In regard to what concerns literature, there is a Tagálog grammar and dictionary, as well as a work called arte, which is a kind of polyglot grammar, of the Tagálog, Bicol, Visayan and Isinayan. All these works, and in general everything that appears in one of the languages of the country, are published by the care of the religious, who have at their disposition the printing house of Santo Tomás, and who have the means of meeting the expenses of the printing, which the Indians could not do. Both at Manila and in its environs there are several printing houses for the use of the public. They are the presses of Nuestra Señora de Loreto at Sampaloc, which issues grammars, dictionaries, works of history, etc. There was formerly published at Manila a newspaper called El noticioso Filipino. Today it appears there only as [a paper of] the prices current in Spanish and in English. At our departure the establishment of a new newspaper was beginning. [132] The literary works consist of pieces in verse, sometimes on very weighty subjects. Thus, for example, the "Passion of our Lord" has been translated into Tagálog verse. Then there are tragedies, which as we have mentioned above are excessively long. [133] They often contain the entire life of a king. There are, furthermore, little poems, corridas, epithaliums, and songs. These last especially are very numerous and have special names, such as comintang de la conquista, the sinanpablo, the batanguiño, the cavitegan. [134] Not only are the words of these songs, but also the melodies, national, and the Indians note the music of them with prodigious cleverness. All the Indians, in fact, are naturally given to music and there are some of them who play five or six instruments. Also there is not a village, however small it be, where mass is not accompanied by music for lack of an organ. The choice of the airs which they play is not always the most edifying. We have heard in the churches the waltzes of Musard, and the gayest airs of the French comic opera. Thus, as we have just said, the Indians are born musicians. Those who before knew only the Chinese tam-tam, the Javanese drum, and a kind of flute of Pan, made of a bit of bamboo, today cultivate the European instruments with a love which comes to be a passion. They are not, for the most part, very strong in vocal music, for they have very little or no voice. Nevertheless, their singing offers in our opinion a certain character of originality which is not unworthy of attention. [135] Scarcely had the Spaniards conquered that archipelago than its inhabitants tried to imitate the musical instruments of Europe, and the viguela, a kind of guitar having a very great number of strings, but which is not always the same, soon became their favorite instrument. They manufactured it with a remarkable perfection. And besides, they themselves made the strings.