Different Adventures of Juan Tamad

Different Adventures of
Juan Tamad
Retold by Manuel and Lyd Arguilla

I. JuanTamad and the Rice Cakes
Juan was a little boy, the laziest of the lazy, and for this
reason he was named JuanTamad.
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

ko-kak ko-kak ko-kak
and 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-kak
and 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

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-kak
and 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.

II. JuanTamad and the Flea-Killer
One weakness will engender another. So it was with the laziness of
JuanTamad.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

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 JuanTamad 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

“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.

A 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 JuanTamad.
“Aie!” cried the father of JuanTamad 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 JuanTamad. “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
III. JuanTamad Escapes aWhipping

“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

“My mother also used to tell me,” said the father
of JuanTamad, “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

IV. JuanTamad Goes A-courting
Love struck lightning-like the lazy heart of JuanTamad 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, JuanTamad, 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!”
JuanTamad went away without a word but was back the next

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.”

JuanTamad’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.
V. JuanTamadTakes a Bride

“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.

“ “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.

VI. JuanTamad Becomes a Soothsayer
One day JuanTamad 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 JuanTamad 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 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,

“JuanTamad, will you stop with us awhile?”
And JuanTamad 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.

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.”

VII. JuanTamad and the Rice Harvest
JuanTamad 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 JuanTamad 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 JuanTamad came home. “I worked very hard
today, mother,” said JuanTamad, “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

“From here to there,” replied Juan’s mother.
The women slapped the clothes on the flat stones and laughed
and laughed.
When JuanTamad 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 JuanTamad. “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

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 JuanTamad 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
JuanTamad 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 the hills.

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.

Lying 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 JuanTamad 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.
VIII. JuanTamad and the Ripe Guavas

IX. JuanTamad and the Mud Crabs
Even his rooster was amazed.
“What could Juan have eaten?
Could it be that my lazy friend
Has changed?”
Juan was lively, and was even swinging his arms
As he hurried towards the market.
“Can I buy some crabs?”
I want those with fleshy claws and lots of fat!”
The plump vendor chose the biggest ones
And tied then up well.

From a distance, he could hear his friends
playing
Near the riverbank.They were happily
shouting
As they played with paper boats.
Juan wanted to join the fun.
“What about the crabs?” asked the rooster
“Crabs are smart,” said Juan.
“They can easily get to our place!
Don’t worry, I will carefully teach them

Juan released the crabs.
They quickly got into the water.
“See!They even found a shorter route!”
Lazy Juan played by the riverbank
Until it was noon.
His stomach was grumbling
As he hurried home.
“Where are the crabs, Juan?”
His mother was so angry.
“What took you so long?Where are the crabs?”

“I sent them home earlier, Mother.
Perhaps the crabs I bought were truants!”
Lazy Juan was so scared that he quickly hid
In their backyard. His rooster just shook its
head and said:
“One can never rely on a lazy child.
It is better to be industrious than lazy!”

Different Adventures of Juan Tamad

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