Tagalog Texts with Grammatical Analysis

32. The festival of Saint John.

The twenty-fourth of June is the festival of Saint John, and it is celebrated in the various towns of the province of Bulacán. In the month of June there is usually rain and mud. The people believe that Saint John is the saint who makes the rain fall, and therefore is fond of water and mud. Hence the celebrations performed on his day are very different from those performed on the days of other saints. In the towns near the sea there are floods in the month of June and the water comes up into the town. In the towns farther from the sea it is also very rainy, and usually these floods and rains fall on the day of Saint John. The people who take part in the celebration get themselves drenched in the flood or in the rain. In the towns of Malolos and Hagúnoy, when this holiday falls into a time of large flood, almost all the people get into the water or else go canoeing. If there is no flood, the people walk about in the rain. Many people from the country and the suburbs go about collecting alms on this holiday. Most of them are boys or young men; rarely are there any women. In separate groups they go about collecting alms, and each group has with it a band that plays on bamboo instruments. Those who do not play are supposed to have the task of singing or dancing. All of them are almost without clothing, like Igorots, but their whole body, from head to foot, including even the eyes and ears, is caked over with mud.

These groups go calling from house to house. They stop in front of a house and there they play music or sing or dance. They usually sing about the life of Saint John or of some other saint who was a friend of his. While their music is playing, their order is in single file in a circle, sometimes standing, sometimes squatting or kneeling. When there is a singer or dancer, he is within the circle of musicians and there performs his singing or dancing. After two or three pieces of music, songs, or dances they stop and all go round asking alms of the people who are watching them. If they receive no alms, they take mud from their body and throw it at the stingy people. They spend the whole day in such celebration. As these alms-gatherers are very numerous, they help to make the town gay, even though it is very rainy.

When there is canoeing it is not uncommon for people to get drowned. Consequently this custom is gradually disappearing. Moreover, in these days people are getting stingy and rarely give alms. Hence the gatherers of alms on the festival of Saint John are gradually disappearing.

33. Family celebrations after a death.

A family that has suffered a loss by death suffers not only in its mind and soul, but also in its purse. This is on account of the great expense borne by the bereaved ones in conforming with various customs.

On the day when someone has died very many people call on his family, and these visitors do not content themselves with condoling with the dead person’s family, but make a long stay in the house of mourning. Consequently the bereaved family is compelled to serve food to the visitors. Usually the dead person is not buried at once, but is first placed in state for two or three days from the time when he ceased to breathe. During these days people’s visits stop neither by day nor by night. Most of them are relatives and others are friends, neighbors, and other acquaintances in town. If the deceased had many friends or relatives in other towns, they too come to visit, and they have to be given board and lodging by the dead person’s family. This is because in the small towns in the provinces there are no hotels. In feeding all these guests they often use up half a cow, several sheep and goats, and innumerable chickens. The chef is usually hired, and the near relatives of the deceased help with the cooking. For this reason in the house of death the place where the deceased is lying in state is very quiet, and even when many people are there, when they talk it is only in whispers. But in the dining-room and kitchen the noise is extraordinary. Everyone is giving orders to the servants, some are washing dishes or pots, some are polishing knives and forks, some are serving at the table, and so on. In the kitchen the sputtering of the frying-pans never stops, and one can hear only the voices of the chef and his assistants.

But in one chamber of the house stays the immediate family of the deceased and is plunged in grief. They all cry as hard as they can and from time to time blurt out questions as to what will happen to them because of the departure of the one who has died.

If the deceased is wealthy, a priest comes to get him and escorts him to the church. Arriving at the church, the body is blessed by the priest and after this the priest escorts it also to the cemetery. All the visitors are present at the burial, and usually they ride in carriages. These carriages are hired, except for a few which belong to some of the visitors.

When the dead has been buried the guests who come from other towns go along back to the house of mourning. Most commonly they soon depart, but sometimes they stay three days, to take part in the Three Nights’ Celebration. The Three Nights are celebrated in the house of the deceased. At this time the relatives call and all pray together. In this praying only the older people take part, and the young men and young women tell each other riddles. These ceremonies are performed during the Three Nights. On the last night there are usually many people, and the entertaining is more elaborate than on the two preceding nights. Many of those who come give presents to the bereaved ones. Usually these are things to eat for the guests.

In poor families these ceremonies are also performed, but the priest’s calling for and escorting the corpse does not take place. For the blessing of the corpse one may pay the priest whatever one desires. The cheapest thing is the blessing of the corpse at the door of the church and placed on the ground. The next in order is the blessing of the corpse also at the door of the church, but with the coffin placed on an altar. The most expensive blessings are performed right by the altar. The price of these is from one-hundred to five-hundred pesos.

34. Fleeing from the Americans.

The people of San Miguel were like herds of animals fleeing before the whips of the herdsmen and the pursuit of savage dogs. They are very fond of peace and quiet. Also they are very credulous toward hearsay, and these circumstances are what did not allow most of them to stay at ease in the town during the time of the revolutions against the Spaniards and the Americans. It is also true, however, that many of them ran away merely from fright or cowardice.

