THE SPANIARDS THEIR COUNTRY BY RICHARD FORD, AUTHOR OF THE HANDBOOK OF SPAIN. NEW EDIVION, COMIL^IE IU ONE \O.VJME. NEW YORK: GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY. 1852. HONOURABLE MRS. FORD, THESE pages, which she has been so good as to peruse and approye of, are dedicated, in the hopes that other fair readers may follow her example, By her very affectionate Husband and Servant, RICHARD FORD. 229457 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. fcMB A General View of Spain Isolation King of the Spains Castilian Precedence- Localism Want of Union Admiration of Spain M. Thiers in Spain . . 1 CHAPTER II. The Geography of Spain Zones Mountains The Pyrenees The Gabacho, and French Politics . ... 7 CHAPTER III. The Rivers of Spain Bridges Navigation The Ebro and Tagua . 23 CHAPTER IV. Divisions into Provinces Ancient Demarcations Modern Depart- ments Population Revenue Spanish Stocks ... 30 CHAPTER V. Travelling in Spain Steamers Roads, Roman, Monastic, and Royal Modern Railway English Speculations 40 CHAPTER VI. Post Office in Spain Travelling with Post Horses Riding post Mails and Diligences, Galeras, Coches de Dolleras, Drivers and Manner of Driving, and Oaths 63 CHAPTER VII. Spanish Horses Mules Asses Muleteers Maragatos ... 69 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE. Riding Tour in Spain Pleasures of it Pedestrian Tour Choice of Companions Rules for a Riding Tour Season of year Day's journey Management of Horse ; his Feet ; Shoes General Hints 80 CHAPTER IX. The Rider's costume Alforjas : their contents The Bota 5 and How to use it Pig Skins and Borracha Spanish Money Onzas and smaller coins 94 CHAPTER X. Spanish Servants: their Character Travelling Groom, Cook, and Valet . 105 CHAPTER XI. A Spanish Cook Philosophy of Spanish Cuisine Sauce Difficulty of Commissariat The Provend Spanish Hares and Rabbits The Olla Garbanzos Spanish Pigs Bacon and Hams Omelette Salad and Gazpacho . 119 CHAPTER XII. Drinks of Spain Water Irrigation Fountains Spanish Thirsti- ness The Alcarraza Water Carriers Ablutions Spanish Choc-" olate Agraz Beer Lemonade .... . 136 CHAPTER XIII. ,/ Spanish Wines Spanish Indifference Wine-making Vins du Pays Local Wines Benicarl6 Valdepenas . 146 CHAPTER XIV. Sherry Wines The Sherry District Origin of the Name Varieties of Soil Of Grapes Pajarete Rojas Clemente Cultivation of Vines Best Vineyards The Vintage Amontillado The Capataz The Bodega Sherry Wine Arrope and Madre Vino A lecture on Sherry in the Cellar at the Table Price of Fine Sherry Fal- sification of Sherry Manzanilla The Alpistera .... 151 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER XV. S ^ Spanish Inns: Why so Indifferent The Fonda Modern Improve- ments The Posada' Spanish Innkeepers The Venta : Arrival in it Arrangement- Garlic Dinners-Evening Nigh! Bill Iden- tity with the Inns of the Ancients 167 CHAPTER XVI. Spanish Robbers A Robber Adventure Guardias Civiles Exag- geratedAccounts Cross of the Murdered Idle Robber Tales French Bandittiphobia Robber History Guerrilleros Smugglers Jose Maria Robbers of the First Class TheRatero Miguelites Escorts and Escopeteros Passes, Protections, and Talismans Execution of a Robber . . . . . . . . ' . 188 CHAPTER XVII. The Spanish Doctor : his Social Position Medical Abuses Hospitals Medical Education Lunatic Asylums Foundling Hospital of Seville Medical Pretensions Dissection Family Physician Consultations Medical Costume Prescriptions Druggists Snake Broth Salve for Knife-cuts 215 CHAPTER XVIII. Spanish Spiritual Remedies for the Body Miraculous Relics Sanative Oils Philosophy of Relic Remedies Midwifery and the Cinta of Tortosa Bull of Crusade 239 CHAPTER XIX. The Spanish Figaro Mustachios Whiskers Beards Bleeding Heraldic Blood Blue, Red, and Black Blood Figaro's Shop The Baratero Shaving and Toothdrawing . .... 259 CHAPTER XX. What to observe in Spain How to observe Spanish Incuriousness and Suspicions- French Spies and Plunderers Sketching in Spain Difficulties ; How surmounted Efficacy of Passports and Bribes Uncertainty and Want of Information in the Natives . . . 269 CHAPTER XXI. Origin of Bull-fight or Festival, and its Religious Character Fiestas Reales Royal Feasts Charles I. at one Discontinuance of the Old System Sham Bull-fights Plaza de Toros Slang Lan- guage Spanish Bulls Breeds The Going to a Bull-fight . . 290 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. PAG*. The Bull-fight Opening of Spectacle First Act, and Appearance of the Bull The Picador Bull Bastinado The Horses 7 and their Cruel Treatment Fire and Dogs The Second Act The Chulos and their Darts The Third Act The Matador Death of the Bull The Conclusion, and Philosophy of the Amusement Its Effect on Ladies 305 CHAPTER XXIII. f heaven? "A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth ; the land is the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape them." No sooner were they beaten out by the Duke, than population began to spring up again, as the bruised flowrets do when the iron heej of marching hordes has passed on. Then ensued the civil fratricide wars, draining the land of its males, from which bleeding Spain has not yet recovered. Insecurity of property 36 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. and person will ever prove bars to marriage and increased popu- lation. Again, a deeper and more permanent curse has steadily oper- x ated for the last two centuries, at which Spanish authors long have not dared to hint. They have ascribed the depopulation of Estremadura to the swarm of colonist adventurers and emigrants who departed from this province of Cortez and Pizarro to seek for fortune in the new world of gold and silver ; and have attrib- uted the similar want of inhabitants in Andalucia to the -similar outpouring from Cadiz, which, with Seville, engrossed the traffic of the Americas. But colonization never thins a vigorous, well- conditioned mother state witness the rapid and daily increase of population in our own island, which, like Tyre of old, is ever sending forth her outpouring myriads, and wafts to the uttermost parts of the sea, on the white wings of her merchant fleets, the blessings of peace, religion, liberty, order, and civilization, to dis- seminate which is the mission of Great Britain. The real permanent and standing cause of Spain's thinly peo- pled state, want of cultivation, and abomination of desolation, is BAD GOVERNMENT, "civil and religious; this all who run may read in her lonely land and silent towns. But Spain, if the anecdote which her children love to tell be true, will never be able to re- move the incubus of this fertile origin of every evil. When v Fet- dinand III. captured Seville and died, being a saint he escaped purgatory, and Santiago presented him to the Virgin, who forth- with desired him to ask any favors for beloved Spain. The mon- arch petitioned for oil, wine, and corn conceded ; for sunny skies, brave men, and pretty women allowed ; for cigars, relics, garlic, and bulls by all means ; for a good government " Nay, nay," said the Virgin, " that never can be granted ; for were it bestowed, not an angel would remain a day longer in heaven." , The present revenue may be taken at about 12,000,OOOZ. or 13,000.0007. sterling ; but money is compared by Spaniards to oil ; a little will stick to the fingers of those who measure it out ; and such is the robbing and jobbing, the official mystification and peculation, that it is difficult to get at facts whenever ca||i is in question. The revenue, moreover, is badly collected, and at a ruinous per centage, and at no time during this last century has THE BOLSA. 37 been sufficient for the national expenses. Recourse has been had to the desperate experiments of usurious loans and wholesale con- fiscations. At one time church pillage and appropriation was al- most the only item in the governmental budget. The recipients were ready to " prove from Vatel exceedingly well" that the first duty of a rich clergy was to relieve the necessitous, and the more when the State was a pauper ; croziers are no match for bayonets. This system necessarily cannot last. Since the reign of Philip II. every act of dishonesty has been perpetrated. Public securi- ties have been " repudiated," interest unpaid, and principal spunged out. No country in the Old World, or even New drab- coated World, stands lower in financial discredit. Let all be aware how they embark in Spanish speculations : however pro- mising in the prospectus, they will, sooner or later, turn out to be deceptions ; and whether they assume the form of loans, lands, or rails, none are real securities : they are mere castles in the air, chateaux en Espagne : " The earth has bubbles as the water has, and these are of them." For the benefit and information of those who have purchased Iberian stock, it may be stated that an exchange, or Bolsa de> , Comercio, was established at Madrid in 1831. It may Be called the coldest spot in the hot capital, and the idlest, since the usual " city article" is short and sweet, " sin operaciones," or nothing has been bought or sold. It might be likened to a tomb, with " Here lies Spanish credit" for its epitaph. If there be a thing which "La perfide Albion," "a nation of shopkeepers," dislikes, % worse even than a French assignat, it is a bankrupt. One cir- cumstance is clear, that Castilian pundonor, or point of honor, will rather settle its debts with cold iron and warm abuse than with gold and thanks. The Exchange at Madrid was first held at St. Martin's, a saint who divided his cloak with a supplicant. As comparisons are odious, and bad examples catching, it has been recently removed to the Calle del Desengano, the street of " finding out fallacious hopes," a locality which the bitten will not deem ill-chosen. As all men in power use their official knowledge in taking ad- vantage of the turn of the market, the Bolsa divides with the court and army the moving influence of every situacion or crisis of the J8 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. moment : clover as are the ministers of Paris, they aro mere tyros when compared to their colleagues of Madrid in the arts of working the telegraph, gazette, &c., and thereby feathering their own nests. The Stock Exchange is open from ten to three o'clock, where those who like Spanish funds may buy them as cheap as stinking mackerel ; for when the 3 per cents, of perfidious Albion are at, 98, surely Spanish fives at 2*2 are a tempting investment; The stocks are numerous, and suited to all tastes and pockets, whether those funded by Aguado, Ardouin, Toreno, Mendizabal, or Mon, "all honorable men," and whose -punctuality is un-r emitting y for in some the principal is consolidated, in others the interes. is deferred ; the grand financial object in all having been to re- ceive as much as possible, and pay back in an inverse ratio their leading principle being to bag both principal and interest. As we have just said, in measuring out money and oil a little will stick to the cleanest fingers the Madrid ministers and con- 'tractors made fortunes, and actually "did" the Hebrews of Lon- don, as their forefathers spoiled the Egyptians. But from Philip II. downwards, theologians have never been wanting in Spain to prove the religious, however painful, duty of bankruptcy, and particularly in contracts with usurious heretics. The stranger, when shown over the Madrid bank, had better evince no imperti- nent curiosity to see the " Dividend pay office," as it might give offence. Whatever be our dear reader's pursuit in the Penin- ,sula, let him " Neither a borrower nor lender be ; For loan oft loseth both itself and friend/' Beware of Spanish stock, for in spite of official reports, docu- mentos, and arithmetical mazes, which, intricate as an arabesque pattern, look well on paper without being intelligible ; in spite of ingenious conversions, fundings of interest, coupons some active, some passive, and other repudiatory terms and tenses, the present excepted the thimblerig is always the same ; and this is the question, since national credit depends on national good faith and surplus income, how can a country pay interest on debts, whose revenues have long been, and now are, miserably insuffi- PUBLIC DEBT. cient for the ordinary expenses of government ? You cannot get blood from a stone ; ex niliilo nihilfit. Mr. Macgregor's report on Spain, a truthful exposition of commercial ignorance, habitual disregard of treaties and viola- tion of contracts, describes her public securities, past and pres- ent. , Certainly they ha'd very imposing names and titles Juros Bonos, Vales -reales, Titulos, &c., much more royal, grand, and poetical than our prosaic Consols ; but no oaths can attach real value to dishonored and good-for-nothing paper. According to some financiers, the public debts of Spain, previously to 1808, amounted to 83.763,9667., which have since been increased to 279,083,0897., farthings omitted, for we like to be accurate. This possibly may be exaggerated, for the government will give no information as to its own peculation and mismanagement : ac- cording to Mr. Henderson, 78,649,6757. of this debt is due t6 English creditors alone, and we wish they may get it, when he gets to Madrid. In the time of James I., Mr. Howell was sent there on much such an errand ; and when he left it, his " pile of unredressed claims was higher than himself." At all events, Spain is over head and ears in debt, and irremediably insolvent. . And yet few countries, if we regard the fertility of her soil, her golden possessions at home and abroad, her frugal temperate population, ought to have been less embarrassed ; but Heaven has granted her every blessing, except a good and honest government. It is either a bully or a craven : satisfaction in twenty-four hours, a la Bresson, or a line-of-battle ship off Malaga Cromwell's re- ceipt is the only argument which these semi-Moors understand : conciliatory language is held to be weakness : you may obtain at once from their fears what never will be granted by their sense of justice. THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. CHAPTER V. Travelling in Spain Steamers Roads, Roman, Monastic, and Royal- Modern Railways English Speculations. OF the many misrepresentations regarding Spain, few are more inveterate than those which refer to the dangers and difficulties that are there supposed to beset the traveller. This, the most romantic, racy, and peculiar country of Europe, may in reality be visited by sea and land, and throughout its length and breadth, with ease and safety, as all who have ever been there well know, the nonsense with which Cockney critics who never have been there scare delicate writers in albums and lady-bird tourists, to the contrary notwithstanding- the steamers are regular, the mails and diligences excellent, the roads decent, and the mules sure-footed ; nay, latterly, the posadas, or inns, have been so in- creased, and the robbers so decreased, that some ingenuity must be evinced in getting either starved or robbed. Those, however, who are dying for new excitements, or who wish to make a pic- ture or chapter, in short, to get up an adventure for the home- market, may manage by a great exhibition of imprudence, chat- tering, and a holding out luring baits, to gratify their hankering, although it would save some time, trouble, and expense to try the experiment much nearer home. As our readers live in an island, we will commence with the sea and steamers. The Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Company depart regu- larly three times a month from Southampton for Gibraltar. They often arrive at Corunna in seventy hours, from whence a mail starts directly to Madrid, which it reaches in three days and a half. The vessels are excellent sea-boats, are manned by Eng- lish sailors, and propelled by English machinery. The passage to Vigo has 'been made in less than three days, and the voyage STEAMERS. 41 to Cadiz touching at Lisbon included seldom exceeds six. The change of climate, scenery, men, and manners effected by this week's trip, is indeed remarkable. Quitting the British Channel we soon enter the " sleepless Bay of Biscay, 77 where the stormy petrel is at home, and where the gigantic swell of the Atlantic is first checked by Spain's iron-bound coast, the moun- tain break-water of Europe. Here The Ocean will be seen in all its vast majesty and solitude : grand in the tempest-lashed storm, grand in the calm, when spread out as a mirror ; and never more impressive than at night, when the stars of heaven, free from earth-born mists, sparkle like diamonds over those " who go down to the sea in ships, and behold the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. 77 The land has disappeared, and man feels alike his weakness and his strength a thin plank separates him from another world ; yet he has laid his hand upon the billow, and mastered the ocean ; he has made it the highway of commerce, and the binding link of nations. The steamers which navigate the Eastern coast from Marseilles to Cadiz and back again, are cheaper indeed in their fares, but by no means such good sea-boats ; nor do they keep their time the essence of business with English regularity. They are foreign built, and worked by Spaniards and Frenchmen. They generally stop a day at Barcelona, Valencia, and other large towns, which gives them an opportunity to replenish coal, and to smuggle. A rapid traveller is also thus enabled to pay a flying visit, to the cities on the seaboard ; and thus those lively authors who comprehend foreign nations with an intuitive eagle-eyed glance, obtain materials for sundry octavos on the history, arts, sciences, literature, and genius of Spaniards. But as Mons. Feval remarks of some of his gifted countrymen, they have merely to scratch their head, according to the Horatian expression, and out come a number of volumes, ready bound in calf, as Minerva issued forth armed from the temple of Jupiter. The Mediterranean is a dangerous, deceitful sea, fair and false as Italia ; the squalls are sudden and terrific ; then the crews either curse the sacred name of God, or invoke St. Telmo, ac- cording as their notion r may be. We have often been so caught when sailing on these perfidious waters in these foreign craft, 42 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. and think, with the Spaniards, that escape is a miracle. The hilarity excited by witnessing the jabber, confusion, and lubber proceedings, went far to dispel all present apprehension, and future also. Some of our poor blue-jackets in case of a war may possibly escape the fate with which they are threatened in this' French lake. But no wise man will ever go by sea when he can travel by land, nor is viewing Spain's coasts .with a telescope from the deck, and passing a few hours in a sea-oort, a very satisfactory mode of becoming acquainted with the country. The roads of Spain, a matter of much importance to a judicious traveller, are somewhat H modern luxury, having been only regularly introduced by the Bourbons. The Moors and Span- iards, who rode on horses and not in carriages, suffered those magnificent lines with which the Romans had covered the Penin- sula to go to decay ; of these there were no less than twenty- nine of the first order, which were absolutely necessary to a na- tion of conquerors and colonists to keep up their military and commercial communications. The grandest of all, which like the Appian might be termed the Queen of Roads, ran from Merida, the capital of Lusitania, to Salamanca. It was laid down like a Cyclopean wall, and much of it remains to this day, with the grey granite line stretching across the aromatic wastes, like the vertebrae of an extinct mammoth. We have followed for miles its course, which is indicated by the still standing military columns that rise above the cistus underwood ; here and there tall forest trees grow out of the stone pavement, and show how long it has been abandoned by man to Nature ever young and gay, who thus by uprooting and displacing the huge blocks slowly recovers her rights. She festoons the ruins with neck- laces of flowers and creepers, and hides the rents and wrinkles of odious, all-dilapidating Time, or man's worse neglect, as a pretty maid decorates a shrivelled dowager's with diamonds. The Spanish muleteer creeps along by its side in a track which he has made through the sand or pebbles ; he seems ashamed to trample on this lordly way, for which, in his petty wants, he has no occasion. Most of the similar roads have been taken up by monks to raise convents, by burgesses to build houses, by military men to construct fortifications thus even their ruins have perished. LEGEND OF SANTO DOMINGO. 43 The mediaeval Spanish roads were the works of the clergy ; and the long-bearded monks, here as elsewhere, were the pioneers of civilization ; they made straight, wide, and easy the way 'which led to their convent, their high place, their miracle shrine, or to whatever point of pilgrimage that was held out to the de- vout ; traffic was soon combined with devotion, and the service of mammon with that of God. This imitation of the Oriental practice which obtained at Mecca, is evidenced by language in which the Spanish term Feria signifies at once a religious func- tion, a holiday, and a fair. Even saints condescended to become way wardens, and to take title from the highway. Thus Santo Domingo de la Cahada, "St. Domenick of the Paved Road," was so called from his having been the first to make one through a part of Old Castile for the benefit of pilgrims on their way to Compostella, and this town yet bears the honored appellation. This feat and his legend have furnished Southey with a sub- ject of a droll ballad. The saint having finished his road, next set up an inn or Venta, the Maritornes of which fell in love with a handsome pilgrim, who resisted ; whereupon she hid some spoons in this Joseph's saddlebags, who was taken up by the Alcalde, Etnd forthwith hanged. But his parents some time afterwards passed under the body, which told them that he was innocent, alive, and well, and all by the intercession of the sainted road- rnaker ; thereupon they proceeded forthwith to the truculent Al- calde, who was going to dine off two roasted fowls, and, on hear- ing their report, remarked, You might as well tell me that this cock (pointing to his roti) would crow whereupon it did crow, and was taken with its hen to the cathedral, and two chicks have ever since been regularly hatched every year from these respect- able parents, of which a travelling ornithologist should secure one for the Zoological Garden. The cock and hen were duly kept riear the high altar, and their white feathers were worn by pil- grims in their caps. Prudent bagsmen will, however, put a couple of ordinary roast fowls into their " provend," for hungry is this said road to Logrono. In this land of miracles, anomalies, and contradictions, the roads to and from this very Compostella are now detestable. In other provinces of Spain, the star-paved milky way in heaven is 44 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. called El Camino de Santiago, the road of St. James; but the Gallicians, who know what their roads really are, namely, the worst on earth, call the milky- way EL Camino de Jerusalem, " the road to Jerusalem," which it assuredly is not. The an- cients poetically attributed this phenomenon to some spilt milk of' Juno. Meanwhile the roads in Gallicia, although under the patronage of Santiago, who has replaced the Roman Hermes, are, like his milky-way in heaven, but little indebted to mortal repairs. The Dean of Santiago is way warden by virtue of his office or dignity, and especially " protector." The chapter, however, now chiefly profess to make smooth the road to a better world. They have altogether degenerated from their forefathers, whose grand object was to construct roads for the pilgrims; but since the cessation of offering-making Hadjis, little or nothing has been done in the turnpike-trust line. Some of the finest roads in Spain lead either to the sitios or royal pleasure-seats of the king, or wind gently up some elevated and monastery-crowned mountain like Monserrat. The ease of the despot was consulted, while that of his subjects was neglected ; and the Sultan was the State, Spain was his property, and Span- iards his serfs, and willing ones, for as in the East, their perfect equality amongst each other was one result of the immeasurable superiority of the master of all. Thus, while he rolled over a road hard and level as a bowling-green, and rapidly as a gallop- ing team could proceed, to a mere summer residence, the com- munication between Madrid and Toledo, that city on which the sun shone on the day light was made, has remained a mere track ankle deep in mud during winter and dust-clouded during sum- mer, and changing its direction with the caprice of wandering sheep and muleteers; but Bourbon Royalty never visited this widowed capital of the Goths. The road therefore was left as it existed if not before the time of Adam, at least before MacAdam. There is some talk just now of beginning a regular road ; when it will be finished is another affair. The church, which shared with the state in dominion, followed the royal example in consulting its own comforts as to roads. Nor could it be expected in a torrid land, that holy men, whose ROAD TO LA CORUNA. 45 abdomens occasionally were prominent and pendulous, should lard the stony or sandy earth like goats, or ascend heaven-kissing hills so e^peditiously as their prayers. In Spain the primary consider, ation has ever been the souls, not the bodies, of men, or legs of beasts. It would seem indeed, from the indifference shown to the sufferings of these quadrupedal blood-engines, Maquinas de sangre, as they are called, and still more from the reckless waste of biped life, that a man was of no value until he was dead; then what admirable contrivances for the rapid travelling of h*3 winged spirit, first to purgatory, next out again, and thence from stage to stage to his journey's end and blessed rest ! More money has been thus expended in masses than would have covered Spain with railroads, even on a British scale of magnifi- cence and extravagance. To descend to the roads of the peninsular earth, the principal lines are nobly planned. These geographical arteries, which form the circulation of the country, branch in every direction from Madrid, which is the centre of the system. Tl-io road- making spirit of Louis XIV. passed into his'Spanish descendants, and during the reigns of Charles III. and Charles IV. commu- nications were completed between the capital and the principal cities of the provinces. These causeways, " Arrecifes" these royal roads. " Caminos reales" were planned on an almost un- necessary scale of grandeur, in regard both to width, parapets, and general execution. The high road to La Coruiia, especially after entering Leon, will stand comparison with any in Europe ; but when Spaniards finish anything it is done in a grand style, and in this instance the expense was so enormous that the king inquired if it was paved with silver, alluding to the common Spanish corruption of the old Roman via lata into " camino de plata" of plate. This and many of the others were constructed from fifty to seventy years ago, and very much on the M'Adam system, which, having been since introduced into England, has rendered our roads so very different from what they were not very long since. The war in the Peninsula tended to deteriorate the Spanish roads when bridges and other conveniences were fre- quently destroyed for military reasons, and the exhausted state of the finances of Spain, and troubled times, have delayed many of 46 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. the more costly reparations ; yet those of the first class were so admirably constructed at the beginning, that, in spite of the in- juries of war, ruts, and neglect, they may, as a whole, be pro- nounced equal to many of the Continent, and are infinitely more pleasant to the traveller from the absence of pavement. The roads in England have, indeed, latterly been rendered so excellent, and we are so apt to compare those of other nations with them, that we forget that fifty years ago Spain was in advance in that and many other respects. Spain remains very much what other countries were : she has stood on her old ways, moored to the anchor of prejudice, while we have progressed, and consequently now appears behind-hand in many things in which she set the fashion to England. The grand royal roads start from Madrid, and run to the prin- cipal frontier and sea-port towns. Thus the capital may be com- pared to a spider, as it is the centre of the Peninsular web. These diverging fan-like lines are sufficiently convenient to all who are about to journey to any single terminus, but inter-com- munications are almost entirely wanting between any one ter- minus .with another. This scanty condition of the Peninsular roads accounts for the very limited portions of the country which are usually visited by foreigners, who the French especially keep to one beaten track, the high road, and follow each other like wild geese ; a visit to Burgos, Madrid, and Seville, and then a steam trip from Cadiz to Valencia and Barcelona, is considered to be making the grand tour of Spain ; thus the world is favored with volumes that reflect and repeat each other, which tell us what we know already, while the rich and rare, the untrodden, unchanged, and truly Moro-Hispanic portions are altogether ne- glected, except by the exceptional few, who venture forth like Don Quixote on their horses, in search of adventures and the pic- turesque. The other roads of Spain are bad, but not much more so than in other parts, of the Continent, and serve tolerably well in dry weather. They are divided into those which are practicable for wheel-carriages, and those which are only bridle-roads, or as they call them, " of horseshoe," on which all thought of going with a carriage is out of the question ; when these horse or mule tracks TRAVELLING. 