The Legend How the Tamarind Come to Life (Original translation of Filipino fiction)

                                        The Legend of the Tamarind

Once upon a time, there were three evil princes from different kingdoms. They were prince Sam, prince Pal and price Lok. 

Since they are all friends, most of the time they meet and are always together wandering. Every time these three are all together, bad things always happen and that is for certain.

They make fun with the dumdum, retarded and illiterate. They became very oppressive, snobbish and cruel to the poor people.

Even the adults are not respected by the three princes. They are only kind to their wealthy peers and the royal blood.

One day while the three princes are wandering mounted to their horses, they passed by a crystal clear creek. They briefly stopped there and watched a young woman bathing in the clear waters.

Delighted with the view and shape of the young woman's body that is almost transparent with a thin apron she's wearing, they laugh hardly harassing the woman.

"Your Majesties, please do not watch and laugh at me."

Prince Sam went mad as he disembarks from his horse and just slaps the young woman without any hesitation. The prince attempted another strike when suddenly an old woman intervened.

Since they also have no respect for the elderly poor people, the three princes pulled together and beat the old woman. 

The girl who was taking a bath was so frightened, she just squeezed herself in the sideline. She doesn't know how to help the beaten woman, she and the three princes also doesn't know where she's from.

The young woman and the three princes were suddenly stunned when the old woman shift her form, she is actually a fairy!!

"It is already time to address your evil actions!" the fairy exclaimed while pointing to the three princes, their eyes also fell off. The incident was so frightening because the princes' eyes that fall on the ground were suddenly devoured by the earth.

Rather than repent and ask for forgiveness, the three princes are fuming with anger and even threatened the fairy. 

After groping each of their horses, the three went off their separate ways. Since they are already blind, they no longer know how to traverse the road home.

Their horses just keep on running until the three princes fell off a cliff!!

The next day, people wondered all of a sudden a tree grew on the same spot where the eyes of three princes were absorbed by the ground.

Days have passed and finally the tree bear its fruits. When they taste its fruit, it's very sour!! Maybe it was due to the closed eye like carved on the seed of the sour fruit, so they remembered the eyes of Prince Sam, Prince Pal and Prince Lok in that area where it were submerged.

Consequently, they decided to call it "Sampalok"(Tamarind in English) the tree and its fruit.

Eventually, people learned to use the sour tamarind fruit as a leavening agent or condiments in cooking dishes.

This story was translated into English from our local Filipino language.    

Image Source: [1] [2]

Tagalog Folklore Reference: [1]

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