s richly embroidered. In well-to-do houses there are so many
that they resemble a storehouse of saints rather than a habitation. In
many houses this is a matter of vanity and ostentation; and they
regard valuable saints as they do bureaus and mirrors elsewhere.

"In the church great sedateness and devotion or silence reigns. In
the villages the church is divided into three parts. In one end the
women are seated, in the other the men, while the gobernadorcillos
and principales occupy the center. However, this is not observed very
strictly in some villages. In some churches there are men in the front
half and women in the back half. When a small village is founded,
in order to get the concession for a settlement and for a cura they
offer to give the latter, in addition to paying the sanctorum tribute
[a tribute paid to the Church by all Philippine natives of sixteen
years and over], a monthly quantity of rice, eggs, fowls, etc.,
but they are afterward very remiss in living up to their offer. Many
friars have had to have recourse to the alcaldes and to the officials
of the district; and I have even heard of one of them who had to take a
musket and kill the fowls in the yards, and carry them to the convent.

"They are very fond of singing the passion or history of the death of
Jesus Christ, which is written in Tagalog verse. During the evenings
of Lent, the young men and women assemble in the houses for this
purpose. But although this was a religious gathering at the time when
it was originated, at the present time it has been converted into a
carnival amusement, or to speak more plainly, into a pretext for the
most scandalous vices; and the result of these canticles is that many
of the girls of the village become enceinte. So true is what I have
just said that the curas have prohibited everywhere the singing of the
passion at night; and some of the curas go out with a whip in order to
disperse them--or rather, send the fiscal of the church to ascertain
who is singing, and send for such person immediately to beat him.

"They say that all the saints are Spanish, since the patrons of their
churches are always of this class. They would have no veneration for
a saint with a flat nose and the physiognomy of a Filipino.

"When any sick person refuses to confess, his relatives request
him to do so. In this case they do not tell him that he will be
condemned, etc., but, 'Consider what a shame it will be; just think
what people w