When a brother is taken sick, he is removed to the
morada and cared for by a member appointed by the
Herviano Mayor, no one else being permitted to see
him. If he dies, the Brothers wrap him naked in a
blanket and secretly bury him at i a.m., feet down in
a deep hole in some secluded spot. His clothes are
then left at his home — the first and final token his
family has of his decease, and perhaps even of his
sickness. No married man, by the way, is allowed
to join the, order without the consent of his wife.
Sins against the property, families, or lives of per-
sons outside the order, are taken no cognizance of
whatever, but if a Penitente injure a brother in any
of these points, his punishment is severe. The laws
of the land are not acknowledged, but the Hermano
Mayor sentences the offender according to the grav-
ity of his crime, to be scourged with the terrific wire
whip, to be buried to the neck all night in a gigantic
olla (water-jar) or to be interred completely, alive



Io8 THE PENITENT BROTHERS

and forever. I was informed on good Friday that
Philomeno had been buried up to his neck all the
night before for beating his wife. For betraying the
secrets of the order, the standard punishment is to be
buried alive. The law does not trouble the execu-
tors of these extra-judicial sentences. The Brothers
merely give out that the victim has left the country ;
and they have taken good care that it shall be im-
possible to prove the contrary.
