A NYONE who reads Ricardo Palma's Tradiciones peruanas is struck immediately by the frequent satiric outbursts against the clergy, the legal profession, and certain political figures. More harshly treated than the other groups are the lawyers and their complement of notaries, judges, bailiffs, and other appendages of the courts. Often the satire against this group appears to be inspired by the same personal vein of criticism present in the treatment of the clergy and political figures. It may be interesting to discover the actual extent of this satire in the tradiciones, to determine its essential characteristics, and explain its provenance. In four hundred selections contained in the six volumes of Tradiciones peruanas there are two hundred references to the legal profession. The majority of those which are of especial interest in the study of this satire appear in forty-one tradiciones. In addition to these shorter allusions, there are six sketches which deal in their entirety with this subject. These are: Don Dimas de la Tijereta, El que pag6 el pato, Una sentencia primorosa, Los amantes de real orden, Los tres motivos del oidor, and Entre si juro o no juro. These are not grouped in the writings of one period in Palma's career. Rather they are found from his earliest works through to his Apindice a mis iltimas tradiciones. Besides general invectives, Palma terms the lawyer and his associates variously as abogado, escribano, leguleyo, cartulario, plumario, notario, procurador, pdjaro de pluma, tinterillo, amanuense, covachuelista, abogadillo, cuervo de Temis, depositario de la fe pu~blica, and interprete de la f J p$blica. At times he is ironic, as when he refers to the depositario de la fl publica in a mocking tone, or to the impossibility of the "escribano huyendo del gatuperio."' More often however, he makes direct accusations against the character of legal men: Pero un hombre propone, un juez dispone y un escribano descompone, y gracias si no toma tambien carta en este tresillo un abogado.2