Pedro de Ordimales

p. 113

Pedro de Ordimales

PEDRO DE ORDIMALES and Jesucristo were walking along a road. Pedro, who was following behind, picked some figs and put them in his bag, not mentioning the action to Cristo. When he was hungry, he reached into the bag and pulled out a fig and ate it. Jesucristo, without turning around, said, "What are you eating, Pedro?"

"Oh, just some burro excrement, sir."

A little later Pedro de Ordimales was hungry again and reached into his bag for another fig. He pulled out a piece of burro dung.

Cycles of stories about Pedro de Ordimales (or Urdimales) have spread from Europe to the Spanish American population of this continent and are common today. For a discussion of their distribution see: Espinosa 1914b: 220-221; Mason and Espinosa 1914: 166-171, 206-207.