between well-to-do people, an agreement is made between the parents of the future spouses as to the dowry which those of the male are to give the wife or her parents. In this province two kinds of dowry are known, one which is delivered to the parents of the girl, which is not strictly a dowry according to the general acceptation, constituting a kind of gift which the suitor or his parents give to the fiancée, and the other that given by parents to their sons when they marry, which is the real dowry, and what is called in this province "bigay-caya." The parents of the suitor designate the amount of the dowry, whether it consists of cash or other property, and the parents of the girl at the same time state an amount, in order that after marriage the newly wed will have sufficient with which to meet the first necessities of the marriage and which may serve as a basis for the beginning of business. Sometimes the parents of the suitor are the only ones giving a dowry, those of the girl not doing so by special agreement between the parents.

Regarding a very prevalent custom, we may see what Mr. Sastrón, Spanish governor of this province during the Spanish administration, said on page 52 of his work, "Batangas and Its Province:" "Another custom which is worthy of consideration is that prevailing among these natives (of Batangas) of meeting for the nine days after the death of a relative in the house where it took place, for the purpose of saying the holy rosary in the church every morning and evening. At the end of the nine days the relatives and friends of the deceased meet in the same house and after a brief prayer for the eternal rest of the deceased, they all sit down to a banquet, according to the means of the family, but which is always sumptuous."

The respect for the dead in this province sometimes borders on real idolatry, and hence it is that everybody takes off his hat, murmuring some prayer for the peace of the deceased, when a funeral is met. It is very seldom that the dead are badly spoken of.

Due to the simplicity of the inhabitants and to the lack of education of the masses, many superstitions, the sad legacy of past ages, are still preserved. The religious education which they receive, and which greatly favored the difficulty of abolishing superstition, has also influenced greatly the general credulity of the masses in supernatural acts, which impress their oriental imagination deeply. Hence, notwithstanding the very radical changes in this community, we still have to lament that a majority of our natives believe in miracles and witchcraft.

The low class has not yet lost faith in the "antin-antin” (a kind of amulet) and believes in the efficacy of prayers in Latin to free a person from a future evil. At the present time, as for the last century, there exists a belief in the existence of the "Nono," "Tigbalan," "Asuan," "Patianac," "Lumalabas," "Mangcuculan," “Iqui," and other evil spirits. The "Nono," according to the common belief, is the spirit of old people. The superstition consists in asking permission of the "Nono" when entering unknown places such as forests, rivers, brooks, mountains, and other places which are entered for the first time; because if permission be not asked, the "Nono" becomes angry and will cause some misfortune. It is also customary to ask permission of the "Nono" when some large tree is felled, when certain fruits are taken, or when a piece of virgin land is first prepared for cultivation. And when a person falls ill without the cause of his illness being capable of explanation it is attributed to the bad will of the "Nono," who has been displeased by some disrespectful act on the part of the patient. The "Tigbalan" is a phantom which, according to the common belief, has the gift of appearing to man under different forms. It is believed that the appearance of any person or any animal can be simulated, and it is told of persons that, having made friends with the "Tigbalan," they have converted themselves into savages and no longer desired to live in towns. The "Asuan" is also an evil spirit which is in the habit of appearing at night in the shape of a dog or a hog beneath the houses of pregnant women or of those who are

in labor, in order to kill the offspring. The "Patianac" is the phantom of the Spanish, and it is believed here that it is the soul of a child dying without having been baptized, and it is said that it appears in the woods and that it chirps like a bird. The "Lumalabas," according to the popular belief, is the soul of a dead person which appears to man in this world in horrible form. Sometimes its apparition has caused insanity or the grave disease of the person to whom it has appeared. It would be very tiresome to enumerate the forms which the "Lumalabas" adopts in its appearance to a living being. The "Mangcuculan" is a man or woman possessing the virtue of causing the sickness unto death of a person with whom he or she is displeased. This belief is so widespread that when it is rumored that a person is a "Mangcuculan" very few will approach the same, and those who do so, do everything in their power to please him or her. The "Iqui" is a man who has the virtue of flying at night, leaving half of his body, from the waist to his feet, in his house. It is said that the "Iqui" lives only on the liver of men, and when he sallies out at night he stations himself in the roofs of the houses, whence he kills sick persons by means of a tongue of such fineness that it can hardly be distinguished, appearing like a thread of cotton, which penetrates his bowels, causing death. What is not explained is the method they employ to remove the livers.

Among gamblers the superstition is also prevalent that if they should meet a dead person or funeral in the street on leaving their houses, they must not go to the gambling house or cockfight, because they would surely lose.

There are some other superstitions of less importance which I will not recount in this report, in order that the reading thereof may not be long and tiresome.

