excellent dishes. And, last of all,
the cotton-tree gave her one of its branches, which would give her,
if she shook it, every kind of beautiful garment. When she returned
to the house, the other wife could hardly believe her eyes. Having
learned of the old woman's adventures, she too went into the forest:
but she passed by the trees and the bull without stopping. And instead
of dipping herself only once in the pool, as the mouni told her to do,
she plunged in a second time, hoping to become even more beautiful;
and so she came out of the water as ugly as before. The mouni did
not give her any present, either; and thenceforth, disdained by her
husband, she finished her life as a servant in his house.

It is unsafe to attempt to trace a story with only three examples
as data: but it appears to me not unreasonable to suppose that our
Tagalog story is a refined, pious, Christianized modernization of the
Visayan form represented by "The Two Wives and the Witch;" and that
the Visayan form, in turn, goes back to some Indian or Malayan moral
tale of two wives, rivals for the affection of their husband. The
Bengali tale can hardly be the direct source of our Visayan form,
but it appears to be fairly closely related to that source.

TALE 48

THE MONKEY AND JUAN PUSONG TAMBI-TAMBI.

Narrated by Encarnacion Gonzaga, a Visayan from Jaro, Iloilo. She says
that she has often heard this story; that it was very popular among
the "inhabitants of yesterday;" and that even now many are fond of it.

Tiring-tirang was a barrio in the town of Tang-tang, situated at
the foot of a hill which was called "La Campana" because of its
shape. Around the hill, about a mile from the barrio, flowed the
Malogo River, in which the people of the town used to bathe. It
so happened that one time an epidemic broke out in the community,
killing off all the inhabitants except one couple. This couple had
an only son named Juan Pusong Tambi-tambi.

When Juan had reached his twelfth year, his father died: consequently
the boy had to go to work to earn money for the support of himself
and his mother. At first Juan followed the occupation of his father,
that of fisherman; but, seeing that he made little money from this,
he decided to become a farmer. His mother had now reached the age of
seventy (!), and was often sick. Juan frequently had to neglect his
farm in order to take care of her.

One day Juan went to Pit-pit to buy medicine for his mothe