STORIES OF JUAN TAMAD retold by Manuel and Lyd Arguilla

1Juan Tamad and the Rice CakesJuan was a little boy, the laziest of the lazy, and for this reason he was named Juan Tamad.After baking some rice cakes one day, Juan’s mother said:“Get up, you lazy boy, and sell these bibingka in town.”Rolling up a piece of rag, she coiled it into a round pad and set it on Juan’s head and upon the pad she placed the heavy basket of rice cakes.The sun grew warmer and warmer as Juan trudged townward with the rice cakes. Now and then he stopped to rest under a bamboo or soaked his feet in the cool river, or ate a rice cake or two for refreshment and soon the sun was dipping in the west and frogs were croaking in the rice paddies—ko-kak ko-kak ko-kakand Juan was saying, “Yes, yes, yes, I will come back for the payment next week.” And with that, he flung what remained of the rice cakes into a paddy and the frogs said—ko-kakand Juan said, “Not at all,” and set off for home. As soon as he entered the house, he said:“I sold all the cakes, Mother, but the buyers will pay next week.”The next week Juan said the creditors asked to be given another week and the next week it was the same story again and finally Juan’s mother lost all patience and, tucking the corners of her overskirt into her waist, said to Juan:“Lead me to your shameless creditors!”So Juan led her to the rice paddies.“Here are the customers, mother,” he said, pointing at the frogs calling—ko-kak ko-kak ko-kakand the mother flew into a rage and beat and cursed her son all the way home.Never again did she send Juan to town to sell rice cakes.
2Juan Tamad and the Flea-KillerOne weakness will engender another. So it was with the laziness of Juan Tamad. As his body was lazy, so was his mind. Truth being often hard to tell, he chose falsehood which seemed easy.One day his mother sent him to town to buy a cooking pot. It happened that the town-people were afflicted by fleas that came from where nobody knew. Fleas crawled up their legs and their bodies and lodged in their hair till they thought they would all go mad from itching.Juan bought his rice pot and set off for home. On the way, a flea bit him inside his clothes and he yelled and threw out his arms and scratched himself and pranced around. Prrrraaaaak! The pot broke into a dozen pieces on the ground.Juan squatted before the broken pot, thinking, I shall surely catch it from mother. Then he collected all the pot pieces and ground them very fine between two stones. Then he wrapped up the powder in little packages of banana leaf and went back to town.Up and down the road he went shouting—Buy flea-killer! Buy flea-killer!The townsfolk crowded around him and bought all his powder. Juan brought home no cooking pot but a bag of coins and his mother was well pleased. But she still wanted her rice pot, so she sent him back to town the next day.Great was the dismay of Juan Tamad when he arrived in town and was soon set upon by angry men and women shaking their fists in his face and calling down all manner of curses on his head.“We shall tear you limb from limb,” they shouted, “for you sold us no flea-killer but common sand. Come, tell us a likely story why you should not die like a dog, and we may set you free. But if you tell your story badly, it will fare ill with you!”“Oh, my good neighbors,” pleaded Juan. “First, tell me how you used the flea-killer.”“Why, we dusted it on the fleas, of course,” said the neighbors.“Ah,” said Juan, “that is as I feared. Have you any of the powder left?”“Why, none,” said a neighbor and, “none,” said another. No one had any powder left.“What a pity,” sighed Juan, “for I could have shown you how to kill the fleas. First, you catch a flea. Then you open its eyes. Then you put the powder between its eyelids. It is really very simple,” said Juan, sadly.Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!roared a neighbor and Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!laughed another. Soon all the town was rocking with laughter.“It is hard enough to see a flea or catch it, let alone open its eyes. Let the fool go, “said the neighbor. Only, let him sell no more flea-killer!”
3Juan Tamad Escapes a WhippingA mother will shield the worst son from harm as a hen will spread her wings over the most wayward of her brood. So it was with the mother of Juan Tamad.“Aie!” cried the father of Juan Tamad in great anger one day. “Juan has again forgotten to water the carabao and the beast is hot and dry. When that good-for-nothing son of yours comes home, he will surely feel my lash on his lazy hide.”“It was my fault,” said the mother of Juan Tamad. “This morning, I craved the taste of duhat and your son fetched me a handful of the fruit which, unwitting, I shared with him. There may be truth in what my mother used to say that any man or woman or child who partakes of food craved by a conceiving woman will suffer from fits of forgetfulness…”“Last night, your son was forgetful,” the father grumbled. “And other times before, he was forgetful, too. Surely, you did not share duhat fruit with him yesterday nor the day before?”“Yesterday, it was guavas,” the mother smiled, “and the day before yesterday it was tamarind. Why, mother used to say also that if a conceiving woman takes a notion either to like or dislike a person, that one will become absent-minded. Also, that, whichever person or object attracts her fancy or incurs her displeasure, will leave a mark on her baby that is yet to be born.”“My mother also used to tell me,” said the father of Juan Tamad, “that a pregnant woman may not eat of twin bananas if she does not wish to give birth to twins.”“Nor mend or hem a dress she has on, lest she suffers a difficult birth-giving…”Nor this and that and the other, continued Juan Tamad’s father through tale after tale, thus forgetting his anger, and the mother smiled, knowing her son has escaped a whipping that night.
