west officials have only a
thin stick, about a foot and a half long, through the hole of which
a red ribbon is passed. The small canes are not carried in the hand,
but stuck in the girdle on the left side. Nobody summoned before the
judges by a messenger carrying a staff of red Brazil wood dares to
disobey the command. The most desperate criminal meekly goes to his
doom, following often a mere boy, if the latter has only a toy vara
stuck in his belt with the red ribbons hanging down. It is the vara
the Indians respect, not the man who carries it.

No supreme court in any civilised community is so highly respected
and so implicitly obeyed as were the simple, grave men sitting in
front of the crumbling adobe wall and holding on to their canes with a
solemnity that would have been ridiculous, if it had not been sublime.

Four "soldiers" formed a line on each side. There was nothing to
distinguish them from ordinary civilians, except their "lances,"
or bamboo sticks to which bayonet points had been fastened. These
lances they planted in the ground and seated themselves. Presently
the two culprits, a man and a woman, came forward, with never a
suggestion in their placid faces that they were the chief actors in
the drama about to be enacted. They seated themselves in front of
the judges, while the witnesses took their places behind them. The
mother of the woman sat close by her guilty daughter, but there was
no other exhibition of sentiment. The judges did most of the talking,
addressing questions to the defendants, who made a few short answers;
the rest of the assemblage observed a decorous silence. There were
neither clerks nor lawyers.

I was, of course, not able to follow the testimony, but it was very
short, and it was explained to me that the woman had run away with a
married man. They had provided themselves with plenty of corn from the
man's former home, and furthermore had stolen some beans, and lived
very happy in a cave for a year. The man could not be captured, even
though on several occasions he visited his family. But they frequently
made native beer, and got drunk, and while in this condition they
were caught and brought before this tribunal.

While the trial was going on, one of the "soldiers" got up and went
some twenty yards off, dug a hole in the ground and planted a thick
pole or post in it. No sooner had he completed his task, when the
accused man rose with a queer smile on his face, half chagrined,