Noli me tángere. English

by José Rizal

  CHAPTER VI

  Capitan Tiago

  Thy will be done on earth.

  While our characters are deep in slumber or busy with their breakfasts,let us turn our attention to Capitan Tiago. We have never had thehonor of being his guest, so it is neither our right nor our duty topass him by slightingly, even under the stress of important events.

  Low in stature, with a clear complexion, a corpulent figure and afull face, thanks to the liberal supply of fat which according to hisadmirers was the gift of Heaven and which his enemies averred was theblood of the poor, Capitan Tiago appeared to be younger than he reallywas; he might have been thought between thirty and thirty-five years ofage. At the time of our story his countenance always wore a sanctifiedlook; his little round head, covered with ebony-black hair cut long infront and short behind, was reputed to contain many things of weight;his eyes, small but with no Chinese slant, never varied in expression;his nose was slender and not at all inclined to flatness; and if hismouth had not been disfigured by the immoderate use of tobacco andbuyo, which, when chewed and gathered in one cheek, marred the symmetryof his features, we would say that he might properly have consideredhimself a handsome man and have passed for such. Yet in spite of thisbad habit he kept marvelously white both his natural teeth and alsothe two which the dentist furnished him at twelve pesos each.

  He was considered one of the richest landlords in Binondo and aplanter of some importance by reason of his estates in Pampanga andLaguna, principally in the town of San Diego, the income from whichincreased with each year. San Diego, on account of its agreeablebaths, its famous cockpit, and his cherished memories of the place,was his favorite town, so that he spent at least two months of the yearthere. His holdings of real estate in the city were large, and it issuperfluous to state that the opium monopoly controlled by him and aChinese brought in large profits. They also had the lucrative contractof feeding the prisoners in Bilibid and furnished zacate to many of thestateliest establishments in Manila u through the medium of contracts,of course. Standing well with all the authorities, clever, cunning,and even bold in speculating upon the wants of others, he was the onlyformidable rival of a certain Perez in the matter of the farming-out ofrevenues and the sale of offices and appointments, which the Philippinegovernment always confides to private persons. Thus, at the time ofthe events here narrated, Capitan Tiago was a happy man in so far asit is possible for a narrow-brained individual to be happy in sucha land: he was rich, and at peace with God, the government, and men.

  That he was at peace with God was beyond doubt,--almost like religionitself. There is no need to be on bad terms with the good God when oneis prosperous on earth, when one has never had any direct dealings withHim and has never lent Him any money. Capitan Tiago himself had neveroffered any prayers to Him, even in his greatest difficulties, forhe was rich and his gold prayed for him. For masses and supplicationshigh and powerful priests had been created; for novenas and rosariesGod in His infinite bounty had created the poor for the service ofthe rich--the poor who for a peso could be secured to recite sixteenmysteries and to read all the sacred books, even the Hebrew Bible, fora little extra. If at any time in the midst of pressing difficultieshe needed celestial aid and had not at hand even a red Chinese taper,he would call upon his most adored saints, promising them many thingsfor the purpose of putting them under obligation to him and ultimatelyconvincing them of the righteousness of his desires.

  The saint to whom he promised the most, and whose promises he wasthe most faithful in fulfilling, was the Virgin of Antipolo, OurLady of Peace and Prosperous Voyages. [32] With many of the lessersaints he was not very punctual or even decent; and sometimes,after having his petitions granted, he thought no more about them,though of course after such treatment he did not bother them again,when occasion arose. Capitan Tiago knew that the calendar was full ofidle saints who perhaps had nothing wherewith to occupy their time upthere in heaven. Furthermore, to the Virgin of Antipolo he ascribedgreater power and efficiency than to all the other Virgins combined,whether they carried silver canes, naked or richly clothed images ofthe Christ Child, scapularies, rosaries, or girdles. Perhaps thisreverence was owing to the fact that she was a very strict Lady,watchful of her name, and, according to the senior sacristan ofAntipolo, an enemy of photography. When she was angered she turnedblack as ebony, while the other Virgins were softer of heart and moreindulgent. It is a well-known fact that some minds love an absolutemonarch rather than a constitutional one, as witness Louis XIV andLouis XVI, Philip II and Amadeo I. This fact perhaps explains whyinfidel Chinese and even Spaniards may be seen kneeling in the famoussanctuary; what is not explained is why the priests run away withthe money of the terrible Image, go to America, and get married there.

