A barrio of Tanawan, Batangas, noted for the manufacture of horsewhips. —Translator ↩
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. —Translator ↩
In the year 1879. —Author’s note ↩
A similar incident occurred in Kalamba. —Author’s note ↩
“The Maid of Saragossa,” noted for her heroic exploits during the siege of that city by the French in 1808–09. —Translator ↩
A region in southwestern Spain, including the provinces of Badajoz and Caceres. —Translator ↩
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.”
—Translator ↩
Bones for those who come late. ↩
According to Spanish custom, a matron is known by prefixing her maiden name with de (possessive of) to her husband’s name. —Translator ↩
The marble-shop of Rodoreda is still in existence on Calle Carriedo, Santa Cruz. —Translator ↩
There is a play on words here, Campanario meaning belfry and Torre tower. —Translator ↩
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. —Translator ↩
The famous Virgin of Saragossa, Spain, and patroness of Santa Cruz, Manila. —Translator ↩
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, and failure to produce it was cause for summary arrest. It therefore became, in unscrupulous hands, a fruitful source of abuse, since any “undesirable” against whom no specific charge could be brought might be put out of the way by this means. —Translator ↩
Tanawan or Pateros? —Author’s note. The former is a town in Batangas Province, the latter a village on the northern shore of the Lake of Bay, in what is now Rizal Province. —Translator ↩
The Spanish Parliament. —Translator ↩
Lásak, talisain, and bulik are some of the numerous terms used in the vernacular to describe fighting-cocks. —Translator ↩
Another form of the corruption of compadre, “friend,” “neighbor.” —Translator ↩
It is a superstition of the cockpit that the color of the victor in the first bout decides the winners for that session: thus, the red having won, the lásak, in whose plumage a red color predominates, should be the victor in the succeeding bout. —Translator ↩
The dark swallows will return. ↩
General Carlos María de la Torre y Nava Carrada, the first “liberal” governor of the Philippines, was Captain-General from 1869 to 1871. He issued an amnesty to the outlaws and created the Civil Guard, largely from among those who surrendered themselves in response to it. —Translator ↩
After the conquest (officially designated as the “pacification”), the Spanish soldiers who had rendered faithful service were allotted districts known as encomiendas, generally of about a thousand natives each. The encomendero was entitled to the tribute from the people in his district and was in return supposed to protect them and provide religious instruction. The early friars alleged extortionate greed and brutal conduct on the part of the encomenderos and made vigorous protests in the natives’ behalf. —Translator ↩
Horse and cow. ↩
Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, O.S.A., who came to the Philippines in 1668 and died in Manila in 1724, was the author of a history of the conquest, but his chief claim to immortality comes from a letter written in 1720 on the character and habits of “the Indian inhabitants of these islands,” a letter which was widely circulated and which has been extensively used by other writers. In it the writer with senile querulousness harped up and down the whole gamut of abuse in describing and commenting upon the vices of the natives, very artlessly revealing the fact in many places, however, that his observations were drawn principally from the conduct of the servants in the conventos and homes of Spaniards. To him in this letter is due the credit of giving its wide popularity to the specious couplet:
El bejuco crece
Donde el indio nace,
(The rattan thrives
Where the Indian lives,)
which the holy men who delighted in quoting it took as an additional evidence of the wise dispensation of the God of Nature, rather inconsistently overlooking its incongruity with the teachings of Him in whose name they assumed their holy office.
It seems somewhat strange that a spiritual father should have written in such terms about his charges until the fact appears that the letter was addressed to an influential friend in Spain for use in opposition to a proposal to carry out the provisions of the Council of Trent by turning the parishes in the islands over to the secular, and hence, native, clergy. A translation of this bilious tirade, with copious annotations showing
