Filipino Popular Tales

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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,
Riviere, 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 denouement, 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 Serafica, 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-Polivka, 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.