(Bicol); and after that comes the
Christian Doctrine, the reading-book called Casayayan. On an average,
half of all the children go to school, generally from the seventh
to the tenth year. They learn to read a little; a few even write a
little: but they soon forget it again. Only those who are afterwards
employed as clerks write fluently; and of these most write well.

Some priests do not permit boys and girls to attend the same school;
and in this case they pay a second teacher, a female, a dollar a
month. The Filipinos learn arithmetic very quickly, generally aiding
themselves by the use of mussels or stones, which they pile in little
heaps before them and then count through.

[Marriage age.] The women seldom marry before the fourteenth year,
twelve years being the legal limit. In the church-register of Polangui
I found a marriage recorded (January, 1837) between a Filipino and a
Filipina having the ominous name of Hilaria Concepcion, who at the
time of the performance of the marriage ceremony was, according to
a note in the margin, only nine years and ten months old. Frequently
people live together unmarried, because they cannot pay the expenses
of the ceremony. [115]

[Woman's work.] European females, and even mestizas, never seek
husbands amongst the natives. The women generally are well treated,
doing only light work, such as sewing, weaving, embroidery, and
managing the household; while all the heavy labor, with the exception
of the beating of the rice, falls to the men. [116]

[A patriarch.] Instances of longevity are frequent amongst the
Filipinos, particularly in Camarines. The Diario de Manila, of
March 13th, 1866, mentions an old man in Daraga (Albay) whom I knew
well--Juan Jacob, born in 1744, married in 1764, and a widower
in 1845. He held many public posts up to 1840, and had thirteen
children, of whom five are living. He has one hundred and seventy
direct descendants, and now, at one hundred and twenty-two years of
age, is still vigorous, with good eyes and teeth. Extreme unction
was administered to him seven times!

[Snake bite and rabies remedy.] The first excretion of a new-born
child is carefully preserved, and under the name of triaca (theriacum)
is held to be a highly efficacious and universal remedy for the bites
of snakes and mad dogs. It is applied to the wound externally, and
at the same time is taken internally.

[Infant mortality.] A large number of children die in the first two
weeks