Filipino Popular Tales Part 42

Notes.

A close Tagalog parallel is to be found in the last part of the metrical romance ent.i.tled (in English translation) "The Life of Duke Almanzor and the Kind and Clever Maria, in the Kingdom of Toledo when it was under the Moors." My copy bears no date, but Retana mentions an edition before 1898 (No. 4159). The poem is in 402 quatrains of 12-syllable lines. The section which resembles our story begins at line 1260, and may be paraphrased in prose as follows:--

Soon after this, Almanzor was baptized (he had been a Moor), and was married to Maria. After a few months of happy life, the duke was called away to Cordova on important business. When Duke Almanzor arrived at the court of the Governor of Cordova, he found that all the n.o.blemen were present. As he arrived somewhat late, he excused himself by saying that he was newly married, and that he could not leave his wife any sooner. Among the n.o.bles was a proud, self-confident man named Abdala, who, when Almanzor had finished speaking, remarked that he (Abdala) did not mean to marry, as he could very easily seduce any woman, be she unmarried or a wife. Almanzor was angered by this remark. He said to Abdala, "I have my wife in Toledo: go and see if you can seduce her." Abdala said that there was no doubt of his being able to do so. A wager of death for the loser was agreed upon.

Abdala immediately set out for Toledo. He tried to gain access to the duke's palace; but ever since her husband's departure, Maria had ordered the servants to keep all the windows and doors closed. Moreover, n.o.body but women were allowed to enter the palace. Abdala was about to give up in despair, when he met a sorceress, who offered to help him. This witch gained admittance into the palace, and was allowed to pa.s.s the night there. At midnight the hag secretly went to Maria's bedroom and jotted down a brief description of it. Then she cut off a lock of Maria's hair. The next morning the witch left the palace. She went to Abdala, and gave him the lock of hair, together with the description of the bedroom.

Abdala hurriedly returned to Cordova. When he reached the palace, the governor at once a.s.sembled the n.o.bles. Abdala then showed the lock of hair, and described minutely Maria's bedroom. Almanzor was asked what he had to say. The n.o.ble duke said that he acknowledged to be true everything that Abdala had said. Then the governor ordered his guards to take the duke to prison. The duke was to be beheaded on the third day. While in prison, Duke Almanzor wrote to his wife, telling her of his coming death. Maria resolved at once to save her husband. She went to Cordova, carrying with her all her wealth. She had a famous jeweller make for her a large, beautiful ear-ring.

The third day came, and the soldiers took Duke Almanzor out of prison. The governor and all the n.o.bles accompanied the duke to the plaza where he was to be executed. Maria stopped the procession, and addressed the governor thus: "My lord, do you see this ear-ring?" The governor nodded. "Then I ask you to give me justice. My other ear-ring was stolen by that gentleman who is standing near you," and she pointed at Abdala as she made the accusation. Abdala became very angry. He said, "I don't know you; I have never seen you before. How could I steal your ear-ring?"--"Do you say that you have never seen me before?" Maria asked. "I do say so," said Abdala emphatically. "Why, then, do you claim that you have been in my room, and that I gave you a lock of my hair?" Maria demanded. Abdala could not answer. "Answer, Abdala," the governor said, But Abdala could not utter a single word. At last he confessed that he had never seen Maria, and that the description of the room and the lock of hair had been furnished him by a sorceress. The governor then ordered him to be seized. Duke Almanzor was set free. His wife gently reprimanded him for risking his life so foolishly. As for Abdala, he was beheaded, and the sorceress who helped him was burned at the stake.

In our notes to No. 7 we have already summarized the first part of the "Story of Rodolfo." The last episode of this romance is an a.n.a.logue of our present story, and runs briefly thus:--

