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friendly, agreeable manners. They rendered the ballads of their poets in 

 sweet songs and expressive pantomimic dances, thereby giving general 

 pleasure. The management of the household was in their hands exclu- 

 sively. Without any law against polygamy every man contented himself 

 with a single wife, who not unfrequently revenged infidelity committed by 

 the husband. A neglected or ill-treated wife had the right to return home 

 to her family, and to take with her the entire household furniture. Even 

 when his better half proved false, the husband, although permitted to 

 wreak his vengeance upon or even slay the seducer, was obliged to treat 

 the erring fair one with forbearance. In case a man divorced his wife she 

 remained in possession of the property and children. The Malay feudal 

 system prevailed among the natives of the Marian Islands. The chamorris 

 or high nobility, the middle class, and the common people constituted the 

 population. These classes did not intermingle by marriage ; a higher 

 caste never even eat with a lower. Their religion was very simple, yet so 

 far developed as to employ priests. A highest being elevated over all 

 things and creator of the universe, with many intermediate spirits standing 

 between him and mankind, was acknowledged and revered. It is probable 

 also that they worshipped the stars, as they everywhere individualized 

 nature, and held that the mountains and valleys, rivers and trees, were 

 peopled by spirits. The fundamental idea of a good and bad being was 

 also found amongst them. The priests were at the same time the sages, 

 physicians, and bards of the nation. Their funerals were very solemn fes- 

 tivals, the dead were buried in the ground, and their tombs ingeniously 

 ornamented. The widely extended custom of having the deceased deplored 

 by mourning females was also found here. To Father Gobien we owe the 

 preservation of some of these lamentations. One of them runs thus : '* My 

 life is without value, my future a lingering death ; grief envelops my eyes, 

 weariness clouds my being. My star is extinct, the light of my moon, the 

 sun of my enjoyment, darkened for ever ; deep night, the whirlpool of 

 misery, the ocean of despair flows around me." As a refrain, another 

 mourning woman replies ; " I too have lost all things ; the comfort of my 

 days is no more. Stop, my heart, for thou beatest no more in his presence ! 

 Behold, the image of our hero, the honor of our house is torpid ! His arm 

 no longer defends our people. As he is no more, what shall we do here ? 

 Of what value is life to us without him ?" These lamentations uttered in a 

 singing tone, with strong modulation, were closed with long drawn out 

 bowlings. A truly sorrowful impression is made by the lamentations of 

 this nation foreseeing their destruction at the end of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury. " These strangers promised to make us happy ; alas ! they have 

 robbed us of liberty. They have confined us in clothes that paralyse the 

 use of our arms ; they have brought us diseases and detestable vermin and 

 noxious animals. Unknown troubles have they poured out over us, the 

 hungry guests. We led an innocent life, full of work and pleasure ; were 

 healthy and happy But they brought new necessities and new troubles ; 

 we no longer freely and happily enjoy life ; our loss is irreparable." Their 

 complaints, however, were too late, too late the war against the oppressors ; 



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