Filipino Popular Tales

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Now, this old woman had three daughters. When she reached home with
the bear-like man, she called her eldest daughter, and said, "Now,
my daughter, here is a man who delivered me from prison. As I can do
nothing to reward him for his great kindness, I want you to take him
for your husband."

The daughter replied, "Mother, why have you brought this ugly man
here? No, I cannot marry him. I can find a better husband."

On hearing this harsh reply, the mother could not say a word. She
called her second daughter, and explained her wishes to her; but the
younger daughter refused, just as her sister had refused, and she
made fun of the man.

The mother was very much disappointed, but she was unable to persuade
her daughters to marry her benefactor. Finally she determined to try
her youngest daughter. When the daughter heard her mother's request,
she said, "Mother, if to have me marry this man is the only way by
which you can repay him for his kindness, I'll gladly marry him." The
mother was very much pleased, but the two older daughters were very
angry with their sister. The mother told the man of the decision of
her youngest daughter, and a contract was signed between them. But
before they were married, the bear-like man asked permission from the
girl to be absent for one more year to finish his duty. She consented
to his going, and gave him half her ring as a memento.

At the end of the year, which was the last of his seven years'
wandering, the bear-like man went to the Devil, and told him that he
had finished his duty. The Devil said, "You have beaten me. Now that
you have performed your seven years' wandering, and have spent the
money honestly, let us exchange clothes again!" So the man received
back his soldierlike suit, which made him look like a knight, and
the Devil took back his bear-skin.

Then the man returned to Clara's [72] house. When his arrival was
announced to the family, the two older daughters dressed themselves in
their best, for they thought that he was a suitor come to see them;
but when the man showed the ring and asked for the hand of Clara's
youngest daughter, the two nearly died with vexation, while the
youngest daughter was very happy.

Notes.

This story is a variant of Grimm, No. 101, "Bear-Skin," which it
follows fairly closely from the point where the hero makes his pact
with the Devil. The bibliography of this cycle is fully given in
Bolte-Polivka, 2 : 427-435, to which I have nothing to add except
this story itself! Our version is the only one so far recorded from
the Orient, and there can be no doubt that it is derived directly
from Europe. Ralston and Moe seem to detect a relationship between
this cycle and a Hindoo saga translated into Chinese in the seventh
century, and from the Chinese into French in the middle of the
nineteenth century, by the French orientalist Stanislas Julien; but
Bolte is of the opinion (p. 435) that there is probably no connection
between the two. In any case, to judge from recorded variants, the
Tagalog story is an importation from the Occident.

And yet there are not a few deviations in our version from the norm,
if Grimm's tale may be considered representative of the cycle. The most
important of these is the opening, which is one form of the "Promised
Child" opening (see Macculloch, 415 ff.). This formula of a childless
couple finally promising in despair to let their child serve even
the Devil if they are granted offspring, or to be satisfied with an
animal-child or some other monstrosity, is a favorite one in Filipino
Maerchen (cf. Nos. 3 and variants, 19 and variant, and 23), and its
use here may have been influenced by the beginning of the next tale.

Other differences may be noted briefly: (1) The compact made between
the hero and the Devil does not include the characteristic prohibitions
in the European versions; namely, that the hero is not to comb his
hair, wash himself, trim his beard, etc., during his seven years of
wandering. The Devil seems to rely merely on his bear-suit, which
he makes the hero wear, to produce insurmountable difficulties. It
may be that the prohibitions mentioned above were omitted because
they involved conditions wholly foreign to Filipino conception. The
natives take great pride in their hair, and always dress it carefully,
are scrupulously clean personally, and are beardless! I can cite no
parallel in folk-tales for the condition substituted; i.e., if the
wanderer does good with his money, the Devil will have no power over
him at the end of the seven years, while, if he spends it extravagantly
and foolishly, he goes to hell. Perhaps none need be sought outside
of actual experience. (2) The hero is supplied with money from a large
bag which the Devil gives him, not from the inexhaustible pockets of a
magic green coat, as in Grimm. The mention of the hero's soldier-suit,
by the way, since nothing has been said earlier in the story of his
having followed the profession of arms, is likely a reminiscence of
the characteristic opening of the European versions, where it is a
poor soldier who has the experience with the Devil. (3) The person
ransomed by the hero in our story is an old woman instead of an old
man. (4) The two disappointed sisters do not kill themselves, and hence
the Devil does not reappear at the end of the story,--as he does in
Grimm,--and say, "I have now got two souls in the place of thy one!"

