have ceased to dig it, preferring to live in poverty than to endure
such troubles."--_Rizal_.

[134] This entire paragraph is omitted in the Rizal edition. In the
original it is as follows:

_La Lengua de todos, los Pintados y Bicayas, es vna mesma, por do se
entienden, hablando y escriuiendo, en letras y caratores que tienen
particulares, que semejan á los Arabigos, y su comun escribir entre
los naturales, es en hojas de arboles, y en cañas, sobre la corteza;
que en todas las islas ay muchas, de disforme grueso los cañutos,
y el pie es vn arbol muy grueso y maciço_.

[135] This difference is no greater than that between the Spanish,
Portuguese, and Italian.--_Rizal_.

[136] See Chirino (_Relacion de las islas Filipinas_) _Vol_. XII,
chapters xv-xvii. His remarks, those of Morga, and those of other
historians argue a considerable amount of culture among the Filipino
peoples prior to the Spanish conquest. A variety of opinions have been
expressed as to the direction of the writing. Chirino, San Antonio,
Zúñiga, and Le Gentil, say that it was vertical, beginning at the
top. Colin, Ezguerra, and Marche assert that it was vertical but in
the opposite direction. Colin says that the horizontal form was adopted
after the arrival of the Spaniards. Mas declares that it was horizontal
and from left to right, basing his arguments upon certain documents
in the Augustinian archives in Manila. The eminent Filipino scholar,
Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera has treated the subject in a work entitled
"_Contribucion para el estudio de los antiguos alfabetos filipinos_"
(Losana, 1884). See Rizal's notes on p. 291 of his edition of Morga.