servile imitation; it is careful
and studied selection, adaptation and combination. For example, the
composition of a steel engraving in a French art journal suggested
his model in clay of a Philippine wild boar; the head of the subject
in a painting in the Luxembourg Gallery and the rest of a figure in
an engraving in a newspaper are combined in a statuette he modeled
in Brussels and sent, in May, 1890, to Valentina Ventura in place
of a letter; a clipping from a newspaper cut is also adapted for
his model of "The Vengeance of the Harem"; and as evidence of his
facility of expressing himself in this medium, his clay modeling of
a Dapitan woman may be cited. One day while in exile he saw a native
woman clearing up the street in front of her home preparatory to
a festival; the movements and the attitudes of the figure were so
thoroughly typical and so impressed themselves on his mind that he
worked out this statuette from memory.

In a literary way Rizal's first pretentious effort was a melodrama in
one act and in verse, entitled "Junta al Pasig" (Beside the Pasig),
a play in honor of the Virgin, which was given in the Ateneo to the
great edification of a considerable audience, who were enthusiastic
in their praise and hearty in their applause, but the young author
neither saw the play nor paid any attention to the manner of its
reception, for he was downstairs, intent on his own diversions and
heedless of what was going on above.

Thursday was the school holiday in those days, and Rizal usually spent
the time at the Convent of La Concordia, where his youngest sister,
Soledad, was a boarder. He was a great friend of the little one
and a welcome visitor in the Convent; he used to draw pictures for
her edification, sometimes teasing her by making her own portrait,
to which he gave exaggerated ears to indicate her curiosity. Then he
wrote short satirical skits, such as the following, which in English
doggerel quite matches its Spanish original:

"The girls of Concordia College
Go dressed in the latest of styles--
Bangs high on their foreheads for knowledge--
But hungry their grins and their smiles!"

Some of these girls made an impression upon Jose, and one of his diary
entries of this time tells of his rude awakening when a girl, some
years his elder, who had laughingly accepted his boyish adoration,
informed him that she was to marry a relative of his, and he speaks
of the heart-pang with which he watche