Excerpt from A Manual of Aesopic Fable Literature, Vol. 1: A First Book of Reference for the Period Ending A. D. 1500 Fable Literature, taking the term in its most general sense, may be said to include all forms of animal tales in which 'a moral purpose is evident. Such tales appear to have existed at all times and among all peoples, and the attempt to trace mutual relations between them in their oral form appears to be a well-nigh hopeless task. It is only when they definitely appear as literature and are con signed to writing that tangible results in this direction are attainable to the modern scholar. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.