47 are very bad, especially among the mountains, they compare them to roads for partridges. The cross roads are seldom tolera- ble ; it is safest to keep the high-road or, as we have it in Eng- lish, the furthest way round is the nearest way home for there is no short cut without hard work, says the Spanish proverb, " ho hayatajo, sin trabajo." All this sounds very unpromising, but those who adopt the cus- toms of the country will never find much practical difficulty in .getting to their journey's end ; slowly, it is true, for where leagues and hours are convertible terms the Spanish liora being the heavy German stunde the distance is regulated by the day- light. Bridle roads and travelling on horseback, the former sys- tems of Europe, are very Spanish and Oriental; and where people journey on horse and mule back, the road is of minor importance. In the remoter provinces of Spain the population is agricultural and poverty-stricken, unvisiting and unvisited, not going much beyond their chimney's smoke. Each family pro- vides for its simple habits and few wants ; having bu A little money to buy foreign commodities, they are clad and fed, like the Be- douins, with the productions of their'own fields and flocks. There is little circulation of persons ; a neighboring fair is the mart where they obtain the annual supply of whatever luxury they can indulge in, or it is brought to their cottages by wandering muleteers, or by the smuggler, who is the type and channel of the really active principle of trade in three-fourths of the Penin- sula. It is wonderful how soon a well-mounted traveller becomes attached to travelling on horseback, and how quickly he becomes reconciled to a state of roads which, startling at first to those ac- customed to carriage highways, are found to answer perfectly for all the purposes of the place and people where they are found. * Let us say a few things on Spanish railroads, for the mania of England has surmounted the Pyrenees, although confined rather more to words than deeds ; in fact, it has been said that no rail exists, in any country of either the new world or the old one, in which the Spanish language is spoken, probably from other objec- tions than those merely philological. Again, in other countries, roads, canals, and traffic usher in the rail, which in Spain is to pre- cede and introduce them. Thus, by the prudent delays of na- 48 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tional caution and procrastination, much of the trouble and ex- pense of these intermediate stages will be economized, and Spain will jump at once from a mediaeval condition into the comforts and glories of Great Britain, the land of restless travellers. Be that as it may, just now there is much talk of railroads, and splendid official and other documentos are issued, by which the " whole country is to be intersected (on paper) with a net- work of rapid and bowling-green communications," which are to create a " perfect homogeneity among Spaniards ;" for great as have been the labors of Herculean steam, this amalgamation of the Iberian rope of sand has properly been reserved for the crowning performance. It would occupy too much space to specify the infinite lines which are in contemplation, which may be described when com- pleted. Suffice it to say, that they almost all are to be effected by the iron and gold of England. However this estrangerismo, this influence of the foreigner, may offend the sensitive pride, the Espanolismo of Spain, the power of resistance offered by the national indolence and dislike to change, must be propelled by British steam with a dash of French revolution. Yet our speculators might, perhaps, reflect that Spain is a land which never yet has been able to construct or support even a sufficient number of common roads or canals for her poor and passive commerce and circulation. The distances are far too great, and the traffic far too small, to call yet for the rail ; while the geolo- gical formation of the country offers difficulties which, if met with even in England, would baffle the colossal science and extravagance of our first-rate engineers. Spain is a land of mountains, which rise everywhere in Alpine barriers, walling off province from province, and district from district. These mighty cloud-capped sierras are solid masses of hard stone, and any tunnels which ever perforate their ranges will reduce that at Box to the delving of the poor mole. You might as well cover Switzerland and the Tyrol with a net-work of level lines, as those caught in the aforesaid net will soon discover to their cost. The outlay of this up-hill work may be in an inverse ratio to the remuneration, for the one will be enormous, and the other DIFFICULTIES OF RAILROADS. 49 paltry. The parturient mountains may produce a most musipular interest, and even that may be "deferred." Spain, again, is a land of dehesas y despollados : in these wild unpeopled wastes, next to travellers, commerce and cash are what is scarce, while even Madrid, the capital, is without in- dustry or resources, and poorer than many of our provincial cities. The Spaniard, a creature of routine and foe to inno- vations, is not a moveable or locomotive ; local, and a parochial fixture by nature, he hates moving like a Turk, and has a par- ticular horror of being hurried ; long, therefore, here has an ambling mule answered all the purposes of transporting man and his goods. Who again is to do the work even if England will pay the wages ? The native, next to disliking regular sustained labor himself, abhors seeing the foreigner toiling even in his service, and wasting his gold and sinews in the thankless task. The villagers, as they always have done, will rise against the stranger and heretic who comes to "suck the wealth of Spain." Supposing, however, by the aid of Santiago and Brunei, that the work were possible and were completed, how is it to be secured against the fierce action of the sun, and the fiercer violence of popular ignorance ? The first cholera that visits Spain will be set down as a passenger per rail by the dispossessed muleteer, who now performs the functions of steam and rail. He consti- tutes one of the most numerous and finest classes in Spain, and is the legitimate channel of the semi-Oriental caravan system. He will never permit the bread to be taken out of his mouth by this Lutheran locomotive : deprived of means of earning his livelihood, he, like the smuggler, will take to the road in another line, and both will become either robbers or patriots. Many, long, and lonely are the leagues which separate town from town in the wide deserts of thinly-peopled Spain, nor will' any pre- ventive service be sufficient to guard the rail against the guer- rilla warfare that may then be waged. A handful of opponents in any cistus-overgrown waste, may at any time, in five minutes, break up the road, stop the train, stick the stoker, and burn the engines in their own fire, particularly smashing the luggage-train. What, again, has ever been the recompense which the foreigner has met with from Spain but breach of promise and ingratitude ? PART T. 4 50 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. He will be used, as in the East, until the native thinks that he has mastered his arts, and then he will be abused, cast out, and trod- den under foot ; and who then will keep up and repair the costly artificial undertaking? certainly not the Spaniard, on whose pericranium the bumps of operative skill and mechanical construc- tion have yet to be developed. The lines which are the least sure of failure will >be those which are the shortest, and pass through a level! country of some natural productions, such as oil, wine, and coal. Certainly, if the rail can be laid down in Spain by the gold and science of England, the gift, like that of steam, will be worthy of the Ocean's Queen, and of the world's real leader of civilization ; and what a change will then come over the spirit of the Peninsula ! how the siestas of torpid man-vegetation, will be disturbed by the shrill whistle and panting snort of the monster engine ! how the seals of this long hermetically shut-up land will be broken ! how the cloistered obscure, and dreams of treasures in heaven, will be enlightened by the flashing fire-demon of the wide-awake money- worshipper ! what owls will be vexed, what bats dispos- sessed, what drones, mules, and asses will be scared, run over, and annihilated ! Those who love Spain, and pray, like the author, daily for her prosperity, must indeed hope to see this "net- work of rails" concluded, but will take especial care at the same time not to invest one farthing in the imposing specu- lation . Recent results have fully justified during this year what was prophesied last year in the Hand-Book : our English agents and engineers were received with almost divine honors by the Span- iards, so incensed were they with flattery and cigars. Their shares were instantaneously subscribed for, and directors nomi- nated, with names and titles longer even than the lines, and the smallest contributions in cash were thankfully accepted : " L'argfent dans une bourse entre agreablement ; Mais le terme venu, quand il faut le rendre, C 7 est alors que les douleurs commencent a nous prendre." When the period for booking up, for making the first instalments, arrived, the Spanish shareholders were found somewhat wanting : ANGLO-HISPANO RAILROADS. 51 they repudiated ; for in the Peninsula it has long been easier to promise than to pay. Again, on the only line which seems likely to be carried out at present, that of Madrid to Aranjuez, the first step taken by them was to dismiss all English engineers and navvies, on the plea of encouraging native talent, and in- dustry rather than the foreigner. Many of the English home proceedings would border on the ridiculous, were not the laugh of some speculators rather on the wrong side. The City capi- talists certainly have our pity, and if their plethora of wealth re- quired the relief of bleeding, it could not be better performed than by, a Spanish Sangrado. How different some of the windings-up, the final reports, to the magnificent beginnings and grandiloquent prospectuses put forth as baits for John Bull, who hoped to be tossed at once, or elevated, from haberdashery to a throne, by being offered a " potentiality of getting rich beyond the dreams of avarice !" Thus, to clench assertion by example, the London directors of the Royal Valencia Company made known by an advertisement only last July, that they merely required 240,000,000 reals to connect the seaport of Valencia where there is none to the capital Madrid, with 800,000 inhabitants, there not being 200,000. One brief passage alone seemed omi- nous in the lucid array of prospective profit " The line has not yet been minutely surveyed;" this might have suggested to the noble Marquis whose attractive name heads the provisional com- mittee list, the difficulty of Sterne's traveller, of whom, when observing how much better things were managed on the Continent than in England, the question was asked, " Have you, sir, ever been there ?" A still wilder scheme was broached, to connect Aviles on the Atlantic with Madrid, the Austrian Alps and the Guadarrama mountains to the contrary notwithstanding. The originator of this ingenious idea was to receive 40,0007. for the cession of his plan to the company, and actually did receive 25,0007., which, considering the difficulties, natural and otherwise, must be con- sidered an inadequate remuneration. Although the original and captivating prospectus stated "that the line had been surveyed, and presented no engineering difficulties," it was subsequently thought prudent to obtain some notion of the actual localities, 52 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. and Sir Joshua Walmsley was sent forth with competent assist- arice to spy out the land, which the Jewish practice of old was rather to do before than after serious undertakings. A sad change soon came over the spirit of the London dream by the discovery that a country which lookec level as Arrowsmith's map in the prospectus, presented such trifling obstacles to the rail as sundry leagues of mountain ridges, which range from 6000 to 9000 feet high, and are covered with snow for many months of the year. This was a damper. The report of the special meeting (see < Morning Chronicle,' December 18, 1845) should be printed in letters of gold, from the quantity of that article which it will preserve to our credulous countrymen. Then and there the chairman observed, with equal naivct and pathos, " that had he known as much before as he did now, he would have been the last man to carry out a railway in Spain." This experience cost him, he observed, 5000Z., which is paying dear for a Spanish rail whistle. He might for five pounds have bought the works of Townshend and Captain Cook : our modesty prevents the naming another red book, in which these precise localities, these mighty Alps, are described by per- sons who had ridden, or rather soared, over them. At another meeting of another Spanish rail company, held at the London Tavern, October 20, 1846, another chairman announced "a fact of which he was not before aware, that it was impossible to sur- mount the Pyrenees." Meanwhile, the Madrid government had secured 30,OOOZ. from them by way of caution money ; but cau- tion disappears from our capitalists, whenever excess of cash mounts from their pockets into their heads ; loss of common sense and dollars is the natural result. But it is the fate of Spain and her things, to be judged of by those who have never been there, and who feel no shame at the indecency of the nakedness of their geographical ignorance. When the blind lead the blind, beware of hillocks and ditches. POST-OFFICE. CHAPTER VI. Post-office in Spain Travelling with post horses Riding post Mails and Diligences, Galeras, Coches de Colleras, Drivers and manner of Driving, and Oaths. A SYSTEM of post, both for the despatch of letters and the con- veyance of couriers, was introduced into Spain under Philip and Juana, that is, towards the end of the reign of our Henry VII. ; whereas it was scarcely organized in England before the Govern- ment of Cromwell. Spain, which in these matters, as well as in many others, was once so much in advance, is now compelled to borrow her improvements from those nations of which she for- merly was the instructress : among these may be reckoned all travelling in carriages, whether public or private. The post-office for letters is arranged on the plan common to most countries on the Continent : the delivery is pretty regular, but seldom daily twice or three times a week. Small scruple is made by the authorities in opening private letters, whenever they suspect the character of the correspondence. It is as well, there- fore, for the traveller to avoid expressing the whole of his opin- ions of the powers that be. The minds of men have been long troubled in Spain ; civil war has rendered them very distrustful and guarded in their written correspondence " carta canta," " a letter speaks." There is the usual continental bother in obtaining post-horses, which results from their being a monopoly of government. There must be a passport, an official order, notice of departure, &c/; next ensue vexatious regulations in regard to the number of pas- sengers, horses, luggage, style of carriage, and so forth. These, and other spokes put into the wheel, appear to have been invented by clerks who sit at home devising how to impede rather than facilitate posting at all. 54 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. Post-horses and mules are paid at the rate of seven rials each for each post. The Spanish postilions generally, and especially if well paid, drive at a tremendous pace, often amounting to a gallop ; nor are they easily stopped, even if the traveller desires it they seem only to be intent on arriving at their stages' end, in order to indulge in the great national joy of then doing nothing ; to get there, they heed neither ruts nor ravines ; and when once their cattle are started the inside passenger feels like a kettle tied to the tail of a mad dog, or a comet ; the wild beasts think no more of him than if he were Mazeppa : thus money makes the mare and its driver to go, as surely in Spain as in all other countries. Another mode of travelling is by riding post, accompanied by a mounted postilion, who is changed with the cattle at each relay. It is an expeditious but fatiguing plan ; yet one which, like the Tartar courier of the East, has long prevailed in Spain. Thus our Charles I. rode to Madrid under the name of John Smith, by which he was not likely to be identified. The delight of Philip II., who boasted that he governed the world from the Escorial, was to receive frequent and early intelligence ; and this desire to hear something new is still characteristic of the Spanish govern- ment. The cabinet couriers have the preference of horses at every relay. The particular distances they have to perform are all timed, and so many leagues are required to be done in a fixed time ; and, in order to encourage despatch, for every hour gained on the allowed time, an additional sum was paid to them : hence the common expression "ganando lioras" gaining hours equiva- lent to our old " post haste haste for your life." The usual mode of travelling for the affluent is in the public conveyances, which are the fashion from being novelties and only introduced under Ferdinand VII. ; previously to their being . allowed at all, serious objections were started, similar to those raised by his late Holiness to the introduction of railways into the papal states ; it was said that these tramontane facilities would bring in foreigners, and with them philosophy, heresy, and innovations, by which the wisdom of Spain's ancestors might be upset. These scruples were ingeniously got over by bribing the monarch with a large share of the profits. Now that the DILIGENCES. royal monopoly is broken down, many new and competing com- panies have sprung up ; this mode of travelling is the cheapest and safest, nor is it thought at all beneath the dignity of " the best set," nay.royalty itself goes by the coach. Thus the Infante Don Francisco de Paula constantly hires the whole of the diligence to convey himself and his family from Madrid to the sea-coast ; and one reason gravely given for Don Enrique's not coming to marry the Queen, was that his -Royal Highness could not get a , place, as the dilly was booked full. The public carriages of Spain are quite as good as those of France, and the company who travel in them generally more respectable and better bred. This is partly accounted for by the expence : the fares are not very high, yet still form a serious item to the bulk of Spaniards ; consequently those who travel in the public carriages in Spain are the class who would in other countries travel per post. It must, however, be admitted that all travelling in the public con- veyances of the continent necessarily implies great discomfort to those accustomed to their own carriages ; and with every possible precaution the long journeys in Spain, of three to five hundred miles at a stretch, are such as few English ladies can undergo, and are, even with men, undertakings rather of necessity than of pleasure. The mail is organized on the plan of the French malle-poste, and offers, to those who can stand the bumping, shak- ing, and churning of continued and rapid travelling without halt- ing, a means of locomotion which leaves nothing to be desired. The diligences also are imitations of the lumbering French model. It will be in vain to expect in them the neatness, the well-appointed turn-out, the quiet, time-keeping, and infinite facilities of the English original. These matters when passed across the water are modified to the heroic Continental contempt for doing things in style ; cheapness, which is their great prin- ciple, prefers rope-traces to those of leather, and a carter to a regular coachman ; the usual foreign drags also exist, which render their slow coaches and bureaucratic absurdi'jes so hateful to free Britons but when one is once booked and handed over to the conductor, you arrive in due time at the journey's end. The " guards" are realities ; they consist of stout, armed, most picturesque, robber-like men and no mistake, since many, before 56 THE SPANIARDS AisD THEIR COUNTRY. they were pardoned and pensioned, have frequently taken a purse on the Queen's highway ; for the foreground of your first sketch, they are splendid fellows, and worth a score of marshals. They are provided with a complete arsenal of swords and blunder- busses, so that the cumbrous machine rolling over the sea of plains looks like a man-of-war, and has been compared to a marching citadel. Again in suspicious localities a mounted escort of equally suspicious look gallops alongside, nor is the primitive practice of black mail altogether neglected : the consequence of these admirable precautions is, that the diligences are seldom o* never robbed ; the thing, however, is possible. The whole of this garrisoned Noah's ark is placed under the command of the Mayoral or conductor, who like all Spanish men in authority is a despot, and yet, like them, is open to the conciliatory influences of a bribe. He regulates the hours of toil and sleep, which latter blessings, says Sancho, on the man who invented it ! is uncertain, and depends on the early or late arrival of the diligence and the state of the roads, for all that is lost of the fixed time on the road is made up for by curtailing the time allowed for repose. One of the many good effects of setting up diligences is the bettering the inns on the road ; and it is a safe and general rule to travellers in Spain, whatever be their vehicle, always to inquire in every town which is the po- sada that the diligence stops at. Persons were dispatched from Madrid to the different stations on the great lines, to fit up houses, bedrooms, and kitchens, and provide everything for table service ; cooks were sent round to teach the innkeepers to set out and pre- pare a proper dinner and supper. Thus, in villages in which a few years before the use of a fork was scarcely known, a table was laid out, clean, well served, and abundant. The example set by the diligence inns has produced a beneficial effect, since ^ey offer a model, create competition, and suggest the existence f many comforts, which were hitherto unknown among Spaniards, whose abnegation of material enjoyments at home, and praiseworthy endurance of privations of all kinds on journeys, are quite Oriental. In some of the new companies every expense is calculated in the fare, to wit, journey, postilions, inns, &c., which is very con- venient to the stranger, and prevents the loss of much money and BEDS FOR TRAVELLERS. 57 temper. A chapter on the dilly is as much a standing dish in every Peninsular tour as a bullfight or a bandit adventure, for which there is a continual demand in the home-market ; and no doubt in the long distances of Spain, where men and women are boxed up for three or four mortal days together (the nights not being omitted), the plot thickens, and opportunity is* afforded to appreciate costume and character j the farce or tragedy may be spun out into as many acts as the journey takes days. In general the order of the course is as follows : the breakfast consists at early dawn of a cup of good stiff chocolate, which being the favor- ite drink of the church and allowable even on fast days, is as nu- tritious as delicious. It is accompanied by a bit of roasted or fried bread, and is followed by a glass of cold water, to drink which is an axiom with all wise men who respect the efficient condition of their livers. After rumbling on, over a given num- ber of leagues, when the passengers get well shaken together and hungry, a regular knife and fork breakfast is provided that closely resembles the dinner or supper which is served up later in the evening; the table is plentiful, and the cookery, to those who like oil and garlic, excellent. Those who .do not can. always fall back on the bread and eggs, which are capital ; the wine is occasionally like purple blacking, -and sometimes serves also as vinegar for the salad, as the oil is said to be used indifferently for lamps or stews ; a bad dinner, especially if the bill be long, and the wine sour, does not sweeten the passengers' tempers ; they become quarrelsome, and if they have the good luck, a little robber skirmish gives vent to ill-humor. At nightfall, after supper, a few hours are allowed on your part to steal whatever rest the mayoral and certain vottigeurs, creeping and winged, will permit ; the beds are plain and clean ; sometimes the mattresses may be compared to sacks of walnuts, but there is no pillow so soft as fatigue ; the beds are generally arranged in twos, threes, and fours, according to the size of the room. The traveller should immediately on arriving secure his, and see that it is comfortable, for those who neglect to get a good one must* sleep in a bad. Generally speaking, by a little man- agement, he may get a room to himself, or at least select his com- panions. There is, moreover, a real civility and politeness shown 58 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. by all classes of Spaniards, on all occasions, towards strangers and ladies ; and that even failing, a small tip, " una gratificacion- cita" given beforehand to the maid, or the waiter, seldom fails to smooth all difficulties. On these, as on all occasions in Spain, most things may be obtained by good humor, a smile, a joke, a proverb, a "cigar, or a bribe, which, though last, is by no means the least resource, since it will be found to mollify the hardest heart and smooth the greatest difficulties, after civil speeches had been tried in vain, for Dadivas quebrantan penas, y entra sin bar- renas, gifts break rocks, and penetrate without gimlets ; again, Mas ablanda dinero que palabras de Caballero, cash softens more than a gentleman's palaver. The mode of driving in Spain, which is so unlike our way of handling the ribbons, will be de- scribed presently. Means of conveyance for those who cannot afford the diligence are provided by vehicles of more genuine Spanish nature and dis- comfort ; they may be compared to the neat accommodation for man and beast which is doled out to third-class passengers by our monopolist railway kings, who have usurped her Majesty's high- way, and fleece her lieges by virtue of act of Parliament. First and foremost comes the galera, which fully justifies its name ; and even those who have no value for their time or bones will, after a short trial of the rack and dislocation, exclaim : " que diable allais-je faire dans cette galere ?" These machines travel periodically from town to town, and form the chief public and carrier communication between most provincial cities ; they are not much changed from that classical cart, the rheda, into which, as we read in Juvenal, the whole family of Fabricius was con- veyed. In Spain these primitive locomotives have stood still in the general advance of this age of progress, and carry us back to our James I., and Fynes Moryson's accounts of " carryers who have long covered waggons, in which they carry passengers from tity to city; but this kind of journeying is so tedious, by reason they must take waggons very early and come very late to their innes, none but women and people of inferior condition used to travel in this sort." So it is now in Spain. This galera is a long cart without springs ; the sides are lined with matting, while beneath hangs a loose open net, as under the CARRIAGES AND CARTS. 