'I

"Perfecta," 1 shouted into the ear of the embattled girl,

while I tried to unc1amp her fingers from the mass of hair •
)
(

,
','II

, they held, "Perfecta, stop this now. Aren't you ashamed I,

of yourself?"
"
Well, I think it was .more the sound .of my voice than
anything else. She stopped. She let go her hold and the ,
,I
others did the same. The· fight was over. ,',t

i: But that wasn't the end of it as far as my wife was con-

;hemed. A:J ber red, sweaty face came up, strands of bair
'1.~ / falling all over it, I coul~n't contain myself any longer
·r i and I simply held my Sldes and laughed and laughed.
, J.J Literally, she flew at me-and there was no mistaking the
.i'~'-Pintention written on her face. Well, 1 flew too.
f-. ,I 'Of course, after that, Perfecta had to go. 1 said 1 had
"i· no objection to her staying. Not anym.ore. But if Per-
fecta stayed, my wife said she would go.
. Naturally, Perfecta went.
I foun«ili.? in Tar!.c one Sunday. A~dres'
and 1 had been to to~n- ill the morning, gone to the cock-
pit, lost fou~een pesos on a..-t4lisayen, late~ winning twenty',
. one pesos on a b1:ib\ that looked like a hen. ~;I,;'~.
About four o'clock in the afternoon, having each downed' , '--_
our last glass of dark'red basi, we strayed to the railroad -'-..
station. The Ilocos Express had just come in.
I saw\~lias'lor the first time as he came down the narrow
steps of tlre'train. It was the si2;eof him that drew my
attention. '[: " I;'/~o.\\.
\. '.. r\ \. ;;.
1 {-,---- .

"Diablo,", I' muttered, nudging

- Andres, "I am drunk., ,

See that mC\'o? There are two of him."

"He is only one," said Andres. "But he is a bull. He
.is a bull th1'« times o~er." And he proceeded to explain "
what he meant in that' eager, half'whispering way he had
of talking. "
Andres was a big man himself, the biggest I had known
before J IlaW E1ia~. Fairer-skinned than mqst Ilocanos, he ./
P088CIIIlCd a hold, rough Ilort of goOd looks of which he wall
. . '.

excc86ivcly plOud. ,
'. ..' I' , } ..,.... • ", •

Hill lalk 'Iarely str;lye,d far from the subject of w()men:

And ilnnul WI linen there were only two things that interested

I
- I':'j,. I,'
him. He was full of stories of his exploits which he told
eagerly, half-whisperingly, makinR crude, endless motions
with his hands.
He now wound up his explanation of the big man's bull-
Il~e 4ualhll'&with the rcmark, "I wOllllcr how many women
h, 'I IIlUJ.lI
I thouMlit I detected a note uf ell vy in his voice, and 1
nlllill lIul Ill'lp laughing, half-dillgullh'd, half-amused.
I\t till: tKllilidof my laughter, the hugc stranger looked
In our dllt~Clj(Jll. He had been standing on the concrete,
i\ l'llttilrl tlllll,w in one hand, the other thrust into the pocket
of his lIwoug pants. He wore a camisa de chino of
a thin material over an armless undershirt against which
bulged a massive, dark-brown chest. , the cigaret.
He came toward us and I ceased to laugh. He stopped
a step or two in front of Andres and myself. The wind
that rushed in behind him blew the strong smen of his
body right into our faces. -------- -.- ,
• He removed from the corner of his mouth the cigaret
he was smoking and began to speak in a loud, husky voice:
"Friends," he said in Ilocano, "I hope it i~ not too much
to ask the way to the Hacienda Esperanza."
Andres and I exchanged glances.
"We work at the Hacienda,'; I said. "If you want to
come with us-"
"Yes," Andres said, whispering. "He is the capataz of
the' cane-cutters."
"I am a cane-cutter," the big man said. "Do you need
any men?"
As a matter of fact we needed one badly. A good one
to take the place of Binong, who had died of snak~-~te two
days before. I told him so,
The big man nodded and put back the cigaret between
his lips. I was thinking of the unfortunate Binong and
of Tia Al1Rang, his wife, anll Pastora, the yo~ngdaughter.
I wO;lc:1~reJ whether the two women would stay on cooking 1-
,,'
and wallhiuA'for us. , .' , ...', ' , ··,II,!I
"', Tfi~ mllriOl:lCcmorerrmovedthe cigarei!fcom his inouth, '1'\"
bll'w !Jut II/lwk.:. Ik hold a quiet, slow way about him.
II
Alld here let lne tell something which might better give I
an idea of hill size. His two fingers-the: irldex aHd the ,I,
middle-pr~ed together with the cigaret~tween' them, '{"
looked as thick as the wrist of Andres.' , "
"I am Elias," I heard him say. He waited, puff,ing at
Andres and I introduced ourselves: We did not' shake
hands. He did not offer his.
Many big people I have met affect a good-natured sim-
plicity meant to disarm individuals of lesser ,girth. They
are full of jokes and stories about themselves which they
tell with a great deal of enjoyment. Take Andres, for
instance. I ~I;,
,But Elias had no jokes to tell. He did not laugh and "
act silly, pretending to be as harmless as a newborn baby.
All of the fifteen-kilometer walk to the Hacienda, he hardly
opened his mouth. He was silent without being aloof. He
answered in monosyllables but without a trace of sullenness
or displeasurE(the questions we asked him about hiJIlself.
Speaking perfect Tagalog, Elias asked: "How far is it
to the Hacienda?"
"I thought you were an Ilocano? How did you learn
to speak Tagalog?" Andres said in surprise, forgetting to I
I,
• I'

