yrant".
King's officer vs. frog; frog vs. snail; snail vs. firefly; firefly
vs. mosquito.

Version e (Pampango), "The Bacuit's Case."
Bacuit vs. frog; frog vs. turtle; turtle vs. firefly.

With the exception of the substitution of snail for turtle, and crab
for bird, in the Tagalog and Visayan versions, four of these forms (a,
c, d, e) are practically identical. Pampango e lacks the fourth link
in the chain (firefly vs. mosquito). Pampango b adds one link (horse
vs. cock), and substitutes cock for frog; the method of narration
varies somewhat from the others, also. The punishment of the mosquito
differs in a, c, and d. "The Trial among Animals" develops into a
"just-so" story, and may be a connecting link between a Tinguian fable
(Cole, No. 84) and two Borneo sayings (Evans, 447). In the Tinguian,
a mosquito came to bite a man. The man said, "You are very little,
and can do nothing to me." The mosquito answered, "If you had no ears,
I would eat you." The Bajan (Borneo) saying is, "Mosquitoes do not
make their buzzing unless they are near men's ears; and then they say,
'If these were not your ears, I would swallow you.'" The Dusun version
(Borneo) is, "The mosquito says, 'If these were not your horns, I
would swallow you.'" The "killing fly on face" droll episode, which
terminates the Tagalog version (d), we have already met with twice,
Nos. 9 and 57 (q.v.). The link "firefly vs. mosquito" is found in
the Visayan story "The Ape and the Firefly" (JAFL 20 : 314).

There can be no question but that this cycle is native to the Islands,
and was not imported from the Occident. A Malayan story given by Skeat
(Fables and Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest, 9-12), "Who Killed
the Otter's Babies?" is clearly related to our tales, at least in
idea and method:--

The mouse-deer (plandok) is charged with killing the otter's babies
by trampling them to death, but excuses himself by saying that he was
frightened because the woodpecker sounded his war-gong. In the trial
before King Solomon, the above facts come out, and the woodpecker is
asked why he sounded the war-gong.

WOODPECKER. Because the great lizard was wearing his sword.

GREAT LIZARD. Because the tortoise had donned his coat of mail.

TORTOISE. Because King Crab was trailing his three-edged pike.

KING CRAB. Because Crayfish was shouldering his lance.

CRAYFISH. Because Otter was coming down to devour my children.

Thus the cause of the death of the otter's chil