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With What Measure Ye Mete · Anting-Anting Stories And Other Strange Tales of the Filipinos by Sargent Kayme

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  Speaker 1: Section nine of Unting Hunting Stories by Sergeant Kayme. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. With what measure
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  Speaker 1: ye meet? The story of the tax collector of Chargau
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  Speaker 1: reminds me of an official of that rank whom I
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  Speaker 1: once knew, said a fellow naturalist whom I once met
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  Speaker 1: at a club in Manila, and with whom I had
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  Speaker 1: been exchanging experiences. It was when I was gathering specimens
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  Speaker 1: in Negros. They were a bad lot, those collectors, a
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  Speaker 1: set of money grabbers of the worst kind. But bad
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  Speaker 1: as they were, they had a hard time too. If
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  Speaker 1: they did not make their pile out of the poor
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  Speaker 1: natives and go back to Manila or to Spain rich
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  Speaker 1: in three or four years, it was pretty likely to
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  Speaker 1: be because they had fallen victims to the hate of
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  Speaker 1: the natives or to the distrust of the officials at headquarters.
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  Speaker 1: When I first went to Negros and had occasion to
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  Speaker 1: go to the Tribunal, as the god government house was called,
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  Speaker 1: I noticed some objects in one of the rooms so
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  Speaker 1: odd and so different from anything I had seen anywhere
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  Speaker 1: else that I asked their use. I was told that
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  Speaker 1: they were used for catching men who had not paid
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  Speaker 1: their taxes. Among the various thorn bearing plants which the
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  Speaker 1: swamps of the Philippine Islands produce is one called the
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  Speaker 1: behuko or jungle rope. This is a vine of no
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  Speaker 1: great size, but of tremendous strength, which near the end
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  Speaker 1: divides into several slender but very tough branches. Each of
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  Speaker 1: these branches is surrounded by many rings of long, wicked,
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  Speaker 1: recurved thorns, as sharp and strong as steel fish hooks,
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  Speaker 1: and nearly as difficult to dislodge. The hunter who encounters
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  Speaker 1: a thicket of behuko goes around it or turns back,
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  Speaker 1: for it is hopeless to try to go through. While
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  Speaker 1: he frees himself from the grasp of one thorn, a
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  Speaker 1: dozen more have caught him somewhere else. The objects which
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  Speaker 1: I had seen in the tribunal guard room were made
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  Speaker 1: of long bamboo poles across one end of which two
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  Speaker 1: short pieces had been fastened to. These cross pieces were
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  Speaker 1: bound a great number of the behuko vines, so arranged
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  Speaker 1: that the innumerable hooks which they bore could be easily
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  Speaker 1: swung about in the air. The Gobanodorsilio, who was in
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  Speaker 1: office at the time, was a man who had no
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  Speaker 1: mercy on his people. Negros, with the other islands of
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  Speaker 1: the group commonly known as Fisayan, forms a province which
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  Speaker 1: is under the supervision of a governor who has his
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  Speaker 1: headquarters in the island of Cebu, where also the bishop,
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  Speaker 1: who is the head of the sea resides. Negros is
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  Speaker 1: near enough to Cebu, so that the authority of the
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  Speaker 1: government could be maintained better there than it could in
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  Speaker 1: the more distant islands. When I was there, the village
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  Speaker 1: of Domagete, the chief town and seaport of Negros, contained
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  Speaker 1: a stone fort, the most imposing, probably of any outside
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  Speaker 1: the capital. While the garrison, formed of half breed soldiers
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  Speaker 1: who were on duty there sent down from Cebu with
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  Speaker 1: the Gobernadorsilio kept the people in a degree of subjection
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  Speaker 1: which in many places would have been impossible. The men
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  Speaker 1: whom the governor employed to round up his delinquent subjects
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  Speaker 1: were called quadrilleros. Sunday was the day he devoted to
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  Speaker 1: the sport for such I think he really regarded it.
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  Speaker 1: The quadrilleros would start out in the morning with a
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  Speaker 1: list of the men who were wanted. A house would
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  Speaker 1: be surrounded, and unless the man had been given some
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  Speaker 1: mourning of their coming, and had fled. He would be
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  Speaker 1: driven out then if he tried to escape or refuse
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  Speaker 1: to come with them. One of the Bejuco man catchers
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  Speaker 1: was swung with a practiced hand in his direction, and
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  Speaker 1: caught in a hundred places by its cruel, thorny hooks.
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  Speaker 1: He was led to town, the journey in itself being
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  Speaker 1: a torture such as few men would think they could endure.
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  Speaker 1: The whipping came later. It was not until Pedro fell
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  Speaker 1: into trouble that I came to know really the worst
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  Speaker 1: of all this. Of course, I knew in a way.
