Philippine Folklore Stories | Page 2

gone, but the mountain is bare and the smoke still rolls out of the mountain top. Villages have sprung up along the sides, but no tobacco is grown on the mountain. The people remember the tales of the former great crops and turn longing eyes to the heights above them, but they will have to wait. Harisaboqued is still smoking his tobacco.

The Pericos
Throughout the Visayan islands almost every family owns a pericos, kept as American children keep canary birds. The pericos is about the size and color of a Crow, but has a hard white hood that entirely covers its head. The people teach it but one phrase, which it repeats continually, parrot fashion. The words are, "Comusta pari? Pericos tao." (How are you, father? Parrot-man.) "Pari" means padre or priest. The people address the pericos as "pari" because its white head, devoid of feathers, seems to resemble the shaven crowns of the friars and native priests.
I
In his small wooden box That hangs on the wall Sits a queer-looking bird That in words sounds his call. From daybreak to twilight His cry he repeats, Resting only whenever He drinks or he eats. He never grows weary,-- Hear! There he goes now! "Comusta pari? Pericos tao."

II
And all the day long You can hear this strange cry: "How are you, father? A parrot-man I." He sits on his perch, In his little white cap, And pecks at your hand If the cage door you tap. Now give him some seeds, Hear him say with a bow, "Comusta pari? Pericos tao."

III
Poor little birdie! How hard it must be To sit there in prison And never be free! I'll give you a mango, And teach you to say "Thank you," and "Yes, sir," And also "Good day." You'll find English as easy As what you say now, "Comusta pari? Pericos tao."

IV
I'll teach you "Good morning" And "How do you do?" Or "I am well, thank you," And "How are you too?" "Polly is hungry" or "It's a fine day." These and much more I am sure you could say. But now I must go, So say with your bow, "Comusta pari? Pericos tao."

Quicoy and the Ongloc
This story is known generally in the southern Islands. The Ongloc is feared by the children just as some little boys and girls fear the Bogy Man. The tale is a favorite one among the children and they believe firmly in the fate of Quicoy.
Little Quicoy's name was Francisco, but every one called him Quicoy, which, in Visayan, is the pet name for Francisco. He was a good little boy and helped his mother grind the corn and pound the rice in the big wooden bowl, but one night he was very careless. While playing in the corner with the cat he upset the jar of lubi lana, and all the oil ran down between the bamboo strips in the floor and was lost. There was none left to put in the glass and light, so the whole family had to go to bed in the dark.
Quicoy's mother was angry. She whipped him with her chinela and then opened the window and cried:
"Ongloc of the mountains! Fly in through the door. Catch Quicoy and eat him, He is mine no more."
Quicoy was badly frightened when he heard this, for the Ongloc is a big black man with terrible long teeth, who all night goes searching for the bad boys and girls that he may change them into little cocoanuts and put them on a shelf in his rock house in the mountains to eat when he is hungry.
So when Quicoy went to his bed in the corner he pulled the matting over his head and was so afraid that he did not go to sleep for a long time.
The next morning he rose very early and went down to the spring where the boys get the water to put in the bamboo poles and carry home. Some boys were already there, and he told them what had taken place the night before. They were all sorry that his mother had called the Ongloc, but they told him not to be afraid for they would tell him how he could be forever safe from that terrible man.
It was very easy. All he had to do was to go at dusk to the cocoanut grove by the river and dig holes under two trees. Then he was to climb a tree, get the cocoanut that grew the highest, and, after taking off the husk and punching in one of the little eyes, whisper inside:
"Ongloc of the mountains! Ongloc! Ugly man! I'm a little cocoanut, Catch me if you can!"
Then he was to cut the cocoanut in halves, quickly bury one piece in one of the holes, and, running to the other