The Pubic Hair and the Devil (A Folk Tale from Capiz)

Tuba Drinkers by Vicente Manansala (1954)

Here is a folk tale, which, according to anthropologist E. Arsenio Manuel, was popular among the tuba drinkers of Capiz. This was relayed to him by his brother, Lucio, who, by the time the story was told to him, had been living in Capiz for almost two decades and “has acquired a very good command of the native language.

Here is the story:

The devil was campaigning for followers when one day he met Juan. He promised all the comforts in this world Juan could wish for, besides everlasting happiness thereafter, if he would join his recruits. But Juan doubted the devil's powers and wanted to put them to a test.

So he asked him to perform three tasks upon the accomplishment of which he promised to be his slave forever.

True to his word the devil came on the third evening to confront Juan who was supposed to pose the third and last task for him to accomplish. The devil had already solved the first two problems. Now Juan was greatly worried, for he had not yet thought of a task and the devil was already there in front of him.

At last, something flashed in Juan's mind. He plucked one of his thick pubic hairs and showed it to the devil. It was curly, sure enough, and he asked the devil to straighten it out with three conditions attached: it must be straight as a needle, it must not break, and the task must be done before sunrise the following morning.

The devil thought it was the easiest task Juan ever had given him and he was overjoyed inwardly for he believed that he would solve the problem within one minute. Confident that he could do it easily, he took the pubic hair from Juan and began toying with it. Then he stretched it with his fingers. But since he had long nails, it slipped from his fingers every time he did this. Many minutes had already passed and he could not straighten it. The minutes grew into hours until the first crowing of the cocks could be heard for miles around.

Growing desperate, the devil thought of another trick. He tried to fasten a weight to one end while holding the other: from time to time he would unfasten the weight to check the result, but the pubic hair remained curly!

Now the devil became aware of the streaks of dawn lighting up the east and the cocks' crowing becoming more incessant. He had very little time left and he was becoming nervous.

As a last recourse he produced a flat iron at a snap of his fingers and pressed the curly hair beneath it, but, stubbornly unyielding, it always curled back. So when the sun rose over the eastern mountains the devil was still hard at work straightening the thick recalcitrant hair until he flung it away saying: “To hell with that damned pubic hair!”