59 calesinas of Naples, in which lies and barks a horrid dog, who keeps a Cerberus watch over iron pots and sieves, and such like gipsey utensils, and who is never to be conciliated. These gale- ras are of all sizes ; but if a galera should be a larger sort of vehicle than is wanted, then a " tartana" a sort of covered tilted cart, which is very common jn Valencia, and which is so called from a small Mediterranean craft of the same name, will be found convenient. The packing and departure of the galera, when hired by a family who remove their goods, is a thing of Spain ; the heavy luggage is stowed in first, and beds and mattresses spread on the top, on which the family repose in admired disorder. The galera is much used by the " poor students" of Spain, a class unique of its kind, and full of rags and impudence ; their adventures have the credit of being rich and picturesque, and recall some of the accounts of " waggon incidents" in ' Roderick Random/ and Smollett's novels. Civilization, as connected with the wheel, is still at a low ebb in Spain, notwithstanding the numerous political revolutions. Except in a few great towns, the quiz vehicles remind us of those caricatures at which one laughed so heartily in Paris in 1814; and in Madrid, even down to Ferdinand VII. J s decease, the Prado its rotten row was filled with antediluvian carriages grotesque coachmen and footmen to match, which with us would be put into the British Museum ; they are now, alas for painters and authors ! worn out, and replaced by poor French imitations of good Eng- lish originals. As the genuine older Spanish ones were built in remote ages, and before the invention of folding steps, the ascent and descent were facilitated by a three-legged footstool, which dangled, strap- ped up near the door, as appears in the hieroglyphics of Egypt 4000 years ago ; a pair of long-eared fat mules, with hides and tails fantastically cut, was driven by a superannuated postilion in formidable jackboots, and not less formidable cocked hat of oil- cloth. In these, how often have we seen Spanish grandees with pedigrees as old-fashioned, gravely taking the air and dust! These slow coaches of old Spain have been rapidly sketched by the clever young American ; such are the ups and downs of na- 60 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tions and vehicles. Spain for having discovered America has in return become her butt ; she cannot go a-head ; so the great dust of Alexander may stop a bung-hole, and we too join in the laugh and forget that our ancestors see Beaumont and Fletcher's o ' Maid of the Inn' talked of " hurrying on featherbeds that move upon four-wheel Spanish caroches." While on these wheel subjects it may be observed that the carts and other machines of Spanish rural locomotion and husbandry have not escaped better ; when not Oriental they are Roman ; rude in form and material, they are always odd, picturesque, and inconvenient. The peasant, for the most part, scratches the earth with a plough modelled after that invented by Triptolemus, beats out his corn as described by Homer, and carries his harvest home in strict obedience to the rules in the Georgics. The iron work is iniquitous, but both sides of the Pyrenees are centuries behind England ; there, absurd tariffs prohibit the importation of our cheap and good work in order to encourage their own bad and dear wares thus poverty and ignorance are perpetuated. The carts in the north-west provinces are the unchanged plau- stra, with solid wheels, the Roman tympana which consists of mere circles of wood, without spokes or axles, much like mill- stones or Parmesan cheeses, and precisely such as the old Egypt- ians used, as is seen in hieroglyphics, and no doubt much resem- bling those sent by Joseph for his father, which are still used by the Affghans and other unadvanced coachmakers. The whole wheel turns round together with a piteous creaking ; the drivers, whose leathern ears are as blunt as their edgeless teeth, delight in this excruciating Chirrio, Arabice charrar, to make a noise, which they call music, and delight in, because it is cheap and plays to them of itself: they, moreover, think it frightens wolves, bears, and the devil himself, as Don Quixote says, which it well may, for the wheel of Ixion, although damned in hell, never whined more piteously. The doleful sounds, however, serve like our waggoners' lively bells, as warnings to other drivers, who, in narrow paths and gorges of rocks, where two carriages cannot pass, have this notice given them, and draw aside until the coast is clear. We have reserved "some details and the mode of driving for the THE COCHE DE COLLERAS. cache de colleras, the caroche of horse-collars, which is the real coach of Spain, and in which we have made many a pleasant trip ; it too is doomed to be scheduled away, for Spaniards are descending from these coaches and six to a chariot and pair, and by degrees beautifully less, to a fly. Mails and diligences, we have said, are only established on the principal high roads connected with Madrid : there are but few local coaches which run from one provincial town to another, where the necessity of frequent and certain intercommunication is little called for. In the other provinces, where these modern conveniences have not been introduced, the earlier mode of travel- ling is the only resource" left to families of children, women, and invalids, who are unable to perform the journey on horseback. This is ihefestina lente, or voiturier system ; and from its long continuance in Italy and Spain, in spite of all the improvements adopted in other countries, it would appear to have something con- genial and peculiarly fitted to the habits and wants of those cog- nate nations of the south, who have a Goth-Oriental dislike to be hurried no corre priesa, there is plenty of time. Sie haben zeit genug. The Spanish vetturino, or " Calesero" is to be found, as in Italy, standing for hire in particular and well-known places in every principal town. There is not much necessity for hunting for Mm ; he has the Italian instinctive perception of a stranger and traveller, and the same importunity in volunteering himself, his cattle, and carriage, for any part of Spain. The man, how- ever, and his equipage are peculiarly Spanish ; his carriage and his team have undergone little change during the last two cen- turies, and are the representatives of the former ones of Europe they resemble those vehicles once used in England, which may still be seen in the old prints of country-houses by Kip ; or, as regards Prance, in the pictures of Louis XIV.'s journeys and campaigns by Vandermeulen. They are the remnant of the once universal " coach and six," in which according to Pope, who was not infallible, British fair were to delight for ever. The "coche de colleras" is a huge cumbrous machine, built after the fashion of a reduced lord mayor's coach, or some of the equipages o r the old cardinals, at Rome. It is ornamented with 2 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. rude sculpture, gilding, and painting of glaring color, but the modern pea-jacket and round hat spoil the picture which requires passengers dressed in brocade and full-bottomed wigs ; the fore- wheels are very low, the hind ones very high, and both remark- ably narrow in the tire ; remember when they stick in the mud, and the drivers call upon Santiago, to push the vehicle out back- wards, as the more you draw it forwards the deeper you get into the mire. The pole sticks out like the bowsprit of a ship, and contains as much wood and iron work as would go to a small waggon. The interior is lined with gay silk and gaudy plush, adorned with lace and embroidery, with doors that open indiffer- ently and windows that do not shut well ; latterly the general poverty and prose of transpyrenean civilization has effaced much of these ornate nationalities, both in coach and drivers ; better roads and lighter vehicles require fewer horses, which were ab- solutely necessary formerly to drag the heavy concern through heavier ways. The luggage is piled up behind, or stowed away in a front boot. The" management of driving this vehicle is conducted by two persons. The master is called the " mayoral ;" his helper or cad the " mozo" or, more properly, " el zagal" from the Arabic, " a strong active youth." The costume is peculiar, and is based on that of Andalucia, which sets the fashion all over the Penin- sula, in all matters regarding bull-fighting, horse-dealing, robbing, smuggling, and so forth. He wears on his head a gay-colored silk handkerchief, tied in such a manner that the tails hang down behind.; over this remnant of the Moorish turban he places a high-peaked sugarloaf-shaped hat with broad brims ; his jaunty jacket is made either of black sheepskin, studded with silver tags and filigree buttons, or of brown cloth, with the back, arms, and particularly the elbows, welted and tricked out with flowers and vases, cut in patches of different-colored cloth and much em- broidered. When the jacket is not worn, it is usually hung over the left shoulder, after the hussar fashion. The waistcoat is made of rich fancy silk ; the breeches of blue or green velvet plush, ornamented with stripes and filigree buttons, and tied at the knee with silken cords and tassels ; the neck is left open, and the shirt collar turned down, and a gaudy neck-handkerchief is THE ZAGAL. 93 worn, oftener passed through a ring than tied in a knot ; his waist is girt with a red sash, or with one of a bright yellow. This "/aja,"* a sine qua non, is the old Roman zona ; it serves also for a purse, " girds the loins," and keeps up a warmth over the abdomen, which is highly beneficial in hot climates, and wards off any tendency to irritable colic ; in the sash is stuck the " navaja" the knife, which is part and parcel of a Spaniard, and behind the " zagal" usually places his stick. The richly em- broidered gaiters are left open at the outside to show a handsome stocking ; the shoes are yellow like those of our cricketers, and are generally made of untanned calfskin, which being the color of dust require no cleaning. The caleseros on the eastern coast wear the Valencian stocking, which has no feet to it being open at bottom, it is likened by wags to a Spaniard's purse ; in^ stead of top boots they wear the ancient Roman sandals, made of the esparto rush, with hempen soles, which are called "alparga- tas," Arabice Alpalgah. The " zagal" follows the fashion in dress of the " mayoral" as nearly as his means will permit him He is the servant of all- work, and must be ready on every occa sion ; nor can any one who has ever seen the hard and inces sant toil which these men undergo, justly accuse them of being indolent a reproach which has been cast somewhat indiscrimi- nately on all the lower classes of Spain ; he runs by the side of the carriage, picks up stones to pelt the mules, ties and untie? knots, and pours forth a volley of blows and oaths from the mo- ment of starting to that of arrival. He sometimes is indulged with a ride by the side of the mayoral on the box, when he al ways uses the tail of the hind mule to pull himself up into his seat. The harnessing the six animals is a difficult operation ; first the tackle of ropes is laid out on the ground, then each beast L* brought into his portion of the rigging. The start is always an important ceremony, and, as our royal mail used to do in the * Faja : the Hhezum of Cairo. Atrides tightens his sash when preparing for action Iliad xi. 15. The Roman soldiers kept their money in it. Ibit qui zoiwm perdidit. Hor. ii. Ep. 2. 40. The Jews used it for the same pur- pose Matthew x. 9 ; Mark vi. 8. It is loosened at night. " None shall slumber or sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed." Isaiah v.27. 64 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. country, brings out all the idlers in the vicinity. When the team is harnessed, the mayoral gets all his skeins of ropes into his hand, the " zagal" his sash full of stones, the helpers at the venta their sticks ; at a given signal all fire a volley of oaths and blows at the team, which, once in motion, away it goes, pitching over ruts deep as routine prejudices, with its pole dipping and rising like a ship in a rolling sea, and continues at a brisk pace, performing from twenty-five to thirty miles a-day. The hours of starting are early, in order to avoid the mid-day heat ; in these matters the Spanish customs are pretty much the same with the Italian ; the calesero is always the best judge of the hours of de- parture and these minor details, which vary according to circum- stances. Whenever a particularly bad bit of road occurs, notice is given to the team by calling over their names, and by crying out " arr, arre^ gee-up, which is varied with "firme, firme" steady, boy, steady ! The names of the animals are always fine-sounding and polysyllabic ; the accent is laid on the last syllable, which is always dwelt on and lengthened out with a particular emphasis Cdpltdnd-d Bdndolerd-d Gentrdld-d Vdlerosd-d. All this vocal driving is performed at the top of the voice, and, indeed, next to scaring away crows in a field, must be considered the best possible practice for the lungs. The team often exceeds six in number, and never is less the propor- tion of females predominates : there is generally one male mule making the seventh, who is called " el macho" the male par excel- lence, like the Grand Turk, or a substantive in a speech in Cortes, which seldom has less than half a dozen epithets : he invariably comes in for the largest share of abuse and ill usage, which, in- deed, he deserves the most, as the male mule is infinitely more stubborn and viciously inclined than the female. Sometimes there is a horse of the Rosinante breed ; he is called " el cavallo" or rather, as it is pronounced, " el cdvdl-yo-6." The horse is always the best used of the team ; to be a rider, " caballero" is the Spaniard's synonym for gentleman ; and it is their correct mode of addressing each other, and is banded gravely among the lower orders, who never have crossed any quadruped save a mule or a jackass. SWEARING. 65 The driving a coche de cotter as is quite a science of itself, and is observed in conducting diligences; it amuses the Spanish " majo" or fancy-man as much as coach-driving does the fancy- man of England ; the great art lies not in handling the ribbons, but in the proper modulation of the voice, since the cattle are always addressed individually by their names ; the first syllables are pronounced very rapidly; the "macho," the male mule, who is the most abused, is the only one who is not addressed by any names beyond that of his sex : the word is repeated with a volu- ble iteration ; in order to make the two syllables longer, they are strung together thus, macho mdclio macho mdcho-6 : they begin in semiquavers, flowing on crescendo to a semibreve or breve, so the four words are compounded into one polysyllable. The horse, caballo, is simply called so ; he has no particular name of his own, which the female mules are never without, and which they perfectly know indeed, the owners will say that they under- stand them, and all bad language, as well as Christian women, " como Christianas ;" and, to do the beasts justice, they seem more shocked and discomfited thereby than the bipeds who profess the same creed. If the animal called to does not answer by pricking up her ears, or by quickening her pace, the threat of " Id vdrd" the stick, is added the last argument of Spanish drivers, men in office, and schoolmasters, with whom there is no sort of reason equal to that of the bastinado, " 770, hay tal razon, como la del baston." It operates on the timorous more than " unadorned eloquence." The Moors thought so highly of the bastinado, that they held the stick to be a special gift from Allah to the faith- ful. It holds good, a priori and a posteriori, to mule and boy, " al hijo y mulo, para el culo ;" and if the "macho" be in fault, and he is generally punished to encourage the others, some abuse is added to blows, such as " que perro-o" " what a dog !" or some unhandsome allusion to his mother, which is followed by throwing a stone at the leaders, for no whip could reach them from the coach-box. When any particular mule's name is called, if her companion be the next one to be abused, she is seldom addressed by her name, but is spoken to as " a la 6trd-d" " aquella otrd-d," "Now for that other one," which from long association is expected and acknowledged. The team obeys the 66 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. voice and is an admirable command. Few things are more entertaining than driving them, especially over bad roads ; but it requires much practice in Spanish speaking and swearing. Among the many commandments that are always broken in Spain, that of " swear not at all " is not the least. " Our army swore lustily in Flanders/ 7 said Uncle Toby. But few nations can surpass the Spaniards in the language of vituperation : it is limited only by the extent of their anatomical, geographical, astronomical, and religious knowledge ; it is so plentifully be- stowed on their animals " un muletier a ce jeu vaut trois rois '' that oaths and imprecations seem to be considered as the only language the mute creation can comprehend ; and as actions are generally suited to the words, the combination is remarkably effective. As much of the traveller's time on the road must be passed among beasts and muleteers, who are not unlike them, some knowledge of their sayings and doings is of great use : to be able to talk to them in their own lingo, to take an interest in them and in their animals, never fails to please ; " For vida del demonio. mas sabe Usia que nosotros ;" " by the life of the devil, your honor knows more than we," is a common form of compli- ment. When once equality is established, the master mind soon becomes the real master of the rest. The great oath of Spain, which ought never to be written or pronounced, practically forms the foundation of the language of the lower orders ; it is a most ancient remnant of the phallic abjuration of the evil eye, the dreaded fascination which still perplexes the minds of Orientals, and is not banished from Spanish and Neapolitan superstition's.* # The dread of the fascination of the evil eye, from which Solomon was not exempt (Proverbs xxiii. 6), prevails all over the East; it has not been extirpated from Spain or from Naples, which so long belonged to Spain. The lower classes in the Peninsula hang round the necks of their children and cattle, a horn tipped with silver ; this is sold as an amulet in the silver- smiths' shops ; the cord by which it is attached, ought to be braided from a black mare's tale. The Spanish gipsies, of whom Borrow has given us so complete an account, thrive by disarming the mat de ojo^ li qiiereltr nasulap as they term it. The drea 1 of the " Am araj' exists among all .classes of the Moors. The better classes of Spaniards make a joke of it ; and often, when you remark that a person has put on or wears something strange about him the answer is, " Es para que no me hagan mal de ojoP Naples is the HINTS FOR HIRING. 67 The word terminates in ajo, on which great stress is laid : the j is pronounced with a most Arabic, guttural aspiration. The word ajo means also garlic, which is quite as often in Spanish mouths, and is exactly what Hotspur liked, a " mouth-filling oath," energetic and Michael Angelesque. The pun has been extended to onions ; thus, " ajos y celollas " means oaths and imprecations. The sting of the oath is in the " ajo ;" all women and quiet men, who do not wish to be particularly objuratory, but merely to en- force and give a little additional vigor, un soupcon d'ail, or a shotting to their discourse, drop the offensive " ajo," and say, "car," " carai" " caramba," The Spanish oath is used as a verb, as a substantive, as an adjective, just as it suits the grammar or the wrath of the utterer. It is equivalent also to a certain place and the person who lives there. " Vaya Usted al C ajo, is the worst form of the angry " Vaya Usted al demonio," or "a los infiernos," and is a whimsical mixture of courtesy and transpor- tation. " Your Grace may go to the devil, or to the infernal regions !" Thus these imprecatory vegetables retain in Spain their old Egyptian flavor and mystical charm ; as on the Nile, according to Pliny, onions and garlic were worshipped as adjuratory divini- ties. The Spaniards have also added most of the gloomy northern Gothic oaths, which are imprecatory, to the Oriental, which are grossly sensual. Enough of this. The traveller who has much to do with Spanish mules and asses, biped or quadruped, will need no handbook to teach them the sixty-five or more " serments espaignols" on which Mons. de Brantome wrote a treatise. More becoming will it be to the English gentleman to swear not at all ; a reasonable indulgence in Caramba is all that can be permitted ; the custom is more honored in the breach than in the observance, anjj bad luck seldom deserts the house of the imprecator. " En la casa del que jura, nofalta desaventura." Previously to hiring one of these "coaches of collars," which is rather *an expensive amusement, every possible precaution should be taken in clearly and minutely specifying everything to be done, and the price ; the Spanish " caleseros " rival their head-quarters for charms and coral amulets : all the learning has been col- lected by the Canon Jorio and the Marques Arditi. 68 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. Italian colleagues in that untruth, roguery, and dishonesty, which seem everywhere to combine readily with jockyeship, and distin- guishes those who handle the whip, " do jobbings," and conduct mortals by horses ; the fee to be given to the drivers should never be included in the bargain, as the keeping this important item open and dependent on the good behavior of the future recipients offers a sure check over master and man, and other road-classes. In justice, however, to this class of Spaniards, it may be said that on the whole they are civil, good-humored, and hard-working, and, from not having been accustomed to either the screw bargain- ing or alternate extravagance of the English travellers in Italy, are as tolerably fair in their transactions as can be expected from human nature brought in constant contact with four-legged and four-wheeled temptations. They offer to the artist an endless subject of the picturesque ; everything connected with them is full of form, color, and originality. They can do nothing, whether sitting, driving, sleeping or eating, that does not make a picture ; the same may be said of their animals and their habits and harness ; those who draw will never find the midday halt long enough for the infinite variety of subject and scenery to which their travelling equipage and attendants form the most peculiar and appropriate foreground : while our modern poetasters will consider them quite as worthy of being sung in immortal verse as the Cambridge carrier Hobson, who was Milton's choice. THE ANDALUCIAN HORSE. CHAPTER VII. Spanish Horses Mules Asses Muleteers Maragatos. WE now proceed to Spanish quadrupeds, having placed the wheel-carriages before the horses. That of Andalucia takes pre- cedence of all ; he fetches the highest price, and the Spaniards in general value no other breed ; they consider his configuration and qualities as perfect, and in some respects they are right, for no horse is more elegant or more easy in his motions, none are more gentle or docile, none are more quick in acquiring showy accomplishments, or in performing feats of Astleyan agility ; he has very little in common with the English blood-horse ; his mane is soft and silky, and is frequently plaited with gay ribbons; his tail is of great length, and left in all the proportions of nature, not cropped and docked, by which Voltaire was so much offended : " Fiers et bizarres Anglais, qui des memes ciseaux Coupez la tete aux rois, et la queue aux chevaux." It often trails to the very ground, while the animal has perfect command over it, lashing it on every side as a gentleman switches his cane ; therefore, when on a journey, it is usual to double and tie it up, after the fashion of the ancient pig-tails of our sailors. The Andalucian horse is round in his quarters, though inclined to be small in the barrel ; he is broad-chested, and always carries his head high, especially when going a good pace ; his length of leg adds to his height, which sometimes reaches to sixteen hands ; he never, however, stretches out with the long graceful sweep of the English thorough-bred ; his action is apt to be loose and shambling, and he is given to dishing with the feet. The pace is, notwithstanding, perfectly delightful. From being very long in the pastern, the motion is broken as it were by the springs of a carriage; their pace is the peculiar " paso Castellano" which is 70 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. something more than a walk, and less than a trot, and is truly se- date and sedan-chair like, and suits a grave Don, who is given, like a Turk, to tobacco and contemplation. Those Andalucian horses which fall when young into the hands of the officers at Gibraltar acquire a very different action, and lay themselves bet- ter down to their work, and gain much more in speed from the English system of training than they would have done had they been managed by Spaniards. Taught or untaught, this pace is most gentlemanlike, and well did Beaumont and Fletcher " Think it noble, as Spaniards do in riding, In managing a great horse, which is princely j" and as has been said, is the only attitude in which the kings of the Spains, true ydtnnoi, ought ever to be painted, witching the world with noble horsemanship. Many other provinces possess breeds which are more useful, though far less showy, than the Andalucian. The horse of Cas- tile is a strong, hardy animal, and the best which Spain produces for mounting heavy cavalry. The ponies of Gallicia, although ugly and uncouth, are admirably suited to the wild hilly country and laborious population ; they require very little care or groom- ing, and are satisfied with coarse food and Indian corn. The horses of Navarre, once so celebrated, are still esteemed for their hardy strength ; they have, from neglect, degenerated into ponies, which, however, are beautiful in form, hardy, docile, sure-footed, and excellent trotters. ' In most of the large towns of Spain there is a sort of market, where horses are publicly sold ; but Ronda fair, in May, is the great Howden and Horncastle of the four provinces of Seville, Cordova, Jaen, and Granada, and the resort of all the picturesque-looking rogues of the south. The reader of Don Quixote need not be told that the race of Gines Passa- monte is not extinct ; the Spanish Chalanes, or horse-dealers, have considerable talents ; but the cleverest is but a mere child when compared to the perfection of rascality to which a real English professor has attained in the mysteries of lying, chaunting, and making up a horse. The breeding of horses was carefully attended to by the Span- ish government previously to the invasion of the French, by whom MULES. 71 the entire horses and brood-mares were either killed or stolen, and the buildings and stables burnt. The saddles used commonly in Spain are Moorish ; they are made with high peak and croup behind ; the stirrup-irons are large triangularly-shaped boxes. The food is equally Oriental, and consists of " barley and straw/' as mentioned in the Bible. We well remember the horror of our Andalucian groom, on our first reaching Gallicia, when he rushed in, exclaiming that the beasts would perish, as nothing was to be had there but _oats and hay. After some difficulty he was persuaded to see if they would eat it, which to his surprise they actually did ; such, however, is habit, that they soon fell out of condition, and did not recover until the damp mountains were quitted for the arid plains of Castile. Spaniards in general prefer mules and asses to the horse, which is more delicate, requires greater attention, and is less sure-footed over broken and precipitous ground. The mule per- forms in Spain the functions of the camel in the East, and has something in his morale (besides his physical suitableness to the country) which is congenial to the character of his masters ; he has the same self-willed obstinacy, the same resignation under burdens, the same singular capability of endurance of labor, fatigue, and privation. The mule has always been much used in Spain, and the demand for them very great ; ye""j from some mis- taken crotchet of Spanish political economy (which is very Spanish,) the breeding, of the mule has long been attempted to be prevented, in order to encourage that of the horse. One of the reasons alleged was, that the mule was a non-reproductive animal ; an argument which might or ought to apply equally to the monk ; a breed for which Spain could have shown for the first prize, both as to number and size, against any other country in all Christen- dom. This attempt to force the production of an animal far less suited to the wants and habits of the people has failed, as might be expected. The difficulties thrown in the way have only tended to raise the prices of mules, which are, and always were, very dear; a good mule will fetch from 257. to 50/., while a horse of relative goodness may be purchased for from 2QL to40Z. Mules were always very dear ; thus Martial, like a true An- 72 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. dalucian Spaniard, talks of one which cost more tkan a house The most esteemed are those bred from the mare and the ass, or "garanon"* some of which are of extraordinary size; and one which Don Carlos had in his stud-house at Aranjuez in 1832 ex- ceeded fifteen hands in height. This colossal ass and a Spanish infante were worthy of each other. The mules in Spain, as in the East, have their coats closely shorn or clipped ; part of the hair is usually left on in stripes like the^ zebra, or cut into fanciful patterns, like the tattooings of a New Zealand chief. This process of shearing is found to keep the beast cooler and freer from cutaneous disorders. The opera- tion is performed in the southern provinces by gipsies, who are the same tinkers, horse-dealers, and vagrants in Spain as else- where. Their clipping recalls the " mulo curto," on which Horace could amble even to Brundusium. The operators rival in talent those worthy Frenchmen who cut the hair of poodles on the Pont Neuf, in the heart and brain of European civilization. Their Spanish colleagues may be known by the shears, formida- ble and classical-shaped as those of Lachesis and her sisters, which they carry in their sashes. They are very particular in clipping the heels and patterns, which they say ought to be as free from superfluous hair as the palm of a lady's hand. Spanish asses have been immortalized by Cervantes ; they are endeared to us by Sancho's love and talent of imitation ; he brayed so well, be it remembered, that all the long-eared chorus joined a performer who, in his own modest phrase, only wanted a tail to be a perfect donkey. Spanish mayors, according to Don Quixote, have a natural talent for this braying ; but, save and except in the west of England, their right worshipfuls may be matched elsewhere. The humble ass, " Zwrro," u'borrico" is the rule, the as>in praesenti, and part and parcel of every Spanish scene : he forms the appropriate foreground in streets or roads. Wherever two or * The gar anon is also called "burro padre," ass father, not " padre burro." J Padre," the prefix of paternity, is the common title given in Spain to the clergy and the monks. " Father jackass" might in many instances, when applied to the latter, be too morally and physically appropriate, to be con- sistent with the respect due to the celibate co.wl and cassock. ASSES OF LA MANCHA. 