and
hastened back to the palace to tell the king of her discovery. The
king immediately despatched his prime-minister to the hut in the
fields, and Don Fernando was brought back in state. When he had
been welcomed to the palace, he told all about his treatment by the
two cruel princes, who he said were his slaves. When the king was
convinced of their imposture,--they said they had got the lion's milk
by their own bravery,--he drove them and their heartless wives from
his kingdom. After many other adventures, in which he was always
successful, Don Fernando took his wife Maria to Spain, where they
lived with his father, King Octavio.

While it is not absolutely certain that our folk-tale of "Pedro and
the Witch" was derived from the first part of this romance, I think
it most likely. The problem here is the same as that we have met with
in the notes to Nos. 13, 16, and 21: Which are earlier,--the more
elaborate literary forms, or the simpler popular forms? Obviously no
general rule can be made that will hold: each particular case must be
examined. In the present instance, as I have shown at the beginning
of the note, the evidence seems to point to the folk-tale as being
the derivative, not necessarily of this particular form of the story,
but at any rate of the source of the romance.

The romance of "Prince Don Juan Tinoso, Son of King Artos and
Queen Blanca of the Kingdom of Valencia, and the Four Princesses,
the Daughters of Don Diego of Hungary," which we have spoken of
above as a Tagalog romance, has been printed also in the Pampangan,
Visayan, Ilocano, Bicol, and Pangasinan dialects. As to the date of
the Tagalog version, Retana mentions an edition between 1860 and 1898
(No. 4176). This romance is not directly connected with our folk-tale,
it will be seen, but is related closely (in the second half, at least)
with "Pugut-Negru." Briefly the life of Juan Tinoso runs thus:--

King Artos and Queen Blanca of Valencia had one son, Don Juan
Tinoso,--handsome, brave, strong, kind. One day, while passing the
prison, Don Juan heard sounds of great lamentation. On being admitted,
he saw the giant Mauleon, a captive of his father's. Moved by the
giant's entreaties, Juan freed him; and the monster, grateful in
return, gave him a magic handkerchief that would furnish him with
everything he wanted, and would, if displayed, subdue all wild
animals. Then the giant departed. King Artos, extremely wroth
with his son for freeing