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Upon rather strong representation to the jefe, a desperate effort was made by the policemen and the women were secured. Among the village police-force, one man had attracted our particular attention, as representing a type of face, quite common among the Mayas, which we have called the serpent-face.
It was after two o'clock before we reached the green field, and, just below it, Tenango del Doria, and made our way to the jefatura. When the jefe came, we found, to our surprise, that he was the Don Pablo Leyra of whom Xochihua had told us two years before. He is a pure indian, tall, smooth-faced, of gentlemanly manner, and with all the reserve characteristic of his race.
I replied that I had no time to spare; that we had already lost two hours at the palace, waiting for the jefe to appear, and that I did not propose to lose more time; that he knew what I expected, and must either do it, or I would return to my hotel. He helplessly remarked that we had better see the jefe, whereupon I picked up my instruments and departed to the hotel.
When I had waited a while in the anteroom, the jefe politico, the supreme commander of the city appointed by the governor of the State, appeared, the entire roomful of officials and visitors dropping their cigarettes and rising to greet him with bared heads. He gave me permission to enter, and the presidente, a podgy second jailor, took me in charge as the iron door opened to let me in.
Goitres were common, and some, among the men, were really enormous. On their appearance we found that all but the jefe himself, were drunk, the secretario in particular being almost useless. When we handed him the letter from the prefecto he was quite unable to make aught of its grandiloquence.
The jefe politico, as the government authority of the region, set about searching them, and as his position depended on the good-will of the powerful mining company, it was no perfunctory "frisking."
"Ah, if that were all!" he said; "but even in peonage we are not left undisturbed! It was only a year ago that I was riding into town on my donkey with some chickens to sell, when an officer stopped me and brought me before the Jefe Politico. "'Why have you not obeyed the law? said the magistrate. 'I know of no law that I have not obeyed, I said.
"Suit everybody." We came to the Mayor's office, and found Sadler, sitting alone by the window and looking moodily down on the Plaza, where the chain gang from the City Jail was pretending to mend the pavement, but mostly loafing and quarrelling. "Got him!" said Dorcas joyfully. "Thumped up the Jefe. First he cussed, then he calmed. That's his way. Be up pretty soon. Hold on! Wait for the Jefe."
We never heard his answer, but in less than ten minutes, the presidente, covered with perspiration, was waiting for our orders and every policeman or the force was ready for our bidding. The message he received from the jefe must have been vigorous, for not only was everything done for our comfort, but work was rushed.
He has lived at Huehuetla since boyhood, forty-four years, till just now, and has but recently come to take the position of jefe politico. He has not yet moved his family from Huehuetla, and occupies a single room in his office-building. He secured us a pleasant room, with good beds for the older, and good mattresses for the younger, members of our party, in a house near-by upon the hill.
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