Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/217

Rh this without uttering a word. "One little moment!" Everybody uses it.



No. 2. El no quere gastar dinero''" ("He owes money but is very stingy, and from not using it to get the money, out of his pocket, his arm has grown too stiff to reach into his pocket for the money, consequently he is unable to pay his debts").



No. 3. "Muy buen violinista" literally means one who plays well on the violin, but in this instance he plays, instead, on the credulity and



verdancy of his friends. He plays off on them by inviting himself to dine with them, having little or nothing to eat at home, thus supporting himself on their involuntary hospitality.

No. 4. "Tiene bastante dinero" ("He or she has plenty of money").



No. 5. "Muy criticolo" ("It is quite doubtful in my mind"). I have seen three persons in conversation, one being engaged in relating some circumstance or event, the other two paying marked attention. When at length the narrator made a digression from facts, or added a few embellishing touches, one of the listeners, without speaking a word, but throwing a world of expression into her eyes, tossed her head to one side, and at the same time planting the forefinger of the right hand on the temple, the little boring process is gone through, and the unspoken language