answer the question asked.
"I've worked with Tagalogs before," Elias said.
"Where?" I asked, mildly curious.
"In Manila. All sorts of work. Stevedoring. .Rope.
, making. Driving trucks. Seven years."
~ vn \' "q,ot a3".if~?" this from Andres.
The answer was long in coming. And when it came it
was in the negative.
.~
:: "Any c¥ldlEi?,' Andres persisted, chuckling.
.rvO I 'V"-'" The.' big man shook his head. Andres chuckled som~
tv--- '
more, tried to catch my eye.
Elias threw away the stub of the cigaret in his mouth,
brought out a package. With his thumb he pushed up a
cigaret which he caught between his lips. He held the
maleta with the small finger of his right hand while he
struck a match .and lighted the cigaret.
He was thrusting back the package of cigarets into his
pocket when it occurred to him to offer it to us.
I took one. So did Andres.. We lighted our cigarets
without slackening a step. I was almost trotting.
') "How much do they pay cutters hereT' Elias asked af·
~ ter a while.
He slowed down to cast an appraising glance at the dense
growth of sugar cane that stretched as far as the eye could'
reach on each side of us. A slight breeze cauiied the cane
leaves to hiss and clash like knife blades.
"Seventy' five centavos a day," Andres put in quickly.
"And if you ask me, it is hardly enough to pay for the
soap to wash your clothes with. I do not see why I have
not left long ago and gone to the city where there is more
money, ahd-women." He leered, glancing sidewise at
t,;
Elias. '"'
"Suits me," said the big man, his eyes ~ the road ahead
Twilight ~ad come up softly from behind us, obscurin~
our shadows. We were halfway to the Hacienda. Al.
ready I thought I could discern a pale·blue column of smoke
Iising from the chimney of the. big house.
~ e were' traveling fast and when Andres stopped to
unnate on the side of the road, I was glad of the chance',
for a much-needed breathing spell. Even if he had tried \\;
Elias could pot have walked slowly enough to suit me: ,,~,'
Unless he had gotten down on all fours and crawled. I,! '
II
WE were perhaps'''a kilometer from the big hou~ when
we came upon!asto~:/and h~rlllother, ria Ansang. \ They
had been to tOwn~'spent the day with·-Visayan friends.
Andres, I think, knew they had gone back to the Hacienda
ahead of us and had been hoping we would overtake them
on the way. '
He shouted ~ eager greeting to the black.dressed women
and ran ahead to catch up with them. Pastora carried a
.
,.,i' ~ t"~,
"" .
light bundle under her arm.
'~Let me carry it for you, Pastora," said Andres in a
loud playful voice, grabbing the bundle away from the
young woman.
"Andres, don't be a fool," said Pastora, whirling about.
Andres ran back to our side, a distance of about fifty
~rds. He w~~ chuckling in an eager, throaty way, his
fmgers busy milking an opening at one end of the bundle
so he could see what was. inside.
Pastora da8h~d after hi~ crying, "lnay, [nay, see what
,
, ~\ . b " 11/1 l,~' I,
."'," •.' :'1,1 ••

