ieces,
taking care not to let any part drop to the ground, and to throw all
into the water. In spite of all his care, he lets fall to earth one
drop of blood. The heroine recovers the ring, but lacks the first
joint of her little finger when she resumes her original shape.

The "magic flight" is discussed by Cosquin (1 : 152-154) and Macculloch
(167 ff.). Two kinds of transformation are to be noted in connection
with this escape: the pursued either transform themselves, and
thus escape detection by the pursuer, or else cast behind them magic
objects, which turn into retarding and finally insurmountable obstacles
in the path of the pursuer. In our story the transformations are of
the second type, as they are in the story of "Pedro and the Witch"
(No. 36). So far as I know, the first type does not occur in Filipino
folk-tales. Both types are found frequently in Occidental Maerchen,
but in Oriental stories the second seems to predominate over the first
(see Cosquin's citations of Oriental occurrences of this incident). In
Somadeva (Tawney, 1 : 355 ff.) we have two flights and both types
of escape. As to the details of the flight itself in our story,
we may note that the comb becoming a thicket of thorns has many
analogues. The ring becoming seven mountains suggests with its magic
number an Oriental origin. With spittle turning into a lake or sea,
compare similar transformations of drops of water and a bladder full
of water (Macculloch, 171-172).

The incident of the "forgetting of the betrothed" is usually motivated
with some sort of broken taboo. When the hero desires to visit his
parents, and leaves his sweetheart outside the city, she usually
warns him not to allow himself to be kissed. In a Gaelic Maerchen he
is forbidden to speak; sometimes he is warned by his wife not to eat,
etc. (Koehler-Bolte, 172). In our story the taboo is somewhat unusual:
the hero is to allow no tears of joy shed by his parents to fall on
his cheeks. The idea behind this charge, however, is the same as that
behind the forbidden kiss. With the taboo forbidding the partaking
of food, compare the episode of the "Lotus-Eaters" in the Odyssey.

In most of the Maerchen of this group the re-awakening of the memory
of the hero is accomplished through the conversation of two birds
(doves or hens) which the forgotten betrothed manages to introduce
into the presence of her lover just before he is married to another
(Koehler-Bolte, 172; Rittershaus, 15