73 three Spaniards are collected together in market, junta, or " congre- gation," there is quite sure to be an ass among them ; he is the hard worked companion of the lower orders, to whom to work is the greatest misfortune ; sufferance is indeed the common virtu* of both tribes. They may, perhaps, both wince a little when f new burden or a new tax is laid on them by Senor Mon, but the} soon, when they see that there is no remedy, bear on and endure from this fellow-feeling, master and animal cherish each other a heart, though, from the blows and imprecations bestowed openly, the former may be thought by hasty observers to be ashamed of confessing these predilections in public. Some under-current, no doubt, remains in the ancient prejudices of chivalry ; but Cervantes, who thoroughly understood human nature in general, and Spanish nature in particular, has most justly dwelt on the dear love which Sancho Panza felt for his " Rucio" and marked the reciprocity of the brute, affectionate as intelligent. In fact, in the Sagra district, near Toledo, he is called El vecino, one of the householders; and none can look a Spanish ass -in the face without remarking a peculiar expression, which indicates that the hairy fool considers himself, like the pig in a cabin of the " first gem of the sea," to be one of the family, de la familia, or de nosotros. La Mancha is the paradise of mules and asses many a Sancho at this moment is there fondling and embracing his ass, his " chato chatito," " romo," or other complimentary variations of Snub, with which, when not abusing him, he delights to nick- name his helpmate. In Spain, as Sappho says, Love is ylvxv. THX^O^, an alteration of the agro-dolce ; nor is there any Preven- tion of Cruelty Society towards animals ; every Spaniard has the same right in law and equity to kick and beat his own ass to his own liking, as a philanthropic Yankee has to wallop his own riiggar ; no one ever thinks of interposing on these occasions, any more than they would in a quarrel between a man and his wife. The words are, at all events, on one side. It is, however, record- ed in piam memoriam, of certain Roman Catholic asses of Spain, that they tried to throw off one Tomas Trebino and some other heretics, when on their way to be burnt, being horror-struck at bearing such monsters. Every Spanish peasant is heart-broken when injury is done to his ass, as well he may be, for it is the PART i. 5 74 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. means by which he lives ; nor has he much chance, if he loses him, of finding a crown when hunting for him, as was once done,v or even a government like Sancho. Sterne would have done bet- ter to have laid the venue of his sentimentalities over a dead ass in Spain, rather than in France, where the quadruped species is much rarer. In Spain, where small carts and wheelbarrows are almost unknown, and the drawing them is considered as beneath the dignity of the Spanish man, the substitute, an ass, is in constant employ ; sometimes it is laden with sacks of corn, with wine-skins, with water-jars, with dung or with dead robbers, slung like sacks over the back, their arms and legs tied under the animal's belly. Asses' milk, " leche de burra," is in much request during the spring season. The brown sex drink it in order to fine their complex- ions and cool their blood, " refrescar la sangre ;" the clergy and men in office, "los empleados" to whom it is mother's milk, swallow it in order that it may give tone to their gastric juices. Riding on assback was accounted a disgrace and a degradation to the Gothic hidalgo, and the Spaniards, in the sixteenth century, mounted unrepining cuckolds, " los cornudos pacientes" on asses. Now-a-days, in spite of all these unpleasant associations, the grandees and their wives, and even grave ambassadors from for- eign parts, during the royal residence at Aranjuez, much delight in elevating themselves on this beast of ill omen, and " borricadas" or donkey parties are all the fashion. The muleteer of Spain is justly renowned ; his generic term is arriero, a gee-uper, for his arre arre is pure Arabic, as indeed are almost all the terms connected with his craft, as the Moris- coes were long the great carriers of Spain. To travel with the muleteer, when the party is small or a person is alone, is both cheap and safe ; indeed, many of the most picturesque portions of Spain, Ronda and Granada, for instance, can scarcely be reached except by walking or riding. These men, who are constantly on the road, and going backwards and forwards, are the best per- sons to consult for details ; their animals are generally to be hired, but a muleteer's stud is not pleasant to ride, since their beasts always travel in single files. The leading animal is fur- nished with a copper bell with a wooden clapper, to give notice of their miirch, which is shaped like an ice-mould, sometimes two THE MULETEER. 75 feet long, and hangs from the neck, being contrived, as it were, on purpose to knock the animal's knees as much as possible, and to emit the greatest quantity of the most melancholy sounds, which, according to the pious origin of all bells, were meant to scare away the Evil One. The bearer of all this tintinnabular clatter is chosen from its superior docility and knack in picking out a way. The others follow their leader, and the noise he makes when they cannot see him. They are heavily but scientifically laden. The cargo of each is divided into three portions ; one is tied on each side, and the other placed between. If the cargo be not nicely balanced, the muleteer either unloads or adds a few stones to the lighter portion the additional weight being com- pensated by the greater comfort with which a well-poised burden is carried. These " sumpter" mules are gaily decorated with trappings full of color and tags. The head-gear is composed of different colored worsteds, to which a multitude of small bells are affixed ; hence the saying, " muger de mucha campanilla" a wo- man of many bells, of much show, much noise, or pretension. The muleteer either walks by the side of his animal or sits aloft on the cargo, with his feet dangling on the neck, a seat which is by no means so uncomfortable as it would appear. A rude gun, " but 'twill serve," and is loaded wth slugs, hangs always in readiness by his side, and often with it a guitar ; these emblems of life and death paint the unchanged reckless condition of Iberia, where extremes have ever met, where a man still goes out of the world like a swan, with a song. Thus accoutred, as Byron says, with " all that gave, promise of pleasure or a grave," the ap- proach of the caravan is announced from afar by his cracked or guttural voice : " How carols now the lusty muleteer !" For when not engaged in swearing or smoking, the livelong day is passed in one monotonous high-pitched song, the tune of which is little in harmony with the import of the words, or his cheerful humor, being most unmusical and melancholy ; but such is the true type of Oriental melody, as it is called. The same absence of thought which is shown in England by whistling is displayed in Spain by singing. "Quien canta sus males espanta :" he who sings frightens away ills, a philosophic consolation in travel as old and as classical as Virgil : " Cantantes licet usque, minus via 76 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tsedet, eamus," which may be thus translated for the benefit of country gentlemen : If we join in doleful chorus, The dull highway will much less bore us. The Spanish muleteer is a fine fellow ; he is intelligent, active and enduring ; he braves hunger and thirst, heat and cold, mud and dust ; he works as hard as his cattle, never robs or is robbed ; and while his betters in this land put off everything till to-morrow except bankruptcy, he is punctual and honest, his frame is wiry and sinewy, his costume peculiar ; many are the leagues and long, which we have ridden in his caravan, and longer his robber yarns, to which we paid no attention; and it must be admitted that these cavalcades are truly national and picturesque. Min- gled with droves of mules and mounted horsemen, the z : g-zag lines come threading down the mountain defiles, now tracking through the aromatic brushwood, now concealed amid rocks and olive-trees, now emerging bright and glittering into the sunshine, giving life and movement to the lonely nature, and breaking the usual stillness by the tinkle of the oefl and the sad ditty of the muleteer sounds which, though unmusical in themselves, are in keeping with the scene, . and associated with wild Spanish ram- bles, just as the harsh whetting of the scythe is mixed up with the sweet spring and newly-mown hay-meadow. There is one class of muleteers which are but little known to European travellers the Maragatos, whose head-quarters are at San Roman, near Astorga ; they, like the Jew and gipsy, live exclusively among their own people, preserving their primeval costume and customs, and never marrying out of their own tribe. They are as perfectly nomad and wandering as the Bedouins, the mule only being substituted for the camel ; their honesty and in- dustry are proverbial. They are a sedate, grave, dry, matter-of- fact, business-like people. Their charges are high, but the se- curity counterbalances, as they may be trusted with untold gold. They are the channels of all traffic between Gallicia and the Castiles, being seldom seen in the south or east provinces. They are dressed in leathern jerkins, which fit tightly like a cuirass, leaving the arms free. Their linen is coarse but white, espe. COSTUME OF THE MARAGATOS. 77 cially the shirt collar ; a broad leather belt, in which there is a purse, is fastened round the waist. Their breeches, like those of the Valencians, are called Zaraguelks, a pure Arabic word for kilts or wide drawers, and no burgomaster of Rembrandt is more broad-bottomed. Their legs aro encased in long brown cloth gaiters, with red garters ; their hair is generally cut close sometimes, however, strange tufts are left. A huge, slouch- ing, Happing hat completes the most inconvenient of travelling dresses, and it is too Dutch to be even picturesque ; but these fashions are as unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Per- sians were ; nor will any Maragato dream of altering his costume until those dressed models of painted wood do which strike the hours of the clock on the square of Astorga ; Pedro MatOj also, another figure costumte, who holds a weathercock at the cathe- dral, is the observed of all observers ; and, in truth, this particu- lar costume is, as that of Quakers used to be, a guarantee of their tribe and respectability ; thus even Cordero, the rich Maragato deputy, appeared in Cortes in this local costume. The dress of the Maragata is equally peculiar; she w^ars, if married, a sort of head-gear, El Caramietto, in the shape of a crescent, the round part coming over the forehead, which is very Moorish, and resembles those of the females in the basso-rilievos at Granada. Their hair flows loosely on their shoulders, while their apron or petticoat hangs down open before and behind, and is curiously tied at the back with a sash, and their bodice is cut square over the bosom. At their festivals they are covered with ornaments of long chains of coral and metal, with crosses, relics, and medals jin silver. Their earrings are very heavy, and sup- ported by silken threads, as among the Jewesses in Barbary. A marriage is a grand feast ; then large parties assemble, and a president is chosen, who puts into a waiter whatever sum of money he likes, and all invited must then give as much. The bride is enveloped in a mantle, which she wears the whole day, and never again except on that of her husband's death. She does not dance at the wedding-ball. Early next morning twt roast chickens are brought to the bed-side of the happy pair The next evening ball is opened by the bride and her husband to the tune of the gaita, or Moorish bagpipe. Their dances ar 78 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. grave and serious ; such indeed is their whole character. The Maragatos, with their honest, weather-beaten countenances, are seen with files of mules all along the high road to La Coruna. They generally walk, and, like other Spanish arrieros, although they sing and curse rather less, are employed in one ceaseless shower of stones and blows at their mules. The whole tribe assembles twice a year at Astorga, at the feasts of Corpus and the Ascension, when they dance El Canizo, beginning at two o'clock in the afternoon, and ending precisely at three. If any one not a Maragato joins, they all leave off im- mediately. The women never wander from their homes, which their undomestic husbands always do. They lead the hardworked life of the Iberian females of old, and now, as then, are to be seen everywhere in these west provinces toiling in the fields, early before the sun has risen, and late after it has set ; and it is most painful to behold them drudging at these unfeminine vocations. The origin of the Maragatos has never been ascertained. Some consider them to be a remnant of the Celtiberian, others of the Visigoths; most, however, prefer a Bedouin, or caravan descent, It is in vain to question these ignorant carriers as to their history or origin ; for like the gipsies, they have no traditions, and know nothing. Arrieros, at all events, they are; and that word, in common with so many others relating to the barb and carrier-cara- van craft, is Arabic, and proves whence the system and science were derived by Spaniards. The Maragatos are celebrated for their fine beasts of burden ; indeed the mules of Leon are renowned, and the asses splendid and numerous, especially the nearer one approaches to the learned university of Salamanca. The Maragatos take precedence on the road ; they are the lords of the highway, being the channels of commerce in a land where mules and asses represent luggage rail trains. They know and feel their importance, and that they are the rule, and the traveller for mere pleasure is the exception. Few Spanish muleteers are much more polished than their beasts, and however picturesque the scene, it is no joke meeting a string of laden beasts in a narrow road, especially with a precipice on one side, cosa de Espana. The Maragatos seldom give way, and their mules keep doggedly on ; as the baggage projects on each TRAVELLING IN THE INTERIOR. 79 side, like the paddles of a steamer, they sweep the whole path. But all wayfaring details in the genuine Spanish interior are cal- culated for the packj as in England a century back ; and there is no thought bestowed on the foreigner, who is not wanted, nay is disliked. The inns, roads, and right sides, suit the natives and their brutes ; nor will either put themselves out of their way to please the fancies of a stranger. The racy Peninsula is too little travelled over for its natives to adopt the mercenary conveniences of the Swiss, that nation of innkeepers and coach-jobbers. 80 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. CHAPTER VIII. Riding Tour in Spain Pleasures of it Pedestrian Tour Choice of Com- panions Rules for a Riding Tour Season of year Day's journey Management of Horse j his Feet ; Shoes ; General Hints. A MAN in a public carriage ceases to be a private individual : he is merged into the fare, and becomes a number according to his place ; he is booked like a parcel, and is delivered by the guard. How free, how lord and master of himself, does the same dependent gentleman mount his eager barb, who by his neighing and pawing exhibits his joyful impatience to be off too ! How fresh and sweet the free breath of heaven, after the frousty atmosphere of a full inside of foreigners, who, from the narcotic effects of tobacco, forget the existence of soap, water, and clean linen ! Travelling on horseback, so unusual a gratification to Englishmen, is the ancient, primitive, and once universal mode of travelling in Europe, as it still is in the East; mankind, how- ever, soon gets accustomed to a changed state of locomotion, and forgets how recent is its introduction. Fynes Moryson gave much the same advice two centuries ago to travellers in England, as must be now suggested to those who in Spain desert the coach- beaten highways for the delightful bye-ways, and thus explore the rarely visited, but not the least interesting portions of the Pen- insula. It has been our good fortune to perform many of these Q xpeditions on horseback, both alone and in company ; and on one occasion to have made the pilgrirnage from Seville to Santi- ago, through Estremadura and Gallicia. returning by the As- turias, Biscay, Leon, and the Castiles ; thus riding nearly two thousand miles on the same horse, and only accompanied by one Andalucian servant, who had never before gone out of his native province. The same tour was afterwards performed by two friends with two servants ; nor did they or ourselves ever meet ROYAL ROADS. 81 with any real impediments or difficulties, scarcely indeed suffi- cient of either to give the flavor of adventure, or the dignity of danger, to the undertaking. It has also been our lot to make an extended tour of many months, accompanied by an English lady, through Granada, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, and Arragon, to say nothing of repeated excursions through every nook and corner of Andalucia. The result of all this experience, combined with that of many friends, who have ridden over the Peninsula, enables us to recommend this method to the young, healthy, and adven- turous, as by far the most agreeable plan of proceeding ; and, indeed, as we have said, as regards two-thirds of the Peninsula, the only practicable course. The leading royal roads which connect the capital with the principal seaports are, indeed, excellent ; but they are generally drawn in a straight line, whereby many of the most ancient cities are thus left out, and these, together with sites of battles and historical incident, ruins and remains of antiquity, and scenes of the greatest natural beauty, are accessible with difficulty, and in many cases only on horseback. Spain abounds with wide tracts which are perfectly unknown to the Geographical Society. Here, indeed, is fresh ground open to all who aspire in these threadbare days to book something new ; here is scenery enough to fill a dozen portfolios, and subject enough for a score of quar- tos. How many flowers pine unbotanized, how many rocks harden ungeologized ; what views are dying to be sketched ; what bears and deer to be stalked ; what trout to be caught and eaten ; what valleys expand their bosoms, longing to embrace their visitor ; what virgin beauties hitherto unseen await the happy member of the Travellers' Club, who in ten days can ex- change the bore of eternal Pall Mall for these untrodden sites ; and then what an accession of dignity in thus discovering a terra incognita, and rivalling Mr. Mungo Park ! Nor is a guide want- ing, since our good friend John Murray, the grand monarque of Handbooks, has proclaimed from Albemarle Street, // n'y a plus de Pyrenees. As the wide extent of country which intervenes between the radii of the great roads is most indifferently provided with public means of inter-communication ; as there is little traffic, and no 5* 82 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. demand for modern conveyances even mules and horses are not always to be procured, and we have always found it best to set out on these distant excursions with our own beasts : the com- fort and certainty of this precaution have been corroborated her yond any doubt by frequent comparisons with the discomforts undergone by other persons, who trusted to chance accommoda- tions and means of locomotion in ill-provided districts and out- of-the-way excursions : 'indeed, as a general rule, the traveller will do well to carry with him everything with which from habit he feels that he cannot dispense. The chief object will be to combine in as small a space as possible the greatest quantity of portable comfort, taking care to select the really essential ; for there is no worse mistake than lumbering oneself with things that are never wanted. This mode of travelling has not been much detailed by the generality of authors, who have rarely gone much out of the beaten track, or undertaken a long-continued riding tour, and they have been rather inclined to overstate the dangers and difficulties of a plan which they have never tried. At the same time this plan is not to be recommended to fine ladies nor to delicate gentlemen, nor to those who have had a touch of rheumatism, or who tremble at the shadows which coming gout casts before it. Those who have endurance and curiosity euough to face a tour in Sicily, may readily set out for Spain ; rails and post-horses certainly get quicker over the country ; but the pleasure of the remembrance and the benefits derived by travel are commonly in an inverse ratio to the ease and rapidity with which the journey is performed. In addition to the accurate knowledge which is thus acquired of the country (for there is no map like this mode of surveying), and an acquaintance with a considerable, and by no means the worst portion of its population, a riding expedition to a civilian is almost equivalent to serving a campaign. It im- parts a new life, which is adopted on the spot, and which soon appears quite natural, from being in perfect harmony and fitness with everything around, howevei strange to all previous habits and notions ; it takes the conceit cut of a man for the rest of his life it makes him bear and forbear. It is a capital practical school of moral discipline, just as the hardiest mariners are nur- HEALTHFUL EXERCISE. tured in the roughest seas. Then and there will be learnt golden rules of patience, perseverance, good temper, and good fellowship : the individual man must come out, for better or worse. On these occasions, where wealth and rank are stripped of the aids and appurtenances of conventional superiority, a man will draw more on his own resources, moral and physical, than on any letter of credit ; his wit will be sharpened by invention-sug- gesting necessity. Then and there, when up, about, and abroad', will be shaken off dull sloth ; action Demosthenic action will be the watch- word. The traveller will blot out from his dictionary the fatal Spanish phrase of procrastination by-and-ty, a street which leads to the house of never, for "por la calle de despues, se va a la casa de nunca." Reduced to shift for himself, he will see the evil of waste the folly of improvidence and want of order. He will whistle to the winds the paltry excuse of idleness, the Spanish "no se puede" " it is impossible" He will soon learn, by grappling with difficulties, how surely they are overcome, how soft as silk becomes the nettle when it is sternly grasped, which would sting the tender-handed touch, how powerful a principle of realizing the object proposed, is the moral conviction that we can and will accomplish it. He will never be scared by shadows "thin as air, for when one door shuts another opens, and he who pushes on arrives. And after all, a dash of hardship may be en- dured by those accustomed to loll in easy britzskas, if only for the sake of novelty ; what a new relish is given to the palled ap- petite by a little unknown privation ! hunger being, as Cervan- tes says, the best of sauces, which, as it never is wanting to the poor, is the reason why eating is their huge delight. Again, these sorts of independent expeditions are equally con- ducive to health of body : after the first few days of the new fa- tigue are got over, the frame becomes of iron, " hechode bronze," and the rider, a centaur not fabulous. The living in the pure air, the sustaining excitement of novelty, exercise, and constant occupation, are all sweetened by the willing heart, which renders even labor itself a pleasure ; a new and vigorous life is infused into every bone and muscle : early to bed and early to rise, if it does not make all brains wise, at least invigorates the gastric juices 84 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. makes a man forget that he has a liver, that storehouse of mortal misery bile, blue pill, and blue devils. This health is one of the secrets of t]ae amazing charm which seems inherent to this mode of travelling, in spite of all the apparent hardships with which it is surrounded in the abstract. Oh ! the delight of this gipsy, Bedouin, nomade life, seasoned with unfettered 'liberty ! We pitch our tent wherever we please, and there we make our home far from letters " requiring an immediate answer," and distant dining-outs, visits, ladies' maids, band-boxes, butlers, bores, and button-holders. Escaping from the meshes of the west end of London, we are transported into a new world ; every day the out-of-door pan- orama is varied ; now the heart is cheered and the countenance made glad by gazing on plains overflowing with milk and honey, or laughing with oil and wine, where the orange and citron bask in the glorious sunbeams, the palm without the desert, the sugar- cane without, the slave. Anon we are lost amid the silence of cloud-capped glaciers, where rock and granite are tost about like the fragments of a broken world, by the wild magnificence of Nature, who, careless of mortal admiration, lavishes with proud indifference her fairest charms where most unseen, her grandest forms where most inaccessible. Every day and every where we are unconsciously founding a stock of treasures and pleasures of memory, to be hived in our bosoms like the honey of the bee, to cheer and sweeten our after life, when we settle down like wine- dregs in our cask, which, delightful even as in the reality, wax stronger as we grow in years, and feel that these feats of our youth, like sweet youth itself, can never be our portion again. Of one thing the reader may be assured, that dear will be to him. as is nowto us, the remembrance of those wild and weary rides through tawny Spain, where hardship was forgotten ere undergone : those sweet-aired hills those rocky crags and tor- rents those fresh valleys which communicated their own fresh- ness to the heart that keen relish for hard fare, gained and seasoned by hunger sauce, which Ude did not invent those sound slumbers on harder couch, earned by fatigue, the downiest of pillows the braced nerves the spirits light, elastic, and joyous that freedom from care that health of body and soul which DELIGHTS OF A TOUR. 85 ever rewards a close communion with Nature and the shuffling off of the frets and factitious wants of the thick-pent artificial city. Whatever be the number of the party, and however they travel, whether on wheels or horseback, admitting even that a pleasant friend pro vehiculo est, that is, better than a post-chaise, yet no one should ever dream of making a pedestrian tour in Spain. It seldom answers anywhere, as the walker arrives at the object of his promenade tired and hungry , just at the moment when he ought to be the freshest and most up to intellectual pleasures. The deipnosophist Athenseus long ago discovered that there was no love for the sublime and beautiful in an empty stomach, aesthetics yield then to gastronomies, and there is no prospect in the world so fine as that of a dinner and a nap, or siesta afterwards. The pedestrian in Spain, where fleshly comforts are rare, will soon understand why, in the real journals of our Peninsular sol- diers, so little attention is paid to those objects which most attract the well provided traveller. In cases of bodily hardship, the em- ployment of the mental faculties is narrowed into the care of sup- plying mere physical wants, rather than expanded into searching for those of a contemplative or intellectual gratification ; the foot- sore and way-worn require, according to " The unexernpt condition By which all mortal frailty must subsist. Refreshment after toil, ease after pain.' 7 Walking is the manner by which beasts travel, who have therefore four legs ; those bipeds who follow the example of the brute animals will soon find that they will be reduced to their level in more particulars than they imagined or bargained for. Again, as no Spaniard ever walks for pleasure, and none ever perform a journey on foot except trampers and beggars, it is never supposed possible that any one else should do so except from compulsion. Pedestrians therefore are either ill received, or become objects of universal suspicion ; for a Spanish authority, judging of others by himself, always takes the worst view of the stranger, whom he considers as guilty until he proves himself innocent. Before the pleasures of a riding tour through Spain are men 86 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tioned, a few observations on the choice of companions may be made. Those who travel in public conveyances or with muleteers are seldom likely to be left alone. It is the horseman who strikes into out-of-the-way, unfrequented districts, who will feel the want of that important item a travelling companion, on which, as in choosing a wife, it is easy enough to give advice. The patient, must, however, administer to himself, and the selection will depend, of course, much on the taste and idiosyncracy of each individual ; those unfortunate persons who are accustomed to have everything their own way, or those happy ones, who are never less alone than when alone, and who possess the alchymy of finding resources and amusements in themselves, may pprhaps find that plan to be the best ; at all events, no company is better than bad company: " mas vale ir solo, que mal acompanado." A solitary wanderer is certainly the most unfettered as regards his notions and motions, " no tengo padre ni madre, ni perro que me ladre." He who has " neither father, mother, nor dog to bark at him," can read the book of Spain, as it were, in his own room, dwelling on what he likes, and skipping what he does not, as with a red Murray. Every coin has, however, its reverse, and every rose its thorn. Notwithstanding these and other obvious advantages, and the, tendency that occupation and even hardships have to drive away imaginary evils, this freedom will be purchased by occasional moments of depression ; a dreary, forsaken feeling will steal over the most cheerful mind. It is not good for man to be alone ; and this social necessity never comes home stronger to the warm taart than during a long-continued solitary ride through the rarely visited -districts of the Peninsula. The sentiment is in perfect harmony with the abstract feeling which is inspired by the present condition of unhappy Spain, fallen from her high estate, and blotted almost from the map of Europe. Silent, sad, and lonely is her face, on which the stranger will too often gaze ; her hedgeless, treeless tracts of corn-field, bounded only by the low horizon ; her uninhabited, uncultivated plains, abandoned to the wild flower and the bee, and which are rendered still more melancholy by ruined castle, or village, which stand out bleach- SPANISH MANNERS. 