John D. Batten: Illustrations for Indian Fairy Tales

John Dickson Batten (8 October 1860 – 5 August 1932), born in Plymouth, Devon, was an English painter of figures in oils, tempera and fresco and a book illustrator and printmaker. He was an active member of the Society of Painters in Tempera with his wife Mary Batten, a gilder.


In the 1890s Batten illustrated a series of fairy tale collections edited by Joseph Jacobs, who was a member of the Folklore Society (and editor of its journal 1890–93): at least English Fairy Tales, Celtic Fairy Tales, Indian Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, and More Celtic Fairy Tales from 1890 to 1895 and Europa's Fairy Book (1916). (The latter has also been issued as European Folk and Fairy Tales.) He also illustrated English versions of Tales from the Arabian Nights and Dante's Inferno.Batten also wrote two books of poetry and a book on animal and human flight.

 Frontispiece

 This edition shows the full-page illustrations in a colored and in black-and-white version.The illustrations in this book were coloured by hand by
Miss Gloria Cardew.

The Lion and the Crane

How the Raja's Son won the Princess Labam.

The Broken Pot

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Loving Laili

The Soothsayer's Son

Harisarman

The Charmed Ring

"We can take you, if you can only hold your tongue, and will say nothing to anybody."
"Oh! that I can do. Take me with you."
"That's right," said they. And making the tortoise bite hold of a stick, they themselves took the two ends in their teeth, and flew up into the air.

The Gold-giving Serpent

The Son of Seven Queens

Nearer and nearer he advanced, till, just as he thought to lay hold of the beautiful strange creature, it gave one mighty bound, leapt clean over the King's head, and fled towards the mountains.

"Don't you disobey orders again!" grumbled the old hag, "or next time I'll leave you alone. Now be off, before I repent of my kindness!"

Raja Rasalu.

 

The Farmer and the Money-lender

Then he blew his conch, and wished for a well to water them, and lo! there was the well, but the money-lender had two!—two beautiful new wells! This was too much for any farmer to stand; and our friend brooded over it, and brooded over it, till at last a bright idea came into his head. He seized the conch, blew it loudly, and cried out, "Oh, Ram! I wish to be blind of one eye!" And so he was, in a twinkling, but the money-lender of course was blind of both, and in trying to steer his way between the two new wells, he fell into one, and was drowned.

The Boy who had a Moon on his Forehead and a Star on his Chin

When all was ready, Katar burst out of his stable, with the prince on his back, rushed past the King himself before the King had time to shoot him, galloped away to the great jungle-plain, and galloped about all over it. The King saw his horse had a boy on his back, though he could not see the boy distinctly. The sepoys tried in vain to shoot the horse; he galloped much too fast; and at last they were all scattered over the plain.

The king had the pit dug, and commanded all the maids belonging to the palace to try to jump it. All of them tried, but only one succeeded. That one was found to be a man!!