replied Juan; "and to show you what kind of animals we are, here is
one of my teeth," and Juan threw down the rusted axe. "Look at one
of my hairs!" continued Juan, as he threw down the rope.
The outlaws were so frightened that they were almost ready to run
away. The chief could not say a single word.
"Now listen, you ants, to my whistle!" said Juan, and he blew
the horn. "And to show you how big our stomachs are, hear us beat
them!" and he beat the drum. The outlaws were so frightened that they
ran away. Some of them even jumped out of the windows.
When the robbers were all gone, Juan and Justo went down to divide
the money; but the lame man tried to cheat the blind man, and they
had a quarrel over the division. Justo struck Juan in the eyes with
the palm of his hand, and the blind man's eyes were opened so that he
could see. Juan kicked Justo so hard, that the lame man rolled toward
one corner of the house and struck a post. His lameness was cured,
so that he could stand and walk.
When they saw that each had done the other a great service, they
divided the money fairly, and lived ever after together as close
friends.
Teofilo the Hunchback, and the Giant.
Narrated by Loreta Benavides, a Bicol student, who heard the story
from her aunt.
Once there lived a hunchback whose name was Teofilo. He was an
orphan, and used to get his food by wandering through the woods. He
had no fixed home. Sometimes he even slept under large trees in the
forest. His one blind eye, as well as his crooked body, would make
almost any one pity his miserable condition.
One day, while he was wandering through the woods looking for something
to eat, he found a piece of large rope. He was very glad; for he
could sell the rope, and in that way get money to buy food. Walking
a little farther, he found a gun leaning against a fence. This gun,
he supposed, had been left there by a hunter. He was glad to have
it, too, for protection. Finally, while crossing a swampy place,
he saw a duck drinking in the brook. He ran after the duck, and at
last succeeded in catching it. Now he was sure of a good meal.
But it had taken him a long time to capture the duck. Night soon came
on, and he had to look for a resting-place. Fortunately he came to a
field, and his eye caught a glimpse of light on the other side. He went
towards the light, and found it to come from a house, all the windows
of which were open. He knocked at the door, but nobody answered;
so he just pushed it open and entered. He then began to feel very
comfortable. He prepared his bed, and then went to sleep. He did not
know that he was in a giant's house.
At midnight Teofilo was awakened by a loud voice. He made a hole in
the wall and looked out. There in the dark he saw a very tall man,
taller even than the house itself. It was the giant. The giant said,
"I smell some one here." He tried to open the door, but Teofilo had
locked it.
"If you are really a strong man and braver than I," said the giant,
"let me see your hair!"
Teofilo then threw out the piece of rope. The giant was surprised at
its size. He then asked to see Teofilo's louse, and Teofilo threw
out the duck. The giant was terrified, for he had never seen such
a large louse before. Finally the giant said, "Well, you seem to be
larger than I. Let me hear your voice!"
Teofilo fired his gun. When the giant heard the gun and saw it
spitting fire, he trembled, for he thought that the man's saliva
was burning coals. Afraid to challenge his strange guest any more,
the giant ran away and disappeared forever.
And so Teofilo the hunchback lived happily all the rest of his days
in the giant's house without being troubled by any one.
Juan and the Buringcantada.
Narrated by Pacifico Buenconsejo, a Bicol, who heard the story from
his grandmother.
A long time ago, when the Bicols had not yet been welded into one
tribe, there lived a couple in the mountains of Albay who had one son,
named Juan. Before the boy was five years old, his father died. As
Juan grew up, he became very lazy: he did not like to work, nor would
he help his mother earn their daily bread. Despite his laziness,
Juan was dearly loved by his mother. She did not want him to work
in the field under the hot sun. Because of his mother's indulgence,
he grew lazier and lazier.
Every afternoon Juan used to take a walk while his mother was
working. She was a kind-hearted woman, and often told her son to help
anybody he met that needed help. One afternoon, while he was walking
in a field, he saw two carabaos fighting. One was gored by the other,
and was about to die. Juan, mindful of what his mother told him,
went between the two animals to help the wounded one. Suddenly the
two animals gored him in the back, and he fell to the ground. A man,
passing by, found him, and took him to his home. When Juan's mother
learned why her son had been gored, she was greatly distressed that
her son was so foolish.
Juan soon recovered, and one day he invited his mother to go with
him to look for money. He insisted so hard, that finally she agreed
to accompany him. On their way they found an axe, which Juan picked
up and took along with him. They had not gone much farther, when
they saw a long rope stretching across the road. Juan's mother did
not want him to take it, but he said that it would be of some use to
them later. By and by they came to a river, on the bank of which they
found a large drum. Juan took this with him, too.
When they had been travelling about a week, they came upon a big
house. Juan said that he wanted to go see what was in the house, but
his mother told him that he should not go. However, he kept urging and
urging, until at last his mother consented, and went with him. When
they reached the hall, they found it well decorated with flowers and
leaves. They visited all the apartments of the house; and when they
came to the dining-room, they saw a large hole in the ceiling. Juan
told his mother that they had better hide in the ceiling until they
found out who the owner of the house was. The mother thought that
the plan was a wise one; so they went to the ceiling, taking with
them the axe, the rope, and the drum.
They had not been hiding many minutes, when the Buringcantada, a
giant with one eye in the middle of his forehead and with two long
tusks that projected from the sides of his mouth, came in with his
friends and servants. When the dinner was ready, the servant called
his master and his guests into the dining-room. While they were eating,
Juan said in a loud voice,--
"Tawi cami
Sa quisami
Qui masiram
Na ulaman." [27]
The Buringcantada was very angry to hear the voice of a man in the
ceiling, and he said in a thundering voice, "If you are a big man
like me, let me see one of your hairs!"
Juan showed the rope from the hole in the ceiling.
Astonished at the size of the hair, the Buringcantada said again,
"Let me see one of your teeth!" Juan showed the axe.
By this time Juan's mother was almost dead with fear, and she told
her son not to move.
After a few minutes the Buringcantada said again, "Beat your stomach,
and let me hear the sound of it!" When Juan beat the drum, the
Buringcantada and all the guests and servants ran away in fright,
for they had never heard such a sound before.
Then Juan and his mother came down from the ceiling. In this house
they lived like a rich family, for they found much money in one of
the rooms. As for the Buringcantada, he never came back to his house
after he left it.
The Manglalabas.
Narrated by Arsenio Bonifacio, a Tagalog, who heard the story from
his father.
Once upon a time, in the small town of Balubad, there was a big
house. It was inhabited by a rich family. When the head of the family
died, the house was gloomy and dark. The family wore black clothes,
and was sad.
Three days after the death of the father, the family began to be
troubled at night by a manglalabas. [28] He threw stones at the house,
broke the water-jars, and moved the beds. Some pillows were even
found in the kitchen the next day. The second night, Manglalabas
visited the house again. He pinched the widow; but when she woke
up, she could not see anything. Manglalabas also emptied all the
water-jars. Accordingly the family decided to abandon the house.
A band of brave men in that town assembled, and went to the house. At
midnight the spirit came again, but the brave men said they were ready
to fight it. Manglalabas made a great deal of noise in the house. He
poured out all the water, kicked the doors, and asked the men who they
were. They answered, "We are fellows who are going to kill you." But
when the spirit approached them, and they saw that it was a ghost,
they fled away. From that time on, nobody was willing to pass a night
in that house.
In a certain barrio [29] of Balubad there lived two queer men. One
was called Bulag, because he was blind; and the other, Cuba, because
he was hunchbacked. One day these two arranged to go to Balubad to
beg. Before they set out, they agreed that the blind man should carry
the hunchback on his shoulder to the town. So they set out. After they
had crossed the Balubad River, Cuba said, "Stop a minute, Bulag! here
is a hatchet." Cuba got down and picked it up. Then they proceeded
again. A second time Cuba got off the blind man's shoulder, for he
saw an old gun by the roadside. He picked this up also, and took it
along with him.
When they reached the town, they begged at many of the houses, and
finally they came to the large abandoned house. They did not know
that this place was haunted by a spirit. Cuba said, "Maybe no one is
living in this house;" and Bulag replied, "I think we had better stay
here for the night."
As they were afraid that somebody might come, they went up into the
ceiling. At midnight they were awakened by Manglalabas making a great
noise and shouting, "I believe that there are some new persons in my
house!" Cuba, frightened, fired the gun. The ghost thought that the
noise of the gun was some one crying. So he said, "If you are truly
a big man, give me some proofs."
Then Cuba took the handle out of the hatchet and threw the head down
at the ghost. Manglalabas thought that this was one of the teeth of
his visitor, and, convinced that the intruder was a powerful person,
he said, "I have a buried treasure near the barn. I wish you to
dig it up. The reason I come here every night is on account of this
treasure. If you will only dig it up, I will not come here any more."
The next night Bulag and Cuba dug in the ground near the barn. There
they found many gold and silver pieces. When they were dividing the
riches, Cuba kept three-fourths of the treasure for himself. Bulag
said, "Let me see if you have divided fairly," and, placing his hands
on the two piles, he found that Cuba's was much larger.
Angry at the discovery, Cuba struck Bulag in the eyes, and they
were opened. When Bulag could see, he kicked Cuba in the back, and
straightway his deformity disappeared. Therefore they became friends
again, divided the money equally, and owned the big house between them.
Notes.
A Pampango version, "The Cripple and the Blind Man" (I have it only
in abstract), is almost identical with the second part of "The Four
Blind Brothers." A blind man and a cripple travel together, blind
man carrying, cripple guiding. Rope, drum, hatchet, etc. But these
two companions do not quarrel over the distribution of the wealth:
they live peacefully together.
I have printed in full five of the versions, because, while they
are members of a very widespread family of tales in which a poor but
valiant hero deceives and outwits a giant, ogre, ghost, or band of
robbers, they form a more restricted brotherhood of that large family,
and the deception is of a very definite special sort. The hero and the
outwitted do not meet face to face, nor is there a contest of prowess
between them. Merely by displaying as tokens of his size and strength
certain seemingly useless articles which he has picked up and carried
along with him on his travels, the hero frightens forever from their
rich home a band of robbers or a giant or a ghost, and remains in
possession of the treasures of the deceived one.
Trolls, ogres, giants, robbers, dragons, are proverbially stupid,
and a clever hero with more wits than brawn has no difficulty in
thoroughly frightening them. Grimm's story of "The Brave Little Tailor"
(No. 20), with its incidents of "cheese-squeezing," "bird-throwing,"
"pretended carrying of the oak-tree," "springing over the cherry-tree,"
and "escape from the bed," and opening with the "seven-at-a-blow"
episode, is typical of one large group of tales about a giant
outwitted. (For an enumeration of the analogues, see Bolte-Polívka,
1 : 148-165; for a fuller discussion of some of them, see Cosquin,
1 : 96-102.) In another group the hero takes service with the giant,
dragon, etc., keeps up the deception of being superhumanly strong,
but gets the monster to do all the work, and finally wins his way to
wealth and release (see Grimm, No. 183; Von Hahn, No. 18 and notes;
Crane, 345, note 34; Dasent, Nos. v and xxxii). Then there is the
group of stories in which the cannibal witch is popped into her own
oven, which she had been heating for her victim (cf. Grimm, No. 15;
and Bolte-Polívka, 1 : 123).
Our particular group of stories, however, seems to owe little or
nothing to the types just mentioned. It appears to belong peculiarly
to the Orient. In fact, I do not know of its occurrence outside of
India and the Philippines. That the tale is well known in the Islands
at least as far north as central Luzon, our five variants attest;
and that it is fairly widespread in India,--I refer particularly to
the method of the deception, for on this the whole story turns,--three
Hindoo versions may be cited as evidence.
