The Thirteenth Boy: Legends of the Sto. Niño de Cebu (Part 3)

A book entitled “Legends of the Sto. Niño de Cebu” was published in 1965. It was written originally in Cebuano by Manuel Enriquez dela Calzada, translated into English by Martin Abellana.

 It printed legends about the Sto. Niño handed down through the centuries by word of mouth from generation to generation starting at the landing of Magellan in old Banawa (now called San Nicolas). Among the legends written is the “Thirteenth Boy”: “No children, huh,” the cabo said as he helped the children go up from the hull of the boat. “You dirty, miserable liar!”

 The children and the arraez were brought to the municipal hall where the children’s parents received their offspring with joy and thanksgiving. The alcalde (mayor) witnessed the happy reunion of parents and lost children.

 “Now,” the alcalde said to all the people around, “among the children returned, is someone missing?”

 The children were counted, none was missing, all the twelve children were accounted for. The cabo scratched his head and so did the arraez. There was one missing. How about the boy who leaped from the boat as the boat landed? The cabo told the mayor about it.

 “But how could there be thirteen children when only twelve were lost? The mayor asked, perplexed.

 “I tell you, Your Honor,” the cabo insisted, “there were thirteen children in all if we have to include the boy who disappeared at the Lutaw beach.”

 “Boy who disappeared at Lutaw beach?” asked the mayor, “Was there such a boy? How did he disappear? Who was he?”

 “I do not know who he was but there he was. It was that boy who reported to me to arrest this arraez here but as I said he vanished like the smoke.”

 “That’s true, Your Honor,” the arraez corroborated, hoping that by that way, he could be given clemency for his dastardly act, “there was that boy. He was that boy. He was the thirteenth boy. We only kidnapped twelve children but when we counted the children in my pangko, we were surprised to find there were thirteen. How the thirteenth boy got into our boat, we do not know. He was a mysterious boy. He was versed in several languages. He could speak Spanish as well as our Moro tongue, beside his own native the Cebuano tongue. Not only that. He was a boy who could speak his mind with courage as though he were an abogado.” (To be continued)