ve brought." However, the king knew nothing of all this.

When the early harvest time came, the king commanded Amo-Mongo to
bring rice to make pilipig. (Rice pounded into flakes and toasted,
a dish of which Filipinos are very fond.) Amo-Mongo did not know
where he could find it, but set out in the direction from which he
had seen Singalong coming each morning, and soon came to an extensive
rice-field bearing an abundant crop. He took a goodly portion of it
and, returning to the palace, had the pilipig prepared and set before
the king and his household. Every one ate of it, except Singalong,
who was the real owner, and his wife, who had been secretly notified
by him of the truth of the matter.

Maria was greatly perplexed by what her husband had told her, so she
determined one night to watch him. She discovered that, as soon as
the other people were asleep, her husband became transformed into
a handsome prince and left the palace, leaving behind him his cat's
dress. As soon as he had gone, Maria took the cast-off clothing of
her husband and cast it into the fire. Singalong smelt it burning and
returned to the palace, where he found his wife and begged her to
return to him his cat's dress. This she was unable to do, since it
was entirely consumed. As a result, Singalong was obliged to retain
the form of a prince, but he was afraid to appear before the king in
this guise, and so hid himself.

In the morning, Maria went to the king and told him the truth about
her husband. Her father, however, thought that she was crazy, and
when she insisted, invited her to accompany him to Amo-Mongo's farm,
in order to convince her of her error. Many people went with them,
and Amo-Mongo led them to the farm, which was really Singalong's,
but told them that it belonged to himself. Besides other things,
Singalong had planted many fruits, among them atimon and candol.

Amo-Mongo, seeing the diversity of fruits, began to eat all he could,
until he became unable to move a step. Whenever his wife urged him
to come away, he would take an atimon under his arm and a candol or
so in his hands, until at last his wife, angry at his greediness,
gave him a push which caused him to fall headlong, striking his head
against a stone and being instantly killed.

Then Singalong, who had secretly followed the crowd from the palace,
showed himself to the king in his proper form. After making suitable
explanations, he led them to a fine palace in the middl