The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere
in a golden atmosphere. For the other part a dark cloud arose on the
horizon, projecting from its gray depths, like black silhouettes,
bars, chains, and even the fateful gibbet. In the air there seemed to
be heard investigations, condemnations, and the cries from the torture
chamber; Marianas [145] and Bagumbayan presented themselves wrapped
in a torn and bloody veil, fishers and fished confused. Fate pictured
the event to the imaginations of the Manilans like certain Chinese
fans--one side painted black, the other gilded with bright-colored
birds and flowers.
In the convents the greatest excitement prevailed. Carriages
were harnessed, the Provincials exchanged visits and held secret
conferences; they presented themselves in the palaces to offer their
aid to _the government in its perilous crisis_. Again there was talk
of comets and omens.
"_A Te Deum! A Te Deum!_" cried a friar in one convent. "This time
let no one be absent from the chorus! It's no small mercy from God
to make it clear just now, especially in these hopeless times, how
much we are worth!"
"The little general _Mal-Aguero_ [146] can gnaw his lips over this
lesson," responded another.
"What would have become of him if not for the religious corporations?"
"And to celebrate the fiesta better, serve notice on the cook and
the refectioner. _Gaudeamus_ for three days!"
"Amen!" "Viva Salvi!" "Amen!"
In another convent they talked differently.
"You see, now, that fellow is a pupil of the Jesuits. The filibusters
come from the Ateneo."
"And the anti-friars."
"I told you so. The Jesuits are ruining the country, they're corrupting
the youth, but they are tolerated because they trace a few scrawls
on a piece of paper when there is an earthquake."
"And God knows how they are made!"
"Yes, but don't contradict them. When everything is shaking and moving
about, who draws diagrams? Nothing, Padre Secchi--" [147]
And they smiled with sovereign disdain.
"But what about the weather forecasts and the typhoons?" asked another
ironically. "Aren't they divine?"
"Any fisherman foretells them!"
"When he who governs is a fool--tell me how your head is and I'll
tell you how your foot is! But you'll see if the friends favor one
another. The newspapers very nearly ask a miter for Padre Salvi."
"He's going to get it! He'll lick it right up!"
"Do you think so?"
"Why not! Nowadays they grant one for anything whatsoever. I know
of a fellow who got one for less. He wrote a cheap little work
demonstrating that the Indians are not capable of being anything but
mechanics. Pshaw, old-fogyisms!"
"That's right! So much favoritism injures Religion!" exclaimed
another. "If the miters only had eyes and could see what heads they
were upon--"
"If the miters were natural objects," added another in a nasal tone,
"_Natura abhorrer vacuum_."
"That's why they grab for them, their emptiness attracts!" responded
another.
These and many more things were said in the convents, but we will
spare our reader other comments of a political, metaphysical, or
piquant nature and conduct him to a private house. As we have few
acquaintances in Manila, let us enter the home of Capitan Tinong,
the polite individual whom we saw so profusely inviting Ibarra to
honor him with a visit.
In the rich and spacious sala of his Tondo house, Capitan Tinong was
seated in a wide armchair, rubbing his hands in a gesture of despair
over his face and the nape of his neck, while his wife, Capitana
Tinchang, was weeping and preaching to him. From the corner their
two daughters listened silently and stupidly, yet greatly affected.
"Ay, Virgin of Antipolo!" cried the woman. "Ay, Virgin of the Rosary
and of the Girdle! [148] Ay, ay! Our Lady of Novaliches!"
"Mother!" responded the elder of the daughters.
"I told you so!" continued the wife in an accusing tone. "I told you
so! Ay, Virgin of Carmen, [149] ay!"
"But you didn't tell me anything," Capitan Tinong dared to answer
tearfully. "On the contrary, you told me that I was doing well to
frequent Capitan Tiago's house and cultivate friendship with him,
because he's rich--and you told me--"
"What! What did I tell you? I didn't tell you that, I didn't tell
you anything! Ay, if you had only listened to me!"
"Now you're throwing the blame on _me_," he replied bitterly, slapping
the arm of his chair. "Didn't you tell me that I had done well to
invite him to dine with us, because he was wealthy? Didn't you say
that we ought to have friends only among the wealthy? _Abá!_"
"It's true that I told you so, because--because there wasn't anything
else for me to do. You did nothing but sing his praises: _Don Ibarra_
here, _Don Ibarra_ there, _Don Ibarra_ everywhere. _Abaá!_ But I
didn't advise you to hunt him up and talk to him at that reception! You
can't deny that!"
"Did I know that he was to be there, perhaps?"
"But you ought to have known it!"
"How so, if I didn't even know him?"
"But you ought to have known him!"
"But, Tinchang, it was the first time that I ever saw him, that I
ever heard him spoken of!"
"Well then, you ought to have known him before and heard him spoken
of. That's what you're a man for and wear trousers and read _El Diario
de Manila_," [150] answered his unterrified spouse, casting on him
a terrible look.
To this Capitan Tinong did not know what to reply. Capitana Tinchang,
however, was not satisfied with this victory, but wished to silence him
completely. So she approached him with clenched fists. "Is this what
I've worked for, year after year, toiling and saving, that you by your
stupidity may throw away the fruits of my labor?" she scolded. "Now
they'll come to deport you, they'll take away all our property, just
as they did from the wife of--Oh, if I were a man, if I were a man!"
Seeing that her husband bowed his head, she again fell to sobbing,
but still repeating, "Ay, if I were a man, if I were a man!"
"Well, if you were a man," the provoked husband at length asked,
"what would you do?"
