apparent simplicity they conceal an artful and crafty dissimulation. I believe that the Indian never fails to deceive, unless when his own interests are hindered. In their lawsuits and business dealings they are like flies, which never quit what they are seeking, no matter how much they are brushed away; and thus they surpass and conquer us. The Chinese say that the Spaniard is fire, and the Indian is water, and that water quenches fire. They neither resent an injury nor thank one for a kindness. If you give them anything, they immediately ask for another. There is no fixed rule for construing them; for each one is needed a new syntax, because they are anomalous. With them the argument is not concluded by induction, since no Indian resembles another, nor even is one like himself; for in the short round of one day he changes his colors oftener than a chameleon, takes more shapes than a Proteus, and has more movements than a Euripus. He who deals with them most knows them least. They are, in fine, a union of contrarieties, which the greatest logician could not reconcile; they are an obscure and confused Chaos, in which species cannot be perceived or formal qualities distinguished; and if I had to define them I would say: "Obstabatque alijs aliud, quia corpore in vno Frigida pugnabant calidis, humentia siccis, Mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus." [332] Alluding to the irregular tides in the straits of Euripus, between Euboea and Greece; during a large part of the month these tides occur as often as eleven to fourteen times during the twenty-four hours. Their irregularity occasioned among the Greeks a proverb, which Delgado here uses. [333] A name given by the inhabitants of Cuba to the natives of Mexico, and in Vera Cruz to those of the interior. The name is also applied to shrewd and brusque persons. (New Velázquez Dictionary.) [334] These two rules are respectively: "Evil once, evil is always presupposed;" and "Evil [may spring] from any failing." [335] These chains were also of Chinese manufacture; apparently the Filipinos took up this industry through their tendency to imitate. [336] The Lygodium scandens, also called Gnito and nitongputi, a climbing fern found throughout the Philippines. Blanco gives the name of the genus as Ugena. The glossy, wiry stems are used in the making of fine hats, mats, cigarette and cigar cases, etc. See Census of Philippines, iv, p. 166.