The Caribou-Clad Man

"Long, long ago there was young man who worked day and night on the pineapple plantation and he was generally unhappy. He did not like working in the fields all day and he got little time to rest. This young man was often jealous of the owner of the pineapple plantation, who often wore nice clothes and spent his time with pretty women while he toiled outside. One day, the young man was so fed up with work, he cried out loud when no one was able to hear him, "I wish I were rich and have a pretty woman beside me instead of having to do this all day! I’d even sell my soul to the Devil to live such a life!"

As if his prayer were answered, the Devil himself popped out of nowhere in a puff of sulfuric smoke. "So," said the Devil. "You would sell your soul to me just to be rich and have a pretty woman beside you?" Now the young man who made the wish dithered a bit because the Devil was right next to him and he was a little scared.

"You look a little frightened," said the Devil. "Didn’t you want me here to grant your wish?" The man was still frozen in fear and was too afraid to run.

The Devil put a hand on the young man’s shoulder. "Look, because you are a young man, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll grant you half of your wish and give you this pig bladder. All you have to do is to put your hand in it and you can pull out all the coins that you want. It will never run out of money."

The young man smiled. "Great! When will I get the pretty girl?"

The Devil laughed. "With all that money, you can buy a pretty girl’s heart! Even if you smell like a caribou!"

"Smell like caribou?" asked the young man. "What do you mean?"

The Devil waved his fingers and the hide of a caribou was draped over his body. "I know that you are reluctant to sell your soul to me, so this is what you must do. You must wear this caribou hide for seven years and never take it off for anything. You cannot go into the water or wash yourself. You cannot cut your hair or cut your nails. You cannot go to church and you cannot even say a prayer to God. You must do this for seven years. If you do, you can keep the pig bladder full of endless coins and take off the hide. If not, your soul belongs to me to do as I please."

The man agreed, shook his hand with the Devil, and the Devil disappeared in another puff of sulfuric smoke. The man thought this was going to be easy. He already worked hard in the pineapple plantation and he thought there could be nothing harder than that.

For the first few months, the man lived his life like a king. He was spending money left and right, eating the best food. But when he bought the best clothes, he realized that he could not wear them because he would have to take the caribou hide off and once he did that, he would lose to the Devil. After the first few months, he began to look like a beggar, with his hair long with locks and his fingers looked like animal claws. People began to be repulsed by him and avoided his general direction.

One year after the agreement with the Devil, he walked into a tavern near a port and found a sea merchant in despair. There were many angry sailors surrounding the sea merchant because they have not yet been paid. But the sea merchant exclaimed that the weather had been bad so he could not trade nor could he fish. But the sailors still wanted their money and they were going to take the money in the form of his skin if they needed to.

The man, feeling sorry for the sea merchant, approached him. "I can help you with your problem," he said. The other sailors laughed loudly when they saw this man who looked like a beggar attempting to help the sea merchant with his problem. The man then took out the pig bladder and pulled fistfuls and fistfuls of coins until the coins heaped into a mound on the table. "Is this enough?" said the caribou-clad man.

The sea merchant was amazed. He quickly divided the money among the sailors and he was free of debt. "You would like to be my partner?" asked the sea merchant.

"No, I have all the money I need here," said the man pointing at his pig bladder.

"Then let me invite you to my house. I have three lovely daughters that I can offer. I’m sure one of them will marry you." The caribou-clad man thought his wish might be fulfilled sooner than he thought. The man was about to walk out of the tavern when the sailors stopped him and demanded the pig bladder full of coins. The man did not hesitate; he took fistfuls of coins and pelted them at the sailors. While they were nursing their bruises and scrambling for the coins, the caribou-clad man and the sea merchant ran to the sea merchant’s house.

When they were at the sea merchant’s house, the sea merchant introduced the man to his three daughters; the youngest one was the loveliest of all. The sea merchant asked if any of the daughters would marry him. The first two daughters were disgusted by this man’s appearance and absolutely refused.

"I rather be roasted like a pig and eaten!" said the oldest daughter and she stormed out of the house.

"I rather be boiled alive like soup stock!" said the middle daughter and she followed her older sister.