(1) "The Blind Man, the Deaf Man, and the Donkey" (Frere, No. 18)
presents many close correspondences to "Juan the Blind Man." In the
Indian tale a blind man and a deaf man enter into partnership. One day,
while on a long walk with his friend, the deaf man sees a donkey with
a large water-jar on its back. Thinking the animal will be useful
to them, they take it and the jar with them. Farther along they
collect some large black ants in a snuff-box. Overtaken by storm,
they seek shelter in a large, apparently deserted house, and lock
the door; but the owner, a terrible Rakshas, returns, and loudly
demands entrance. The deaf man, looking through a chink in the wall,
is greatly frightened by the appearance of the monster; but the blind
man boldly says that he is Bakshas, Rakshas's father. Incredulous,
the Rakshas wishes to see his father's face. Donkey's head shown. On
his desiring to see his father's body, the huge jar is rolled
with a thundering noise past the chink in the door. Rakshas asks
to hear Bakshas scream. Deaf man puts ants into the donkey's ear:
the animal, bit by the insects, brays horribly, and the Rakshas flees
in fright... (Rakshas returns the next morning, and seeing the blind
man, deaf man, and donkey, laden with treasures, leaving his house,
he determines to be avenged; but by a lucky series of accidents
the travellers succeed in discomfiting and thoroughly terrifying
the Rakshas and his six companions summoned to help him, and travel
on). In the division of the spoils, the deaf man attempts to cheat
the blind man, who in a rage gives him so tremendous a box on the
ear, that his hearing is restored! In return, the deaf man gives his
neighbor so hard a blow in the face, that the blind man's eyes are
opened. They are both so astonished, that they become good friends
at once, and divide the wealth equally.
(2) "The Brahmin Girl that married a Tiger" (Kingscote, No. x). In
this story, three brothers, on their way to rescue their sister who
had been married to a tiger, take along with them an ass, an ant,
a palmyra-tree, and a big iron washing-tub. The sister hides her
brothers and their possessions in a loft. The tiger comes home,
and frightens the brothers into making a noise and thus betraying
their presence. He asks to hear their voice. Youngest brother puts
his ant into the ear of the ass, which, when bit, begins to bawl out
horribly. Asking to see their legs, tiger is shown the trunk of the
palmyra-tree, and, on asking to see their bellies, is shown the iron
tub. Frightened, he runs away, and the sister is rescued.
(3) "Learning and Motherwit" (McCulloch, No. xxvi). Here Motherwit,
as in the other stories, deceives a Raghoshi by means of a thick rope
(shown for hair), spades (shown for finger-nails), and wet lime
(shown for spittle). At last with sharp-pointed hot iron rods,
Ulysses fashion, he puts out the monster's eyes.
In another Bengal story, "The Ghost who was afraid of being Bagged"
(Lal Behari Day, No. xx), a barber frightens a ghost with a
looking-glass and becomes rich.
An interesting parallel to the incident of the death of the blind
brothers by climbing up too high on palm-trees the tops of which have
been broken off, is to be found in the Arabian story of "The Blind
Thief" (JRASB 3 : 645-660, No. iii). A thief who used to steal dates
from off the trees became blind, but he still went on thieving. The
people planned to get rid of him. In the presence of the blind man,
some one praised the dates of So-and-so. (Now, this tree was withered,
and no longer had any leaves.) The covetous thief, with his rope,
started to climb the tree that night; but his rope slipped off over
the naked top of the palm, and he fell to the ground and was killed.
The situation of a blind man and a lame man joining forces and
travelling together, the blind man carrying the lame man, who directs
the way, is found in the Gesta Romanorum, tale LXXI.
Certain of the false proofs in the Filipino stories have no parallel
in the Indian tales; viz., duck for louse, gun or horn for voice,
tail of sting-ray (pagui) for hair. The suggestion for this last
comparison may have come from the belief among the Filipinos that the
tail of the sting-ray is a very efficacious charm against demons and
witches. It is a "specific" against the mangkukulam. [30] On the other
hand, there are certain details of the Indian versions lacking in the
Filipino,--the donkey, the palmyra-tree, the wash-tub. Nevertheless
the close agreement, not only of motifs, but of motifs in the same
sequence, makes it certain beyond all reasonable doubt that the story
as we find it in the Islands (most fully represented by the Bicol
"Juan the Blind Man") goes back directly to southern India, possibly
to the parent story of Miss Frere's old Deccan narrative.
TALE 7
SAGACIOUS MARCELA.
Narrated by Lorenzo Licup, a Pampangan.
Long, long before the Spaniards came, there lived a man who had a
beautiful, virtuous, and, above all, clever daughter. He was a servant
of the king. Marcela, the daughter, loved her father devotedly, and
always helped him with his work. From childhood she had manifested a
keen wit and undaunted spirit. She would even refuse to obey unjust
orders from the king. No question was too hard for her to answer,
and the king was constantly being surprised at her sagacity.
One day the king conceived a plan by which he might test the ingenious
Marcela. He bade his servants procure a tiny bird and carry it to her
house. "Tell her," said the king, "to make twelve dishes out of that
one bird."
The servants found Marcela sewing. They told her of the order of the
king. After thinking for five minutes, she took one of her pins, and
said to the servants, "If the king can make twelve spoons out of this
pin, I can also make twelve dishes out of that bird." On receiving
the answer, the king realized that the wise Marcela had gotten the
better of him; and he began to think of another plan to puzzle her.
Again he bade his servants carry a sheep to Marcela's house. "Tell
her," he said, "to sell the sheep for six reales, and with the money
this very same sheep must come back to me alive."
At first Marcela could not make out what the king meant for her to
do. Then she thought of selling the wool only, and not the whole
sheep. So she cut off the wool and sold it for six reales, and sent
the money with the live sheep back to the king. Thus she was again
relieved from a difficulty.
The king by this time realized that he could not beat Marcela in
points of subtlety. However, to amuse himself, he finally thought of
one more scheme to test her sagacity. It took him two weeks to think
it out. Summoning a messenger, he said to him, "Go to Marcela, and
tell her that I am not well, and that my physician has advised me to
drink a cup of bull's milk. Therefore she must get me this medicine,
or her father will lose his place in the palace." The king also issued
an order that no one was to bathe or to wash anything in the river,
for he was going to take a bath the next morning.
As soon as Marcela had received the command of the king and had
heard of his second order, she said, "How easy it will be for me to
answer this silly order of the king!" That night she and her father
killed a pig, and smeared its blood over the sleeping-mat, blanket,
and pillows. When morning came, Marcela took the stained bed-clothing
to the source of the river, where the king was bathing. As soon as
the king caught sight of her, he said in a voice of thunder, "Why do
you wash your stuff in the river when you know I ordered that nobody
should use the river to-day but me?"
Marcela replied, "It is the custom, my lord, in our country, to wash
the mat, pillows, and other things stained with blood, immediately
after a person has given birth to a child. As my father gave birth to
a child last night, custom forces me to disobey your order, although
I do it much against my will."
"Nonsense!" said the king. "The idea of a man giving birth to a
child! Absurd! Ridiculous!"
"My lord," said Marcela, "it would be just as absurd to think of
getting milk from a bull."
Then the king, recollecting his order, said, "Marcela, as you are so
witty, clever, and virtuous, I will give you my son for your husband."
King Tasio.
Narrated by Leopoldo Faustino, a Tagalog, who says that the story is
popular and common among the people of La Laguna province.
Juan was a servant in the palace of King Tasio. One day King Tasio
heard Juan discussing with the other servants in the kitchen the
management of the kingdom. Juan said that he knew more than anybody
else in the palace. The king called Juan, and told him to go down to
the seashore and catch the rolling waves.
"You said that you are the wisest man in the palace," said the
king. "Go and catch the waves of the sea for me."
"That's very easy, O king!" said Juan, "if you will only provide me
with a rope made of sand taken from the seashore."
The king did not know what to answer. He left Juan without saying
anything, went into his room, and began to think of some more
difficult work.
The next day he called Juan. "Juan, take this small bird and make
fifty kinds of food out of it," said the king.
"Yes, sir!" said Juan, "if you will only provide me with a stove,
a pan, and a knife made out of this needle," handing a needle to the
king, "with which to cook the bird." Again the king did not know what
to do. He was very angry at Juan.
"Juan, get out of my palace! Don't you let me see you walking on my
ground around this palace without my consent!" said the king.
"Very well, sir!" said Juan, and he left the palace immediately.
The next day King Tasio saw Juan in front of the palace, riding on
his paragos [31] drawn by a carabao.
"Did I not tell you not to stand or walk on my ground around this
palace? Why are you here now? Do you mean to mock me?" shouted
the king.
"Well," said Juan, "will your Majesty's eyes please see whether I am
standing on your ground or not? This is my ground." And he pointed
to the earth he had on his paragos. "I took this from my orchard."
"That's enough, Juan," said King Tasio. "I can have no more
foolishness." The king felt very uncomfortable, because many of his
courtiers and servants were standing there listening to his talk
with Juan.
"Juan, put this squash into this jar. Be careful! See that you do
not break either the squash or the jar," said the king, as he handed
a squash and a jar to Juan. Now, the neck of the jar was small, and
the squash was as big as the jar. So Juan had indeed a difficult task.
Juan went home. He put a very small squash, which he had growing
in his garden, inside the jar. He did not, however, cut it from the
vine. After a few weeks the squash had grown big enough to fill the
jar. Juan then picked off the squash enclosed in the jar, and went
to the king. He presented the jar to the king when all the servants,
courtiers, and visitors from other towns were present. As soon as
the king saw the jar with the squash in it, he fainted. It was many
hours before he recovered.
Notes.
A third version (c), a Bicol story entitled "Marcela outwits the
King," narrated by Gregorio Frondoso of Camarines, resembles closely
the Pampango story of Marcela, with these minor differences:--
The heroine is the daughter of the king's adviser Bernardo. To test
the girl's wit, the king sends her a mosquito he has killed, and tells
her to cook it in such a way that it will serve twelve persons. She
sends back a pin to him, with word that if he can make twelve forks
from the pin, the mosquito will serve twelve persons. The second and
third tasks are identical with those in the Pampango version. At last,
satisfied with her sagacity, the king makes her his chief counsellor.
In addition to the three popular tales of the "Clever Lass" cycle,
two chap-book versions of the story, containing incidents lacking in
the folk-tales, may be mentioned here:--
A Buhay nang isang pastorang tubo sa villa na naguing asaua nang hari
sa isang calabasa. ("Life of a Shepherdess who was born in a town,
and who became the Wife of a King because of a Pumpkin.") Manila,
1908. This story is in verse, and comprises sixty-six quatrains of
12-syllable assonanced lines. It is known only in Tagalog, I believe.
B Buhay na pinagdaanan ni Rodolfo na anac ni Felizardo at ni Prisca sa
cahariang Valencia. ("Life of Rodolfo, Son of Felizardo and Prisca,
in the Kingdom of Valencia.") Maynila, 1910. Like the preceding,
this corrido is known only in Tagalog, and is written in 12-syllable
assonanced lines.
Of these two printed versions, I give below a literal translation
of the first (A), not only because it is short (264 lines),
but also because it will be seen to be closely connected with the
folk-tales. For help in making this translation I am under obligation
to Mr. Salvador Unson, which I gratefully acknowledge. The second story
(B) I give only in partial summary. It is much too long to be printed
in full, and, besides, contains many incidents that have nothing to do
with our cycle. It will be noticed that "Rodolfo" (B) resembles rather
the European forms of the story; while A and the three folk-tales
are more Oriental, despite the conventional historical setting of A.
TALE A
"Cay Calabasa: The Life of a Shepherdess born in a town, who became
the Wife of a King because of a Pumpkin."
1. Ye holy angels in the heavens, help my tongue to express and to
relate the story I will tell.
