For marriage, moreover, they have distinct formalities of betrothal, which are accompanied by conventional penalties, most rigorously executed.  Here is an example:  Si Apai promises to marry Cai Polosin; these married persons make an agreement with another married pair, while the wives are with child, that if the wombs of their respective wives should bear a male and a female those two children shall be joined in marriage, under a penalty of ten gold taes.  This compact is solemnized by a feast, where they eat, drink, and become intoxicated; and he who later is the occasion of breaking the compact must pay the penalty.  This is betrothal.  In the marriage there figures a dowry, and the surrender of the woman, with consent for the present, but not perpetual.  It is not the wife, but the husband, who gives her the dowry—­an amount agreed upon, and fixed in accordance with his means.  This is what some authors [88] relate of various nations, which were accustomed to purchase women as their wives.  In addition to the dowry the husband is wont to make some presents to the parents and relatives—­more or less, according to his means.  While I was in Tigbauan the chief of the island of Cuyo came to marry his son to the daughter of Tarabucon, chief of Oton, which is close by the town of Arebalo and a mission-village under the fathers of St. Augustine They were married by a minister of high standing in that order, named Father Pedro de Lara, [89] who was then vicar of that convent.  From him and from another religious of the same house I learned that besides the dowry (which was very large), and a generous offering sent to the convent, the husband bestowed, in his grandeur and munificence, presents upon the parents of the bride, her brothers and relations, and even upon the numerous slaves.  The marriage lasted no longer than did peace between them; for they are divorced on the slightest occasion.  If the cause of the divorce is unjust, and the man parts from his wife, he loses the dowry; if it is she who leaves him, she must restore the dowry to him.  But if the man has just cause for divorce, and leaves her, his dowry must be restored to him; if in such case the wife leaves him, she retains the dowry.  For the husband, the adultery of his wife is sufficient ground for divorce; for the woman, just cause for divorce is more limited.  In case of divorce, the children are divided equally between the two, without distinction of sex; thus, if they are two in number, one falls to the father and one to the mother; and in a state of slavery the same thing occurs when husband and wife belong to different masters.  If two persons own one slave, the same division is made; for half belongs to each, and his services belong to both alike.  These same modes of marriage and divorce are in use among those who marry two or three wives.  The man is not obliged to marry them all in one day; and, even after having one wife for many years, he may take another, and yet another—­indeed, like