and nearer sounded the frightful
screams until, just as he felt two huge claws close on his neck, there
was a bump, a loud snap, and he felt himself being carried high in the
air. When the shock was over he found that he was squeezed tightly
between two hard walls, and he could hear the Ongloc screaming and
tearing at the outside with his claws. Then he knew what had happened.

He had crossed the line between the buried pieces and they had snapped
on him and carried him up the tree from which they came. He was badly
squeezed but he felt safe from the Ongloc, who finally went away in
disappointment; for, although he likes cocoanuts, he cannot take one
from a tree, but must change a boy or girl into the fruit if he wishes
to eat of it.

Quicoy waited a long, long time and then knocked on the shell in the
hope that some one would hear him. All that night and the next day
and the next he knocked and cried and knocked, but, though people
passed under the tree and found the bolo, he was so high up they did
not hear him.

Days and weeks went by and the people wondered what had become of
Quicoy. Many thought he had run away and were sorry for his poor
mother, who grieved very much to think she had terrified him by calling
the Ongloc. Of course the boys who had sent him to the grove could
have told something of his whereabouts, but they were frightened and
said nothing, so no one ever heard of poor little Quicoy again.

If you pass a cocoanut grove at night you can hear a noise like some
one knocking. The older people say that the cocoanuts grow so closely
together high up in the branches that the wind, when it shakes the
tree, bumps them together. But the children know better. They say,
"Quicoy is knocking to get out, but he must stay there a hundred
years."

The Passing of Loku

The tale of Loku is applied to a large, ugly lizard which climbs
to the rafters of houses and gives the peculiar cry that suggests
its name. This lizard, although hideous, is harmless; it lives on
centipedes. Its strange cry may be heard everywhere in the Philippine
Islands.

Hundreds of years ago a very wicked king named Loku ruled the
Philippines. He was cruel and unjust, and condemned to death all who
refused to do his bidding. He had vast armies and made war on all
until his name was feared everywhere.

His power was very great. He conquered every nation that opposed him
and killed so many people that the god, viewing the slaughter