hough
he answered with absolute frankness whatever concerned himself and in
everyday life was almost quixotically truthful, when cross-examined
about others who would be jeopardized by admitting his acquaintance
with them, he used the subterfuge of the symbolic names of his Masonic
acquaintances. Thus he would say, "I know no one by that name," since
care was always taken to employ the symbolic names in introductions
and conversations.

Rizal's own symbolic name was "Dimas Alang"--Tagalog for "Noli
Me Tangere"--and his nom de plume in some of his controversial
publications. The use of that name by one of his companions on the
railroad trip to Tarlac entirely mystified a station master, as appears
in the secret report of the espionage of that trip, which just preceded
his deportation to Dapitan. Another possible explanation is that, since
Freemasonry professes not to disturb the duties which its members owe
to God, their country or their families, he may have considered himself
as a good Mason under obligation to do whatever was demanded by these
superior interests, all three of which were at this time involved.

The argument that it was his pride that restrained him suggested to
Rizal the possibility of his being unconsciously under an influence
which during his whole life he had been combating, and he may have
considered that his duty toward God required the sacrifice of this
pride.

For his country his sacrifice would have been blemished were any
religious stigma to attach to it. He himself had always been careful
of his own good name, and as we have said elsewhere, he told his
companions that in their country's cause whatever they offered on the
altars of patriotism must be as spotless as the sacrificial lambs of
Levitical law.

Furthermore, his work for a tranquil future for his family would be
unfulfilled were he to die outside the Church. Josefina's anomalous
status, justifiable when all the facts were known, would be sure
to bring criticism upon her unless corrected by the better defined
position of a wife by a church marriage. Then the aged parents and
the numerous children of his sisters would by his act be saved the
scandal that in a country so mediaevally pious as the Philippines
would come from having their relative die "an unrepentant heretic."

Rizal had received from the Jesuits, while in prison, several religious
books and pictures, which he used as remembrances for members of his
family, writing