women by souls in hell are true or slanderous. Belfagor marries in
Florence; but his imperious wife causes him so much bad fortune,
that he is compelled to flee from his creditors. A peasant conceals
him, and out of gratitude Belfagor tells his rescuer his story, and
promises to make him rich by possessing women and allowing himself
to be driven out only by the peasant himself. So done. The peasant
wins great renown; and at last Belfagor says that his obligations
have been fulfilled, and that the peasant must look out for himself
if they meet again. The devil now enters the daughter of Ludwig II,
King of France. The peasant is summoned to cure her, but is afraid, and
refuses. At last he is compelled to go, like the physician, against his
will (see Benfey, 515 ff.). Belfagor rages when he sees the peasant,
and threatens him vehemently. At last the peasant employs the usual
trick: "Your wife is coming!" and the devil flees in consternation,
choosing rather to rush back to hell than into the arms of his wife.

Benfey considers a Bohemian story in Wenzig's collection
(West-slawische Maerchen, Leipzig, 1857, p. 167) to be the best of
all the popular versions belonging to this group, and he reproduces
it in full (pp. 527-534). This long story we may pass over, since
it contains no new features that are found in our story. In fact,
it little resembles ours or any of the others, except in general in
two or three episodes. Benfey concludes his discussion of this cycle
by stating that there have been many other imitations of this tale,
and he mentions some of these (p. 534). It may be added that further
references will be found in Wilson's note in his edition of Dunlop,
2 : 188-190.

The question of the origin of the Pampango version of this story is
not easy to answer definitely, for the reason that it presents details
not found in any of the other variants. However, since nearly all the
machinery of our story turns on the teachings of the Roman Church,
and since the denouement is practically identical with the ending of
Caballero's Andalusian story, I conclude that in its main outlines our
version was derived from Spain. At the same time, I think it likely
that the fairy-tale of "Mabait and the Duende" was already existent
earlier in the Islands (though this, too, may have been imported),
and that the motivation of the spirit's desire to revenge himself
on his tormentor for his avarice and greed was incorporated into the
Ma