PREFACE
I will set down a tale as it was told to me by one who had it of
his father, which latter had it of
his father, this last having in
like manner had it of his father-and so on, back and still back,
three hundred years and more, the fathers transmitting it to the
sons and so preserving it. It may be history, it may be only legend, a
tradition. It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it
could have happened. It may be that the wise and the learned
believed it in the old days; it may be that only the unlearned and the
simple loved it and credited it.