The girls' dresses were rich, and they wore a great deal of jewellery. Some of the princesses were very handsome girls. There is a sort of a superstition that any girl performing in one of these pieces is sure to be married within a year. This makes them very ready to undertake a part, as they obtain an excellent opportunity to display their charms to advantage, and so help to fulfil the prediction. The play was witnessed by the mass of the population of Balayan and by numerous visitors from the neighbouring towns. It was considered a very successful performance, and it carried my memory over the wide Pacific to Peru, where I have seen similar plays acted by the country people in the Plaza of Huacho. Tagal Literature. Tagal literature does not amount to very much, and the policy of the Government of late years has been to teach Spanish as well as the native dialects in the schools. This did not meet the approval of the old school of priests; but many of the younger ones have accepted the Government view. In the Exhibition of the Philippines, Madrid, 1887, Don Vicente Barrantes showed twenty volumes of grammars and vocabularies of the Philippine dialects, and thirty-one volumes of popular native poetry, besides two volumes of native plays. The Reverend Father Raimundo Lozano exhibited twenty-eight volumes of religious works in the Visayas-Panayano dialect, and the Reverend Father Francisco Valdez a study of the roots of the Ilocan dialect in manuscript. Many works in the native dialects have been written by the Spanish priests, such as one by the Reverend Father Manuel Blanco, the learned author of the 'Flora Filipina,' of which I give the title and the first verse:-- Tagaloc verses to assist in "Manga dalit na Tagalog at dying well. pagtulong sa mamaluatay na tanang Cristiana." Manila, 1867, VIII., 62 pag 8o. "Aba bumabasa baquin baga caya Tila camuntima i nata cang bohala." I now give the title of a secular poem in English and Tagal, that the reader may compare the words and note the subject:-- Story of the life of the "Salita at buhay nang beauteous shepherdess marilang na pastora na si Jacobina, a native of Jacobina tubo sa Villa Moncada, who became the Moncada Naguing asáua wife of the King, nang Policarpio de Policarpio de Villar, Villar sa cabarian nang in the kingdom of Dalmacia nagga roon nang Dalmatia, and bore a isang supligna anac ang son named Villardo. pangaia i si Villardo." The poem begins-- "O maamong Ester mananalong Judit Mariang linanag nitong sang daigdig." and concludes-- "Panang nang pupuri ang lahat nang cabig Sa yanang inaguling ang tinamo i sangit."