2. In early times, when Adoveneis, King of Borgoña, was still alive,
he went out into the plains to hunt for deer, and accidentally became
separated from his companions.
3. In his wandering about, he saw a hut, which had a garden surrounding
it. A beautiful young maiden took care of the garden, in which were
growing melons and pumpkins.
4. The king spoke to the maiden, and asked, "What plants are you
growing here?" The girl replied, "I am raising pumpkins and melons."
5. Now, the king happened to be thirsty, and asked her for but
a drink. "We were hunting in the heat of the day, and I felt this
thirst come on me."
6. The maiden replied, "O illustrious king! we have water in a mean
jar, but it is surely not fitting that your Majesty should drink from
a jar!
7. "If we had a jar of pure gold, in which we could put water from a
blest fountain, then it would be proper for your Majesty. It is not
right or worthy that you should drink from a base jar."
8. The king replied to the girl, "Never mind the jar, provided the
water is cool." The maiden went into the house, and presently the
king drank his fill.
9. After he had drunk, he handed her back the jar; but when the maiden
had received it (in her hands), she suddenly struck it against the
staircase. The jar was shattered to bits.
10. The king saw the act and wondered at it, and in his heart he
thought that the maiden had no manners. For the impudence of her
action, he decided to punish her.
11. (He said) "You see in me, the traveller, a noble king, and (you
know) that I hold the crown. Why did you shatter that jar of yours,
received from my hands?"
12. The maiden replied, "The reason I broke the jar, long kept for
many years by my mother, O king! is that I should not like to have
it used by another."
13. After hearing that, the king made no reply, but returned (back)
towards the city, believing in his heart that the woman to whom he
had spoken was virtuous.
14. After some time the king one day ordered a soldier to carry
to the maiden a new narrow-necked jar, into which she was to put a
pumpkin entire.
15. He also ordered the soldier to tell the girl that she should not
break the jar, but that the jar and pumpkin should remain entire.
16. Inasmuch as the maiden was clever, her perception good, and her
understanding bold, she answered with another problem: she sent him
back a jar that already had a pumpkin in it.
17. She delivered it to the soldier, and the upshot of her reply was
this: "The pumpkin and the jar are whole. The king must remove the
pumpkin without breaking the jar."
18. The soldier shouldered it and went back to the king, and told him
that her answer was that he should take the pumpkin out of the jar,
and leave both whole.
19. When the king saw the jar, he said nothing; but he thought in
his heart that he would send her another puzzle.
20. Again by the soldier he sent her a bottle, and requested that it
be filled with the milk of a bull. (He further added,) that, if the
order was not complied with, she should be punished.
21. The girl's answer to the king was this: "Last night my father gave
birth to a child; and even though you order it, it is impossible for
me to get (you?) any bull's milk (to-day?)."
22. Who would not wonder, when he comes to hear of it, at the language
back and forth between the king and the girl! For what man can give
birth to a child, and what bull can give milk?
23. At a great festival which the king gave, attended by knights and
counts, he sent a pipit [32] to the girl, and ordered her to cook
seven dishes of it.
24. The maiden (in reply) sent the king a needle, and asked him to
make a steel frying-pan, knife, and spit out of it, which she might
use in cooking the pipit.
25. The king again sent to her with this word: "If you are really
very intelligent and if you are truly wise, you will catch the waves
and bind them."
26. The soldier returned at once to the maiden, and told her that
the orders of the king were that she should catch and bind the waves.
27. The maiden sent back word by the soldier that it is not proper
to disobey a king. "Tell the king to make me a rope out of the loam
I am sending."
28. Again the soldier returned to the palace, and, taking the black
earth to the king, he said, "Make her a rope out of this loam, with
which she will catch and bind the waves."
29. After the soldier had delivered his message, the king was almost
shaking with rage. "Who under heaven can make a rope out of loam?"
30. Now he ordered the soldier to fetch the maiden. "And for her
impudence," he said, "I will punish her."
31. He ordered the soldier to make haste and to return at once. The
maiden did not resist her punishment, and was placed in a well.
32. Now, this well into which she was cast lay in front of the window
of the king, so that whenever he should look out of the window he
might see her.
33. One morning, as he looked out and saw her there below him, she
asked him to give her fire.
34. The king said to her, "I am a world-famed king, and it is not
my desire to descend just because of your request. Go ask fire from
the mountain."
35. The girl made no answer to his jesting reply. Some time later
the king held some games, and ordered that the maiden be taken out
of the well.
36. The king told her that she was pardoned for all her offences. "But
as long as I have visitors (?)," he said, "you are to be my cook."
37. Then this order was given to the girl: "You are to cook the
food. Everything must be well prepared. All the food must be palatable
and tasty."
38. The maiden, however, deliberately left all the food unsalted;
but she fastened to the bottom of the plate the necessary salt.
39. When at the table the king and his council were not satisfied
with the food, because there was no salt in it, the maiden was again
summoned.
40. "I ordered you to cook because you were clever; but you took no
care of the cooking. Why am I thus insulted and my honor destroyed
before my guests?"
41. The maiden at once returned answer to the council and to his
Majesty: "Look underneath the plates; and if there is not the necessary
salt, my lord, condemn me as you see fit."
42. She had those near the king lift their plates, and she had him
look under. The salt was found not lacking, and the king ceased from
his contention and thought about the matter.
43. Then he said, "If you had mixed in a little with the food, then
it would have been good and palatable. Explain to me the significance
of your act."
44. "O great king!" answered the maiden, "I can easily reply to your
question. By leaving the salt out, I meant me, and no one else [i.e.,
she meant to suggest her own case when she was in the well].
45. "You instructed me to get fire from the mountain. Why can you
not taste this salt, which is just under the plate?
46. "Because I am an unfortunate person, an unworthy shepherdess from
the woods. If I were a city-bred person, even though most ordinary,
I should be honored in your presence."
47. To the reply of the girl the king shook his head, and pressed
his forehead (in thought). He had fallen in love, and his heart was
oppressed. He determined to marry her.
48. They were married at once, and at once she was clothed as a queen;
although she was only a lowly shepherdess, she was loved because of
the sweetness of her voice.
49. After living together a long time, they had a quarrel: the king
had conceived a dislike for her cleverness.
50. "Return at once to your father and mother," he said. "Go back to
the mountains and live there.
51. "I will allow you to take with you whatever you want,--gold,
silver, dresses. Take with you also two maids."
52. The queen could not utter a word; silently she let her tears
fall. She thought that bad fortune had come upon her.
53. To be brief, the king got up from his chair and lay down in his
bed. He pretended to go to sleep in order that he might not see the
queen depart.
54. When the queen saw that the king was really sleeping, she covered
him up (in her sorrow), and summoned the servants.
55. She ordered them to lift him up and carry him to the mountains. "In
carrying him, be careful not to wake him until the mountains are
reached."
56. They lifted the bed and took him downstairs; but when they were
carrying it out of the palace, the bed struck against the front
door. The king awoke in surprise.
57. He said, "What is the reason for carrying away a sleeping man?" He
asked them whether they intended to throw away their sovereign.
58. At once he summoned the guards of the palace and ordered the
arrest of the servants; but they protested that they were merely
obeying the orders of the queen.
59. Then the king asked where the queen was who had ordered that. He
had her brought before him, and demanded of her why she wished to
cast him away.
60. The queen answered, reminding him thus: "My husband, my beloved,
what did you tell me some time ago when you were driving me away?
61. "Did you not tell me to select whatever I might desire, including
gold and silver, and take it with me? You are my choice.
62. "Even if I should become very good and very rich, I should still
be without honor before God and the people.
63. "It would be shameful to the Divine Word for us married people to
separate. You would be taunted by your counsellors for having married
some one beneath you."
64. Her reply reminded the king that whatever might happen, they were
married, and should remain together all their lives.
65. "Forgive me, my wife, light of my eyes! Forgive the wrongs I have
done! I am to blame for the mistake [i.e., for my thoughtlessness]."
66. From then on, they loved each other the more, and were happy
because they never quarrelled further.
TALE B
THE STORY OF RODOLFO.
Rodolfo was the only son of Felizardo and Prisca, who lived in
Valencia. When Rodolfo was seven years old, he was sent to school,
and proved to be an apt scholar; but his father died within a few
years, and the boy was obliged to abandon his studies because of
poverty. At the suggestion of his mother, Rodolfo one day set out for
the capital, where he sought a place in the palace as servant. In time
he was appointed head steward (mayor-domo) in the royal household. The
king became so fond of this trusty servant, whose bravery, executive
ability, and cleverness he could not help noticing, that finally he
determined to make him his son-in-law by marrying him to the princess
Leocadia. When Rodolfo was offered Leocadio's hand by her father,
however, he respectfully declined the honor, saying that though he
admired the beauty of the princess, he did not admire her character,
and could not take her as his wife. The king was so angry that he
ordered Rodolfo cast into prison; but after a few days' consideration,
he had him released, and promised to pardon him for the insult if
within a month he could bring before the king as his wife just such
a virtuous woman as he had stipulated his wife should be.
Rodolfo left the palace, taking with him only a pair of shoes and
an umbrella. On his way he saw an old man, whom he invited to go
along with him. Shortly afterwards they saw a funeral procession, and
Rodolfo asked his companion whether the man that was to be buried was
still alive. The old man did not reply, because he thought that his
companion was a fool. Outside the city they met many persons planting
highland rice on a mountain-clearing (kaingin). Again Rodolfo spoke,
and asked if the rice that the farmers were planting was already eaten;
but the old man remained silent. In the course of their journey
they reached a shallow river. Rodolfo put on his shoes and waded
across. When he reached the other bank, he removed his shoes again
and carried them in his hand. Next they passed a great plain. When
they became tired from the heat, they rested by the side of the road
under a big tree. Here Rodolfo opened his umbrella, which he had not
used when they were crossing the hot plain. Once more the old man
believed that his companion was crazy.
At last the travellers reached the old man's house, but the old man did
not invite Rodolfo to spend the night with him. Rodolfo went into the
house, however, for he saw that a young woman lived in the house. This
was Estela, the old man's daughter, who received the stranger very
kindly. That night, when Estela set the table for supper, she gave
to her father the head and neck of the chicken, the wings to her
mother, the body to Rodolfo, and the legs to herself. After eating
their meal, the old man and his wife left Estela and Rodolfo together
in the dining-room. Rodolfo expressed his love for her, for he had
already recognized her worth. When she found that he was in earnest,
she said that she would accept him if her parents consented to the
marriage. Then they joined the old couple in the main room; but there
the father scolded her for showing hospitality to a visitor whom he
considered a fool. He also felt insulted for having been given only
the head and neck of the chicken. Accordingly the old man told his
daughter how Rodolfo had foolishly asked him if the person to be buried
was still alive, and whether the rice that the farmers were planting
on the mountain-clearing had already been eaten. He also mentioned
the fact that Rodolfo wore his shoes only when crossing the river,
and that he had opened his umbrella only when they were in the shade
of the tree. Estela, in reply, cleverly explained to her father the
meaning of all Rodolfo had said and done. "The memory of a man who has
done good during his lifetime will never be forgotten. Rodolfo wished
to know whether the man to be buried was kind to his fellow-men. If
he was, he will always be remembered, and he is not dead. When Rodolfo
asked you whether the rice which the farmers were planting was already
eaten, he wished to know if those farmers had borrowed so much rice
from their landlords that the next harvest would only be enough to pay
it back. In a river it is impossible to see the thorns which may hurt
one's feet, so it is wise to wear shoes while crossing a river. The
idea of opening an umbrella under a tree is a very good one, because
it forms a protection against falling branches and fruits. I will
tell you why I divided the chicken as I did. I gave you the head
and neck because you are the head of the family; the wings I gave my
mother because she took care of me in my childhood; the body I gave
to Rodolfo, because it is courteous to please a visitor; the legs I
kept myself, because I am your feet and hands."
