Moreover, 'Why work?' asked many natives. The curate says that the rich
man will not go to heaven The rich man on earth is liable to all kinds
of trouble, to be appointed a cabeza de barangay, to be deported if
an uprising occurs, to be forced banker of the military chief of the
town, who to reward him for favors received seizes his laborers and
his stock, in order to force him to beg for mercy, and thus easily
pays up. Why be rich? So that all the officers of justice may have
a lynx eye on your actions, so that at the least slip enemies may be
raised up against you, you may be indicted, a whole complicated and
labyrinthine story may be concocted against you, for which you can
only get away, not by the thread of Ariadne but by Danae's shower
of gold, and still give thanks that you are not kept in reserve for
some needy occasion? The native, whom they pretend to regard as an
imbecile, is not so much so that he does not understand that it is
ridiculous to work himself to death to become worse off. A proverb
of his says that the pig is cooked in its own lard, and as among
his bad qualities he has the good one of applying to himself all the
criticisms and censures he prefers to live miserable and indolent,
rather than play the part of the wretched beast of burden.
Add to this the introduction of gambling. We do not mean to san that
before the coming of the Spaniards the natives did not gamble: the
passion for grumbling is innate in adventuresome and excitable races,
and such is the Malay. Pigafetta tells us of cock-fights and of bets
in the Island of Paragua. Cock-fighting must also have existed in
Luzon and in all the islands, for in the terminology of the game
are two Tagalog words: sabong, and tari (cockpit and gaff). But
there is not the least doubt that the fostering of this game is
due to the government, as well as the perfecting of it. Although
Pigafetta tells us of it, he mentions it only in Paragua, and not
in Cebu nor in any other island of the south, where he stayed long
time. Morga does not speak of it, in spite of his having spent
seven years in Manila, and yet he does describe the kinds of fowl,
the jungle hens and cocks. Neither does Morga, speak of gambling,
when he talks about vices and other defects, more or less concealed,
more or less insignificant. Moreover, excepting the two Tagalog words
sabong and tari, the others are of Spanish origin, as soltada (setting
the cocks to fight, then the fight itself), presto, (apuesta, bet),
logro (winnings), pago (payment), sentenciador (referee), case (to
cover the bets), etc. We say the same about gambling: the word sugal
(jugar, to gamble), like kumpisal (confesar, to confess to a priest),
indicates that gambling was unknown in the Philippines before the
Spaniards. The word laró (Tagalog, to play) is not the equivalent of
the word sunni. The word balasa (baraja, playing-card) proves that the
introduction of playing-cards was not due to the Chinese, who have a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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