s Visayan.

Once a crow bought a fine necklace from a merchant. He was very proud
of his purchase, which he immediately put around his neck, so that
everybody could see it. Then he flew away, and came to a beautiful
little garden, where he met his old friend the hen strutting about,
with her chicks following her. The hen said to him, "Oh, what a fine
necklace you have! May I borrow it? I will return it to you to-morrow
without fail."

Now, the crow liked the hen: so he willingly lent her the necklace
for a day. The next morning, when the crow returned for his property,
he found the hen and her chicks scratching the ground near an old
wall. "Where is my necklace?" said the crow.

"It is lost," said the hen. "My chicks took it yesterday while I was
asleep, and now they do not remember where they put it. We have been
looking for it all day, and yet we have not been able to find it."

"You must pay for it at once," said the crow, "or else I shall go to
the king and tell him that you stole my necklace."

The hen was frightened at this reply, and she began to wonder how she
could raise the necessary money. The crow, who was on his way to a
fiesta, at last said impatiently, "I will take one of your chicks every
day in payment of what you owe me. As soon as you find the necklace,
give it to me, and then I will stop eating your chicks." The hen had
to be satisfied with this arrangement, for she feared that the crow
would go to the king if she refused.

Unto this day, then, you can find hens and chicks together looking for
the lost necklace by scratching the ground; and the crows are still
exacting payment for the lost jewel by eating chicks. It is said that
the hens and chickens will never cease scratching the ground until
the lost necklace is found.

The Cock and the Sparrow-Hawk.

Narrated by Dolores Asuncion of Manila. She heard the story from an
old Tagalog.

Long ago the sparrow-hawk and the cock were very good friends. Once,
when the cocks were going to hold a great fiesta in the neighboring
village, a proud young rooster, who wished to get the reputation for
being rich and consequently win him a wife, went to the sparrow-hawk,
and said, "My friend, please lend me your bracelet! I am going to
our fiesta; and I wish to make some young hens there believe that I
am rich, in order that they may love me."

The sparrow-hawk answered, "With much pleasure, my friend."

So the cock went to the fiesta wearing the b