Note 189 — Chapter VII

“All religious agree that they die with the utmost indifference, and that when they come to the bedside of the dying one, in order to comfort him, they remain cold upon seeing how little those people are changed by the words that their approaching peril inspires in them. Confessions at such a time are generally somewhat more sincere, but always very short and stupid. The relatives are not at all careful about talking of his death in the presence of the sick person—as, for example, one of them remarking to the cura in a very natural and quiet voice in his uncle’s presence (who still fully retained his feeling and hearing): ‘See, Father, it would be wise for you to consecrate the winding-sheet, for I think that he is about to die soon.’ The same indifference is to be observed in a criminal condemned to any punishment. He is seated on his heels on a bamboo bench, smoking. Every few moments the religious enters to give him a Christian word, to which the criminal generally answers: ‘Yes, Father, I know quite well that I have to die; what am I to do about it? I am an evil man; God so decrees; such was my fate;’ and other things of this sort. He eats regularly, and sleeps as on any other day.... [This] is only one additional proof, and in my opinion, a not slight one, that the Filipino race is inferior, at least in spiritual matters, to our race.” (Mas, pp. 128, 129.)