Filipino Popular Tales | Page 9

called on for further demonstration of his skill, hero
burns his "magic" book.
These incidents are distributed among the four forms of the story as
follows:--
Version a A1A4C1C3DEG Version b A1A2BB1C1C2DEG Version c
A1A2BCC2DE(accidentally hears answer)FH Version d A1A3A4EB
A concluding adventure is sometimes added to version c, "Juan the
Guesser." King and queen of another country visit palace of Juan's
father-in-law and want their newly-born child baptized. Juan is selected

to be godfather. When called upon to sign the baptism certificate, he
instantly dies of shame, pen in hand: he cannot write even his own
name.

A connection between our story and Europe at once suggests itself. "Dr.
Knowall" (Grimm, No. 98) is perhaps the best-known, though by no
means the fullest, Western version. Bolte and Polívka (2 [1915] : 402)
give the skeleton of the cycle as follows:--
A1 A peasant with the name of Crab (Cricket, Rat), who buys a
physician's costume and calls himself Dr. Knowall, or (A2) who would
like to satiate himself once with three days' eating, (B) discovers the
thieves who have stolen from a distinguished gentleman a ring
(treasure), by calling out upon the entrance of the servants (or at the
end of the three days), "That is the first (second, third)!" (C) He also
guesses what is in the covered dish (or closed hand) while
commiserating himself, "Poor Crab (Cricket, Rat)!" (D1) Through a
purgative he by chance helps to find a stolen horse, or (D2) he
discovers the horse that has previously been concealed by him. (E) He
gets a living among the peasants, upon whom he has made an
impression with a short or unintelligible sermon or through the
crashing-down of the pulpit, which has previously been sawed through
by him.
Bolte lists over a hundred and fifty stories containing one or more
incidents of this cycle. The discovery of the ring inside a domestic fowl
(sometimes animal) is found in most of the European versions, as is
likewise the "ejaculation guess" (our C3 and G).
These two details, however, are also found in Oriental forms of the
story, which, as a whole, have some peculiarly distinctive traits. These
(see Bolte-Polívka, 2 : 407) are (1) the rôle of the wife, (2) the
collapsing of the room, (3) the burning of the magic book. The
appearance in the Philippine versions of two of these motifs (one in
modified form), together with a third (the betting-contest between the
two kings, which is undoubtedly Eastern in origin), leads us to believe
that our story of "Juan the Guesser" is in large measure descended
directly from Oriental tradition, though it may owe something to
Occidental influence.
In two of our variants it is the mother who in her fond pride places her

son in jeopardy of losing his head. As the hero is a young bachelor
when the story opens, the exploitation of his prowess would naturally
devolve upon his mother. The burning of the magic book is found in
version c, though the incident of the collapsing of the room or house is
lacking in all our variants. The most characteristic episode, however, in
the Philippine members of this cycle, is the betting-contest between the
two kings. It is introduced five times into the four tales. Its only other
occurrence that I know of in this cycle is in an Arabian story cited by
Cosquin (2 : 192), which follows.
One day, when the king was boasting of his conjurer before some other
kings, they said to him, "We too have some diviners. Let us compare
their wits with the wisdom of your man." The kings then buried three
pots,--one filled with milk, another with honey, and the third with pitch.
The conjurers of the other kings could not say what was in the pots.
Then Asfour (the hero) was called. He turned to his wife, and said, "All
this (trouble) comes of you. We could have left the country. The first
(time) it was milk; the second, honey; the third, pitch." The kings were
dumfounded. "He has named the milk, the honey, and the pitch without
hesitation," they said, and they gave him a pension.
The close resemblance between this detail and the corresponding one
(F) in "Juan the Guesser" is immediately evident. The fact that the
difficulty in Juan's career is overcome, not by an "ejaculation guess,"
but by a providential accident (much the same thing, however), does
not decrease the significance of the two passages.
That the betting-contest between the two kings is an Oriental
conception (very likely based on actual early custom) is further borne
out by its appearance in a remarkable group of Eastern stories of the
"Clever Lass" type (see Child, English and Scottish Ballads, 1 : 11).
"The gist of these narratives," writes Professor