4Juan Tamad Goes A-courtingLove struck lightning-like the lazy heart of Juan Tamad when he saw the beauteous maid, Mariang Masipag.Every day he came to see her and followed with his eyes her busy hands and feet that never stopped at their tasks from early morn to dusk.“Every day you come here, Juan Tamad, and lie around making eyes at my daughter,” said the mother of Mariang Masipag, “and eating our food and drinking our tuba. Yet, you cut no firewood nor draw water from the well. You good-for-nothing lout with bones as soft as rice gruel! Be off with you and never set food in our yard again!”Juan Tamad went away without a word but was back the next day, his arms loaded with big banana leaves. These he laid down carefully one by one from the field into the yard of Maria’s house.The mother of Mariang Masipag stood watching at the head of the stairs until she could bear her curiosity no more and exclaimed:“What in the name of the dark one are you doing with those banana leaves? And didn’t I tell you never to set foot in our yard again?” “I’m not stepping on any part of ground in your yard,” said Juan, “for as you see, my feet touch only the banana leaves.”5Juan Tamad Takes a BrideJuan Tamad’s mother said:“My son, it is time you took a woman to wife, for your mother grows old every day, older and more feeble.”“What manner of woman shall I bring home, mother?” said Juan.“A woman of few words,” said the mother of Juan.So Juan went off in search of a wife and he went east and he went west but everywhere he went the women talked too much.Finally, he came to a lonely house in the woods where, he was told, lived an old woman and her daughter.“Tao po…” called Juan at the gate; but no one answered.He ventured into the yard and again called out—Tao po…and still no one answered.He climbed the bamboo steps into the house and found a young girl lying upon a mat on the floor.“Will you be my wife?” asked Juan.The maiden stared at him but said not a word.“Ah!” said Juan, “you are the very wife my mother wants for me,” and he lifted the girl in his arms and took her home.“Oh! You wretched boy!” cried the mother of Juan at sight of Juan’s bride. “You have brought my house enmity and bad luck, for surely at this very hour they are looking for this corpse and heaven help you when they find it here!”No sooner had the mother of Juan spoken than the relatives of the dead girl arrived and fell to beating Juan with sticks and calling him the worst names. After which they took the corpse away to give it a burial.
6Juan Tamad Becomes a SoothsayerOne day Juan Tamad said to his mother:“I can see what is hidden. I can find what is lost. I can foretell what is to come.”“I do not believe you, son,” said the mother. “It is another one of your tricks to get out of your chores.”“Why, then, if you do not believe me,” said Juan, “I will split open the eastern post of this bamboo house and show you a fortune.”“Never mind,” cried the mother, “for I hid some money there myself against a rainy day and if you can see hidden things, then, surely, I am the most unfortunate woman, for no morsel of food or hoard of coins will be safe from your greedy mouth and hands.”So saying, she sent Juan Tamad out of the house to find himself work, but Juan returned secretly to espy on his mother’s cooking and when it was time to eat he showed himself and pretended to guess what his mother had cooked for dinner.So impressed was his mother by his powers of divination that she treated him with great respect, not sending him anymore to draw water or chop firewood but bragging about him instead to all the neighbors.One day Juan led a neighbor’s carabao to a secluded spot and tied the animal to a tree and waited until the owner came to his mother’s house with a piteous tale of loss. Juan’s mother said:“My son can surely help you,” and she called Juan and told him and Juan closed his eyes and bowed his head into his hands as though in deep meditation and presently he rose and said, “Follow me,” and he led them all to the spot where he had tied the carabao.And sure enough the carabao was found and the grateful neighbor made Juan and his mother a present of roasted suckling pig.Now, there was a young man much in love with a very pretty girl who would have him only if he could rightly guess whether she had any mark and where on her flawless-seeming body. The love-sick young man, having heard of the miraculous powers of Juan, went to him with this problem and Juan said, “It is a long time since I ate a good papait of juicy young goat.” And the young man said, “If you help me with my heart’s desire, you shall have yours.”Juan Tamad passed by the house of the pretty girl who, by chance, was looking out of the window and like a good neighbor called out:“Juan Tamad, will you stop with us awhile?”And Juan Tamad went up to the house and ate and drank a little and talked of this and that, including charm eternal for the woman brave enough to bathe in secret and alone in a secret spring at full moon as that very night.In the evening he hid himself behind a clump of bamboos by the lonely spring he had indicated and sure enough when the moon rose he saw the pretty girl come alone and in secret to bathe in the spring.The next morning he told the young man to tell her she had a mole on her left thigh and when the young man came again he was leading a nice young goat for Juan’s papait.One day a rich man lost a valuable gem and all the town said, “Go to Juan, he will tell you where it is.”Now Juan was getting tired of being a soothsayer because there was too much work in it, more even than in cooking rice or in chopping firewood, and so he said:“I feel weak, mother. Do not let anybody wake me for I will sleep three days.”When the rich man came to Juan’s house, the mother said a three-day sleep is upon him, but the rich man woke Juan up anyway and Juan sat up and rubbed his eyes and said, “Now, you have broken the spell and my soothsaying days are over.”
