Classicly

The Siddhi-kur is a strange and mysterious creature! He is so old that we cannot even guess at his age, and he has traveled so many leagues from the land that originally produced him. Some European travelers, hearing the tales from the people and realizing their unusual qualities, their picturesqueness, their fun and adventure, collected them and brought them home. They were first published in 1866 by a German scholar, Bernhardt Jülg, and it is from his pamphlet, “Kalmükische Märchen,” and an English translation of the same (“Sagas from the Far East,” by R. H. Busk, 1873), that I have drawn the following stories, changing and adapting them freely to suit Occidental ethics and taste.