Andres is doing," but Tia Ansang walked on with only
a mild, "Andres, give back that bundle to Pastora."
I made a half-hearted attempt to catch Andres. I did
~.Jb not like his teasing the poor girl so soon after the death
"' "),,
j\rJc- of her father. But he pushed me off easily and ran be-
hind, us.
tf" . tJ; h"'" Pastora was about twenty-five yards away from us ,,:h~n
the tail of her skirt fell out of where she had tucked It In
at the waist. She stooped to gather the loose folds. When
she straightened up, we were abreast of her and she had
her first clear glimpse of Elias.
In the half-dusk of twilight, he must have appeared
to the SUI pri~l'd girl simply enOfmous, I thought for a
1II0IIIClII liltr \'Jiluld turn arollnd ilml fUll hilek to her mother's
.Illt', Hut . I,II\~ tltuod hcr ground, idthough her hands
j•• ked upwllld to her mouth,' and' 1I11ll:C !!he washoldirlg
11.., ('Illlll III till' Ilkirts, her legs hfcamc uncovered almost
III 1"(1 1111111111. In the dim light, they appcared astonishingly
wit II""
"Wllli UIl: you?" thc words slipped out of her mouth
in Vitltlyall. Then her eyes wavered, turned aside, set-
tled un me. "Who is he?"
"I am Elias," the big man said in Visayan, too. A swift,
light smile flickered on his face for an instant and was
T ", gone.
-:J ~ For so large a person, Elias possessed a small mouth, with
5;;" narrow tight lips. He had a lean, hard face, a flat fore-
2' .- head, quite high; and his eyes were widely set, roundish.
7· He had practically no eyelashes that I could see, and his
eyebrows stopped midway to the outer comers of his eyes.
In repose, his face had a hard, quiet, dangerous look. And
.
....t'
!t;'~ "~,I•
'
it was not easy to believe that light, half-shy smile of his.
"1-1 am Pastora."
"She and her mother, Tia Ansang, do our washing and
cooking," I put in. "Binong, the cutter who was bitten
by a snake, was her father. They are from S.!J.llar."
"I've been, there," said Elias. -,
We had staPped and Andres had turned back. He was
walking to our side slowly; I could hear the crackling of
the paper wrapper of the bundle as he tried· to smooth it.
Suddenly Elias moved. ' I did not see how it happened.
Tia Ansang's voice had come to us, calling us "to hurry. I
shot a glance up the road. and in that moment, Elias caught
Andres. He held him up kicking; helpless in tpe air before
Pastora.
The bl1f1llle dropped to the grou?d. In, ~i1~nce,Pastora
.'picked it up, 'I.tnthered lip her skirts once' more. the'n'ran
blll~k 10 Tin ""sang's Bide.
"God save me," I heard Andrel\ Say as Elias released him.,
I started to laugh but my laughter was tut short.. Half- l,
crouched,' Andres faced Elias. Under his shirt, his' right '\.
hand gripped the haft of the short, heavy bolo that he~lways 1.'" ,',
carried. , .kt:\
, I opened my mouth to say, "Don't bea fool, ~~ies." F·; p..>k'
but the words remained unuttered. I' caught a glimpse of I L
..:.
" •••. , ,
the 'man's eyes and I saw there the madness to kjll." I
turned to Eli~, a cold, creepy feeling at the back of my
neck. He was watching Andres intently, hands hanging
by his side. And as surely as I was alive, I knew that at
the first move of hdres, those huge hands of Elias would
have him in their grip once more.
Andres was no coward. But I could swear I saw the