The youngest daughter looked at the caribou-clad man very carefully and noticed the pig bladder in his hand. It sounded like there was money in it and she thought that he could provide her with a good household. She also thought that if she cleaned him up a little, he could be a handsome man.

"I will marry him," said the youngest daughter. "There must be a good reason why our Tatay is asking us to marry him, right? When should we be married?"

"In six years, exactly," said the caribou-clad man.

"Why so long?" asked the sea merchant and the youngest daughter.

"Because there are things that I need to take care of," said the caribou-clad man.

"Six years is an awfully long time," said the youngest daughter. "How will I know it is you?"

"Do you see this?" said the caribou-clad man holding up the pig bladder full of money. "I’ll show this to you again. I want you to remember that the money runs out from the pig bladder. See?" said the man as he pulled fistfuls and fistfuls of money like he did at the tavern for the sea merchant. "I want you to use this money to buy the prettiest dress and wear it for me in six years time. Give the rest to the church and pray for me because I cannot pray myself." Soon the caribou-clad man departed and went on his way. The sudden smell of sulfur lingered in the house for a few days after he left.

For the remaining years of the contract, he kept true to the contract although it got harder everyday. He bought a house and secluded himself in a city, but soon his smell got so bad, the other people living around him forced him to leave. He bought perfume to cover his smell for a while, but soon the smell of his body and the caribou hide overpowered any delicate smell of perfume. In the last year, the caribou-clad man followed the rain wherever it went but he often times got sick and no doctor was able to come near him because the smell warded all of them away.

When exactly seven years were finished, the caribou-clad man wandered back to the town of the sea merchant and the youngest daughter. He stood outside of the town when the Devil appeared. The Devil looked at him very carefully.

"Hmmm… you do not look like you have seven years of dirt on you!" accused the Devil.

"Yes, but I followed the rain and you said I could not go into the water or wash myself. I did neither," said the caribou-clad man.

"I remember hearing your name in a prayer when I said you could not pray!" accused the Devil.

"I did not pray myself. I gave money to a young woman and asked her to pray for me, but I did not pray myself," said the caribou-clad man.

The Devil ran out of excuses and took the smelly caribou hide away from the man. The Devil looked at the sun. "You better hurry," teased the Devil. "The other part of your wish is waiting at your house and if you do not hurry, she will think you are dead!" With a laugh, the Devil disappeared in another puff of smoke, leaving nothing of the contract except the pig bladder full of endless coins in the man’s hand.

The man jumped into the river and washed himself thoroughly of all the grime. The man finally put on the best clothes that he bought seven years ago. He went to a barber who clipped his fingernails and cut his hair. Just before sundown, he walked to the house of the sea merchant. When the sea merchant opened the door, he did not recognize the young man who used to wear a caribou hide on his body.

"Who are you?" said the sea merchant.

"I have come to marry one of your daughters," said the young man.

"I am sorry," said the sea merchant. "None of my daughters can marry right now. My business at sea is bad and they have no dowry."

The young man took the pig bladder and pulled fistfuls of coins and handed it to him. "Is this enough?" said the young man.

"Yes it is," said the sea merchant who was stunned. The young man seemed very familiar to him, but he did not know why. The sea merchant called his daughters to come and meet the young man. Two of the daughters swooned over the young man’s handsome appearance. The youngest daughter came to meet him in a lavish gown made of gold.

The young man stood in front of the youngest daughter and held her hand. "I want to marry her," he said to the sea merchant.

The youngest daughter said, "There is only one man that I want to marry and I am wearing this dress for him. If you want to marry me, how will you buy me a ring?"

The young man smiled because she remembered the promise and pulled out his pig bladder. He asked her to cup her hands and he pulled out fistfuls of coins and covered her hands. "I will use this to buy your ring," he said.

The youngest daughter smiled and agreed to marry him. The other two daughters were filled with hate and loathing for their youngest sister. They did not bother to come to the wedding at all because they hated her so much. They hated so much that the Devil popped up and took them away, remembering what they said when they refused to marry the young man. The Devil roasted the older daughter and boiled the middle daughter and the Devil and his companions had their own wedding feast in the fires down below.

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