Episode Details

Part 4 of Folk Tales of the Philippines is a trio of quests won by skill, by kindness, and by a love that will not shoot: three brothers who find a lost princess between a spy-glass, a ship, and a thief's quick hands; three friends whose gifts cure a princess, and whose king can find no way to choose among them until one of them refuses the winning shot; and a poor labourer who holds a bottle that brings the dead back to life under a dead princess's nose, while the scaffold waits.

In "The Three Brothers," An-no the glass-maker, Berto the boat-builder, and Tito, who learned thieving among robbers, set their three trades together: An-no's spy-glass finds the kidnapped Princess Amelia in her island tower, Berto's ship carries them there, and Tito steals her past the guards and home to her father. Told by Clodualdo Garcia, an Ilocano, who was told the story by his mother when he was a small boy. In "Pablo and the Princess," three friends each feed a hungry old man on the road, and are rewarded with a travelling carpet, a book that knows everything in the world, and an ivory tube that cures every disease; together they fly to a sick princess and heal her — and Pablo wins her by refusing to shoot the banana-flower that stands for her heart. Told by Dolores Zafra, a Tagalog from La Laguna, who heard the story from her father. And in "Legend of Prince Oswaldo," a raincoat that travels anywhere, a book that tells all the world's news, and a bottle of violet liquid that restores the dead carry three companions to Berengena, where Juan wakes the dead princess — and the old man who claims her proves to be an enchanted prince. Told by Leopoldo Uichanco, a Tagalog from Calamba, La Laguna.

A word on the road here, told plainly. This part opens where the book places "The Story of King Palmarin," which stands held at this shelf's gate for a ruling, and is not read here; and between "The Three Brothers" and "Pablo and the Princess" the book places "Three Brothers of Fortune," likewise held at the gate for a ruling, and not read here. In the tales that are read: in "Legend of Prince Oswaldo," the king's condition that Juan shall lose his head if he fails to restore the princess stands as words only, never carried out or approached, and the princess is dead of sickness when the three arrive, and is brought back to life. No one is harmed in any tale read here. No completeness is claimed for this stretch of the book.

The book's storytellers, kept with honour: Clodualdo Garcia ("The Three Brothers"); Dolores Zafra ("Pablo and the Princess"); Leopoldo Uichanco ("Legend of Prince Oswaldo").

Chapters:

00:10 — The Three Brothers

04:10 — Pablo and the Princess

09:54 — Legend of Prince Oswaldo

Source: Dean S. Fansler (ed.), Filipino Popular Tales, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, Vol. XII (1921) — the tales written down in English by the Filipino narrators credited above; public-domain 1921 edition (Project Gutenberg eBook #8299). The collectors' notes stand in the book, unread here. Our telling is a fresh in-house rendering of the 1921 text. Music: gentle instrumental bed under the narration.

Thank you for listening — Part 5 of the Philippine tales follows on this shelf.

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