The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 12]

160o-1604]

CHIRINO'S RELATION

243

Consequently, to pronounce cama, two letters without points are sufficient: X 'Y
ca ma
If a point is placed above the T we have
T v or que-ma.
If a point is placed below each character =
the word is co-mo.?
Final consonants are suppressed in all forms of
expression: accordingly cantar is written
barba, c tat
jba ba
By means of these characters they easily make
themselves understood and convey their ideas marvelously, he who reads supplying, with much skill and
facility, the consonants which are lacking. From us
they have adopted the habit of writing from left to
right. Formerly they wrote from the top to the bottom, placing the first line on the left (if I remember
aright), and continuing the rest at the right, contrary
to the custom of the Chinese and Japanese- who, although they write from top to bottom, begin from the
right and continue the page to the left.
They used to write on reeds and palm-leaves, using
as a pen an iron point; now they write their own letters, as well as ours, with a sharpened quill, and, as
we do, on paper. They have learned our language
and its pronunciation, and write it even better than
we do, for they are so clever that they learn anything
with the greatest ease. I have had letters written by
themselves in very handsome and fluent style. In
Tigbauan I had in my school a very young boy, who,
using as a model letters written to me in a very good