The Poor Fisherman and His Wife

_Ilocano_

Many, many years ago a poor fisherman and his wife lived with their

three sons in a village by the sea. One day the old man set his snare

in the water not far from his house, and at night when he went to look

at it, he found that he had caught a great white fish. This startled

the old man very much, for he had never seen a fish like this before,

and it occurred to him that it was the priest of the town.

He ran to his wife as fast as he could and cried:

"My wife, I have caught the priest."

"What?" said the old woman, terrified at the sight of her frightened

husband.

"I have caught the priest," said the old man again.

They hurried together to the river where the snare was set, and when

the old woman saw the fish, she cried:

"Oh, it is not the priest but the governor."

"No, it is the priest," insisted the old man, and they went home

trembling with fear.

That night neither of them was able to sleep for thought of the

terrible thing that had happened and wondering what they should do. Now

the next day was a great holiday in the town. At four o'clock in the

morning cannons were fired and bells rang loudly. The old man and

woman, hearing all the noise and  not knowing the reason for it,

thought that their crime had been discovered, and the people were

searching for them to punish them, so they set out as fast as they

could to hide in the woods. On and on they went, stopping only to

rest so as to enable them to resume their flight.

The next morning they reached the woods near Pilar, where there also

was a great holiday, and the sexton was ringing the bells to call

the people to mass. As soon as the old man and woman heard the bells

they thought the people there had been notified of their escape,

and that they, too, were trying to catch them. So they turned and

started home again.

As they reached their house, the three sons came home with their one

horse and tied it to the trunk of the caramay tree. Presently the

bells began to ring again, for it was twelve o'clock at noon. Not

thinking what time of day it was, the old man and woman ran out

of doors in terror, and seeing the horse jumped on its back with

the intention of riding to the next town before anyone could catch

them. When they had mounted they began to whip the horse. In their

haste, they had forgotten to untie the rope which was around the

trunk of the caramay tree. As the horse pulled at the rope fruit fell

from the tree upon the old man and woman. Believing they were shot,

they were so frightened that they died.