Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/495

Rh suddenly culminated in the ridiculous, when in the midst of so much glitter, pomp and circumstance—waving of plume, helmet and sword—not less than fifty burros, meek and unconcerned, entered in the midst of these gallant defenders of their country, and, as if by right of pre-emption, plodded in serpentine lines the whole length of the procession. Some bore mountain loads of golden wheat straw, others charcoal, and pulque in sheepskins, with other articles too numerous to mention. The soldiers kept up their steady tramp, tramp, tramp; they moved not a muscle, spoke not a word, as the bands played their most exhilarating airs. Now a man, bearing a trunk or wardrobe; an Indian woman, selling fruits, with her children on her back; men with baskets, chairs, shoes, tanned leather, and others selling dulces, joined the procession. At length the acme of a typical Mexican scene was reached when the burros unceremoniously raised their nozzles and brayed loud and long. As far as I could see up the street, the military and their self-constituted escort formed an indistinguishable mass.

I had scarcely recovered my equilibrium from the effects of the procession, when a carriage and horses came flying down the street in wild confusion. The Jehu sat bolt upright, with feet outspread from side to side, as if "down breaks" was in order. His eyes glared wildly from their sockets, as, with clinched teeth, he held desperately to the lines. The animals were evidently uncongenial to each other, one being a young mule, the other an unbroken pony. They reared and plunged violently, while Jehu used every expletive known to the Mexican language. But as this treatment proved unavailing, he jumped down from his lofty seat, and ran beside them, jerking the lines and screaming at them. Still they heeded him not. At this critical moment a sympathetic bystander conceived a fresh and vigorous idea of assistance, and as he ran along, jerked from the shoulders of an uninterested pedestrian (who had not even seen the runaway team) his red blanket, and waving it before the frightened animals, threw them trembling and panting on their haunches. In a twinkling Jehu was on the box, and, laying on the whip, was soon out of sight.