“Where is the ring I gave you?” he asked.  “Why do you not wear it?”

The hen was frightened and ashamed to tell the truth so she answered: 

“Oh, sir, yesterday when I was walking in the garden, I met a large snake and he frightened me so that I ran as fast as I could to the house.  Then I missed the ring and I searched everywhere but could not find it.”

The hawk looked sharply at the hen, and he knew that she was deceiving him.  Then he said to her: 

“I did not believe that you could behave so badly.  When you have found the ring I will come down again and make you my wife.  But as a punishment for breaking your promise, you must always scratch the ground to look for the ring.  And every chicken of yours that I find, I shall snatch away.”

Then he flew away, and ever since all the hens throughout the world have been scratching to find the hawk’s ring.

The Spider and the Fly

Visayan

Mr. Spider wanted to marry Miss Fly.  Many times he told her of his love and begged her to become his wife, but she always refused for she did not like him.

One day when she saw Mr. Spider coming again Miss Fly closed all the doors and windows of her house and made ready a pot of boiling water.  Then she waited, and when Mr. Spider called, begging her to allow him to enter, she answered by throwing boiling water at him.  This made Mr. Spider very angry and he cried: 

“I will never forgive you for this, but I and my descendants will always despise you.  We will never give you any peace.”

Mr. Spider kept his word, and even today one can see the hatred of the spider for the fly.

The Battle of the Crabs

Visayan

One day the land crabs had a meeting and one of them said: 

“What shall we do with the waves?  They sing so loudly all the time that we cannot possibly sleep.”

“Well,” answered one of the oldest of the crabs, “I think we should make war on them.”

The others agreed to this, and it was decided that the next day all the male crabs should get ready to fight the waves.  They started for the sea, as agreed, when they met a shrimp.

“Where are you going, my friends?” asked the shrimp.

“We are going to fight the waves,” answered the crabs, “for they make so much noise at night that we cannot sleep.”

“I do not think you will succeed,” said the shrimp, “for the waves are very strong and your legs are so weak that even your bodies bend almost to the ground when you walk.”  Wherewith he laughed loudly.

This made the crabs very angry, and they pinched the shrimp until he promised to help them win the battle.

Then they all went to the shore.  But the crabs noticed that the eyes of the shrimp were set unlike their own, so they thought his must be wrong and they laughed at him and said: