The Social Cancer - 36

the religious orders were heavily interested, Governor Fernando de
Bustillos Bustamente y Rueda met a violent death at the hands of a
mob headed by friars, October 11, 1719. See Blair and Robertson,
_The Philippine Islands_, Vol. XLIV; Montero y Vidal, _Historia
General de Filipinas_, Vol. I, Chap. XXXV.--TR.
[23] A reference to the fact that the clerical party in Spain refused
to accept the decree of Ferdinand VII setting aside the Salic law
and naming his daughter Isabella as his successor, and, upon the
death of Ferdinand, supported the claim of the nearest male heir,
Don Carlos de Bourbon, thus giving rise to the Carlist movement. Some
writers state that severe measures had to be adopted to compel many
of the friars in the Philippines to use the feminine pronoun in their
prayers for the sovereign, just whom the reverend gentlemen expected
to deceive not being explained.--TR.
[24] An apothegm equivalent to the English, "He'll never set any
rivers on fire."--TR.
[25] The name of a Carlist leader in Spain.--TR.
[26] A German Franciscan monk who is said to have invented gunpowder
about 1330.
[27] "He says that he doesn't want it when it is exactly what he
does want." An expression used in the mongrel Spanish-Tagalog
'market language' of Manila and Cavite, especially among the
children,--somewhat akin to the English 'sour grapes.'--TR.
[28] Arms should yield to the toga (military to civil power). Arms
should yield to the surplice (military to religious power),--TR.
[29] For _Peninsula_, i.e., Spain. The change of _n_ to _ñ_ was common
among ignorant Filipinos.--TR.
[30] The syllables which constitute the first reading lesson in
Spanish primers.--TR.
[31] A Spanish colloquial term ("cracked"), applied to a native of
Spain who was considered to be mentally unbalanced from too long
residence in the islands,--TR.
[32] This celebrated Lady was first brought from Acapulco, Mexico,
by Juan Niño de Tabora, when he came to govern the Philippines in
1626. By reason of her miraculous powers of allaying the storms she was
carried back and forth in the state galleons on a number of voyages,
until in 1672 she was formally installed in a church in the hills
northeast of Manila, under the care of the Augustinian Fathers. While
her shrine was building she is said to have appeared to the faithful in
the top of a large breadfruit tree, which is known to the Tagalogs as
"antipolo"; hence her name. Hers is the best known and most frequented
shrine in the country, while she disputes with the Holy Child of Cebu
the glory of being the wealthiest individual in the whole archipelago.
There has always existed a pious rivalry between her and the
Dominicans' Lady of the Rosary as to which is the patron saint of the
Philippines, the contest being at times complicated by counterclaims
on the part of St. Francis, although the entire question would seem
to have been definitely settled by a royal decree, published about
1650, officially conferring that honorable post upon St. Michael the
Archangel (San Miguel). A rather irreverent sketch of this celebrated
queen of the skies appears in Chapter XI of Foreman's _The Philippine
Islands_.--TR.
[33] Santa Cruz, Paco, and Ermita are districts of Manila, outside
the Walled City.--TR.
[34] John xviii. 10.
[35] A town in Laguna Province, noted for the manufacture of
furniture.--TR.
[36] God grant that this prophecy may soon be fulfilled for the author
of the booklet and all of us who believe it. Amen.--_Author's note_.
[37] "Blessed are the poor in spirit" and "blessed are the
possessors."--TR.
[38] The annual celebration of the Dominican Order held in October in
honor of its patroness, the Virgin of the Rosary, to whose intervention
was ascribed the victory over a Dutch fleet in 1646, whence the
name. See _Guía Oficial de Filipinas_, 1885, pp. 138, 139; Montero
y Vidal, _Historia General de Filipinas_, Vol. I, Chap. XXIII; Blair
and Robertson, _The Philippine Islands_, Vol. XXXV, pp. 249, 250.--TR.
[39] Members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, whose chief
business is preaching and teaching. They entered the Philippines
in 1862.--TR.
[40] "Kaysaysay: A celebrated sanctuary in the island of Luzon,
province of Batangas, jurisdiction, of Taal, so called because there
is venerated in it a Virgin who bears that name ....
"The image is in the center of the high altar, where there is seen an
eagle in half-relief, whose abdomen is left open in order to afford a
tabernacle for the Virgin: an idea enchanting to many of the Spaniards
established in the Philippines during the last century, but which in
our opinion any sensible person will characterize as extravagant.
"This image of the Virgin of Kaysaysay enjoys the fame of being very
miraculous, so that the Indians gather from great distances to hear
mass in her sanctuary every Saturday. Her discovery, over two and a
half centuries ago, is notable in that she was found in the sea during
some fisheries, coming up in a drag-net with the fish. It is thought
that this venerable image of the Filipinos may have been in some ship
which was wrecked and that the currents carried her up to the coast,
where she was found in the manner related.
"The Indians, naturally credulous and for the most part quite
superstitious, in spite of the advancements in civilization and
culture, relate that she appeared afterwards in some trees, and
in memory of these manifestations an arch representing them was
erected at a short distance from the place where her sanctuary is
now located."--Buzeta and Bravo's _Diccionario_, Madrid, 1850, but
copied "with proper modifications for the times and the new truths"
from Zuñiga's _Estadismo_, which, though written in 1803 and not
published until 1893, was yet used by later writers, since it was
preserved in manuscript in the convent of the Augustinians in Manila,
Buzeta and Bravo, as well as Zuñiga, being members of that order.
So great was the reverence for this Lady that the Acapulco galleons on
their annual voyages were accustomed to fire salutes in her honor as
they passed along the coast near her shrine.--Foreman. _The Philippine
Islands_, quoting from the account of an eruption of Taal Volcano in
1749, by Fray Francisco Vencuchillo.
This Lady's sanctuary, where she is still "enchanting" in her "eagle
in half-relief," stands out prominently on the hill above the town
of Taal, plainly visible from Balayan Bay.--TR.
[41] A Tagalog term meaning "to tumble," or "to caper about,"
doubtless from the actions of the Lady's devotees. Pakil is a town
in Laguna Province.--TR.
[42] A work on scholastic philosophy, by a Spanish prelate of that
name.--TR.
[43] The nunnery and college of St. Catherine of Sienna ("Santa
Catalina de la Sena") was founded by the Dominican Fathers in
1696.--TR.
[44] The "Ateneo Municipal," where the author, as well as nearly every
other Filipino of note in the past generation, received his early
education, was founded by the Jesuits shortly after their return to
the islands in 1859.--TR.
[45] The patron saint of Tondo, Manila's Saint-Antoine. He is invoked
for aid in driving away plagues,--TR.
[46] Now Plaza Cervantes.--TR.
[47] Now Plaza Lawton and Bagumbayan; see note, _infra.--_ TR.
[48] The Field of Bagumbayan, adjoining the Luneta, was the place where
political prisoners were shot or garroted, and was the scene of the
author's execution on December 30, 1906. It is situated just outside
and east of the old Walled City (Manila proper), being the location to
which the natives who had occupied the site of Manila moved their town
after having been driven back by the Spaniards--hence the name, which
is a Tagalog compound meaning "new town." This place is now called
Wallace Field, the name Bagumbayan being applied to the driveway
which was known to the Spaniards as the _Paseo de las Aguadas_,
or _de Vidal_, extending from the Luneta to the Bridge of Spain,
just outside the moat that, formerly encircled the Walled City.--TR.
[49] Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.--TR.
[50] We have been unable to find any town of this name, but many of
these conditions.--_Author's note_.
San Diego and Santiago are variant forms of the name of the patron
saint of Spain, St. James.--TR.
[51] The "sacred tree" of Malaya, being a species of banyan that begins
life as a vine twining on another tree, which it finally strangles,
using the dead trunk as a support until it is able to stand alone. When
old it often covers a large space with gnarled and twisted trunks
of varied shapes and sizes, thus presenting a weird and grotesque
appearance. This tree was held in reverent awe by the primitive
Filipinos, who believed it to be the abode of the _nono_, or ancestral
ghosts, and is still the object of superstitious beliefs,--TR.