87 ing skeletons of a former vitality. The dreariness of this abomi- nation of desolation is increased by the singular absence of sing- ing birds, and the presence of the vulture, the eagle, and lonely birds of prey. The wanderer, far from home and friends, feels doubly a stranger in this strange land, where no smile greets his coming, no tear is shed at his going, where his memory passes away, like that of a guest who tarrieth but a day, where noth- ing of human life is seen, where its existence only is inferred by the rude wooden cross or stone-piled cairn, which marks the un- consecrated grave of some traveller who has been waylaid there alone, murdered, and sent to his account with all his imperfections on his head. However confidently , we have relied on past experience that such would not be our fate, yet these sorts of Spanish milestones marked with memento mori, are awkward evidences that the thing is not altogether impossible. It makes a single gentleman, whose life is not insured, not only trust to Santiago, but keep his powder dry, and look every now and then if his percussion cap fits. On these occasions the falling in with any of the no- made half-Bedouin natives is a sort of godsend ; their society is quite different from that of a regular companion, for better or worse until death us do part, as it is casual, and may be taken up or dropped at convenience. The habits of all Spaniards when on the road are remarkably gregarious ; a common fear acts as a cement, while the more they are in number the merrier. It is hail ! well met, fellow-traveller ! and the being glad to see each other is an excellent introduction. The sight of passengers bound our way is like speaking a strange sail on the Atlantic, Hola Camara ! ship a-hoy. This predisposition tends to make all travellers write so much and so handsomely of the lower classes of Spaniards, not. indeed more than they deserve, for they are a fine, noble race. Something of this arises, because on such occasions all parties meet on an equality ; and this levelling effect, perhaps unperceived, induces many a foreigner, however proud and reserved at home, to unbend, and that unaffectedly. He treats these accidental acquaintances quite differently from the manner in which he would venture to treat the lower orders of his own country, who,' probably, if conciliated by the same 88 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. condescension of manner, would appear in a more amiable light, although they are inferior to the Spaniard in his Oriental goodness of manner, his perfect tact, his putting himself and others into their proper place, without either self-degradation or vulgar assumption of social equality or superior physical powers. A long solitary ride is hardly to be recommended ; it is not fair to friends who have been left anxious behind, nor is it pru- dent to expose oneself, without help, to the common accidents to which a horse and his rider are always liable. Those who have a friend with whom they feel they can venture to go in double harness, had better do so. It is a severe test, and the trial be- comes greater in proportion as hardships abound and accommoda- tions are scanty causes which sour the milk of human kind- ness, and prove indifferent restorers of stomach or temper. It is on these occasions, on a large journey and in a small venta, that a man finds out what his friend really is made of. While in the more serious necessities of clanger, sickness, and need a friend is one indeed, and the one thing wanting, with whom we share our last morsel and cup gladly. The salt of good fellowship, if it cannot work miracles as to quantity, converts the small loaf into a respectable abstract feed, by the zest and satisfaction with which it flavors it. Nothing, moreover, cements friendships for the future like having made one of these conjoint rambles, provided it did not end in a quarrel. The mere fact of having travelled at all in Spain has a peculiarity which is denied to the more hackneyed countries of Europe. When we are introduced to a person who has visited these spell-casting sites, we feel as if we knew him already. There is a sort of freemasonry in having done some- thing in common, which is not in common with the world at large. Those who are about to qualify themselves for this exclusive quality will do well not to let the party exceed five in number, three masters and two servants; two masters with two servants are perhaps more likely to be better accommodated ; a third per- son, however, is often of use in trying journeys, as an arbiter elegantiarum et rixarum, a referee and arbitrator ; for in the best regulated teams it must happen that some one will occasionally CHOICE OF HORSES. 89 start, gib, or bolt, when the majority being against him brings the offender to his proper senses. Four eyes, again, see better than two, " mas ven cuatro ojos que dos." By attending to a few simple rules, a tour of some months' duration, and over thousands of miles, may be performed on one and the same horse, who with his rider will at the end of the journey be neither sick nor sorry, but in such capital condition as to be ready to start again. We presume that the time will be chosen when the days are long and Nature has thrown aside her wintry garb. Fine weather is the joy of the wayfarer's soul, and nothing can be more different than the aspect of Span- ish villages in good or in bad weather ; as in the East, during wintry rains they are the acmes of mud and misery, but let the sun. shine out, and all is gilded. It is the smile which lights up the habitually sad expression of a Spanish woman's face. The blessed beam cheers poverty itself, and by its stimulating, exhil- arating action on the system of man, enables him to buffet against the moral evils to which countries the most favored by climate seem, as if it were from compensation, to be more exposed than those where the skies are dull, and the winds bleak and cold. As in our cavalry regiments, where real service is required, a perfect animal is preferred, a rider should choose a mare rather than a gelding ; the use of entire horses is, however, so general in Spain, that one of such had better be selected than a mare. The day's journey will vary according to circumstances from twenty-five to forty miles. The start should be made before day- break, and the horse well fed at least an hour before the journey is commenced, during which Spaniards, if they can, go to church, for they say that no time is ever lost on a journey by feeding horses and men and hearing masses, misa y cebada no estorban Jornada. The hours of starting, of course, depend on the distance and the district. The sooner the better, as all who wish to cheat the devil must get up very early. " Quien al demonio quiere en- ganar, muy temprano levantarse ka" It is a great thing for the traveller to reach his night quarters as soon as he can, for the first comers are the best served : borrow therefore an hour 90 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. of the morning rather than from the night ; and that hour, if you lose it at starting, you will never overtake in the day. Again, in the summer it is both agreeable and profitable to be under weigh and off at least an hour or two before sunrise, as the heat soon gets insupportable, and the stranger is exposed to the tabardillo, the coup de soleil, which, even in a smaller degree, occasions more ill health in Spain than is generally imagined, and espe- cially by the English, who brave it either from ignorance or fool- hardiness. The head should be well protected with a silk hand- kerchief, tied after a turban fashion, which all the natives do ; in addition to which we always lined the inside of our hats with thickly doubled brown paper. In Andalucia, during summer, the muleteers travel by night, and rest during the day-heat, which, however, is not a satisfactory method, except for those who wjsh to see nothing. We have never adopted it. The early mornings and cool afternoons and evenings are infinitely preferable ; while to the artist the glorious sunrises and sunsets, and the marking of mountains, and definition of forms from the long shadows, are magnificent beyond all conception. In these almost tropical countries, when the sun is high, the effect of shadow is lost, and everything looks flat and unpicturesque. The journey should be divided into two portions, and the long- est should be accomplished the first : the pace should average about five miles an hour, it being an object not to keep the animal unne- cessarily on his legs : he may be trotted gently, and even up easy hills, but should always be walked down them ; nay, if led, so much the better, which benefits both horse and rider. It is sur- prising how a steady, continued slow pace gets over the ground : Chi va piano, va sano, e lontano, says the Italian ; paso a paso va lejos, step by step goes far, responds the Castilian. The end of the journey each day is settled before starting, and there the trav- eller is sure to arrive with the evening. Spaniards never fidget themselves to get quickly to places where nobody is expecting them : nor is there any good to be got in trying to hurry man or beast in Spain ; you might as well think of hurrying the Court of Chancery. The animals should be rested, if possible, every fourth day, and not used during halts in town, unless they exceed three days' sojourn. FEEDING YOUR HORSE. 91 On arriving at every halting- place, look first at the feet, and pick out any pebbles or dirt, and examine the nails and shoes carefully, to see that nothing is loose ; let this inspection become a habit ; do not wash the feet too soon, as the sudden chill some- times produces fever in them : when they are cool, clean them and grease the hoof well ; after that you may wash as much as you please. The best thing, however, is to feed your horse at once, before thinking of his toilet ; the march will have given an appetite, while the fatigue requires immediate restoration. If a horse is to be worried with cleaning, &c., he often loses heart and gets off his feed : be may be rubbed down when he has done eat- ing, and his bed should be made up as for night, the stable dark- ened, and the animal left quite quiet, and the longer the better : feed him well again an hour before starting for the afternoon stage, and treat him on coming in exactly as you did in the morning. The food must be regulated by the work : when that is severe, give corn with both hands, and stint the hay and other lumber : what you want is to concentrate support by quality, not quantity. The Spaniard will tell you that one mouthful of beef is worth ten of potatoes. If your horse is an English one, it must be rememembered that eight pounds' weight of barley is equal to ten of oats, as containing less husk and more mucilage or starch, which our horse-dealers know when they want to make up a horse ; overfeeding a horse in the hot climate of Spain, like overfeeding his rider, renders both liable to fevers and sudden inflammatory attacks, which are much more prevalent in Gibral- tar than elsewhere in Spain, because our countrymen will go on exactly as if they were at home. At all events, feed your horse well with something or other, or your Spanish squire will rain proverbs on you, like Sancho Panza ; the belly must be filled with hay or straw, for it in reality carries the feet, O paja o heno el vientre lleno tripas llevan a pies, and so forth. The Spaniards when on a journey allow their horses to drink copiously at every stream, saying that there is no juice like that of flints : and indeed they set the example, for they are all down on their bellies at every brook, swilling water, according to the proverb, like an ox, and wine, when they can get it, like a king. If therefore you are riding a Spanish horse, which has 92 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. been accustomed to this continual tippling, let him drink, other- wise he will be fevered. If the horse has been treated in the English fashion, give him his water only after his meals, other, wise he will break out into weakening sweats. Should the ani- mal ever arrive distressed, a tepid gruel, made with oatmeal or even flour, will comfort him much. At nightfall, stop the feet with wet tow, or with horse dung, for that of cows will seldom be to be had in Spain, where goats furnish milk, and Dutchmen' butter. Let the feet be constantly attended to ; the horse having twice as many as his rider, requires double attention, and of what use to a traveller is a quadruped that has not a leg to go upon ? This is well known to those commercial gentlemen who are the only persons now-a-days in England who make riding journeys. It is the shoe that makes or mars the horse, and no wise man, in Spain or out, who has got a four-footed hobby, or three half-crowns, should delay sending to Longman's for that admirable " Miles on the Horse's Foot." "Every knight-errant," says Don Quixote, " ought to be able to shoe his own Rosinante himself." Rosin is pure Arabic for a hackney at least he should know how this calceolation ought to be done. As a general rule, always take your quadruped to the forge, where the shoes can be fitted to his feet, not the feet to ready-made shoes ; and if you value the com- fort, the extension of life, and service of your steed fasten the fore shoes with Jive nails at ?nost in the outside, and with two only in the inside, and those near the toe ; do not in mercy fix by nails all round an unyielding rim of dead iron to an expanding living hoof; remember also always to take with you a spare set of shoes, with nails and a hammer for the want of a nail the shoe was lost ; for the want of a shoe the rider was lost. In many parts of Spain, where there are no fine modern roads, you might almost do without any shoes at all, as the ancients did, and is done in parts of Mexico ; but no unprotected hoof can stand the constant wear and tear, the filing of a macadamized highway. The horse will probably be soon in such condition as to want no more physic than his rider ; a lump, however, of rock salt, and a bit of chalk put at night into his manger, answers the same pur- poses as Epsoms and soda do to the master. You should wash THE MOSQUERO. 93 out the long tail and mane, which is the glory of a Spanish horse, as fine hair is to a woman, with soda and water ; the alkali com- bining with the animal grease forms a most searching detergent. A grand remedy for most of the accidents to which horses are liable on a journey, such as kicks, cuts, strains, &c., is a con- stant fomentation with hot water, which should be done under the immediate superintendence of the master, or it will be either done insufficiently, or not done at all ; hot water, according to the groom genus, having been created principally as a recipient of some- thing stronger. A crupper and breastplate are almost indispen- sable, from the steep ascents and descents in the mountains. The mosquero, the fly-flapper, is a great comfort to the horse, as, being in perpetual motion, and hanging between his eyes, it keeps off the flies; the head-stall, or night halter, never should be removed from the bridle, but be rolled up during the day, and fastened along the side of the cheek. The long tail is also rolled up when the ways are miry, just as those of our blue jackets and horse- guards used to be. 04 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. CHAPTER IX. The Rider's costume Alforjas: their contents The Bota, and How to use it Pig Skins and Borracha Spanish Money Onzas and smaller THE rider's costume and accoutrements require consideration ; his great object should be to pass in a crowd, either unnoticed, or to be taken for " one of us," Uno de Nosotros, and a member of the Iberian family de la Familia : this is best effected by adopt- ing the dress that is usually worn by the natives when they travel on horseback, or journey by any of their national conveyances, among which Anglo-Franco mails and diligences are not yet to be reckoned ; all classes of Spaniards, on getting outside the town- gate, assume country habits, and eschew the long-tailed coats and civilization of the city ; they drop pea-jackets and foreign fashions, which would only attract attention, and expose the wearers to the ridicule or coarser marks of consideration from the peasantry, muleteers, and other gentry, who rule on the road, hate novelties, and hold fast to the ways and jackets of their forefathers ; the best hat, therefore, is the common sombrero calanes, which re- semble those worn at Astley's by banditti, being of a conical shape, is edged with black velvet, ornamented with silken tufts, and looks equally well on a cockney from London, or on a squire from Devonshire. The jacket should be the universal fur Zamarra, which is made of black sheepskin, in its ordinary form, and of lambskin for those who can pay ; a sash round the waist should never be forgotten, being most useful both in reality and metaphor : it sustains the loins, and keeps off the dangerous colics of Spain, by maintaining an equable heat over the abdomen : hence, to be Homerically well girt is half the battle for the Penin- sular traveller. x The capa the cloak, or the mania a striped plaid, and saddle- THE ALFORJAS. 95 bags, the Alforjas, are absolute essentials, and should be strapped on the pommel of the saddle, as being there less heating to the horse than when placed on his flanks, and being in front, they are more handy for sudden use, since in the mountains and val- leys, the rider is constantly exposed to sudden variations of wind and weather ; when ^Eolus and Sol contend for his cloak, as in JSsop's Fables, and the buckets of heaven are emptied on him as soon as the god of fire thinks him sufficiently baked. These saddle-bags are most classical, Oriental, and convenient : they indeed constitute the genus bagsman, and have given their name to our riding travellers ; they are the Sarcince of Cato the Censor, the JBuJgce of Lucilius, who made an epigram thereon : "Cum bulga coenat, dormit, lavat, omnis in una. Spes hominis bulga hac devincta est castera vita :' 7 which, as these indispensables are quite as necessary to the modern Spaniard, may be thus translated : " A good roomy bag delighteth a Roman, He is never without this appendage a minute ; In bed, at the bath, at his meals, in short no man Should fail to stow life, hope, and self away in it." The countrymen of Sancho Panza, when on the road, make the same use of their wallets as the Romans did ; they still (the washing excepted) live and die with these bags, in which their hearts are deposited with their bread and cheese. These Spanish alforjas, in name and appearance, are the Moor- ish al horeh. (The F and H, like the B and V, X and J, are al- most equivalent, and are used indiscriminately in Spanish caco- graphy.) They are generally composed of cotton and worsted, and are embroidered in gaudy colors and patterns ; the correct thing is to have the owner's name worked in on the edge, which ought to be done by the delicate hand of his beloved mistress. Those made at Granada are very excellent ; the Moorish, espe- cially -those from Morocco, are ornamented with an infinity of small tassels. Peasants, when dismounted, mendicant monks, when foraging for their convents, sling their alforjas over their shoulders when they come into villages. 96 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. Among the contents which most people will find it convenient to carry in the right-hand bag, as the easiest to be got at, a pair of blue gauze wire spectacles or goggles will be found useful, as ophthalmia is very common in Spain, and particularly in the cal- cined central plains. The constant glare is unrelieved by any verdure, the air is dry, and the clouds of dust highly irritating from being impregnated with nitre. The best remedy is to bathe the eyes frequently with hot water, and never to rub them ivlicn inflamed, except with the elbows, los ojos con los codos. Span- iards never jest with their eyes or faith ; of the two perhaps they are seriously fondest of the former, not merely when sparkling beneath the arched eyebrows of the dark sex, but when set in their own heads. " I love thee like my eyes," is quite a hack- neyed form of affection ; nor, however wrathful and imprecatory, do they under any circumstances express the slightest unchari- table wishes in regard to the visual organs of their bitterest foe. The whole art of the alforjas is the putting into them what you want the most often, and in the most handy and accessible place. Keep here, therefore, a supply of small money for the halt and the blind, for the piteous cases of human suffering and poverty by which the traveller's eye will be pained in a land where soup- dispensing monks are done away with, and assistant new poor law commissioners not yet appointed ; such charity from God's purse, bolsa de Dios, never impoverishes that of man, and a cheer- ful giver, however opposed to modern political economists, is com mended in that old-fashioned book called the Bible. The left half of the alforjas may be apportioned to the writing and dress- ing cases, and the smaller each are the better. Food for the mind must not be neglected. The travelling library, like companions, should be select and good ; tibros y amigos pocos y buenos. The duodecimo editions are the best, as a large heavy book kills horse, rider, and reader. Books are a matter of taste ; some men like Bacon, others prefer Pickwick ; stow away at all events a pocket edition of the Bible, Shakspere, and Don Quixote : and if the advice of dear Dr. Johnson be worth following, one of those books that can be taken in the hand, and to the fire-side. Martial, a grand authority on Spanish hand- books, recommended such sized companions on a long journey." THE BOTA. 97 Quartos and folios, said he, may be left at home in the book- case " Scrinia da magnis, me manus una capit." Here also keep the passport, that indescribable nuisance and curs^ of continental travel, to which a free-born Briton never can gr f reconciled, and is apt to neglect, whereby he puts himself in th power of the worst and most troublesome people on earth. Pass ports in Spain now in some degree supply the Inquisition, and have been embittered by vexatious forms borrowed from bureau- cratic France. Having thus disposed of these matters on the front bow of his saddle, to which we always added a lota the pocket-pistol of Hudibras one word on this Bota, which is as necessary to tlm rider as a saddle to his horse. This article, so Asiatic and Spanish, is at once the bottle and the glass of the people of the Peninsula when on the road, and is perfectly unlike the vitreous crockery and pewter utensils of Great Britain. A Spanish wo- man would as soon think of going to church without her fan, or a Spanish man to a fair without his knife, as a traveller with- out his lota. Ours, the faithful, long-tried comforter of many a dry road, and honored now like a relic, is hung up a votive of- fering to the Iberian Bacchus, as the mariners in Horace sus- pended their damp garments to the deity who had delivered them from the dangers of water. Its skin, now shrivelled with age and with fruitless longings for wine, is still redolent of the ruby fluid, whether the generous Valdepenas or the rich vino de Toro : and refreshing to our nostrils is even an occasional smell at its red-stained orifice. There the racy wine-perfume lingers, and brings water into the mouth, it may be into the eyelid. What a dream of Spanish odors, good, bad, and indifferent, is awakened by its well-known borracha ! what recollections, breathing the aroma of the balmy south, crowd in ; of aromatic wastes, of leagues of thyme, whence Flora sends forth advertisements to her tiny bee-customer ; of churches, all incense ; of the goats and monks, long-bearded and odoriferous ; of cities whose steam of garlic, ollas, oil, and tobacco rises up to the heavens, mingled with the thousand and one other continental sweets which assail PART i. 6 98 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. a man's nose, whether he lands at Calais or Cadiz ! There hangs our smelling-bottle bota, now a pleasure of memory ; it has had its day, and is never again to be filled in torrid, thirsty Spain, nor emptied, which is better. This Bota, from whence the terms Butt of sherry, bouteille, and bottle are derived, is the most ancient Oriental leathern bottle alluded to in Job xxxii. 