Canadian Fairy Tales

Canadian Fairy Tales
by Cyrus MacMillan
(Rare Book Collection)

The fairy tale makes universal appeal because it deals with the elemental in our natures that is the same in every age and in every race. In the Canadian tales which are gathered from Indian sources, we find the same types of characters and scenes of adventure that we do in the tales of the German forests, of Scandinavia, England or France.

The tales in this collection have been gathered in various parts of Canada. They are not the product of the writer's imagination; they are the common possession of the "folk." Many of them are still reverently believed by the Canadian Indians, and all are still told with seriousness around camp-fires in forests and on plains, upon the sea and by cottage hearths. The dress in which they now appear may be new, but the skeleton of each story has been left unchanged.