l Iman,
under whom that blow was struck. The immediate consequence was the
expulsion of the Mexican garrison; but there was another, more remote
and of more enduring importance. Therein for the first time, the
Indians were brought out in arms. Utterly ignorant of the political
relations between Mexico and Yucatan, they came in from their ranchos
and milpas under a promise by General Iman that their capitation tax
should be remitted. After the success of the first outbreak the
government endeavoured to avoid the fulfilment of this promise, but was
compelled to compromise by remitting the tax upon women, and the
Indians still look forward to emancipation from the whole. What the
consequences may be of finding themselves, after ages of servitude,
once more in the possession of arms, and in increasing knowledge of
their physical strength, is a question of momentous import to the
people of that country, the solution of which no man can foretell.

And Valladolid had been the theatre of stranger scenes in ancient
times. According to historical accounts, it was once haunted by a
demonio of the worst kind, called a demonio parlero, a loquacious or
talking devil, who held discourse with all that wished at night,
speaking like a parrot, answering all questions put to him, touching a
guitar, playing the castanets, dancing and laughing, but without
suffering himself to be seen.

Afterward he took to throwing stones in garrets, and eggs at the women
and girls, and, says the pious doctor Don Sanchez de Aguilar, "an aunt
of mine, vexed with him, once said to him, 'Go away from this house,
devil,' and gave him a blow in the face which left the nose redder than
cochineal." He became so troublesome that the cura went to one of the
houses which he frequented to exorcise him, but in the mean time El
Demonio went to the cura's house and played him a trick, after which he
went to the house where the cura was waiting, and when the latter went
away, told the trick he had been playing. After this he began
slandering people, and got the whole town at swords' points to such an
extent that it reached the ears of the bishop at Merida, who forbade
speaking to him under pain of heavy spiritual punishments, in
consequence of which the vecinos abstained from any communication with
him; at first the demonic fell to weeping and complaining, then made
more noise than ever, and finally took to burning houses. The vecinos
sought Divine assistance, and the