The broken-ring recognition on the return home is a feature which I
believe occurs in no other Filipino folk-tale, but is met with not
infrequently in European saga and story (cf. Koehler-Bolte, 117, 584;
see also Bolte-Polivka, 1 : 234; 2 : 348).

TALE 23

Pedro and Satan.

Narrated by Pedro D. L. Sorreta, a Bicol from Catanduanes, who heard
the story when he was a little boy.

Once upon a time there lived a very rich man, whose wife had
never given birth to a child. The couple had already made several
pilgrimages, and had spent great sums of money for religious
services, in the hope that God might give them a child, even though
a sickly one, to inherit their money; but all their efforts were
in vain. Disappointed, the man resolved to rely upon Satan for the
performance of his wish.

One dark night, when he was thinking hard about the matter, he heard
a voice say, "Your wish will be quickly fulfilled if you but ask me
for it." The rich man was so filled with joy, that he turned towards
the voice and knelt before the invisible speaker: "I will give you
my life, and even my wife's, in return for a son who will be the heir
to my riches," said the man. Meanwhile he perceived in front of him a
figure which in an instant assumed the form of Satan. At first he was
frightened; but his fear was only momentary, and he was eager to hurry
up the agreement with Satan, so that he might receive the child. They
therefore made a golden document which provided that the first child
of the heir was to be given to the Devil at the age of ten, and that
the man and his wife were no longer God's subjects, but Satan's.

After the agreement had been made, the Devil promised the rich man
that his wife would give birth to the longed-for son early the next
morning. Then he disappeared. The child was born at the appointed
time, and grew wonderfully fast, for in five days he was a full-grown
youth. But the parents could not but blame themselves for their
impious act. They intended to keep the secret from their son; but
they could not do so, for the boy was always asking about the nature
of his existence. So when Pedro--they called him by this name--knew
of his pitiful lot, he decided not to marry until he had succeeded
in wresting the golden document from the hands of Satan.

Now, Pedro knew that devils do not like crosses, and cannot even stay
where they have to look at them. So one day he asked his mother to make
for him two gowns, one having little crosses hanging from it. When
these had been finished, Pedro asked his father to give him over to
Satan, so that he might work with the demons in hell. No sooner had
he expressed his desire to his father than the Devil appeared and took
the young man off to his kingdom. There Pedro was assigned the task of
directing the demons in hauling the logs that were to be used for fuel.

Pedro ordered the demons to tie a strong piece of rope to one end of a
log, and ordered them to pull it while he stood on the other end. Every
time he counted "One, two, three!" he would hold up his outer gown;
and the demons, seeing the crosses, would run away in confusion. As
the devils could not endure Pedro's conduct, they ran to their master
Satan, and asked him to send the young man away, for he could not
do any work. The demons could not say anything about Pedro's trick,
however, for they did not dare even speak the word "cross." Satan
then summoned Pedro to his office, and had him work there.

Now, the young man had put a strong piece of rope under his gown. One
day, when Satan was taking his siesta in a rocking-chair, Pedro
tied him fast to the chair. Then he removed his outer gown and woke
Satan. The Devil with closed eyes struggled hard to escape; but he
could not get loose. So he humbly requested Pedro to go away and
leave him alone; but Pedro would neither leave him nor let him go. He
demanded the document, but Satan would not give it up. So Pedro kept on
frightening the Devil until at last Satan said that he would give up
the document if Pedro would release him. Pedro put on his outer robe,
and the Devil called his secretary and told him to give the golden
document to the young man. Pedro threw the bond into the fire; and when
he saw that it was completely melted, he took off his outer robe again,
and turned Satan loose. The Devil ran away exceedingly terrified.

Then Pedro went home, where his parents received him with great
joy. Thus by his cleverness he saved his parents and his future child
from a terrible fate.

Notes.

