s. But in the epoch previous to the arrival of the Spaniards,
it appears that there existed only a few love songs, of whose merits
I cannot judge, as I know the language so slightly.

"They have verses of as many as twelve syllables, which are the ones
generally used in their poems. They are divided into quatrains, whose
four verses rhyme among themselves. The Filipino rhyme, however,
consists in the last letter being a vowel or a consonant.... They
read all their verses in a singing tone, and the quatrains of the
twelve-syllable verse are read with the motif of the comintan,
which is their national song. The custom of singing when reading
poetry is a practice of China, and of all the Asiatic peoples whom I
have visited. The kind of versification which I have just cited is
evidently anterior to our conquest, as is also the above-mentioned
air, which is adjusted to it. This air is melancholy and does not
resemble at all any Chinese or Indian music that I have heard. There
are several comintans, just as there are different boleros, Polish
dances, or Tyrolian dances. Some of them have a great resemblance to
the music of Arabia. On the slopes of Camachin [which is a mountain
in southern Mindanao], I heard a song which is exactly and purely of
that sort...." (Mas, pp. 115, 116.)

The Celestina mentioned by Mas is a noted dramatic story--probably
written about 1480, and by Rodrigo Cota, of Toledo, and others--which
has exercised a very strong influence on the Spanish national drama. It
has great literary merit, admirable style, and well-drawn pictures of
human nature; and it attained so extensive and continual popularity
that even the Inquisition did not place Celestina in the Index until
1793, notwithstanding its grossness of thought and language. (Ticknor,
History of Spanish Literature, i, pp. 262-272.)

[229] M. and D. read "Christ our Lord."

[230] "In the Visayas," says Delgado (p. 317) "very rarely do the
Indians imitate the Spaniards in their dress; for almost all of them
go barefoot, according to their custom, and wear long black garments
that cover the entire body (which we call cassocks or lambong), very
wide breeches, and the shirt outside. For they can never accustom
themselves, as do the Spaniards, to gathering it inside, as is the
custom of the country. I have seen the same among the Tagalogs, with
the exception of some servants of the Spaniards, and some officials
and clerks, among them. But these men do no