"Here comes Uncle Cohete," said a man who sat by the window.
"Make him a sign to come in," said the person nearest him, in a low tone.
Uncle Cohete was a simple, good old man, who acted the merry-andrew for the purpose of obtaining alms for a religious house of which he was demandante.[178] He could mimic to perfection the songs of all birds; the near and distant barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat; and so excelled in imitating the peculiar hiss and crackling of a kite in the air, as to have obtained the nickname of cohete (kite), by which he was known. He had, besides, a stock of simple verses, ballads, riddles, and odd scraps of humor, which he would repeat with inimitable expression and drollery. The sources from which he drew his supplies could not be told. This, he had learned in a town on the Llanura; that, in a village of the Sierra; another at the fireside of the manse. But, in his mimicry of the birds, they themselves had been the teachers, aided by unusual flexibility of organs, and great patience and perseverance on the part of the disciple. For, in all branches—whether important or insignificant—perseverance yields great results.
It having been intimated to Uncle Cohete that the company wished him to tell something diverting, he began by saying The Commandments of the Rich Man and the Poor Man—a collection of ironical precepts, which enjoyed great popularity at that time—as follows:
"The commandments of the rich man, nowadays, are five, namely:
"The first. Thou shalt have no end of money.
"The second. Thou shalt despise all the rest of the world.
"The third. Thou shalt eat good beef and good mutton.
"The fourth. Thou shalt eat flesh on Good Friday.
"The fifth. Thou shalt drink both white wine and red.
"These commandments are included in two:
Let all be for me, and nothing for you."The commandments of the poor man are five, namely:
"The first. Thou shalt never have any money.
"The second. Thou shalt be despised by all the world.
"The third. Thou shalt eat neither beef nor mutton.
"The fourth. Thou shalt fast, even if it be not Good Friday.
"The fifth. Thou shalt taste neither the white wine nor the red.
"These commandments are included in two:
Scratch thyself, and bear everything for the love of God."
"Uncle, did not the son of Roba-Santos[179] who is heaping money, give you an alms?" asked one.
"No, he gave me nothing," answered Uncle Cohete.
"Like father, like son," said Uncle Bartolo.
"Next year, uncle, you will get a pile, for 'when the fields have, the saints have.'"
"Uncle Cohete, take these two coppers, and tell us The Commandments of the New Law," said the man who had called him in: