en about
them. When every one was seated about the table, Alejo exclaimed,
"Tende la mesa!"... You cannot imagine what blows, what pinches,
what whips, Alejo received from his wife's hands when not even a
single grain of rice appeared on the table!

Alejo now felt greatly ashamed before his wife. He wondered why it
was that when before his friends' eyes the purse, the goat, and the
table displayed their magic properties, they failed to display them
before his wife. However, he did not give up hope. He immediately
set out to seek the old man again. After a long wandering through
the same woods and hills and along river-banks, he came to the place
where he usually met him.

"Did the table prove good?" said the old man.

"No, Guiloy; so I have come here again."

"Well, Alejo," said the old man, "I pity you, indeed. Take this cane
as my last gift. Be very careful in using it, for I have no other
object to give you. The secret of this cane is this: if somebody has
done you wrong, say to the cane, 'Baston, pamordon!' [85] and then
it will lash that person. There are no princes, kings, or emperors
that it will not punish."

Taking the cane and thanking the old man, Alejo hastily returned
home. This time, when he reached the village, he did not pass by his
friends' house, but went directly home. He told his wife to go call
in all their friends, relatives, and neighbors, for they were going
to have a sort of banquet. At first Barbara was unwilling to do so,
because she remembered how she had been deceived before; but at last
Alejo persuaded her to do as he wished.

When all their friends, relatives, and neighbors were gathered in his
house, Alejo shut all the doors and even the windows. Then he shouted
to his magic cane, "Baston, pamordon!" and it at once began to lash
all the people in the house, throwing them into great confusion. At
last Alejo's two friends, the deceitful couple, exclaimed almost in
one voice, "Compadre, please stop, and we will give you back your
magic purse, goat, and table." When Alejo heard them say this, he
was filled with joy, and commanded the cane to cease.

That very day the magic purse, goat, and table were returned to him by
his compadre and comadre, and now Barbara realized that her husband's
wanderings had been profitable. The husband and wife became rich,
and they lived many happy years together.

Notes.

A Tagalog story resembling the Bicol tale in some respects is "The
Adventure