Excerpt

Of these Fairy Tales told to children in the Australian bush, “The Magic Gun” and “The Underground River,” are original, but the others have been brought from the old country, not in book form, but in the memory of a lover of fairies and children.

“The Origin of the Yarra Yarra” was told to the writer by old King Barak, the last King of the Yarra tribe, a few days before his death.

These tales, as told here, charmed the writer in the “Sixties” when Melbourne was a place of bush and swamp. They now charm little slum children in the so-called “slum parts” of the city of Melbourne, “The Palace of Truth” and “The Magic Gun” being always asked for when stories are to be told.