Notes.
There is a striking analogy between the opening of our story and that of a Servian tale (Wuk, No. 5), where a Kaiser has three daughters whom he rears in close confinement, but whom he permits one day, after they have become of marriageable age, to dance the kolo. While they are dancing, a storm blows up, and carries them all away. The rest of the story is a variant of our No. 18, with which our present story, too, has some points of contact.
For the magic articles secured by the hero from certain persons quarrelling over them, and for the “Fee-fi-fo-fum” formula, see [notes to No. 18].
The hero’s drinking a pail of magic water, and becoming so strong that when he sits in an iron chair it breaks down under him, recalls the similar feat of Strong Hans (Grimm, No. 166).
The three monsters of increasingly greater formidability—Seven-Heads, Ten-Heads, Twelve-Heads—which are slain by the hero, who uses their own Weapons on them, recall the underworld monsters killed by the hero in the “Bear’s Son” cycle (cf. our notes to [No. 17]).
Although the events of our story are located in the Philippines, the Casiguran mentioned probably being the town in Tayabas on the west toast of Luzon, the tale as a whole appears to have been imported. The Sinucuan referred to is probably the famous legendary King of Pampanga, of whom the Pampangans have a rich oral literature. He is said to have lived on Mount Arayat. He figures in our [No. 79 (b)].