Tagalog Texts with Grammatical Analysis

12. The game of football in the Philippines.

The games of football in the United States and in the Philippines are very different. Instead of the players belonging to two contending sides, as in American football, in “sipa” the players form but one party. In sipa the aim of the players is not to defeat an opponent, but to prevent the ball or sipa from falling to the ground. The ball used is also very different. It is made of split rattan woven into the shape of a sphere. The inside is hollow and the eyes of the weave are large. Therefore the sipa, unlike the ball used in baseball, is light.

The number of players is from two to twenty. When they are many, they stand in a circle. To begin the game, one of the party throws the sipa ball up into the air and toward one of the players, usually toward one opposite him. The one to whom the ball is tossed returns it to the one who threw it to him, not with his hand, but with his foot.

When the players are skilful, they direct the ball to each one of the party, so that each one of them is alert and ready for the coming of the ball. Each one is careful not to let the ball fall to the ground. Often the players display various manners of sending the ball. The graceful bendings of the legs forward and backward, the quick and light leaps, the gentle and light kicking of the ball, and the sending of the ball in every possible direction, are features which give beauty to the game of sipa. Sometimes the shoulder, the elbow, the knee, or the hand is used in returning the ball.

How is there any contest in this game? This can consist only in the test of endurance in keeping the ball from falling to the ground.

When, for instance, one team of football-players or siperos wants to contend with another team, the former challenges whatever team it has picked out. If the challenge is accepted, the day, hour, and place of the game are at once announced in the newspapers.

At the time of the game thousands of people look on. The challenging party usually hires a band of musicians, and each team is played for during its innings. Usually there are two bands, for, if the challenged party has any pride, it wants to show it and so brings its own band.

After the game the judge announces to the spectators which team has won. When the announcement of the judge has been heard, there begins at once the yelling and the honoring of the victorious team. The winning team and their friends and followers, accompanied by the music of their band, at once begin to parade through the places near to the field of the game. On the next day the whole story appears in the newspapers.

Such games of sipa as these are not common in the little towns in the provinces, but only in the large cities, such as Manila.

13. The priest Patupat.

In the last years of the Spanish time there dwelt in the town of San Miguel a certain man. This man was educated and was intelligent enough to understand the evil ways of the priests, who were really little kings in their towns.

In San Miguel the priest who had the parish was a violent and hot-headed man. The people called him “Patupat.”

One Sunday the man above mentioned went to church to hear the sermon of the priest. As this priest thought that the people to whom he was preaching were uneducated people, he took no pains to speak Tagalog correctly. His speech had neither beginning nor end and was mixed up like rice-pudding. Moreover, what he preached about was never other than Hell, Purgatory, what brutes the people of the town were, and the End of the World.

When the sermon began, our friend Francisco entered the church.

As usual, the priest began his sermon with this utterance: “Brezren and faylow-Christiannes!” Although he had been for almost forty years now in the Tagalog country, he had not yet learned to say correctly “Brethren and fellow-Christians.”

Francisco stood in a place near the pulpit and listened carefully to the sermon, which on that day contained nothing except what had already been a thousand times repeated by the priest, namely about the sufferings in Hell and Purgatory, the offering of candles and the giving of money to the church in order to escape from these sufferings.

Francisco was filled with great anger, for he saw that the priest was fooling his people and had no other aim than to frighten the townspeople so that they should enrich the church and priests.

After the sermon Kiko did not go home as usual, but waited until mass was over. After mass he staid in the church until he was alone. He took some pieces of paper and wrote to the priest as follows:

“Father, I heard your sermon this morning. It is apparent to me that you believe that there is a Hell and that there is a Purgatory. I do not believe in these things. Next Sunday, if you wish, you may prove to the people in your sermon that there is a Hell and a Purgatory. When you are done, I shall try to prove to them that there is no Hell and no Purgatory. If the people believe you, I do not mind if you have me hanged for my defeat and my unbelief, but, if I am the victor, all I ask of you is to allow me to say to the people at large that there is neither a Hell nor a Purgatory.”

Several copies of this letter he pasted to the walls of the church, and one he sent to the priest.

When Patupat read it, his blood boiled and his anger knew no bounds. He had the gendarmes called, and on the evening of that very Sunday he had all the houses in the town entered and searched, so as to catch Kiko. But they did not catch Kiko. That same afternoon Kiko told some of his intimate friends what he had done, and they were all astonished. They asked him why he had done this thing and whether he could not see what would happen to him.