7Juan Tamad and the Rice HarvestJuan Tamad said one day:“Mother, if you will wrap some cooked rice and salted fish in banbana leaf for me, I will set out for the hills to make a clearing.”The mother was greatly surprised, for Juan Tamad was the laziest of the lazy, but she did as she was bidden.When he was gone, she went to the neighbors to tell them of the wonderful change that had come over her son.“Ah! Foolish woman," the neighbors laughed. “That son of yours twirls you round his little finger, for is it not common knowledge that there is no bone in his body but is lazy and if Juan is not lying asleep at this moment under some tree, then day is night and night is day.”The sun was down when Juan Tamad came home. “I worked very hard today, mother,” said Juan Tamad, “and need a good supper.”The mother set before him a big steaming plate of rice and some fish and asked him, “How wide a clearing did you make today, my son?”“From here to there,” said Juan, measuring a distance with a wave of his arm. “Before sun-up tomorrow, I will set forth again,” said Juan. “Please get my breakfast early and wrap me up a good lunch.”“I will do as you say,” the mother said.The next morning Juan set forth before the sun was risen with a good breakfast between his ribs and his lunch-pack tied securely to his waist.Later in the morning the mother took some dirty clothes to wash in the river with the other women. They pounded the clothes on flat stones and rinsed them in the swift-flowing current.“Ano, mother of Juan Tamad? How much land has your son cleared today?”“From here to there,” replied Juan’s mother.The women slapped the clothes on the flat stones and laughed and laughed.When Juan Tamad came home that night, his mother met him at the head of the bamboo steps. “How much land did you clear today, my son?”“How tired I am, mother,” said Juan Tamad. “And near-dead with hunger, too. The smell of that fish you are broiling coaxed the water out of my my mouth even before I had reached our gate.”“Eat then, my son,” said the mother, pulling out the fish from over the coals and scooping rice out of the black pot.Juan ate swiftly, silently, and after supper overstretched his big body on the mat that his mother had laid out for him and fell heavily like a banana trunk into deep sleep.He was up again the next morning while the air was yet dark and still. He ate big fistfuls of fried rice and washed it down with strong throat-burning ginger tea. With his lunch-pack and a sharp bolo at his side, he again set forth.Day after day Juan left home for the hills in the early morning and came home at night saying, “I am weary and tired.”In the town, when the mother of Juan Tamad went to sell vegetables, the town people asked her, laughing, “Ano, mother of Juan, how wide is your son’s clearing by now?”“From here to there,” said the mother.Then the rains came and with it the season of planting and still Juan Tamad went to his clearing in the hills. The rain stopped and the sun beat down hot upon the fields and everywhere the rice grown tall bore grain that was first green, then yellow, and the wind carried the ripening scent far and wide.No longer did Juan to go the hills but instead cut bamboo and gathered dry cogon and built himself a ricehouse bigger than in all the village.“And when will you harvest your field?” teased the neighbors. “Very soon,” replied Juan.“And how many pairs of hands will you be needing at the harvest?”“A hundred,” answered Juan.“How wide is your field then?” prodded the neighbors.“From here to there,” answered Juan.The day came when the mother of Juan went around asking the neighbors, “Will you come and help with the harvest?”Men and women came out of their houses, laughing. “Lead us to your field, Juan, for we shall help with the harvest.”Juan led the whole village towards tne hills.“How far is it?” they asked.“We’re almost there,” said Juan.At last they came to a little valley hidden between hills and the neighbors gasped with wonder. “Surely, that is a field of cogon,” cried the neighbors.But it was no cogon field. They knew, for the stalks were very heavy with grain as Juan had said and they waved and billowed farther than the eye could reach—from here to there.
8Juan Tamad and the Ripe GuavasLying at the bottom of the banca waiting for the fish to bite, Juan fell asleep. When he woke up he did not remember where he was or why white clouds billowed in the blue sky above him.Poor Juan is dead, said Juan Tamad as the boat floated gently downriver. Sometimes a fly buzzed around Juan’s nose, but Juan did not raise a hand to slap it, for Juan is dead, said Juan, and dead men lie still.The boat passed under guava trees heavy with fruits and some of the ripe guavas touched with tantalizing fragrance Juan’s nose and mouth.Ah! beautiful, beautiful guavas, sighed Juan. How lucky for you that Juan is dead or he would have eaten you all up.Gently. the banca floated downriver and Juan lay in it, somber and still and grave, for Juan was truly dead.

