Note 1 — II. Authorities on Philippine Dialects.

In his latest bibliography,1 where the number of published works in each of the twenty-seven dialects of the Philippines is set down by Retana, you will observe from a study of his lists, that though in many dialects there are no grammars so entitled, or other scientific aids to learning a given idiom, yet there are many works of religious cast printed therein,—hand-books of practical religion, which you will find useful beyond measure to linguists. Since from these prayer-books, wherein are set down plainly the simplest and commonest rules of Christian ethical conduct, you can easily gather a working knowledge of the language itself, as the missionary who composed them was careful to put matters of every-day interest in the plain, every-day speech of the islanders. Before closing this brief digression on manuals of piety, I must observe what will prove very useful, I judge, to the scholar, that with works of the first class, as grammars and dictionaries, is to be associated on shelf and desk a goodly number of works of another class—books and treatises that bear the name Arte = Aids to Learning, whereof you will encounter very many in Retana.