Chapter 4 - Indian Literature in the Philippines

-277-
the fish incident. In Indian literature, the incident is
seen in Sakuntala, 74 where the lost ring was later ex-
tracted from the stomach of a fish by a fisherman. The
motif is seen in the Philippines. 75 While the first two
tales I(a) and I(b) do not show necessarily the "ring-in-
the-fish" element, the basic idea is present. In tale (a),
the ring was found in the turkey's intestines, and in tale
(b), it is discovered in the crop of the goose. In the
third tale (13-A), the ring is found in the fish, while in
the fourth tale (13-B), a precious stone is discovered in-
stead of a ring. In the folk-epic of the Maranaos76 the
signet which was lost by Sulayman was later found in the
belly of a fish by the king.
It may be noted that the incident is confined only in
Central and Southern Luzon, which reveals its restricted
usage as a folk-story element in the Islands. There is
likely a remote influence of the Indian element, but its
being confined to the drama in India makes it difficult to
conjecture its migration to the Islands. The idea, however,
appears to be an Indian exportation, for the fish swallow-
746akuntala, Act VI.
75Fa
Tansler, Tale I(a) "Suan's Good Luck" (Pampanga);
I(b) "Suan Eket" (Rizal); Tale 13-a "The Rich and the Poor"
(Rizal); 13-b "Lucas, the Rope-maker" (Laguna).
76 Indarapatra and Sulayman, Strophe 41. (Strophe Num-
bering is according to F. L. Minton's divisions).