ing to
the former custom of maintaining fools or jesters in the households
of the rich.

[101] These are games of cards, the name of the latter indicating
the number of points which win the game.

[102] "This argument for the reason of the insanity of many friars,
seems to me completely false. It would be sufficient to compare the
friars who are insane with the insane found also among the other
Spaniards, in order to declare quite the contrary. Quite different do
I believe the origin of the insanity, both of the religious and of
the other Spaniards. He who has had anything to do with the Indian
will have observed that his nature is quite contrary to that of the
Spaniard. The latter is generally lively, acute, and full of fire,
while that of the Indian, on the contrary, is dull, somber, and
cold as snow. The Spaniard who does not arm himself with patience
and forbearance, is liable to become, I do not say insane, but
desperate. Another reason even may be assigned, in what pertains to
the religious. As a general thing, their insanity has as its primal
cause melancholy; and this is very common to the regular curas who
are alone, and who, experiencing the ingratitude of the Indian, his
fickleness in virtue, and his indifference in matters of religion,
think that their sacrifice for the natives is in vain. Consequently,
the curas need great courage in order to calm themselves and to
persevere in the even tenor of their life. In my opinion these two
reasons can fully account for the origin of the cases of insanity
among many." (Note by Father Juan Ferrando, written on the margin of
the manuscript of this chapter.)--Mas.

[103] Mas here cites at length a writing by the Augustinian Casimiro
Diaz, which instructs parish priests in their duties; they are warned
against trading or engaging in any business or manufacture directly
or indirectly.

[104] Father Juan Ferrando, professor of canons in the college of
Santo Tomas of Manila, to whom I gave the manuscript of this chapter
to read, wrote in the margin the following note, which is very just
and timely; and as such I insert it, in order to counteract the
statement which has given occasion for it, and which I wrote in the
heat of composition, simply through heedlessness and inadvertence. "In
no way can the cura make use of what he learns in the confessional
for the exterior government. By its means one may better understand
the character of the Indian, but the cura can neve