One of them spoke thus: “Pack up some clothes and go away right now, if you don’t want to be caught by Patupat’s soldiers and shot tomorrow.”

Kiko refused to follow his advice, because he thought that Patupat would accept his challenge about showing the people that there was neither a Hell nor a Purgatory and that these things were merely a device of the priests for getting money. Therefore he allowed himself to be overtaken by night in the house of a friend of his.

Not until it was dark and the town was upset with the searchings of the gendarmes did he recognize the great danger which he was incurring. Since he had heard of this at once, he had time to hide in a secret corner of his friend’s house.

When the house-searchings were over, he went out from his hiding place, went home, wrapped up some clothes, had a wagon hitched up, and, taking some rifle-bullets, shouldered his gun, got into the wagon, and had himself driven out of town. After a few days he went to the mountains together with several townsmen who could not stay in the town because they had incurred the anger of the priest or of some other Spanish official of the town.

There, in his stay in the mountains, he was overtaken by the revolution against the Spaniards in the year 1886.

14. Mariano and the priest Patupat.

Mariano was one of the very few apothecaries in the town of San Miguel. He was one of the people who fell into misfortune through disobeying the orders of the priest Patupat. He had a family; beside his wife he had two children, one two years old and one new-born.

One day his servant fell sick. He had a brother-in-law who was a doctor, so he had him treat the servant without charge, and he gave the servant medicine without charge. After some days the servant got well and decided to rest for a while in the country. Accordingly he paid his debt and took his leave of Mariano for a stay in the country. His stay in the country did not last long, before he fell sick anew, and the end was his death.

In the Philippines in those days it was not allowable to bury a dead person without first having him blessed by a priest. The priests did not allow this, but they did not much mind the living together of a man and woman not married, for the reason that they did this themselves.

The deceased servant of Mariano was very poor and his relatives also were poor and had not the means to pay the price demanded by Patupat. Thus there was no one to see to the burial of the servant’s body.

When Patupat learned this, he had Mariano called and said that it was his place to have the dead man buried and to pay the costs. In Mariano’s opinion Patupat’s insolence was getting beyond bounds. Therefore he said that he would not pay him for the burying of the dead man, no matter what happened.

Patupat boiled with rage. He had the dead man buried and on the same day went to court and sued Mariano for the cost of blessing the dead man.

When the session of the court came, Mariano was present, and when the judge asked what he had to say to this accusation, he spoke as follows:

“Your Honor, this man who died was no longer in my care, for he was no longer my servant when he died. When he was still sick, I had him treated without charge and gave him medicine without charge. I have done my duty to my fellow-man and the duty placed upon me by the Lord. One of the duties of the priests is to provide burial for the dead. Now this man is dead, why cannot this priest do his duty without receiving pay, since even this would not happen, if the relatives of the deceased had means?”

After asking some further questions of the priest and of Mariano, the judge closed the hearing and announced that Mariano was in the right and that the priest would have to put up with having blessed the dead man without payment.

When this had happened Patupat’s wrath against Mariano greatly increased, and after a few days he again entered a charge against Mariano. This time he made a different accusation. He complained to the court that Mariano was a Mason, because he did not come to church, did not confess, and did not kiss the priest’s hand. The Masons are enemies of the Catholic Church and, in consequence, were enemies also of the government in the Philippines in those days; and therefore he suggested that Mariano be deported.

When Mariano heard of this accusation of Patupat, he decided that his only hope was to hide or to escape from those who were to arrest him. Accordingly what he did was to go down to Manila, and there he hid.

But even there he was caught by the gendarmes. Together with seven or eight men from various towns he was put into a steamboat and they were taken to the southern part of the Philippine Islands. And when they arrived there some of their number were shot by the soldiers who accompanied them, for this was ordered by the officials who sent these men into banishment.

However, Mariano was not one of those who were shot. He staid there until, after the victory of the Americans, he was given the liberty of returning to his family. When he came back to the latter, his one child was seven years old and the second, five.

15. The story of the Chinese carpenter.

Juan was a carpenter who had for neighbor a Chinaman who also was a carpenter. This Chinaman was a skilled carpenter and his cleverness showed itself in his skilful use of the plane. One day he bought a piece of wood forty feet in length. This he proceeded to smoothe. He tried to see if he could obtain shavings without a break for the whole length of the wood. What with the excellence of his tools and his skill at carpentry, this feat went off as if there was nothing to it. Every time he pushed his plane he obtained a shaving without a break, forty feet in length. In order to show this his skill to his neighbor, the Tagalog carpenter, he sent him one shaving every day.