same thought taking hold in his brain. Slowly he straight,
ened up and the rigid lines of his face actually broke into a
grin.
"Lightning," he said, ruefully, '~you are as strong as a
bull, Elias .••
With the hand hidden under his shirt, Andres rubbed
his side where Elias had grasped him. His eyes shifted to
the two women who walked on ahead without the least
suspicion of what was happening behind them.
"You should not tease Pastora, Andres," I said, as mildly
as I could. "Tia Ansang may not like it."
,"Pastora likes it," whispered Andres.
I laughed, glanced up at Elias. A frown seemed to
croSS the big man's face, but he remained silent. He threw
away his cigaret, lighted another, pocketed the package.
r brought out my own package and smoked. Andres took
one from mine. We had not finished our cigarets when.
we reached our quarters at the southern end of the wide
yard, under the mangoes.
ELIAS got along with the other men easily. He kept to
himself in an unobtrusive manner, not talking much, sitting
in one place without moving around when the day's work
was done and we waited for the call to eat. After a
while the other men sought him out, talked with him.
They found sitting with him restful. They could talk and
joke all they wanted. He sat and listened, said a word
or two, nodded and smoked cigarets.
Andres was never away from the side of Elias when
he could help it. It surprised me because I knew that he
I
~ 1/ I" ,,'
had not forgotten that incident on the w~y to the Hacienda
on that Sunday we first met the big map. Nltither had
Pastora, I was sure. But she kept her mouth ,shut. So
did I. ",
Before Elias came, Andres was easily the biggest, the
strongest 'and best,looking man among 'us. He was very
popular with the men because he was a good talker, had
a ready smile and a quick laugh 'for everyone. With the'.,
coming of ,Elias, Andres could still boast of being the han~:
, somest man among the cutters. It did not need a second
glance when the two were by each other to show to all
of us, ho\yever, who was the bigger, the stronger. I
The e~traordinary thing about Elias was that although)
unusually big, he was n~tJ?:e_Ieast fat.Sm~ot~, yes,1
but it was the smoothness of steel. There was a §l~k,
silky quality to his appearancetnatwas more overpowering
than if 4~Eadpresented hug~, knotty musclesu
Three ,days after he began working with us, I had a
talk with him. I
"Look" Elias," I said, knocking the ash from my cigarlt,'
"tomorrow at the canefields--" I stopped. I felt funny
having to ask him what I had to.
He glanced up at me, quietly. He was sitting on an
empty packing case under one of the big mango trees. It was
evening and we had just finished eating.
"Don't cut too fast, Elias," I blurted out. "The other
men-you are killing them. They try to keep up with you,
'the fools." ,
For the second time since I met him, Elias smiled. It was
the same half'shy smile that had lighted his face whrJ'l",
Pastora asked him who he was. I was to see him sm\lef,'

a third-and last-time.
Two weeks passed and Elias was being taken, more or
less for granted by the men. He did not seem so huge
and strange anymore. Fewer heads would be lifted to watch
him heave an armful of cane sugar into a freight car, an
armful that seemed as big as the body of a bull carabao.
Cutting a swath easily twice as wide as the ordinary
cutter's, Elias, I could see, had to remember to hold himself
in check in order to keep from setting a killing pace for
the other men. Andres worked beside him, and it took
a wise eye to see the difference in the width of their se-
parate swathes. The men saw and wondered. But I knew,
and Andres knew, too, that the only reason he could keep
up with Elias was that the big man never let himself go.
Until the day Pastora came to the fields to bring me a
,message from the big house. It was about eleven of a
warm, bright morning. Already many of the men had
stripped off their shirts and were working with naked,
glistening backs that were slowly beginning to be crisscrossed
,~vith red, angry scratches. The sugar cane leaf has a cut-
'~ng edge almost razor-like.
All I'atlwra. with a striped paiiuelo draped over her head,
;\/1pIlIlH heJ lilt, tile IIlCll Ilhoutcd ~(l'eetillg,~. (or the most
PilI'l 11.1111 Iii 1',
tit '. 11,1~IIlJiI, till: sight of you,Ading,JIl like a drink of
tin' Willi' III II ,11I1'~ly man."
ilt\1 liltll, )',Pllol,), you've come. Uod has heard my
1" '1>'1' III ill III j,l, In Y beautiful Ading."
lll'illillllll,'(I, l'd,slol'a, say yes, 0 Pastora."
i\mhc8 wipeJ his perspiring face, grinned with pleas-
ure, a Ill] would have come over to where Pastora and I
I
• I'
I,
stood. But at that moment a shout went up among the
men. They were all pointing to Elias. The big man was
cutting as he had never cut before, as no one we had ever
seen or would ever see again cut the long juicy canes.
With a curse, Andres leaped back into his swath. That .,'.u~:
, Cc-; ,I.'
morning we saw a contest between giants. Andres sur- ,----
passed himself., He was like o~e possessed. The swift, ~/>:c \
tireless motions of the two men were a wonder to behold. )~})~
Cut, slash, cut, slash. The canes fell in a steady stream
behind them, every single one cut cleanly at the root, the
leafy top lopped off, clinging shobts shaved away, The
long bolos flashed and flashed in the sun.
Soon Elias held all our eyes. His undershirt tore at the
back. He clawed it off with his left hand, bringing forth
into full view,his magnificent body . .'Almost in the twitch-
ing of an eyelash, he had left Andres behind. Another
moment more and he had~ forged so far ahead that Andres
seemed to movc-,Ibackward. We drew in our breaths. The
battle was over. \
The tension relaxed. The men called to Andres to stop. t.r'
Some yelled ;,t Elias, teasing' him with Past(ml's name. He
gave no Iw,·d. Ill' l'L'cmcd to lower his head, like a hllll
carahau alld plunge 011. Andres straightened up, threw
".1/1 n' ,
down his 111"0, Llccd· HIIUlId, and shrugged his shoulders. ,;\"
'Ht~la\lgll(~d. \vldl the nll'lI, hut r noticed ii~at ilis eye:"oiJ
not lIel'k P,l/lflllll'll. A.,. rill Ihe girl, she t~lrned back anJ
\V(~lIt h()Jl\i~ wil hout a word.
IT is hard to tell about WOl1ll.:n. Take Pastora, now. Bc'
fore Elias came, she had no use for Andres. With Elias
 there. and Ill' 80 openly courtin~ her favor, what should
"That'll nil right," said Elias. "If Pastora' did not love
:2.' .• h~ \10 hut l\lllt i1bout fa(;c and. give herself to Andres? It
~tr.""; I
(i:lM\JII Iltlld 10 11I'111'\le it, uut that's cXillily w lat
h
appene.
d him she would II 't haw gune, would she?" , '.'\'1 ".
,;\,.
~·i~ut dun'l yUl! t>ec,:' I railcd,'''Andres.had no \ASC ,for.
~. ! !JIIlIt' wIlen YUlle among uS thulight Ellas was certain
l' \lU

I\~.'J."'I•• IIf wlllnlnu IWI, IIhe ran away With Alldn'll,

PaBlucu. lk \lnly wanled to show Y9U up. It was his
,
AD WilY of Ul'llintl CVCIl wit h you.".
I
l I"
Tlltlt • WIIIIllH for you. .
"It wlls a dirty trick," one of the men.mu,ttered.,
C... Iluw tlltl l(/i,Lll'take it? That wall another funny thlOg. I
"It halln't h:en the first time," said ItQng. . . i. .,'

