Filipino Popular Tales, by Dean S. Fansler

Juan the Orphan

Narrated by Leopoldo Uichanco, a Tagalog from Calamba, La Laguna.

There once lived a boy whose name was Juan. His parents had died,

leaving Juan nothing but a horse. As he did not have a place at home

in which to keep the animal, he begged his Uncle Diego to let the

horse stay in his stable. From time to time Juan went to the stable

to feed his horse. He loved the animal, and took as great care of it

as a father would of a son.

One day Uncle Diego noticed that Juan's horse was growing fatter and

more beautiful than any of his own animals. In his envy he killed the

horse of his nephew, and said to the innocent boy that the animal had

been stricken by "bad air." Being thus deprived of his sole wealth,

Juan cut off the best meat from the dead horse, and with this food

for his only provision he set out to seek his fortune in another

country. On his way through a forest he came across an old man dying

of starvation; but the old man had with him a bag full of money.

"Pray," said the old man, talking with difficulty in his pain and

weakness, "what have you in your sack, my son?"

"Some dried horse-meat," said Juan.

"Let me see!" The old man looked into the sack, and saw with watering

mouth the sweet-smelling meat. "Will you exchange your sack of meat

for my sack of money?" he said to Juan. "I have money here, but I

cannot eat it. Nor can I go to the town to buy food, because I am too

weak. Since you are stronger, my son, pray take this sack of money in

exchange, and go to the town and buy meat with it for yourself. For

God's sake, leave this meat to me! I am starving to death."

Juan accepted the money in exchange for his meat, and pretended to

feel great pity for the old man. He put the heavy bag of money on his

shoulder, and with difficulty carried it home. "Uncle Diego!" Juan

called out from the foot of his uncle's ladder, "come here! Please

come here and help me carry this bag upstairs!"

"Tremendous sum of money," Uncle Diego remarked to his nephew. "Where

did you get it?"

"I sold the meat of my dead horse. This is what I got for it,"

said Juan.

The uncle once more became jealous of Juan. "If with only one horse,"

he muttered to himself, "he could gain so much money, how much should I

get for my fifteen horses!" So he killed all the horses he had in his

stable and cut the meat from them. Then he placed the meat in bags,

and, carrying two on his shoulders, he cried as he went along the

street, "Meat, meat! Horse-meat! Who wishes to buy fresh horse-meat?"

"How much?" asked a gray-headed old woman who was looking out of

the window.

"Three hundred ninety-nine thousand pesos, ninety-nine pesetas,

six and one half centavos a pound," said Uncle Diego.

The people who heard him only laughed, and thought that something was

the matter with his head. Nobody would buy his meat. Nobody cared to

deal with him in earnest, and all his meat decayed.

He went home in despair, and planned to take vengeance on his nephew

for the mischief he had done him. He cast the little orphan into

a big sack, and sewed the mouth of the little prison all up. Then

he said that at night he would take the sack and throw it into the

river. However, Juan managed to get out of the bag, and in his place

he put a muzzled dog. When night came, the uncle shouldered the bag,

took it to the river, and hurled it into the deep water. He hoped

that Juan would perish there, and that he himself could gain full

possession of his nephew's money.

But when morning came, Uncle Diego saw Juan smilingly enter the door

of his house. "Juan," said the uncle, "I am surprised to see you

again. Tell me all about how you managed to escape from the sack."

"Oh, no, Uncle!" returned Juan, "I haven't time; there is not a moment

to lose. I have only come here to bid you good-by."

"And where are you going?"

"Back to the bottom of the river. My love, the Sirena, is waiting

for me."

"O Juan!" pleaded the uncle, "if I could only go with you!"

"No, no, no!" protested the boy. "Only one can go at a time. The

Sirena would be angry, and she would consequently refuse to admit to

her glorious habitation any being from this outside world."

"Then let me go first!"

"No, no, no!" said the boy.

But the uncle pleaded so earnestly, that finally the boy yielded with

pretended reluctance. The uncle then covered himself with a rice-sack,

and Juan tied the mouth of the bag securely. "I will fool him," Uncle

Diego said to himself. "When I am under the water and the Sirena

takes me to her house to become her husband, I shall never come back

to Juan. Ha, ha, ha!"

"I will fool him," Juan said to himself. "There is no such thing as

the Sirena in the river. Thank God, my dreadful uncle will soon be

disposed of!" At midnight Juan hurled his happy uncle into the river,

saying, "There is no one who owes that must not pay his debt.

May my act be justified!"

The heavy sack sank to the bottom of the river, and nothing more was

heard of Uncle Diego.