"What you say, my son, is true, as well as discreet," replied Monipodio;
"and it is, without doubt, highly prudent to conceal those
circumstances; for if things should turn out badly, there is no need to
have placed upon the books of register, and under the sign manual of the
justice-clerk, 'So and so, native of such a place, was hanged, or made
to dance at the whipping-post, on such a day,' with other announcements
of the like kind, which, to say the least of them, do not sound
agreeable in respectable ears. Thus, I repeat, that to conceal the name
and abode of your parents, and even to change your own proper
appellation, are prudent measures. Between ourselves there must,
nevertheless, be no concealment: for the present I will ask your names
only, but these you must give me."

Rincon then told his name, and so did Cortado: whereupon Monipodio said,
"Henceforward I request and desire that you, Rincon, call yourself
Rinconete, and you, Cortado, Cortadillo; these being names which accord,
as though made in a mould, with your age and circumstances, as well as
with our ordinances, which make it needful that we should also know the
names of the parents of our comrades, because it is our custom to have a
certain number of masses said every year for the souls of our dead, and
of the benefactors of our society; and we provide for the payment of the
priests who say them, by setting apart a share of our swag for that
purpose.

"These masses, thus said and paid for, are of great service to the souls
aforesaid. Among our benefactors we count the Alguazil, who gives us
warning; the Advocate, who defends us; the Executioner, who takes pity
upon us when we have to be whipped, and the man who, when we are running
along the street, and the people in full cry after us bawling 'Stop
thief,' throws himself between us and our pursuers, and checks the