[52] "Petty governor," the chief municipal official, chosen annually
from among their own number, with the approval of the parish priest
and the central government, by the _principalía_, i.e., persons who
owned considerable property or who had previously held some municipal
office. The manner of his selection is thus described by a German
traveler (Jagor) in the Philippines in 1860: "The election is held
in the town hall. The governor or his representative presides, having
on his right the parish priest and on his left a clerk, who also acts
as interpreter. All the cabezas de barangay, the gobernadorcillo, and
those who have formerly occupied the latter position, seat themselves
on benches. First, there are chosen by lot six cabezas de barangay and
six ex-gobernadorcillos as electors, the actual gobernadorcillo being
the thirteenth. The rest leave the hall. After the presiding officer
has read the statutes in a loud voice and reminded the electors of
their duty to act in accordance with their consciences and to heed
only the welfare of the town, the electors move to a table and write
three names on a slip of paper. The person receiving a majority
of votes is declared elected gobernadorcillo for the ensuing year,
provided that there is no protest from the curate or the electors,
and always conditioned upon the approval of the superior authority
in Manila, which is never withheld, since the influence of the curate
is enough to prevent an unsatisfactory election."--TR.
[53] St. Barbara is invoked during thunder-storms as the special
protectress against lightning.--TR.
[54] In possibility (i.e., latent) and not: in fact.--TR.
[55]
"For this are various penances enjoined;
And some are hung to bleach upon the wind;
Some plunged in waters, others purged in fires,
Till all the dregs are drained, and all the rust expires."
Dryden, _Virgil's Aeneid_, VI.

[56] "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."--Luke xxiii, 43.
[57] It should be believed that for some light faults there is a
purgatorial fire before the judgment.
[58] Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth.--Matt, xvi, 19.
[59] Even up to purgatory.
[60] Dream or reality, we do not know whether this may have happened
to any Franciscan, but something similar is related of the Augustinian
Padre Piernavieja.--_Author's note_.
Fray Antonio Piernavieja, O.S.A., was a parish curate in the province
of Bulacan when this work was written. Later, on account of alleged
brutality similar to the incident used here, he was transferred
to the province of Cavite, where, in 1896, he was taken prisoner
by the insurgents and by them made "bishop" of their camp. Having
taken advantage of this position to collect and forward to the
Spanish authorities in Manila information concerning the insurgents'
preparations and plans, he was tied out in an open field and left to
perish of hunger and thirst under the tropical sun. See _Guía Oficial
de Filipinas_, 1885, p. 195; _El Katipunan ó El Filibusterismo en
Filipinas_ (Madrid, 1897), p. 347; Foreman's _The Philippine Islands_,
Chap. XII.--TR.
[61] The Philippine civet-cat, quite rare, and the only wild carnivore
in the Philippine Islands.--TR.
[62] The common crowd is a fool and since it pays for it, it is proper
to talk to it foolishly to please it.
[63] "The schools are under the inspection of the parish
priests. Reading and writing in Spanish are taught, or at least it
is so ordered; but the schoolmaster himself usually does not know
it, and on the other hand the Spanish government employees do not
understand the vernacular. Besides, the curates, in order to preserve
their influence intact, do not look favorably upon the spread of
Castilian. About the only ones who know Spanish are the Indians who
have been in the service of Europeans. The first reading exercise
is some devotional book, then the catechism; the reader is called
_Casaysayan_. On the average half of the children between seven and ten
years attend school; they learn to read fairly well and some to write
a little, but they soon forget it."--Jagor, _Viajes por Filipinas_
(Vidal's Spanish version). Jagor was speaking particularly of the
settled parts of the Bicol region. Referring to the islands generally,
his "half of the children" would be a great exaggeration.--TR.
[64] A delicate bit of sarcasm is lost in the translation here. The
reference to _Maestro Ciruela_ in Spanish is somewhat similar to a
mention in English of Mr. Squeers, of Dotheboys Hall fame.--TR.
[65] By one of the provisions of a royal decree of December 20,
1863, the _Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristina_, by Gaspar Astete,
was prescribed as the text-book for primary schools, in the
Philippines. See Blair and Robertson's _The Philippine Islands_,
Vol. XLVI, p. 98; _Census of the Philippine Islands_ (Washington,
1905), p. 584.--TR.
[66] The municipal police of the old régime. They were thus described
by a Spanish writer, W. E. Retana, in a note to Ventura F. Lopez's
_El Filibustero_ (Madrid, 1893): "Municipal guards, whose duties are
principally rural. Their uniform is a disaster; they go barefoot;
on horseback, they hold the reins in the right hand and a lance in
the left. They are usually good-for-nothing, but to their credit it
must be said that they do no damage. Lacking military instruction,
provided with fire-arms of the first part of the century, of which one
in a hundred might go off in case of need, and for other arms bolos,
talibons, old swords, etc., the cuadrilleros are truly a parody on
armed force."--TR.
[67] Headman and tax-collector of a district, generally including
about fifty families, for whose annual tribute he was personally
responsible. The "barangay" is a Malay boat of the kind supposed to
have been used by the first emigrants to the Philippines. Hence, at
first, the "head of a barangay" meant the leader or chief of a family
or group of families. This office, quite analogous to the old Germanic
or Anglo-Saxon "head of a hundred," was adopted and perpetuated by
the Spaniards in their system of local administration.--TR.
[68] The _hermano mayor_ was a person appointed to direct the
ceremonies during the fiesta, an appointment carrying with it great
honor and importance, but also entailing considerable expense,
as the appointee was supposed to furnish a large share of the
entertainments. Hence, the greater the number of _hermanos mayores_
the more splendid the fiesta,--TR.
[69] Mt. Makiling is a volcanic cone at the southern end of the Lake
of Bay. At its base is situated the town of Kalamba, the author's
birthplace. About this mountain cluster a number of native legends
having as their principal character a celebrated sorceress or
enchantress, known as "Mariang Makiling."--TR.
[70] With uncertain pace, in wandering flight, for an instant
only--without rest.
[71] The _chinela_, the Philippine slipper, is a soft leather sole,
heelless, with only a vamp, usually of plush or velvet, to hold
it on.--TR.
[72] "All hope abandon, ye who enter here." The words inscribed over
the gate of Hell: Dante's _Inferno_, III, 9.--TR.
[73] "Listening Sister," the nun who acts as spy and monitor over
the girls studying in a convent.--TR.
[74] "Más sabe el loco en su casa que el cuerdo en la ajena." The fool
knows more in his own house than a wise man does in another's.--TR.
[75] The College of Santo Tomas was established in 1619 through a
legacy of books and money left for that purpose by Fray Miguel de
Benavides, O. P., second archbishop of Manila. By royal decree and
papal bull, it became in 1645 the Royal and Pontifical University
of Santo Tomas, and never, during the Spanish régime, got beyond the
Thomistic theology in its courses of instruction.--TR.
[76] Take heed lest you fall!
[77] Ferdinand and Isabella, the builders of Spain's greatness,
are known in Spanish history as "Los Reyes Católicos."--TR.
[78] These spectacular performances, known as "Moro-Moro," often
continued for several days, consisting principally of noisy combats
between Moros and Christians, in which the latter were, of course,
invariably victorious. Typical sketches of them may be found in
Foreman's _The Philippine Islands_, Chap. XXIII, and Stuntz's _The
Philippines and the Far East_, Chap. III.--TR.
[79] "The Willow."
[80] The capital of Laguna Province, not to be confused with the Santa
Cruz mentioned before, which is a populous and important district in
the city of Manila. Tanawan, Lipa, and Batangas are towns in Batangas
Province, the latter being its capital.--TR.
[81] "If on your return you are met with a smile, beware! for it
means that you have a secret enemy."--From the _Florante_, being the
advice given to the hero by his old teacher when he set out to return
to his home.
Francisco Baltazar was a Tagalog poet, native of the province of
Bulacan, born about 1788, and died in 1862. The greater part of his
life was spent in Manila,--in Tondo and in Pandakan, a quaint little
village on the south bank of the Pasig, now included in the city,
where he appears to have shared the fate largely of poets of other
lands, from suffering "the pangs of disprized love" and persecution
by the religious authorities, to seeing himself considered by the
people about him as a crack-brained dreamer. He was educated in the
Dominican school of San Juan de Letran, one of his teachers being Fray
Mariano Pilapil, about whose services to humanity there may be some
difference of opinion on the part of those who have ever resided in
Philippine towns, since he was the author of the "Passion Song" which
enlivens the Lenten evenings. This "Passion Song," however, seems to
have furnished the model for Baltazar's _Florante_, with the pupil
surpassing the master, for while it has the subject and characters
of a medieval European romance, the spirit and settings are entirely
Malay. It is written in the peculiar Tagalog verse, in the form of a
_corrido_ or metrical romance, and has been declared by Fray Toribio
Menguella, Rizal himself, and others familiar with Tagalog, to be
a work of no mean order, by far the finest and most characteristic
composition in that, the richest of the Malay dialects.--TR.
