The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere
Then were let loose curses upon the age, against the lack of reverence,
against the growing indifference to Religion. This matter seemed to
be his forte, for he appeared to be inspired and expressed himself
with force and clearness. He talked of the sinners who did not attend
confession, who died in prisons without the sacraments, of families
accursed, of proud and puffed-up little half-breeds, of young sages
and little philosophers, of pettifoggers, of picayunish students,
and so on. Well known is this habit that many have when they wish
to ridicule their enemies; they apply to them belittling epithets
because their brains do not appear to furnish them any other means,
and thus they are happy.
Ibarra heard it all and understood the allusions. Preserving an outward
calm, he turned his eyes to God and the authorities, but saw nothing
more than the images of saints, and the alcalde was sleeping.
Meanwhile, the preacher's enthusiasm was rising by degrees. He spoke
of the times when every Filipino upon meeting a priest took off
his hat, knelt on the ground, and kissed the priest's hand. "But
now," he added, "you only take off your salakot or your felt hat,
which you have placed on the side of your head in order not to
ruffle your nicely combed hair! You content yourself with saying,
'good day, _among_,' and there are proud dabblers in a little Latin
who, from having studied in Manila or in Europe, believe that they
have the right to shake a priest's hand instead of kissing it. Ah,
the day of judgment will quickly come, the world will end, as many
saints have foretold; it will rain fire, stones, and ashes to chastise
your pride!" The people were exhorted not to imitate such "savages"
but to hate and shun them, since they were beyond the religious pale.
"Hear what the holy decrees say! When an Indian meets a curate in the
street he should bow his head and offer his neck for his master to
step upon. If the curate and the Indian are both on horseback, then
the Indian should stop and take off his hat or salakot reverently;
and finally, if the Indian is on horseback and the curate on foot,
the Indian should alight and not mount again until the curate has
told him to go on, or is far away. This is what the holy decrees say
and he who does not obey will be excommunicated."
"And when one is riding a carabao?" asked a scrupulous countryman of
his neighbor.
"Then--keep on going!" answered the latter, who was a casuist.
But in spite of the cries and gestures of the preacher many fell
asleep or wandered in their attention, since these sermons were
ever the same. In vain some devout women tried to sigh and sob
over the sins of the wicked; they had to desist in the attempt from
lack of supporters. Even Sister Puté was thinking of something quite
different. A man beside her had dropped off to sleep in such a way that
he had fallen over and crushed her habit, so the good woman caught
up one of her clogs and with blows began to wake him, crying out,
"Get away, savage, brute, devil, carabao, cur, accursed!"
Naturally, this caused somewhat of a stir. The preacher paused and
arched his eyebrows, surprised at so great a scandal. Indignation
choked the words in his throat and he was able only to bellow, while
he pounded the pulpit with his fists. This had the desired effect,
however, for the old woman, though still grumbling, dropped her clog
and, crossing herself repeatedly, fell devoutly upon her knees.
"Aaah! Aaah!" the indignant priest was at last able to roar out as
he crossed his arms and shook his head. "For this do I preach to
you the whole morning, savages! Here in the house of God you quarrel
and curse, shameless ones! Aaaah! You respect nothing! This is the
result of the luxury and the looseness of the age! That's just what
I've told you, aah!"
Upon this theme he continued to preach for half an hour. The alcalde
snored, and Maria Clara nodded, for the poor child could no longer keep
from sleeping, since she had no more paintings or images to study,
nor anything else to amuse her. On Ibarra the words and allusions
made no more impression, for he was thinking of a cottage on the top
of a mountain and saw Maria Clara in the garden; let men crawl about
in their miserable towns in the depths of the valley!
Padre Salvi had caused the altar bell to be rung twice, but this was
only adding fuel to the flame, for Padre Damaso became stubborn and
prolonged the sermon. Fray Sibyla gnawed at his lips and repeatedly
adjusted his gold-mounted eye-glasses. Fray Manuel Martin was the
only one who appeared to listen with pleasure, for he was smiling.
But at last God said "Enough"; the orator became weary and descended
from the pulpit. All knelt to render thanks to God. The alcalde rubbed
his eyes, stretched out one arm as if to waken himself, and yawned
with a deep _aah_. The mass continued.
When all were kneeling and the priests had lowered their heads while
the _Incarnatus est_ was being sung, a man murmured in Ibarra's ear,
"At the laying of the cornerstone, don't move away from the curate,
don't go down into the trench, don't go near the stone--your life
depends upon it!"
Ibarra turned to see Elias, who, as soon as he had said this,
disappeared in the crowd.
