[Leyte.] The natives of Leyte, clinging as strongly to their native soil as those of Samar, like them, have no partiality for the sea, though their antipathy to it is not quite so manifest as that of the inhabitants of Samar. [202]

[Public charity not accepted.] There are no benevolent institutions in either of the two islands.  Each family maintains its own poor and crippled, and treats them tenderly.  In Catbalogan, the chief town of the island, with five to six thousand inhabitants, there were only eight recipients of charity; but in Albay mendicants are not wanting.  In Lauang, when a Spaniard, on a solemn festival, had caused it to be proclaimed that he would distribute rice to the poor, not a single applicant came forward.  The honesty of the inhabitants of Samar is much commended.  Obligations are said to be contracted almost always without written documents, and never forsworn, even if they make default in payment.  Robberies are of rare occurrence in Samar, and thefts almost unknown.  There are schools also here in the pueblos, which accomplish quite as much as they do in Camarines.

[Amusements.] Of the public amusements cock-fighting is the chief, but it is not so eagerly pursued as in Luzon.  At the church festivals they perform a drama translated from the Spanish, generally of a religious character; and the expense of the entertainment is defrayed by voluntary contributions of the wealthy.  The chief vices of the population are play and drunkenness; in which latter even women and young girls occasionally indulge.  The marriage feasts, combining song and dance, often continue for several days and nights together, where they have a sufficient supply of food and drink. [Suitor’s service.] The suitor has to serve in the house of the bride’s parents two, three, and even five years, before he takes his bride home; and money cannot purchase exemption from this onerous restriction.  He boards in the house of the bride’s parents who furnish the rice, but he has to supply the vegetables himself. [203] At the expiration of his term of service he builds, with the assistance of his relations and friends, the house for the family which is about to be newly established.

[Morals.] Though adultery is not unknown, jealousy is rare, and never leads to violence.  The injured individual generally goes with the culprit to the minister, who, with a severe lecture to one, and words of consolation to the other, sets everything straight again.  Married women are more easily accessible than girls, whose prospect of marriage, however, it seems is not greatly diminished by a false step during single life.  While under parental authority girls, as a rule, are kept under rigid control, doubtless in order to prolong the time of servitude of the suitor.  External appearance is more strictly regarded among the Bisayans than by the Bicols and Tagalogs.  Here also the erroneous opinion prevails, that the number of the women exceeds that of the men.  Instances occur of girls of twelve being mothers; but they are rare; and though women bear twelve or thirteen children, many of these, however, do not live. [Great infant mortality.] So much so is this the case, that families of more than six or eight children are very rarely met with.