ssed him and
called the snail. "Why do you always carry your house with you?" asked
the king.

"Because," said the snail, "I am always afraid the firefly is going to
burn it." The king next ordered the firefly to appear before him. The
king then said to the firefly, "Why do you carry fire with you always?"

"Because the mosquitoes will bite me if I do not carry this fire,"
said the firefly. This answer seemed reasonable to the king, so he
summoned the mosquito. When the mosquito was asked why he was always
trying to bite some one, he said, "Why, sir, I cannot live without
biting somebody."

The king was tired of the long trial, so with the mosquito he
determined to end it. After hearing the answer of the mosquito,
he said, "From now on you must not bite anybody. You have no right
to do so." The mosquito tried to protest the sentence, but the king
seized his mallet and determined to crush the mosquito with it. When
the mosquito saw what the king was going to do, he alighted on the
forehead of the king. The king became very angry at this insult,
and hit the mosquito hard. He killed the mosquito, but he also put
an end to his own tyranny.

MORAL: It is foolish to carry matters to extremes.

Notes.

A fifth form (e) of this "clock" story is "The Bacuit's Case," narrated
by W. Vitug of Lubao, Pampanga. As I have this tale only in abstract,
I give it here in that form:--

The bacuit (small, light gray bird which haunts marshes and ponds)
went to the eagle-king and brought suit against the frog because the
latter croaked all night, thus keeping the bacuit awake. The frog said
he croaked for fear of the turtle, who always carried his house with
him. The turtle, being summoned, explained that he carried his house
with him for fear that the firefly would set it on fire. The firefly,
in turn, showed that it was necessary for him to carry his lamp in
order to find his food.

There is a striking agreement of incident in all these stories,
as may be seen from the following abstracts of the versions.

Version a (Pampango), "Trial among Animals."
Bird vs. frog; frog vs, turtle; turtle vs. firefly; firefly
vs. mosquito.

Version b (Pampango), "The Pugu's Case."
Pugu vs. horse; horse vs. cock; cock vs. turtle; turtle vs. firefly,
firefly vs. mosquito; mosquito vs. Juan.

Version c (Visayan), "Why Mosquitoes Hum."
Crab vs. frogs; frogs vs. snail; snail vs. firefly; firefly
vs. mosquito.

Version d (Tagalog) "A T