uld not allow the plant to
be removed under ordinary conditions; if a price were accepted it would be
very high, but more probably no sum would tempt them. Therefore did I
conclude at sight that Sobralia Kienastiana had its legend. And I traced
without difficulty the outline which I have filled up.

M. Kienast-Zolly dwelt many years at Orizaba in Mexico, where he collected
orchids with enthusiasm for his own delight. An Indian servant gave
zealous help, partly, doubtless, for love of the flowers, but partly also
for love of the master whose 'bread he had eaten' from childhood--and
still eats, I believe. This man, Pablo, ceaselessly inquired for rarities
among his own people, made journeys, bargained, bought, and by times, they
say--but stole is not the proper word to use when an object has no owner
nor intrinsic value. Pablo had a younger brother, a priest, in the
neighbourhood of Tehuacan. They had not met since his ordination, until,
once on a time, M. Kienast-Zolly visited those parts, and Pablo took the
opportunity to spend a day and night at the Indian village, Nidiri, where
his brother was priest. This ecclesiastic was an earnest man. He found no
satisfaction in compounding the heathen practices of his flock for money,
as do his fellows. His legitimate dues sufficed him--I daresay they
reached ten pounds a year. He found a melancholy diversion in writing
plaintive memorials to the Bishop. Week by week the good man raised his
moan. He could not see very deep. It did not occur to him that the
Christian faith itself, as the Indians understand it, is but a form of
heathendom. The doings of which he complained were acts of positive
worship towards the old idols. He demanded an investigation, special
magistrates; in brief, the re-establishment of the Inquisition. The Bishop
had long ceased to acknowledge these dolorous reports; doubtless they
contained nothing new to him.

Out of the fulness of his heart a man speaketh, and after discussing
family affairs, the Cura broached his spiritual sorrows. Pablo had not
been trained at a seminary, and religious questions did not interest him.
As a townsman, also, he had picked up some liberal ideas, and when the
brother talked of converting his flock from their evil ways by force, he
observed that opinions are free in Mexico nowadays. Then the Cura grew
warm. Opinions? Rising hurriedly, he produced horrid little figures of
clay or wood, actual idols, found and confiscated, not wi