The stories made by the people and told before evening fires or in public places and at the gates of inns in the Orient belong to the ages when books were few and knowledge limited or to people whose fancy was not hampered by familiarity with or care for facts; they are the creations as they were the amusement of men and women who were children in knowledge but were thinking deeply and often wisely of what life meant to them and were eager to know and hear more about themselves their fellows and the world. In the earlier folk-stories one finds a childlike simplicity and readiness to believe in the marvellous; and these qualities are found also in the French peasant's version of the career of Napoleon.