ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 252 In this 252nd ÿissue of the Baba Indaba?s Children's Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the story of ?THE ELF MAIDEN?. Two young men living in a small village fell in love with the same girl. During the winter, it was all night except for an hour or so about noon, when the darkness seemed a little less dark, and then they used to see which of them could tempt her out for a sleigh ride with the Northern Lights flashing above them, or which could persuade her to come to a dance in some neighbouring barn. But when the spring began, and the light grew longer, the hearts of the villagers leapt at the sight of the sun, and a day was fixed for the boats to be brought out, and the great nets to be spread in the bays of some islands that lay a few miles to the north. Everybody went on this expedition, and the two young men and the girl went with them. They all sailed merrily across the sea chattering like a flock of magpies, or singing their favourite songs. And when they reached the shore, what an unpacking there was! For this was a noted fishing ground, and here they would live, in little wooden huts, till autumn and bad weather came round again. Then it came time to leave and pack the boats. The more cunning of the two sets a ruse of forgetting his knife in the hut. While his friend goes off to fetch the knife, the others set sail and leave him marooned. With no way of getting back, he makes his way to a copse of trees on the far side of the island and starts setting up camp. But that?s when the fun starts?? What happens to the boy? Does he last the winter? And what of the Elf Maiden? Where does she fit in to the story? Well you?ll just have to download and read the story to find these things out for yourself. BUY ANY 4 BABA INDABA CHILDREN?S STORIES FOR ONLY $1 33% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. ÿ INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps. Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".

The stories in this Fairy Book come from all quarters of the world. For example, the adventures of 'Ball-Carrier and the Bad One' are told by Red Indian grandmothers to Red Indian children who never go to school, nor see pen and ink. 'The Bunyip' is known to even more uneducated little ones, running about with no clothes at all in the bush, in Australia. You may see photographs of these merry little black fellows before their troubles begin, in 'Northern Races of Central Australia, ' by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. They have no lessons except in tracking and catching birds, beasts, fishes, lizards, and snakes, all of which they eat. But when they grow up to be big boys and girls, they are cruelly cut about with stone knives and frightened with sham bogies all for their good' their parents say and I think they would rather go to school, if they had their choice, and take their chance of being birched and bullied