After his marriage, Rodolfo went back to Valencia, and informed the king that he had found a virtuous woman and had married her. She was then in Babilonia. The king detained him for a few days in the palace. At the same time he sent Fortunato, a gallant, to court Rodolfo's wife, to test whether or not she was true to her husband. Fortunato went to Babilonia and declared his love to Estela; but she would have nothing to do with him. Ashamed to return to the palace without having won her affection, Fortunato stole her underskirt and took it to the king, stating that Estela had given it to him as a remembrance. Rodolfo was summoned: and when he saw the skirt with Adela's name on it, he was thunderstruck. The king then said, "You see, your wife is no more virtuous than my daughter Leocadia. Remember your boast; your life is forfeit." Rodolfo, however, asked for a complete investigation of his wife's alleged treachery. Estela was accordingly summoned to Valencia; and when asked how her underskirt happened to be there in the palace, she asked in turn who had brought it. "Fortunato," she was told. Then she said, "The underskirt is mine. The knight Fortunato declared his love to me, but I rejected it because I am married. He stole the underskirt while I was taking a bath, and ought to be punished." When confronted with the charge, Fortunato denied the theft, and maintained that he had been given the garment by Estela as a token of her love for him. When Rodolfo heard this denial, he begged the king to a.s.semble all the dignitaries and judges in the kingdom. Before the court Rodolfo asked Fortunato for definite proof to back up his a.s.sertions. He was unable to give any, and was consequently sentenced to be deported for ten years to a lonely island. Rodolfo and his wife were now honored by the king, and Rodolfo was finally made a knight.

Although this portion of the romance is only a distant a.n.a.logue of out story, inasmuch as it lacks both the wager and the clever trick of the wife to get her maligner to convict himself, I give it, because this same combination of the "chast.i.ty-wager" motive with the "hen-divided" motive (see first part of "Rodolfo," notes to No. 7) occurs in a Mentonese story, "La Femme Avisee" (Romania, II : 415-416).

The tale may be briefly summarized:--

A prince benighted in a forest is entertained for the night at a countryman's house. At dinner the prince carves the fowl, and gives the head to the father, the stomach to the mother, and the heart to the daughter. On the old man's complaining later of his guest's strange division of the bird, the girl explains to her father just why the prince acted as he did. The prince overhears her, admires her wit, falls in love with her, and marries her. Some time afterward the prince is called to Egypt on business. He leaves his wife behind at home, and she promises to be very discreet. The prince communicates her promise to a friend, who wagers that he will be able to tell the prince of any defects on her body. The friend goes to the home of the prince and bribes the lady-in-waiting. She informs him, that, beautiful as the young wife is, she has a strawberry-mark on her shoulder. When the prince, on his return, is told this intimate detail by his friend, he is very angry, and, going home, accuses his wife of faithlessness. She proves her innocence by going before the king and swearing that her maligner has stolen one of her golden slippers. He denies the charge, and swears that he has never seen his accuser before. Thus self-convicted, he is imprisoned for many years.

The Mentonese folk-tale and "Rodolfo" emphasize not only the virtue of the wife, but her cleverness as well, and definitely connect the "Chast.i.ty Wager" cycle with our No. 7. While it would be difficult to maintain successfully that the "Chast.i.ty Wager" cycle and the "Clever La.s.s" group are descended from the same parent,--I really believe the latter to be much the older,--it seems that we have a sort of combination of the two as early as the time of the "Tuti-nameh"

collection. In the following story taken from that compilation, traces of both cycles may be discerned, though clearly the tale is more nearly related as a whole to the "Chast.i.ty Wager" group. This Persian story is ent.i.tled "The n.o.bleman and the Soldier's Wife, whose Virtue he put to the Proof" (No. 4, pp. 42 ff., of "The Tootinameh; or, Tales of a Parrot" in the Persian Language, with an English Translation; Calcutta, 1792). An abridged version of it follows:--

In a certain city dwelt a military man who had a very beautiful wife. He was always under apprehension on her account; and one day, after he had been idle a long time, she asked him why he had quitted his profession. He answered, "I have no confidence in you, and therefore I do not go anywhere in quest of employment." The wife told him that he was perverse; for no one could seduce a virtuous woman, and a vicious woman no husband could guard successfully. Then she told him a story to ill.u.s.trate the second type of wife. When he asked if she had anything more to say to him, she replied, "It is right for you to travel and seek service. I will give you a fresh nosegay: as long as the nosegay continues in this stare, you may be a.s.sured that I have not committed any bad action; if the nosegay should wither, you will then know that I have been guilty of some fault." The soldier heeded her words, and set out on a journey, taking the nosegay with him. When he arrived at a certain city, he entered the service of a n.o.bleman of that place. Winter came on, and the n.o.bleman was astonished to see the soldier wearing a fresh nosegay every day, though flowers were practically unattainable, and he asked him about it. The soldier told him that his wife had given the nosegay to him as an emblem of her chast.i.ty; that as long as it continued fresh, he was sure that her honor was unspotted.