"What would I do? Well--well--well, this very minute I'd go to the
Captain-General and offer to fight against the rebels, this very
minute!"
"But haven't you seen what the _Diario_ says? Read it: 'The vile
and infamous treason has been suppressed with energy, strength, and
vigor, and soon the rebellious enemies of the Fatherland and their
accomplices will feel all the weight and severity of the law.' Don't
you see it? There isn't any more rebellion."
"That doesn't matter! You ought to offer yourself as they did in '72;
[151] they saved themselves."
"Yes, that's what was done by Padre Burg--"
But he was unable to finish this name, for his wife ran to him and
slapped her hand over his mouth. "Shut up! Are you saying that name
so that they may garrote you tomorrow on Bagumbayan? Don't you know
that to pronounce it is enough to get yourself condemned without
trial? Keep quiet!"
However Capitan Tinong may have felt about obeying her, he could
hardly have done otherwise, for she had his mouth covered with both
her hands, pressing his little head against the back of the chair,
so that the poor fellow might have been smothered to death had not
a new personage appeared on the scene. This was their cousin, Don
Primitivo, who had memorized the "Amat," a man of some forty years,
plump, big-paunched, and elegantly dressed.
"_Quid video?_" he exclaimed as he entered. "What's
happening? _Quare?_" [152]
"Ay, cousin!" cried the woman, running toward him in tears, "I've
sent for you because I don't know what's going to become of us. What
do you advise? Speak, you've studied Latin and know how to argue."
"But first, _quid quaeritis? Nihil est in intellectu quod prius non
fuerit in sensu; nihil volitum quin praecognitum_." [153]
He sat down gravely and, just as if the Latin phrases had possessed
a soothing virtue, the couple ceased weeping and drew nearer to him
to hang upon the advice from his lips, as at one time the Greeks did
before the words of salvation from the oracle that was to free them
from the Persian invaders.
"Why do you weep? _Ubinam gentium sumus?_" [154]
"You've already heard of the uprising?"
"_Alzamentum Ibarrae ab alferesio Guardiae Civilis destructum? Et
nunc?_ [155] What! Does Don Crisostomo owe you anything?"
"No, but you know, Tinong invited him to dinner and spoke to him
on the Bridge of Spain--in broad daylight! They'll say that he's a
friend of his!"
"A friend of his!" exclaimed the startled Latinist, rising. "_Amice,
amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas_. Birds of a feather flock
together. _Malum est negotium et est timendum rerum istarum
horrendissimum resultatum!_ [156] Ahem!"
Capitan Tinong turned deathly pale at hearing so many words in _um_;
such a sound presaged ill. His wife clasped her hands supplicatingly
and said:
"Cousin, don't talk to us in Latin now. You know that we're not
philosophers like you. Let's talk in Spanish or Tagalog. Give us
some advice."
"It's a pity that you don't understand Latin, cousin. Truths in
Latin are lies in Tagalog; for example, _contra principia negantem
fustibus est arguendum_ [157] in Latin is a truth like Noah's ark,
but I put it into practise once and I was the one who got whipped. So,
it's a pity that you don't know Latin. In Latin everything would be
straightened out."
"We, too, know many _oremus, parcenobis_, and _Agnus Dei Catolis_,
[158] but now we shouldn't understand one another. Provide Tinong
with an argument so that they won't hang him!"
"You're done wrong, very wrong, cousin, in cultivating friendship
with that young man," replied the Latinist.
"The righteous suffer for the sinners. I was almost going to advise you
to make your will. _Vae illis! Ubi est fumus ibi est ignis! Similis
simili audet; atqui Ibarra ahorcatur, ergo ahorcaberis--_" [159]
With this he shook his head from side to side disgustedly.
"Saturnino, what's the matter?" cried Capitana Tinchang in dismay. "Ay,
he's dead! A doctor! Tinong, Tinongoy!"
The two daughters ran to her, and all three fell to weeping. "It's
nothing more than a swoon, cousin! I would have been more pleased
that--that--but unfortunately it's only a swoon. _Non timeo mortem
in catre sed super espaldonem Bagumbayanis_. [160] Get some water!"
"Don't die!" sobbed the wife. "Don't die, for they'll come and arrest
you! Ay, if you die and the soldiers come, ay, ay!"
The learned cousin rubbed the victim's face with water until he
recovered consciousness. "Come, don't cry. _Inveni remedium_: I've
found a remedy. Let's carry him to bed. Come, take courage! Here I am
with you--and all the wisdom of the ancients. Call a doctor, and you,
cousin, go right away to the Captain-General and take him a present--a
gold ring, a chain. _Dadivae quebrantant peñas_. [161] Say that it's
a Christmas gift. Close the windows, the doors, and if any one asks
for my cousin, say that he is seriously ill. Meanwhile, I'll burn all
his letters, papers, and books, so that they can't find anything,
just as Don Crisostomo did. _Scripti testes sunt! Quod medicamenta
non sanant, ferrum sanat, quod ferrum non sanat, ignis sanat._" [162]
"Yes, do so, cousin, burn everything!" said Capitana Tinchang. "Here
are the keys, here are the letters from Capitan Tiago. Burn them! Don't
leave a single European newspaper, for they're very dangerous. Here
are the copies of _The Times_ that I've kept for wrapping up soap
and old clothes. Here are the books."
"Go to the Captain-General, cousin," said Don Primitivo, "and leave
us alone. _In extremis extrema_. [163] Give me the authority of a
Roman dictator, and you'll see how soon I'll save the coun--I mean,
my cousin."
He began to give orders and more orders, to upset bookcases, to tear