At Paloc the fathers encounter some dislike, apparently inspired by the heathen priests; but this is soon replaced by affection and religious ardor.  Some miraculous cures occur here.  At Alangalang, Cosmo de Flores forms a large mission village from many scattered hamlets; but dies soon after its foundation.  The fathers are welcomed in Ogmuc, and a school for the children is at once begun; they are delighted at the cleverness and docility of these little ones.  Many of those people are converted, including several chiefs.

Here Chirino again digresses to an account of “marriages, dowries and divorces among the Filipinos.”  He “had lived in the Filipinas almost ten years” before he knew that some of the natives practiced polygamy, which was not a custom in Manila, Panay, and other islands where the Spaniards had long dwelt, but had some currency among the Visayans.  In certain parts of Mindanao, the woman has two husbands; but monogamy is the prevailing custom of the archipelago.  The first degree of consanguinity is the only one which bars marriage.  Various betrothal and marriage ceremonies are described, and their usage regarding dowries and divorces.  Chirino thinks that polygamy in those islands has been derived from the “cursed doctrine” of Mahomet.

He next relates the entrance of the Jesuit missionaries into the island of Ibabao (now Samar); they find the people well disposed toward the Christian faith, and soon have churches and schools established.  On one occasion, all the people of the island of Maripipi come to the fathers for baptism, and receive it, as they show themselves well prepared for it.  A mission is begun at Catubig, in the eastern part of Samar; but for lack of workers it has not been maintained.  Another mission has been established in Bohol, where their efforts are greatly aided by the prevalence of monogamy among the people, who suddenly abandon their idols and drunken feasts.

Chirino here describes the funeral and mortuary customs generally prevalent in the islands.  The natives practice a sort of embalming of the dead.  The dead person is usually buried in the lower part of his own house; and the funeral is succeeded by feasting and carousing—­the immediate relatives, however, fasting.  At the death of a chief, a curious taboo is placed upon the entire village, silence being imposed upon all, under penalty of death.  If a man be slain by violence, his death is avenged by his relatives, the innocent as well as the guilty being slain by them.  Chirino draws curious parallels to all these customs from the history of various nations, as recorded by both sacred and profane writers.  He devotes a chapter to the description of “feasting and intoxication among the Filipinos.”  They eat little and drink much; but, even when intoxicated, they do not become frenzied or incapable.

The labors of Jesuit missionaries in the island of Bohol are further recounted.  They find the people unusually well disposed toward the Christian religion, and very earnest and devout; all their idolatrous and immoral practices are soon abandoned, lest they displease the missionaries.  Many are converted, and in an epidemic the lives of these Christians are preserved by their using holy water as a medicine.