rammar or pronunciation, in spite of
her husband, the chairs and the shoes, all of which had done what
they could to teach her.

One of the words that had cost her more effort than the hieroglyphics
cost Champollion was the name _Filipinas_. The story goes that on
the day after her wedding, when she was talking with her husband, who
was then a corporal, she had said _Pilipinas_. The corporal thought
it his duty to correct her, so he said, slapping her on the head,
"Say _Felipinas_, woman! Don't be stupid! Don't you know that's what
your damned country is called, from _Felipe?_"

The woman, dreaming through her honeymoon, wished to obey and said
_Felepinas_. To the corporal it seemed that she was getting nearer to
it, so he increased the slaps and reprimanded her thus: "But, woman,
can't you pronounce _Felipe?_ Don't forget it; you know the king,
Don Felipe--the fifth--. Say _Felipe_, and add to it _nas_, which
in Latin means 'islands of Indians,' and you have the name of your
damned country!"

Consolacion, at that time a washerwoman, patted her bruises and
repeated with symptoms of losing her patience, "Fe-li-pe, Felipe--nas,
Fe-li-pe-nas, Felipinas, so?"

The corporal saw visions. How could it be _Felipenas_ instead of
_Felipinas?_ One of two things: either it was _Felipenas_ or it was
necessary to say _Felipi!_ So that day he very prudently dropped the
subject. Leaving his wife, he went to consult the books. Here his
astonishment reached a climax: he rubbed his eyes--let's see--slowly,
now! _F-i-l-i-p-i-n-a-s_, Filipinas! So all the well-printed books
gave it--neither he nor his wife was right!

"How's this?" he murmured. "Can history lie? Doesn't this book say that
Alonso Saavedra gave the country that name in honor of the prince,
Don Felipe? How was that name corrupted? Can it be that this Alonso
Saavedra was an Indian?" [110]

With these doubts he went to consult the sergeant Gomez, who, as
a youth, had wanted to be a curate. Without deigning to look at
the corporal the sergeant blew out a mouthful of smoke and answered
with great pompousness, "In ancient times it was pronounced _Filipi_
instead of _Felipe_. But since we moderns have become Frenchified we
can't endure two _i's_ in succession, so cultured people, especially
in Madrid--you've never been in Madrid?--cultured people, as I say,
have begun to change the first _i_ to _e_ in many words. This is
called modernizing yourself."

The poor corporal had