Legends of the city of Mexico / collected by Thomas A. Janvier ; illustrated by Walter Appleton Clark.
- Thomas Allibone Janvier
- Date:
- 1910
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Legends of the city of Mexico / collected by Thomas A. Janvier ; illustrated by Walter Appleton Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
205/228 page 153
![memory of the shoeing of the woman there. The house [the site is that of the present No. 5] has been repaired and the carving has been obliterated. In the street of the Puerta Falsa de Santo Domingo, along the middle of which anciently ran a ditch, facing the Puerta Falsa, was an old tumble-down house [the site is that of the present No. 7] wherein lived, as I was told by an antiquarian friend, the priest and the woman. This is probable: because Father Vidal tells that the house was near the parish church of Santa Catarina; and for that reason Dr. Ortiz, the cura of that church, would be likely to make notes of an occurrence in his own parish.” NOTE VI LEGEND OF THE ACCURSED BELL This legend affords an interesting example of folk- growth. As told by Senor Obregon, the story simply is of a church bell “in a little town in Spain” that, being possessed by a devil, rang in an unseemly fashion without human aid; and for that sin was condemned to have its tongue torn out and to be banished to Mexico. As told by Senor Arellano, the story begins with armor that was devil-possessed because worn by the devil-possessed Gil de Marcadante. This armor is recast into a cross wherein the devils are held prisoners and harmless; the cross is recast into a bell of which the loosed devils have possession—and from that point the story goes on as before. As told in verse by Senor Juan de Dios Peza, the armor is devil-forged to start with; and is charged still more strongly with [ 153 1](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31349043_0207.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
