A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Two children accompany their mother while she darkens cloth in mud and prepares a leaf dye. When hot liquid burns her hand, they laugh, and their laughter changes them into monkeys. Her shell spoons become their tails, while the monkeys’ black nails are explained by the children’s earlier help with dyeing. No deity issues a spoken curse and no return to human form is narrated. The bodily explanation belongs to this origin tale rather than verified monkey biology.

Two laughing children transformed with shell-spoon tailsPublic traditional narrative
01

Origins & earliest records

Philippines; Bukidnon accounts as grouped by Cole

02

Records & interpretation

Complete relevant story, collection preface, regional introduction and attached notes directly read.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Philippine Folk Tales

    Mabel Cook Cole, compiler and annotator · 1916

    Bukidnon, How Children Became Monkeys, p. 130 and notes7–8

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Mabel Cook Cole, Philippine Folk Tales (Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1916)

Bukidnon section. Bukidnon, How Children Became Monkeys, p. 130 and notes7–8

Complete relevant account(s), notes and section introduction read. Source-specific actions and variant sequences preserved; modern anatomy, identity equations and transmission histories not inferred. Original paraphrase.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical collected narrative and editorial notesCole, Philippine Folk Tales (1916), Bukidnon, How Children Became Monkeys, p. 130 and notes7–8Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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