CHAPTER XXXII
The Derrick
The yellowish individual had kept his word, for it was no simple
derrick that he had erected above the open trench to let the heavy
block of granite down into its place. It was not the simple tripod
that Ñor Juan had wanted for suspending a pulley from its top, but
was much more, being at once a machine and an ornament, a grand and
imposing ornament. Over eight meters in height rose the confused
and complicated scaffolding. Four thick posts sunk in the ground
served as a frame, fastened to each other by huge timbers crossing
diagonally and joined by large nails driven in only half-way, perhaps
for the reason that the apparatus was simply for temporary use and
thus might easily be taken down again. Huge cables stretched from all
sides gave an appearance of solidity and grandeur to the whole. At
the top it was crowned with many-colored banners, streaming pennants,
and enormous garlands of flowers and leaves artistically interwoven.
There at the top in the shadow made by the posts, the garlands, and
the banners, hung fastened with cords and iron hooks an unusually
large three-wheeled pulley over the polished sides of which passed
in a crotch three cables even larger than the others. These held
suspended the smooth, massive stone hollowed out in the center
to form with a similar hole in the lower stone, already in place,
the little space intended to contain the records of contemporaneous
history, such as newspapers, manuscripts, money, medals, and the like,
and perhaps to transmit them to very remote generations. The cables
extended downward and connected with another equally large pulley
at the bottom of the apparatus, whence they passed to the drum of
a windlass held in place by means of heavy timbers. This windlass,
which could be turned with two cranks, increased the strength of a
man a hundredfold by the movement of notched wheels, although it is
true that what was gained in force was lost in velocity.
"Look," said the yellowish individual, turning the crank, "look,
Ñor Juan, how with merely my own strength I can raise and lower the
great stone. It's so well arranged that at will I can regulate the
rise or fall inch by inch, so that a man in the trench can easily
fit the stones together while I manage it from here."
Ñor Juan could not but gaze in admiration at the speaker, who was
smiling in his peculiar way. Curious bystanders made remarks praising
the yellowish individual.
"Who taught you mechanics?" asked Ñor Juan.
"My father, my dead father," was the answer, accompanied by his
peculiar smile.
"Who taught your father?"
"Don Saturnino, the grandfather of Don Crisostomo."
"I didn't know that Don Saturnino--"
"Oh, he knew a lot of things! He not only beat his laborers well and
exposed them out in the sun, but he also knew how to wake the sleepers
and put the waking to sleep. You'll see in time what my father taught
me, you'll see!"
Here the yellowish individual smiled again, but in a strange way.
On a tame covered with a piece of Persian tapestry rested a leaden
cylinder containing the objects that were to be kept in the tomb-like
receptacle and a glass case with thick sides, which would hold that
mummy of an epoch and preserve for the future the records of a past.
Tasio, the Sage, who was walking about there thoughtfully, murmured:
"Perchance some day when this edifice, which is today begun, has grown
old and after many vicissitudes has fallen into ruins, either from
the visitations of Nature or the destructive hand of man, and above
the ruins grow the ivy and the moss,--then when Time has destroyed the
moss and ivy, and scattered the ashes of the ruins themselves to the
winds, wiping from the pages of History the recollection of it and
of those who destroyed it, long since lost from the memory of man:
perchance when the races have been buried in their mantle of earth or
have disappeared, only by accident the pick of some miner striking a
spark from this rock will dig up mysteries and enigmas from the depths
of the soil. Perchance the learned men of the nation that dwells in
these regions will labor, as do the present Egyptologists, with the
remains of a great civilization which occupied itself with eternity,
little dreaming that upon it was descending so long a night. Perchance
some learned professor will say to his students of five or six years of
age, in a language spoken by all mankind, 'Gentlemen, after studying
and examining carefully the objects found in the depths of our soil,
after deciphering some symbols and translating a few words, we can
without the shadow of a doubt conclude that these objects belonged to
the barbaric age of man, to that obscure era which we are accustomed
to speak of as fabulous. In short, gentlemen, in order that you may
form an approximate idea of the backwardness of our ancestors, it will
be sufficient that I point out to you the fact that those who lived
here not only recognized kings, but also for the purpose of settling
questions of local government they had to go to the other side of the
earth, just as if we should say that a body in order to move itself
would need to consult a head existing in another part of the globe,
perhaps in regions now sunk under the waves. This incredible defect,
however improbable it may seem to us now, must have existed, if we
take into consideration the circumstances surrounding those beings,
whom I scarcely dare to call human! In those primitive times men were
still (or at least so they believed) in direct communication with their
Creator, since they had ministers from Him, beings different from the
rest, designated always with the mysterious letters "M. R. P.", [93]
concerning the meaning of which our learned men do not agree. According
to the professor of languages whom we have here, rather mediocre, since
he does not speak more than a hundred of the imperfect languages of
the past, "M. R. P." may signify "_Muy Rico Propietario_." [94] These
ministers were a species of demigods, very virtuous and enlightened,
and were very eloquent orators, who, in spite of their great power and
prestige, never committed the slightest fault, which fact strengthens
my belief in supposing that they were of a nature distinct from the
rest. If this were not sufficient to sustain my belief, there yet
remains the argument, disputed by no one and day by day confirmed,
that these mysterious beings could make God descend to earth merely
by saying a few words, that God could speak only through their mouths,