at his mother, and bit her with his
little teeth.

Again he said to his mother, "You go there and take the nine
necklaces."

So the woman started off again. When she reached the sultan's house,
she said to him, "I have come with these nine necklaces and these
nine finger-rings that my son sends to you."

"Yes," said the sultan; "but I want my house to become gold, and I want
all my plants to become gold, and everything I have to turn into gold."

But the woman left the presents to pay for the sultan's daughter. The
sultan told her that he wanted his house to be turned into gold that
very night. Then the woman went back and told all this to her son. The
Squirrel said, "That is good, my mother."

Now, when night came, the Squirrel went to the sultan's house, and
stood in the middle of the path, and called to his brother, the Mouse,
"My brother, come out! I want to see you."

Then the great Mouse came out. All the hairs of his coat were of gold,
and his eyes were of glass.

The Mouse said, "What do you want of me, my brother Squirrel?"

"I called you," answered the Squirrel, "for your gold coat. I want
some of that to turn the sultan's house into gold."

Then the Squirrel bit the skin of the Mouse, and took off some of the
gold, and left him. Then he began to turn the sultan's things into
gold. First of all, he rubbed the gold on the betel-nut trees of the
sultan; next, he rubbed all the other trees and all the plants; third,
he rubbed the house and all the things in it. Then the sultan's town
you could see as in a bright day. You would think there was no night
there--always day.

All this time, the sultan was asleep. When he woke up, he was so
frightened to see all his things, and his house, of gold, that he
died in about two hours.

Then the Squirrel and the daughter of the sultan were married. The
Squirrel staid in her father's home for one month, and then they went
to live in the house of the Squirrel's mother. And they took from
the sultan's place, a deer, a fish, and all kinds of food. After the
sultan's daughter had lived with the Squirrel for one year, he took
off his coat and became a Malaki T'oluk Waig. [129]

The Cat

Very long ago the cocoanut used to be the head of the cat. That is why
the cat loves cocoanut so much. When the Bagobo are eating cocoanut,
they let the cat jump up and have some too, because her head once
turned into a cocoanut. When the cat hears the Bagobo scraping cocoanut