versions occurs the marriage of the poor hero
with the chief's daughter, brought about by the ingenious monkey. (4)
In three of the versions (all except the Pangasinan) we have as the
final episode the destruction of a powerful witch or demon, and the
winning of all its fortune by the monkey for the hero. In the Hindoo
variants we find that the motive of the jackal's gratitude agrees
with the motive in our versions. In other respects they differ (with
the exception of the marriage, which is found in nearly all members
of the "Puss in Boots" cycle): the Hindoo tales lack the incidents
of the borrowed measure and the destruction of the demon. So far as
the opening is concerned, then, our variants and the Indian belong
to the same family. The separation, however, must have taken place
ages ago; for in India the animal is consistently a jackal, and in the
Philippines a monkey. The only other form that I know of in which the
animal is a monkey is the Arabian, in the "1001 Nights," "Aboo Mohammed
the Lazy;" but here the helpful ape later turns out to be a malicious
demon, who treacherously abducts the hero's beautiful wife. At last,
through the aid of a friendly jinnee, the hero recovers her, captures
the ape, and encloses it forever in a bottle of brass. He then gains
possession of all the demon's enormous wealth. It is difficult to
see any immediate connection between the Arabian version and ours.

Our two Visayan forms are of particular interest in that they make
use of the "Tar Baby" device to catch the monkey. If Joseph Jacobs
is correct in tracing this incident to the Buddhist birth-story, the
"Pancavudha-jataka," No. 55 (see Indian Fairy Tales, pp. 305 ff.),
the Philippines may easily have derived it directly from India along
with other Buddhistic fables (e.g., "The Monkey and the Crocodile,"
No. 56, below). Indeed, Batten's ingenious explanation that the Brer
Rabbit of Negro lore is a reminiscence of an incarnation of Buddha
may be applied equally well to the monkey in our Visayan tales,
for the monkey is a much more common form for the Bodhisatta than
is the hare. In the five hundred and forty-seven Jatakas, Buddha
is born as a hare only once; whereas in eleven separate stories he
appears as a monkey,--oftener, indeed, than as any other animal (lion,
ten times; stag, nine; elephant, seven). This same explanation (viz.,
that "Puss in Boots" is the Bodhisatta) would account for the gazelle
(deer) in the Swahili tale.