The samarra was worn by the relajados, or those handed over to the secular arm to be garroted or burned alive. It bore, painted upon it, dragons, devils, and flames, amid which the criminal was represented as burning.
The garment known as fuego revolto was that of those who had abjured, and for this reason the flames were painted upside down, as if to signify that the wearers had escaped from death in the fiery embrace.
Finally, the san-benito, which ordinary prisoners wore, was a flesh-colored sack bearing a Saint Andrew’s cross.
The kind of mitre which the condemned wore upon the head was called coroza, and was a cap of paper, more than a vara high, ending in a point like a fool’s-cap, with flames, snakes or demons painted on it, according to the category of the criminal.
The condemned carried also rosaries, and yellow or green candles; those of the “reconciled” were lighted, those of the impenitent extinguished; when they were “blasphemers” they were gagged.
In time these insulting insignia were looked upon with indifference as any other dress, and gave occasion, in Mexico, to a curious story. It chanced that once a “reconciled” was walking through the streets wearing his san-benito; some Indians seeing him noticed that the dress was new and one thought it was the Spanish devotional dress for Lent; returning to his house he made some excellent san-benitos, well painted; he brought them to the city and offered them for sale to Spaniards, saying, in the Indian language, Sic cohuas nequi a san-benito? which means, Do you wish to buy a san-benito? The thing so amused everyone that the story even went to Spain, and in Mexico there is still a saying, “ti que quis benito.”
The common people ended by losing all fear of such scarecrows, and defied the Inquisition in this way:
Un Santo Cristo
dos Candeleros
Y tres majaderos.[16]
A merited jest for that which knew not how to respect worthy and valiant heroes, such as Hidalgo and Morelos.