After leaving the inn, the two traveled toward the Ebro for two days with nothing worth recording. On the third day, as he climbed a hill, Don Quixote heard drums, trumpets and arquebuses. From the top he saw more than two hundred men gathered below, carrying all sorts of weapons.
Coming closer, he noticed one white silk banner among the flags. On it a small donkey is painted to the life. It has its head raised, mouth open and tongue out, just bursting into a bray. Around it two lines were written in large letters. Not for nothing did they bray, this mayor and that.
Don Quixote realized these were the people of the braying village. And he told Sancho that the man at the inn had called the brayers aldermen, but by the banner they were mayors. Sancho said the men who were aldermen then might have become mayors later. Besides, as long as they brayed, whether they were mayors or aldermen made no difference to the truth of the story.