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Knowing the limitations of the native syllabry as a literary medium, the student cannot accept without qualification the usual explanation that the friars destroyed the relics of paganism among their converts, or that the literature was recorded on highly perishable materials which disintegrated before scholars could get a hold of them
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Bienvenido L. Lumbera (Tagalog Poetry, 1570-1898: Tradition and Influences in its Development)