The Filipinos themselves recognize several classes of riddles. An old Tagal lady told us there were three kinds:

There is no science in this classification, which embodies considerable corrupted Spanish. Another informant recognizes six classes:

These names call for little comment and the classification they embody is of the loosest. The word parabula is Page 13Spanish in source and equivalent to our parable; biniyabas is Tagal.

Some features of our riddles call for comment. Filipino riddles, in whatever language, are likely to be in poetical form. The commonest type is in two well-balanced, rhyming lines. Filipino versification is less exacting in its demand in rhyme than our own; it is sufficient if the final syllables contain the same vowel; thus Rizal says—ayup and pagud, aval and alam, rhyme. The commonest riddle verse contains five or seven, or six, syllables, thus:

Daluang balon
hindi malingon

or

Bahay ni San Gabriel
punong puno nang barel.

Just as in European riddles certain set phrases or sentences are found frequently at the beginning or end of the riddle. In Ilocano and Pangasinan a common introductory form is “What creature of God” or “What thing made by Lord God,” the expression in reality being equivalent to a simple “what.” These pious forms do not at all necessarily refer either to animals or natural objects; thus, a boat or a house is just as good a “creature of God” as a fowl is. A common form of ending Page 14is “Tell it and I am yours,” “Guess it and I am your man.”