19, " My belly ready to burst like new bottles ;" and in the parable, Matt. ix. 17, about the old ones, the force and point of which is entirely lost by our word bottle, which being made of glass, is not liable to become useless by age like one made of leather. Such a " bottle of water" was the last among the few things which Abraham gave to Hagar, when he turned out the mother of the Arabians, whose descendants brought its usage into Spain. The shape is like that of a large pear or shot-pouch, and it contains from two to five quarts. The narrow neck is mounted with a turned wooden cup, from which the contents are drunk. The way to use it is thus grasp the neck with the left hand and bring the rim of the cup to the mouth, then gradually raise the bag with the other hand till the wine, in obedience to hydrostatic laws, rises to its level, and keeps always full in the cup without trouble to the mouth. The gravity with which this is done, the long, slow, sustained, Sancho-like devo- tion of the thirsty Spaniards when offered a drink out of another man's bota, is very edifying, and is as deep as the sigh of delight and gratitude with which, when unable to imbibe more, the pre- cious skin is returned. No drop of the divine contents is wasted, except by some newly-arrived bungler, who, by lifting up the bottom first, inundates his chin. The hole in the cup is made tight by a wooden spigot, which again is perforated and stopped with a small peg. Those who do not want to take a copious draught do not pull out the spigot, but merely the little peg of it ; the wine then flows out in a thin thread. The Catalonians and Aragonese generally drink in this way ; they never touch the vessel with their lips, but hold it up at a distance above, and pilot the stream into their mouths, or rather under-jaws. It is much easier for those who have had no practice to pour the wine into their necks than into their mouths, but their drinking- bottles are made with a long narrow spout, and are called " Porrones." THE BOTA WINE. 09 The Bota must not be confounded with the Borracha or Cuero, the wine-skin of Spain, which is the entire, and answers the pur, pose of the barrel elsewhere. The lota is the retail receptacle, the cuero is the wholesale one. It is the genuine pig's skin, the adoration of which disputes in the Peninsula with the cigar, the dollar, and even the worship of the Virgin. The shops of the makers are to be seen in most Spanish towns ; in them long lines of the unclean animal's blown out hides are strung up like sheep carcases in our butchers' shambles. The tanned and man- ufactured article preserves the form of the pig, feet and all, with the exception of one : the skin is turned inside out, so that the hairy coat lines the interior, which, moreover, is carefully pitched like a ship's bottom, to prevent leaking ; hence the peculiar fla- vor, which partakes of resin and the hide, which is called the borracha, and is peculiar to most Spanish wines, sherry excepted, which being made by foreigners, is kept in foreign casks, as we shall presently show when we touch on " good sherris sack." A drunken man, who is rarer in Spain than in England, is called a borracho ; the term is not complimentary. The cueros, when filled, are suspended in ventas and elsewhere, and thus economise cellarage, cooperage, and bottling ; and such were the bigbellied monsters which Don Quixote attacked. As the lota is always near every Spaniard's mouth who can get at one, all classes being ever ready, like Sancho, to give " a thousand kisses," not only to his own legitimate bota, but to that of his neighbor, which is coveted more than wife : therefore no prudent traveller will ever journey an inch in Spain without getting one, and when he has, will never keep it empty, especial- ly when he falls in with good wine. Every man's Spanish attendant will always find out, by instinct, where the best wine is to be had ; good wine neither needs bush, herald, nor crier ; in these matters, our experience of them tallies with their pro. verb, " mas vale vino maldito, que no agua bendita," " cursea bad wine is better than holy water;" at the same time, in their various scale of comparisons, there is good wine, better wine, and best wine, but no such thing as bad wine ; of good wine, the Spaniards are almost as good judges as of good water; they rarely mix them, because they say that it is spoiling two good 100 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUJSTRY. things. Vino Moro, or Moorish wine, is by no means indicative of uncleanness, or other heretical imperfections impliid generally by that epithet ; it simply means, that it is pure from never having been baptized with water, for which the Asturians, who keep small chandlers' shops, are so infamous, that they are said, from inveterate habit, to adulterate even water ; aguan el agua. It is a great mistake to suppose, because Spaniards are seldom seen drunk, and because when on a journey they drink as much water as their beasts, that they have any Oriental dislike to wine ; the rule is " Agua como buey, y vino como Rey" " to drink water like an ox, and wine like a king." The extent of the given quantity of wine which they will always swallow, rather suggests that their habitual temperance may in some degree be connected more with their poverty than with their will. The way to many ah honest breast lies through the belly in this classical land, where the tutelar of butlers still keeps the key of their cellars and hearts aperit prsecordia Bacchus : nor is their Oriental blessing unconnected with some " savory food" previously ad- ministered. And independently of the very obvious reasons which good wine does and ought to afford for its own consump- tion, the irritating nature of Spanish cookery provides a never- failing inducement. The constant use of the savory class of con- diments and of pepper is very heating, " la pimienta escalienta" A salt-fish, ham and sausage diet creates thirst ; a good rasher of bacon calls loudly for a corresponding long and strong pull at the " bota," " a torresno de tocino, buen golpe de vino." This digression on Iotas will be pardoned by all who, having ridden in Spain, know the absolute necessity of them. The traveller will of course remember the advice given by the rogue of Ventero to Don Quixote to take shirts and money with him. " Put money in thy purse" said also honest lago, for an empty one is a beggarly companion in the Peninsula as elsewhere. There is no getting to Rome or to Santiago if the pilgrim's scrip be scanty, or his mule lame : Camino de Roma, ni mula coja m Bolsafloja. Practically it may be said, that there is no paper money in Spain. Notes may be taken in some of the larger cities, but in the provinces, the value of a man in office's promise to pay on MONEY 3 101 paper, is not considered by the shrewa natives to be actually equal to cash ; while they will readily give these notes to for- eigners, they prefer for their own use the old-fashioned represen- tatives of wealth, gold and silver, towards the smallest fraction of which they have the largest possible veneration. Accounts are usually kept in rcales de vellon of royal bullion ; and these are subdivided into maravedis, the ancient coin of the Peninsula : there are minor fractions even of farthings, consisting in material of infinitesimal bits of any metals, melted church bells, old can- non, &c., with names and values unknown in our happy land, where not much is to be got for a mite ; in Spain, where cheap- ness of earth-produce is commensurate with poverty, anything, even to an old button, goes for a maravedi, and we have found that in changing a dollar by way of experiment into small cop- pers in the market at Seville, among the multitudinous specimens of Spanish mints of all periods, Moorish and even Roman coins were to be met with, and still current. The dollar, or Duro, of Spain is well known all over the world, being the form under which silver has been generally exported from the Spanish colonies of South America. It is the Italian " Colonato," so called because the arms of Spain are supported between the two pillars of Hercules. The coinage is slovenly : it is the weight of the metal, not the form which is looked to by the Spaniard, who, like the Turk, is not so clever a workman or mechanist as devout worshipper of bullion. Fer- dinand VII. continued for a long while to strike money with his father's head, having only had the lettering altered : thus early Trajans exhibit the head of Nero. When the Cortes en- tered Madrid after the Duke's victory at Salamanca, they patriotically prohibited the currency of all coins bearing the head of the intrusive Joseph ; yet his dollars being chiefly made out of stolen church plate, gilt and ungilt, were, although those of an usurper, intrinsically worth more than the legitimate duro : this was a too severe test for the loyalty of those whose real king and god is cash. Such a decree was worthy of senators who were busier employed in expelling French tropes from their dictionary than French troops from their country. The wiser Chinese take Ferdinand's and Joseph's dollars alike, calling them both 102 WlE- SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. " devil's head" money. These bad prejudices against good coin have now given way to the march of intellect ; nay, the five- franc piece with Louis-Phillippe's clever head on it bids fair to oust the pillared Duro. The silver of the mines of Murcia is exported to France, where it is coined, and sent back in the manufactured shape. France thus gains a handsome per centage, and habituates the people to her image of power, which comes recommended to them in the most acceptable likeness of current coin. In Spain cash, ambrosial cash, rules the court, the camp, the grove ; hence the extraordinary credit of three millions recently required for the secret service expenses of the Tuileries, and official enthusiasm and unanimity secured thereby in the Mont- pensier purchase. The whole decalogue is condensed at Madrid into one commandment, Love God as represented on earth not by his vicar the Pope, but by his lord-lieutenant, Don Ducat. El primer o es amar Don Dinero, Dios es omnipotente^ Don Dinero es su lugartenienteP Thus grandees and men in Spanish offices, both governmental and printing ones, have preferred the other day five-franc pieces to the ribbons of the legion of honor ; nor considering the swindlers on whom this badge of Austerlitz has been prostituted, were these worthy Castilians much out in their calculations, if there be any truth in the catechism of FalstafF. The gold coinage is magnificent, and worthy of the country and period from which Europe was supplied with the precious metals. The largest piece, the ounce, " onza," is worth sixteen dollars, or about 3/. 6*. ; and while it puts to shame the dimi- nutive Napoleons of France and sovereigns of England, tells the tale of Spain's former wealth, and contrasts strangely with her present poverty and scarcity of specie ; these large coins have however been so sweated, not by the sun but by Jews, foreign and domestic, so clipped worse than Spanish mules or French poodles, that they seldom retain their proper weight and value. They are accordingly looked upon every where with suspicion ; a shopkeeper in a big town, brings out his scales like Shylock, while in a village, shrugs, ajos, and negative expressions are your AVARICE OF SPANIARDS. 103 change ; nor, even if the natives are satisfied that they are not light, can sixteen dollars be often met with, nor do those who have so much ready money by them ever wish that the fact should be generally known. Spaniards, like the Orientals, have a dread of being supposed to have money in their possession ; it exposes them to be plundered by robbers of all kinds, professional or legal ; by the " alcalde" or village authority, and the " escri- bano" the attorney, to say nothing of Senor Mon's tax- gatherer ; for the quota of contributions, many of which are apportioned among the inhabitants themselves of each district, falls heaviest on those who have, or are supposed to have, the most ready money. The lower classes of Spaniards, like the Orientals, are gene- rally avaricious. They see that wealth is safety and power, where everything is venal ; the feeling of insecurity makes them eager to invest what they have in a small and easily concealed bulk, " en lo que no habla" "in that which does not tell tales." Consequently, and in self-defence, they are much addicted to hoarding. The idea of finding hidden treasures, which prevails in Spain as in the East, is based on some grounds ; for in every country which has been much exposed to foreign invasions, civil wars, and domestic misrule, where there were no safe modes of investment, in moments of danger property was converted into gold or jewels and concealed with singular ingenuity. The mis- trust which Spaniards entertain of each other often extends, when cash is in the case, even to the nearest relations, to wife and children. Many a treasure is thus lost from the accidental death of the hider, who, dying without a sign, carries his secret to the grave, adding thereby to the sincere grief of his widow and heir. One of the old vulgar superstitions in Spain is an idea that those who were born on a Good Friday, the day of mourning, were gifted with a power of seeing into the earth and of discovering hidden treasures. One place of concealment has always been under the bodies in graves ; the hiders have trusted to the dead to defend vvhat the quick could not: this accounts for the uni- versal desecration of tombs and churchyards during Buonaparte's invasion. The Gauls growled like gowls amid the churchyards ; they despoiled the mouldering corpses of the last pledge left by 104 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. weeping affection ; or, as Burke observed of their domestic doings, they unplumbed the dead to make missiles of destruction against the living. These hordes, in their horrid flight before the advancing Duke, also hid much of their ill-gotten gains, which to this day are hunted after. Who has forgotten Borrow's gra- phic picture of the treasure-seeking Mol ? At this very moment the authorities of San Sebastian are narrowly superintending the diggings of an old Frenchwoman, to whom some dying thief at home has revealed the secret of a buried kettle full of gold ounces. Having provided the " Spanish" those metallic sinews of war, which also make the mare go in peace, a prudent master, if he intends to be really the master, will hold the purse himself, and moreover, will keep a sharp eye on it, for the jingle of coin dis- pels even a Spanish siesta, and causes many a sleepless day to every listener, from the beggar to the queen mother. SPANISH SERVANTS. 105 CHAPTER X. Spanish Servants: their Character Travelling Groom, Cook, and Valet DON QUIXOTE'S first thought, after having determined to ride forth into Spain, was to get a horse ; his second was to secure a squire ; and as the narrative of his journey is still an excellent guide-book for modern travellers, his example is not to be slighted. A good Sancho Panza will on the whole be found to be a more constant comfort to a knight-errant than even a Dulcinea. To secure a really good servant is of the utmost consequence to all who make out-of-the-way excursions in the Peninsula; for, as in the East, he becomes often not only cook, but interpreter and companion to his master. It is therefore of great importance to get a person with whom a man can ramble over these wild scenes. The so doing ends, on the part of the attendant, in an almost canine friendship ; and the Spaniard, when the tour is done, is broken-hearted, and ready lo leave his home, horse, ass, and wife, to follow his master, like a dog, to the world's end. Nine times out of ten it is the master's fault if he has bad servants : tel maitre tel valet. Al amo imprudente, el mozo negligente. He must begin at once, and exact the performance of their duty ; the only way to get them to do anything is, as the Duke said, to " frighten them," to "take a decided line." It is very difficult to make them see the importance of detail and of doing exactly what they are told, which they will always endeavor to shirk when they can ; their task must be clearly pointed out to them at starting, and the earliest and smallest infractions, either in commission or omission, at once and seriously noticed, the moral victory is soon gained. The example of the masters, if they be active and or- derly, is the best lesson to servants; mucho sale el rato, pero mas el gato; the rats are well enough, but the cats are better. Achil- les, Patroclus, and the Homeric heroes, were their own cooks ; 106 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. and many a man who, like Lord Blayney, may not be a hero, will be none the worse for following the epical example, in a Spanish venta : at all events a good servant, who is up to his work, and will work, is indeed a jewel ; and on these, as on other occasions, he deserves to be well treated. Those who make themselves honey are eaten by flies quien se hac miel, le comen las moscas ; while no rat ever ventures to jest with the cat's son ; con liijo de gato, no se burlan los ratones. The great thing is to make them get up early, and learn the value of time, which the groom cannot tie with his halter, tiempo y hora, no se ata con soga ; v while a cook who oversleeps himself not only misses his mass, but his meat, quien se levanta tarde, ni oye misa, ni compra came. If (which is soon found out) the servants seem not likely to answer, the sooner they are changed the better ; it is loss of time and soap, and he who is good for nothing in his own village will not be worth more either in Seville or elsewhere, so says the proverb. The principal defects of Spanish servants and of the lower classes of Spaniards are much the same, and faults of race. As a mass, they are apt to indulge in habits of procrastination, waste, improvidence, and untidiness. They are unmechanical and ob- stinate, easily beaten by difficulties, which their first feeling is to raise, and their next to succumb to ; they give the thing up at once. They have no idea indeed of grappling with anything that requires much trouble, or of doing anything as it ought to be done, or even of doing the same thing in the same way accident and the impulse of the moment set them going. They are very unmechanical, obstinate, and prejudiced; ignorant of their own ignorance and incurious as Orientals \ partly from pride, self- opinion, and idleness, they seldom will ask questions for infor- mation from others, which implies an inferiority of knowledge, and still more seldom will take an answer, unless it be such a one as they desire ; their own wishes, opinions, and wants are their guides, and self the centre of their gravity, not those of their employers. As a Spaniard's yes, when you beg a favor, generally means wo, so they cannot or will not understand that your no is really a negative when they come petitioning to be idle ; at the same time a great change for the better comes over them when they are taken out of the city on a rambling tour. CHARACTER OF SPANISH SERVANTS. 107 The nomad life excites them into active serviceable fellows ; in fact the uncertain harum-scarum nomad existence is exactly what suits these descendants of the Arab ; they cannot bear the steady sus- tained routine of a well-managed household ; they abhor confine- ment ; hence the difficulty of getting Spaniards to garrison for- tresses or to man ships of war, from whence there is no escape. As for what we call a well-appointed servants' hall, the case is hopeless in Spanish field or city, and is equally so whether the life be above or below stairs. In the house of the middle or high- est classes this is particularly shown in every thing that regards gastronomies, which are the tests and touchstones of good service. In truth, the Spaniard, accustomed to his own desultory, free and easy, impromptu, scrambling style of dining, is constrained by the order and discipline, the pomp and ceremony, and serious import- ance of a well-regulated dinner, and their observance of forms extends only to persons, not to things : even the grandee has only a thin European polish spread over his Gotho-Bedouin dining- table he lives and eats surrounded by an humble clique, in his huge, ill- furnished barrack-house, without any elegance, luxury, or even comfort, according to sound trans-pyrenean notions; few indeed are the kitchens which possess a cordon bleu, and fewer are the masters who really like an orthodox entree, one unpolluted with the heresies of garlic and red pepper : again, whenever their cookery attempts to be foreign, as in their other imitations, it ends in being a flavorless copy ; but few things are ever done in Spain in real style, which implies forethought and expense ; everything is a make-shift ; the noble master reposes his affairs on an unjust steward, and dozes away life on this bed of roses, somnolescent over business and awake only to intrigue ; his numerous ill-con- ditioned, ill-appointed servants have no idea of discipline or sub- ordination ; you never can calculate on their laying even the table-cloth, as they prefer idling in the church or market to doing their duty, and would rather starve, dance, and sleep out of place and independently, than feast and earn their wages by fair work ; nor has the employer any redress, for if he dismisses them he will only get just such another set, or even worse. In our own Spanish household, the instant dinner and siesta were over, the cook with his kitchen-man the valet with the foot- 108 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. man invariably stripped off their working-apparel liveries are almost unheard of donned their conical velvet embroidered hats, their sky-blue waistcoats, and scarlet sashes, and were off with a guitar to some scene of song and love-making, leaving their mas- ter alone in his glory to moralize on the uncertainty of human concerns and the faithlessness of mankind. What can't be cured must be endured. To resume, therefore, the character of these Spanish servants; they are very loquacious, and highly credulous, as often is the case with those given to ro- mancing, which they, and especially the Andalucians, are to a large degree ; and, in fact, it is the only remaining romance in Spain, as far as the natives are concerned. As they have an es- pecial good opinion of themselves, they are touchy, sensitive, jealous, and thin-skinned, and easily affronted whenever their im- perfections are pointed out ; their disposition is very sanguine and inflammable ; they are always hoping that what they eagerly de- sire will come to pass without any great exertion on their parts ; they love to stand still with their arms folded, while other men put their shoulders to the wheel. Their lively imagination is very apt to carry them away into extremes for good or evil, when they act on the moment like children, and having gratified the humor of the impulse relapse into their ordinary tranquillity, which is that of a slumbering volcano. On the other hand, they are full of excellent and redeeming good qualities ; they are free from caprice, are hardy, patient, cheerful, good-humored, sharp-witted, and intelligent ; they are honest, faithful, and trustworthy ; sober, and unaddicted to mean, vulgar vices ; they have a bold, manly bearing, and will follow well wherever they are well led, being the raw material of as good soldiers as are in the world ; they are loyal and religious at heart, and full of natural tact, mother-wit, and innate good manners. In general, a firm, quiet, courteous, and somewhat reserved manner is the most effective. Whenever duties are to be performed, let them see that you are not to be tri- fled with. The coolness of a determined Englishman's manner, when in earnest, is what few foreigners can withstand. Grimace and gesticulation, sound and fury, bluster, petulance, and imper- tinence fume and fret in vain against it, as the sprays and foam of SPANISH AND ENGLISH MANNERS. 109 the " French lake" do against the unmoved and immovable rock of Gibraltar. An Englishman, without being over-familiar, may venture on a far greater degree of unbending in his intercourse with his Spanish dependants than he can dar,3 to do with those he has in England. It is the custom of the country ; they are used to it, and their heads are not turned by it, nor do they ever forget their relative positions. The Spaniards treat their servants very much like the ancient Romans or the modern Moors ; they are more their vernce, their domestic slaves : it is the absolute authority of the father combined with the kindness. Servants do not often change their masters in Spain : their relation arid duties are so clearly defined, that the latter runs no risk of compromising him- self or his dignity by his familiarity, which can be laid down or taken up at his own pleasure ; whereas the scorn, contempt, and distance with which the said courteous Don would treat a rotu- rier who presumed to be intimate, baffle description. In England no man dares to be intimate with his footman ; for supposing even such absurd fancy entered his brain, his footman is his equal in the eye of man-made law, God having created them utterly un- equal in all his gifts, whether of rank, wealth, form, or intellect. Conventional barriers accordingly must be erected in self-defence : and social barriers are more difficult to be passed than walls of brass, more impossible to be repealed than the whole statutes at large. No master in Spain, and still less a foreigner, should ever descend to personal abuse, sneers, or violence. A blow is never to be washed out except in blood, and Spanish revenge descends to the third and fourth generation ; and whatever these backward Span- iards have to learn from foreigners, it is not the duty of revenge, nor how to perform it. There should be no threatenings in vain, but whenever the opportunity occurs for punishment, let it be done quietly and effectively, and the fault once punished should not be needlessly ripped up again ; Spaniards are sufficiently unforgiv- ing, and hoarders-up of unrevenged grievances require to be re- minded. A kind and uniform behavior, a showing consideration to them, in a manner which implies that you are acccustomed to it, and expect it to be shown to you, keeps most things in their right places. Temper and patience are the great requisites in the mas- iiO THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. ler, especially when he speaks the language imperfectly. He must not think Spaniards stupid because they cannot guess the meaning of his unknown tongue. Nothing again is gained by fidgeting and overdoing, and however early you may get up, daybreak will not take place the sooner : no por mucho madrugar, amanece mas te-m- prano. Let well alone : be not zealous overmuch : be occasion- ally both blind and deaf: shut the door, and the devil passes by : keep honey in mouth and an eye to your cash : miel en boca y guarda la bolsa. Still how much less expenditure is necessary in Spain than in performing the commonest excursion in England ! and yet many who submit to their own countrymen's extor- tions are furious at what they imagine is an especial cheating of them, quasi Englishmen, abroad : this outrageous economy, with which some are afflicted, is penny wise and pound foolish : pay, pay therefore with both hands. The traveller must remember that, he gains caste, gets brevet rank in Spain that he is taken for a grandee incog., and ranks with their nobility; he must pay for these luxuries : how small after all will be the additional per centage on his general expenditure, and how well bestowed is the excess in keeping the temper good, and the capability of en- joying unruffled a tour, which only is performed once in a life ! No wise man who goes into Spain for amusement will plunge into this guerrilla, this constant petty warfare, about sixpences. Let the traveller be true to himself; hold his tongue; avoid bad company, quien liace su cama con perros, se levanta con pulgas, those who sleep with dogs get up with fleas ; and make room for bulls and fools, al loco y toro da le corro, and he may see Spain agreeably, and, as Catullus said to Veranius, who made the tour many centuries ago, may on his return amuse his friends and " old mother :" " Visam te incolumem, audiamque Iberum Narrantem loca, facta, nationes, Sicut tuus est mos." whieh may be thus Englished : - May you come back safe, and tell Of Spanish men, their things and places, Of Spanish ladies' eyes and faces, * In your own way, and so well. TRAVELLING SERVANTS 111 Two masters should take two servants, and both should be Spaniards : all others, unless they speak the language perfectly, are nuisances. A Gallegan or Asturian makes the best groom, an Andaluz the best cook and personal attendant. Sometimes a person may be picked up who has some knowledge of languages, and who is accustomed to accompany strangers through Spain as a sort of courier. These accomplishments are very rare, and the moral qualities of the possessor often diminish in proportion as his intellect has marched ; he has learnt more foreign tricks than words, and sea-port towns are not the best schools for honesty. Of these nondescripts the Hispano-Anglo, who generally has de- serted from Gibraltar, is the best, because he will work, hold his tongue, and fight ; a monkey would be a less inconvenience than a chattering Ibero-Gallo ; one who has forgotten his national ac- complishments cooking and hairdressing, and learnt very few Spanish things, such as good temper and endurance. Whichever of the two is the sharpest should lead the way, and leave the other to bring up the rear. They should be mounted on good mules, and be provided with large panniers. One should act as the cook and valet, the other as the groom of the party ; and the utensils peculiar to each department should be carried by each professor. Where only one servant is employed, one side of the pannier should be dedicated to the commissariat, and the other to the lug- gage ; in that case the master should have a flying portmanteau, which should be sent by means of cosarios, and precede him from great town to great town, as a magazine, wardrobe, or gene- ral supply to fall back on. The servants should each have their own saddle-bag and leathern bottle, which, since the days of Sancho Panza, are part and parcel of a faithful squire, and when all are carried on an ass are quite patriarchal. " Iba Sancho Panza solre sujumento, como un patriarca con sus alfor- jas y bota." The servants will each in their line look after their own affairs ; the .groom will take with him the things of the stable, and a small provision of corn, in order that a feed may never be wanting, on an unexpected emergency ; he will always ascertain beforehand through what sort of a country each day's journey is to be made, find make preparations accordingly. The valet will view his 112 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR JOUNTRY. masters in the same light as the groom does his beasts ; and he will purvey and keep in readiness all that appertains to their comfort, always remembering a moskito net we shall presently say a word on the fly-plague of the Peninsula with nails to knock into the walls to hang it up by, not forgetting a hammer and gimlet common articles enough, but which are never to be got at the moment and place where they are the most wanted. He will also carry a small canteen, the smaller and rqore ordi- nary the better, as anything out of the common way attracts at- tention, and suggests, first, the coveting other men's goods, and so on to assaults, batteries, robberies, and other inconveniences, which have been exploded on our roads ; although M. Moryson took care to caution our ancestors " to be warie on this head, since theeves have their spies commonly in all innes, to enquire into the condition of travellers." The manufactures of Spain are so rude and valueless that what appears to us to be the most ordinary appears to them to be the most excellent, as they have never seen anything so good. The lower orders, who eat with their fingers, think everything is gold which glitters, todo es oro lo que reluce ; as, after all, it is what is on the plate that is the rub, let no wise man have such smart forks and knives as to tempt cut-throats to turn them to unnatural purposes. However, avoid all superfluous luggage, especially prejudices and foregone conclusions, for " en largo camirio paja pesa" a straw is heavy on a long journey, and the last feather breaks the horse's back. A store of cigars, however, must always be excepted ; take plenty and give them freely ; it always opens a conversation well with a Spaniard, to offer him one of these little delicate marks of attention. Good snuff is acceptable to the curates and to monks (though there are none just now). English needles, thread, and pairs of scissors take no room, and are all keys to the good graces of the fair sex. There is a charm about a present, bachshish, in most European as well as Oriental countries, and still more if it is given with tact, and at the proper time ; Spaniards, if unable to make any equivalent return, will always try to repay by civili- ties and attentions. Every one must determine for himself whether he prefers the assistance of this servant in the kitchen or at the toilet ; since it COOKING UTENSILS. 