Governor-supervisor, island of Marinduque (Tagálogs):

Although the Filipinos throughout the archipelago have a common basis or foundation with regard to their manners and customs, it is but just, nevertheless, to state that the inhabitants of at least two of the municipalities of Marinduque differ somewhat from their fellow-countrymen in what relates to culture and the great desire of assimilating everything connected with modern civilization.

The residents of Bóac and Gazán, for example, are rivals for the supremacy in education, agriculture, and commerce, this wish constituting a noble pride, because its final objective point is the distinction of the municipality to which they belong. A genteel but not a luxuriant appearance, even among the lowest country men and women, a life of economy but not of penury, the proscription of great vices, no gambling or smoking on the part of the women, education above everything-these are the praiseworthy conditions observed among the people of this island.

It is certainly very pleasing to see towns like those cited where the persons most prominent by reason of their position and degree of education do not attend the cockfights, unfortunately a general vice throughout the country. This is so true that there is no cockpit in Bóac, because it has never been able to do a profitable business, and in Gazán the contractor was obliged to attempt to open his cockpit three times without having been able to give consecutive fights during the course of a year.

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But besides these fine qualities it is painful to have to confess that customs exist which form a dense cloud that only education will be able in time to dissipate with its light. I speak of superstitions. It is a fact that superstition exists in direct proportion to ignorance; that is to say, the more ignorant a people the more superstitious they are. Thus it is that the other townships of the island are relatively more superstitious than those above cited, without this signifying that the superstitions which they have and observe are few in number.

The most important superstitions are the offspring of religious fanaticism and are common to all the inhabitants of the archipelago. These are the belief in the

"antin-antin" (amulet); the invocation and lighting of a candle to St. Anthony when something is lost and it is desired to know in whose possession it is; the harvest of rice not being gathered except when the moon is in its first or last stages, in spite of there being powerful reasons for doing it without delay, as, for example, the presence of locusts. The reason for this is the belief that the crop will be more abundant and otherwise would be less. There are other superstitions which are observed in this section, but whether they are common in the archipelago I do not know. Such are the following:

When a family loses anything and it is suspected that some servant is responsible for the disappearance, he is made to chew some uncooked rice. If the saliva which forms is clear and watery, then the person who chews it is innocent, otherwise he is declared guilty.

When a house is built no holes must be dug for the right-side posts if they are not to be placed therein on the same day and before vespers, because some member of the family would run the danger of dying, as the hole is looked upon as signifying the grave for a body. But they believe that they can offset this danger, when things beyond their control make it impossible for them to place the posts in the hole on the same day, by placing provisionally therein one or more sticks of any kind representing the true posts; then the hole ceases to be a grave, because its purpose is manifest. The first post put in must have in its base at least one silver coin, because thus the owner of the house will always have money, even though it be very little, from the proceeds of his work. The buried money will cause the owner of the house to live very economically.

In the construction of the door, if the house be of bamboo, the pillars of the principal door must be constructed first, because thus the owner of the house will always find money easily-that is to say, money will come into the house rapidly.

The bamboo used in the construction of a house is not burnt, because if it were, the centipedes in the roof would fall. The same will be the case if the house be swept at night.

In order to sow rice in a "caingine" the owner of the field must go to it at 12 o'clock at night on the day preceding that of the planting, and deposit therein the seed with great care at the foot of a cross first placed in the middle of the land. Some grains of the seed are taken and buried. This is done in the belief that when the seed germinates it will be left undisturbed by the bird or insect, even though no care be given the land; and when it is observed about the time for harvesting the rice that part has been destroyed by rats, the owner endeavors to conceal this fact from others, and even from his own wife, and gathers from the ground the scattered grains, burying them at a distant point, because it is believed that by doing this rats would not again disturb the field.

After the rice has been reaped the owner must get the smallest basket he has and deposit therein beforehand two or three bundles of rice on the stalk, but this must be done when the tide is at its highest, because thus, no matter how small the land, the crop will be large.

Whenever the rice is to be thrashed no one must touch the warehouse before the owner has done so, as otherwise the amount of rice to be thrashed would diminish. There are other superstitions among the common people, but their nature is so confounded with religious fanaticism that the last name should really be applied to them, for which reason they are not explained.

Governor-supervisor, province of Masbate (Tagálogs):

The natives of this province are, as a rule, indolent on account of their limited wants and the fertility of the soil. They are of a cheerful and lively temperament, lovers of company, diversions, and pleasure. They profess a deep love of home,

1. PRESIDENTE OF AGUSAN (VISAYAN). 2. PRESIDENTE OF OROQUIETA (VISAYAN). 3. PRESIDENTE OF MISAMIS (VISAYAN). 4. ENUMERATORS OF MARINDUQUE (TAGALOGS). 5. ENUMERATORS OF MASBATE (VISAYANS).