One day, a little boy named Elonen sat in the yard making a bird snare. As he worked, a little bird called to him: "Tik-tik-lo-den" (come and catch me).
"I am making a snare for you," said the boy. The bird continued to call until the snare was finished.
Elonen ran, threw the snare over the bird, and caught it. He put it in a jar in his house and went with the other boys to swim.
While he was away, his hungry grandmother ate the bird. When Elonen returned and found his bird gone, he was so sad he wished to go away forever. He went into the forest, walked a long way, and came to a big stone.
"Stone, open your mouth and eat me," he said. The stone opened its mouth and swallowed the boy.
When his grandmother missed him, she searched everywhere. Finally, she passed near the stone, and it cried out: "Here he is."
The old woman tried to open the stone but could not. She called the horses to help. They came and kicked it, but it would not break. She called the carabao, and they hooked it, but only broke their horns. She called the chickens, which pecked it, and the thunder, which shook it, but nothing could open it. She had to go home without the boy.