This explains why the first pishtaco figures in the legend were priests and soldiers. As the power structure changed, so did the pishtaco figure. In later versions of the story he rode a horse and wore leather chaps like a rancher, ...

I have yet to learn my lines.

Say, was he oiled when the accident happened? No, he was on the wagon again. …

And when I ſawe him, I fell at his feete as dead : and hee laid his right hand vpon me, ſaying vnto mee, Feare not, *I am the firſt,and the laſt.