From Filipino Popular Tales, by Dean S Fansler. A new print edition of this book is now available from Dodo Press.
Sorry for the late post--commentary should be up tomorrow.
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In a country on the other side of the sea was living a rich man named Mayabong[1]. This man heard that the King of Campao had a son-in-law who was a good guesser. So he filled one of his cascos[2] with gold and silver, and sailed to Campao. He went to the palace, and said, "King, is it true that your son-in-law is a good guesser?""Yes," said the king.
"Should you like to have a contest with me? If your son-in-law can tell how many seeds these melons I have brought here contain, I will give you that casco filled with gold and silver on the sea; but if he fails, you are to give me the same amount of money as I have brought."
The king agreed. Mayabong told him that they would meet at the public square the next day.
When Mayabong had gone away, the king called Suan, and said, "Mayabong has challenged me to a contest. You are to guess how many seeds the melons he has contain. Can you do it?" Suan was ashamed to refuse; so, even though he knew that he could not tell how many seeds a melon contained, he answered, "Yes."
When night came, Suan could not sleep. He was wondering what to do. At last he decided to drown himself in the sea. So he went to the shore and got into a tub. "I must drown myself far out, so that no one may find my body. If they see it, they will say that I was not truly a good guesser," he said to himself. He rowed and rowed until he was very tired. It so happened that he reached the place where Mayabong's
casco was anchored. There he heard somebody talking. "How many seeds has the green melon?" said one. "Five," answered another. "How many seeds has the yellow one?"--"Six."
When Suan heard how many seeds each melon contained, he immediately rowed back to shore and went home.
The next morning Suan met Mayabong at the public square, as agreed. Mayabong held up a green melon, and said, "How many seeds does this melon contain?"
"Five seeds," answered Suan, after uttering some Latin words.
The melon was cut, and was found to contain five seeds. The king shouted, "We are right!"
Mayabong then held up another melon, and said, "How many does this one contain?"
Seeing that it was the yellow melon, Suan said, "It contains six."
When the melon was cut, it was found that Suan was right again. So he won the contest.
Now, Mayabong wanted to win his money back again. So he took a bottle and filled it with dung, and covered it tightly. He challenged the king again to a contest. But when Suan refused this time, because he had no idea as to what was in the bottle, the king said, "I let you marry my daughter, because I thought that you were a good guesser. Now you must prove that you are. If you refuse, you will lose your life."
When Mayabong asked what the bottle contained, Suan, filled with rage, picked it up and hurled it down on the floor, saying, "I consider that you are all waste to me." When the bottle was broken, it was found to contain waste, or dung. In great joy the king crowned Suan to succeed him. Thus Suan lived happily the rest of his life with his wife the princess.
Footnotes:
[1] Possibly related to the Tagalog word for ‘luxuriant’→ ma- and yabong, ‘he who has luxury’.
[2] Caskets, also skull, helmet. Casco is also a Filipino surname.
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