EL FILIBUSTERISMO

XVII. THE QUIAPO FAIR

CHAPTER XVII

THE QUIAPO FAIR

It was a beautiful night and the plaza presented a most animated

aspect. Taking advantage of the freshness of the breeze and the

splendor of the January moon, the people filled the fair to see, be

seen, and amuse themselves. The music of the cosmoramas and the lights

of the lanterns gave life and merriment to every one. Long rows of

booths, brilliant with tinsel and gauds, exposed to view clusters of

balls, masks strung by the eyes, tin toys, trains, carts, mechanical

horses, carriages, steam-engines with diminutive boilers, Lilliputian

tableware of porcelain, pine Nativities, dolls both foreign and

domestic, the former red and smiling, the latter sad and pensive like

little ladies beside gigantic children. The beating of drums, the roar

of tin horns, the wheezy music of the accordions and the hand-organs,

all mingled in a carnival concert, amid the coming and going of the

crowd, pushing, stumbling over one another, with their faces turned

toward the booths, so that the collisions were frequent and often

amusing. The carriages were forced to move slowly, with the _tabí_ of

the cocheros repeated every moment. Met and mingled government clerks,

soldiers, friars, students, Chinese, girls with their mammas or aunts,

all greeting, signaling, calling to one another merrily.

Padre Camorra was in the seventh heaven at the sight of so many pretty

girls. He stopped, looked back, nudged Ben-Zayb, chuckled and swore,

saying, "And that one, and that one, my ink-slinger? And that one

over there, what say you?" In his contentment he even fell to using

the familiar _tu_ toward his friend and adversary. Padre Salvi stared

at him from time to time, but he took little note of Padre Salvi. On

the contrary, he pretended to stumble so that he might brush against

the girls, he winked and made eyes at them.

"_Puñales!_" he kept saying to himself. "When shall I be the curate

of Quiapo?"

Suddenly Ben-Zayb let go an oath, jumped aside, and slapped his hand

on his arm; Padre Camorra in his excess of enthusiasm had pinched

him. They were approaching a dazzling señorita who was attracting the

attention of the whole plaza, and Padre Camorra, unable to restrain

his delight, had taken Ben-Zayb's arm as a substitute for the girl's.

It was Paulita Gomez, the prettiest of the pretty, in company with

Isagani, followed by Doña Victorina. The young woman was resplendent

in her beauty: all stopped and craned their necks, while they ceased

their conversation and followed her with their eyes--even Doña