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  Speaker 1: I had seen the Behuco poles, and the rattans, and
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  Speaker 1: the whipping bench, and sometimes of a Sunday, when I
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  Speaker 1: was in the village and could not go away, I
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  Speaker 1: had heard cries from the tribunal such as white men
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  Speaker 1: do not often hear, such as I hope no one
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  Speaker 1: will ever hear again, even from those places. Pedro was
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  Speaker 1: my visayan servant, a good worker, and a likable fellow
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  Speaker 1: in every way. He came to me one Sunday morning
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  Speaker 1: in great distress. His twin brother had been dragged into
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  Speaker 1: the tribunal that morning by the quadrilleros, and was at
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  Speaker 1: that very moment being flogged. Could I not help him?
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  Speaker 1: Would I not go to the governor and tell him
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  Speaker 1: that Pedro would pay his brother's tribute as soon as
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  Speaker 1: he could earn the money? Of course I would, I
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  Speaker 1: would gladly do more than that. I would pay the
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  Speaker 1: money myself and let Pedro earn it afterwards. The man's
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  Speaker 1: last wages I knew, had gone to pay his old
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  Speaker 1: father's taxes and his own. His family lived some little
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  Speaker 1: distance in land. We lost no time in getting to
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  Speaker 1: the tribunal. Pedro told me on the way, and I
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  Speaker 1: think he told me the truth that his brother's tax
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  Speaker 1: was not rightly due, then else he would have been
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  Speaker 1: ready with the money. I have always been glad. I
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  Speaker 1: had Pedro wait outside the door of the government house.
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  Speaker 1: His brother was bound upon the whipping bench, his body
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  Speaker 1: bare to the waist. A row of stripes which ran
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  Speaker 1: diagonally across his bare back from hip to shoulder, showed
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  Speaker 1: where each blow of the rattan had cut through skin
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  Speaker 1: and flesh, so that the blood flowed back to mark
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  Speaker 1: its course. Stop, I cried, rushing forward to where the
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  Speaker 1: governor was standing. Stop, I will pay this man's tax.
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  Speaker 1: How much is it? Let him up, I'll pay for him.
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  Speaker 1: The governor looked at me a moment and excited as
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  Speaker 1: I was, I noticed that his face was set in
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  Speaker 1: an angry scowl. You can't pay for him now, he said,
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  Speaker 1: No one can pay for him. Now, I'll teach them.
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  Speaker 1: He added A moment later, see that holding up his
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  Speaker 1: left arm, about the wrist of which I saw a
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  Speaker 1: handkerchief was bound, fresh stained with blood. Go on, he
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  Speaker 1: cried to the man with the rod. At first I
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  Speaker 1: could not find out what had happened. Then a soldier
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  Speaker 1: told me the man had been brought in like a
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  Speaker 1: sneered animal, held by the jungle roofs, each thorn of
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  Speaker 1: which was agony. When he had cried out that he
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  Speaker 1: was unjustly tortured, the governor himself had dragged the clinging
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  Speaker 1: hooks from out his flesh and had called him a name,
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  Speaker 1: which to the Visayan means deathly insult if it be
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  Speaker 1: not resented, at which Pedro's brother, snatching a knife which
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  Speaker 1: was hidden inside his clothing, struck at the governor and
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  Speaker 1: wounded him in the arm before he could be caught
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  Speaker 1: by the soldiers. Disarmed and bound down on the bench.
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  Speaker 1: And all the time I had been learning this, the
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  Speaker 1: blows of the flog man had been falling laid on
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  Speaker 1: with an artistic cruelty, across the other welts. I could
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  Speaker 1: not bear it, at the risk of destroying my chances
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  Speaker 1: to be allowed to finish my work in the island,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps even at the risk of putting my own life
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  Speaker 1: in danger. I tried once more. Unless you stop, I cried,
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  Speaker 1: I will report you to your government. The governa d'orcignor,
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  Speaker 1: looked at me a moment and almost smiled, a smile
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  Speaker 1: which showed his teeth at the sides of his mouth.
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  Speaker 1: Please yourself, he said, But unless you like what I
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  Speaker 1: am doing, I would suggest that you step out. The
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  Speaker 1: man died that night in the prison beneath a tribunal.
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  Speaker 1: I kept my word and wrote a full account of
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  Speaker 1: the whole affair to the Governor General at Manila. It
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  Speaker 1: was weeks before I received a curt note in reply,
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  Speaker 1: saying that the General government made it a rule not
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  Speaker 1: to interfere with the local jurisdiction of its subordinates. Pedro
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  Speaker 1: never spoke to me of his brother's death, but once
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  Speaker 1: there was in his nature much of the same grim
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  Speaker 1: courage which had enabled his brother to bear the awful
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  Speaker 1: pain of that day upon the world whipping bench without
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  Speaker 1: a cry. Senor Pedro said, one day, quite suddenly, I
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  Speaker 1: would not have you think me a coward that I
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  Speaker 1: do not avenge my brother's death. I would have killed
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  Speaker 1: the governor at once, or now, or any day, openly
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  Speaker 1: glad to have him know how and why, and glad
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  Speaker 1: to die for the deed. Only that now there is
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  Speaker 1: no one but me left to care for my old father.
