Mindoro, Marinduque, and Panai, I had not observed the practice of
such a custom. I had, however, been once told by a Spaniard that in
a certain part of Mindanao, toward Dapitan, it was the custom for
the Bissayan women (the inhabitants of Mindanao also are Bissayans)
to marry two husbands; the practice of having several wives I had
understood to belong only to the Mahometans who dwell in Mindanao
and Burnei. It is certainly, however, not a general custom in the
Filipinas to marry more than one wife; and even in the districts where
this is done the practice is by no means general. The most common
and general usage is to marry one woman. The Bissayans always try to
procure a wife from their own class, and closely connected with them in
relationship. The Tagalos do not insist so much on this latter point:
they are satisfied if the wife be not of inferior rank. As I have
already stated, in neither race is any other impediment considered than
the first degree of kindred. Uncle and niece marry as readily as do
first cousins; but brother and sister, grandfather and granddaughter,
or father and daughter, can in no case marry. There is a marked
distinction between concubinage and wedlock; because the latter,
besides consent, has its own ceremonies, as we shall later see. For
marriage, moreover, they have distinct formalities of betrothal,
which are accompanied by conventional penalties, most rigorously
executed. Here is an example: Si Apai promises to marry Cai Polosin;
these married persons make an agreement with another married pair,
while the wives are with child, that if the wombs of their respective
wives should bear a male and a female those two children shall be
joined in marriage, under a penalty of ten gold taes. This compact is
solemnized by a feast, where they eat, drink, and become intoxicated;
and he who later is the occasion of breaking the compact must pay the
penalty. This is betrothal. In the marriage there figures a dowry,
and the surrender of the woman, with consent for the present, but