The Pumpkin in the Jar (Philippines)

This was the maiden's secret: She had placed a pumpkin bud, one that was still attached to a vine in the ground, inside the jar through its small opening. Over time the pumpkin bud grew into a full-sized pumpkin. When the pumpkin filled the jar, she simply cut off the stem and delivered the jar with the pumpkin to the palace. | Back to Story |

FOOTNOTE
This Philippine story is traced to Manila, 1908 and is associated with the Tagalog tribe.

A related version of this story is found in India (Indian Nights Entertainment by Swynnerton, p.315). The daughter of a smith, whom a Prince wanted to marry, in order to show her cleverness made some large earthenware jars, and without baking them she painted and enameled them, and introduced a small watermelon into each. When the melons had grown so as to fill the jars, she sent two of them to the palace, with a request that the melons should be taken out without breaking the jars or the melons. No one being able to do it, she obtained permission to visit the palace, wrapped a wet cloth around each jar until it became soft, expanded the mouths, extracted the melons, and remade the jars as before.
 
SOURCE 
"The Pumpkin in the Jar" is based on a story called "The Life of a Shepherdess Born in a Town, who Became the Wife of a King Because of a Pumpkin," from Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler, Ph.D. (American Folk-Lore Society: G. E. Stechert & Co: New York, 1921), pp. 57-58. Adapted by Elaine Lindy ©1998-2001. All rights reserved.