[69] Spanish, actos solenes, i liciones de erudicion.  At Manila, in Chirino’s time, there was only what is called collegium inchoatum; but in ordinary colleges of the Society, with a complete order of classes, it was the custom, at the solemnis instauratio studiorum, for the prefect of studies or the professor of rhetoric to inaugurate the year’s work by delivering a “learned discourse,” before the whole academic body; and to this function the appreciative public was invited.  Sometimes the students gave a public exhibition of their work and proficiency.  This “solemn act” might be a dramatic representation—­an original play written for the occasion—­or it might consist of literary exercises on the part of the scholars, music being also introduced.  The technical name for these purely literary exercises was an “academy,” or “specimen;” and naturally they would take place during the course of the scholastic year Such was the custom of the age, in Spanish countries.—­Rev. E.I.  Devitt, S.J.

[70] Molave is the name of a tree whose wood is very hard and highly valued for building purposes; it is called by the natives “the queen of woods.”  The name molave is applied to several species of Vitex. especially to V. geniculata, Bl.

[71] Pina:  a silver design in the form of a pineapple.

[72] i.e., to scourge themselves, as a voluntary penance—­a practice then common among religious devotees.  It was probably a survival from the earlier practices of the associations of Flagellants, who publicly scourged themselves, in penitential processions through the streets; they appeared during the period 1260-1420.

[73] Cf. the belief of the Winnebago Indians regarding the fate of departed souls (Wisconsin Historical Collections, xiii, p. 467).

[74] Golo:  “the name of a charm for lovers, used by the ancient Tagals” (Blumentritt, Dicc. mitologico, p. 51).  Regarding this book of charms, cf.  Retana’s Libro de aniterias (Madrid, 1894), which reproduces a similar book, obtained from a Filipino native, with explanations of such words and phrases as are intelligible; it is preceded by extracts from the Practica of Tomas Ortiz, O.S.A.

[75] Evidently a reference to the serpents of the genus Python, allied to the boa-constrictor.  They attain enormous size in the forests, some specimens having been obtained over twenty-two feet long.  Young ones are often kept by the natives in their houses to kill the rats; these snakes become tame and harmless.

[76] In the printed work, on the margin opposite this and the following sentences, are various references, thus:  “Isaiah, 60; Isaiah, 9; Psalm 79; Isaiah, 66; Psalm 35, whereon ‘B.  Amb.  Greg.  II. moral. c. 2’”—­the last apparently a reference to St. (and Pope) Gregory I’s Moralia in Jobum (Basle, 1468?).

[77] In the margin of the printed page is a reference to Ezekiel, 8.