reen coat, as in Grimm. The mention of the hero's soldier-suit,
by the way, since nothing has been said earlier in the story of his
having followed the profession of arms, is likely a reminiscence of
the characteristic opening of the European versions, where it is a
poor soldier who has the experience with the Devil. (3) The person
ransomed by the hero in our story is an old woman instead of an old
man. (4) The two disappointed sisters do not kill themselves, and hence
the Devil does not reappear at the end of the story,--as he does in
Grimm,--and say, "I have now got two souls in the place of thy one!"

The broken-ring recognition on the return home is a feature which I
believe occurs in no other Filipino folk-tale, but is met with not
infrequently in European saga and story (cf. Koehler-Bolte, 117, 584;
see also Bolte-Polivka, 1 : 234; 2 : 348).

TALE 23

PEDRO AND SATAN.

Narrated by Pedro D. L. Sorreta, a Bicol from Catanduanes, who heard
the story when he was a little boy.

Once upon a time there lived a very rich man, whose wife had
never given birth to a child. The couple had already made several
pilgrimages, and had spent great sums of money for religious
services, in the hope that God might give them a child, even though
a sickly one, to inherit their money; but all their efforts were
in vain. Disappointed, the man resolved to rely upon Satan for the
performance of his wish.

One dark night, when he was thinking hard about the matter, he heard
a voice say, "Your wish will be quickly fulfilled if you but ask me
for it." The rich man was so filled with joy, that he turned towards
the voice and knelt before the invisible speaker: "I will give you
my life, and even my wife's, in return for a son who will be the heir
to my riches," said the man. Meanwhile he perceived in front of him a
figure which in an instant assumed the form of Satan. At first he was
frightened; but his fear was only momentary, and he was eager to hurry
up the agreement with Satan, so that he might receive the child. They
therefore made a golden document which provided that the first child
of the heir was to be given to the Devil at the age of ten, and that
the man and his wife were no longer God's subjects, but Satan's.

After the agreement had been made, the Devil promised the rich man
that his wife would give birth to the longed-for son early the next
morning. Then he disappeared. The child was born at the appointed
time, and