  In the sala of Capitan Tiago's house, that door, hidden by a silkcurtain leads to a small chapel or oratory such as must be lackingin no Filipino home. There were placed his household gods--and wesay "gods" because he was inclined to polytheism rather than tomonotheism, which he had never come to understand. There could beseen images of the Holy Family with busts and extremities of ivory,glass eyes, long eyelashes, and curly blond hair--masterpieces ofSanta Cruz sculpture. Paintings in oil by artists of Paco and Ermita[33] represented martyrdoms of saints and miracles of the Virgin;St. Lucy gazing at the sky and carrying in a plate an extra pairof eyes with lashes and eyebrows, such as are seen painted in thetriangle of the Trinity or on Egyptian tombs; St. Pascual Bailon;St. Anthony of Padua in a _guingon_ habit looking with tears upon aChrist Child dressed as a Captain-General with the three-cornered hat,sword, and boots, as in the children's ball at Madrid that characteris represented--which signified for Capitan Tiago that while Godmight include in His omnipotence the power of a Captain-General ofthe Philippines, the Franciscans would nevertheless play with Himas with a doll. There, might also be seen a St. Anthony the Abbotwith a hog by his side, a hog that for the worthy Capitan was asmiraculous as the saint himself, for which reason he never dared torefer to it as the _hog_, but as the _creature of holy St. Anthony_;a St. Francis of Assisi in a coffee-colored robe and with sevenwings, placed over a St. Vincent who had only two but in compensationcarried a trumpet; a St. Peter the Martyr with his head split openby the talibon of an evil-doer and held fast by a kneeling infidel,side by side with another St. Peter cutting off the ear of a Moro,Malchus [34] no doubt, who was gnawing his lips and writhing withpain, while a fighting-cock on a doric column crowed and flapped hiswings--from all of which Capitan Tiago deduced that in order to bea saint it was just as well to smite as to be smitten.

  Who could enumerate that army of images and recount the virtues andperfections that were treasured there! A whole chapter would hardlysuffice. Yet we must not pass over in silence a beautiful St. Michaelof painted and gilded wood almost four feet high. The Archangelis biting his lower lip and with flashing eyes, frowning forehead,and rosy cheeks is grasping a Greek shield and brandishing in hisright hand a Sulu kris, ready, as would appear from his attitude andexpression, to smite a worshiper or any one else who might approach,rather than the horned and tailed devil that had his teeth set inhis girlish leg.

  Capitan Tiago never went near this image from fear of a miracle. Hadnot other images, even those more rudely carved ones that issue fromthe carpenter shops of Paete, [35] many times come to life for theconfusion and punishment of incredulous sinners? It is a well-knownfact that a certain image of Christ in Spain, when invoked as a witnessof promises of love, had assented with a movement of the head in thepresence of the judge, and that another such image had reached out itsright arm to embrace St. Lutgarda. And furthermore, had he not himselfread a booklet recently published about a mimic sermon preached by animage of St. Dominic in Soriano? True, the saint had not said a singleword, but from his movements it was inferred, at any rate the author ofthe booklet inferred, that he was announcing the end of the world. [36]Was it not reported, too, that the Virgin of Luta in the town of Lipahad one cheek swollen larger than the other a
nd that there was mudon the borders of her gown? Does not this prove mathematically thatthe holy images also walk about without holding up their skirts andthat they even suffer from the toothache, perhaps for our sake? Hadhe not seen with his own eyes, during the regular Good-Friday sermon,all the images of Christ move and bow their heads thrice in unison,thereby calling forth wails and cries from the women and othersensitive souls destined for Heaven? More? We ourselves have seenthe preacher show to the congregation at the moment of the descentfrom the cross a handkerchief stained with blood, and were ourselveson the point of weeping piously, when, to the sorrow of our soul, asacristan assured us that it was all a joke, that the blood was thatof a chicken which had been roasted and eaten on the spot in spiteof the fact that it was Good Friday--and the sacristan was fat! SoCapitan Tiago, even though he was a prudent and pious individual,took care not to approach the kris of St. Michael. "Let's take nochances," he would say to himself, "I know that he's an archangel,but I don't trust him, no, I don't trust him."

