Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/308

280 individuals of the present race of priests in Mexico, as I have elsewhere observed, are descended from the lowest grades of the populace, and have relatives and connections among them: for the original Spanish ecclesiastics are no longer to be found. This Bacho, as it happened, was the brother of a priest; and although the avocations of the two men were so different—the priest being occupied in caring for the welfare of the Church, in which was included his own, and the cumanche in herding with a troop of wretches as vile as himself, for the worst purposes—there was yet a great resemblance between the brothers. They had the same avaricious spirit, mean cunning, and revengeful passions; and each, most probably, would have acted in a precisely similar way had he been in the situation of the other.

Bacho was a most repulsive wretch in appearance; low in stature, like most Mexicans, he cowered and stooped in his gait continually, like a wild beast creeping to his lair. His eyes were quick, yet downcast; his face broad, yet sunken, protruding and retreating like that of a dog; his limbs were gaunt and sharp, the bones appearing ready to pierce the skin; and his hide was so shrivelled and darkened that