h they would learn the most elementary
things of which they were ignorant, and Religion and Moral. The Rueda
[5] translation would be better adding something about the Philippines
and the grammar of his dialect in Spanish. Undoubtedly he wanted to
say that the Spanish grammar should be translated into the dialects.

If this is not done we believe that we would only lose
time. With such measures in thirty years the Spanish language
would be diffused among the children (pp. 440-441).

For the same reason (distance and lack of roads) the boys and
girls do not attend schools, and what little they know they
learn from some ignorant teachers (maestrillos). People,
ordinarily of bad life, escaped from other towns, some of
whom are also quack doctors and bone-setters who at the same
time that they are teaching the Cartilla and a little bit
of the Catechism imbue the children with a thousand and one
superstitions and all kinds of vices. The priest who at times
goes, out of necessity, to attend to some one who is seriously
ill, and very seldom visits them (the Indios) ex-profeso,
the parochial districts being generally very large and their
duties so numerous and urgent, can only in part remedy some
of these evils.

The Filipino People

Now let us see what kind of people the Filipinos were. It is essential
to know the psychology of the community. No opinion is so valuable
for the present case than that of the missionary above cited, who
says the following about the psychology of the Filipino.

As a people who are ignorant and with but little culture, the
Indios are bound to have considerable superstitious beliefs
which they practice, unconsciously deceived by medicine men,
who are the ones who keep alive these ridiculous traditions of
their ancestors, without knowing the reasons for what they do
(p. 261).

They (the Indios) are deeply superstitious, a thing which is
revealed in all their acts.

Citing the words of Dr. Lacalle, Father Ruiz says:

To pretend that a people taking the first steps on the road
of civilization, and that in their religious acts manifest
themselves in their acts as religious, severe, cultured and
real thinkers, is absurd in the extreme (p. 348).

And he adds what follows:

We should not lose sight of the fact that the Indio is a
child badly educated, but a bi