When any question arose of general interest to the townspeople (such as a serious innovation in the existing law, or the annual feasts, or the anticipated arrival of a very big official, etc.) the headmen (_principalia_) were cited to the Town Hall. They were also expected to assemble there every Sunday and Great Feast Days (three-cross Saint days in the Calendar), to march thence in procession to the church to hear Mass, under certain penalties if they failed to attend. Each one carried his stick of authority; and the official dress was a short Eton jacket of black cloth over the shirt, the tail of which hung outside the trousers. Some _Gobernadorcillos_, imbued with a sense of the importance and solemnity of office, ordered a band to play lively dance music at the head of the _cortege_ to and from the church. After Mass they repaired to the convent, and on bended knee kissed the priest's hand. Town affairs were then discussed. Some present were chided, others were commended by their spiritual dictator. In nearly every town the people were, and still are, divided into parties holding divergent views on town affairs, each group being ready to give the other a "stab in the back" when the opportunity offers, and not unfrequently these differences seriously affect the social relations of the individual members. For the direct collection of taxes each township was sub-divided into groups of forty or fifty families called _Barangays_: each group had to pay taxes to its respective head, styled _Cabeza de Barangay_, who was responsible to the petty-governor, who in turn made the payment to the Provincial Administrator for remission to the Treasury (_Intendencia_) in Manila. This _Barangay chiefdom_ system took its origin from that established by the natives themselves prior to the Spanish conquest, and in some parts of the Colony the original title of _datto_ was still applied to the chief. This position, hereditary among themselves, continued to be so for many years under Spanish rule, and was then considered an honourable distinction because it gave the heads of certain families a birthright importance in their class. Later on they were chosen, like all the other native local authorities, every two years, but if they had anything to lose, they were invariably re-elected. In order to be ranked among the headmen of the town (the _principalia_), a _Barangay chief_ had to serve for ten years in that capacity unless he were, meanwhile, elected to a higher rank, such as lieutenant or _gobernadorcillo_. Everybody, therefore, shirked the repugnant obligations of a chiefdom, for the Government rarely recognized any bad debts in the collection of the taxes, until the chief had been made bankrupt and his goods and chattels sold to make good the sums which he could not collect from his group, whether it arose from their poverty, death, or from their having absconded. I have been present at auction sales of live-stock