OTHER ASPECTS OF THE MEXICAN 139 



the mire of petty politics, it is presumed that 

 a use is always found for the dollars coined 

 out of the superstition or religious instinct 

 call it which you will of the poor Mexican 

 or Indian. But occasionally the Mexican 

 rebels, the wild blood in him asserting itself. 

 He cherishes certain superstitions of his own, 

 with which it is well for not even a holy padre 

 to interfere. For instance, there are saints' 

 days on which it is his pleasure, and has been 

 his pleasure for centuries, to dance, and to 

 dance much. The priest interferes ; his flock 

 maintains a passive obstinacy. One night 

 the padre receives a pressing call to a dying 

 bed ; but this is no dying bed to which he is 

 hurried through the deep sand of the desert, 

 or through groves of sighing cottonwood, 

 under a moonless sky. When he is escorted 

 home again through the darkness by that 

 band of silent men, it is a very sore padre 

 who climbs alone upon the porch of his com- 

 fortable home, and seeks consolation in a 

 goblet of the wine of the country, of which 

 he always maintains in his closet a sufficiency, 

 and of the best, too ; for the padre, as he is 

 known with us, is a good judge of wine. 



