alled the ant, likewise intending to bestow on it
more power than on any other animals, because it was so very small;
but the ant was the most stupid and lazy of all creatures. It did
not pay any attention to the summons of the god, but pretended to
be deaf. Whereupon Bathala became so angry that he called the snake
and gave to it the wonderful power that he had intended to give the
ant. "You, Sir Snake, shall seldom be caught by any person, for you
shall have the power of being very nimble. Besides, every one shall
be afraid of you."

When finally the ant appeared before the god, asking him for the
gift he had promised, Bathala said, "O you poor, tiny, imprudent
creature! Since you disobeyed your god, from now on you and your
tribe shall meet with death very often, for you shall be pinched by
those whom you bite."

And so it is to-day that we pinch to death the ants whenever they
bite us.

The narrator testified that she heard the story from an old woman in
her town of Lipa. So far as I know, this "just-so" fable of "The Ant
and the Snake and God" has not been recorded outside of Lipa, Batangas;
and I am inclined to believe that it represents old local tradition.

TALE 66

WHY LOCUSTS ARE HARMFUL.

Narrated by Francisco M. Africa.

During the dawn of humanity, some angels headed by Satanas revolted
against God. They wanted to establish a kingdom for themselves. In
a battle against the army of God, in which God himself was present,
Satanas threw a handful of sand into God's face; but the heavenly
monarch just laughed, and said, "I turn the sand back to thee. The
particles shall become the scourge of all ages to thee and to thy
followers, O Satanas!"

No sooner had God uttered these words than the particles of sand
became a mighty swarm of locusts, that flew in all directions. Such
was the beginning of the pest.

Notes.

A tribal Bicol-story narrated by Maximina Navarro of Albay runs thus:--

The Origin of Locusts.

Many years ago there lived a head man whose home was situated in a
very fertile valley, all the inhabitants of which he governed. He was
not a good ruler, however; for he was so greedy, that he wanted to
hoard up all the rice produced by his people. Every year, therefore,
he squeezed from his subjects as much rice as he could get, so that
at the end of four years his granaries were full to bursting. It
happened that in the fifth year the crop failed, and the people knew
that th