to hear the better, my child."

"Grandmamma, what great eyes you have got!"

"It is to see the better, my child."

"Grandmamma, what great teeth you have got!"

"That is to eat thee up."

And, saying these words, this wicked Wolf fell upon Little Red
Riding-hood, and ate her all up.

NOTE.

The eight stories contained in this volume are first found in print in
French in a magazine entitled, _Receuil de pieces curieuses et nouvelles
tant en prose qu'en vers_, which was published by Adrian Moetjens at The
Hague in 1696-1697. They were immediately afterward published at Paris
in a volume entitled, _Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passe, avec des
Moralites--Contes de ma mere l'Oie_.

The earliest translation into English has been found in a little book
containing both the English and French, entitled, "Tales of Passed
Times, by Mother Goose. With Morals. Written in French by M. (Charles)
Perrault, and Englished by R.S. Gent."

Who R.S. was and when he made his translation we can only conjecture.
Mr. Andrew Lang, in his "Perrault's Popular Tales" (p. xxxiv), writes:
"An English version translated by Mr. Samber, printed for J. Pote, was
advertised, Mr. Austin Dobson tells me, in the _Monthly Chronicle_,
March, 1729."

These stories which may be said to be as old as the race
itself--certainly their germs are to be found in the oldest literature
and among the oldest folk-tales in the world--were orally current in
France and the neighboring countries in nearly the form in which
Perrault wrote them for very many years; and an interesting account of
the various forms in which they are found in the literature and
folklore of other nations before Perrault's time is given in _Les Contes
de ma mere l'Oie avant Perrault_, by Charles Deulin, Paris, E. Dentu,
1878.

In this book Mr. Deulin inclines to the view that the stories as first
published by Perrault were not really written by him, but by his little
son of ten or eleven, to whom Perrault told the stories as he had
gathered them up with the intention of rendering them in verse after the
manner of La Fontaine. The lad had an excellent memory, much natural
wit, and a great gift of expression. He loved the stories his father
told him and thoroughly enjoyed the task his father set him of rewriting
them from memory, as an exercise. This was so happily done, in such a
fresh, artless, and engaging style, exactly befitting the subjects of
the stories, that the father fo