113 is not easy for mortal man to dress a master and a dinner, and both well at the same time, let alone two masters. A cook who runs after two hares at once catches neither. No prudent trav- eller on these, or any occasions, should let another do for him what he can do for himself, arid a man who waits upon himself is sure to be well waited on. If, however, a valet be absolutely necessary, the groom clearly is best left in his own chamber, the stable ; he will have enough to do to curry arid valet his four animals, which he knows to be good for their health, though he never scrapes off the cutaneous stucco by which his own illote carcass is Roman cemented. From long experience we have found that if the rider will get into the habit of carrying all the things requisite for his own dressing in a small separate bag, and employ the hour while the cook is getting the supper under weigh, it is wonderful how comfortably he will proceed to his puchero. The cook should take with him a stewing-pan, and a pot or kettle for boiling water ; he need not lumber himself with much batterie de cuisine ; it is not much needed in the imperfect gas- tronomy of the Peninsula, where men eat like the beasts which perish ; all sort of artillery is rather rare in Spanish kitchen 01 fortress ; an hidalgo would as soon think of having a voltaic bat- tery in his sitting-room as a copper one in his cuisine ; most classes are equally satisfied with the Oriental earthenware ollas, pucheros, or pipkins, which are everywhere to be found, and have some peculiar sympathy with the Spanish cuisine, since a stew be it even of a cat never eats so well when made in a metal vessel ; the great thing is to bring the raw materials, first catch your hare. Those who have meat and money will always get a neighbor to lend them a pot. A venta is a place where the rich are sent empty away, and where the *poor hungry are not filled ; the whole duty of the man-cook, therefore, is to be always thinking of his commissariat ; he need not trouble himself about his master's appetite, that will seldom fail, nay, often be a mis- fortune ; a good appetite is not a good per se,* for it, even when # When George IV. once complained that he had lost his royal appetite, "What a scrape, sir, a poor man would be in if he found ii!" said his Rochester companion. 114 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. the best, becomes a bore when there is nothing to eat ; his capu- cho or mule hamper must be his travelling larder, cellar, and store-room ; he will victual himself according to the route, and the distances from one great town to another, and always take care to start with a good provision : indeed to attend to the com- missariat is, it cannot be too often repeated, the whole duty of a man cook in hungry Spain, where food has ever been the diffi- culty ; a little foresight gives small trouble and ensures great comfort, while perils by sea and perils by land are doubled when the stomach is empty, whereas, as Sancho Panza wisely told his ass, all sorrows are alleviated by eating bread : todos los duelos, con pan son buenos, and the shrewd squire, who seldom is wrong, was right both in the matter of bread and the moral : the former is admirable. The central table-lands of Spain are perhaps the finest wheat-growing districts in the world ; however rude and imperfect the cultivation for the peasant does not scratch the earth, and seldom manures the life-conferring sun comes to his assistance ; the returns are prodigious, and the quality super- excellent ; yet the growers, miserable in the midst of plenty, ve- getate in cabins composed of baked mud, or in holes burrowed among the friable hillocks, in an utter ignorance of furniture, and absolute necessaries. The .want of roads, canals, and means of transport prevents their exportation of produce, which from its bulk is difficult of carriage in a country where grain is removed for the most part on four-footed beasts of burden, after the orien- tal and patriarchal fashion of Jacob, when he sent to the grana- ries of Egypt. Accordingly, although there are neither sliding scales nor corn laws, and subsistence is cheap and abundant, the population decreases in number and increases in wretchedness ; what boots it if corn be low-priced, if wages be still lower, as they then everywhere are and must be ? The finest, bread in Spain is called pan de candeal, which is aten by men in office and others in easy circumstances, as it was by the clergy. The worst bread is the pan de munition, and forms the" fare of the Spanish soldiers, which, being sable as a hat, coarse and hard as a brickbat, would just do to sop in the black broth of the Spartan military ; indeed, the expression de munition is synonymous in the Peninsula with badness of quality, and the THRESHING AND WINNOWING. 115 secondary meaning is taken from the perfection of badness which is perceptible in every thing connected with Spanish ammunition, from the knapsack to the citadel. Such bread and water, and both hardly earned, are the rations of the poor patient Spanish private ; nor can he when before the enemy reckon always on even that, unless it be supplied from an ally's commissariat. Perhaps the best bread in Spain is made at Alcala de Guadaira, near Seville, of which it is the oven, and hence the town is called the Alcala of bakers. There bread may truly be said to be the soul of its existence, and samples abound everywhere : roscas, or circular-formed rusks, are hung up like garlands, and hogazas, loaves, placed on tables outside the houses. It is, indeed, as Spaniards say, Pan de Dios the " angejs' bread of Esdras." All classes here gain their bread by making it, and the water-mills and mule-mills are never still ; women and children are busy picking out earthy particles from the grain, which get mixed from the common mode of threshing on a floor in the open air, which is at once Biblical and Homeric. At the outside of the villages, in corn-growing districts, a smooth open " threshing-floor" is pre- pared, with a hard surface, like a fives court : it is called the era. and is the precise Roman area. The sheaves of corn are spread out on it, and four horses yoked most classically to a low crate or harrow, composed of planks armed with flints, &c., which is called a trillo : on this the driver is seated, who urges the beasts round and round over the crushed heap. Thus the grain is shaken out of the ears and the straw triturated ; the latter becomes food for horses, as the former does for men. When the heap is sufficiently bruised, it is removed and winnowed by being thrown up into the air ; the light winds carry off* the chaff', while the heavy corn falls to the ground. The whole operation is truly picturesque and singular. The scene is a crowded one, as many cultivators contribute to the mass and share in the labor ; their wives and children cluster around, clad in strange dresses of varied colors. They are sometimes sheltered from the god of fire under boughs, reeds and awnings, run up as if for the painter, and fall- ing of themselves into pictures, as the lower classes of Spaniards and Italians always do. They are either eating and drinking, singing or dancing, for a guitar is never wanting. Meanwhile 116 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. the fierce horses dash over the prostrate sheaves, and realize the splendid simile of Homer, who likens to them the fiery steeds of Achilles when driven over Trojan bodies. These out-of-door threshings take place of course when the weather is dry, and generally under a most terrific heat. The work is often con- tinued at night-fall by torch-light. During the day the half-clad dusky reapers defy the sun and his rage, rejoicing rather in the heat like salamanders ; it is true that their devotions to the porous water-jar are unremitting, nor is a swill at a good passenger's bota ever rejected ; all is life and action ; busy hands and feet, flashing eyes, and eager screams ; the light yellow chaff, which in the sun's rays glitters like gold dust, envelopes them in a halo, which by night, when partially revealed by the fires and mingled with the torch glare, is almost supernatural, as the phantom figures, now dark in shadows, now crimsoned by the fire flash, flit to and fro in the vaporous mist. The scene never fails to rivet and enchant the stranger, who, coming from the pale north and the commonplace in-door flail, seizes at once all the novelty of such doings. Eye and ear, open and awake, become inlets of new sensations of attention and admiration, and convey to heart and mind the poetry, local color, movement, grouping, action, and attitude. But while the cold-blooded native of leaden skies is full of fire and enthusiasm, his Spanish companion, bred and born under unshorn beams, is chilly as an icicle, indifferent as an Arab: he passes on the other side, not only not admiring, but positively ashamed ; he only sees the barbarity, antiquity, and imperfect process ; he is sighing for some patent machine made in Birmingham, ': o be put up in a closed barn after the models approved of by the Royal Agricultural Society in Cavendish Square ; his bowels yearn for the appliances of civilization by which " bread stuffs" are more scientifically manipulated and manufactured, minus the poetry. To return, however to dry bread, after this new digression, and all those who have ever been in Spain, or have ever written on Spanish things, must feel how difficult it is to keep regularly on the road without turning aside at every moment, now to cull a wild flower, now to pick up a sparkling spar. This corn, so beaten, is very carefully ground, and in La Mancha in those LUNCHEON. 117 charming windmills, which, perched on eminences to catch the air, look to this day, with their outstretched arms, like Quixotic giants ; the flour is passed through several hoppers, in order to secure its fineness. The dough is most carefully kneaded, worked, and re- worked, as is done by our biscuit-makers ; hence the close-grained, caky, somewhat heavy consistency of the crumb, whereas, according to Pliny, the Romans esteemed Span- ish bread on account of its lightness. The Spanish loaf has not that mysterious sympathy with butter and cheese as it has in our verdurous Old England, probably be- cause in these torrid regions pasture is rare, butter bad, and cheese worse, albeit they suited the iron digestion of Sancho, who knew of nothing better ; none, however, who have ever tasted Stilton or Parmesan will join in his eulogies of Castilian queso, the poorness of which will be estimated by the distinguished con- sideration in which a round cannon-ball Dutch cheese is held throughout the Peninsula. The traveller, nevertheless, should take one of them, for bad is here the best, in many other things' besides these : he will always carry some good loaves with it, for in the damper-mountain districts the daily bread of the natives is made of rye, Indian corn, and the inferior cerealia. Bread is the staff of the Spanish traveller's life, who, having added raw garlic, not salt, to it, then journeys on with security, con pan y ajo crudo se anda seguro. Again, a loaf never weighs one down, nor is ever in the way ; as JEsop, the prototype of Sancho, well knew. La hogaza no embaraza. Having secured his bread, the cook in preparing supper should make enough for the next day's lunch, las once, the eleven o'clock meal, as the Spaniards translate meridie, twelve or mid-day, whence the correct word for luncheon is derived, merienda mcrcn- dar. Wherever good dishes are cut up there are good leavings, " donde buenas ollas quebran, buenos cascos quedan ;" and nothing can be more Cervantic than the occasional al fresco halt, when no better place of accommodation is to be met with. As the sun gets high, and man and beast hungry and weary, wherever a tempting shady spot with running water occurs, the party draws aside from the high .road, like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza : a retired and concealed place is chosen, the luggage is 118 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. removed from the animals, the hampers which lard the lean soil are unpacked, the table-cloth is spread on the grass, the botas are laid in the water to cool their contents ; then out with the pro- vision, cold partridge or turkey, sliced ham or chorizo simple cates, but which are eaten with an appetite and relish for which aldermen would pay hundreds. They are followed, should grapes be wanting, with a soothing cigar, and a sweet slumber on earth's freshest, softest lap. In such wild banquets, Spain surpasses the Boulevards. Alas ! that such hours should be bright and winged as sunbeams ! Such is Peninsular country fare. The oZ/a, on which the rider may restore exhausted nature, is only to be studied in large towns ; and dining, of which this is the foundation in Spain, is such a great resource to travellers, and Spanish cookery, again, is scf Oriental, classical, and singular, let alone its vital importance, that the subject will properly demand a chapter to itself. A SPANISH COOK. 119 CHAPTER XI. A Spanish Cook Philosophy of Spanish Cuisine Sauce Difficulty of Commissariat The Provend Spanish Hares and Rabbits The Olla Garbanzo Spanish Pigs Bacon and Hams Omelette Salad and Gazpacho. IT would exhaust a couple of Colonial numbers at least to dis- cuss properly the merits and digest Spanish cookery. All that can be now done is to skim the- subject, which is indeed fat and unctuous. Those meats and drinks will be briefly noticed which are of daily occurrence, and those dishes described which we have often helped to make, and oftener helped to eat, in the most lar- derless ventas and hungriest districts of the Peninsula, and which provident wayfarers may make and eat again, and, as we pray, with no worse appetite. To be a good cook, which few Spaniards are, a man must not only understand his master's taste, but be able to make something out of nothing ; just as a clever French artiste converts an old shoe into an epigramme d'agneau, or a Parisian milliner dresses up two deal boards into a fine live Madame, whose only fault is the appearance of too much embonpoint. Genuine and legitimate Spanish dishes are excellent in their way, for no man nor man- cook ever is ridiculous when he does not attempt to be what he is not. The au naturel may occasionally be somewhat plain, but seldom makes one sick ; at all events it would be as hopeless to make a Spaniard understand real French cookery as to endeavor to explain to a depute the meaning of our constitution or parlia- ment. The ruin of Spanish cooks is their futile attempts to imi- tate foreign ones : just as their silly grandees murder the glori- ous Castilian tongue, by substituting what they fancy is pure Parisian, which they speak comme des vaches Espagnoles. Dis moi ce que tu manges et je te dirai ce que tu es is " un mot pro- fond" of the great equity judge, Brillat Savarin, who also dis- 120 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. covered that " Les destinees des nations dependent de la manure dont elles se nourrissent ;" since which General Foy has attribu- ted all the accidental victories of the British to rum and beef. And this great fact much enhances our serious respect for punch, and our true love for the ros-bif of old England, of which, by the way, very little will be got in the Peninsular, where bulls are bred for baiting, and oxen for the plough, not the spit. The national cookery of Spain is for the most part Oriental ; and the ruling principle of its preparation is stewing ; for, from a scarcity of fuel, roasting is almost unknown ; their notion of which is putting meat into a pan, setting it in hot ashes, and then covering the lid with burning embers. The pot, or o/Za, has accordingly become a synonyme for the dinner of Spaniards, just as beefsteaks or frogs are vulgarly supposed to constitute the whole bill of fare of two other mighty nations. "'Wherever meats are bad and thin, the sauce is very important ; it is based in Spain on oil, garlic, saffron, and red peppers. In hot countries, where beasts are lean, oil supplies the place of fat, as garlic does the want of flavor, while a stimulating condiment excites or cur- ries up the coats of a languid stomach. It has been said of our heretical countrymen that we have but one form of sauce melted butter and a hundred different forms of religion, whereas in orthodox Spain there is but one of each, and, as with religion, so to change this sauce would be little short of heresy. As to color, it carries that rich burnt umber, raw sienna tint, which Murillo imitated so well ; and no wonder, since he made his particular brown from baked olla bones, whence it was extracted, as is done to this day by those Spanish painters who indulge in meat. This brown negro de hueso color is the livery of tawny Spain, where all is brown from the Sierra Morena to duskier man. Of such hue is his cloak, his terra-cotta house, his wife, his ox, his ass, and everything that is his. This sauce has not only the same color, but the same flavor everywhere ; hence the difficulty of making out the material of which any dish is composed. Not Mrs. Glass herself could tell, by taste at least, whether the ingredients of the cauldron be hare or cat, cow or calf, the aforesaid ox or ass. It puzzles even the acumen of a Frenchman ; for it is still the great boast of the town of Olvera that they served up some donkeys as SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. 121 rations to a Buonapartist detachment. All this is very Oriental. Isaac could not distinguish tame kid from wild venison, so per- plexing was the disguise of the savory sauce ; and yet his sense? of smell and touch were keen, and his suspicions of unfair cooking were awakened. A prudent diner, therefore, except when forcer to become his own cook, will never look too closely into the things of the kitchen if lie wishes to live a quiet life ; for quien las cosci' muclio apura, no vive vida segura. All who ride or run through the Peninsula, will read thirst in the arid plains, and hunger in the soil-denuded hills, where those who ask for bread will receive stones. The knife and fork ques- tion has troubled every warrior in Spain, from Henri IV. down to Wellington ; " subsistence is the great difficulty always found" is the text of a third of the Duke's wonderful despatches. This scarcity of food is implied in the very name of Spain, 2navia, which means poverty and destitution, as well as in the term JBisonos, wanters, which long has been a synonyme for Spanish soldiers, who are always, as the Duke described them, " hors de combat," " always wanting in every thing at the critical mo- ment." Hunger and thirst have ever been, and are, the best defenders of the Peninsular against the invader. On sierra and steppe these gaunt sentinels keep watch and ward, and, on the scarecrow principle, protect this paradise, as they do the infernal regions of Virgil : " Malesuada fames et turpis egestas Horribiles visu.' 7 A riding tour through Spain has already been likened to serv- ing a campaign ; and it was a saying of the Grand Conde, " If you want to know what want is, carry on a war in Spain." Yet, notwithstanding the thousands of miles which we have ridden, never have we yet felt that dire necessity, which has been kept at a respectable distance by a constant unremitting attention to the proverb, A man forewarned is forearmed. Hombre prevenido nunca fu vencido, there is nothing like precaution and provision. " If you mean to dine.," writes the all-providing Duke to Lord Hill from Moralej a, " you had better bring your things, as I shall have PART i. ? 122 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. nothing with me ;" the ancient Bursal fashion holds good on Spanish roads : " Regula Bursalis est omni tempore talis, Prandia fer tecum, si vis comedere mecum.' 7 A man who is prepared, is never beaten or starved ; therefore, as the valorous Dalgetty has it, a prudent man will always vict- ual himself in Spain with vivers for three days at least, and his cook, like Sancho Panza, should have nothing else in his head, but thoughts how to convey the most eatables into his ambulant larder. He must set forth from every tolerable-sized town with an ample supply of tea, sugar, coffee, brandy, good oil, wine, salt, to say nothing of solids. The having something ready gives him leisure to forage and make ulterior preparations. Those who have a corps de reserve to fall back upon say a cold turkey and a ham can always convert any spot in the desert into an oasis ; at the same time the connection between body and soul may be kept up by trusting to venta luck, of which more anon ; it offers, how- ever, but a miserable existence to persons of judgment. And even when this precaution of provision be not required, there are never wanting in Spain the poor and hungry, to whom the taste of meat is almost unknown, and to whom these crumbs that fall from the rich man's table are indeed a feast ; the relish and gratitude with which these fragments are devoured do as much good to the heart of the donor as to the stomach of the donees, for the best medicines of the poor are to be found in the cellars, kitchens, and hampers of the rich. All servants should be careful of their traps and stores, which are liable to be pilfered and plundered in ventas, where the elite of society is not always assembled the luggage should be well corded, for the devil is always a gleaming, ata al saco, ya espiga el diablo. Formerly all travellers of rank carried a silver olla with a key, the guardacena, the save supper. This ingenious contrivance has furnished matter for many a pleasantry in picaresque tales and farces. Madame Daunoy gives us the history of what befel the good Archbishop of Burgos and his orthodox olla. HARES AND RABBITS. 123 There is nothing in life like making a good start ; thus the party arrives safely at the first resting-place. The cook must never appear to have anything when he arrives at an inn ; he must get from others all he can, and much is to be had for asking and crying, as even a Spanish Infante knows the child that does not cry is not suckled,' quien no Mora, no mama ; the artiste must never fall back on his own reservoirs except in cases of absolute need ; during the day he must open his eyes and ears and must pick up everything eatable, and where he can and when he can. By keeping a sharp look-out and going quietly to work the cook may catch the hen and her chickens too. All is fish that comes into the net, and, like Buonaparte and his mar- shals, nothing should be too great for his ambition, nothing too small for his rapacity .^ Of course he will pay for his collections, which the aforesaid gentry did not : thus fruit, onions, salads, which, as they must be bought somewhere, had better be secured whenever they turn up. The peasants, who are sad poachers, will constantly hail travellers from the fields with offers of par- tridges, rabbits, melons, hares, which always jump up in this pays de 1'imprevu when you least expect it: Salta la liebre cuando menos uno piensa. Notwithstanding Don Quixote thought that it augured bad luck to meet with a hare on entering a village, let not a bold trav- eller be scared, but forthwith stew the omen ; a hare, as in the time of Martial, is considered by Spaniards to be the glory of edible quadrupeds, and to this day no old stager ever takes a rab- bit when he can get a hare, dperro viejo echale liebre y no conejo. In default however of catching one, rabbits may always be bag- ged. Spain abounds with them to such a degree, that ancient naturalists thought the animal indigenous, and went so far as to derive the name Spain from Sephan, the rabbit, which the Phoe- nicians found here for the first time. Be that as it may, the long- eared timid creature appears on the early Iberian coins, as it will long do on her wide wastes and tables. By the bye, a ready- stewed rabbit or hare is to be eschewed as suspicious in a venta : at the same time, if the consumer does not find out that it is a cat, there is no great harm done ignorance is bliss ; let him not know it, he is not robbed at all. It is a pity to dispel his gas- 124 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tronomic delusion, as it is the knowledge of the cheat that kills, and not the cat. Pol ! me occidistis, amici. The cook therefore, should ascertain beforehand what are the bona fide ingredients of every dish that he sets before his lord. In going into the kitchens of the Peninsula, precedence must on every account be given to the olla : this word means at once a species of prepared food, and the earthenware utensil in which it is dressed, just as our term dish is applicable to the platter and to what is served on it. Into this olla it may be affirmed that the whole culinary genius of Spain is condensed, as the mighty Jinn was into a gallipot, according to the Arabian Night tales. The lively and gastronomic French, who are decidedly the leaders of European civilization in the kitchen, deride the barbarous practices of the Gotho-Iberians, as being darker than Erebus and more ascetic than aesthetic ; to credit their authors, a Peninsular breakfast consists of a teaspoonful of chocolate, a dinner, of a knob of garlic soaked in water, and a supper, of a paper cigarette ; and according to their parfait cuisinier^ the olla is made of two cigars boiled in three gallons of water but this is a calumny, a mere invention devised by the enemy. The olla is only well made in Andalucia, and there alone in careful, well-appointed houses ; it is called a puchero in the rest of Spain, where it is but a poor affair, made of dry beef, or rather cow, boiled with garbanzos or chick peas, and a few sausages. These garbanzos are the vegetable, the potato of the land ; and their use argues a low state of horticultural knowledge. The taste for them was introduced by the Carthaginians the puls pu nica, which (like the Jides punica, an especial ingredient in aL Spanish governments and finance) afforded such merriment to Plautus, that he introduced the chick-pea eating Poenus, pultiph- agonides, speaking Punic, just as Shakspere did the toasted-cheese eating Welshman talking Welsh. These garbanzos require much soaking, being otherwise hard as bullets ; indeed, a lively French- man, after what he calls an apology for a dinner, compared them, in his empty stomach, as he was jumbled away in the dilly, to peas rattling in a child's drum. The veritable olla the ancient time-honored olla podrida, or pot pourri the epithet is now obsolete is difficult to be made : THE OLLA PODRIDA. 125 a tolerable one is never to be eaten out of Spain, since it re- quires many Spanish things to concoct it, and much care ; the cook must throw his whole soul into the pan, or rather pot ; it may be- made in one, but two are better. They must be of earthenware ; for, like the French pot au feu, the dish is good for nothing when made in an iron or copper vessel ; take there- fore two, and put them on their separate stoves with water. Place into No. 1, Garbanzos, which have been placed to soak over-night. Add a good piece of beef, a cnicken, a large piece of bacon ; let it boil once and quickly ; then let it simmer ; it requires four or five hours to be well done. Meanwhile place into No. 2, with water, whatever vegetables are to be had : let- tuces, cabbage, a slice of gourd, of beef, carrots, beans, celery, endive, onions and garlic, long peppers. These must be previ- ously well washed and cut, as if they were destined to make a salad : then add red sausages, or " chorizos ;" half a salted pig's face, which should have been soaked over-night. When all is sufficiently boiled, strain off the water, and throw it away. Re- member constantly to skim the scum of both saucepans. When all this is sufficiently dressed, take a large dish, lay in the bottom the vegetables, the beef in the centre, flanked by the bacon, chicken, and pig's face. The sausages should be arranged around, en couronne ; pour over some of the soup of No. 1, and serve hot, as Horace did : " Uncta satis ponuntur oluscula lardo." No violets come up to the perfume which a coming olla casts be- fore it ; the mouth-watering bystanders sigh, as they see and smell the rich freight steaming away from them. This is the olla en grande, such as Don Quixote says was eaten only by canons and presidents of colleges ; like turtle-soup, it is so rich and satisfactory that it is a dinner of itself. A worthy dignitary of Seville, in the good old times, before reform and ap- propriation had put out the churches' kitchen fire, and whose daily pot-luck was transcendental, told us, as a wrinkle, that he on feast-days used turkeys instead of chickens, and added two sharp Ronda apples, and three sweet potatoes of Malaga. His advice is worth attention : he was a good Roman Catholic canon, who believed everything, absolved everything, drank everything, ate everything, and digested everything. In fact, as a general 126 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. rule, anything that is good in itself is good for an olla, provided, as old Spanish books always conclude, that it contains nothing contrary to the holy mother church, to orthodoxy, and to good manners " que no contiene cosa que se oponga a nuestra madre Iglesia, y santa fe catolica, y buenas costurnbres." Such an olla as this is not to be got on the road, but may be made to restore exhausted nature when halting in the cities. Of course, every olla must everywhere be made according to what can be got. In private families the contents of No. 1, the soup, is served up with bread in a tureen, and the frugal table decked with the separate contents of the olla in separate platters ; the remains coldly serve, or are warmed up, for supper. The vegetables and bacon are absolute necessaries ; without the former an olla has neither grace nor sustenance ; la olla sin verdura, ni tiene gracia ni hartura, while the latter is as essential in this stew as a text from Saint Augustine is in a sermon : No hay olla sin tocino Ni sermon sin Agustino. Bacon throughout the length and breadth of the Peninsula is more honored than this, or than any one or all the fathers of the church of &ome ; the hunger after the flesh of the pig is equalled only by the thirst for the contents of what is put afterwards into his skin ; and with reason, for the pork of Spain has always been, and is, unequalled in flavor ; the bacon is fat and flavored, the sausages delicious, and the hams transcendantly superlative, to use the very expression of Diodorus Siculus, a man of great taste, learning, and judgment. Of all the things of Spain, no one need feeling ashamed to plead guilty to a predilection and preference to the pig. A few particulars may be, therefore par- doned. In Spain pigs are more numerous even than asses, since they pervade the provinces. As those of Estremadura, the Hampshire of the Peninsula, aie the most esteemed, they alone will be now noticed. That province, although so little visited by Spaniards or strangers, is full of interest to the antiquarian and naturalist ; and many are the rides at different periods which we have made through its tangled ilex groves, and over its depopulated and PIGS OF ESTREMADLRA. 