Like the preceding, this story is doubtless also an importation into
the Islands from Europe. It belongs to the general family of tales
known as the "Promised Child," but the narrative takes a turn which
leads into a special group of this family. The members of this group
are usually not long; and the stories, on the whole, are simple. A
parent promises, wittingly or unwittingly, his child to the Devil in
return for some service, and gives his signature to the bond. The
child grows up, and, noticing the dejection of his parents, forces
from them the secret of the pact. After equipping himself for the
struggle, he sets out for hell to recover the contract. In hell he
frightens or annoys the devils in various ways, and becomes such a
nuisance that finally the arch-fiend is glad to get rid of him by
surrendering the bond.

In a Lorraine story (Cosquin, No. LXIV, "Saint Etienne") "a woman
in confinement is visited by a grand gentleman, who persuades her to
sell her child to him for a large sum of money. He is to come for the
child in six or seven years. One day after a visit of the stranger,
the mother begins to suspect him of being the Devil. Her son notices
her sadness, and learns the secret that is troubling her. 'I'm not
afraid of the Devil,' he says boldly, and tells her to provide him with
a sheep-skin filled with holy water. Thus equipped, he sets off with
the stranger when the time comes, and, reaching hell, so frightens the
devils by sprinkling them with the holy water, that they are glad to
leave him in peace to return to his mother." In this story nothing
is said of a contract; but in a variant mentioned by Cosquin (2 :
232) a poor man signs in blood a bond according to which he agrees to
give up his son at the age of twenty to the rich stranger (Devil in
disguise) who has consented to be godfather to the infant. The demon
is finally put to flight with the aid of an image of the cross and
with the liberal use of holy water.

In a Wallachian story (Schott, No. 15) we find a close parallel
of incident to our story: the hero, acting on the advice of his
school-master, makes some ecclesiastical garments decorated with
crosses, and, dressed in these, he goes to hell and knocks on the
door. The demons, frightened by the sight, want to drive him away;
but he will not go until they surrender the parchment signed by his
father. This story differs from ours in the opening, however; for
the father is a poor fisherman, and promises unwittingly "that which
he loves most at home" in exchange for great riches. At the end of
the story, too, is added an episode of the conversion by the hero
of a band of robbers. With the beginning of this Wallachian story
compare the Italian "Lionbruno" (Crane, No. XXXVI). In a Lithuanian
tale (Chodzko, Contes des paysans et des patres slaves [Paris 1864],
p. 107), the hero, before setting out to meet the Devil, arms himself
with holy water and a piece of chalk blessed by the priest. With the
chalk he draws a magic circle about him, from which he throws water
on the demons until they give up the contract. For other variants,
see Cosquin, No. LXXV and notes.

Our story, while somewhat crude in style, is well motivated throughout,
and has one amusing episode for which I know no parallel, the tying
of Satan in his rocking-chair while he is taking his siesta, and
then frightening him into compliance, when he wakes, by displaying,
before him the cross-embroidered gown. The first task the hero is put
to when he enters hell--directing the hauling of logs for fuel--seems
more appropriate than that of draining two ponds, which the hero is
obliged to perform in Cosquin's "La Baguette Merveilleuse," No. LXXV.

The testimony of the narrator that he heard the story from one of
his playmates when he was a little boy, throws an interesting ray of
light on the way in which popular stories circulate in the Philippines.

TALE 24

The Devil and the Guachinango.

Narrated by Jose Laki of Guagua, Pampanga. He got the story from his
uncle, who heard it from an old Pampango story-teller.

There once lived in a suburb of a town a very religious old widow who
had a beautiful daughter, Piriang by name. Young men from different
parts of the town came to court Piriang, and the mother always
preferred the rich to the poor. Whenever Piriang's friends told her
that the man whom she rejected would have been a good match for her,
she always answered that she would rather have a devil for a husband
than such a man.

One day a devil heard Piriang giving this answer to one of her
friends. Thus encouraged, he disguised himself as a young man of
noble blood, and went to Piriang's house to offer her his love. The
mother and daughter received this stranger with great civility, for
he appeared to them to be the son of a nobleman. In the richness of
his dress he was unexcelled by his rivals. After he had been going to
Piriang's house for a few weeks, the old widow told him one day to
come prepared to be married on the following Tuesday. On the Sunday
before the wedding-day he had a long conversation with Piriang. He
calmly asked her to take off the cross that she had about her neck,
for it made her look ugly, he said. She refused to do so, however,
because she had worn this cross ever since she was a child. After he
had departed, Piriang told her mother what he had asked her to do.