When I recall the days

That saw my childhood of yore

Beside the verdant shore

Of a murmuring lagoon;

When I remember the sighs

Of the breeze that on my brow

Sweet and caressing did blow

With coolness full of delight;

When I look at the lily white

Fills up with air violent

And the stormy element

On the sand doth meekly sleep;

When sweet 'toxicating scent

From the flowers I inhale

Which at the dawn they exhale

When at us it begins to peep;

I sadly recall your face,

Oh precious infancy,

That a mother lovingly

Did succeed to embellish.

I remember a simple town;

My cradle, joy and boon,

Beside the cool lagoon

The seat of all my wish.

Oh, yes! With uncertain pace

I trod your forest lands,

And on your river banks

A pleasant fun I found;

At your rustic temple I prayed

With a little boy's simple faith

And your aura's flawless breath

Filled my heart with joy profound.

Saw I God in the grandeur

Of your woods which for centuries stand;

Never did I understand

In your bosom what sorrows were;

While I gazed on your azure sky

Neither love nor tenderness

Failed me, 'cause my hapiness

In the heart of nature rests there.

Tender childhood, beautiful town,

Rich fountain of hapiness,

Of harmonious melodies,

That drive away my sorrow!

Return thee to my heart,

Bring back my gentle hours

As do the birds when the flow'rs

Would again begin to blow !

But, alas, adieu! E'er watch

For your peace, joy and repose,

Genius of good who kindly dispose

Of his blessings with amour;

It's for thee my fervent pray'rs,

It's for thee my constant desire

Knowledge ever to acquire

And may God keep your candour!

(A poem originally in Tagalog written by Rizal when hewas only eight years old)

IF truly a people dearly love

The tongue to them by Heaven sent,

They'll surely yearn for liberty

Like a bird above in the firmament.

BECAUSE by its language one can judge

A town, a barrio, and kingdom;

And like any other created thing

Every human being loves his freedom.

