Week 7 Reading Diary: Filipino Tales

I decided to read through the Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921) for this weeks Asian unit. My favorite readings were about three brothers and three sons. I'm not sure it is about the number three that makes it so popular in folk stories.

Three Brothers of Fortune

Three sons, named Suan, Iloy, and Ambo, played hooky and decided to go on an adventure. Throughout their journey, each of them found charms. Ambo was given a book that revived the dead. Iloy was given a magic carpet that flew in the air. Suan wasn't given any charm. Instead he found two rocks that morphed together when they touched then separated again. He was convinced that the stones had magical powers, so he kept them in his pocket. Further into their journey, the three sons found a couple crying over their dead daughter. Ambo brought her back to life with his book. Iloy whisked them away, including the daughter, to a beach. Suan saved them all from drowning by repairing a broken plank pieces with his rock. In the end, they argued who would keep the daughter. Because they couldn't reach an agreement, they had a kind decide. The king split the daughter into three parts so that the sons could have an equal share. Ambo, an Iloy didn't want their share and left. Suan gathered all three pieces and had his magic rocks put the daughter back together. It was then Suan who had the greatest charm.



The Poor Man and His Three Sons

A dying father gave his three sons three different objects, a scythe, a rooster, and a cat. In order to make money off of those objects, the father advised his sons to find a place in which the people were in need of each object's function. The first son with the scythe found a village with rice crops. He showed the villagers how a scythe can be used to cut down the crops much faster than ripping the crops by hand. Amazed by the new tool, the villagers bought the scythe for a large sum of money. The second son introduced the concept of time to a town that didn't have a rooster, so they bought the rooster for lots of money. The third son found a town that was rat-infested. He showed the town that his cat could kill the rats. His cat was sold and he left with a large sum of money. The moral of the story: Select the right place in which to trade.

The Three Sons. Source.