  Not a year passed without his joining with an orchestra in thepilgrimage to the wealthy shrine of Antipolo. He paid for twothanksgiving masses of the many that make up the three novenas,and also for the days when there are no novenas, and washed himselfafterwards in the famous _batis_, or pool, where the sacred Imageherself had bathed. Her votaries can even yet discern the tracks ofher feet and the traces of her locks in the hard rock, where she driedthem, resembling exactly those made by any woman who uses coconut-oil,and just as if her hair had been steel or diamonds and she had weigheda thousand tons. We should like to see the terrible Image once shakeher sacred hair in the eyes of those credulous persons and put herfoot upon their tongues or their heads. There at the very edge of thepool Capitan Tiago made it his duty to eat roast pig, _sinigang_ of_dalag_ with _alibambang_ leaves, and other more or less appetizingdishes. The two masses would cost him over four hundred pesos, butit was cheap, after all, if one considered the glory that the Motherof the Lord would acquire from the pin-wheels, rockets, bombs, andmortars, and also the increased profits which, thanks to these masses,would come to one during the year.

  But Antipolo was not the only theater of his ostentatious devotion. InBinondo, in Pampanga, and in the town of San Diego, when he was aboutto put up a fighting-cock with large wagers, he would send gold moneysto the curate for propitiatory masses and, just as the Romans consultedthe augurs before a battle, giving food to the sacred fowls, so CapitanTiago would also consult his augurs, with the modifications befittingthe times and the new truths, tie would watch closely the flame ofthe tapers, the smoke from the incense, the voice of the priest,and from it all attempt to forecast his luck. It was an admittedfact that he lost very few wagers, and in those cases it was due tothe unlucky circumstance that the officiating priest was hoarse,or that the altar-candles were few or contained too much tallow,or that a bad piece of money had slipped in with the rest. Thewarden of the Brotherhood would then assure him that such reverseswere tests to which he was subjected by Heaven to receive assuranceof his fidelity and devotion. So, beloved by the priests, respectedby the sacristans, humored by the Chinese chandlers and the dealersin fireworks, he was a man happy in the religion of this world, andpersons of discernment and great piety even claimed for him greatinfluence in the celestial court.

  That he was at peace with the government cannot be doubted, howeverdifficult an achievement it may seem. Incapable of any new idea andsatisfied with his _modus vivendi_, he was ever ready to gratifythe desires of the last official of the fifth class in every one ofthe offices, to make presents of hams, capons, turkeys, and Chinesefruits at all seasons of the year. If he heard any one speak ill ofthe natives, he, who did not consider himself as such, would join inthe chorus and speak worse of them; if any one aspersed the Chinese orSpanish mestizos, he would do the same, perhaps because he consideredhimself become a full-blooded Iberian. He was ever first to talk infavor of any new imposition of taxes, or special assessment, especiallywhen he smelled a contract or a farming assignment behind it. He alwayshad an orchestra ready for congratulating and serenading the governors,judges, and other officials on their name-days and birthdays, at thebirth or death of a relative, and in fact at every variation from theusual monotony. For such occasions he would secure laudatory poemsand hymns in which were celebrated "the kind and loving governor,""the brave and courageous judge for whom there awaits in heaven thepalm of the just," with many other things of the same kind.

  He was the president of the rich guild of mestizos in spite ofthe protests of many of them, who did not regard him as one ofthemselves. In the two years that he held this office he wore out tenfrock coats, an equal number of high hats, and half a dozen canes. Thefrock coat and the high hat were in evidence at the Ayuntamiento,in the governor-general's palace, and at military headquarters; thehigh hat and the frock coat might have been noticed in the cockpit,in the market, in the processions, in the Chinese shops, and under thehat and within the coat might have been seen the perspiring CapitanTiago, waving his tasseled cane, directing, arranging, and throwingeverything into disorder with marvelous activity and a gravity evenmore marvelous.