ONE who doesn't love his native tongue,

Is worse than putrid fish and beast;

AND like a truly precious thing

It therefore deserves to be cherished.

THE Tagalog language's akin to Latin,To English, Spanish, angelical tongue;

For God who knows how to look after us

This language He bestowed us upon.

AS others, our language is the same

With alphabet and letters of its own,

It was lost because a storm did destroy

On the lake the bangka in years bygone.

To The Philippines

(Rizal wrote the original sonnet in Spanish)

A glowing and fair like a houri on high,

Full of grace and pure like the Morn that peeps

When in the sky the clouds are tinted blue,

Of th' Indian land, a goddess sleeps.

The light foam of the son'rous sea

Doth kiss her feet with loving desire;

The cultured West adores her smile

And the frosty Pole her flow'red attire.

With tenderness, stammering, my Muse

To her 'midst undines and naiads does sing;

I offer her my fortune and bliss:

Oh, artists! her brow chaste ring

With myrtle green and roses red

And lilies, and extol the Philippines!

Last Poem of Rizal

(His friend Mariano Ponce gave it the title of MIULTIMO ADIOS, as it originally had none.)

Farewell, my adored Land, region of the sun caressed,

Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost,

With gladness I give you my Life, sad and repressed;

And were it more brilliant, more fresh and at its best,

I would still give it to you for your welfare at most.

On the fields of battle, in the fury of fight,

Others give you their lives without pain or hesitancy,

The place does not matter: cypress laurel, lily white,

Scaffold, open field, conflict or martyrdom's site,

It is the same if asked by home and Country.

I die as I see tints on the sky b'gin to show

And at last announce the day, after a gloomy night;

If you need a hue to dye your mutational glow,

Pour my blood and at the right moment spread it so,

And gild it with a reflection of your nascent light!

My dreams, when scarcely a lad adolescent,

My dreams when already a youth, full of vigor to attain,

Were to see you, gem of the sea of the Orient,

Your dark eyes dry, smooth brow held to a high plane

Without frown, without wrinkles and of shame without stain.

My life's fancy, my ardent, passionate desire,

Hail! Cries out the soul to you, that will soon part from thee;

Hail! How sweet 'tis to fall that fullness you may acquire;

To die to give you life, 'neath your skies to expire,

And in your mystic land to sleep through eternity !

If over my tomb some day, you would see blow,

A simple humble flow'r amidst thick grasses,

Bring it up to your lips and kiss my soul so,

And under the cold tomb, I may feel on my brow,

Warmth of your breath, a whiff of your tenderness.

Let the moon with soft, gentle light me descry,

Let the dawn send forth its fleeting, brilliant light,

In murmurs grave allow the wind to sigh,

And should a bird descend on my cross and alight,

Let the bird intone a song of peace o'er my site.

Let the burning sun the raindrops vaporize

And with my clamor behind return pure to the sky;

Let a friend shed tears over my early demise;

And on quiet afternoons when one prays for me on high,

Pray too, oh, my Motherland, that in God may rest I.

Pray thee for all the hapless who have died,

For all those who unequalled torments have undergone;

For our poor mothers who in bitterness have cried;

For orphans, widows and captives to tortures were shied,

And pray too that you may see you own redemption.

And when the dark night wraps the cemet'ry

And only the dead to vigil there are left alone,

Don't disturb their repose, don't disturb the mystery:

If you hear the sounds of cithern or psaltery,

It is I, dear Country, who, a song t'you intone.

And when my grave by all is no more remembered,

With neither cross nor stone to mark its place,

Let it be plowed by man, with spade let it be scattered

And my ashes ere to nothingness are restored,

Let them turn to dust to cover your earthly space.

Then it doesn't matter that you should forget me:

Your atmosphere, your skies, your vales I'll sweep;

Vibrant and clear note to your ears I shall be:

Aroma, light, hues, murmur, song, moanings deep,

Constantly repeating the essence of the faith I keep.

My idolized Country, for whom I most gravely pine,

Dear Philippines, to my last goodbye, oh, harken

There I leave all: my parents, loves of mine,

I'll go where there are no slaves, tyrants or hangmen

Where faith does not kill and where God alone does reign.

Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me,

Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed;

Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day;

Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way;

Farewell, to all I love. To die is to rest.

Ibong Adarna (The Adarna Bird) by Bernardo Caprio

King Fernando of Berbania had three sons, Pedro, Diego and Juan of whom the last was the favorite. He so loved Juan that when one night he dreamed that his two children conspired against their youngest brother, the king became so frightened that he fell sick with a malady, which non of the physicians of the kingdom were able to cure. Persons were not lacking, however, who would advise him that bird Adarna was the one living being in the world which could restore to him his lost health and tranquility. Acting on this advice, he sent out his oldest son Pedro to look for this coveted animal. After days of wandering through the dense forests ad extensive thickets, he came to a tree of diamond, at the foot of which he fell down tired and thirsty. He never suspected that it was this tree the very one in which the famous bird was accustomed to pass the night; and when the night was setting and the Adarna flung into the air the first of its seven songs, his melody was so softly sweet that Pedro was lulled into a profound sleep. After emitting its seventh melody for the night, the bird defecated on the sleeping prince who was thereby converted into a stone.
When Pedro had not returned after the lapse of one year, the impatient king commanded his second son Diego also to launch out in search of the same bird. Diego underwent the same vicissitudes and hardships and came to exactly the same fate as Pedro - converted into a stone at the foot of the enchanted tree. At last Juan, the youngest and most favored son was sent forth, after his elder brothers in search of the treacherous bird. Juan, however, had the fortune to meet on his way an old hermit who impressed by the virtuous and good manners of the young prince on knowing the mission on which he embarked, put him on guard against the treacheries, intrigues and cunning of the famous bird. First, he provided him with a knife and a fruit of lemon, warning him that if he wanted to free himself from the irresistible drowsiness into which one would to be induced by the seven melodies of the Adarna, he had to open on his body seven wounds and distil into them the juice of the lemon that the pain thereby caused might present him from sleeping. Next, the hermit warned him to avoid any defecation that might fall from the bird after it had sung its seven songs, so that he would not suffer the fate of his brothers. Lastly, he told him that after finishing his seventh song the famous bird would fall sleep and that the prince should take advantage of this occasion to take him prisoner. The hermit gave him a golden cord to tie the bird when caught and two pails of water to pour over his two petrified brothers and thereby bring them back to life. Juan did as was bidden and soon found himself in possession of the desired bird and on his way back to his home country with his two brothers, Pedro and Diego.
On the way, however, being envious on account of the fact that Juan had obtained what they were not able to do so, the two older brothers conspired between themselves to do away with him. Pedro suggested that they should kill him but Diego who was less brutal convinced Pedro that it was sufficient to beat him, which they did. After beating Juan to whom they owed their lives, they left him unconscious in the middle of the road and the two brothers continued their way to the palace where they presented themselves to their fathers as the ones who actually caught the bird Adarna. To their surprise, the bird refused to sing for the king in the absence of Prince Juan and the monarch did not get well. It was also fortunate that the old hermit who guided Juan to the Adarna found him stretched out helpless on the road, after curing him of his wounds the prince could return safe and sound to his father's kingdom. It as then the bird, out of sheer contentment, burst into most harmonious song recounting it its proper time to the king after he was cured the truth about the absence of Juan. The monarch, blinded by his ire, decreed the death of his two elder sons; but Juan with a noble heart interceded for them as always and once again reigned in the kingdom peace and merriment.
But on a certain night when Juan fell asleep while guarding the Adarna bird in its golden cage, his two elder brothers again entered into conspiracy with one another to put him in bad with their father by letting out the bird from the cage. Juan, ashamed of what he thought was his fault, slipped out of the palace and started to go in search of the famous bird. King Fernando hurriedly ordered Pedro and Diego to start pursuit of the bird and Juan. During the search the bird could not be found anywhere, but the three brothers happened to meet at a place close to a well which they decided to explore instead of returning to the palace for the fear of the ire of their father. Pedro, the eldest, was the first to descend by means of a cord lowered by the two brothers who remained above; but he had scarcely gone a third of the way when he felt afraid and gave sign for his two brothers to pull him out of the well. Presently, Diego was let down but he too could not go farther down than half of the way. When it was Juan's turn to go he allowed himself to be let down to the lowest depths of the cistern.
