Filipino Popular Tales | Page 8

I will give
you that casco filled with gold and silver on the sea; but if he fails, you
are to give me the same amount of money as I have brought."
The king agreed. Mayabong told him that they would meet at the public
square the next day.
When Mayabong had gone away, the king called Suan, and said,
"Mayabong has challenged me to a contest. You are to guess how many
seeds the melons he has contain. Can you do it?" Suan was ashamed to
refuse; so, even though he knew that he could not tell how many seeds
a melon contained, he answered, "Yes."
When night came, Suan could not sleep. He was wondering what to do.

At last he decided to drown himself in the sea. So he went to the shore
and got into a tub. "I must drown myself far out, so that no one may
find my body. If they see it, they will say that I was not truly a good
guesser," he said to himself. He rowed and rowed until he was very
tired. It so happened that he reached the place where Mayabong's casco
was anchored. There he heard somebody talking. "How many seeds has
the green melon?" said one. "Five," answered another. "How many
seeds has the yellow one?"--"Six."
When Suan heard how many seeds each melon contained, he
immediately rowed back to shore and went home.
The next morning Suan met Mayabong at the public square, as agreed.
Mayabong held up a green melon, and said, "How many seeds does this
melon contain?"
"Five seeds," answered Suan, after uttering some Latin words.
The melon was cut, and was found to contain five seeds. The king
shouted, "We are right!"
Mayabong then held up another melon, and said, "How many does this
one contain?"
Seeing that it was the yellow melon, Suan said, "It contains six."
When the melon was cut, it was found that Suan was right again. So he
won the contest.
Now, Mayabong wanted to win his money back again. So he took a
bottle and filled it with dung, and covered it tightly. He challenged the
king again to a contest. But when Suan refused this time, because he
had no idea as to what was in the bottle, the king said, "I let you marry
my daughter, because I thought that you were a good guesser. Now you
must prove that you are. If you refuse, you will lose your life."
When Mayabong asked what the bottle contained, Suan, filled with
rage, picked it up and hurled it down on the floor, saying, "I consider
that you are all waste to me." [7] When the bottle was broken, it was
found to contain waste, or dung. In great joy the king crowned Suan to
succeed him. Thus Suan lived happily the rest of his life with his wife
the princess.

Notes.
Two other printed variants are--
(c) "Juan the Guesser" (in H. E. Fansler's Types of Prose Narratives

[Chicago, 1911], pp. 73-77).
(d) "Juan Pusong" (JAFL 19 : 107-108).
This story seems to be fairly widespread among the Filipinos: there is
no doubt of its popularity. The distinguishing incidents of the type are
as follows:--
A1 Lazy son decides that he will go to school no longer, and (A2) with
his ABC book or a pencil and pad of paper, he has no trouble in making
his parents think him wise. (A3) He tells his mother that he has learned
to be a prophet and can discover hidden things. (A4) He spies on his
mother, and then "guesses" what she has prepared for supper.
B He hides his father's plough (cattle), and then finds it for him. (B1)
Plays similar trick on his uncle, thereby establishing his reputation as a
diviner.
C King's daughter loses ring, and the king sends for Juan to find it
under penalty of death if he fails, or (C1) his mother volunteers her
son's services. (C2) He accidentally discovers the thief by an
ejaculation of sorrow, or (C3) shrewdly picks out the guilty one from
among the soldiers.
In either case he causes the ring to be hid in a secret place or swallowed
by a goose (turkey), in whose body it is found the next day.
D Juan marries the princess.
E By overhearing a conversation, Juan is able to tell the number of
seeds in an orange (melon), and to win a large sum of money from a
neighboring king who has come to bet with hero's father-in-law.
F Hero required to accept another bet, as to the contents of three jars.
(Method as in E,--swimming out to neighboring king's casco and
overhearing conversation.)
G Ejaculation guess as to contents of golden ball (bottle).
H Afraid of being