The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER LXIII 301
santol: The Philippine sandal-tree.
sawali: Plaited bamboo wattle.
sinamay: A transparent cloth woven from abaka fibers.
sinigang: Water with vegetables or some acid fruit, in which fish are boiled; "fish soup."
Susmariosep: A common exclamation: contraction of the Spanish, Jesús, María, y José, the Holy Family.
tabí: The cry of carriage drivers to warn pedestrians.
talibon: A short sword, the "war bolo."
tapa: Jerked meat.
tápis: A piece of dark cloth or lace, often richly worked or embroidered, worn at the waist somewhat in the
fashion of an apron: a distinctive portion of the native women's attire, especially among the Tagalogs.
tarambulo: A low weed whose leaves and fruit pedicles are covered with short, sharp spines.
teniente-mayor: Senior lieutenant, the senior member of the town council and substitute for the
gobernadorcillo.
tikas-tikas: A variety of canna bearing bright red flowers.
tertiary brethren: Members of a lay society affiliated with a regular monastic order, especially the Venerable
Tertiary Order of the Franciscans.
timbaín: The "water-cure," and hence, any kind of torture. The primary meaning is "to draw water from a
well," from timba, pail.
tikbalang: An evil spirit, capable of assuming various forms, but said to appear usually in the shape of a tall
black man with disproportionately long legs: the "bogey man" of Tagalog children.
tulisan: Outlaw, bandit. Under the old régime in the Philippines the tulisanes were those who, on account of
real or fancied grievances against the authorities, or from fear of punishment for crime, or from an instinctive
desire to return to primitive simplicity, foreswore life in the towns "under the bell," and made their homes in
the mountains or other remote places. Gathered in small bands with such arms as they could secure, they
sustained themselves by highway robbery and the levying of blackmail from the country folk.
zacate: Native grass used for feeding livestock.
NOTES
[1] Quoted by Macaulay: Essay on the Succession in Spain.
[2] The ruins of the Fuerza de Playa Honda, ó Real de Paynavén, are still to be seen in the present
municipality of Botolan, Zambales. The walls are overgrown with rank vegetation, but are well preserved,
with the exception of a portion looking toward the Bankal River, which has been undermined by the currents
and has fallen intact into the stream.