There the prince discovered two enchanted palaces, the first being occupied by Princess Juana who informed him she was being held prisoner by a giant, and the second by Princess Leonora, also the prisoner of a big seven-headed serpent. After killing the giant and the serpent, the prince tagged on the cord and soon came up to the surface of the earth with the two captive princesses, whom his two brothers soon wanted to take away from him. Pedro desired Princess Juana for himself and Diego wanted Princess Leonora. Before the parting, however, Leonora discovered that she left her ring in the innermost recesses of the well. Juan voluntarily offered to take it for her but when he was half way down, the two brothers criminally let him fall to the bottom and abandoned him to his face.
Not long after wedding bells were rung in the palace. Pedro married Princess Juana but Princess Leonora before casting her lot with Prince Diego requested her marriage to him delayed for a term of seven years because she might still have a chance to unite herself with Don Juan. Don Juan, thanks to Leonora's enchanted ring found in the well, could avail himself of the help of a wolf which cured him of his wounds, fix his dislocations, bringing him the medicinal waters of the Jordan, and took him out from the profundities of the well. Already shorn of all hope of ever finding the Adarna, Don Juan resolved to return to the Kingdom. But to his confusion, he was unable to find his way. No one could tell him precisely which was the way that would lead him to the kingdom of his father. He came across two or three hermits neither of whom could give him the necessary information. The last of these called into conference all the birds big and small marauding around in those parts, but none of them could tell the prince the direction towards the Berbanian Kingdom. But the king of all the crowd, a swiftly soaring eagle, having compassion for his troubles, offered to take the prince to wherever he desired. In long continued flight the prince and the eagle traversed through infinite spaces until they came to a distant crystal lake on whose shores they landed to rest from their long and tiresome flight. Then the eagle relate to his companion the secrets of the crystal lake. This was the bathing place where in certain hours of the day the three daughters of the most powerful and most feared king fo the surrounding regions used to plunge and dive into the water and swim; and for this reason it was not proper for the prince to commit any indiscretion if he desired to remain and se the spectacle of the bath. Don Juan remained and when the hour of the bathing arrived he saw plunging into the pure crystal water the figures of the three most beautiful princesses whom his sinful eyes had ever seen in all his life; and then he secretly hid and kept one of the dresses. When one of the princesses noticed the outrage, her two sisters had already gone away and the prince hurriedly ran to her and on his knee begged her pardon placing at her feet her stolen dresses and at the same time poured forth the most ardent and tender professions of love. Pleased by his gentleness and gallant phrases, the princess also fell in love with him; but she advised him that it would be better for him to go away before her father would come to know of his intrusion because if he did not do so she would be converted into another piece of stone for the walls of the enchanted palace in which they live, in the same way that all the other suitors who aspired for their hands had been converted into.
On being informed of the adventure of the bold prince the king sent for him. Don Juan would dare everything for the privilege of seeing his beloved, presented himself to the king in spite of the princess' warning; and the king greatly impressed with the youth's tact and self-possession chose to give him to series of tests both gigantic and impossible of accomplishment by ordinary mortals. The first was to plant two baskets full of wheat given to him by the king on the top of the mountain after converting same into a level land, and to prepare on the following day with the grain they produce the bread for the breakfast of the king and all his courtiers. The second was to remove the mountain found in front of the king's palace to a place behind it, to make way for the cool breezes which he would like to enter his palace. The third was to gather in a single day a number of negroes and negresses thrown into the sea, and to deposit them together in a big bottle. The fourth was for him to construct a feudal castle in the sea together with its complements of troops and ammunitions, everything to be ready for the king's inspection on the following day. For the fifth and last test the king threw his ring into the ocean and made the prince recover it from its bottomless depths. To all these tests Do Juan submitted himself and in all he came out triumphant, thanks to the talisman which was given him by his beloved Dona (Princess) Maria who shared with her father king his power of enchantment. The last proved to be most difficult, as in order to look for the royal ring in the bottomless depths of the ocean, the princess had to allow her body to cut up into pieces and then thrown into the sea as this was the only way whereby the lost jewel could be recovered by her for the sake of her beloved prince.
