many other persons. As
she said, so she acted; and her solemn baptism was celebrated with
many feasts, dances, and rejoicings. The husband seeing this, put
away the other two wives, giving them the amounts of their dowry;
and, freed from this obstacle, received baptism and was married in
Christian fashion. On the feast-day of the glorious resurrection of
Christ our Lord, we celebrated the baptism of this man and eleven other
chiefs, who were also baptized amid great festivities and rejoicing,
and with the concourse of many people.

I have thus given an account of what took place in the five stations
in that island of Leite. Before we pass on to the rest, it will be
fitting to explain, as far as we can, their usages in marriage and
divorce--as well to make more intelligible what we have already
related as to have a better understanding of a topic which in the
course of our remaining narrative must frequently arise.

Of marriages, dowries, and divorces among the Filipinos. Chapter XXX.

I had lived in the Filipinas for almost ten years before I learned that
there was any man who had married several wives; and I did not know
it until I went to the islands of Ibabao and Leite, for in Manila,
Mindoro, Marinduque, and Panai, I had not observed the practice of
such a custom. I had, however, been once told by a Spaniard that in
a certain part of Mindanao, toward Dapitan, it was the custom for
the Bissayan women (the inhabitants of Mindanao also are Bissayans)
to marry two husbands; the practice of having several wives I had
understood to belong only to the Mahometans who dwell in Mindanao
and Burnei. It is certainly, however, not a general custom in the
Filipinas to marry more than one wife; and even in the districts where
this is done the practice is by no means general. The most common
and general usage is to marry one woman. The Bissayans always try to
procure a wife from their own class, and closely connected with them in
relationship. The Tagalos do not insist so much on this latter point:
they are satisfied if the wife be not of inferior rank. As I have
already stated, in neither race is any other impediment considered than
the first degree of kindred. Uncle and niece marry as readily as do
first cousins; but brother and sister, grandfather and granddaughter,
or father and daughter, can in no case marry. There is a marked
distinction between concubinage and wedlock; because the latter,
besides consent, has its own