The next day the mother went to the church. She told the priest that
Piriang's bridegroom had ordered her to take off her cross from her
neck. The priest said that that man was a devil; for no man, as a son
of God, would say that a cross made the one who wore it look ugly. The
priest gave the mother a small image of the Virgin Mary. He instructed
her to show the image to the bridegroom. If when he beheld it he turned
his back on her as she was holding it, she was to tie him around the
neck with her cintas. [73] Then she was to put him in a large jar,
and bury him at least twenty-one feet under the ground.

The mother went home very much distressed because she had allowed her
daughter to become engaged to a devil. She told Piriang not to talk
with her bridegroom, because she feared that he was a devil. That
night he came with his friend dressed like him. The mother was very
gracious to them. They talked about the wedding. When the old woman
held up the image of the Virgin Mary, the two men turned their backs
on her. She immediately wound her cintas around the neck of her
daughter's bridegroom, and Piriang came in with the dried tail of
a sting-ray in her right hand. She whipped him with this as hard as
she could. [74] Then the two together forced him to get into a large
jar. After warning him not to come back to earth again, the old woman
covered the jar with a piece of cloth wet with holy water. The other
devil suddenly disappeared.

The next morning a guachinango [75] happened to pass by the house of
the old woman. She called him in, showed him the jar, and told him
to bury it at least twenty-one feet deep. When he asked how much she
would pay him, she promised to give him ten pesos. He agreed: so,
putting the jar on his right shoulder, he set out. When he reached
a quiet place, he heard whispers behind him. He stopped and looked
around, but could see nothing. Then he put the jar on the ground to
rest a few minutes. Now he discovered that the whispers were coming
from inside the jar. He was very much surprised.

"What are you?" asked the guachinango. "Are you a man, or a devil?"

"I am a devil, my friend," answered the voice. "The old woman forced
me to go into this jar. Be kind to me, my friend, and liberate me!"

"I shall obey the old woman in order to get my pay," said the
guachinango. "I will bury you even deeper than twenty-one feet."

"If you will bury me just three feet deep," said the devil, "I will
give you a large sum of money."

"I will bury you just one and a half feet deep, if you can give me
much money," said the guachinango.

"I will give you five hundred pesos," said the devil. "Dig the ground
near the stump of that mabolo-tree. There you will find the money in
a dirty black purse."

After the guachinango had buried the devil, he went to the mabolo-tree
and took the money. Then he went to the nearest village and played
casino. As soon as he lost all his money, he returned to the devil. "I
have lost all the money you gave me," he said. "I will now bury you
twenty-one feet deep."

"No, do not bury me so deep as that, my friend!" said the devil
calmly. "I can give you twice as much money as I gave you before. You
will find it in the same place that you found the other."

The guachinango took the money and went to the village again
to gamble. Again he lost. He returned to the devil, and asked him
angrily why he always lost the money he gave him. "I don't know,"
answered the devil. "I have given you fifteen hundred pesos, but you
haven't even a cent now. You ought to set me free at once."

"Aha! I won't let you go," said the guachinango. "I will bury you
thirty-nine feet now."

"I have a plan in mind," said the devil, "which will benefit you
extremely; but before I explain my plan, let me ask you if you would
like to marry the daughter of the king."

"I have a great desire to be king some day," said the guachinango;
"but how can you make me the husband of a princess, when you are only
a devil, and I am nothing but a poor guachinango?"

"As soon as you set me free," said the devil, "I will enter the
mouth of the princess and go into her brains. Then I will give her
a very painful headache which no physician can cure. The king will
make an announcement saying that he who can cure his daughter of
her disease shall marry her. When you hear this announcement, go to
the palace at once, and offer your services to the king. As soon as
you reach the princess, tell me that you have come, and I will leave
her immediately. The princess will then recover her former health,
and you will be married to her. Do not fail to go to the palace,
for I am determined to reward you for your kindness to me."

