your salop.  My master wishes to measure his money.”  The king lent him the salop (a measure of about two quarts), and the monkey returned to Juan.  After a few hours he returned it with a large copper piece cunningly stuck to the bottom with paste.  The king saw it and called the monkey’s attention to it, but the monkey haughtily waved his hand, and told the king that a single coin was of no consequence to his master.

The next day he borrowed the salop again and the coin stuck in the bottom was half a peso, and the third day the coin was a peso, but these he assured the king were of no more consequence to his master than the copper.  Then the king told the monkey to bring his master to call, and the monkey promised that after a few days he would.

They went home, and as Juan’s clothes must be washed, Juan went to bed while the monkey washed and starched them, pulling, pressing, and smoothing them with his hands because he had no iron.

Then they went to call on the king, and the king told Juan that he should marry the princess as soon as he could show the king a large house, with a hundred head of cattle, carabao, horses, sheep, and goats.  Juan was very despondent at this, though he was too brave to let the king know his thoughts, he told his troubles to the monkey, who assured him that the matter was very easy.

The next day they took a drum and a shovel and went into the mountains, where there was a great enchanter who was a very wealthy man and also an asuang.  They dug a great hole and then Juan hid in the woods and began to beat his drum, and the monkey rushed up to the enchanter’s house and told him the soldiers were coming, and that he would hide him.  So the enchanter went with the monkey to the hole and the monkey pushed him in and began with hands and feet to cover him up.  Juan helped, and soon the enchanter was dead and buried.  Then they went to the house and at the first door they opened they liberated fifty people who were being fattened for the enchanter’s table.  These people were glad to help Juan convey all the money, cattle, and all the enchanter’s wealth to the town.  Juan built a house on the plaza, married the princess, and lived happily ever after, but his friend the monkey, having so well earned his liberty, he sent back to the woods, and their friendship still continued.

CHAPTER 9

Juan the Drunkard who Visited Heaven.

There was once a man named Juan, who was a drunkard.  One day when he was drunker than usual he decided to visit his dead friends in heaven.  He took no baggage except two long bamboo buckets full of tuba, which he carried one over each shoulder.  He walked and walked for at least a week, until he came to a place where they sold tuba.  There he filled his buckets, promising to pay on his return, and set out again.