Tales of the Sun

Georgiana Kingscote, an English woman living in Southern India, sent her servants out into bazaars to collect tales from elderly women. She was assisted in this venture by Pandit Sastri, who corrected the text and added others from his own collections. A heavily moralistic tone pervades many of the tales, as indicated by such titles as "Charity Alone Conquers, Pride Goeth Before a Fall," and "Mr. Won't Give and Mr. Won't Leave." Other tales possess magical motifs, evident in "The Wonderful Mango-fruit The Monkey with the Tom-Tom," and "The Brahmin Girl That Married a Tiger." Kingscote provides explanatory notes within the texts and she retains the comparative notes written by Cowper Temple and William Clouston for chapter XIII: "The Lost Camel and Other Tales." These comparative notes, which list variants of the tales in oral tradition, literature, and newspapers, enhance the value of the collection for folklorists. Mrs. Adeline Georgiana Isabella Kingscote (1860-1908) was the daughter of Sir Henry Drummond Charles Wolff (1830-1908). After marrying Colonel Howard Kingscote, she spent a period in India, where she wrote two books: Tales of the Sun or Folklore of Southern India (1890) and The English Baby in India and How to Rear It (1893).