The Market of Ancestors
They hereupon entered a fairly wide street, littered with coffins, amongst which walked several sextons, while a number of grave-diggers were breaking into various graves. Don Cleofas said to his companion—
“What street is this, it is the oddest I have ever seen?”
“This is more worldly and of the times than any other,” replied the Limping Devil, “and the most useful. It is the old-clothes market of ancestors, where anybody in want of forefathers, his own not suiting him, or being somewhat shabby, comes to pick out the one he likes best for his money. Just look at that poor, deformed gentleman trying on a grandmother he badly wants, and the other, who has already chosen a father, putting on a grandfather as well, who’s much too big for him. That fellow lower down is exchanging his grandfather for another, offering a sum of money into the bargain, but can’t come to terms because the sexton, who is the dealer, would be a loser by it. The man over there has just turned his great-grandfather inside out and is patching him up with somebody else’s great-grandmother. Her another with a policeman to look for an ancestor of whom he has been robbed, and who is hanging up in the market. If you want an ancestor or two on credit, no your chance; one of the dealers is a friend of mine.”
“I could do with some money, but I’m not in want of ancestors,” replied the student. So they continued their adventures.
“The Limping Devil.” Velez de Guevara (1644).