[82] Every one talks of the fiesta according to the way he fared at it.
[83] A Spanish prelate, notable for his determined opposition in
the Constituent Cortes of 1869 to the clause in the new Constitution
providing for religious liberty.--TR.
[84] "Camacho's wedding" is an episode in _Don Quixote_, wherein a
wealthy man named Camacho is cheated out of his bride after he has
prepared a magnificent wedding-feast.--TR.
[85] The full dress of the Filipino women, consisting of the _camisa,
pañuelo_, and _saya suelta_, the latter a heavy skirt with a long
train. The name _mestiza_ is not inappropriate, as well from its
composition as its use, since the first two are distinctly native,
antedating the conquest, while the _saya suelta_ was no doubt
introduced by the Spaniards.
[86] The nunnery of St. Clara, situated on the Pasig River just east
of Fort Santiago, was founded in 1621 by the Poor Clares, an order of
nuns affiliated with the Franciscans, and was taken under the royal
patronage as the "Real Monasterio de Santa Clara" in 1662. It is still
in existence and is perhaps the most curious of all the curious relics
of the Middle Ages in old Manila.--TR.
[87] The principal character in Calderon de la Barca's _La Vida
es Sueño_. There is also a Tagalog _corrido_, or metrical romance,
with this title.--TR.
[88] The Douay version.--TR.
[89] "Errare humanum est": "To err is human."
[90] To the Philippine Chinese "d" and "l" look and sound about
the same.--TR.
[91] "Brothers in Christ."
[92] "Venerable patron saint."
[93] _Muy Reverendo Padre_: Very Reverend Father.
[94] Very rich landlord. The United States Philippine Commission,
constituting the government of the Archipelago, paid to the religious
orders "a lump sum of $7,239,000, more or less," for the bulk of
the lands claimed by them. See the _Annual Report of the Philippine
Commission to the Secretary of War_, December 23, 1903.--TR.
[95] _Cumare_ and _cumpare_ are corruptions of the Spanish _comadre_
and _compadre_, which have an origin analogous to the English "gossip"
in its original meaning of "sponsor in baptism." In the Philippines
these words are used among the simpler folk as familiar forms of
address, "friend," "neighbor."--TR.
[96] Dominus vobiscum.
[97] The Spanish proverb equivalent to the English "Birds of a feather
flock together."--TR.
[98] For "filibustero."
[99] _Tarantado_ is a Spanish vulgarism meaning "blunderhead,"
"bungler." _Saragate_ (or _zaragate_) is a Mexican provincialism
meaning "disturber," "mischief-maker."--TR.
[100] _Vete á la porra_ is a vulgarism almost the same in meaning
and use as the English slang, "Tell it to the policeman," _porra_
being the Spanish term for the policeman's "billy."--TR.
[101] For _sospechoso_, "a suspicious character."--TR.
[102] _Sanctus Deus_ and _Requiem aeternam_ (so called from their
first words) are prayers for the dead.--TR.
[103] Spanish etiquette requires that the possessor of an object
immediately offer it to any person who asks about it with the
conventional phrase, "It is yours." Capitan Tiago is rather overdoing
his Latin refinement.--TR.
