e teaching of
the Veda is true, that Parjanya rains down everything; but also is
the proverb true that he does not rain down brothers." (Ed. Gorresio,
6 : 24, 7-8.) This parallel was pointed out by R. Pischel in "Hermes,"
28 (1893) : 465.

The Persian Maerchen alluded to above is cited by Th. Noeldeke in
"Hermes," 29 : 155.

In this story the wife, when she is given the opportunity to
choose which she will save of her three nearest relatives,--i.e.,
her husband, her son, and her brother, who have been selected to be
the food for the man-eating snake that grows from the devil-prince
Dahak's shoulder,--says, "I am still a young woman. I can get another
husband, and it may happen that I might have another child by him:
so that the fire of separation I can quench somewhat with the water
of hope, and for the poison of the death of a husband find a cure
in the antidote of the survival of a son; but it is not possible,
since my father and mother are dead, for me to get another brother;
therefore I bestow my love on him [i.e., she chooses the brother]." The
Dahak is moved to pity, and spares her the lives of all three.

The riddle form in which our story is cast is possibly an invention
of the narrator; but folk-tales ending thus are common (see notes to
No. 12). Again, our story fails to state whether or not all three men
were pardoned. The implication is that they were not. The localization
of the events seems to point either to a long existence of the story
in La Laguna province or to exceptional adaptive skill on the part
of the narrator.

TALE 32

WITH ONE CENTAVO JUAN MARRIES A PRINCESS.

Narrated by Gregorio Frondoso, a Bicol, who heard the story from
another Bicol student. The latter said that the story was traditional
among the Bicols, and that he had heard it from his grandfather.

In ancient times, in the age of foolishness and nonsense, there lived
a poor gambler. He was all alone in the world: he had no parents,
relatives, wife, or children. What little money he had he spent on
cards or cock-fighting. Every time he played, he lost. So he would
often pass whole days without eating. He would then go around the town
begging like a tramp. At last he determined to leave the village to
find his fortune.

One day, without a single cent in his pockets, he set out on his
journey. As he was lazily wandering along the road, he found a centavo,
and picked it up. When he came to the next village, he bought