The Aztec Treasure-House | Page 9

the contract seemed never to cross Pablo's mind;
and so presently our terms were concluded, and I found myself
occupying the responsible relation of master to a mouth-organ playing
boy and an extraordinarily wise ass. It was arranged that both of these
dependants of mine should accompany me in my expedition to the
Indian villages; and to clinch our bargain I gave Pablo the seven reales
wherewith to buy his rain-coat on the spot.
I was a little surprised, two days later, when we started from Morelia on
our journey into the mountains to the westward, to find that Pablo had
not bought his much-desired garment; though, to be sure, as the rainy
season still was a long way off, there was no need for it. He hesitated a
little when I questioned him about it, and then, in a very apologetic
tone, said: "Perhaps the señor will forgive me for doing so ill with his

money. But indeed I could not help it. There is an old man, his name is
Juan, señor, who has been very good to me many times. He has given
me things to put into this wretchedly big belly of mine; and when I
broke one of my jars he lent me the money to buy another with, and
would take from me again only what the jar cost and no more. Just now
this old many is sick--it is rheumatism, señor--and he has no money at
all, and he and his wife have not much to eat, and I know what pain that
is. And so--and so--Will the señor forgive me? I do not need the
rain-coat now, the señor understands. And so I gave Juan the seven
reales, which he will pay me when he gets well and works again; and
should he die and not pay me--Does the señor know what I have been
thinking? It is that rain-coats really are not very needful things, after all.
Without them one gets wet, it is true; but then one soon gets dry again.
But truly"--and there was a sudden catching in Pablo's throat that was
very like a sob--"truly I did want one."
When Pablo had told this little story I did not wonder at the esteem in
which Fray Antonio held him, and from that time onward he had a very
warm place in my heart. And I may say that but for his too great
devotion to his mouth-organ--for that boy never could hear a new tune
but that he needs must go at once to practising it upon his beloved
"instrumentito" until he had mastered it--he was the best servant that
man ever had. And within his gentle nature was a core of very gallant
fearlessness. In the times of danger which we shared together later,
excepting only Rayburn, not one of us stood face to face and foot to
foot with death with a steadier or a calmer bravery; for in all his
composition there did not seem to be one single fibre that could be
made to thrill in unison with fear. Of his qualities as a servant I had a
good trial during the two months that we were together in the
mountains--in which time I got enough working knowledge of the
Indian dialects to make effective the knowledge that I had gained from
books--and I was amazed by the quickness that he manifested in
apprehending and in supplying my wants and in understanding my
ways.
As to making any serious study of Indian customs--save only those of
the most open and well-known sort--in this short time, I soon perceived

that the case was quite hopeless. Coming from Fray Antonio, whose
benevolent ministrations among them had won their friendship, the
Indians treated me with a great respect and showed me every kindness.
But I presently began to suspect, and this later grew to be conviction,
that because my credentials came from a Christian priest I was thrust
away all the more resolutely from knowledge of their inner life. What I
then began to learn, and what I learned more fully later, convinced me
that these Indians curiously veneered with Christian practices their
native heathen faith; manifesting a certain superstitious reverence for
the Christian rites and ceremonies, yet giving sincere worship only to
their heathen gods. It was something to have arrived at this odd
discovery, but it tended only to show me how difficult was the task that
I had set myself of prying into the secrets of the Indians' inner life.
Indeed, but for an accident, I should have returned to Morelia no wiser,
practically, than when I left it; but by that turn of chance fortune most
wonderfully favored me, and with far-reaching consequences. It was on
the last afternoon of my stay in the village