When Juan met the false friend again, the false friend asked him what gift he had this time.  “It is only a stick that if I say, ’Boombye, boomba,’ will beat you to death,” said Juan, and with that the stick leaped from his hand and began to belabor the wicked man.  “Lintic na cahoy ito ay! [14] Stop it and I will give you everything I stole from you.”  Juan ordered the stick to stop, but made the man, bruised and sore, carry the net, the pot, and the spoons, and lead the goat to Juan’s home.  There the goat shook silver from his beard till Juan’s three brothers and his mother had all they could carry, and they dined from the pot and the magic spoons until they were full to their mouths.

“Now,” said Juan, “you have beaten me and called me a fool all my life, but you are not ashamed to take good things when I get them.  I will show you something else.  Boombye, boomba!” and the stick began to beat them all.  Quickly they agreed that Juan was head of the house, and he ordered the beating to stop.

Juan now became rich and respected, but he never trusted himself far from his stick day or night.  One night a hundred robbers came to break into the house, to take all his goods, and kill him, but he said to the stick, “Boombye, boomba!” and with the swiftness of lightning the stick flew around, and all those struck fell dead till there was not one left.  Juan was never troubled again by robbers, and in the end married a princess and lived happily ever after.

CHAPTER 7

The Aderna Bird.

There was once a king who greatly desired to obtain an aderna bird, which is possessed of magical powers, has a wonderful song, and talks like men.  This king had a beautiful daughter, and he promised her to any one who would bring him an aderna bird.  Now the quest for the aderna bird is very dangerous, because, if the heart is not pure, the man who touches the bird becomes stone, and the bird escapes.

There were in that country three brothers, Juan, Diego, and Pedro, and they all agreed to set out together to catch the aderna bird.  Afar in the mountains they saw him, and Diego, being the eldest, had first chance, and he caught the aderna bird, but being of impure life he became a stone, and the bird flew away over the mountains.

Juan and Pedro pursued it over the rocky way till at last they saw it again, and Pedro, being the next eldest, essayed to catch it.  He, too, being a bad man, was turned into stone and the aderna bird flew over another mountain, and Juan, undaunted, followed alone.

When at last he saw the aderna bird he made a trap with a mirror with a snare in front and soon caught the bird.  He made a cage for it and started on his homeward journey.  When he reached the stone which was his brother Pedro, he begged the bird to undo its work and make him a man again, and the bird did so.  Then the two went on to where Diego was, and again Juan entreated the bird to set the other brother free, and the bird did so.