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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →In one published version of “Why the Fish Has Scales,” a vain girl rejects the chief of the crabs, who curses her to become a fish covered in scales. The story uses fish darting away from their reflections to explain the girl’s sorrow over her lost beauty. This telling appears in Maria Elena Paterno’s collection The Girl Who Turned into a Fish and Other Classic Philippine Water Tales.
The story in one published telling
Smart Parenting’s summary describes the girl as the daughter of a farmer and his wife. Her parents indulge her, and she grows vain. At the river, she admires her reflection. When the chief of the crabs approaches, she drives him away. He scratches her face and curses her to become a fish covered in scales.
The tale then explains fish darting away from their reflections as an echo of the girl’s distress: she can no longer look upon the beauty she once admired. This is an etiological folktale—a story that offers an imaginative explanation for something in the natural world.
What the tale suggests about beauty and vanity
Smart Parenting frames this version as a cautionary tale about beauty and vanity. The plot ties the girl’s pride in her appearance to her rejection of the crab chief, then makes the loss of her former beauty the emotional consequence of the curse. That is a reading of this particular summary, not an established single moral for every telling of the tale.
Where the tale is documented
“Why the Fish Has Scales” is included in Maria Elena Paterno’s The Girl Who Turned into a Fish and Other Classic Philippine Water Tales, an illustrated collection of Philippine water tales. Tahanan Books credits Paterno as writer and Albert Gamos as illustrator, and lists a 1997 hardcover with ISBN 971-630-051-4. The publisher currently marks that hardcover sold out; that status does not establish whether other sellers have copies. See the Tahanan Books edition listing.
Open Library includes the tale in the collection’s contents, while Google Books catalogs a 1997, 55-page edition and describes the book as a collection of eight Philippine water tales. Open Library catalog record · Google Books catalog record.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is—and is not—known about this version
The plot above is based on Smart Parenting’s published summary, not a complete text of the tale. The available records establish the story’s place in a modern collection, but do not establish its earliest source, oral provenance, or history of regional variation. It is therefore best to describe the girl, the crab chief, and the transformation as elements of this documented version rather than as universal features of every telling. Read Smart Parenting’s summary.
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