THE MERMAID OF TANJAY RIVER

(Cebuano)

Tanjay has a wide winding river where people bathe, wash, and hold picnics once in a while. It is a busy place where people work, laugh, and gossip on its banks. It is full of activity during the day and when the darkness comes, everyone hurries home- afraid to be left alone. There’s a reason why they do so.

A young woman once went to the river to wash her clothes. Since many of her dirty clothes were white, she decided to bleach them along the riverbank. She stayed there the whole day. By four o’clock, she began to gather the bleached clothes for rinsing. She was halfway through when the sun began to disappear. She was all alone.

Suddenly she heard a splash and when she turned around, she was struck dumb with fright. She saw a beautiful woman but to her horror she was that the woman’s body was that of a fish with a tail. She could not move.

The mermaid smiled and asked, “Are you afraid of me?”

“No,” the girl replied, “but I’m in a hurry. It’s getting late”.

“Won’t you go with me for a short while?” the mermaid invited.

“All right. I’m going to give you something but don’t ever tell your mother about me. Wait here awhile.”

“Not now. Mother will be waiting for me,” the girl politely refused.

With that the mermaid plunged into the water and vanished under the shadow of a big tree

The girl blinked her eyes. Her fear grew worse. Practically, she placed all her washed clothes in her basin and ran blindly away.

It was already dark when she reached her house. Pale and frightened, she faced her mother but she could not say any word. Her mother, sensing something wrong, asked her what happened. The poor girl did not want to tell her mother but she afraid her mother would suspect her of other had things. So she told her story.

As soon as she finished, she was slapped in the face by an invisible being. From that time on, the girl never bathed in the river again.