Afterwards, they are dragged from house to house to kiss their relatives’ hands.  There they have to dance, sing, and recite all the amusing things they know, whether in the humor or not, whether comfortable or not in their fine clothes, with the eternal pinchings and scoldings if they play any of their tricks.  Their relatives give them cuartos which their parents seize upon and of which they hear nothing more.  The only positive results they are accustomed to get from the fiesta are the marks of the aforesaid pinchings, the vexations, and at best an attack of indigestion from gorging themselves with candy and cake in the houses of kind relatives.  But such is the custom, and Filipino children enter the world through these ordeals, which afterwards prove the least sad, the least hard, of their lives.

Adult persons who live independently also share in this fiesta, by visiting their parents and their parents’ relatives, crooking their knees, and wishing them a merry Christmas.  Their Christmas gift consists of a sweetmeat, some fruit, a glass of water, or some insignificant present.

Tandang Selo saw all his friends pass and thought sadly that this year he had no Christmas gift for anybody, while his granddaughter had gone without hers, without wishing him a merry Christinas.  Was it delicacy on Juli’s part or pure forgetfulness?

When he tried to greet the relatives who called on him, bringing their children, he found to his great surprise that he could not articulate a word.  Vainly he tried, but no sound could he utter.  He placed his hands on his throat, shook his head, but without effect.  When he tried to laugh, his lips trembled convulsively and the only noise produced was a hoarse wheeze like the blowing of bellows.

The women gazed at him in consternation.  “He’s dumb, he’s dumb!” they cried in astonishment, raising at once a literal pandemonium.

CHAPTER IX

PILATES

When the news of this misfortune became known in the town, some lamented it and others shrugged their shoulders.  No one was to blame, and no one need lay it on his conscience.

The lieutenant of the Civil Guard gave no sign:  he had received an order to take up all the arms and he had performed his duty.  He had chased the tulisanes whenever he could, and when they captured Cabesang Tales he had organized an expedition and brought into the town, with their arms bound behind them, five or six rustics who looked suspicious, so if Cabesang Tales did not show up it was because he was not in the pockets or under the skins of the prisoners, who were thoroughly shaken out.