I’m pretty sure that I would have used this book in the 1960s and 1970s. I thought the background on the cover (hardback book) was predominantly red / orange with buildings that looked Russian. My memory that it was “Once Upon a Time Fairy Tales,” or “Around the World…” could have been fairy tales or folk tales.
I do know the stories were from many countries. The pictures were in color and I thought maybe the editor / collector was a Russian name. I can see the cover in my mind’s eye.
Included in the book: Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Three Sillies, The Bunyip (Austrlia), tale about an elephant and a tortoise, Egyptian story in which an arm is cut off, The Three Fates, a Nordic (?) tale about a woman and a witch with a stone boat, a tropic story called “The Bones…,” Why the Sea Has Lost it’s Salt, a story about a leprechaun that plants gold in a field and marks the spot many times to trick someone, The Frog Prince, a story about a young Eskimo(?) princess in which someone becomes a wolf.
Hope this leads to something. Thank you for your help.
This sounds like a strong possibility. Once Long Ago: Folk & Fairy Tales of the world. (1962) London: Golden Pleasure Books. retold by Roger Lancelyn Green; illustrator Vojtečh Kubašta
1 The Boy and the Wolves American Indian
2 The Son of the Wolf Chief American Indian
3 The Blacksmith and the Devil American Negro
4 The Prince and the Fairy Arabian
5 Zoulvisia Armenian
6 The Bunyip Australian
7 The Nyamatsanes Basuto
8 The Story of Yara Brazilian
9 The Fairy Wife Chinese
10 The Nung-Guama Chinese
11 The Young Man and the Sea Maid Cretan
12 Long, Stout and Sharpeyes Czech
13 Hans, the Mermaid’s Son Danish
14 The Magic Book Danish
15 The Treasure Thief Egyptian
16 Jack and the Beanstalk English
17 Coat of Rushes English
18 The Three Bears English
19 The Six Sillies English
20 Sedna and the Hunter Eskimo
21 The Dragon of the North Estonian
22 The Hungry Beasts Finnish
23 The Twelve Dancing Princesses Flemish
24 Johnny Nut and the Golden Goose Flemish
25 The Sleeping Beauty French
26 Puss in Boots French
27 Cinderella French
28 Little Snow White German
29 The Singing, Soaring Lark German
30 The Three Treasures German
31 The Fisherman and his Wife German
32 The Hungry Prince Ancient Greek
33 The Princess Atalanta Ancient Greek
34 Yannikas and Marika Modern Greek
35 The Boy and the Dragon Modern Greek
36 The Grateful Animals Hungarian
37 The Witch in the Stone Boat Icelandic
38 The Lucky Adventurer Indian
39 The Black Thief Irish
40 The Leprechaun Irish
41 The Frog Princess Italian
42 The Cat Lovers Japanese
43 The Foolish Giant Lapp
44 The Three Princes Lithuanian
45 The Wonderful Twins Mexican
46 The Cunning Tortoise Nigerian
47 Why the Sea is Salt Norse
48 Soria Moria Castle Norse
49 The Magic Bird Persian
50 The Prince and the Maiden Peruvian
51 The Glass Mountain Polish
52 The Bones of Djulung Polynesian
53 The Prince and the Dove Portuguese
54 The Magic Mirror Rhodesian
55 The Two Kings Rhodian
56 The Voice of Death Rumanian
57 Koshchei the Undying Russian
58 The Witch in the Wood Russian
59 Childe Roland Scottish
60 The Brown Bull of Norrowa Scottish
61 The Three Beggars Serbian
62 The Cunning Shoemaker Sicilian
63 The half-chick Spanish
64 The Water of Life Spanish
65 The Coward Sudanese
66 The Prince and the Fox Swedish
67 The Griffin Swiss
68 Abu Nowas and his Wife Tunisian
69 Madschun Turkish
70 The Fairy of the Lake Welsh
Found a picture of cover here
http://karlshuker.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/nung-guama-and-nyamatsane-couple-of.html
The illustrations are as I remember but there are many more stories than I recall being in the book. The cover doesn’t look as I remember but been many years. If someone else can keep looking, that would be great. I’m looking into purchasing the book if I can get it for a price I can afford. Too bad it is gone.
Try “The Brown Fairy Book” by Andrew Lang? It definitely includes “The Bunyip”, I’m not familiar with any of the other stories in it. Andrew Lang collected fairy tales from around the world from the 1890’s to early 1900’s in a series of about a dozen or so “coloured fairy books” (“Blue Fairy Book”, “Red Fairy Book”, etc.) Barnes and Noble currently has a nice, inexpensive hardback collectible edition of “Fairy Tales from Around the World” which are essentially an abridged best-of collection of highlights from all the books, and the cover is, indeed, reddish-brown or orange, with a vaguely Russian-looking (or perhaps Turkish/Arabic?) tower in the background (ISBN 978-1-4351-4482-8), and seems to include at least some of the tales you describe – this is a 2014 edition, but is almost certainly a reprint of an earlier edition that has entered public domain.
I think it is “Fifty Famous Fairy Tales” — published in 1965
There are a few other books with the same title, but published later
The American edition (New York) and Canadian edition (Toronto) were published in 1962 by Golden Press. Retold by Roger Lancelyn Green and illustrated by Vojtečh Kubašta under the title, “Once Upon a Time” and subtitled “Folk and Fairy Tales of the World.” The cover is orange with an abstract, graphic castle printed in muted greens and browns. There are 35 stories from around the world, including all those you mentioned in the OP. I have a copy sitting at my left elbow. Here’s a photo found online: http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/1ikAAOSwqv9V6Fd2/$_57.JPG
If the link gets removed from eBay before you can see it, email me and I’ll send you the photo.
Best of luck finding a copy for yourself.