Page 2
Copyrighted 1909 by Frederick Starr
The Torch Press Cedar Rapids, Iowa Page 3
This Little Book of
Filipino Riddles
Is Dedicated To
Gelacio Caburian
Casimiro Verceles
Rufino Dungan
of
Agoo, Union Province Page 4
Although I had already inquired for them from Ilocano boys, my first actual knowledge of Filipino riddles was due to Mr. George T. Shoens, American teacher among the Bisayans. He had made a collection of some fifty Bisayan riddles and presented a brief paper regarding them at the Anthropological Conference held at Baguio, under my direction, on May 12–14, 1908. My own collection was begun among Ilocano of Union Province from whom about two hundred examples were secured. Others were later secured from Pangasinan, Gaddang, Pampangan, Bisayan and Tagal sources. My informants have chiefly been school-boys, who spoke a little English; they wrote the text of riddle and answer in their native tongue and then we went over them carefully together to make an English translation and to get at the meaning. Many Filipinos know how to read and write their native language, although few have had actual instruction in doing so. There is no question that errors and inconsistencies Page 5exist in the spelling of these riddles, due to this lack of instruction and to the fact that the texts have been written by many different persons. I am myself not acquainted with any Malay language. I have tried to secure uniformity in spelling within the limits of each language but have no doubt overlooked many inconsistencies. The indulgence of competent critics is asked. It has been our intention throughout to adhere to the old orthography. Thus the initial qu and the final ao have been preferred.
The word for riddle varies with the population. In Ilocano it is burburtia, in Pangasinan boniqueo, in Tagal bugtong, in Gaddang———, in Pampangan bugtong, in Bisayan tugmahanon.
Riddles are common to all mankind. They delighted the old Aryans and the ancient Greeks as they do the modern Hindu and the Bantu peoples of darkest Africa. Many writers have defined the riddle. Friedreich in his Geschichte des Räthsels, says: “The riddle is an indirect presentation of an unknown object, in order that the ingenuity of the hearer or reader may be exercised in finding it out. … Wolf has given the following definition: the riddle is a play of wit, which endeavors to so present Page 6an object, by stating its characteristic features and peculiarities, as to adequately call it before the mind, without, however, actually naming it.”
The riddles of various Oriental peoples have already been collected and more or less adequately discussed by authors. Hebrew riddles occur in the Bible, the best known certainly being Samson's:
“Out of the eater came forth meat,
And out of the strong came forth sweetness.”
Arabic riddles are many and have been considerably studied; Persian riddles are well known; of Indian riddles at least one collection has been printed separately under the name Lakshminatha upasaru, a series of Kolarian riddles from Chota Nagpur has been printed as, also, an interesting article upon Behar riddles; Sanskrit riddles are numerous and have called for some attention from scholars; a few Gypsy riddles are known; two recent papers deal with Corean riddles. We know of but two references to Malayan riddles; one is Rizal, Specimens of Tagal Folk-Lore, the other is Sibree's paper upon the Oratory, Songs, Legends, and Folk-Tales of the Malagasy. This is no doubt an incomplete bibliography but the field has been sadly neglected and even to secure Page 7this list has demanded much labor. It suffices to show how deeply the riddle is rooted in Oriental thought and indicates the probability that riddles were used in Malaysia long before European contact.
To what degree Filipino riddles are indigenous and original is an interesting but difficult question. So far as they are of European origin or influenced by European thought, they have come from or been influenced by Spain. Whatever comparison is made should chiefly, and primarily, be with Spanish riddles. But our available sources of information regarding Spanish riddles are not numerous. We have only Demofilo's Collecion de enigmas y adivinanzas, printed at Seville in 1880, and a series of five chap-books from Mexico, entitled Del Pegueño Adivinadorcito, and containing a total of three hundred and seven riddles. Filipino riddles deal largely with animals, plants and objects of local character; such must have been made in the Islands even if influenced by Spanish models and ideas. Some depend upon purely local customs and conditions—thus numbers 170, 237, etc., could only originate locally. Some, to which the answers are such words as egg, needle and thread, etc., (answers Page 8common to riddles in all European lands), may be due to outside influence and may still have some local or native touch or flavor, in their metaphors; thus No. 102 is actually our “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;” the Mexican form runs:
“Una arquita muy chiquita
tan blanca como la cal
todo lo saben abrir
pero ninguno cerrar.”
But the metaphor “the King's limebox” could only occur in a district of betel-chewing and is a native touch. Many of the Filipino riddles introduce the names of saints and, to that degree, evidence foreign influence; but even in such cases there may be local coloring; thus, calling rain-drops falling “rods,” “St. Joseph's rods cannot be counted,” could hardly be found outside of the tropics. Religious riddles, relating to beads, bells, church, crucifixes, are common enough and are necessarily due to outside influence, but even such sometimes show a non-European attitude of mind, metaphorical expression or form of thought.
Everywhere riddles vary in quality and value. Many are stupid things, crudely conceived and badly expressed. Only the exceptional is fine. Examine any page of one of our own riddle books Page 9