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viii sense of humor, and the ever persevering Khan's Son, became as familiar to Kalmuck and Mongolian children as St. George and his dragon are to us. Some European travelers, hearing the tales from the people and realizing their unusual qualities, their picturesqueness, their fun and adventure, collected them and brought them home. They were first published in 1866 by a German scholar, Bernhardt Jülg, and it is from his pamphlet, "Kalmükische Marchen," and an English translation of the same ("Sagas from the Far East," by R. H. Busk, 1873), that I have drawn the following stories, changing and adapting them freely to suit Occidental ethics and taste.

I was first moved to put them into book form because of the interest they aroused in a certain small group of boys and girls to whom I told them, one hot, happy summer not so very long ago. The element of repetition, the distinctly human characters, the atmosphere of another land and