young men, a magic key that will
unlock any stone; and from two old men wrangling over it, a hat of
invisibility. In another Tagalog story, "Ricardo and his Adventures"
(notes to No. 49), appears a flying saddle, but this is not obtained
by trickery.

For the "Fee-fi-fo-fum" formula hinted at in our story, see
Bolte-Polivka, 1 : 289-292.

In many of the members of this cycle, when the hero takes his leave
of his brothers-in-law, he is given feathers, hair, scales, etc.,
with which he can summon them in time of need. In our story, however,
Juan has no such labor-saving device: he has to visit his brothers
a second time when he desires aid against the giant.

The last part of our story turns on the idea of the "separable soul or
strength" of the dragon, snake, demon, giant, or other monster. This
idea has been fully discussed by Macculloch (chapter V). As this
conception is widespread in the Orient and is found in Malayan
literature (e.g., in "Bidasari"), there is no need of tracing its
occurrence in the Philippines to Europe. In the norm of this cycle,
the animal brothers-in-law help the hero perform tasks which the
king requires all suitors for his daughter's hand to perform. Here
the beasts help the hero secure the life and strength of the giant
who is holding the princess captive.

Taken as a whole, our story seems to have been imported into the
Philippines from the Occident, for the reason that no Oriental
analogues of it appear to exist, while not a few are known from
southern Europe. Our two variants are from the Tagalog province of
Batangas, and, so far as I know, the story is not found elsewhere
in the Islands. As suggested above, however, the introduction is
probably native, or at least very old, and the conclusion has been
modified by the influence of another cycle well known in the Orient.

TALE 19

JUAN WEARING A MONKEY'S SKIN.

Narrated by Lorenzo Licup, a Pampango from Angeles, Pampanga.

Once upon a time there was a couple which was at first childless. The
father was very anxious to have a son to inherit his property: so
he went to the church daily, and prayed God to give him a child,
but in vain. One day, in his great disappointment, the man exclaimed
without thinking, "O great God! let me have a son, even if it is in
the form of a monkey!" and only a few days later his wife gave birth
to a monkey. The father was so much mortified that he wanted to kill
his son; but finally his better r