The Tagalog carpenter, Juan, marvelled at the skill of the Chinaman. In order to make return for the shavings he had received, he too tried to use the plane and to send the shavings to the Chinaman. However, the longest shavings he succeeded in getting were only fifteen feet. These it would have been humiliating to send to the Chinaman.

Juan was skilled in the use of the daras, and he was able to smoothe boards by the use of the daras alone. Any piece of wood which he had chopped smooth with the daras did not require the use of the plane; but the pieces he chopped off were only short splinters, not suited to show his skill, and he could not send them to the Chinaman.

While Juan did not know what to do, the Chinaman did not stop sending long shavings. Juan was filled with anger. He took his daras and went over to the Chinaman’s. The latter was surprised and frightened when he saw Juan.

The latter said: “What do you mean to say by sending me those shavings? You are offensive to me and you shall pay for it. I am going to cut your hair with this daras.”

The Chinaman was frightened, for he knew that if that daras struck his head, he would surely not survive. He tried to escape, but Juan seized him, tied him to a bench, and began to use the daras on the Chinaman’s head.

The daras is a large tool, the size of a pick, and heavy, but in Juan’s skilful hand it was like a mere pair of scissors. The descent of the daras on the Chinaman’s head was very gentle, and only the hair was cut by the edge.

The Chinaman in his fright shouted and said: “Wapelo! Come helpee me, Juan bad man, not Chlistian!”

This was heard by the neighbors and passers-by.

Accordingly they came into the Chinaman’s workshop, but there Juan said to them: “Don’t you mix in here! I am not hurting this Chinaman. I am just cutting his hair.”

And he kept on with his chopping.

When the Chinaman’s hair was completely cut, the onlookers were greatly astonished, for the Chinaman’s hair was as if cut by the shears of a skilful barber. The Chinaman too, when he saw in the looking-glass that his head was unhurt, was greatly astonished and did not stop praising Juan’s skill in the use of the daras.

16. A man who had the power of a deer.

In a certain town in the Philippine Islands there once became celebrated the name of a certain man, both among his fellow-townsmen and the people of the neighboring towns, on account of his unusual strength in running and jumping.

He was not a proud man, but he had some astuteness in money matters and also some courage. He did not let his rare good fortune make him proud, nor did he lie about the source of his unusual strength. He told those who were curious that the source of his strength was the power of the deer which he had made his own.

He did not tell how this power had come into his possession, but he was not stingy about doing favors by helping with his strength both friends and strangers.

Like most people, he wanted to get rich, and it was toward this end that he used his strength. He often entered into races, and these races were always means of winning much money. He always made large bets. He refused no one that wanted to race with him. Sometimes he ran races with people, sometimes with horses, with dogs, and with other animals that are fast at running.

After a few days the money he had won in bets made up a large sum. His friends also, who had bet on him, got much money. When people came to know that he had the power of a deer, they did not want to run against him. Therefore, so as not to stop winning and making money, he gave large handicaps to his opponents. The handicaps which he gave were so great that many people contended with him. Still he always came out the winner. In jumping-matches also he was always victorious.

However, though the advantages which he gained through this power were great, yet there were also some disadvantages which he obtained through it. On account of these disadvantages he did not manage to keep this power as his own through all his life. Through this power he had become very nervous. The sounds of falling bodies, noises, and the barking of dogs at night, did not allow him to sleep. These noises often made him start up with a jump from his sleep. Especially when the barking of a dog, for instance, woke him up, he jumped high up from his bed, and before he recovered his wits he was running at full speed. He could exercise no care about his involuntary jumping up and usually went way up to the ceiling, and, since this was low, his body got full of bruises and his head full of bumps from striking against the ceiling. Likewise in his unintentional running whenever he woke up with a start, his whole body got knocked again and again against the walls of his house.

This was hard to bear, and he thought that he should not live long, what with not sleeping of nights. Therefore he decided to get rid of this power in a few days. When the seventh day of his possession of the power came, he was very sore and thought he should die of soreness. His head was covered with bumps. His face was full of black and blue marks, and though he had broken no bones, his muscles were badly bruised.

Therefore, without saying a word, he went to a forest and there abandoned the power which he had got hold of, seeing that he had already won much money.