Chapter 9: - Page 2 of 2

Pilates

(English version of “El Filibusterismo”)

When she learned that Basilio had gone to Manila to get his savings and ransom Juli from her servitude, the good woman believed that the girl was forever lost and that the devil had presented himself in the guise of the student.  Dreadful as it all was, how true was that little book the curate had given her! Youths who go to Manila to study are ruined and then ruin the others.  Thinking to rescue Juli, she made her read and re-read the book called Tandang Basio Macunat,[1] charging her always to go and see the  curate in the convento,[2] as did the heroine, who is so praised by the author, a friar.

Meanwhile, the friars had gained their point.  They had certainly won the suit, so they took advantage of Cabesang Tales’ captivity to turn the fields over to the one who had asked for them, without the least thought of honor or the faintest twinge of shame.  When the former owner returned and learned what had happened, when he saw his fields in another’s possession,—those fields that had cost the lives of his wife and daughter,—when he saw his father dumb and his daughter working as a servant, and when he himself received an order from the town council, transmitted through the headman of the village, to move out of the house within three days, he said nothing; he sat down at his father’s side and spoke scarcely once during the whole day.

[1] The nature of this booklet, in Tagalog, is made clear in several passages. It was issued by the Franciscans, but proved too outspoken for even Latin refinement, and was suppressed by the Order itself.—Tr.

[2] The rectory or parish house.

Learn this Filipino word:

mabuti ang ulo