As the boys and girls grow up, the stories fade gradually from
their minds. But a time comes when they have children of their own. And
then, to amuse the children, they can find no tales more thrilling
than those which fascinated them in their own childhood. Thus the
old nursery tales are handed down for centuries from generation to
generation. Exactly the same process goes on in India, There, too, when
little Indian boys and girls grow up and have little boys and girls of
their own, they too tell to wide-eyed audiences the tales which they
themselves found so thrilling in their own childhood. Indian nursery
tales, it is true, have a more religious tinge than those of Europe,
but they are none the less appreciated on that account. The first six
stories in this little book purport to explain the connexion between
the heavenly bodies and the days of the week. So each day of the week
has its separate tale. And all through Shravan or August, probably
because it is the wettest month in the year, Deccan mothers tell afresh
every week-day that day's story.
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