The anger of Estela's father was pacified by her explanation. He
was now convinced that Rodolfo was not a fool, but a wise man, and
he invited Rodolfo to live with them. Rodolfo staid and helped with
all the work about the house and in the field. At last, when the old
man realized that Rodolfo loved Estela, he gave his consent to their
marriage; and the next day they became husband and wife.
After his marriage, Rodolfo returned to Valencia, leaving Estela at
her home in Babilonia, and reported to the king that he had found and
taken as his wife a virtuous woman,--The rest of the story turns on the
"chastity-wager" motif, and ends with the establishment of the purity
of Rodolfo's wife. (For this motif, constituting a whole story, see
"The Golden Lock," No. 30.)
An examination of the five representatives of this cycle of the "Clever
Lass" in the Philippines reveals at least nine distinct problems
(tasks or riddles) to be solved. For most of these, parallels may be
found in other Oriental and in Occidental stories.
(1) Problem: catching waves of the sea. Solution: demanding rope of
sand for the work. This identical problem and solution are found in
a North Borneo story, "Ginas and the Rajah" (Evans, 468-469). In the
"Maha-ummagga-jataka," No. 546, a series of nineteen tasks is set the
young sage Mahosadha. One of these is to make a rope of sand. The wise
youth cleverly sent some spokesmen to ask the king for a sample of the
old rope, so that the new would not vary from the old. See also Child,
1 : 10-11, for a South Siberian story containing the counter-demand
for thread of sand to make shoes from stone.
(2) Problem: making many kinds of food from one small bird, or twelve
portions from mosquito. Solution: requiring king to make stove, pan,
and bolo (or twelve forks) from needle (pin). Analogous to this task
is Bolte and Polívka's motif B3 (2 : 349), the challenge to weave
a cloth out of two threads. Bolte and Polívka enumerate thirty-five
European folk-tales containing their motif B3.
(3) Problem: putting large squash whole into narrow-necked
jar. Solution: hero grows squash in the jar (and sometimes demands
that king remove the squash without breaking either it or the jar). I
know of no other folk-tale occurrences of this task; it is not found
in any of the European stories of this cycle, and may be an addition
of the Tagalog narrators. It is a common enough trick, however,
to grow a squash or cucumber in a small-necked bottle.
(4) Problem: getting milk from bull. Solution: hero tells king that
his father has given birth to a child. Compare "Jataka," No. 546
(tr. by Cowell and Rouse, 6 : 167-168), in which the king sends his
fattened bull to East Market-town with this message: "Here is the
king's royal bull, in calf. Deliver him, and send him back with the
calf, or else there is a fine of a thousand pieces." The solution
of this difficulty is the same as above. See also Child, 1 : 10-11,
for almost identical situation. This problem and No. 1 are to be
found in a Tibetan tale (Ralston 2, 138, 140-141).
(5) Problem: selling lamb for a specified sum of money, and returning
both animal and coin. Solution: heroine sells only the wool.
Two of these problems, (3) and (5), are soluble, and belong in kind
with the "halb-geritten" motif, where the heroine is ordered to come
to the king not clothed and not naked, not walking and not riding,
not in the road and not out of the road, etc. The other three problems
are not solved at all, strictly speaking: the heroine gets out of
her difficulties by demanding of her task-master the completion of
counter-tasks equally hard, or by showing him the absurdity of his
demands. (See Bolte-Polívka, 2 : 362-370, for a full discussion
of these subgroups.) "In all stories of the kind," writes Child,
"the person upon whom a task is imposed stands acquitted if another
of no less difficulty is devised which must be performed first. This
preliminary may be something that is essential for the execution of
the other, as in the German ballads, or equally well something that
has no kind of relation to the original requisition, as in the English
ballads." It will be seen that in the nature of the counter-demands
the Filipino stories agree rather with the German than the English.
(6) Hero is forbidden to walk on the king's ground. To circumvent the
king, hero fills a sledge with earth taken from his own orchard, and
has himself drawn into the presence of his Majesty. When challenged,
the hero protests that he is not on the king's ground, but his
own. This same episode is found in "Juan the Fool," No. 49 (q. v.).
(7) The stealing of the sleeping king by the banished wife, who has
permission to take with her from the palace what she loves best,
is found only in A. This episode, however, is very common elsewhere,
and forms the conclusion of more than seventy Occidental stories of
this cycle. (See Bolte-Polívka, 2 : 349-355.)
(8) The division of the hen, found in B and also at the end of "Juan
the Fool" (No. 49), is fully discussed by Bolte and Polívka (2 :
360). See also R. Köhler's notes to Gonzenbach, 2 : 205-206. The
combination of this motif with the "chastity-wager" motif found in
"Rodolfo" (B), is also met with in a Mentonais story, "La femme avisée"
(Romania, 11 : 415-416).
(9) For wearing of shoes only when crossing rivers, and raising
umbrella only when sleeping under a tree, see again "Juan the Fool." A
rather close parallel to this incident, as well as to the seemingly
foolish questions Rodolfo asks Estela's father, and the daughter's
wise interpretation of them, may be found in the Kashmir story,
"Why the Fish laughed" (Knowles, 484-490 = Jacob 1, No. XXIV). See
also a Tibetan story in Ralston 2 : 111; Benfey in "Ausland," 1859,
p. 487; Spence Hardy, "Manual of Buddhism," pp. 220-227, 364. Compare
especially Bompas, No. LXXXIX, "The Bridegroom who spoke in Riddles."
Finally mention may be made of two Arabian stories overlooked by Bolte
and Polívka, in one of which a woman sends supper to a stranger, and
along with the food an enigmatical message describing what she has
sent. The Negress porter eats a part of the food, but delivers the
message. The stranger shrewdly guesses its meaning, and sends back a
reply that convicts the Negress of theft of a part of the gift. The
other story opens with the "bride-wager" riddle, and later enumerates
many instances of the ingenuity of the clever young wife. See Phillott
and Azoo, "Some Arab Folk-Tales from Hazramaut," Nos. I and XVII
(in JRASB 2 [1906] : 399-439).
Benfey (Ausland, 1859, passim) traces the story of the "Clever Lass"
back to India. The original situation consisted of the testing of the
sagacity of a minister who had fallen into disgrace. This minister
aids his royal master in a riddle-contest with a neighboring hostile
king. Later in the development of the cycle these sagacity tests were
transferred to a wife who helps her husband, or to a maiden who helps
her father, out of similar difficulties. (Compare the last part of my
note to No. 1 in this collection.) Bolte and Polívka, however (2 :
373) seem to think it probable that the last part of the story--the
marriage of the heroine, her expulsion, and her theft of the sleeping
king--was native to Europe.
The Filipino folk-tales belonging to this cycle appear to go back
directly to India as a source. Incident 4 (see above) seems to me
conclusive evidence, as this is a purely Oriental conception, being
recorded only in India, Tibet, and South Siberia. The chap-book version
(A) doubtless owes much to popular tradition in the Islands, although
the anonymous author, in his "Preface to the Reader," says that he has
derived his story from a book (unnamed),--hañgo sa novela. I have not
been able to trace his original; there is no Spanish form of the tale,
so far as I know.
Compare with this whole cycle No. 38, "A Negrito Slave," and the notes.
TALE 8
THE STORY OF ZARAGOZA.
Narrated by Teodato P. Macabulos, a Tagalog from Manila.
Years and years ago there lived in a village a poor couple, Luis and
Maria. Luis was lazy and selfish, while Maria was hard-working and
dutiful. Three children had been born to this pair, but none had lived
long enough to be baptized. The wife was once more about to be blessed
with a child, and Luis made up his mind what he should do to save its
life. Soon the day came when Maria bore her second son. Luis, fearing
that this child, like the others, would die unchristened, decided to
have it baptized the very next morning. Maria was very glad to know
of her husband's determination, for she believed that the early deaths
of their other children were probably due to delay in baptizing them.
The next morning Luis, with the infant in his arms, hastened to
the church; but in his haste he forgot to ask his wife who should
stand as godfather. As he was considering this oversight, a strange
man passed by, whom he asked, "Will you be so kind as to act as my
child's godfather?"
"With all my heart," was the stranger's reply.
They then entered the church, and the child was named Luis, after his
father. When the services were over, Luis entreated Zaragoza--such
was the name of the godfather--to dine at his house. As Zaragoza
had just arrived in that village for the first time, he was but too
ready to accept the invitation. Now, Zaragoza was a kind-hearted man,
and soon won the confidence of his host and hostess, who invited him
to remain with them for several days. Luis and Zaragoza became close
friends, and often consulted each other on matters of importance.
One evening, as the two friends were conversing, their talk turned
upon the affairs of the kingdom. Luis told his friend how the king
oppressed the people by levying heavy taxes on all sorts of property,
and for that reason was very rich. Zaragoza, moved by the news,
decided to avenge the wrongs of the people. Luis hesitated, for he
could think of no sure means of punishing the tyrannical monarch. Then
Zaragoza suggested that they should try to steal the king's treasure,
which was hidden in a cellar of the palace. Luis was much pleased with
the project, for he thought that it was Zaragoza's plan for them to
enrich themselves and live in comfort and luxury.
Accordingly, one evening the two friends, with a pick-axe, a hoe,
and a shovel, directed their way towards the palace. They approached
the cellar by a small door, and then began to dig in the ground at
the foot of the cellar wall. After a few hours of steady work, they
succeeded in making an excavation leading into the interior. Zaragoza
entered, and gathered up as many bags of money as he and Luis could
carry. During the night they made several trips to the cellar, each
time taking back to their house as much money as they could manage. For
a long time the secret way was not discovered, and the two friends
lost no opportunity of increasing their already great hoard. Zaragoza
gave away freely much of his share to the poor; but his friend was
selfish, and kept constantly admonishing him not to be too liberal.
In time the king observed that the bulk of his treasure was
considerably reduced, and he ordered his soldiers to find out what had
caused the disappearance of so much money. Upon close examination,
the soldiers discovered the secret passage; and the king, enraged,
summoned his counsellors to discuss what should be done to punish
the thief.
In the mean time the two friends were earnestly discussing whether
they should get more bags of money, or should refrain from making
further thefts. Zaragoza suggested that they would better first get
in touch with the secret deliberations of the court before making
another attempt. Luis, however, as if called by fate, insisted that
they should make one more visit to the king's cellar, and then inquire
about the unrest at court. Persuaded against his better judgment,
Zaragoza followed his friend to the palace, and saw that their secret
passage was in the same condition as they had lately left it. Luis
lowered himself into the hole; but lo! the whiz of an arrow was heard,
and then a faint cry from Luis.
"What is the matter? Are you hurt?" asked Zaragoza.
"I am dying! Take care of my son!" These were Luis's last words.
Zaragoza knew not what to do. He tried to pull up the dead body of his
friend; but in vain, for it was firmly caught between two heavy blocks
of wood, and was pierced by many arrows. But Zaragoza was shrewd;
and, fearing the consequences of the discovery of Luis's corpse,
he cut off the dead man's head and hurried home with it, leaving
the body behind. He broke the fatal news to Maria, whose grief was
boundless. She asked him why he had mutilated her husband's body, and
he satisfied her by telling her that they would be betrayed if Luis
were recognized. Taking young Luis in her arms, Maria said, "For the
sake of your godson, see that his father's body is properly buried."
"Upon my word of honor, I promise to do as you wish," was Zaragoza's
reply.
Meantime the king was discussing the theft with his advisers. Finally,
wishing to identify the criminal, the king decreed that the body should
be carried through the principal streets of the city and neighboring
villages, followed by a train of soldiers, who were instructed to
arrest any person who should show sympathy for the dead man. Early
one morning the military procession started out, and passed through
the main streets of the city. When the procession arrived before
Zaragoza's house, it happened that Maria was at the window, and,
seeing the body of her husband, she cried, "O my husband!"