[104] A metrical discourse for a special occasion or in honor of some
distinguished personage. Padre Zuñiga (_Estadismo_, Chap. III) thus
describes one heard by him in Lipa, Batangas, in 1800, on the occasion
of General Alava's visit to that place: "He who is to recite the _loa_
is seen in the center of the stage dressed as a Spanish cavalier,
reclining in a chair as if asleep, while behind the scenes musicians
sing a lugubrious chant in the vernacular. The sleeper awakes and
shows by signs that he thinks he has heard, or dreamed of hearing, some
voice. He again disposes himself to sleep, and the chant is repeated
in the same lugubrious tone. Again he awakes, rises, and shows that
he has heard a voice. This scene is repeated several times, until at
length he is persuaded that the voice is announcing the arrival of the
hero who is to be eulogized. He then commences to recite his _loa_,
carrying himself like a clown in a circus, while he sings the praises
of the person in whose honor the fiesta has been arranged. This _loa_,
which was in rhetorical verse in a diffuse style suited to the Asiatic
taste, set forth the general's naval expeditions and the honors he
had received from the King, concluding with thanks and acknowledgment
of the favor that he had conferred in passing through their town and
visiting such poor wretches as they. There were not lacking in it
the wanderings of Ulysses, the journeys of Aristotle, the unfortunate
death of Pliny, and other passages from ancient history, which they
delight in introducing into their stories. All these passages are
usually filled with fables touching upon the marvelous, such as the
following, which merit special notice: of Aristotle it was said that
being unable to learn the depth of the sea he threw himself into its
waves and was drowned, and of Pliny that he leaped into Vesuvius
to investigate the fire within the volcano. In the same way other
historical accounts are confused. I believe that these _loas_ were
introduced by the priests in former times, although the fables with
which they abound would seem to offer an objection to this opinion,
as nothing is ever told in them that can be found in the writings
of any European author; still they appear to me to have been suited
to the less critical taste of past centuries. The verses are written
by the natives, among whom there are many poets, this art being less
difficult in Tagalog than in any other language."--TR.
[105] "The old man of the village," patriarch.--TR.
[106] The secular name of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the
Franciscan order.--TR.
[107] A Spanish official, author of several works relating to the
Philippines, one of which, _Recuerdos de Filipinas_ (Madrid, 1877 and
1880), a loose series of sketches and impressions giving anything but
a complimentary picture of the character and conduct of the Spaniards
in the Islands, and in a rather naive and perhaps unintentional way
throwing some lurid side-lights on the governmental administration
and the friar régime,--enjoyed the distinction of being officially
prohibited from circulation in the archipelago.--TR.
[108] "_Magcanta-ca!_" "(You) sing!"--TR.
[109] Europea: European woman.--TR.
[110] In 1527-29 _Alvaro_ de Saavedra led an unsuccessful expedition to
take possession of the "Western Isles." The name "Filipina," in honor
of the Prince of the Asturias, afterwards Felipe II (Philip II), was
first applied to what is probably the present island of Leyte by Ruy
Lopez de Villalobos, who led another unsuccessful expedition thither
in 1542-43, this name being later extended to the whole group.--TR.
[111] A barrio of Tanawan, Batangas, noted for the manufacture of
horsewhips.--TR.
[112] The actors named were real persons. Ratia was a Spanish-Filipino
who acquired quite a reputation not only in Manila but also in
Spain. He died in Manila in 1910.--TR.
[113] In the year 1879.--_Author's note_.
[114] A similar incident occurred in Kalamba.--_Author's note_.
[115] "The Maid of Saragossa," noted for her heroic exploits during
the siege of that city by the French in 1808-09.--TR.
[116] A region in southwestern Spain, including the provinces of
Badajoz and Caceres.--TR.
[117] Author of a little book of fables in Castilian verse for the
use of schools. The fable of the young philosopher illustrates the
thought in Pope's well-known lines:

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."--TR.

[118] Bones for those who come late.
[119] According to Spanish custom, a matron is known by prefixing
her maiden name with _de_ (possessive _of_) to her husband's name.--TR.
[120] The marble-shop of Rodoreda is still in existence on Calle
Carriedo, Santa Cruz.--TR.
[121] There is a play on words here, _Campanario_ meaning belfry and
_Torre_ tower.--TR.
[122] The Roman Catholic decalogue does not contain the commandment
forbidding the worship of "graven images," its second being the
prohibition against "taking His holy name in vain." To make up the ten,
the commandment against covetousness is divided into two.--TR.
[123] The famous Virgin of Saragossa, Spain, and patroness of Santa
Cruz, Manila.--TR.
[124] In 1883 the old system of "tribute" was abolished and in its
place a graduated personal tax imposed. The certificate that this
tax had been paid, known as the _cédula personal_, which also served
for personal identification, could be required at any time or place,