h day," I said to them,
"although I may be unworthy of it, I cannot live, for that is my
sustenance which gives me strength to serve you for Christ's sake. Now
I must go where I can say it--that is, to Antipolo. If you wish to
see me again, you will build for me, on the hill where the dead are
now buried, a little church in which I can say mass, with some little
room to which I can retire; until this be done, I remain with God;"
and I went away. Desiring my return, they soon began the work and
finished it in such wise that I could stay and celebrate mass, and,
too, serve as an attraction to any one who might pass that way. At
first they did very little, and that slowly; but as it was necessary
to dismantle the church and carry to the hill its materials, and with
these the cross belonging to the cemetery, they soon began to show
such haste in migrating to the new village that ten or twelve of them
crowded into one house, until each one could build his own. Surprised
at such haste, I inquired its cause, and they told me that at night
they suffered from fear of the demons in the old village, because it
had now no church or cross; and so no one dared to sleep there. With
this change the village greatly improved its site. That they might not
lack water near by for bathing (to which all those nations are much
addicted), they carefully opened a ditch at the base of the hill,
along the edge of the village, by which water could come in from
the stream which they formerly had. Along the streets and around
the village they planted their groves and palm-trees, which enrich
and beautify it. They afterward constructed on the new site a very
beautiful temple with the help of the king our lord, who paid a third
of its cost, as his Majesty does for all the churches. Since I have
mentioned the baths it is fitting to relate what I can tell about them.

Of baths in the Philippines. Chapter X.

From the time when they are born, these islanders are brought up in
the water. Consequently both men and women swim like fishes, even from
childhood, and have no need of bridges to pass over rivers. They bathe
themselves at all hours, for cleanliness and recreation; and even the
women after childbirth do not refrain from the bath, and children just
born are bathed in the rivers and springs of cold water. When leaving
the bath, they anoint the head with ajonjoli [_i.e._, oil of sesame]
mixed with civet--of which, as we shall later show, there is