When the revolution against the Spaniards of the year 1896 took place, I was only four years old. According to what my mother has told me, we went to Manila instead of going up into the mountains. I do not remember much of what happened at that time, except the fact that we went to the railroad station. When we arrived at Manila we were not able to enter the city unless we had a permit from an official of this city.

The next thing which has become fixed in my memory is our stay in Bigaá, in the house of an attorney, whose name was Don Nasario. We went to this town to escape the fighting of the forces of the Katipunan and the Spaniards in Manila. In Bigaá were Tagalog soldiers drilling to take part in the fighting.

A little later we went to the town of Bustos. This town also was at that time in the hands of the Katipunan. This town is very pretty because of the various aspect of the things one sees. The river is very broad, the banks are wide, and on the banks are hills of stone and sand. The friends with whom we stayed were kind people. They often played with my sister and me, and the game was to make ducks dive in the clear waters of the river.

What took place in the fighting of those times I did not find out, for I was still small and had not yet any understanding.

When the flight from the Americans came, I was already a little older, and I remember much of our flight to the mountains. When the Americans had defeated the soldiers of Aguinaldo the people of San Miguel were filled with terror. The report circulated in the town that the Americans were wild people, cruel and fierce, and without respect for anything. This no doubt was a rumor which the Spaniards caused to be spread, and especially the Spanish priests in the Philippines. Owing to people’s fear of the Americans, almost all of us townspeople packed up our belongings and went up into the mountains. We were living at that time in the house of an aunt of my mother’s, and there dwelt with us also the family of my mother’s oldest brother. I remember that the packing and hauling of the goods of all of us who lived in the house took more than ten days. The wagons laden with our goods were despatched at night, so that the carabao that drew them should not get exhausted in the heat of the sun. The wagons were filled up to the top of the covering, and the carabao were much wearied by the drawing of the heavy loads. When no belongings of ours were left, we ourselves got into the wagon to be carried to the mountains.

The place we went to was called Paang-Bundóc, half a day’s walk from Sibul Springs. The dwelling we came to there was a mere hut with a roof of cugon-grass, and very small. The floor consisted of branches of trees with the twigs cut off, but not smooth or even. It was very small and was penetrated by wind and cold. Such was the place we lived in for several months, instead of the frame house of my mother’s aunt.

There in Paang-Bundóc there came to us many fellow-townspeople who were also fleeing, and the last comers reported that all the people of the town were by now in the mountains, or at any rate gone, and only the houses were left.

After several months’ stay at Paang-Bundóc we went from there to a secret place. This place was a clearing in the jungle. Not one of us was allowed to know the name of the place, and those who knew it kept it very secret, so that our hiding-place should not be known by any outsider. This was a way of escaping not only the enemy, but also robbers and thieves. The house we lived in there was very large, a very long building, all under one roof. The building was cut up into rooms of equal size. The number of these was about eight. In each room one family lived. Here too we were compelled to stay for several months.

When the Americans were already near the town of San Miguel, it was reported to us that these people were not as hearsay described them, so that our fear of them gradually gave way. Accordingly we left our deep concealment and went to Paho. This too is a place in the mountains, but nearer to the town. There we were met by many fellow-townsmen and people from various other places. Most of them were sick from staying in the mountains. Here the medicines which Mother had taken up into the mountains instead of leaving them in the town, were of great use. These medicines belonged to Father; he had left them behind when he was banished to Sulu by the Spanish priests. One morning someone called at our house to buy some medicine. Mother went to the chest in which the medicine lay. When it was opened, we saw a snake coiled up and sleeping on the rice-hulls that covered the bottles. The people who saw this rejoiced greatly, but Mother was only frightened. She did not know the meaning of the snake. When the rejoicing was over, Mother asked why they were all so glad. They answered that the meaning of the snake was that the owner of the medicine was going to get rich. Mother only laughed at what they said, for she did not believe in these things.

After a few months we left Paho and went home to our town. When we got there, most of the few belongings we had left there had been stolen by the few people who had been left in the town. The boards of the flooring of the house of Mother’s aunt were gone, and they did not know who had taken them.

Not long after our arrival in town it was reported that the American soldiers were now near to the town of San Miguel. We were not made uneasy by this news, and awaited their arrival. One noon the town was quiet. The soldiers who were in the town went away and those who did not go away threw away their guns. The reason for this was the entry of the American soldiers. From the back yard of the house in which we were living I saw the approach of the soldiers. Their trousers were khaki and their shirts blue. They carried their guns and ran in single file across the fields and came toward the road.

When the Americans were in possession of the town, orders for some months were strict. Lights were ordered extinguished at six o’clock in the evening, and no one was allowed to walk about after this hour. In the mountains near San Miguel were many Tagalog soldiers, and they often attacked the town of San Miguel. On account of these attacks the Americans set fire to houses in San Miguel. Night after night when the soldiers attacked, the houses were regularly set fire to. Our neighbors came to us every night to sleep with us, because in our house the danger from the bullets of the contestants was not so great. The doctor of the American soldiers who were in the town of San Miguel had become a friend of my father’s, and for this reason our house escaped being burned. Once this doctor told Father that he often accompanied the patrols and told them not to burn down our house. Finally, as the Tagalog soldiers did not succeed in driving the Americans out of the town, they stopped their attacks, and the town became quiet.