It happened however that when her body was being cut into pieces the end of one of her fingers was dropped from the aggregate of her flesh and on the account it not recovered. But the king, who as may be seen was more obstinate than the legitimate proverbial Briton, wanted him finally to choose from the three princesses without seeing their persons except on their finger which would be places through a small hole in each of their respective rooms. The princess Dona Maria inserted her cut finger and it was not hard for Do Juan to pick her out from among the three. At this juncture, the royal monarch declared himself satisfied; but the princess fearing that her father might resort to a new trick to foil their happiness ordered the prince to direct himself to the royal stables in order to take there from the best horse, which was the seventh counting from the left, and to saddle him and have him ready for them to flee on that same night. Unfortunately, the prince made a mistake taking in his hurry the eight instead of the seventh charger which was the fastest in the whole stable, and when the king came to know of their flight he himself mounted the seventh and immediately went in pursuit of the fugitives whom he soon was about to overtake. In this contingency, the princess in order to save themselves, unfastened and dropped her hair pins which, on touching the ground, were converted into an extensive pile of thorns that obliged their tenacious persecutor to along way around. When the next time he came in sight close behind them, the princess shook off the sweat drops on her face and they were converted into a wide mass of impassable clasp which caused the king to be detained long a second time. For the last time the princess poured out over the ground a bottle of enchanted water, which was converted into a big rapidly flowing stream which proved to be an insurmountable barrier between them and their pursuer.
When at last they found themselves safe and free, it did not take them long before they could reach the portals of the Berbanian Kingdom. But the prince, alleging that he should have such preparations duly made for entry into the royal palace as are appropriate her category and dignity, left Dona Maria on the way promising to return for her once he had informed the committee that was to receive her. But Oh! the unfaithfulness of human heart! Once in the midst of the gay life of the palace after his triumphant reception by his people, Don Juan soon forgot his professions of love to Dona Maria. The worst thing about it however was that he became dazzled by the beauty of Princess Leonora who had been waiting for him during all the days of his absence that he sought her hand in marriage; while Dona Maria was impatiently waiting for his return. When she came to know of the infidelity of Don Juan, the pilgrim princess made use of the talisman which she always carried with her and adorned with the most beautiful royal garments and carried in a large coach drawn by eight sorrel-colored horses with four palfreys, she presented herself at the door of the palace practically inviting herself to the royal wedding of the Prince Don Juan and the Princess Dona Leonora.
Out of respect for so beautiful a guest from far away foreign lands and on the occasion of the wedding itself, there were celebrated tournaments, in one of which Dona Maria succeeded in inserting as one of the number dance of a negrito and a negrita created from nothing through her marvelous talisman. In the dance the negrita carried a whip in her hand and with it she pitilessly lashed her negrito partner, calling him Don Juan while she proceeded to remind of all the vicissitudes of fortune undergone by him at the side on Dona Maria, the part which was played by the whipping negrita: the scene of the bath, the different tests to which he had been subjected by her father, the flight of both that was full of accidents, and his cruel abandonment of her on the way. Every crack of the whip which fell on the shoulders of the negrito seemed at the time to the true Don Juan as it is was lashing his own body and flesh. At the end of the scene, the prince repentant of his grave offense came down from his throne to implore pardon from the princess Dona Maria and to offer her his hand, promising to take her for his wife in the presence of all the people of his Kingdom.
When the king, his father Don Fernando, came to know of the rivalry of the two princesses, Dona Maria and Dona Leonora, both aspiring to the hand of Don Juan, he consulted with the archbishop of the kingdom on the case, the church dignitary deciding in favor of Dona Leonora invoking for her the priority of the right. But Dona Maria was determined to fight to the last for the prince of her love and, taking advantage of the power of her talisman, sent all over Barbanina Kingdom a big inundation which threatened to carry away the whole nation together with all its inhabitants. King Fernando and his subjects trembled in the face of the imminent danger and all supplicated Princess Dona Leonora to be content with marrying Don Diego, the brother of Don Juan, which she did for the good of all, occasioning for this reason a double marriage - an occasion which brought about once more tranquility and joy to the Berbanian Kingdom.