In the Land of Marvels

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The following collection of folk-tales from Lower Austria and Bohemia was made by Prof. Vernaleken, who wrote them down faithfully from word of mouth, and published them as a sort of supplement to the Children's and Household Stories of the Brothers Grimm, which were derived mostly from North-Western Germany.<br><br>As these excursions into the land of marvels not only delight the imagination of youthful readers, but afford rich material to the scientific student of the history of the human spirit, a few words upon this subject may not be out of place in introducing the volume to English readers.<br><br>The Marchen or folk tale is a form of oral tradition which has come down from lip to lip from the remotest antiquity j borne in olden times in the memory of bards or reciters, and now preserved as a house-lore among the peasantry of Europe.