eft them to boil. At noon Bajun came back from ploughing,
and found Jhore stirring the pot, and asked him whether the rice was
ready. Jhore made no answer: so Bajun took the spoon from him, saying,
"Let me feel how it is getting on!" but when he stirred with the spoon,
he heard a rattling noise; and when he looked into the pot, he found
no rice, but only three wooden measures floating about. Then he turned
and abused Jhore for his folly; but Jhore said, "You yourself told
me to put in three measures, and I have done so." So Bajun had to
set to work and cook the rice himself, and got his dinner very late.

This ludicrous mistake suggests a not dissimilar droll of the Tinguian
(Cole, 198, No. 86):--

A man went to the other town. When he got there, the people were
eating bamboo sprouts (labon). He asked them what they ate, and they
said pangaldanen (the bamboo ladder is called aldan). He went home and
had nothing to eat but rice: so he cut his ladder into small pieces,
and cooked all day, but the bamboo was still very hard. He could
not wait longer, so he called his friends, and asked why he could
not make it like the people had in the other town. Then his friends
laughed and told him his mistake.

For an almost identical Santal story, see Bompas, No. CXXIV, "The
Fool and his Dinner."

(8) The last two episodes--wearing of shoes only when crossing rivers
and raising umbrella under tree, and the division of the fowl--we have
discussed in the notes to No. 7 (see pp. 63-64, [9], [8]). Add to the
bibliography given there, Bompas, No. CXXVIII, "The Father-in-law's
Visit," which contains a close parallel to the first episode.

In conclusion I will give two other Filipino noodle stories,
which, while not variants of any of those given above, have the
same combination of stupidity and success as that found in "Juan the
Fool." The first is an Ilocano story narrated by Presentacion Bersamin
of Bangued, Abra, and runs thus:--

Juan Sadut.

Juan Sadut was a very lazy fellow. His mother was a poor old woman,
who earned their living by husking rice. What she earned each day
was hardly enough to last them until the next. When a boy, Juan was
left at home to watch over their hens and chickens. One day, as his
mother went to work, she told Juan to take care of the little chicks,
lest a hawk should get them. Now, Juan had been told this so many
times, that he had grown tired of watching chickens: consequently,
when his mothe