Filipino Popular Tales
Copyright, 1921
By The American Folklore Society
All rights reserved.
The folk-tales in this volume, which were collected in the Philippines during the years from 1908 to 1914, have not appeared in print before. They are given to the public now in the hope that they will be no mean or uninteresting addition to the volumes of Oriental Märchen already in existence. The Philippine archipelago, from the very nature of its geographical position and its political history, cannot but be a significant field to the student of popular stories. Lying as it does at the very doors of China and Japan, connected as it is ethnically with the Malayan and Indian civilizations, Occidentalized as it has been for three centuries and more, it stands at the junction of East and West. It is therefore from this point of view that these tales have been put into a form convenient for reference. Their importance consists in their relationship to the body of world fiction.
The language in which these stories are presented is the language in which they were collected and written down,—English. Perhaps no apology is required for not printing the vernacular herewith; nevertheless an explanation might be made. In the first place, the object in recording these tales has been a literary one, not a linguistic one. In the second place, the number of distinctly different languages represented by the originals might be baffling even to the reader interested in linguistics, especially as our method of approach has been from the point of view of cycles of stories, and not from the point of view of the separate tribes telling them. In the third place, the form of prose tales among the Filipinos is not stereotyped; and there is likely to be no less variation between two Visayan versions of the same story, or between a Tagalog and a Visayan, than between the native form and the English rendering. Clearly Spanish would not be a better medium than English: for to-day there is more English than Spanish spoken in the Islands; besides, Spanish never penetrated into the very lives of the peasants, as English penetrates to-day by way of the school-house. I have endeavored to offset the disadvantages of the foreign medium by judicious and painstaking directions to my informants in the writing-down of the tales. Only in very rare cases was there any modification of the original version by the teller, as a concession to Occidental standards. Whatever substitutions I have been able to detect I have removed. In practically every case, not only to show that these are bona fide native stories, but also to indicate their geographical distribution, I have given the name of the narrator, his native town, and his province. In many cases I have given, in addition, the source of his information. I am firmly convinced that all the tales recorded here represent genuine Filipino tradition so far as the narrators are concerned, and that nothing has been “manufactured” consciously.
Unknown
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Preface.
Contents.
Filipino Stories given in the Notes.
Bibliography.
Suan’s Good Luck.
Suan Eket.
Notes.
The Charcoal-maker Who Became King.
Notes.
The Story of Carancal.
Notes.
Suac and His Adventures.
The Three Friends,—The Monkey, the Dog, and the Carabao.
Notes.
How Suan Became Rich.
The King’s Decisions.
Notes.
The Four Blind Brothers.
Juan the Blind Man.
Teofilo the Hunchback, and the Giant.
Juan and the Buringcantada.
The Manglalabas.
Notes.
Sagacious Marcela.
King Tasio.
Notes.
“Cay Calabasa: The Life of a Shepherdess born in a town, who became the Wife of a King because of a Pumpkin.”
The Story of Rodolfo.
The Story of Zaragoza.
Juan the Peerless Robber.
Notes.
The Seven Crazy Fellows.
Notes.
Juan Manalaksan.
Juan the Poor, Who became Juan the King.
Notes.
“Edmundo.”
Lucas The Strong.
Juan and His Six Companions.
The Story of King Palmarin.
Notes.
The Three Brothers.
Three Brothers of Fortune.
Pablo and the Princess.
Legend of Prince Oswaldo.
Notes.
Story of the Four Brahman Brothers who Resuscitated the Lion.
The Goldsmith, the Carpenter, the Tailor, and the Hermit who Quarrelled about a Wooden Woman.
Who Invented Woman?
Story of the Three Young Brahmans who Restored a Dead Lady to Life.
The Rich and the Poor.
Lucas the Rope-maker.
Notes.
The King and the Dervish.
The Mysterious Book.
Notes.
The Miraculous Cow.
Notes.
The Clever Husband and Wife.
Notes.
The Three Brothers.
Notes.
Juan and His Adventures.
Notes.
Juan Wearing a Monkey’s Skin.
Notes.
How Salaksak Became Rich.
Clever Juan and Envious Diego.