Now, the n.o.bleman had two cooks remarkable for their cunning and adroitness. To one of these he said, "Repair to the soldier's country, where, through artifice and deceit, contrive to form an intimacy with his wife, and return quickly with a particular account of her. Then we shall see whether this nosegay continues fresh or not." The cook, in accordance with his master's command, went to the soldier's city, and sent a procuress to the wife with his message. The wife did not a.s.sent directly, but told the procuress to send the man to her, so that she might see whether he was agreeable or not. The wife made a secret a.s.signation with the cook, but trapped him in a dry well; and when he found that he could not get out, he confessed the n.o.bleman's plot. When the cook did not return, the n.o.bleman sent the second cook; but he fared no better: he too was captured in the same way by the clever wife. Now the n.o.bleman resolved to go himself. He set out under the pretext of hunting, accompanied by the soldier. When they arrived at the soldier's city, the soldier went to his own home and presented the fresh nosegay to his wife, who told him all that had happened. So the next day the soldier conducted the n.o.bleman to his home, where a hospitable entertainment was given him. The two cooks, under promise of subsequent liberty, consented to dress as women and wait on the guests. When the n.o.bleman saw them, he failed to recognize them, for their long confinement and bad air had made them thin and pale. He asked the soldier about the "girls," but the soldier told the cooks to tell their own story. Then the n.o.bleman recognized them; and when they testified to the woman's chast.i.ty, he was abashed, and asked forgiveness for his offences.

Another Oriental form of this story is given by Somadeva, chapter XIII (Tawney, 1 : 85 f.), "The Story of Devasmita." It runs in part as follows:--

Here, on the departure of the husband, the divinity Siva says to the couple, "Take each of you one of these red lotuses; and, if either of you shall be unfaithful during your separation, the lotus in the hand of the other shall fade, but not otherwise." Then the husband set out for another city, where he began to buy and sell jewels. Four merchants of that country, astonished at the never-fading lotus in his hand, wormed the secret out of the husband by making him drunk, and then planned the seduction of the wife out of mere curiosity. To aid them in their plan, they had recourse to a female ascetic. She went to the wife, and attempted to move her to pity by showing her a weeping b.i.t.c.h, which she said was once a woman, but was transformed into a dog because of her hard-heartedness [for this device worked with better success; see Gesta Romanorum, chap. XXVIII]. The wife divined the plot and the motive of the young merchants, and appeared to be glad to receive them; but when they came at appointed times, she drugged them, and branded them on the forehead with an iron dog's foot. Then she cast them out naked in a dung-heap. The procuress was later served even worse: her hose and ears were cut off. The young wife, fearing that for revenge the four merchants might go slay her husband, told her whole story to her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law praised her for her conduct, and devised a plan to save her son. The wise wife disguised herself as a merchant, and embarked in a s.h.i.+p to the country where her husband was. When she arrived there, she saw him in the midst of a circle of merchants. He, seeing her afar off in the dress of a man, thought to himself, "Who may this merchant be that looks so like my beloved wife?" But she went to the king, said that she had a pet.i.tion to present, and asked him to a.s.semble all his subjects. He did so, and asked her what her pet.i.tion was. She replied, "There are residing here four escaped slaves of mine; let the king give them back to me." She was told to pick out her slaves, which she did, choosing the four merchants who had their heads tied up. When asked how these distinguished merchants' sons could be her slaves, she said, "Examine their foreheads, which I marked with a dog's foot." So done. The truth came out; the other merchants paid the wife a large sum of money to ransom the four, and also a fine to the king's treasury.

There can be no doubt of a rather close relations.h.i.+p between the Persian and the Indian stories; nor can there be any doubt, it seems to me, of the relations.h.i.+p of these two with the "Chast.i.ty Wager"

cycle. The additional details in Somadeva's narrative connect it with European Marchen; e.g., J. F. Campbell, No. 18, and Groome, No. 33.

