225-248),
and the stealing of the abbot in a sack.

TALE 9

THE SEVEN CRAZY FELLOWS.

Narrated by Cipriano Serafica, from Mangaldan. Pangasinan.

Once there were living in the country in the northern part of Luzon
seven crazy fellows, named Juan, Felipe, Mateo, Pedro, Francisco,
Eulalio, and Jacinto. They were happy all the day long.

One morning Felipe asked his friends to go fishing. They staid at the
Cagayan River a long time. About two o'clock in the afternoon Mateo
said to his companions, "We are hungry; let us go home!"

"Before we go," said Juan, "let us count ourselves, to see that we
are all here!" He counted; but because he forgot to count himself,
he found that they were only six, and said that one of them had been
drowned. Thereupon they all dived into the river to look for their
lost companion; and when they came out, Francisco counted to see if
he had been found; but he, too, left himself out, so in they dived
again. Jacinto said that they should not go home until they had found
the one who was lost. While they were diving, an old man passed by. He
asked the fools what they were diving for. They said that one of them
had been drowned.

"How many were you at first?" said the old man.

They said that they were seven.

"All right," said the old man. "Dive in, and I will count you." They
dived, and he found that they were seven. Since he had found their
lost companion, he asked them to come with him.

When they reached the old man's house, he selected Mateo and Francisco
to look after his old wife; Eulalio he chose to be water-carrier;
Pedro, cook; Jacinto, wood-carrier; and Juan and Felipe, his companions
in hunting.

When the next day came, the old man said that he was going hunting,
and he told Juan and Felipe to bring along rice with them. In a little
while they reached the mountains, and he told the two fools to cook
the rice at ten o'clock. He then went up the mountain with his dogs
to catch a deer. Now, his two companions, who had been left at the
foot of the mountain, had never seen a deer. When Felipe saw a deer
standing under a tree, he thought that the antlers of the deer were
the branches of a small tree without leaves: so he hung his hat and
bag of rice on them, but the deer immediately ran away. When the
old man came back, he asked if the rice was ready. Felipe told him
that he had hung his hat and the rice on a tree that ran away. The
old man was angry, and said, "That tre