Seeing the soldiers entering their house, Zaragoza asked, "What is
your pleasure?"
"We want to arrest that woman," was the answer of the chief of
the guard.
"Why? She has not committed any crime."
"She is the widow of that dead man. Her words betrayed her, for she
exclaimed that the dead man was her husband."
"Who is her husband? That remark was meant for me, because I had
unintentionally hurt our young son," said Zaragoza smiling.
The soldiers believed his words, and went on their way. Reaching a
public place when it was almost night, they decided to stay there
until the next morning. Zaragoza saw his opportunity. He disguised
himself as a priest and went to the place, taking with him a bottle
of wine mixed with a strong narcotic. When he arrived, he said that
he was a priest, and, being afraid of robbers, wished to pass the
night with some soldiers. The soldiers were glad to have with them,
as they thought, a pious man, whose stories would inspire them to
do good. After they had talked a while, Zaragoza offered his bottle
of wine to the soldiers, who freely drank from it. As was expected,
they soon all fell asleep, and Zaragoza succeeded in stealing the
corpse of Luis. He took it home and buried it in that same place
where he had buried the head.
The following morning the soldiers woke up, and were surprised to see
that the priest and the corpse were gone. The king soon knew how his
scheme had failed. Then he thought of another plan. He ordered that a
sheep covered with precious metal should be let loose in the streets,
and that it should be followed by a spy, whose duty it was to watch
from a distance, and, in case any one attempted to catch the sheep,
to ascertain the house of that person, and then report to the palace.
Having received his orders, the spy let loose the sheep, and followed
it at a distance. Nobody else dared even to make a remark about the
animal; but when Zaragoza saw it, he drove it into his yard. The spy,
following instructions, marked the door of Zaragoza's house with a
cross, and hastened to the palace. The spy assured the soldiers that
they would be able to capture the criminal; but when they began to
look for the house, they found that all the houses were similarly
marked with crosses.
For the third time the king had failed; and, giving up all hopes of
catching the thief, he issued a proclamation pardoning the man who
had committed the theft, provided he would present himself to the
king within three days. Hearing the royal proclamation, Zaragoza
went before the king, and confessed that he was the perpetrator of
all the thefts that had caused so much trouble in the court. True to
his word, the king did not punish him. Instead, the king promised
to give Zaragoza a title of nobility if he could trick Don Juan,
the richest merchant in the city, out of his most valuable goods.
When he knew of the desire of the king, Zaragoza looked for a fool,
whom he could use as his instrument. He soon found one, whom he
managed to teach to say "Si" (Spanish for "yes") whenever asked
a question. Dressing the fool in the guise of a bishop, Zaragoza
took a carriage and drove to the store of D. Juan. There he began
to ask the fool such questions as these: "Does your grace wish to
have this? Does not your grace think that this is cheap?" to all of
which the fool's answer was "Si." At last, when the carriage was
well loaded, Zaragoza said, "I will first take these things home,
and then return with the money for them;" to which the fool replied,
"Si." When Zaragoza reached the palace with the rich goods, he was
praised by the king for his sagacity.
After a while D. Juan the merchant found out that what he thought
was a bishop was really a fool. So he went to the king and asked that
he be given justice. Moved by pity, the king restored all the goods
that had been stolen, and D. Juan wondered how his Majesty had come
into possession of his lost property.
Once more the king wanted to test Zaragoza's ability. Accordingly he
told him to bring to the palace an old hermit who lived in a cave in
the neighboring mountains. At first Zaragoza tried to persuade Tubal
to pay the visit to the king, but in vain. Having failed in his first
attempt, Zaragoza determined to play a trick on the old hermit. He
secretly placed an iron cage near the mouth of Tubal's cave, and then
in the guise of an angel he stood on a high cliff and shouted,--
"Tubal, Tubal, hear ye me!"
Tubal, hearing the call, came out of his cave, and, seeing what he
thought was an angel, knelt down. Then Zaragoza shouted,--
"I know that you are very religious, and have come to reward your
piety. The gates of heaven are open, and I will lead you thither. Go
enter that cage, and you will see the way to heaven."
Tubal meekly obeyed; but when he was in the cage, he did not see the
miracle he expected. Instead, he was placed in a carriage and brought
before the king. Thoroughly satisfied now, the king released Tubal,
and fulfilled his promise toward Zaragoza. Zaragoza was knighted,
and placed among the chief advisers of the kingdom. After he had been
raised to this high rank, he called to his side Maria and his godson,
and they lived happily under the protection of one who became the
most upright and generous man of the realm.
Juan the Peerless Robber.
Narrated by Vicente M. Hilario, a Tagalog from Batangas, who heard
the story from a Batangas student.
Not many centuries after Charlemagne died, there lived in Europe
a famous brigand named Juan. From childhood he had been known as
"the deceitful Juan," "the unrivalled pilferer," "the treacherous
Juan." When he was twenty, he was forced to flee from his native land,
to which he never returned.
He visited Africa, where he became acquainted with a famous Ethiopian
robber named Pedro. Not long after they had met, a dispute arose
between them as to which was the more skilful pickpocket. They decided
to have a test. They stood face to face, and the Ethiopian was first
to try his skill.
"Hey!" exclaimed Juan to Pedro, "don't take my handkerchief out of
my pocket!"
It was now Juan's turn. He unbuckled Pedro's belt and slipped it into
his own pocket. "What's the matter with you, Juan?" said Pedro after
a few minutes. "Why don't you go ahead and steal something?"
"Ha, ha, ha!" said Juan. "Whose belt is this?"
Pedro generously admitted that he had been defeated.
Although these two thieves were united by strong ties of common
interest, nevertheless their diverse characteristics and traits
produced trouble at times. Pedro was dull, honorable, and frank;
Juan was hawk-eyed and double-faced. Pedro had so large a body and so
awkward and shambling a gait, that Juan could not help laughing at him
and saying sarcastic things to him. Juan was good-looking and graceful.
While they were travelling about in northern Africa, they heard
the heralds of the King of Tunis make the following proclamation:
"A big bag of money will be given to the captor of the greatest robber
in the country." The two friends, particularly Juan, were struck by
this announcement.
That night Juan secretly stole out of his room. Taking with him a
long rope, he climbed up to the roof of the palace. After making a
hole as large as a peso [33] in the roof, he lowered himself into
the building by means of the rope. He found the room filled with bags
of gold and silver, pearls, carbuncles, diamonds, and other precious
stones. He took the smallest bag he could find, and, after climbing
out of the hole, went home quickly.
When Pedro heard Juan's thrilling report of the untold riches, he
decided to visit the palace the following night. Early in the morning
Juan went again to the palace, taking with him a large tub. After
lowering it into the room, he departed without delay. At nightfall he
returned to the palace and filled the tub with boiling water. He had
no sooner done this than Pedro arrived. Pedro was so eager to get the
wealth, that he made no use of the rope, but jumped immediately into
the room when he reached the small opening his treacherous friend
had made in the roof. Alas! instead of falling on bags of money,
Pedro fell into the fatal tub of water, and perished.
An hour later Juan went to look for his friend, whom he found
dead. The next day he notified the king of the capture and death of
the greatest of African robbers. "You have done well," said the king
to Juan. "This man was the chief of all the African highwaymen. Take
your bag of money."
After putting his gold in a safe place, Juan went out in search of
further adventures. On one of his walks, he heard that a certain
wealthy and devout abbot had been praying for two days and nights
that the angel of the lord might come and take him to heaven. Juan
provided himself with two strong wings. On the third night he made
a hole as large as a peso through the dome of the church.
Calling the abbot, Juan said, "I have been sent by the Lord to take
you to heaven. Come with me, and bring all your wealth."
The abbot put all his money into the bag. "Now get into the bag,"
said Juan, "and we will go."
The old man promptly obeyed. "Where are we now?" said he, after an
hour's "flight."
"We are within one thousand miles of the abode of the blessed,"
was Juan's reply.
Twenty minutes later, and they were in Juan's cave. "Come out of the
bag, and behold my rude abode?" said Juan to the old man. The abbot
was astounded at the sight. When he heard Juan's story, he advised
him to abandon his evil ways. Juan listened to the counsels of his
new friend. He became a good man, and he and the abbot lived together
until their death.
Notes.
The story of "Zaragoza" is of particular interest, because it
definitely combines an old form of the "Rhampsinitus" story with the
"Master Thief" cycle. In his notes to No. 11, "The Two Thieves," of
his collection of "Gypsy Folk Tales," F. H. Groome observes, "(The)
'Two Thieves' is so curious a combination of the 'Rhampsinitus'
story in Herodotus and of Grimm's 'Master Thief,' that I am more
than inclined to regard it as the lost original, which, according to
Campbell of Islay, 'it were vain to look for in any modern work or
in any modern age.'" By "lost original" Mr. Groome doubtless meant
the common ancestor of these two very widespread and for the most
part quite distinct cycles, "Rhampsinitus" and the "Master Thief."
Both of these groups of stories about clever thieves have been made
the subjects Of investigation. The fullest bibliographical study
of the "Rhampsinitus" saga is that by Killis Campbell, "The Seven
Sages of Rome" (Boston, 1907), pp. lxxxv-xc. Others have treated the
cycle more or less discursively: R. Köhler, "Ueber J. F. Campbell's
Sammlung gälischer Märchen," No. XVII (d) (in Orient und Occident, 2
[1864] : 303-313); Sir George Cox, "The Migration of Popular Stories"
(in Fraser's Magazine, July, 1880, pp. 96-111); W. A. Clouston,
"Popular Tales and Fictions" (London, 1887), 2 : 115-165. See
also F. H. Groome, 48-53; McCulloch, 161, note 9; and Campbell's
bibliography. The "Master Thief" cycle has been examined in great
detail as to the component elements of the story by Cosquin (2 :
274-281, 364-365). See also Grimm's notes to the "Master Thief,"
No. 192 (2 : 464); and J. G. von Hahn, 2 : 178-183.
F. Max Müller believed that the story of the "Master Thief" had its
origin in the Sanscrit droll of "The Brahman and the Goat" (Hitopadesa,
IV, 10 = Panchatantra, III, 3), which was brought to Europe through the
Arabic translation of the "Hitopadesa." Further, he did not believe
that the "Master Thief" story had anything to do with Herodotus's
account of the theft of Rhampsinitus's treasure (see Chips from a
German Workshop [New York, 1869], 2 : 228). Wilhelm Grimm, however,
in his notes to No. 192 of the "Kinder- und Hausmärchen," says,
"The well-known story in Herodotus (ii, 121) ... is nearly related
to this." As Sir G. W. Cox remarks (op. cit., p. 98), it is not easy
to discern any real affinity either between the Hitopadesa tale and
the European traditions of the "Master Thief," or between the latter
and the "Rhampsinitus" story. M. Cosquin seems to see at least one
point of contact between the two cycles: "The idea of the episode
of the theft of the horse, or at least of the means which the thief
uses to steal the horse away .... might well have been borrowed from
Herodotus's story ... of Rhampsinitus" (Contes de Lorraine, 2 : 277).
A brief analysis of the characteristic incidents of these two
"thieving" cycles will be of some assistance, perhaps, in determining
whether or not there were originally any definite points of contact
between the two. The elements of the "Rhampsinitus" story follow:--
A Two sons of king's late architect plan to rob the royal
treasure-house.
(A1 In some variants of the story the robbers are a town thief and
a country thief.)
A2 They gain an entrance by removing a secret stone, a knowledge of
which their father had bequeathed them before he died.
B The king discovers the theft, and sets a snare for the robbers.
