diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

evident sarcasm, his "Excellency was very hard-working and did not wastetime so that he attended to official business when he was dummy or while thecards were being shuffled." But even the card game is not going well for thehighest official of the land, nor for one of the more loquacious friars. Theyask Simoun to join them, and the man says he will be "satisfied with merewords . . . ." Instead of paying in chips, Fray Sibyla will say "I renouncepoverty, humility, and obedience for five days." Fray Irene, "I renouncechastity,,generosity, etc." In turn, Simoun will offer his diamonds. A highofficial asks what is to be gained from mere "promises of virtue, prisonsentences, deportation and summary executions." Quite a lot, the jewelleranswers. After all, he declares,. . . in my view the outlaws are the most honest men in the whole country! Theyare the only ones who really earn their daily rice. Do you think that if I had falleninto the hands of, well, for example, you, Father Irene . . . would [you] have letme go without taking at least half of my jewels?The trouble is, Simoun goes on, not in the mountains and in uninhabitedplaces, but with the bandits in the towns and the cities, with people likeSimoun himself who are "not openly professional bandits; when we becomelike that and go to live in the forests, that day the country will have beensaved, that very day a new society will have been born capable of running itsown affairs," and the Governor General can play cards at will. And at thismoment, the secretary yawns loudly, raising his arms and stretching hiscrossed legs, causing laughter in the mom. But the Governor did not like theturn of the conversation and, "dropping the cards which he had beenshuffling, said half serious and half jolly:"Come, come, enough with jokes and games. To work, let's go down to someserious work, there is still half an hour before luncheon. Is there a lot ofbusinessrPut bluntly, while the Governor had the entire morning to hunt and playcards, he had only half an hour before the noon meal for some serious work!That, Rizal implied, was part of the social cancer.Chapters 23 and 24 of the Noll describe the fishing expedition a day or sobefore the town fiesta of San Diego. Everybody was there, even Fray Salviwho followed afterwards. The heart of the episode is the free banter duringthe meal after the excitement of killing the crocodile that has been eating thefish in the traps. The conversation ranged from the failure of the peace195