The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
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CHAPTER XLVI 211<br />
CHAPTER XLVI<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cockpit<br />
To keep holy the afternoon of the Sabbath one generally goes to the cockpit in the Philippines, just as to the<br />
bull-fights in Spain. Cockfighting, a passion introduced into the country and exploited for a century past, is<br />
one of the vices of the people, more widely spread than opium-smoking among the Chinese. <strong>The</strong>re the poor<br />
man goes to risk all that he has, desirous of getting rich without work. <strong>The</strong>re the rich man goes to amuse<br />
himself, using the money that remains to him from his feasts and his masses of thanksgiving. <strong>The</strong> fortune that<br />
he gambles is his own, the cock is raised with much more care perhaps than his son and successor in the<br />
cockpit, so we have nothing to say against it. Since the government permits it and even in a way recommends<br />
it, <strong>by</strong> providing that the spectacle may take place only in the public plazas, on holidays (in order that all may<br />
see it and be encouraged <strong>by</strong> the example?), from the high mass until nightfall (eight hours), let us proceed<br />
thither to seek out some of our acquaintances.<br />
<strong>The</strong> cockpit of San Diego does not differ from those to be found in other towns, except in some details. It<br />
consists of three parts, the first of which, the entrance, is a large rectangle some twenty meters long <strong>by</strong><br />
fourteen wide. On one side is the gateway, generally tended <strong>by</strong> an old woman whose business it is to collect<br />
the sa pintu, or admission fee. Of this contribution, which every one pays, the government receives a part,<br />
amounting to some hundreds of thousands of pesos a year. It is said that with this money, with which vice<br />
pays its license, magnificent schoolhouses are erected, bridges and roads are constructed, prizes for<br />
encouraging agriculture and commerce are distributed: blessed be the vice that produces such good results! In<br />
this first enclosure are the vendors of buyos, cigars, sweetmeats, and foodstuffs. <strong>The</strong>re swarm the boys in<br />
company with their fathers or uncles, who carefully initiate them into the secrets of life.<br />
This enclosure communicates with another of somewhat larger dimensions,--a kind of foyer where the public<br />
gathers while waiting for the combats. <strong>The</strong>re are the greater part of the fighting-cocks tied with cords which<br />
are fastened to the ground <strong>by</strong> means of a piece of bone or hard wood; there are assembled the gamblers, the<br />
devotees, those skilled in tying on the gaffs, there they make agreements, they deliberate, they beg for loans,<br />
they curse, they swear, they laugh boisterously. That one fondles his chicken, rubbing his hand over its<br />
brilliant plumage, this one examines and counts the scales on its legs, they recount the exploits of the<br />
champions.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re you will see many with mournful faces carrying <strong>by</strong> the feet corpses picked of their feathers; the creature<br />
that was the favorite for months, petted and cared for day and night, on which were founded such flattering<br />
hopes, is now nothing more than a carcass to be sold for a peseta or to be stewed with ginger and eaten that<br />
very night. Sic transit gloria mundi! <strong>The</strong> loser returns to the home where his anxious wife and ragged children<br />
await him, without his money or his chicken. Of all that golden dream, of all those vigils during months from<br />
the dawn of day to the setting of the sun, of all those fatigues and labors, there results only a peseta, the ashes<br />
left from so much smoke.<br />
In this foyer even the least intelligent takes part in the discussion, while the man of most hasty judgment<br />
conscientiously investigates the matter, weighs, examines, extends the wings, feels the muscles of the cocks.<br />
Some go very well-dressed, surrounded and followed <strong>by</strong> the partisans of their champions; others who are dirty<br />
and bear the imprint of vice on their squalid features anxiously follow the movements of the rich to note the<br />
bets, since the purse may become empty but the passion never satiated. No countenance here but is<br />
animated--not here is to be found the indolent, apathetic, silent Filipino--all is movement, passion, eagerness.<br />
It may be, one would say, that they have that thirst which is quickened <strong>by</strong> the water of the swamp.<br />
From this place one passes into the arena, which is known as the Rueda, the wheel. <strong>The</strong> ground here,<br />
surrounded <strong>by</strong> bamboo-stakes, is usually higher than that in the two other divisions. In the back part, reaching<br />
almost to the roof, are tiers of seats for the spectators, or gamblers, since these are the same. During the fights