in astonishment
and said:

"Where did you get that ring? Do you not know that you promised to
be my wife? You must not wear the ring of anyone else. Throw it away."

And the hen threw away the beautiful ring.

Not long after this the hawk came down bringing beautiful feathers
to dress the hen. When she saw him coming she was frightened and ran
to hide behind the door, but the hawk called to her to come and see
the beautiful dress he had brought her.

The hen came out, and the hawk at once saw that the ring was gone.

"Where is the ring I gave you?" he asked. "Why do you not wear it?"

The hen was frightened and ashamed to tell the truth so she answered:

"Oh, sir, yesterday when I was walking in the garden, I met a large
snake and he frightened me so that I ran as fast as I could to the
house. Then I missed the ring and I searched everywhere but could
not find it."

The hawk looked sharply at the hen, and he knew that she was deceiving
him. Then he said to her:

"I did not believe that you could behave so badly. When you have
found the ring I will come down again and make you my wife. But as
a punishment for breaking your promise, you must always scratch the
ground to look for the ring. And every chicken of yours that I find,
I shall snatch away."

Then he flew away, and ever since all the hens throughout the world
have been scratching to find the hawk's ring.

The Spider and the Fly

_Visayan_

Mr. Spider wanted to marry Miss Fly. Many times he told her of his
love and begged her to become his wife, but she always refused for
she did not like him.

One day when she saw Mr. Spider coming again Miss Fly closed all
the doors and windows of her house and made ready a pot of boiling
water. Then she waited, and when Mr. Spider called, begging her
to allow him to enter, she answered by throwing boiling water at
him. This made Mr. Spider very angry and he cried:

"I will never forgive you for this, but I and my descendants will
always despise you. We will never give you any peace."

Mr. Spider kept his word, and even today one can see the hatred of
the spider for the fly.

The Battle of the Crabs

_Visayan_

One day the land crabs had a meeting and one of them said:

"What shall we do with the waves? They sing so loudly all the time
that we cannot possibly sleep."

"Well," answered one of the oldest of the crabs, "I think we should
make war on them."

The others agreed to this, and it