6/39 As we sat listening to the music the _presidente_ of the town appeared. His Spanish, at no time adequate, was now at its worst, as he was sadly intoxicated. We tried to carry on a conversation with him, but soon seeing that naught but disaster could be expected, if we continued, we discreetly withdrew to our room. When drunk, he is violent and abusive, and it was plain that the women at the _curato_ were afraid of him. More than one hundred and fifty years ago Padre Quintana, who was the mission priest at Juquila, translated the _Doctrina_ into Mixe and wrote a _Gramatica_ of the language, both of which were then printed. |