his marvels out of Arabian Nights.  “A Reading from Homer,” by Alma Tadema, is a well-known picture which portrays the Greeks listening to the Tales of Homer.  In the Lysistrata of Aristophanes, the chorus of old men begins with, “I will tell ye a story!” Plutarch, in his Theseus says, “All kinds of stories were told at the festival Oschophoria, as the mothers related 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:—­

Another, drawing tresses from her distaff. 
Told o’er among her family the tales
Of Trojans, and of Fesole and Rome.

The French troubadours and the Italian counts of Boccaccio’s time told tales.  It is recorded of the French Galland, the first translator of The Arabian Nights, how the young men of his day would gather under his windows at night and shout for him until he showed himself and told them stories.  The German Luther paid a high tribute to stories; and Goethe’s mother, in giving her experience in telling stories to her children, has shown how the German mother valued the story in the home.  To-day, savage children, when the day of toil is ended with the setting sun, gather in groups to listen to the never-dying charm of the tale; and the most learned of men, meeting in the great centers of civilization to work out weighty problems, find relief and pleasure when wit and culture tell the tale.