136 CONDUCT OF CLERGY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. 



pastimes, which consist wholly of bull baiting, cock fighting and 

 gambling, they are not disgraced by either riotousness or drunken- 

 ness. * * * The priests give countenance to these recrea- 

 tions, if they may be so called, both by their presence and partici- 

 pation. 1 * * * The men, women, and children, as soon as they 

 had concluded their ceremonies, started, in a body, with revolt- 

 ing precipitation, to the gaming tables, which had been set forth 

 in the ruins of an old convent adjoining the sanctuary where the 

 procession had just been dissolved. Here we found all classes of 

 society, male and female. The highest ecclesiastical and civil dig- 

 nitaries were there, hob and nob with the most common of the 

 multitude." 2 * * * Such is the testimony of Mr. Norman as 

 to some of the disgraceful habits of the clergy in Yucatan. Mr. 

 Stephens in his travels in the same Mexican state, remarks that 

 " except at Merda and Campeche, where they are more immedi- 

 ately under the eyes of the bishop, the padres, throughout 

 Yucatan, to relieve the tedium of convent life, have compagneras, 

 or, as they are sometimes called, hermanas politicas, or, sisters 

 in law. * 



" Some look on this arrangement as a little irregular, but, in 

 general, it is regarded only as an amiable weakness, and I am safe 

 in saying that it is considered a recommendation to a village padre, 

 as it is supposed to give him settled habits, as marriage does with 

 laymen ; and, to give my own honest opinion, which I did not in- 

 tend to do, it is less injurious to good morals than the by no means 

 uncommon consequences of celibacy which are found in some other 

 Catholic countries. The padre in Yucatan stands in the position 

 of a married man, and performs all the duties pertaining to the 

 head of a family. Persons of what is considered a respectable 

 standing in a village, do not shun left hand marriages with a padre. 

 Still it was to us always a matter of regret to meet with individuals 

 of worth, and whom we could not help esteeming, standing in what 

 could not but be considered a false position. To return to the 

 case with which I set out ; — the padre in question was universally 

 spoken of as a man of good conduct, a sort of pattern padre for 

 correct, steady habits ; sedate, grave and middle aged, and appa- 

 rently the last man to have an eye for such a pretty compagnera. m 



As the United States is now interested in the history of Califor- 

 nia, it may not be uninteresting or unprofitable, in illustrating this 



1 Norman's Rambles in Yucatan, p. 32. 2 ib. p. 91. 



3 Stephens' Travels in Yucatan, vol. 2, page 115. 



