e, "Juan Tinoso," is one of the
most widely-known stories in the Islands, and is told as a folk-tale in
many of the provinces where no printed translations of it exist. The
story of "Don Octavio"--or "Pugut Negro," as it is popularly known
among the Pampangans--runs as follows:--

In Spain there lived a king whose queen, in the ninth month of
pregnancy, longed greatly for some pau (a species of mango). As it
was the custom then to procure any kind of fruit a pregnant woman
might desire to eat, the whole kingdom was stirred up in search of
some pau, but in vain. At last a general and a company of soldiers
who had been sent out to scour the kingdom found a pau-tree in the
mountain of Silva; but the owner, a giant, Legaspe by name, would not
give up any of the fruit except to the king himself. When the king
was informed of this, he went to the giant, and was obliged to agree
that the giant should be the godfather of the expected child. Then
he was given the fruit.

Not long after this event the queen gave birth to a son. While the baby
was being carried to the church to be baptized, the giant appeared
and claimed his right. After the baptism, the giant snatched the boy
from the nurse's hands and carried him off to his cave. He found an
old woman to take care of the infant, which grew to be a fine youth.

Now, this giant fed on human flesh. One day, when the boy was about
fifteen, the giant gave this horrible command to the old woman: "If
I fail to catch any human beings for dinner to-day, you will have to
cook my godchild, for I am intolerably hungry." No sooner had the giant
disappeared than the old woman woke up the youth, and said to him,
"My master wants me to cook you for his dinner, but I cannot do such
a thing. I will save you. Yonder you see a horse. Fetch it to me,
so that we can depart at once." The boy got the horse, and he and
the old woman mounted it and rode off as fast as they could.

They had not gone very far, however, when they heard the giant roaring
after them. The old woman immediately dropped her comb to the ground,
and it became a big mountain. Thus they gained some time; but the giant
was soon after them again. The old woman dropped her pin, which became
a dense underbrush of thorns; but the giant got through this too. Now
the old woman poured out the contents of a small bottle, and all at
once there was a large sea, in which the giant was drowned. By this
time the two companions were a great di