C Robbers return; eldest caught inextricably. To prevent discovery,
the younger brother cuts off the head of the older, takes it away,
and buries it.
D The king attempts to find the confederate by exposing the headless
corpse on the outer wall of the palace.
D1 The younger thief steals the body by making the guards drunk. He
also shaves the right side of the sleeping guards' beards.
E King makes second attempt to discover confederate. He sends his
daughter as a common courtesan, hoping that he can find the thief;
for she is to require all her lovers to tell the story of their lives
before enjoying her favors.
E1 The younger thief visits her and tells his story; when she tries
to detain him, however, he escapes by leaving in her hand the hand
of a dead man he had taken along with him for just such a contingency.
F The king, baffled, now offers to pardon and reward the thief if he
will discover himself. The thief gives himself up, and is married to
the princess.
In some of the later forms of the story the king makes various other
attempts to discover the culprit before acknowledging himself defeated,
and is met with more subtle counter-moves on the part of the thief:
(D2) King orders that any one found showing sympathy for the corpse
as it hangs up shall be arrested; (D3) by the trick of the broken
water-jar or milk-jar, the widow of the dead robber is able to mourn
him unsuspected. (D4) The widow involuntarily wails as the corpse is
being dragged through the street past her house; but the thief quickly
cuts himself with a knife, and thus explains her cry when the guards
come to arrest her. They are satisfied with the explanation. (E2)
The king scatters gold-pieces in the street, and gives orders to
arrest any one seen picking them up; (E3) the thief, with pitch
or wax on the soles of his shoes, walks up and down the road, and,
unobserved, gathers in the money. (E4) The king turns loose in the
city a gold-adorned animal, and orders the arrest of any person seen
capturing it. The thief steals it as in D1, or is observed and his
house-door marked. Then as in E6. (E5) Old woman begging for "hind's
flesh" or "camel-grease" finds his house; but the thief suspects her
and kills her; or (E6) she gets away, after marking the house-door
so that it may be recognized again. But the thief sees the mark, and
proceeds to mark similarly all the other doors in the street. (E7)
The king puts a prohibitive price on meat, thinking that only the
thief will be able to buy; but the thief steals a joint.
However many the changes and additions of this sort (king's move
followed by thief's move) rung in, almost all of the stories dealing
with the robbery of the king's treasury end with the pardon of the
thief and his exaltation to high rank in the royal household. In
none of the score of versions of the "Rhampsinitus" story cited by
Clouston is the thief subjected to any further tests of his prowess
after he has been pardoned by the king. We shall return to this point.
The "Master Thief" cycle has much less to do with our stories than
has the "Rhampsinitus" cycle: hence we shall merely enumerate the
incidents to be found in it. (For bibliography of stories containing
these situations, see Cosquin.)
A Hero, the youngest of three brothers, becomes a thief. For various
reasons (the motives are different in Grimm 192, and Dasent xxxv)
he displays his skill:--
B1 Theft of the purse (conducted as a droll: the young
apprentice-thief, noodle-like, brings back purse to robber-gang after
throwing away the money).
B2 Theft of cattle being driven to the fair. This trick is usually
conducted in one of four ways: (a) two shoes in road; (b) hanging self;
(c) bawling in the wood like a strayed ox; (d) exciting peasant's
curiosity,--"comedy of comedies," "wonder of wonders."
B3 Theft of the horse. This is usually accomplished by the disguised
thief making the grooms drunk.
B4 Stealing of a live person and carrying him in a sack to the one
who gave the order. (The thief disguises himself as an angel, and
promises to conduct his victim to heaven.)
Other instances of the "Master Thief's" cleverness, not found in
Cosquin, are--
B5 Stealing sheet or coverlet from sleeping person (Grimm, Dasent).
B6 Stealing roast from spit while whole family is guarding it (Dasent).
We may now examine the members of the "Rhampsinitus" group that contain
situations clearly belonging to the "Master Thief" formula. These
are as follows:--
Groome, No. II, "The Two Thieves," B2 (d), B4.
F. Liebrecht in a Cyprus story (Jahrb. f. rom. und eng. lit., 13 :
367-374 = Legrand, Contes grecs, p. 205), "The Master Thief,"
B2(a, c, d).
Wardrop, No. XIV, "The Two Thieves," B4.
Radloff, in a Tartar story (IV, p. 193), B4.
Prym and Socin, in a Syriac story (II, No. 42), B4.
It seems very likely that the Georgian, Tartar, and Syriac stories
are nearly related to one another. The Roumanian gypsy tale, too, it
will be noted, adds to the "Rhampsinitus" formula the incident of the
theft of a person in a sack. This latter story, again, is connected
with the Georgian tale, in that the opening is identical in both. One
thief meets another, and challenges him to steal the eggs (feathers)
from a bird without disturbing it. While he is doing so, he is in turn
robbed unawares of his drawers by the first thief. (Compare Grimm,
No. 129; a Kashmir story in Knowles, 110-112; and a Kabylie story,
Rivière, 13.)
The number of tales combining the two cycles of the "Master Thief"
and "Rhampsinitus's Treasure-House" is so small compared with the
number of "pure" versions of each cycle, that we are led to think
it very unlikely that there ever was a "lost original." There seems
to be no evidence whatsoever that these two cycles had a common
ancestor. Besides the fact that the number of stories in which the
contamination is found is relatively very small, there is also to
be considered the fact that these few examples are recent. No one
is known to have existed more than seventy-five years ago. Hence the
"snowball" theory will better explain the composite nature of the gypsy
version and our story of "Zaragoza" than a "missing-link" theory. These
two cycles, consisting as they do of a series of tests of skill, are
peculiarly fitted to be interlocked. The wonder is, not that they have
become combined in a few cases, but that they have remained separate
in so many more, particularly as both stories are very widespread;
and, given the ingredients, this is a combination that could have
been made independently by many story-tellers. Could not the idea
occur to more than one narrator that it is a greater feat to steal a
living person (B4) than a corpse (D1), a piece of roast meat guarded
by a person who knows that the thief is coming (B6) than a piece of
raw meat from an unsuspecting butcher (E7)? All in all, it appears
to me much more likely that the droll and certainly later cycle of
the "Master Thief" grew out of the more serious and earlier cycle of
"Rhampsinitus's Treasure-House" (by the same process as is suggested
in the notes to No. 1 of this present collection) than that the two
are branches from the same trunk.
In any case, our two stories make the combination. When or whence
these Tagalog versions arose I cannot say. Nor need they be analyzed
in detail, as the texts are before us in full. I will merely call
attention to the fact that in "Zaragoza" the king sets a snare
(cf. Herodotus) for the thief, instead of the more common barrel of
pitch. There is something decidedly primitive about this trap which
shoots arrows into its victim. Zaragoza's trick whereby he fools
the rich merchant has an analogue in Knowles's Kashmir story of
"The Day-Thief and the Night-Thief" (p. 298).
"Juan the Peerless Robber," garbled and unsatisfactory as it is
in detail and perverted in dénouement, presents the interesting
combination of the skill-contest between the two thieves (see above),
the treachery of one (cf. the Persian Bahar-i-Danush, 2 : 225-248),
and the stealing of the abbot in a sack.
TALE 9
THE SEVEN CRAZY FELLOWS.
Narrated by Cipriano Seráfica, from Mangaldan. Pangasinan.
Once there were living in the country in the northern part of Luzon
seven crazy fellows, named Juan, Felipe, Mateo, Pedro, Francisco,
Eulalio, and Jacinto. They were happy all the day long.
One morning Felipe asked his friends to go fishing. They staid at the
Cagayan River a long time. About two o'clock in the afternoon Mateo
said to his companions, "We are hungry; let us go home!"
"Before we go," said Juan, "let us count ourselves, to see that we
are all here!" He counted; but because he forgot to count himself,
he found that they were only six, and said that one of them had been
drowned. Thereupon they all dived into the river to look for their
lost companion; and when they came out, Francisco counted to see if
he had been found; but he, too, left himself out, so in they dived
again. Jacinto said that they should not go home until they had found
the one who was lost. While they were diving, an old man passed by. He
asked the fools what they were diving for. They said that one of them
had been drowned.
"How many were you at first?" said the old man.
They said that they were seven.
"All right," said the old man. "Dive in, and I will count you." They
dived, and he found that they were seven. Since he had found their
lost companion, he asked them to come with him.
When they reached the old man's house, he selected Mateo and Francisco
to look after his old wife; Eulalio he chose to be water-carrier;
Pedro, cook; Jacinto, wood-carrier; and Juan and Felipe, his companions
in hunting.
When the next day came, the old man said that he was going hunting,
and he told Juan and Felipe to bring along rice with them. In a little
while they reached the mountains, and he told the two fools to cook
the rice at ten o'clock. He then went up the mountain with his dogs
to catch a deer. Now, his two companions, who had been left at the
foot of the mountain, had never seen a deer. When Felipe saw a deer
standing under a tree, he thought that the antlers of the deer were
the branches of a small tree without leaves: so he hung his hat and
bag of rice on them, but the deer immediately ran away. When the
old man came back, he asked if the rice was ready. Felipe told him
that he had hung his hat and the rice on a tree that ran away. The
old man was angry, and said, "That tree you saw was the antlers of
a deer. We'll have to go home now, for we have nothing to eat."
Meanwhile the five crazy fellows who had been left at home were not
idle. Eulalio went to get a pail of water. When he reached the well
and saw his image in the water, he nodded, and the reflection nodded
back at him. He did this over and over again; until finally, becoming
tired, he jumped into the water, and was drowned. Jacinto was sent
to gather small sticks, but he only destroyed the fence around the
garden. Pedro cooked a chicken without removing the feathers. He also
let the chicken burn until it was as black as coal. Mateo and Francisco
tried to keep the flies off the face of their old mistress. They soon
became tired, because the flies kept coming back; so they took big
sticks to kill them with. When a fly lighted on the nose of the old
woman, they struck at it so hard that they killed her. She died with
seemingly a smile on her face. The two fools said to each other that
the old woman was very much pleased that they had killed the fly.
When the old man and his two companions reached home, the old man
asked Pedro if there was any food to eat. Pedro said that it was in the
pot. The old man looked in and saw the charred chicken and feathers. He
was very angry at the cook. Then he went in to see his wife, and
found her dead. He asked Mateo and Francisco what they had done to
the old woman. They said that they had only been killing flies that
tried to trouble her, and that she was very much pleased by their work.
The next thing the crazy fellows had to do was to make a coffin for
the dead woman; but they made it flat, and in such a way that there
was nothing to prevent the corpse from falling off. The old man told
them to carry the body to the church; but on their way they ran,
and the body rolled off the flat coffin. They said to each other that
running was a good thing, for it made their burden lighter.
When the priest found that the corpse was missing, he told the six
crazy fellows to go back and get the body. While they were walking
toward the house, they saw an old woman picking up sticks by the
roadside.
"Old woman, what are you doing here?" they said. "The priest wants
to see you."
While they were binding her, she cried out to her husband, "Ah! here
are some bad boys trying to take me to the church." But her husband
said that the crazy fellows were only trying to tease her. When they
reached the church with this old woman, the priest, who was also crazy,
performed the burial-ceremony over her. She cried out that she was
alive; but the priest answered that since he had her burial-fee,
he did not care whether she was alive or not. So they buried this
old woman in the ground.
When they were returning home, they saw the corpse that had fallen
from the coffin on their way to the church. Francisco cried that it
was the ghost of the old woman. Terribly frightened, they ran away
in different directions, and became scattered all over Luzon.
Notes.
I have a Bicol variant, "Juan and his Six Friends," narrated by
Maximina Navarro, which is much like the story of "The Seven Crazy
Fellows."
