have this beginning "of children whom their
father, either because of bitter necessity or because he is forced
by their step-mother, takes to the woods and there abandons." One of
the most widespread cycles in which it occurs is "Hop o' my Thumb,"
a version of which is told among the Tagalogs. I will give this
Tagalog version here in the notes, by way of compromise, as it were:
for while the story is a bona fide Tagalog tale, in that it is told
in the dialect, it must have been received directly from Europe; and
it appears to have retained the form in which it was received, with
but few modifications. No other Oriental form whatsoever of this story
has been recorded (see Bolte-Polivka, 1 : 124-126). The Tagalog story
was narrated by Pacita Cordero of Pagsanjan, Laguna, and runs thus:--

Pitong.

Melanio and Petrona had seven sons. The father was a woodman. They
were so poor, that sometimes the whole family went without dinner. One
day Melanio said to his wife, "Petrona, our children are growing,
and I don't see how we shall be able to support them all. At present
they cannot help us earn a living, because they are too small. Don't
you think we should get along better without them?"--"Yes," answered
Petrona, "if we could only get rid of them some way!"--"Well,
to-morrow I will take them to the forest to gather fuel," said the
husband. "While they are busy, I will leave them on the pretext of
looking for better kinds of wood, and will hurry home. They will not
be able to get home, for they won't know the way."

The wife agreed to this cruel plan. But the youngest son overheard
the conversation, and told his brothers about it. At last Pitong
(seventh), for that was the name of the youngest, and he was the
wisest of all, made this suggestion: "Before we go to the forest
to-morrow, I will pick up white stones. I will carry them with me,
and as we go along I will drop them one by one. I'll walk behind, so
that father will not notice what I am doing. Then, if he leaves us,
we can easily follow the track of stones back home." While the six
brothers consented to the plan, their minds were troubled, for they
doubted the ability of so small a boy to save them.

The next day the children marched straight into the forest with their
father as if they were going on a picnic. Pitong dropped his stones
one by one. When they reached the woods, their father commanded them to
get together what sticks they could find. He left them the