It 1It'l~lncJ Ihlll hC'.knew it was coming, only he kept it to
hllllllelr. lk Wil~ a fool, and I told him so.
"If she luved Andres, and Andres loved her-"
said, in his slow, quiet manner.
"Andres loved her?" I snorted with laughter.
love Pastora?" I asked him, suddenly.
"Yes," he said, without hesitation.
"Have you ever loved any woman before?" I felt a
power over this big, quiet man that made me careless of
consequences.
"Yes," he said,
"Like you love Pastora?"
! "No," his answer was quietly spoken. "I wanted to
~l·marry Pastora. I talked to Tia Ansang."
"And you let her go. You let Andres take her away
, from you?",
"He didn't take her away from me. She went to him."
Oh, the simple, crazy fool. I laughed in his face.
"Here. Itong," I called one of the 'men sitting around
under the biggest mango in the yard. "Tell Elias what
Andres had been telling you."
The men laughed, glanced furtively at Elias; who seemed .\ .
suddenly to have sunk into a wdl of silence.
Elias
When he looked up, there was a light in ,his eyes ,that::;'"
\ .f\
startled me. . f. I ,I
"Do you
"~ell me," he asked without a change in his usual q~iet 'y';~>',CI
n, ..,,: .
husky voice "Andres, is h e, Ilas h e a Wi'fe.?" '
"Yes," I'said firmly, looking him in the' eye. "He has I' ,1<
it wife back in !locos, and three children. :All the men.;
here know it.... , , "e.,,'"'::
"But Pastora?" l'l
"She didn't' know. or if she did, she refused to believe ,~,
it."
"That's all I' want to know," said Elias.
He remained sitting where he was and did not talk any'
more. When everyone else had gone to his hut to sleep,
Elias still sat there, like a huge graven statue out of dark.
riarra wood ..
In my own hut. Tia Ansang sought me out that night.
She cried and wrung her work,hardened hands. She was
incoherent, she babbled about a lot of things. She was
, (

old, she had'. nobody to take care of her. She had only I, i'
"He swore to take Pastora away from you," said Itong.
Pastora and now the slut had gone and run away with
Another of the men came up.
Andres.
"He hated you. Yau are a bigger, stEQ~Lman."
~----".---" --_ •.. "' .. I felt like telling her what an bId fool she was. Had

.i', !
'1
",'1
,,,
t' ••.•
 and he was free, the handcuffs dangling at his wrists use'
she had the sense to warn Pastora, keep her away from
Andres, ;J.ll this would not have happened. After all the lessly.
It was then that Elias smiled for the third time. He
girl was young and Andres was a good,looking devil.
moved along with the soldiers and said, "I'll go with you,"
I sent Tia Ansang out with the assurance that I would
and smiled quickly, shyly.
go to look for Pastora and if possible bring her hack. I
"What about Pastora?" I blurted out. •
When the old woman was gone, I repeated my words to I,
I'
He looked back and said, "Don't worry about her. We
myself and realized that I meant them, too. I felt that I
understand each other now."
could kill Andres if need be. !
I was saved all that trouble. Elias showed up early in ',:,< • ~/', A,·/,.v,
the morning with Pastora. The girl had been crying, her
eyes were red, swollen. But she wasn't crying anymore.
She did look at Elias in a happy, foolish, balf,frightenE:d
sort of way, but I thought that was merely my imagination.
Elias would say nothing, neither would Pastora. When
I asked her about Andres, she looked around evasively and
, would not answer.
"Is he dead?" I asked inexorably.
Pastora seemed to shiver, but said no word.
I "Don't bother her now," said Elias quietly. Gently, he
f )pushed her toward the hut of Tia Ansang. Pastora went
,toward her mother with slow steps.
As. for Elias, he went to work with us in the cane fields
as usual. He seemed a little listless, preoccupied, as though
waiting for something to happen. He permitted some of
the faster cutters among the men to catch up with him,
finally to leave him behind. By noontime, we were all
dying with suspense and curiosity.
It was cxactly midday when the two constabulary soldiers
arrived. ElidlJ submittcu peacefully. He extcnded his
gn'af arms 1I11t1 t11l~ larger of the soldiers snapped on a pair
I)r hillldl'llfl!l Tk hjl~ 111,111 IIH'II jl'll<l'd hi:: arms sidewise:
H'
',",\
}
,'.

J
, ','

.
I
l, 1/. , ','
.' \ /