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 tree, bury the remaining half in the other hole.  After that he might walk home safely, being sure not to run, for the Ongloc has always to obey the call of the cocoanut, and must hunt through the grove to find the one that called him.  Should he cross the line between the holes, the buried pieces would fly out of the holes, snap together on him, and, flying up the tree from which they came, would keep him prisoner for a hundred years.

Quicoy was happy to think that he could capture the Ongloc, and resolved to go that very night.  He wanted some of the boys to go with him, but they said he must go alone or the charm would be broken.  They also told him to be careful himself and not cross the line between the holes or he would be caught as easily as the Ongloc.

So Quicoy went home and kept very quiet all day.  His mother was sorry she had frightened him the night before, and was going to tell him not to be afraid; but when she thought of the lubi lana spilled on the ground, she resolved to punish him more by saying nothing to him.