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  Speaker 1: It is not that I am a coward, but that
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  Speaker 1: I wait, I expect that I should have felt myself
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  Speaker 1: in duty bound to expostulate with him upon harboring such
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  Speaker 1: a state of mind as that, regardless of what my
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  Speaker 1: own private opinion in the matter may have been. Had
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  Speaker 1: it not been that, before I could decide just what
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to say, a man had come to my
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  Speaker 1: house to tell me that the mail steamer from Manila,
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  Speaker 1: which came to the island only once in two months,
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  Speaker 1: was come in sight. The coming of that particular steamer
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  Speaker 1: was of special interest to me, as it was to
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  Speaker 1: bring me a stock of supplies, and Pedro and I
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  Speaker 1: went down to the dock at once. I remember that
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  Speaker 1: invoice in particular because it brought me a supply of chloroform,
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  Speaker 1: a drug which I had been out of and for
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  Speaker 1: which I was anxiously waiting. Two months before, a native
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  Speaker 1: from far back in the forest had brought me a
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  Speaker 1: fine live ape. I could not keep him alive, that
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  Speaker 1: is not after I left the island, and I wanted
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  Speaker 1: his skin and skeleton for the museum, but I hated
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  Speaker 1: to mar the beauty of the specimen by a wound.
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  Speaker 1: That night, with Pedro's help, I put him quietly out
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  Speaker 1: of the way with the help of the chloroform. Afterwards,
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  Speaker 1: the thought came back to me that as we took
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  Speaker 1: away the cone and the cotton, when I was sure
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  Speaker 1: the animal was dead, Pedro said, senor, how like a
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  Speaker 1: man he looks. Several weeks later, the residents of Dumagetti
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  Speaker 1: were thrown into intense, if subdued excitement by the news
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  Speaker 1: that the Gobana d'orsilio was dead, apparently well as usual,
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  Speaker 1: the night before, he had been found dead in his
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  Speaker 1: bed in the morning in the room room in the
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  Speaker 1: Gobierno in which he slept. If he had been killed
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  Speaker 1: on the street or found stabbed or shot in his room.
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  Speaker 1: The commotion would not have been so great. Such things
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  Speaker 1: as that happened in Negros more than once to other officials.
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  Speaker 1: But this man was simply dead. The Tagnen de Primero,
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  Speaker 1: who as next in authority, took charge of affairs upon
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  Speaker 1: the death of his superior, sent a man during the
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  Speaker 1: day to ask me if I would come to the tribunal.
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  Speaker 1: He was a very decent man, or would have been,
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  Speaker 1: I think under a different executive. Naturally, he was anxious
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  Speaker 1: under the circumstances as to his own standing with the
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  Speaker 1: authorities at Cebu, and he asked for my evidence, if necessary,
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  Speaker 1: as that of one of the few foreigners in the place.
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  Speaker 1: In company with him, I visited the late governor's room
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  Speaker 1: in the Gobierno. It was a large room, like all
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  Speaker 1: of those in the palace, as the executive mansion was
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  Speaker 1: sometimes called, built upon the ground floor and having several
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  Speaker 1: latticed windows. A soldier was on duty in the room.
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  Speaker 1: As we were coming out, this man came to us, and,
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  Speaker 1: saluting that Tagniente, handed him a small tin can, saying
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  Speaker 1: a servant cleaning the room found this. That Theagnende looked
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  Speaker 1: at the can curiously, and then, handing it to me,
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  Speaker 1: asked me if I knew what it was. It is
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  Speaker 1: a can in which a kind of strong liquor sometimes comes,
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  Speaker 1: I said. Then I unscrewed the top. The can was empty,
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  Speaker 1: but I showed him that there was still a strong
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  Speaker 1: and pungent odor which lingered in it. The explanation satisfied him.
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  Speaker 1: The late Governor had been known to be a man
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  Speaker 1: who had more than a passing liking for strong liquors.
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  Speaker 1: I did not feel called upon to explain that the
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  Speaker 1: can was a chloroform can, and that no one in
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  Speaker 1: the place but myself had any like it. When I
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  Speaker 1: went home, though, and counted my stock, I found, as
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  Speaker 1: I had expected, that it was one can short, and
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  Speaker 1: that the cone and the cotton which I had used
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  Speaker 1: for giving the drug had been replaced by one friend made.
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  Speaker 1: I did not think it necessary either to impart the
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  Speaker 1: result of my investigations to the authorities, or to suggest
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  Speaker 1: to them any suspicions which might have been roused in
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  Speaker 1: my own mind, even if there had not been very
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  Speaker 1: decided personal reasons why I would better not unless I
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  Speaker 1: was obliged to. I had in mind that letter of
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  Speaker 1: a few months before, when these same authorities had informed
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  Speaker 1: me of their policy of non interference in local affairs. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: I could not but remember what I had seen that day,
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  Speaker 1: when the man now dead had said to me, I'll
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  Speaker 1: teach them. If his teachings had been effectual, had I
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  Speaker 1: any reason to criticize end of Section nine. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: maricel Que,