8913
Reading edition
8913
There was a man named Dogidog who was very lazy and very poor. His house was small and had no floor, only the boards to put the floor on. He went to the forest to cut bamboo with which to make a floor, and he carried cooked rice with him. When he got there he hung the rice in a tree and went to cut the bamboo. While he was gone, a cat came and ate the rice, so when the man got hungry and came to eat, he had no rice, so he went home. The next day he went to cut again, and when he had hung the rice in the tree, the cat came to eat it. The third day he went again and hung the rice in the tree, but fixed it in a trap; then he hid in some brush and did not cut bamboo. The cat came to eat the rice and was caught. Then the man said, “I will kill you.” Page 200“No,” said the cat, “do not kill me.” “Alright, then I take you home to watch my house,” said the man. Then he took the cat home, and tied it near the door of his house and went away. When he came back, the cat had become a cock.
The crocodile said to Dogidog, “If any man wants to sink in the water, I can beat him.” The deer said, “If any man wants to run, I am very fast.” Then the earth said, “If any man wants to wrestle, I know very well how to do.” The monkey said, “If any man wants to climb, I can go higher.” Then they took the rooster to the place of the fighting, and Dogidog had him fight the other rooster. But the rooster had been a cat before, and he seized the other rooster in his claws, as a cat does, and killed it. Then the people brought many roosters and bet much money and the rooster of Dogidog, which was a cat before, killed them all, so there were no more roosters in Magsingal, and Dogidog won much money.
The people wanted some other sport, so they brought a man who could stay very long under water, and Dogidog had him try with the crocodile. After more than two hours, the man had to come up first. Then the people brought a man who runs very fast, and the deer raced with him, and the man could not beat the deer for he was very fast. Then they brought a very big man, but he could not throw the earth. Last, the people brought a man who climbs very well and the monkey climbed with him, and went much higher than the man.
Dogidog had very much money and he bought two horses to carry the sacks of silver to his house. When he got near to the town, he tied Page 201his horses and went to tell his mother to go and ask to buy the good house from the rich man. “How can you buy?” said the rich man, “when you have no money?” Then his mother went home and the man went to get two sacks of money to send to the rich man. When the rich man saw so much money, he said, “Yes,” for the money was in sacks and was not counted. Then Dogidog went to live in the good house and the rich man still had no house, so he had no where to go when the rain came.