One of the most beloved pieces Matisse made during those last few years is an abstract take on "One Thousand and One Nights, " the famed collection of Middle Eastern folk tales relayed by the fictional Scheherazade each evening to avoid death at the hands of a murderous Persian king.

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The Moken possess many fables and folk tales which help them make use of the natural world.

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Zipes, a professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota, has written sixty books on or of folk tales: critical studies, collections, translations.

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