The collection includes seventy-one folk Indian fairy tales. All of them were collected at the end of the 19th century by the English ethnographer William Crook during research on the northern and northwestern provinces of India. He wrote down some of them himself, while Indian Pandit Ramgarib Chaube helped him translate others from the words of local residents. All texts are translated by S. Yu. Afonkin. The publication is decorated with illustrations by the English artist William Robinson.