(7) Cooking rice-measures. Juan’s misunderstanding about cooking two measures of rice is almost exactly paralleled in a Santal story in Bompas, No. I. The story is entitled “Bajun and Jhore,” and this is the first of a series of noodle-like incidents:—
Once upon a time there were two brothers named Bajun and Jhore. Bajun was married, and one day his wife fell ill of fever. So, as he was going ploughing, Bajun told Jhore to stay at home and cook the dinner, and he bade him put into the pot three measures of rice. Jhore staid at home, and filled the pot with water and put it on to boil; then he went to look for rice-measures. There was only one in the house; and Jhore thought, “My brother told me to put in three measures, and if I only put in one, I shall get into trouble.” So he went to a neighbor’s house and borrowed two more measures, and put them into the pot, and left them to boil. At noon Bajun came back from ploughing, and found Jhore stirring the pot, and asked him whether the rice was ready. Jhore made no answer: so Bajun took the spoon from him, saying, “Let me feel how it is getting on!” but when he stirred with the spoon, he heard a rattling noise; and when he looked into the pot, he found no rice, but only three wooden measures floating about. Then he turned and abused Jhore for his folly; but Jhore said, “You yourself told me to put in three measures, and I have done so.” So Bajun had to set to work and cook the rice himself, and got his dinner very late.
This ludicrous mistake suggests a not dissimilar droll of the Tinguian (Cole, 198, No. 86):—
A man went to the other town. When he got there, the people were eating bamboo sprouts (labon). He asked them what they ate, and they said pangaldanen (the bamboo ladder is called aldan). He went home and had nothing to eat but rice: so he cut his ladder into small pieces, and cooked all day, but the bamboo was still very hard. He could not wait longer, so he called his friends, and asked why he could not make it like the people had in the other town. Then his friends laughed and told him his mistake.
For an almost identical Santal story, see Bompas, No. CXXIV, “The Fool and his Dinner.”
(8) The last two episodes—wearing of shoes only when crossing rivers and raising umbrella under tree, and the division of the fowl—we have discussed in the notes to No. 7 (see pp. 63–64, [9], [8]). Add to the bibliography given there, Bompas, No. CXXVIII, “The Father-in-law’s Visit,” which contains a close parallel to the first episode.
In conclusion I will give two other Filipino noodle stories, which, while not variants of any of those given above, have the same combination of stupidity and success as that found in “Juan the Fool.” The first is an Ilocano story narrated by Presentacion Bersamin of Bangued, Abra, and runs thus:—
Juan Sadut.
Juan Sadut was a very lazy fellow. His mother was a poor old woman, who earned their living by husking rice. What she earned each day was hardly enough to last them until the next. When a boy, Juan was left at home to watch over their hens and chickens. One day, as his mother went to work, she told Juan to take care of the little chicks, lest a hawk should get them. Now, Juan had been told this so many times, that he had grown tired of watching chickens: consequently, when his mother went away, he tied all the chickens and hens together, and hung them on a tree. He did this, because he thought that no bird of prey could see them there. In the evening, when his mother came home, she asked if everything was all right. Juan said, “Nana, I tied all the hens and chickens by their legs, and hung them in that tree, so that they would be safe.” The mother asked where they were. Juan showed them to her, but they were all dead. The mother was angry, and whipped Juan very severely.
Time passed on, and Juan grew up to be a man; but he was as lazy as ever. He wanted to get married, but the girl he had picked out was the daughter of a rich man; and his mother told him that he was not a good match for the girl, for they were very poor, and, besides, he was too lazy to support a wife. Still Juan was determined to marry the girl, and he thought out a way to get her. One day Juan went to work in the fields, and earned a peseta. The next day he earned another. Then he said to his mother, “Nana, please go to the father of Ines Cannogan (for such was the name of the girl) and borrow their salup (a half cocoanut-shell used for measuring). The mother went, and Ines asked her who had sent for the salup. The mother told her that her son Juan was a merchant that had just arrived from a successful trip. So the salup was lent. When returning the measure, Juan put the two pesetas in the husk of the cocoanut-shell, and told his mother to take it back to Ines, pesetas and all. When Ines examined the salup, she found the pesetas, and told her father all about them.