"[75]
[73] Hence, in many parts of Europe, it is still customary to
open the windows when a person dies, in order that the soul
may not be hindered in joining the mystic cavalcade.
[74] The story of little Red Riding-Hood is "mutilated in the
English version, but known more perfectly by old wives in
Germany, who can tell that the lovely little maid in her
shining red satin cloak was swallowed with her grandmother by
the wolf, till they both came out safe and sound when the
hunter cut open the sleeping beast." Tylor, Primitive
Culture, I. 307, where also see the kindred Russian story of
Vasilissa the Beautiful. Compare the case of Tom Thumb, who
"was swallowed by the cow and came out unhurt"; the story of
Saktideva swallowed by the fish and cut out again, in Somadeva
Bhatta, II. 118-184; and the story of Jonah swallowed by the
whale, in the Old Testament. All these are different versions
of the same myth, and refer to the alternate swallowing up and
casting forth of Day by Night, which is commonly personified
as a wolf, and now and then as a great fish. Compare Grimm's
story of the Wolf and Seven Kids, Tylor, loc. cit., and see
Early History of Mankind, p. 337; Hardy, Manual of Budhism, p.
501.
[75] Baring-Gould, Book of Werewolves, p. 178; Muir, Sanskrit
Texts, II.
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