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This he climbed and, his filial love working miracles, made his way from branch to branch to the balete, from which he saw his mother still holding the gate shut with her head. The noise made by him among the branches attracted Sisa's attention.
Jimmie had never seen a field of buckwheat in blossom, or he might have compared the cogon stretches to fields in the United States at certain seasons of the year. Even in his haste, in the uncomfortable day, the boy stopped to gaze in wonder at the wonderful balete tree, which is a representative of the fig family.
Basilio crossed the brook on the stones that showed black against the shining surface of the water, ascended the hill, and made his way to a small space enclosed by old and crumbling walls. He approached the balete tree that rose in the center, huge, mysterious, venerable, formed of roots that extended up and down among the confusedly-interlaced trunks.
alcalde: Governor of a province or district, with both executive and judicial authority. Ayuntamiento: A city corporation or council, and by extension the building in which it has its offices; specifically, in Manila, the capitol. balete: The Philippine banyan, a tree sacred in Malay folk-lore. banka: A dugout canoe with bamboo supports or outriggers.
If of the poorer class he is merely wrapped in a piece of matting-, and either buried or covered over with stones, sticks, and the like. If of high rank, the body is not buried, but after preparation is taken into the forest and placed in a small hut under a balete tree.
Jimmie and Jack were lying behind a great flowing vine which swung from a balete tree, looking keenly out in the direction in which they believed the camp to be situated, when four lusty men who appeared to be Filipinos crept noiselessly out of the jungle and sat down on their backs with chuckles of satisfaction. "Quit it!" roared Jimmie, thinking they had been followed from the boat.
After I had cared for them I heard the confessions of many who were infirm and old, and those who wished to guard against the malady which was attacking many of them and perhaps not a few that they might profit, at little cost, by the presence of the new confessor in their village. I passed on to Balete and found that it had become a hospital.
A sharp cry of distress was heard in the rear at the second shot, and then all was still. The boys crouched in the open space between the "legs" of a balete tree and waited for some possible explanation of the strange thing that had taken place. Who had killed the hound, and who was it that was shooting at the enemy over their heads? These questions were hard to answer.
Basilio beat the gate with his fists, with his Mood-stained head, he wept, but in vain. Painfully he arose and examined the wall, thinking to scale it, but found no way to do so. He then walked around it and noticed that a branch of the fateful balete was crossed with one from another tree.
In life he had inspired fear by his deep, hollow voice, his sunken eyes, and his mirthless laugh, but now, dead by his own act, he disturbed the sleep of the women. Some threw the jewels into the river and burned the clothes, and from the time that the corpse was buried at the foot of the balete itself, no one willingly ventured near the spot.
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