the bird. At once
the giant fell on his back, and stretched out his legs to rise no more.

Juan now went through the cave, opening all the prison doors,
and releasing the ladies. He carried the princess with him back to
the palace. As soon as he arrived, a great celebration was held,
and he was married to the princess. After the death of the king,
Juan became ruler. He later visited his parents, and told them of
all his adventures. Then he took them to his own kingdom, where they
lived happily together.

Notes.

A Tagalog variant of this story, entitled "Pedro and the Giants,"
and narrated by Jose Hilario from Batangas, runs thus in abstract:--

Two orphan sisters living with their brother Pedro are stolen by
two powerful giants. Pedro goes in search of his sisters, and finds
them. Contrary to the expectations of all, the two grim brothers-in-law
welcome Pedro, and offer to serve him. Pedro later wishes to marry a
princess, and the giants demand her of the king her father. He refuses
to give her up, although she falls in love with Pedro. To punish his
daughter, the king exposes her to the hot sun: but one of the giants
shades her with his eagle-like wings. Then the other giant threatens
the king; but the monarch says he is safe, for his life is contained
in two eggs in an iron box guarded by two clashing rocks. With great
personal risk the giant obtains the eggs; and, upon the king's still
refusing to give his daughter to Pedro, the giant dashes the eggs
to the ground, and the king falls dead. Pedro and the princess are
then married.

This analogue of our story is not very close in details, yet there
are enough general resemblances between the two to make it pretty
certain that they are distantly related.

Our story of "Juan and his Adventures" belongs to the "Animal
Brothers-in-Law" cycle, a formula for which Von Hahn (1 : 53)
enumerates the following incidents:--

A Three princes who have been transformed into animals marry the
sisters of the hero.

B The hero visits his three brothers-in-law.

C They help him perform tasks.

D They are disenchanted by him.

As Crane says (p. 60), this formula varies, of course. Sometimes there
are but two sisters (cf. our variant), and the brothers-in-law are
freed from their enchantment in some other way than by the hero. For
a bibliography of this group, see Crane, 342-343, note 23, to No. 13.

Perhaps the best version of this story is that found in Basile, 4