you will
forget me if you do." Promising to remember her words, Juan set out.

When his parents saw him, they were so glad that they embraced him and
almost bathed him with tears of joy. Juan forgot Maria. It happened
that on the day Juan reached home, Felipe, his brother, was married
to Maria, the subterranean lady, and a feast was being held in the
family circle. The moment Maria recognized Juan, whom she loved
most, she annulled her marriage with Felipe, and wanted to marry
Juan. Accordingly the village was called to settle the question,
and Maria and Juan were married that same day. The merrymaking and
dancing continued.

In the mean time there came, to the surprise of every one, a beautiful
princess riding in a golden carriage drawn by fine horses. She was
invited to the dance. While the people were enjoying themselves
dancing and singing, they were suddenly drawn together around this
princess to see what she was doing. She was sitting in the middle
of the hall. Before her she had a dog chained. Then she began to ask
the dog these questions:--

"Did you not serve a certain king for his daughter?"

"No!" answered the dog.

"Did he not give you grains of wheat to be planted in a hill, and
the morning following you were to give him newly baked bread made
from the wheat?"

"No!"

"Did he not mix together two jars of mongo and sand, then order
you to assort them so that the mongo was in one jar and the sand in
the other?"

"No!"

"Do you not remember when you and a princess went together to the
seashore to find the ring of her father, and when you cut her body
to pieces and poured the chopped mass into the water?"

When Juan, who was watching, heard this last question, he rushed from
the ring of people that surrounded her and knelt before her, saying, "O
my most precious wife! I implore your forgiveness!" Then the new-comer,
who was none other than Maria, Juan's true wife, embraced him, and
their former love was restored. So the feast went on. To the great
joy of Felipe, Maria, the subterranean lady, was given back to him;
and the two couples lived happily the rest of their lives.

Notes.

This story, which is a mixture of well-known motifs and incidents,
really falls into two parts, though an attempt is made at the end to
bind them together. The first part, ending with the treachery of the
brothers after the hero has made his underground journey and rescued
the two beautiful maidens from their gian