After the guachinango had liberated the devil, he immediately set out
for the city. He had not been there three days when he met a group
of soldiers crying that "he who could cure the princess should have
her to wife." The guachinango stopped the soldiers, and said that
he could cure the princess. They took him before the king, where a
written agreement was made. If he could not cure the princess in three
days, he should lose his life; but if he cured her by the end of the
third day, he should marry her. The guachinango was then conducted
to the room of the princess. When he approached her, he said to
the devil that he had come. "You must leave the princess now; for,
if you don't, I shall be executed." But the devil refused to leave,
because he wanted to get revenge. He further told the guachinango
that he wanted him to die, for then his soul would go to hell.

The guachinango became more and more hopeless. On the morning of
the third day he thought of a good plan to get rid of his enemy. He
asked the king to order all the bells of the neighboring churches
to be tolled, while every one in the palace was to cry out loud,
"Here she comes!" While all this noise was going on, the guachinango
approached the princess, and told the devil that the old woman was
coming with her cintas. When the devil heard this, he was terribly
frightened, and left the princess and disappeared. The next day the
guachinango was married to the princess.

Notes.

From the testimony of the narrator, this capital story appears to
have been known in Pampanga for some time. The incident of the demon
entering the body of the princess, and then leaving at the request
of one who has befriended him, occurs in a Tagalog story also, which
I will give for the purpose of comparison. While the story is more
of a fairy-tale than a Maerchen proper, it appears to be a variant of
our No. 24. Significant differences between the two will be noted,
however. The Tagalog story was collected and written down for me by
Manuel Reyes, a native of Manila. It runs as follows:

Mabait and the Duende.

Menguita, a king of Cebu, had two slaves,--Mabait and Masama. Mabait
was honest and industrious, while Masama was envious and lazy. Mabait
did nearly all of the hard work in the palace, so he was admired very
much by the king. Masama, who was addicted to gambling, envied Mabait.

One night, while Mabait was asleep, a duende [76] awakened him, and
said, "I have seen how you labor here patiently and honestly. I want
to be your friend."

Mabait was amazed and frightened. He looked at the duende carefully,
and saw that it resembled a very small man with long hair and a white
beard. It was about a foot high. It had on a red shirt, a pair of
green trousers, a golden cap, and a pair of black shoes. At last
Mabait answered in a trembling voice, "I don't want to be a friend
of an evil spirit."

"I am not evil, I am a duende."

"I don't know what duendes are, so I don't want to be your friend."

"Duendes are wealthy and powerful spirits. They can perform magic. If
you are the friend of one of them, you will be a most fortunate man."

"How did you come into the world?" said Mabait.

"Listen! When Lucifer was an angel, a contest in creating animals
arose between him and God. He and his followers were defeated and
thrown into hell. Many angels in that contest belonged neither to
God's side not to Lucifer's. They were dropped on the earth. Those
that fell in the forests became tigbalangs, ikis, and mananangals;
[77] those in the seas became mermaids and mermen; and those in the
cities became duendes."

"Ah, yes! I know now what duendes are."

"Now let our friendship last forever," said the duende. "I am ready
at any time to help you in your undertakings."

From that time on Mabait and the duende were good friends. The duende
gave Mabait two or three isabels [78] every day, and by the end of
the month he had saved much money. He bought a fine hat and a pair
of wooden shoes.

Masama wondered how Mabait, who was very poor, could buy so many
things. At last he asked, "Where do you get money? Do you steal it?"

"No, my friend gives it to me."

"Who is your friend?"

"A duende."

Masama, in great envy, went to the king, and said, "Master, Mabait,
your favorite slave, has a friend. This friend is a duende, which
will be injurious to us if you let it live here. As Mabait said,
it will be the means of his acquiring all of your wealth and taking
your daughter for his wife."

The king, in great rage, summoned Mabait, and punished him severely by
beating his palms with a piece of leather. Then he ordered his servants
to find the duende and kill it. The duende hid in a small jar. Masama
saw it, and covered the mouth of the jar with a saint's dress. The
duende was afraid of the dress, and dared not come out. "Open the jar,
and I will give you ten isabels," said the little man.

"Give me the money first."

After Masama received the money, he went away to the cockpit without
opening the jar. On his way there he lost his money. He went back to
the duende, and said, "Friend, give me ten isabels more, and I will
open the jar."