  So the authorities saw in him a safe man, gifted with the best ofdispositions, peaceful, tractable, and obsequious, who read no booksor newspapers from Spain, although he spoke Spanish well. Indeed,they rather looked upon him with the feeling with which a poor studentcontemplates the worn-out heel of his old shoe, twisted by his mannerof walking. In his case there was truth in both the Christian andprofane proverbs _beati pauperes spiritu_ and _beati possidentes_,[37] and there might well be applied to him that translation,according to some people incorrect, from the Greek, "Glory to Godin the highest and peace to men of good-will on earth!" even thoughwe shall see further along that it is not sufficient for men to havegood-will in order to live in peace.

  The irreverent considered him a fool, the poor regarded himas a heartless and cruel exploiter of misery and want, and hisinferiors saw in him a despot and a tyrant. As to the women, ah,the women! Accusing rumors buzzed through the wretched nipa huts,and it was said that wails and sobs might be heard mingled with theweak cries of an infant. More than one young woman was pointed out byher neighbors with the finger of scorn: she had a downcast glance anda faded cheek. But such things never robbed him of sleep nor did anymaiden disturb his peace. It was an old woman who made him suffer,an old woman who was his rival in piety and who had gained from manycurates such enthusiastic praises and eulogies as he in his best dayshad never received.

  Between Capitan Tiago and this widow, who had inherited from brothersand cousins, there existed a holy rivalry which redounded to thebenefit of the Church as the competition among the Pampanga steamersthen redounded to the benefit of the public. Did Capitan Tiago presentto some Virgin a silver wand ornamented with emeralds and topazes? Atonce Dona Patrocinio had ordered another of gold set with diamonds! Ifat the time of the Naval procession [38] Capitan Tiago erected anarch with two facades, covered with ruffled cloth and decorated withmirrors, glass globes, and chandeliers, then Dona Patrocinio wouldhave another with four facades, six feet higher, and more gorgeoushangings. Then he would fall back on his reserves, his strong point,his specialty--masses with bombs and fireworks; whereat Dona Patrociniacould only gnaw at her lips with her toothless gums, because, beingexceedingly nervous, she could not endure the chiming of the bells andstill less the explosions of the bombs. While he smiled in triumph,she would plan her revenge and pay the money of others to secure thebest orators of the five Orders in Manila, the most famous preachersof the Cathedral, and even the Paulists, [39] to preach on the holydays upon profound theological subjects to the sinners who understoodonly the vernacular of the mariners. The partizans of Capitan Tiagowould observe that she slept during the sermon; but her adherentswould answer that the sermon was paid for in advance, and by her,and that in any affair payment was the prime requisite. At length,she had driven him from the field completely by presenting to thechurch three _andas_ of gilded silve
r, each one of which cost herover three thousand pesos. Capitan Tiago hoped that the old womanwould breathe her last almost any day, or that she would lose five orsix of her lawsuits, so that he might be alone in serving God; butunfortunately the best lawyers of the _Real Audiencia_ looked afterher interests, and as to her health, there was no part of her thatcould be attacked by sickness; she seemed to be a steel wire, no doubtfor the edification of souls, and she hung on in this vale of tearswith the tenacity of a boil on the skin. Her adherents were secure inthe belief that she would be canonized at her death and that CapitanTiago himself would have to worship her at the altars--all of whichhe agreed to and cheerfully promised, provided only that she die soon.

  Such was Capitan Tiago in the days of which we write. As for the past,he was the only son of a sugar-planter of Malabon, wealthy enough,but so miserly that he would not spend a cent to educate his son,for which reason the little Santiago had been the servant of a goodDominican, a worthy man who had tried to train him in all of goodthat he knew and could teach. When he had reached the happy stageof being known among his acquaintances as a _logician_, that is,when he began to study logic, the death of his protector, soonfollowed by that of his father, put an end to his studies and hehad to turn his attention to business affairs. He married a prettyyoung woman of Santa Cruz, who gave him social position and helpedhim to make his fortune. Dona Pia Alba was not satisfied with buyingand selling sugar, indigo, and coffee, but wished to plant and reap,so the newly-married couple bought land in San Diego. From this timedated their friendship with Padre Damoso and with Don Rafael Ibarra,the richest capitalist of the town.

