PDF (Lo-Res) - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

comb becomes thickets, soap a swamp, a wash basin a lake
(Shaw, 1972:129-131). She and her consort may become church
and bell (Gonzalez Casanova, 1920:25-27), virgin and sacristan
(J. E. Thompson, ibid.), corn field and farmer (Shaw, ibid.), plant
Once there was a man named Johnny Fourteen.
He was called Johnny Fourteen because he ate
fourteen times [a day]. At each meal there were
enough helpings for fourteen men, it seems.
He would leave. He would travel wherever he
traveled, wherever there were big animals, because
he caught them, because he had no use for them, so
he killed them.
It was learned that there was a Johnny Fourteen.
"Well, come here if you want. Come and do some
work!" he was told. Since he never could get enough
food, because he ate so much, he left [home]. "All
right, I won't pay you. The only thing you'll be paid
is ... you'll just be paid your meals," said the boss
where he was summoned.
"Ah!" he said. "All right!" he said.
"You are to roll sixteen, [no], sixty rocks here," he
said. Sixty rocks. "So if you can roll them, if you can
move them aside, then you can eat," he said.
"Fine!" said [Johnny]. He went. He did the job,
but they were just big rocks. The rocks were the size
of a house. He finished pushing them aside.
"Now how is your work going?" asked [his boss].
"It's finished," he said.
"Do you mean it?" he said.
"I mean it," said [Johnny].
"Good!" he said. "Now"—it was on the next day,
too—"Now you will go on an errand. You will go
stand guard by the tree over there. There are lots of
bananas," said [the boss].
"All right!" he said. He went there. He went to
guard them.
"But you will spend the night there," he was told.
"Okay!" he said. He spent the night there, because
he was tricked, because lots of animals had just
arrived, since it was known that he would be eaten
by the animals.
He took a machete along with him. He had it with
him where he slept at the foot of a cliff. The animals
arrived. He couldn't get to sleep. But he finished
killing them all.
He came back the next day at daybreak. "Well,
I've come back," he said.
"Didn't anything happen to you?" he was asked.
"No!" he said.
"Do you mean it?"
ROMIN TERATOL
The Adventures of Johnny Fourteen
T109
seller and farmer, hen and rooster (Radin and Espinosa ibid.),
bird in a tree, or hacienda and fence (Gonzalez Casanova, ibid.).
The happy ending recounted above is an unusual resolution of
the pursuit.
7A ti vo7ne 7oy la jun vinik, Jwan Katorse sbi, 7a
ti sbiin 7o ti Jwan Katorsee, yu7un chan-lajuneb
bwelta ta xve7, j-7ech'el ve7el smakoj
chan-lajun-vo7 ta vinik ya7el.
Bweno, ta xbat ta xxanav 7o bu xxanave bu 7oy
muk'tik chonetike, yu7un tzak yu7un, yu7un mu
baluk xa7i, yu7un ta smil.
Bweno, 7i7a7yat 7un ti 7oy Jwan Katorse 7une.
"Bweno, Ia7 Ii7 toe mi xak'ane, Ia7 7abtejan!" x7utat
la. Komo muk' bu sta lek sve7el, ja7 li toj 7ep ta
xve7e, 7ibat la 7un. "Bweno, pero mu me xajtoj 7un,
k'usi no 7ox chatoje ja7 no 7ox chajtoj Iave7ele," xi
la ti yajval 7abtel bu take ta 7ik'el 7une.
"7A!" xi la 7un. "Stak'!" xi la 7un.
Bweno, "7A li Ii7e chabalch'un vaklajun-p'ej,
7ox-vinik ta p'ej ton," xi la. 7Ox-vinik ta p'ej ton.
"7Entonse, ti mi balch'uj 7avu7une ti mi k'ej
7avu7un ech'ele, yu7un, yu7un chave7," xi la.
"Bweno," xi la. 7Ibat la, 7islok'es ti tariae, pero
naka la muk'tik ton ju-p'ej ta na ti tone, laj la sk'ejan
lok'el 7un.
"7Ora, k'u x7elan lavabtele?" xi la 7un.
"7Ilaj," xi la 7un.
"Mi yech 7aval?" xi la 7un.
"Yech kal," xi la.
"Bweno!" xi la. "7A Ii7e che7e," - ta jun 7o
k'ak'al noxtok 7un -- "7A H7e chabat ta mantal, 7a li
te chba 7achabi 7a li j-tek' te7, 7oy lek Io7boltik te
yo7e," xi la 7un.
"Bweno!" xi. Te bat la 7un, ba la xchabi 7un.
"Pero te me chavay 7un," x7utat la.
"Teyuk!" xi la 7un. Te la 7ivay 7un yu7un
chcho7at yu7un ja7 ti chlaj k'otuk labal chonetike,
ja7 chna7e ti xti7at ta chon 7une.
Bweno, jun la smachita 7iyich' ech'el 7ixchi7in ta
vayel ti bu vay ta yok ch'ene, laj la k'otuk ti
chonetike, muk' x7och svayel pero naka laj smilan
skotol.
Bweno, 7isut tal ta yok'omal sakub ti 7osile.
"Bweno, lisut me tal 7un," xi.
"Mi mu k'u 7apas?" x7utat la.
"Ch'abal!" xi la 7un.
"Mi yech 7aval?" xi la.
81