103. The banquets are interspersed with singing, in which one or two sing and the others respond. The songs [21] are usually their old songs and fables, as is usual with other nations. The dances of men and women are generally performed to the sound of bells which are made in their style like basins, large or small, of metal, and the sounds are brought out quickly and uninterruptedly. For the dance is warlike and passionate, but it has steps and measured changes, and interposed are some elevations that really enrapture and surprise. They generally hold in the hands a towel, or a spear and shield, and with one and the other they make their gestures in time, which are full of meaning. At other times with the hands empty they make movements which correspond to the movements of the feet, now slow, now rapid. Now they attack and retire; now they incite; now they pacify; now they come close; now they go away: all the grace and elegance, so much, in fact, that at times they have not been judged unworthy to accompany and solemnize our Christian feasts. [22] However, the children and youths now dance, play, and sing in our manner and so well that we cannot do it better. They had a kind of guitar which was called coryapi, which had two or more copper strings. Although its music is not very artistic or fine, it does not fail to be agreeable, especially to them. They play it with a quill, with great liveliness and skill. It is a fact that, by playing it alone, they carry on a conversation and make understood whatever they wish to say. 104. All of these islanders are extremely fond of the water for bathing purposes, and as a consequence they try to settle on the shores of rivers or creeks, for the more they are in the water the better they like it. They bathe at all times, for pleasure and cleanliness. When an infant is born, it is put into the river and bathed in cold water; and the mother, after having given birth, does not keep away from the water. The manner of bathing is, to stand with the body contracted and almost seated, with the water up to the throat. The most usual and general hour is at sunset, when the people leave work or return from the field, and bathe for rest and coolness. Men and women all swim like fish, and as if born and reared in the water. Each house has a vessel of water at the door. Whenever any one goes up to the house, whether an inmate of it or not, he takes water from that vessel to wash his feet, especially when it is muddy. That is done very easily; one foot is dried with the other, and the water falls down below, for the floor there is like a close grating. CHAPTER XV Of the false heathen religion, idolatries, superstitions, and other things, of the Filipinos