Juan tamad and the Flea- Killer

One weakness leads to another. So it was with Juan Tamad’s laziness. As his body was lazy,
so was his mind. Truth being often hard to tell, he took recourse to lies, which came easy to
him. Telling lies became his second nature.

One day his mother sent him to town to buy a cooking pot. It so happened that the townspeople
were afflicted by fleas. Nobody knew where they came from. They crawled up one’s legs and
body and lodged themselves in the hair until one itched like mad. It was horrible.

Juan bought a nice pot and set off for home. On his way back, a flea got inside his clothes and
bit him. He yelled and threw out his arms and scratched himself as he pranced around. In all
this confusion the pot fell on the ground and broke into a dozen pieces.

Jaun squatted before the broken pot, imagining his mother’s wrath. He had to do some quick
thinking.

He collected all the pieces of the broken pot and, with the help of two stones, ground them very
fine. Then he wrapped up the powder in several pieces of a banana leaf, and went back to town.
Up and down the road he went shouting, “Buy flea-killer! Buy flea-killer!”/

Juan Tamad and the Flea-Killer

Juan Tamad and the Flea-Killer [Illustrations by Roberto S. Escolastico]
This seemed heaven-sent for the townsfolk who crowded around him and bought all the
packages.

Juan took back home no cooking pot, but instead a bag of coins. His mother was 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 cursing him.

“We shall tear you limb by limb,” they shouted, “for you sold us no flea-killer but common sand.
You cheat! Now tell us a likely story so you should not die like a dog. But the story has to be
convincing or you will not be spared.”

“Oh, my good neighbours,” pleaded Juan, “first tell me how you used the flea-killer.”

“Why, we dusted it on the fleas, of course. How else?” said the neighbours.

“Ah,” said Juan. “That is what I feared. Have you any of the powder left?”
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 open its eyes. It is really very simple,” said Juan.

“Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-!” roared a neighbour, and “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha,” laughed another.

“It is hard enough to see a flea and catch it, let alone open its eyes,” said one man.

Juan tried desperately to go on with his story, but such was the din and noise of angry protest
from the people that he found himself cornered.

“Juan, why not tell the truth for a change!” shouted an old woman.

And for the first time in his young life, Juan saw no escape. He told them the truth.
As some men lunged forward to pounce on him, the old woman stopped them and said, “Let the
fool go this time. But listen boy, try your tricks again on us and God save you!”

“Come, we must tell his mother,” came a voice, and the crowd melted away, leaving Juan
standing alone, still worried about his mother’s wrath.
Project
In
English
Submitted by:
Andrea Marie L. Roque

Submitted to:
Mrs. Marita D. Caparas
 The adventures of Juan
Juan was always getting into trouble. He was a lazy boy, and more than that, he did
not have good sense. When he tried to do things, he made such dreadful mistakes
that he might better not have tried.

His family grew very impatient with him, scolding and beating him whenever he did
anything wrong. One day his mother, who was almost discouraged with him, gave
him a bolo and sent him to the forest, for she thought he could at least cut firewood.
Juan walked leisurely along, contemplating some means of escape. At last he came to
a tree that seemed easy to cut, and then he drew his long knife and prepared to work.

Now it happened that this was a magic tree and it said to Juan:

"If you do not cut me I will give you a goat that shakes silver from its whiskers."

This pleased Juan wonderfully, both because he was curious to see the goat, and
because he would not have to chop the wood. He agreed at once to spare the tree,
whereupon the bark separated and a goat stepped out. Juan commanded it to shake
its whiskers, and when the money began to drop he was so delighted that he took the
animal and started home to show his treasure to his mother.

On the way he met a friend who was more cunning than Juan, and when he heard of
the boy's rich goat he decided to rob him. Knowing Juan's fondness for tuba he
persuaded him to drink, and while he was drunk, the friend substituted another goat
for the magic one. As soon as he was sober again, Juan hastened home with the goat
and told his people of the wonderful tree, but when he commanded the animal to
shake its whiskers, no money fell out. The family, believing it to be another of Juan's
tricks, beat and scolded the poor boy.

The went back to the tree and threatened to cut it down for lying to him, but the tree
said :

"No, do not cut me down and I will give you a not which you may cast on dry ground,
or even in the tree tops, and it will return full of fish."

So Juan spared the tree and started home with his precious net, but on the way he
met the same friend who again persuaded him to drink tuba. While he was drunk,
the friend replaced the magic net with a common one, so that when Juan reached
home and tried to show his power, he was again the subject of ridicule.
Once more Juan went to his tree, this time determined to cut it down. But the offer of
a magic pot, always full of rice and spoons, which provided whatever, he, wished to
eat with his rice, dissuaded him, and he started home happier than ever. Before
reaching home, however, he met with the same fate as before, and his folks, who
were becoming tired of his pranks, beat him harder than ever.

Thoroughly angered, Juan sought the tree a fourth time and was on the point of
cutting it down when once more it arrested his attention. After some discussion, he
consented to accept a stick to which he had only to say, "Boombye, Boomba," and it
would beat and kill anything he wished.

When he met his friend on this trip, he was asked what he had and he replied:

"Oh, it is only a stick, but if I say 'Boombye, Boomba' it will beat you to death."

At the sound of the magic words the stick leaped from his hands and began beating
his friend until he cried:

"Oh, stop it and I will give back everything that I stole from you." Juan ordered the
stick to stop, and then he compelled the man to lead the goat and to carry the net and
the jar and spoons to his home.

There, Juan commanded the goat, and it shook its whiskers until his mother and
brothers had all the silver they could carry. Then they ate from the magic jar and
spoons until they were filled. And this time Juan was not scolded. After they had
finished Juan said:

"You have beaten me and scolded me all my life, and now you are glad to accept my
good things. I am going to show you something else: "Boombye, Boomba'."
Immediately the stick leaped out and beat them all until they begged for mercy and
promised that Juan should ever after be head of the house.

From that time Juan was rich and powerful, but he never went anywhere without his
stick. One night, when some thieves came to his house, he would have been robbed
and killed had it not been for the magic words "Boombye, Boomba," which caused the
death of all the robbers.
Some time after this he married a beautiful princess, and because of the kindness of the
magic tree they always lived happily.
 Another Juan and Some Guava Story

Once there was a boy who was so lazy and his name was Juan Tamad (Tamad is the Filipino
word for lazy). He was so lazy he would always spend some time thinking how to outwit the
work-requiring situation.

One day, he saw a guava tree and spotted a shiny ripe fruit hanging on its branch. It's not
even a top branch. It was hanging so low that had he not been too lazy to stretch out his arm
and jump up a little, he would have grabbed the fruit in no time.

But Juan, oh Juan, being clever (at least for himself), didn't bother to do those two simple
steps at all!

"Hah! Why would I reach for that fruit when I know it would eventually reach for me?" He
said to himself and devised a rather silly plan.

He cleared the ground just below the shiny fruit and lied himself down like a god with some
berries in hand, except that Juan didn't have his fruit yet.

"I will wait here until that guava fruit falls right into my mouth. Then I wouldn't have to shove
the fruit inside my mouth myself. Gravity will do it."

So there Juan lied down day in and day out. Until one day, he felt some splatter of juice and
seeds all over his face. He opened his eyes and saw a happy bat enjoying his feast on a
reddish, fat and shiny guava fruit.

And Juan finally gave up his devised plan and walked home with a long, tiring...

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr................"

to the bat (not even to himself).