The first adjective of our title also needs a similar exten sion of its meaning. I have acted on Moliere's principle, and have taken what was good wherever I could find it. Thus, a couple of these stories have been found among descendants of English immigrants in America; a couple of others I tell as I heard them myself in my youth in Australia. One of the best was taken down from the mouth of an English Gipsy. I have also included some stories that have only been found in Lowland Scotch. I have felt justified in doing this, as of the twenty-one folk tales contained in Chambers' Popular Rhymes of Scot land, no less than sixteen are also to be found in an English form. With the Folk-tale as with the Ballad.