Ruined because of Invidiousness.
The Two Friends.
Juan the Orphan.
Notes.
Is He the Crafty Ulysses?
Notes.
The Reward of Kindness.
Notes.
Pedro and Satan.
Notes.
The Devil and the Guachinango.
Notes.
Mabait and the Duende.
Juan Sadut.
Notes.
An Act of Kindness.
Notes.
The Indolent Husband.
Notes.
Cecilio, the Servant of Emilio.
Notes.
Chonguita.
Notes.
The Golden Lock.
Notes.
Who is the Nearest Relative?
Notes.
With One Centavo Juan Marries a Princess.
Notes.
The Three Humpbacks.
The Seven Humpbacks.
Notes.
Respect Old Age.
The Golden Rule.
Notes.
Cochinango.
Notes.
Pedro and the Witch.
Notes.
Notes.
A Negrito Slave.
Notes.
Alberto and the Monsters.
Notes.
Juan and Maria.
Notes.
Juan and Maria.
Pitong.
The Enchanted Prince.
Notes.
The Prince’s Dream.
Note.
The Wicked Woman’s Reward.
Note.
The Magic Ring (“Ang Singsing Nga Tantanan”).
Note.
Maria and the Golden Slipper.
Abadeja.
Notes.
Juan the Poor.
Notes.
The Fate of an Envious Woman.
Notes.
The Monkey and Juan Pusong Tambi-tambi.
Andres the Trapper.
Notes.
Juan the Fool.
Notes.
Ricardo and his Adventures.
Juan and the Robbers.
The Adventure of two Robbers.
Juan Sadut.
Juan Loco.
Juan and his Painted Hat.
Notes.
Juan and Clotilde.
Notes.
The Poor Man and his Three Sons.
Notes.
The Denied Mother.
Notes.
Tomarind and the Wicked Datu.
Note.
Fables and Animal Stories.
The Turtle and the Monkey.
The Monkey and the Turtle.
The Monkey and the Turtle.
Notes.
The Monkey and the Crocodile.
Tagalog Version.
Zambal Version.
Notes.
The Monkeys and the Dragon-Flies.
Notes.
The Battle between the Birds and the Beasts.
The Monkey, the Turtle, and the Crocodile.
Notes.
The Iguana and the Turtle.
Notes.
The Trial among the Animals.
The Pugu’s Case.
Why Mosquitoes Hum and Try to get into the Holes of our Ears.
A Tyrant.
Notes.
The Greedy Crow.
Notes.
The Humming-bird and the Carabao.
Notes.
The Camanchile and the Passion.
Note.
Auac and Lamiran.
Notes.
“Just-So” Stories.
Why the Ant is not so Venomous as the Snake.
Notes.
Why Locusts Are Harmful.
Notes.
The Origin of Locusts.
The Origin of Locusts.
How Lansones Became Edible.
Notes.
Why Cocks Fight One Another.
Note.
Why Bats Fly at Night.
Note.
Why the Sun Shines more Brightly than the Moon.
Notes.
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars.
Why the Culing has a Tonsure.
The Culeto and the Crow.
The Hawk and the Coling.
Notes.
Why the Cow’s Skin is Loose on the Neck.
The First Loose-Skinned Cow and the First Tight-Skinned Carabao.
Note.
Why the Monkey is Wise.
Notes.
Origin of the Monkey.
The First Monkey.
The Lost Necklace.
The Cock and the Sparrow-Hawk.
Note.
The Story of our Fingers.
Note.
Why Snails Climb up Grass.
Why the Cuttle-Fish and Squids Produce a Black Liquid.
Why Cocks have Combs on their Heads.
Note.
How the Crow became Black.
Why the Crow is Black.
The Dove and the Crow.
Notes.
Why the Ocean is Salty.
Note.
Why the Sky is Curved.
Why the Sky is High.
Notes.
An Unequal Match; Or, Why the Carabao’s Hoof is Split.
Notes.
The Deer and the Snail.
Appendix.
Supplementary Bibliography.
Supplementary Notes.
Colophon
Availability
Encoding
Revision History
External References
Corrections