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A dialogue in the Tagal language was spoken by the children of the seminary with much cleverness and indication of ability, and to the satisfaction and pleasure of the hearers. This seminary is making great progress in both spiritual and temporal affairs. Some of these pupils are of signal virtue, and our Lord shows them many favors.
It must not, then, be wondered at, that from the mixture proceeding from the union of these various people, all of unequal physiognomy, there have risen the different nuances, distinctions and types; upon which, however, is generally depicted Malay physiognomy and cruelty. The Tagal is well made, rather tall than otherwise.
The governor, fearful of this danger, and desirous of finishing the enemy, and giving entire peace to the country, sent Captain and Sargento-mayor Cristoval de Axqueta Menchaca with soldiers to pursue and finish the enemy. This man left with two hundred Spaniards soldiers and volunteers three hundred Japanese, and one thousand five hundred Pampanga and Tagal Indians, on the twentieth of October.
The terror of the poor Tagal was really too great for me to resist him, so I yielded, and we took up our quarters for the night at a place much less to my own taste, but much more to Alila's. The night passed away like many others I mean, perfectly well, and we woke up to resume our journey through the forest.
Whenever he has pledged his word in serious business, it is sacred; he gives himself passionately to games of hazard; he is a good husband, a good father; jealous of his wife's honour, but careless of his daughter's; who, despite any little faux-pas, meets with no difficulty in getting a husband. The Tagal is of very sober habits: all he requires is water, a little rice, and salt-fish.
But if any ever entertained the wild dream that the instrument whose preamble says it is ordained for the United States of America could be stretched to the China Sea, the first Tagal guns fired at friendly soldiers of the Union, and the first mutilation of American dead that ensued, ended the nightmare of States from Asia admitted to the American Union.
The Tagal girls work it into handkerchiefs, which they richly embroider. These are greatly valued. A more substantial manufacture is produced from the thicker fibres, for dress pieces, which are also considered of great value. We saw also some beautiful mats made from strips of bamboo, and leaves of various trees, used for boat-sails, beds, or carpets.
I have since deposited them in the museum of Nantes. The Indians, those imaginative beings, called me thenceforward, "Malamit Oulou," Tagal words, which signify "cool head." I must confess, without vanity, that the proof to which my Indians had subjected me was sufficiently serious to give them a decided opinion of my courage, and to satisfy them that a Frenchman was as brave as themselves.
His answer made me happy, but I did not let him see my satisfaction. "Well and good," I replied; "to show you that I confide in you, take this weapon, and use it only against the enemy." I gave him a Tagal sabre, which bore the following Spanish inscription, in large letters: "No me sacas sin rason, ni me envainas sin honor." "Never draw me unjustly, and never sheath me with dishonour."
That danger, in fact, can come only if we shirk our present duty by the second of the two alternative methods of evasion I have mentioned the one favored by the exuberant patriot who wants to clasp Cuban, Kanaka, and Tagal alike to his bosom as equal partners with ourselves in our inheritance from the fathers, and take them all into the Union as States.
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