not been doctored in any way, not even in the language. That in neither a transliterationwhich would have needed a whole dictionary to be intelligiblenor a version orientalised to suit English tastes. It is an attempt to translate one colloquialism by another, and thus to preserve the aroma of rough ready wit existing side by side with that perfume of pure poesy which every now and again contrasts so strangely with the other. Nothing would have been easier than to alter the style; but to do so would, in the collector's opinion, have robbed the stories of all human value.

That such has been the deliberate choice may be seen at a glance through the only story which has a different origin. The Adventures of Raja Rasâlu was translated from the rough manuscript of a village accounted ; and, being current in a more or less classical form, it approaches more nearly to the conventional standards of an Indian tale.

The work has been apportioned between the authors in this way. Mrs. F. A. Steel is responsible for the text,and Major R. C. Temple for the annotation and the appendices on Analysis and Survey of Incidents. The latter conforms strictly to the method adopted by the Folklore Society and is intended to form part of their scheme of investigation into the general machinery of folk-tales