In the Bicol form, Juan and his six crazy companions go bathing in
the river. Episode of the miscounting. On the way home, the seven,
sad because of the loss of one of their number, meet another sad young
man, who says that his mother is dying and that he is on his way to
fetch a priest. He begs the seven to hurry to his home and stay with
his mother until he returns. They go and sit by her. Juan mistakes
a large mole on her forehead for a fly, and tries in vain to brush
it away. Finally he "kills it" with a big piece of bamboo. The son,
returning and finding his mother dead, asks the seven to take her
and bury her. They wrap the body in a mat, but on the way to the
cemetery the body falls out. They return to look for the corpse,
but take the wrong road. They see an old woman cutting ferns; and,
thinking that she is the first old woman trying to deceive them, they
throw stones at her. The story ends with the burial of this second
old woman, whom the seven admonish, as they put her into the ground,
"never to deceive any one again."
These two noodle stories are obviously drawn from a common source. The
main incidents to be found in them are (1) the miscounting of the
swimmers and the subsequent correct reckoning by a stranger (this
second part lacking in the Bicol variant); (2) the killing of the fly
on the old woman's face; (3) the loss of the corpse and the burial
of the old fagot-gathering woman by mistake.
(1) The incident of not counting one's self is found in a number
of Eastern stories (see Clouston 1, 28-33; Grimm, 2 : 441). For a
Kashmir droll recording a similar situation, where a townsman finds
ten peasants weeping because they cannot account for the loss of one
of their companions, see Knowles, 322-323.
(2) Killing of fly on face is a very old incident, and assumes various
forms. In a Buddhist birth-story (Jataka, 44), a mosquito lights on a
man's head. The foolish son attempts to kill it with an axe. In another
(Jataka, 45) the son uses a pestle. Italian stories containing this
episode will be found in Crane, 293-294 (see also Crane, 380, notes
13-15). In a Bicol fable relating a war between the monkeys and the
dragon-flies, the dragon-flies easily defeat the monkeys, who kill
one another in their attempts to slay their enemies, that have, at the
order of their king, alighted on the monkeys' heads (see No. 57). Full
bibliography for this incident may be found in Bolte-Polívka, 1 : 519.
(3) The killing of a living person thought to be a corpse come to
life occurs in "The Three Humpbacks" (see No. 33 and notes).
Our story as a whole seems to owe nothing to European forms, though it
has some faint general resemblances to the "Seven Swabians" (Grimm,
No. 119). All three incidents of our story are found separately
in India. Their combination may have taken place in the Islands,
or even before the Malay migration.
TALE 10
JUAN MANALAKSAN.
Narrated by Anicio Pascual of Arayat, Pampanga, who heard the story
from an old Pampangan woman.
Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a brave and powerful
datu who had only one son. The son was called Pedro. In the same
place lived a poor wood-cutter whose name was Juan Manalaksan. Pedro
was rich, and had no work to do. He often diverted himself by hunting
deer and wild boars in the forests and mountains. Juan got his living
by cutting trees in the forests.
One day the datu and his son went to the mountain to hunt. They
took with them many dogs and guns. They did not take any food,
however, for they felt sure of catching something to eat for their
dinner. When they reached the mountain, Pedro killed a deer. By noon
they had become tired and hungry, so they went to a shady place to
cook their game. While he was eating, Pedro choked on a piece of
meat. The father cried out loudly, for he did not know what to do
for his dying son. Juan, who was cutting wood near by, heard the
shout. He ran quickly to help Pedro, and by pulling the piece of
meat out of his throat he saved Pedro's life. Pedro was grateful,
and said to Juan, "To-morrow come to my palace, and I will give you
a reward for helping me."
The next morning Juan set out for the palace. On his way he met an
old woman, who asked him where he was going.
"I am going to Pedro's house to get my reward," said Juan. "Do not
accept any reward of money or wealth," said the old woman, "but ask
Pedro to give you the glass which he keeps in his right armpit. The
glass is magical. It is as large as a peso, and has a small hole in
the centre. If you push a small stick through the hole, giants who
can give you anything you want will surround you." Then the old woman
left Juan, and went on her way.
As soon as Juan reached the palace, Pedro said to him, "Go to that
room and get all the money you want."
But Juan answered, "I do not want you to give me any money. All I
want is the glass which you keep in your right armpit."
"Very well," said Pedro, "here it is." When Juan had received the
glass, he hurried back home.
Juan reached his hut in the woods, and found his mother starving. He
quickly thought of his magic glass, and, punching a small stick
through the hole in the glass, he found himself surrounded by giants.
"Be quick, and get me some food for my mother!" he said to them. For
a few minutes the giants were gone, but soon they came again with
their hands full of food. Juan took it and gave it to his mother;
but she ate so much, that she became sick, and died.
In a neighboring village ruled another powerful datu, who had a
beautiful daughter. One day the datu fell very ill. As no doctor could
cure him, he sent his soldiers around the country to say that the man
who could cure him should have his daughter for a wife. Juan heard
the news, and, relying on his charm, went to cure the datu. On his
way, he asked the giants for medicine to cure the sick ruler. When
he reached the palace, the datu said to him, "If I am not cured,
you shall be killed." Juan agreed to the conditions, and told the
datu to swallow the medicine which he gave him. The datu did so,
and at once became well again.
The next morning Juan was married to the datu's daughter. Juan took
his wife to live with him in his small hut in the woods.
One day he went to the forest to cut trees, leaving his wife and
magic glass at home. While Juan was away in the forest, Pedro ordered
some of his soldiers to go get the wood-cutter's wife and magic
glass. When Juan returned in the evening, he found wife and glass
gone. One of his neighbors told him that his wife had been taken
away by some soldiers. Juan was very angry, but he could not avenge
himself without his magical glass.
At last he decided to go to his father-in-law and tell him all that
had happened to his wife. On his way there, he met an old mankukulam,
[34] who asked him where he was going. Juan did not tell her, but
related to her all that had happened to his wife and glass while he
was in the forest cutting trees. The mankukulam said that she could
help him. She told him to go to a certain tree and catch the king
of the cats. She furthermore advised him, "Always keep the cat with
you." Juan followed her advice.
One day Pedro's father commanded his soldiers to cut off the ears of
all the men in the village, and said that if any one refused to have
his ears cut off, he should be placed in a room full of rats. The
soldiers did as they were ordered, and in time came to Juan's house;
but, as Juan was unwilling to lose his ears, he was seized and placed
in a room full of rats. But he had his cat with him all the time. As
soon as he was shut up in the room, he turned his cat loose. When
the rats saw that they would all be killed, they said to Juan,
"If you will tie your cat up there in the corner, we will help you
get whatever you want."
Juan tied his cat up, and then said to the rats, "Bring me all the
glasses in this village." The rats immediately scampered away to obey
him. Soon each of them returned with a glass in its mouth. One of
them was carrying the magical glass. When Juan had his charm in his
hands again, he pushed a small stick through the hole in the glass,
and ordered the giants to kill Pedro and his father, and bring him
his wife again.
Thus Juan got his wife back. They lived happily together till they
died.
Juan the Poor, Who became Juan the King.
Narrated by Amando Clemente, a Tagalog, who heard the story from
his aunt.
Once upon a time there lived in a small hut at the edge of a forest a
father and son. The poverty of that family gave the son his name,--Juan
the Poor. As the father was old and feeble, Juan had to take care
of the household affairs; but there were times when he did not want
to work.
One day, while Juan was lying behind their fireplace, his father
called him, and told him to go to the forest and get some fire-wood.
"Very well," said Juan, but he did not move from his place.
After a while the father came to see if his son had gone, but he found
him still lying on the floor. "When will you go get that fire-wood,
Juan?"
"Right now, father," answered the boy. The old man returned to his
room. As he wanted to make sure, however, whether his son had gone
or not, he again went to see. When he found Juan in the same position
as before, he became very angry, and said,--
"Juan, if I come out again and find you still here, I shall surely
give you a whipping." Juan knew well that his father would punish him
if he did not go; so he rose up suddenly, took his axe, and went to
the forest.
When he came to the forest, he marked every tree that he thought would
be good for fuel, and then he began cutting. While he was chopping
at one of the trees, he saw that it had a hole in the trunk, and in
the hole he saw something glistening. Thinking that there might be
gold inside the hole, he hastened to cut the tree down; but a monster
came out of the hole as soon as the tree fell.
When Juan saw the unexpected being, he raised his axe to kill the
monster. Before giving the blow, he exclaimed, "Aha! Now is the time
for you to die."
The monster moved backward when it saw the blow ready to fall,
and said,--
"Good sir, forbear,
And my life spare,
If you wish a happy life
And, besides, a pretty wife."
Juan lowered his axe, and said, "Oho! is that so?"
"Yes, I swear," answered the monster.
"But what is it, and where is it?" said Juan, raising his axe, and
feigning to be angry, for he was anxious to get what the monster
promised him. The monster told Juan to take from the middle of his
tongue a white oval stone. From it he could ask for and get whatever he
wanted to have. Juan opened the monster's mouth and took the valuable
stone. Immediately the monster disappeared.
The young man then tested the virtues of his charm by asking it for
some men to help him work. As soon as he had spoken the last word of
his command, there appeared many persons, some of whom cut down trees,
while others carried the wood to his house. When Juan was sure that
his house was surrounded by piles of fire-wood, he dismissed the
men, hurried home, and lay down again behind the fireplace. He had
not been there long, when his father came to see if he had done his
work. When the old man saw his son stretched out on the floor, he said,
"Juan have we fire-wood now?"
"Just look out of the window and see, father!" said Juan. Great was
the surprise of the old man when he saw the large piles of wood about
his house.
The next day Juan, remembering the pretty wife of which the monster
had spoken, went to the king's palace, and told the king that he
wanted to marry his daughter. The king smiled scornfully when he saw
the rustic appearance of the suitor, and said, "If you will do what
I shall ask you to do, I will let you marry my daughter."
"What are your Majesty's commands for me?" said Juan. "Build me a
castle in the middle of the bay; but know, that, if it is not finished
in three days' time, you lose your head," said the king sternly. Juan
promised to do the work.
Two days had gone by, yet Juan had not yet commenced his work. For
that reason the king believed that Juan did not object to losing his
life; but at midnight of the third day, Juan bade his stone build a
fort in the middle of the bay.
The next morning, while the king was taking his bath, cannon-shots
were heard. After a while Juan appeared before the palace, dressed
like a prince. When he saw the king, he said, "The fort is ready for
your inspection."
"If that is true, you shall be my son-in-law," said the king. After
breakfast the king, with his daughter, visited the fort, which pleased
them very much. The following day the ceremonies of Juan's marriage
with the princess Maria were held with much pomp and solemnity.
Shortly after Juan's wedding a war broke out. Juan led the army of the
king his father-in-law to the battlefield, and with the help of his
magical stone he conquered his mighty enemy. The defeated general
went home full of sorrow. As he had never been defeated before,
he thought that Juan must possess some supernatural power. When he
reached home, therefore, he issued a proclamation which stated that
any one who could get Juan's power for him should have one-half of
his property as a reward.
A certain witch, who knew of Juan's secret, heard of the
proclamation. She flew to the general, and told him that she could
do what he wanted done. On his agreeing, she flew to Juan's house
one hot afternoon, where she found Maria alone, for Juan had gone
out hunting. The old woman smiled when she saw Maria, and said,
"Do you not recognize me, pretty Maria? I am the one who nursed you
when you were a baby."
The princess was surprised at what the witch said, for she thought
that the old woman was a beggar. Nevertheless she believed what the
witch told her, treated the repulsive woman kindly, and offered her
cake and wine; but the witch told Maria not to go to any trouble,
and ordered her to rest. So Maria lay down to take a siesta. With
great show of kindness, the witch fanned the princess till she fell
asleep. While Maria was sleeping, the old woman took from underneath
the pillow the magical stone, which Juan had forgotten to take along
with him. Then she flew to the general, and gave the charm to him. He,
in turn, rewarded the old woman with one-half his riches.
