The house that I pointed out belonged to a family all the members of which were deaf; namely, the father, the mother, and a daughter. Because of a kind of sickness that occurred in the family some years before, they had lost their sense of hearing. People had nicknamed them the "Deaf Family."
The man, or Mr. Bigote as I shall call him in honor of his long mustache, went limping directly to the house; and, without letting Mr. Bigote notice me, I followed him and hid behind the tall grasses that grew near the orchard. From my place I had a good view of the orchard and could hear the conversation between Mr. Bigote and the members of the family.
The orchard was a trapezium in shape. Except the front, which was separated by a wire fence from the road, all sides of it were surrounded by tall grasses. On each vertex of the trapezium stood an ilang-ilang tree. At the center stood a small nipa house facing the road. Around the house were several banana trees and camote plants. The house was old, and yet its stairs were made of stone. Under the bamboo floor of the building I could see a large blind dog. Near the foot of the stairs the daughter of the Deaf Family was sitting on a stone, giving food to her hog. It was a very fat hog, but neither ear nor tail could be seen attached to its great body.
The dialogue was begun by Mr. Bigote. "Good morning, madam," he said politely.
"We do not want to sell our hog, sir," answered the girl.
"I do not mean to buy your hog, but I only ask for a drink of water, for I am very thirsty," said the lame man quietly.
"Sir, it is very fat, because I always feed it well. You will not see its ears and tail because that bad dog ate them when their owner was yet small," answered the girl, pointing to the blind dog that was barking at Mr. Bigote.
Noticing that she did not hear him very well, Mr. Bigote shouted, "Let me have a drink of water!"
"Mother, here is a man who wants to buy our hog," shouted the young person to her mother, who was then, I supposed, cooking their lunch.
The mother peeped through the window and when she saw Mr. Bigote exclaimed angrily, "What! Are you going to marry that Bangus? I will wake your father. Tambucio, here is your daughter. She wants to marry a bangus."