Our story of the "Golden Lock," as well as the variants, is unquestionably an importation from Europe; but what the immediate source of the tale is, I am unable to say. For the convenience of any, however, who are interested in this group of stories, and care to make a further study of it, I give here a list of the occurrences of the tale in literature and in popular form. In literature, this story in Europe dates from the end of the twelfth century.

Roman de Guillaume de Dole (c. 1200). Ed. by G. Servois for the Soc. des Anc. Textes francais. Paris, 1893.

Roman de la Violette (13th century). Ed. by Michel. 1834.

Roman du Comte de Poitiers (13th century). Ed. by Michel. 1831.

Le roi Flore et la belle Jehanne (a 13th century prose story). Published by L. Moland et C. d'Hericault in Nouvelles francaises en prose du xiiie siecle, 1856 : 87-157; also in Monmerque et Michel, Theatre francais au Moyen Age, 1842 : 417.

Miracle de Othon, roy d'Espaigne (a 14th century miracle), in the Miracles de Nostre Dame. Published by G. Paris and U. Robert for the Soc. des Anc. Textes francais, 4 : 315-388; and in Monmerque et Michel, op. cit., p. 431 f.

Perceforest, bk. iv, ch. 16, 17 (an episode, where the chast.i.ty token is a rose), retold by Bandello, part I, nov. 21 (cf. R. Kohler, in Jahrb. fur rom. u. eng. lit., 8 : 51 f.).

Boccaccio's Decameron, 2 : 9 (cf. Landau, Die Quellen des Dekameron, 1884 : 135 ff.).

Two important treatments of the story in dramatic form are sixteenth-century Spanish, Lope de Rueda's "Eufemia," where the heroine tricks her maligner by accusing him of having spent many nights with her and of finally having stolen a jewel from under her bed; he denies all knowledge of her (cf. J. L. Klein, Geschichte des Dramas, 9 [1872]

: 144-156); and English, Shakespeare's "Cymbeline." For modern dramas and operas dealing with this theme, see G. Servois, op. cit., p. xvi, note 5. In ballad form the story occurs in "The Twa Knights" (Child, 5 : 21 ff., No. 268).

Popular stories belonging to this cycle and containing the wager are the following:--

J. F. Campbell, No. 18.

J. W. Wolf, p. 355.

Simrock, Deutsche Marchen, No. 51 (1864 ed., p. 235).

H. Prohle, No. 61, p. 179 (cf. also p. xlii).

Ausland, 1856 : 1053, for a Roumanian story.

F. Miklosisch, Marchen und Lieder der Zigeuner der Bukowina, No. 14.

D. G. Bernoni, Fiabe popolari veneziane, No. I.

Gonzenbach, No. 7.

G. Pitre, Nos. 73, 75.

V. Imbriani, La Novellaja Fiorentina, p. 483.

Other folk-tales somewhat more distantly related are,--

Comparetti, Nos. 36 and 60.

Webster, Basque Legends, p. 132.

F. Kreutzwald, Estnische Marchen (ubersetzt von F. Lowe), 2d Halfte, No. 6.

H. Bergh, Sogur m. m. fraa Valdris og Hallingdal, p. 16.

For the story in general, see the following:--

Landau on the Dekameron, op. cit.

A. Rochs, Ueber den Veilchen Roman und die Wanderung der Euriant saga. Halle, 1882. (Reviewed as a worthless piece of work by R. Kohler in Literaturblatt fur germ. und rom. Philologie, 1883 : No. 7.) R. Ohle, Shakespeares Cymbeline und seine Romanischen Vorlaufer. Berlin, 1890. (This does not discuss the popular versions at all.) H. A. Todd, Guillaume de Dole, in Transactions and Proceedings of the Modern Language a.s.sociation of America, 2 (1887) : 107 ff.

Von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, 3 : Lx.x.xIII.

G. Servois, op. cit., Introduction.

For some additional bibliographical items in connection with this cycle, see Kohler, "Literaturblatt," etc., p. 274. To the list above should be added finally, of course, the stories given in more detail earlier in this note.

TALE 31

WHO IS THE NEAREST RELATIVE?

Narrated by Leopoldo Uichanco, a Tagalog of Calamba, Laguna.