such things to their children before their departure, to give them courage." In his Symposium he mentions a child's story containing the proverb, "No man can make a gown for the moon."—
The Moon begged her Mother to weave her a little frock which would fit her.
The Mother said, "How can I make it fit thee, when thou art sometimes a Full Moon, and then a Half Moon, and then a New Moon?"—
In the works of the German, Schuppius (1677), appeared this:—
Your old folks can remember how, in the olden times, it was customary at vespers on Easter day, to tell some Easter tidings from the pulpit. These were foolish fables and stories such as are told to children in the spinning-room. They were intended to make people merry.
In England, Chaucer's Tales reflect the common custom of the times for the pilgrim, the traveler, the lawyer, the doctor, the monk, and the nun, to relate a tale. The Wife of Bathes Tale is evidently a fairy tale. In Peele's Old Wives' Tale we learn how the smith's goodwife related some nursery tales of Old England to the two travelers her husband brought to the cottage for the night. In Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination we find:—
Hence, finally by night,
The village matres, round the blazing hearth
Suspend the infant audience with their tales,
Breathing astonishment.
The custom of Florentine mothers has been described by the poet, Dante, when he says:—
