narrated by facundo esquivel, a tagalog from jaen, nueva ecija, who was told the story when he was a boy.
in time out of memory there lived two brothers, pedro and juan. pedro was rich, for he had a large herd of cattle: consequently he did not have much use for his younger brother, who was very poor. juan had nothing that he could call his own but a cow. one day, disappointed over his life of poverty, he killed his cow, and some days afterward he set out to find his fortune. he took nothing with him but the hide of his cow. when he reached the next town, he saw large piles of cattle-hides in front of a butcher’s shop. late that night he stole out secretly and put the skin of his cow in one of the piles. the next morning he went to the shop to talk with the butcher.
“mr. butcher,” he said, “i have come here to look for my lost cow. have you not killed a cow with a mark j on the right hip?”
“no,” answered the honest man, “all the cows which were killed here came from my herd out there in the mountains.”
juan stood musing for a few moments, and then said, “let us look through these piles of hide to see whether you killed my cow or not!”
[189]“all right,” answered the butcher, and so they began the investigation.
when they found the hide which juan had put there, he began to quarrel with the man. “you must pay me five hundred pesos for my cow, or else i shall bring a law-suit before the court against you,” he said angrily.
“i wonder how this could have happened!” the butcher exclaimed.
“there is no use of wondering,” said juan impatiently. “you stole my cow, and now you have to pay for it.” the man, who was very much afraid of being brought before the court, gave juan the five hundred pesos; and juan went away with the money in his pocket, and the hide on his head.
on his way home he came to a tree standing at a cross-roads. he was very tired and thirsty, but he could not find a house where to ask for water. he climbed the tree to look for a place to go to, but, instead of a house, he saw a company of armed men coming down the road. the men stopped under the tree to rest. juan was so terrified that he hardly knew what to do. as he was trembling with fright, the hide fell down from the tree and frightened the men away. they thought that it was a curse from heaven because of their misdeeds. when juan realized that the men were gone, he recovered from his fright and quickly descended. there on the ground he saw a number of sacks full of money, and, loading a horse with two of the sacks, he started for his home town.
as soon as he reached his house, he went to his brother’s to borrow a salop.2 then he inserted several pesetas and ten-centavo pieces in the cracks of the salop, and returned the measure. when pedro saw the coins sticking in the cracks of his measure, he said, “what did you do with the salop?”
“i measured money,” said juan.
“where did you get the money?” pedro demanded.
“where did i get the money?” retorted juan. “don’t you know that i went to the neighboring town to sell my cowhide?”
“yes,” said pedro. then he added, “the price of hides there must be very high, i suppose.”
“there is no supposing about it,” said juan. “just think! one hide is worth two sacks of money.”
[190]pedro, who was envious of his brother’s good fortune, killed all his cattle, old and young, and threw the meat into the river. the he started with several carretons3 full of hides; but he was disappointed when he came to the town, for nobody would buy hides. discouraged and tired out, he returned. he found juan living comfortably in a fine new home. thus pedro lost all his property because of his invidiousness.
