Little Red Riding Hood

a well known fairy tale published in French in a collection of stories by Charles Perrault, which appeared in 1697. The story has long been popular in German and in English, as well as in French. It is told in different forms. In the German tale, the wolf devours the grandmother and little Rothkopfchen herself, but, with a beautiful disregard for the processes of mastication and digestion, a hunter appears on the scene, rips open the wolf and rescues the prisoners. In the English version, the hunter comes in time to save Red Riding Hood from the jaws of the wolf. The grandmother is, presumably, too old to mind being eaten, and all ends happily.