Growing up, my grandmother always warned me against going to sleep with wet hair because if I did, I would wake up with crooked fingers or a crooked neck. It wasn’t until I started learning Chamorro and reading our legends in our language that I realized there is an entire legend based on this! Here is that legend, the version collected by Carmen C. Blas and narrated by Jay Che’le.

Maigo’ Yan i Fetgon Gapitulu-ña i Patgon Palao’an

Nina’daña yan trinanslådan as Carmen C. Blas
Pinentan as Lita Payne, Richard Duke, yan Joe Babauta

Estaba sumåsaga un påtgon Hagåtña yan si nanå-ña. Mampos este na påtgon gasgas, ya kada diha umo’mak. Un diha, ilek-ña as nanå-ña, “Nanå-hu, buente bai hu hånao bai hu o’mak sa’ esta yo’ gof odda’ yan maipe yo’.”

Ilek-ña i nana, “Ai hagå-hu, mampos esta gef painge, båba umo’mak na ora. Nangga asta agupa’ yan manana. Yanggen fofotgon gapitulu-mu gi maigo’-mu, siña nina’malångu hao.”

*Annai malingo tatalo’ i nanå-ña, må’pos ha’ i patgon umo’mak ti ha osge si nanå-ña. Ti ginacha’ as nanå-ña para u chinema’ ya asta gof atrasao. Humålom ha’ i patgon yan i fetgon gapitulu-ña ya mampos matuhok ti ha nangga na u ånglo’ gapitulu-ña. Annai makmåta i patgon, ha li’e’ na echong i tengho-ña yan maheffong i gui’eng-ña.

Ilek-ña si nanå-ña, “Ai adai, yanggen mohon un osge yo’, ti un taigueguenao pinadesi-mu yan hechurå-mu.”

Desde ayu na tiempo, ti u fano’mak i famalao’an yanggen asta puenge sa’ manma’å’ñao na u fanmafongfong gui’eng-ñiha yan u fanechong tenghon-ñiha.

The Girl Who Slept with Her Wet Hair

Gathered and translated by Carmen C. Blas
Illustrated by Lita Payne, Richard Duke, and Joe Babauta

The was a child living in Hagåtña with her mother. This child was very clean, and bathed every day. One day, she said to her mother, “My mother, probably I will go and I will bathe because I am already very dirty and I am hot.”

The mother said, “Ai my daughter, it is already very late, it’s a bad hour for bathing. Wait until tomorrow morning. If your hair is wet in your sleep, it can make you sick.”

When the back of her mother disappeared, the child left to bathe, and she did not obey her mother. She was not discovered by her mother to be stopped and it it was already late. The child went inside with her wet hair and she was very sleepy and she did not wait for her hair to become dry. When the child woke up, she saw that the back of her neck was crooked and her nose was flattened.

Her mother said, “Ai adai, if you obeyed me, your pain and shape would not be that way.”

Ever since that time, the women do not bathe if it is already night because they are afraid that their noses will be flattened and the backs of their necks will be crooked.

Notes

Annai malingo tatalo’ i nanå-ña: Thanks to some very helpful people on the Fino’ Chamoru sub-reddit, I received help in my translation of this tricky sentence. If you read it literally, it might come across as “When her mother’s back was lost.” But it’s actually more along the lines of “When the back of her mother disappeared” as in “When her mother was gone”

Original PDF

References

Blas, Carmen, trans. 1978. “Maigo’ Yan i Fetgon Gapitulu-ña i Patgon Palao’an.” PDF. In Legend Fino’ Chamorro Siha. Guam Secondary Bilingual Education Project. https://airtable.com/appU43QeD409YS6Hl/shrXhl6F1kRn9xx1H/tblQeLirqavda9h6P/viwh0oCoEpAZEH4XG/recEkBAfmW0rCSlHF/fldWSwclEvY9lGVlu/attZMRjxsDfGeiY5Q?blocks=hide.