im the letter from the _prefecto_ he was quite unable to make
aught of its grandiloquence. Having looked it through in a dazed way, he
declared that we were "gringos," "like the one who was here last year"
(presumably Lumholtz). With some severity, I told him he did wrong to
call visitors to the town by the opprobrious name of _gringos_, and
ordered him to read the letter and make known its contents to the
_jefe_. He made another effort and then helplessly said--"Who can make
anything of such a letter? It is in their _idioma_." Sternly pointing to
the signature I said--"The letter is from your _prefecto_ and written
in his _idioma_; you see the _firma_." Helplessly shaking his head, he
said, "Oh, yes, the _firma_ is that of Silvano Martinez, but the letter
is in your _idioma_." Seeing that he was of no earthly use, I took the
letter from him, and, turning to the crowd which had gathered, rebuked
them for their drunkenness, asserting that it was disgraceful for a
whole town government to be intoxicated at the same time; that some one
ought always to be sober enough to attend to business; that we had been
insulted by being called _gringos_, and that our order had not been read
to them because the _secretario_ was too drunk to do his business; that
there were two ways of dealing with such town governments, and that,
unless something was done promptly, we would see how they would like
to go back with us to Uruapan, whence we had come. The _jefe_, who was
really not drunk, thereupon begged to know what we desired, and the
drunken _secretario_ was somewhat frightened; the remainder of the
official body expressed a wish to do only what we wanted. I then read
the _prefecto's_ letter in my best manner and added that we had come to
Capacuaro only at the desire of the governor himself, to visit their
_mogote_, and that we ought to wait no longer for guidance. At once all
was commotion and bustle. Bidding the disgraced _secretario_ go to his
house and stay there, the _jefe de policia_ summoned the rest of his
company about him, seized his staff of office, buckled on his great
_machete_, and took the lead; three policemen, with their _machetes_,
followed; two others, unarmed, followed, and, with this escort, we
started to hunt our ruins on the mountain. They proved to be two heaps
of rubbish, from constructions of stone. Had we had time for serious
investigation they might have proved of interest; as it was, we spent
but a few minutes