
RELIGION 197 
Of course, turtle alone grew a crop; but, being unable to 
climb his tree, sent monkey up to secure the fruit. 
Instead, monkey devoured it and then went comfortably 
to sleep. Turtle revenged himself by frightening mon- 
key and causing him to fall to his death on sharp points 
which he had set around the tree; and then sold his 
flesh toothermonkeys. When, however, he subsequently 
taunted them as cannibals, they caught and prepared 
to execute him. He convinced them, by pointing to the 
marks on his shell, that cutting and burning could not 
hurt him; whereupon they tried to drown him. When 
he emerged from the water with a fish, they became en- 
-thusiastic at the unforeseen prospect and attempted to 
imitate him, but lost their own lives. 
Another tale relates the race of buffalo and shell. 
After buffalo has run a distance he calls to his competi- 
tor, whose place is taken by another shell that answers 
for him. The buffalo, thinking that he has not yet out- 
distanced his rival, runs again and again until he falls 
dead from exhaustion. 
Little stories of this type are told in very similar form 
among every people in the islands and many have 
been found in Borneo and elsewhere in the East Indies. 
Some are quite demonstrably of Hindu origin, and all 
are cast in a Hindu mould. Inasmuch as many of our 
own fables are also known to be of Indian origin or 
patterned on Hindu examples, it is not surprising that 
these tales from the Philippines have a strangely familiar 
ring in our ears. It is no wonder, since both we and the 
Filipinos have derived them from the same source. 