  The lack of an heir in the first six years of their wedded lifemade of that eagerness to accumulate riches almost a censurableambition. Dona Pia was comely, strong, and healthy, yet it was invain that she offered novenas and at the advice of the devout womenof San Diego made a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Kaysaysay [40] inTaal, distributed alms to the poor, and danced at midday in May inthe procession of the Virgin of Turumba [41] in Pakil. But it was allwith no result until Fray Damaso advised her to go to Obando to dancein the fiesta of St. Pascual Bailon and ask him for a son. Now itis well known that there is in Obando a trinity which grants sons ordaughters according to request--Our Lady of Salambaw, St. Clara, andSt. Pascual. Thanks to this wise advice, Dona Pia soon recognized thesigns of approaching motherhood. But alas! like the fisherman of whomShakespeare tells in _Macbeth_, who ceased to sing when he had found atreasure, she at once lost all her mirthfulness, fell into melancholy,and was never seen to smile again. "Capriciousness, natural in hercondition," commented all, even Capitan Tiago. A puerperal fever putan end to her hidden grief, and she died, leaving behind a beautifulgirl baby for whom Fray Damaso himself stood sponsor. As St. Pascualhad not granted the son that was asked, they gave the child the nameof Maria Clara, in honor of the Virgin of Salambaw and St. Clara,punishing the worthy St. Pascual with silence.

  The little girl grew up under the care of her aunt Isabel, that goodold lady of monkish urbanity whom we met at the beginning of thestory. For the most part, her early life was spent in San Diego, onaccount of its healthful climate, and there Padre Damaso was devotedto her.

  Maria Clara had not the small eyes of her father; like her mother,she had eyes large, black, long-lashed, merry and smiling when shewas playing but sad, deep, and pensive in moments of repose. As achild her hair was curly and almost blond, her straight nose wasneither too pointed nor too flat, while her mouth with the merrydimples at the corners recalled the small and pleasing one of hermother, her skin had the fineness of an onion-cover and was white ascotton, according to her perplexed relatives, who found the tracesof Capitan Tiago's paternity in her small and shapely ears. AuntIsabel ascribed her half-European features to the longings of DonaPia, whom she remembered to have seen many times weeping beforethe image of St. Anthony. Another cousin was of the same opinion,differing only in the choice of the smut, as for her it was eitherthe Virgin herself or St. Michael. A famous philosopher, who wasthe cousin of Capitan Tinong and who had memorized the "Amat," [42]sought for the true explanation in planetary influences.

  The idol of all, Maria Clara grew up amidst smiles and love. Thevery friars showered her with attentions when she appeared in theprocessions dressed in white, her abundant hair interwoven withtuberoses and sampaguitas, with two diminutive wings of silver andgold fastened on the back of her gown, and carrying in her hands apair of white doves tied with blue ribbons. Afterwards, she wouldbe so merry and talk so sweetly in her childish simplicity that theenraptured Capitan Tiago could do nothing but bless the saints ofObando and advise every one to purchase beautiful works of sculpture.

  In southern countries the girl of thirteen or fourteen yearschanges into a woman as the bud of the night becomes a flower in themorning. At this period of change, so full of mystery and romance,Maria Clara was placed, by the advice of the curate of Binondo, inthe nunnery of St. Catherine [43] in order to receive strict religioustraining from the Sisters. With tears she took leave of Padre Damasoand of the only lad who had been a friend of her childhood, CrisostomoIbarra, who himself shortly afterward went away to Europe. There inthat convent, which communicates with the world through double bars,even under the watchful eyes of the nuns, she spent seven years.

  Each having his own particular ends in view and knowing the mutualinclinations of the two young persons, Don Rafael and Capitan Tiagoagreed upon the marriage of their children and the formation of abusiness partnership. This agreement, which was concluded some yearsafter the younger Ibarra's departure, was celebrated with equal joyby two hearts in widely separated parts of the world and under verydifferent circumstances.