Filipino Popular Tales, by Dean S. Fansler

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. 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. 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 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.