er me to-day?" The crocodile, thinking that perhaps it was the
custom of the rock to return the greeting, answered for the rock;
whereupon the monkey knew of his presence, and escaped by a trick. The
"house-answering owner" episode is also found in a Zanzibar tale of
"The Hare and the Lion" (Bateman, No. 2, pp. 42-43). The hare here
suggests a Buddhistic source.

Of all the modern Oriental forms of the story, our Tagalog version and
Pampangan variant are closest to the Jatakas, and we may conclude
without hesitation that they mark a direct line of descent from
India. The fact that the story is popular in many parts of the Islands
makes it highly improbable that it was re-introduced to the Orient
through a Spanish translation of the "Kalilah and Dimnah."

For further bibliography and discussion of this cycle, see Daehnhardt,
4 : 1-26.

TALE 57

THE MONKEYS AND THE DRAGON-FLIES.

Narrated by Pedro D. L. Sorreta, a Bicol from Albay, who says that
the story is very common in the island of Catanduanes.

One day, when the sun was at the zenith and the air was very hot,
a poor dragon-fly, fatigued with her long journey, alighted to rest
on a branch of a tree in which a great many monkeys lived. While she
was fanning herself with her wings, a monkey approached her, and said,
"Aha! What are you doing here, wretched creature?"

"O sir! I wish you would permit me to rest on this branch while
the sun is so hot," said the dragon-fly softly. "I have been flying
all morning, and I am so hot and tired that I can go no farther,"
she added.

"Indeed!" exclaimed the monkey in a mocking tone. "We don't allow any
weak creature such as you are to stay under our shelter. Go away!" he
said angrily, and, taking a dry twig, he threw it at the poor creature.

The dragon-fly, being very quick, had flown away before the cruel
monkey could hit her. She hurried to her brother the king, and told
him what had happened. The king became very angry, and resolved to
make war on the monkeys. So he despatched three of his soldiers to
the king of the monkeys with this challenge:--

"The King of the Monkeys.

"Sir,--As one of your subjects has treated my sister cruelly, I
am resolved to kill you and your subjects with all speed.

"DRAGON."

The monkey-king laughed at the challenge. He said to the messengers,
"Let your king and his soldiers come to the battle-field, and they
will see how well my troops fight."

"Yo