Meanwhile, as Juan was enjoying his hunt in the forest, a huge bird
swooped down on him and seized his horse and clothes. When the bird
flew away, his inner garments were changed back again into his old
wood-cutter's clothes. Full of anxiety at this ill omen, and fearing
that some misfortune had befallen his wife, he hastened home on foot
as best he could. When he reached his house, he found it vacant. Then
he went to the king's palace, but that too he found deserted. For his
stone he did not know where to look. After a few minutes of reflection,
he came to the conclusion that all his troubles were caused by the
general whom he had defeated in battle. He also suspected that the
officer had somehow or other got possession of his magical stone.
Poor Juan then began walking toward the country where the general
lived. Before he could reach that country, he had to cross three
mountains. While he was crossing the first mountain, a cat came
running after him, and knocked him down. He was so angry at the
animal, that he ran after it, seized it, and dashed its life out
against a rock. When he was crossing the second mountain, the same
cat appeared and knocked him down a second time. Again Juan seized the
animal and killed it, as before; but the same cat that he had killed
twice before tumbled him down a third time while he was crossing the
third mountain. Filled with curiosity, Juan caught the animal again:
but, instead of killing it this time, he put it inside the bag he
was carrying, and took it along with him.
After many hours of tiresome walking, Juan arrived at the castle of
the general, and knocked at the door. The general asked him what he
wanted. Juan answered, "I am a poor beggar, who will be thankful if I
can have only a mouthful of rice." The general, however, recognized
Juan. He called his servants, and said, "Take this wretched fellow
to the cell of rats."
The cell in which Juan was imprisoned was very dark; and as soon as
the door was closed, the rats began to bite him. But Juan did not
suffer much from them; for, remembering his cat, he let it loose. The
cat killed all the rats except their king, which came out of the hole
last of all. When the cat saw the king of the rats, it spoke thus:
"Now you shall die if you do not promise to get for Juan his magical
stone, which your master has stolen."
"Spare my life, and you shall have the stone!" said the king of
the rats.
"Go and get it, then!" said the cat. The king of the rats ran
quickly to the room of the general, and took Juan's magical stone
from the table.
As soon as Juan had obtained his stone, and after he had thanked the
king of the rats, he said to his stone, "Pretty stone, destroy this
house with the general and his subjects, and release my father-in-law
and wife from their prison."
Suddenly the earth trembled and a big noise was heard. Not long
afterwards Juan saw the castle destroyed, the general and his subjects
dead, and his wife and his father-in-law free.
Taking with him the cat and the king of the rats, Juan went home
happily with Maria his wife and the king his father-in-law. After the
death of the king, Juan ascended to the throne, and ruled wisely. He
lived long happily with his lovely wife.
Notes.
These two stories belong to the "Magic Ring" cycle, and are connected
with the well-known "Aladdin" tale. Antti Aarne (pp. 1-82) reconstructs
the original formula of this type, which was about as follows:--
A youth buys the life of a dog and a cat, liberates a serpent, and
receives from its parent a wishing-stone, by means of which he builds
himself a magnificent castle and wins as his wife a princess. But a
thief steals the stone and removes castle and wife over the sea. Then
the dog and the cat swim across the ocean, catch a mouse, and compel
it to fetch the stone from out of the mouth of the thief. Upon their
return journey, cat and dog quarrel, and the stone falls into the
sea. After they have obtained it again with the help of a frog,
they bring it to their master, who wishes his castle and wife back
once more.
In nearly every detail our stories vary from this norm: (1) The hero
does not buy the life of any animals, (2) he does not acquire the charm
from a grateful serpent that he has unselfishly saved from death, (3)
the dog does not appear at all, (4) castle and wife are not transported
beyond the sea, (5) the cat does not serve the hero voluntarily out
of gratitude, (6) the hero himself journeys to recover his stolen
charm. And yet there can be no doubt of the connection of our stories
with this cycle. The acquirement of a charm, through the help of which
the hero performs a difficult task under penalty of death, and thus
wins the hand of a ruler's daughter; the theft of the charm and the
disappearance of the wife; the search, which is finally brought to a
successful close through the help of a cat and the king of the rats;
the recovery of wife and charm, and the death of the hero's enemies,
these details in combination are unmistakable proofs.
Most of the characteristic details, however, of the "Magic Ring"
cycle are to be found in the Philippines, although they are lacking
in these two stories. For instance, in No. 26 the hero buys the life
of a snake for five cents, and is rewarded by the king of the serpents
with a magic wishing-cloth (cf. E. Steere, 403). In a Visayan pourquoi
story, "Why Dogs wag their Tails" (see JAFL 20 : 98-100), we have a
variant of the situation of the helpful dog and cat carrying a ring
across a body of water, the quarrel in mid-stream, and the loss of
the charm. In the same volume (pp. 117-118) is to be found a Tagalog
folk-version of the "Aladdin" tale. [35]
Neither "Juan Manalaksan" nor "Juan the Poor, who became Juan the
King," can be traced, I believe, to any of the hundred and sixty-three
particular forms of the story cited by Aarne. The differences in
detail are too many. The last part of Pedroso's Portuguese folk-tale,
No. xxx, is like (b), in that the hero himself seeks the thief, takes
along with him a cat, is recognized by the thief and imprisoned, and
by means of the cat threatens the king of the rats, who recovers the
charm for him. But the first part is entirely different: the charm
is an apple obtained from a hind, and the hero's wife is not stolen
along with the charm. No Spanish version has been recorded. It is not
impossible that the story in the Philippines is prehistoric. "Juan
Manalaksan," which the narrator took down exactly as it was told to
him, clearly dates back to a time when the tribe had its own native
datu government, possibly to a time even before the Pampangans migrated
to the Philippines. The whole "equipment" of this story is primitive to
a degree. Moreover, the nature of the charm in both stories--a piece
of glass and an oval stone instead of the more usual ring--points to
the primitiveness of our versions, as does likewise the fact that the
charm is not stolen from the hero by his wife, but by some other person
(see Aarne, pp. 43, 45).
For further discussions of this cycle of folk-tales, and its relation
to the Arabian literary version, see Aarne, 61 et seq. Compare also
Macculloch, 201-202, 237-238; Groome, 218-220; Clouston's "Variants
of Button's Supplemental Arabian Nights," pp. 564-575; Bolte-Polívka,
2 : 451-458; Benfey, 1 : 211 ff. Add to Aarne's and Bolte's lists
Wratislaw, No. 54. See also Dähnhardt, 4 : 147-160.
In conclusion, I may add in the way of an Appendix, as it were, a brief
synopsis of a Tagalog romance entitled "Story of Edmundo, Son of Merced
in the Kingdom of France; taken from a novela and composed by one who
enjoys writing the Tagalog language. Manila 1909." This verse-form of
a story at bottom the same as our two folk-tales is doubtless much
more recent than our folk-tales themselves, and is possibly based
on them directly, despite the anonymous author's statement as to the
unnamed novela that was his source. In the following summary of the
"Story of Edmundo," the numbers in parentheses refer to stanzas of
the original Tagalog text.
"Edmundo."
In Villa Amante there lived a poor widow, Merced by name, who had to
work very hard to keep her only son, the infant Edmundo, alive. Her
piety and industry were rewarded, however; and by the time the
boy was seven years old, she was able to clothe him well and send
him to school. Her brother Tonio undertook the instruction of the
youth. Edmundo had a good head, and made rapid progress. (7-41)
One day Merced fell sick, and, although she recovered in a short time,
Edmundo decided to give up studying and to help his mother earn their
living. He became a wood-cutter. (42-53)
At last fortune came to him. In one of his wanderings in the forest in
search of dry wood, he happened upon an enormous python. He would have
fled in terror had not the snake spoken to him, to his amazement, and
requested him to pull from its throat the stag which was choking it. He
performed the service for the reptile, and in turn was invited to the
cave where it lived. Out of gratitude the python gave Edmundo a magic
mirror that would furnish the possessor with whatever he wanted. With
the help of this charm, mother and son soon had everything they needed
to make them happy. (54-91)
At about this time King Romualdo of France decided to look for a
husband for his daughter, the beautiful Leonora. He was unable to pick
out a son-in-law from the many suitors who presented themselves; and
so he had it proclaimed at a concourse of all the youths of the realm,
"Whoever can fill my cellar with money before morning shall have the
hand of Leonora." Edmundo was the only one to accept the challenge,
for failure to perform the task meant death. At midnight he took
his enchanted mirror and commanded it to fill the king's cellar
with money. In the morning the king was astonished at the sight,
but there was no way of avoiding the marriage. So Leonora became the
wife of the lowly-born wood-cutter. The young couple went to Villa
Amante to live. There, to astonish his wife, Edmundo had a palace
built in one night. She was dumfounded to awake in the morning and
find herself in a magnificent home; and when she asked him about
it, he confided to her the secret of his wonderful charm. Later,
to gratify the humor of the king, who visited him, Edmundo ordered
his mirror to transport the palace to a seacoast town. There he and
his wife lived very happily together. (92-211)
One day Leonora noticed from her window two vessels sailing towards the
town. Her fears and premonitions were so great, that Edmundo, to calm
her, sank the ships by means of his magic power. But the sinking of
these vessels brought misfortunes. Their owner, the Sultan of Turkey,
learned of the magic mirror possessed by Edmundo (how he got this
information is not stated), and hired an old woman to go to France
in the guise of a beggar and steal the charm. She was successful
in getting it, and then returned with it to her master. The Sultan
then invaded France, and with the talisman, by which he called to his
aid six invincible giants, conquered the country. He took the king,
queen, and Leonora as captives back with him to Turkey. Edmundo was
left in France to look after the affairs of the country. (212-296)
Edmundo became melancholy, and at last decided to seek his wife. He
left his mother and his servant behind, and took with him only a
diamond ring of Leonora's, his cat, and his dog. While walking along
the seashore, wondering how he could cross the ocean, he saw a huge
fish washed up on the sand. The fish requested him to drag it to the
water. When Edmundo had done so, the fish told him to get on its back,
and promised to carry him to Leonora. So done. The fish swam rapidly
through the water, Edmundo holding his dog and cat in his breast. The
dog was soon washed "overboard," but the cat clung to him. After a
ride of a day and a night, the fish landed him on a strange shore. It
happened to be the coast of Turkey. (297-313)
Edmundo stopped at an inn, pretending to be a shipwrecked
merchant. There he decided to stay for a while, and there he found
out the situation of Leonora in this wise. Now, it happened that
the Sultan used to send to this inn for choice dishes for Leonora,
whom he was keeping close captive. By inquiry Edmundo learned of the
close proximity of his wife, and one day he managed to insert her
ring into one of the eggs that were to be taken back to her. She
guessed that he was near; and, in order to communicate with him,
she requested permission of the king to walk with her maid in the
garden that was close by the inn. She saw Edmundo, and smiled on him;
but the maid noticed the greeting, and reported it to the Sultan. The
Sultan ordered the man summoned; and when he recognized Edmundo,
he had him imprisoned and put in stocks. (314-350)
Edmundo was now in despair, and thought it better to die than live;
but his faithful cat, which had followed him unnoticed to the prison,
saved him. In the jail there were many rats. That night the cat began
to kill these relentlessly, until the captain of the rats, fearing
that his whole race would be exterminated, requested Edmundo to tie up
his cat and spare them. Edmundo promised to do so on condition that
the rat bring him the small gold-rimmed mirror in the possession of
the Sultan. At dawn the rat captain arrived with the mirror between
its teeth. Out of gratitude Edmundo now had his mirror bring to life
all the rats that had been slain. (351-366)