Note 25 — Chapter XVI

A reference to the common little house or chirping lizard, which is often seen and heard on the walls of the houses. See Census of Philippines, i, p. 74.

Arthur Stanley Riggs says in a note in a forthcoming volume, The Filipino Drama: “The common or house lizard in the Philippines has a pretty, chirping note. When one hears a lizard ‘sing,’ as the Spaniards call the cry, it means, among the Ilocanos, an important visit of some kind. If hunting at the time one hears several lizards sing, he must turn back immediately, as disaster will inevitably follow further progress. Other curious and interesting superstitions obtain in like manner in other parts of the islands.”