127 aromatic wastes. A granary under Roman and Moor, its very existence seems to be all but forgotten by the Madrid govern- ment, who have abandoned it to feres natures,, to wandering sheep, locusts, and swine. The entomology of Estremadura is endless, and perfectly uninvestigated de minimis non curat Hispanus ; but the heavens and earth teem with the minute creation ; there nature is most busy and prolific, where man is most idle and un- productive ; and in these lonely wastes, where no human voice disturbs the silence, the balmy air resounds with the buzzing hum of multitudinous insects, which career about on their business of love or food without settlements or 'kitchens, rejoicing in the fine weather which is the joy of their tiny souls, and short-lived pleas- ant existence. Sheep, pigs, locusts, and doves are the only liv- ing things which the traveller will see for hours and hours. Now and then a man occurs, just to prove how rare his species is here. Vast districts of this unreclaimed province are covered with woods of oak, beech, and chesnut ; but these park-like scenes have no charms for native eyes ; blind to the picturesque, they only are thinking of the number of pigs which can be fattened on the mast and acorns, which are sweeter and larger than those of our oaks. The acorns are still called bettota, the Arabic lollot Mot being the Scriptural term for the tree and the gland, which, with water, formed the original diet of the aboriginal Iberian, as well as of his pig; when dry, the acorns were ground, say the classical authors, into bread, and, when fresh, they were served up as the second course. And in our time ladies of high rank at Madrid constantly ate them at the opera and elsewhere ; they were the presents sent by Sancho Panza's wife to the Duch- ess, and formed the text on which Don Quixote preached so elo- quently to the goatherds, on the joys and innocence of the golden age and pastoral happiness, in which they constituted the founda- tion of the kitchen. The pigs during the greater part of the year are left to support nature as they can, and in gauntness resemble those greyhound- looking animals which pass for porkers in France. When . the acorns are ripe and fall from the trees, the greedy animals are turned out in legions from the villages, which more correctly may 128 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. be termed coalitions of pigsties. They return from the woods at night, of their own accord,, and without a swine's general. On entering the hamlet, all set off at a full gallop, like a legion pos- sessed with devils, in a handicap for home, into which each single pig turns, never making a mistake. We have more than once been caught in one of these pig-deluges, arid nearly carried away horse and all, as befell Don Quixote, when really swept away by the " far-spread and grunting drove. 57 In his own home each truant is welcomed like a prodigal son or a domestic father. These pigs are the pets of the peasants ; they are brought up with their children, and partake, as in Ireland, in the domestic discomforts of their cabins; they are universally respected, and justly, for it is this animal who pays the " rint ;" in fact, are the citizens, as at Sorrento, and Estremenian man is quite a secon- dary formation, and created to tend herds of these swine, who lead the happy life of former Toledan dignitaries, with the addi- tional advantage of becoming more valuable when dead. It is astonishing how rapidly they thrive on their sweet food ; indeed it is the whole duty of a good pig animal propter con- vivia natum to get as fat and as soon as he can, and then die for the good of his country. It may be observed for the inform- ation of our farmers, that those pigs which are dedicated to St. Anthony, on whom a sow is in constant attendance, as a dove was on Venus, gets the soonest fat ; therefore in Spain young porkers are sprinkled with holy water on his day, but those of other saints are less propitious, for the killing takes place about the 10th and llth of November, or, as Spaniards date it por el St. Andres, on the day of St. Andrews, or on that of St. Martin ; hence the proverb " every man and pig has his St. Martin or his fatal hour, a cada puerco su San Martin" The death of a fat pig is as great an event in Spanish families, who generally fatten up one, as the birth of a baby ; nor can the fact be kept secret, so audible is his announcement. It is con- sidered a delicate attention on the part of the proprietor to cele- brate the auspicious event by sending a portion of the chitterlings to intimate friends. The Spaniard's proudest boast is that his blood is pure, that he is not descended from pork-eschewing Jew or Moor a fact w r hich the pig genus, could it reason, would deep. PORK OF MONTANCHES. 139 ly deplore. The Spaniard doubtless has been so great a consumer of pig, from grounds religious, as well as gastronomic. The eat- ing or not eating the flesh of an animal deemed unclean by the impure infidel, became a test of orthodoxy, and at once of correct faith as well as of good taste ; and good bacon, as has been just observed, is wedded to sound doctrine and St. Augustine. The Spanish name Tocino is derived from the Arabic Tachim, which signifies fat. The Spaniards however, although tremendous consumers of the pig, whether in the salted form or in the skin, have to the full the Oriental abhorrence to the unclean animal in the abstract. Muy puerco is their last expression for all that is most dirty, nas- ty, or disgusting. Muy cochina never is -forgiven, if applied to woman, as it is equivalent to the Italian Vacca, and to the canine feminine compliment bandied among our fair sex at Billingsgate ; nor does the epithet imply moral purity or chastity ; indeed in Castilian euphuism the unclean animal was never to be named except in a periphrasis, or with an apology, which is a singular remnant of the Moorish influence on Spanish manners. Haluf or swine is still the Moslem's most obnoxious term for the Chris- tians, and is applied to this day by the ungrateful Algerines to their French bakers and benefactors, nay even to the "illustre Bugeaud." The capital of the Estremenian pig-districts is Montanches inons anguis and doubtless the hilly spot where the Duke of Arcos fed and cured " ces petits jambons vermeils," which the Due de St. Simon ate and admired so much ; "ces jambons ont un parfum si admirable, un gout si releve et si vivifiant, qu'on en est surpris : il est impossible de rien manger si exquis." His Grace of Arcos used to shut up the pigs in places abounding in vipers, on which they fattened. Neither the pigs, dukes, nor their toad-eaters seemed to have been poisoned by these exquisite vipers. According to Jonas Harrington, the finest Irish pigs were those that fed on dead rebels : one Papist Porker, the Enniscorthy boar, was sent as a show, for having eaten a Protestant parson : he was put to de-ath and dishonored by not being made bacon of. Naturalists have remarked that the rattlesnakes in America re- tire before their consuming enemy, the pig, who is thus the gas- 7* 130 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tador or pioneer of the new world's civilization, just as Pizarro, who was suckled by a sow, and tended swine in his youth, was its conqueror. Be that as it may, Montanches is illustrious in pork, in which the burgesses go the whole hog, whether in the rich red sausage, the chorizo, or in the savory piquant embucliados, which are akin to the mortadelle of Bologna, only less hard, and usually boiled before eating, though good also raw ; they consist, of the choice bits of the pig seasoned with condiments, with which, as if by retribution, the paunch of the voracious animal is filled ; the ruling passion strong in death. We strongly recommend Juan Valiente, who recently was the alcalde of the town, to the lover of delicious hams; eachjamon averages about 12 Ib. ; they are sold at the rate of 7-J- reales, about 18^., for the libra carni- cera, which weighs 32 of our ounces. The duties in England are now very trifling ; we have for many years had an annual supply of these delicacies, through the favor of a kind friend at the Pu- erto. The fat of these jamones, whence our word ham and gam- mon, when they are boiled, looks like melted topazes, and the fla- vor defies language, although we have dined on one this very day, in order to secure accuracy and undeniable prose, like Lope de Vega, who, according to his biographer, Dr. Montalvan, never could write poetry unless inspired by a rasher ; " Toda es cosa vil," said he, " a donde falta un pernil" (in which word we re- cognize the precise perna whereby Horace was restored) : Therefore all writing is a sham, Where there is wanting Spanish ham. Those of Gallicia and Catalonia are also celebrated, but are not to be compared for a moment with those of Montanches, which are fit to set before an emperor. Their only rivals are th( sweet hams of the Alpujarras, which are made at Trevetez, a pig hamlet situated under the snowy mountains on the opposite side of Granada, to which also we have made a pilgrimage. They are called dulces, or sweet, because scarcely any salt is used in the curing ; the ham is placed in a weak pickle for eight days, and is then hung up in the snow ; it can only be done at this place, where the exact temperature necessary is certain. Those of our readers who are curious in Spanish eatables will find ex- THE GUISADO. 131 cellent garbanzos, chorizos, red pepper, chocolate, and Valencian sweetmeats, &c., at Figul's, a most worthy Catalan, whose shop is at No. 10, Woburn Buildings, St. Pancras, London; the local- ity is scarcely less visited than Montanches, but the penny-post penetrates into this terra incognita. So much space has been filled with these meritorious bacons and hams, that we must be brief with our remaining bill of fare. For a pisto or meat omelette take eggs, which are to be got almost everywhere ; see that they are fresh, by being pellucid ; beat these huevos trasparentes well up ; chop up onions and whatever savory herbs you have with you ; add small slices of any meat out of your hamper, cold turkey, ham, &c. ; beat it all up to- gether and fry it quickly. Most Spaniards have a peculiar knack in making these tortillas, revueltas de huevos, which, to fastidious stomachs, are, as in most parts of the Continent, a sure resource to fall back upon. The Guisado, or stew, like the olla, can only be really done in a Spanish pipkin, and of those which we import, the Anda- lucian ones draw flavor out the best. This dish is always well done by every cook in every venta, barring that they are apt to put in bad oil, and too much garlic, pepper, and saffron. Super- intend it therefore, yourself, and take hare, partridge, rabbit, chicken, or whatever you may have foraged on the road ; it is capital also with pheasant, as we proved only yesterday ; cut it up, save the blood, the liver, and the giblets ; do not wash the pieces, but dry them in a cloth ; fry them with onions in a tea- cup of oil till browned ; take an olla, put in these bits with the oil, equal portions of wine and water, but stock is better than water : claret answers well, Valdepenas better ; add a bit of bacon, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, pimientos, a bunch of thyme or herbs ^ let it simmer, carefully skimming it ; half an hour before serving add the giblets ; when done, which can be tested by feeling with a fork, serve hot. The stew should be constantly stirred with a wooden r,poon, and grease, the ruin of all cookery, carefully skimmed off as it rises to the surface. When made with proper care and with a good salad, it forms a supper for a cardinal, or for Santiago himself. Another excellent but very difficult dish is the polio con arroz, 132 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. or the chicken and rice. It is eaten in perfection in Valencia, and therefore is often called Polio Valenciano. Cut a good fowl into pieces, wipe it clean, but do not put it into water ; take a saucepan, put in a wine-glass of fine oil, heat the oil well, put in a bit of bread ; let it fry, stirring it about with a wooden spoon ; when the bread is browned take it out and throw it away : put in two cloves of garlic, taking care that it does not burn, as, if it does, it will turn bitter; stir the garlic till it is fried ; put in the chicken, keep stirring it about while it fries, then put in a little salt and stir again ; whenever a sound of cracking is heard, stir it again ; when the chicken is well browned or gilded, dorado, which will take from five to ten minutes, stirring constantly, put in chopped onions, three or four chopped red or green chilis, and stir about ; if once the contents catch the pan, the fish is spoiled ; then add tomatas, divided into quarters, and parsley ; take two teacupsful of rice, mix all well up together ; add hot stock enough to cover the whole over ; let it boil once, and then set it aside to simmer until the rice becomes tender and done. The great art consists in having the rice turned out granulated and separate, not in a pudding state, which is sure to be the case if a cover be ever put over the dish, which condenses the steam. It may be objected, that these dishes, if so curious in the cook- ing, are not likely to be well done in the rude kitchens of a venta; but practice makes perfect, and the whole mind and intellect of the artist is concentrated on one object, and not frittered away by a multiplicity of dishes, the rock on which many cooks founder, where more dinners are sacrificed to the eye and ostentation. One dish and one thing at a time is the golden rule of Bacon ; many are the anxious moments that we have spent over the rim of a Spanish pipkin, watching, life set on the cast, the wizen she- mummy, whose mind, body, and spoon were absorbed in a single mess: Well, my mother, que tal? what sort of a stew is it? Let me smell and taste the salsa. Good, good ; it promises much. Vamos Senora go on, my lady, thy spoon once more how, indeed, can oil, wine, and nutritive juices amalgamate with- out frequent stirring ? Well, very well it is. Now again, daughter of my soul, thy fork. Asi, asi ; thus, thus. Per BaccOj by Bacchus, tender it is may heaven repay thee ! In. STARRED EGGS. 133 deed, from this tenderness of the meat arises ease of digestion ; here, pot and fire do half the work of the poor stomach, which too often in inns elsewhere is overtaxed, like its owner, and con- demned to hard labor and a brickbat beefsteak. Poached eggs are at all events within the grasp of the meanest culinary capacity. They are called Huevos estrellados, starred eggs. When fat bacon is wedded to them, the dish is called Huevos con magras ; not that magras here means thin as to con- dition, but rather as to slicing ; and these slices again, are posi- tively thick ones when compared to those triumphs of close shaving which are carved at Vauxhall. To make this dish, with or without the bacon, take eggs ; the contents of the shell are to be emptied into a pan filled with hot oil or lard, manteca de puerco, pigs's butter ; it must be remembered, although Strabo mentions as a singular fact that the Iberians made use of butter instead of oil, that now it is just the reverse ; a century ago butter was only sold by the apothecaries, as a sort of ointment, and it used to be iniquitous. Spaniards generally used either Irish or Flem- ish salted butter, and from long habit thought fresh butter quite insipid ; indeed, they have no objection to its being a trifle or so rancid, just as some aldermen like high venison. In the present age of progress the Queen Christina has a fancy dairy at Mad- rid, where she makes a few pounds of fresh butter, of which a small portion is or was sold, at five shillings the pound, to foreign ambassadors for their breakfast. Recently more attention has been paid to the dairy in the Swiss-like provinces of the north- west. The Spaniards, like the heroes in the Iliad, seldom boil their food (eggs excepted,) at least not in water ; for frying, after all, is but boiling in oil. Travellers should be cautioned against the captivating name of manteca Valenciana. This Valencian butter is composed (for the cow has nothing to do with it) of equal portions of garlic and hogs' lard pounded together in a mortar ; it is then spread on bread, just as we do arsenic to destroy vermin. It, however, agrees well with the peasants, as does the soup of their neighbors the Catalans, which is made of bread and garlic in equal portions fried in oil and diluted with hot water. This mess is called sopa de gatOj probably from making cats, not Catalans, sick. 134 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. One thing, however, is truly delicious in Spain the salad, to compound which, says the Spanish proverb, four persons are wanted : a spendthrift for oil, a miser for vinegar, a counsellor for salt, and a madman to stir it all up. N.B. Get the biggest bowl you can in order that this latter operation may be thoroughly performed. The salad is the glory of every French dinner, and the disgrace of most in England, even in good houses, and from two simple causes; first, from the putting in eggs, mustard, and other heretical ingredients, and, secondly, from making it long before it is wanted to be eaten, whereby the green materials, which should be crisp and fresh, become sodden and leathery. Prepare, therefore, ycwir salad in separate vessels, and never mix the sauce with the herbs until the instant that you are read) 7 to transfer the refreshing result to your plate. Take lettuce, or whatever salad is to be got ; do not cut it with a steel knife, which turns the edges of the wounds black, and communicates an evil flavor ; let the leaf be torn from the stem, which throw away, as it is hard and bitter ; wash the mass in many waters, and rinse it in napkins till dry take a small bowl, put in equal quantities of vinegar and water, a teaspoonful of pepper and salt, and four times as much oil as vinegar and water, mix the same well together ; prepare in a plate whatever fine herbs can be got, especially tarragon and chervil, which must be chopped small. Pour the sauce over the salad, powder it with these herbs, and lose no time in eating. For making a much worse salad than this, a foreign artiste in London used some years ago to charge a guinea. Any remarks on Spanish salads would be incomplete without some account of gazpacho, that vegetable soup, or floating salad, which during the summer forms the food of the bulk of the peo- ple in the torrid portions of Spain. This dish is of Arabic origin, as its name, " soaked bread," implies. This most ancient Orien- tal Roman and Moorish refection is composed of onions, garlic, cucumbers, chilis, all chopped up very small and mixed with crumbs of bread, and then put into a bowl of oil, vinegar, and fresh water. Reapers and agricultural laborers could never stand the sun's fire without this cooling acetous diet. This was the o^vxqcnog of the Greeks, the posca, potable food, meat and GAZPACHO. 135 drink, potus et esca, which formed part of the rations of the Roman soldiers, and which Adrian (a Spaniard) delighted to share with them, and into which Boaz at rneal-time invited Ruth to dip her morsel. Dr. Buchanan found some Syrian Christians who still called it ail, ail, Hil Hila, for which our Saviour was supposed to have called on the Cross, when those who understood that dialect gave it him from the vessel which was full of it for the Guard. In Andalucia, during the summer, a bowl of gaz- pacho is commonly ready in every house of an evening, and is partaken of by every person who comes in. It is not easily digested by strangers, who do not require it quite so much as the natives, whose souls are more parched and dried up, and who perspire less. The components, oil, vinegar, and bread, are all that is given out to the lower class of laborers by farmers who profess to feed them ; two cow's horns, the most primitive form of bottle and cup, are constantly seen suspended on each side of their carts, and contain this provision, with which they compound their migas : this consists of crumbs of bread fried in oil, with pepper and garlic ; nor can a stronger proof be given of the Qom- mon poverty of their fare than the common expression, " buenas migas hay" there are good crumbs, being equivalent to capital eating. In very cold weather the mess in warmed, and then is called gazpacho caliente. Oh ! dura messorum ilia oh ! the iron mess digesting stomachs of ploughmen. 136 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. CHAPTER XII. Drinks of Spain Water Irrigation Fountains Spanish Thiiytiness The Alcarraza Water carriers Ablutions Spanish Chocolate Agraz Beer lemonade. IN dipping into Spanish liquids we shall not mix wine with water, but keep them separate, as most Spaniards do ; the latter is entitled to rank first, by those who prefer the opinion of Pin- dar, who held water to be the best of things, to that of Anacreon, who was not member of any temperance society. The pro- found regard for water of a Spaniard is quite Oriental ; at the same time, as his blood is partly Gothic and partly Arab, his allegiance is equally mixed and divided ; thus, if he adores the juice of flints like a Moslem, he venerates the juice of the grape like a German. Water is the blood of the earth, and the purificator of the body in tropical regions and in creeds which, being regulated by latitudes, enforce frequent ablution ; loud are the praises of Arab writers of wells and water-brooks, and great is their fountain and pool worship, the dipping in which, if their miraculous cases are to be credited, effects more and greater cures than those worked by hydropathists at Grafenberg ; a Spaniards's idea of a paradise on earth, of a " garden, "is a well- watered district; irrigation is fertility and wealth, and therefore, as in the East, wells, brooks, and water-courses have been a constant source of bickering ; nay the very word rivality has been derived fron these quarrel and law-suit engendering rivers, as the name given to the well for which the men of Gerah and Isaac differed, was called esek from the contention. The flow of waters cannot be mistaken ; the most dreary sterility edges the most luxuriant plenty, the most hopeless bar- renness borders on the richest vegetation ; the line of demarca- FOUNTAINS. 137 lion is perceived from afar, dividing the tawny desert from the verdurous garden. The Moors who came from the East were fully sensible of the value of this element ; they collected the best springs with the greatest care, they dammed up narrow gorges into reservoirs, they constructed pools and underground cisterns, stemmed valleys with aqueducts that poured in rivers, and in a word exercised a magic influence over this element, which they guided and wielded at their will ; their system of irrigation was far too perfect to be improved by Spaniard, or even destroyed. In those favored districts where their artificial con- trivances remain, Flora still smiles and Ceres rejoices with Pomona ; wherever the ravages of war or the neglect of man have ruined them, the garden has relapsed into the desert, and plains once overflowing with corn, gladness, and population, have shrunk into sad and silent deserts. The fountains of Spain, especially in the hotter and more Moorish districts, are numerous ; they cannot fail to strike and please the stranger, whether they be situated in the public walk, garden, market-place, or private dwelling. Their mode of sup- ply is simple ; a river which flows down from the hills is di- verted at a certain height from its source, and is carried in an ar- tificial canal, which retains the original elevation, into a reservoir placed above the town which is to be served ; as the waters rise to their level, the force, body, and altitude of some of the columns thrown up are very great. In our cold country, where, except at Charing Cross, the stream is conveyed underground and un- seen, all this gush of waters, of dropping diamonds in the bright sun, which cools the air and gladdens the sight and ear, is un- known. Again there is a waste of the " article," which would shock a Chelsea Waterworks Director, and induce the rate-col- lector to refer to the fines as per Act of Parliament. The fond- est wish of those Spaniards who wear long-tailed coats, is to imi- tate those gentry ; they are ashamed of the patriarchal uncivil- ized system of their ancestors much prefer the economical lead pipe to all this extravagant and gratuitous splashing they love a turncock better than the most Oriental Rebecca who comes down to draw water. The fountains in Spain as in the East are the meeting and greeting places of womankin 7 ; here they flock, old 138 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. and young, infants and grandmothers. It is a sight to drive a water-color painter crazy, such is the color, costume, and group- ings, such is the clatter of tongues and crockery ; such is the life and action ; now trip along a bevy of damsel Hebes with upright forms and chamois step light yet true ; more graceful than opera- dancers, they come laughing and carolling along, poising on their heads pitchers, modelled after the antique, and after everything which a Sevres jug is not. It would seem that to draw water is a difficult operation, so long are they lingering near the sweet fountain's rim. It indeed is their al fresco rout, their tertulia ; here for awhile the hand of woman labor ceases, and the urn stands still; here more than even after church mass, do the young discuss their dress and lovers, the middle-aged and mothers des- cant on babies and housekeeping ; all talk, and generally at once ; but gossip refresheth the daughters of Eve, whether in gilded boudoir or near mossy fountain, whose water, if a dash of scan- dal be added, becomes sweeter than eau sucree. The Iberians were decided water-drinkers, and this trait of their manners, which are modified by climate that changes not, still exists as the sun that regulates : the vinous Greek Athenseus was amazed that even rich Spaniards should prefer water to wine ; and to this day they are if possible curious about the latter's quality; they will just drink the wine that grows the nearest, while they look about and enquire for the best water ; thus even our cook Francisco, who certainly had one of the best places in Seville and who although a good artiste was a better rascal qualities not incompatible preferred to sacrifice his interests ra- ther than go to Granada, because this man of the fire had heard that the water there was bad. The mother of the Arabs was tormented with thirst, which her Hispano-Moro children have inherited ; in fact in the dog-days, of which here there are packs, unless the mortal clay be fre- quently wetted it would crumble to bits like that of a figure mo- deller. Fire and water are the elements of Spain, whether at an auto de fe or in a church-stoop ; with a cigar in his mouth a Spaniard smokes like Vesuvius, and is as dry, combustible, and inflammatory ; and properly to understand the truth of Solomon's remark, that cold water is to a thirsty soul as refreshing as good INTENSE HEAT. 139 news, one must have experienced what thirst is in the exposed plains of the calcined Castiles, where coup de soleil is rife, and a gentleman on horseback's brains seem to be melting like Don Quixote's when Sancho put the curds into his helmit. It is just the country to send a patient to, who is troubled with hydropho- bia. " Those rayes," to use the words of old Howell, " that do but warm you in England, do roast you here ; those beams that irradiate onely, and gild your honey-suckled fields, do here scorch and parch the chinky gaping soyle, and put too many wrinkles upon the face of your common mother." Then when the heavens and earth are on fire, and the sun drinks up rivers at one draught, when one burnt sienna tone per- vades the tawny ground, and the green herb is shrivelled up into black gunpowder, and the rare pale ashy olive-trees are blanched into the livery of the desert ; then, when the heat and harshness make even the salamander muleteers swear doubly as they toil along like demons in an ignited salitrose dust then, indeed, will an Englishman discover that he is made of the same material, only drier, and learn to estimate water; but a good thirst is too serious an evil, too bordering on suffering, to be made, like an ap- petite, a matter of congratulation ; for when all fluids evaporate, and the blood thickens into currant jelly, and the nerves tighten up into the catgut of an overstrung fiddle, getting attuned to the porcupinal irritability of the tension of the mind, how the parched soul sighs for the comfort of a Scotch mist, and fondly turns back to the uvula-relaxing damps of Devon ! then, in the blackhole- like thirst of the. wilderness, every mummy hag rushing from a reed hut, with a porous cup of brackish water, is changed by the mirage into a Hebe, bearing the nectar of the immortals ; then how one longs for the most wretched Venta, which heat and thirst convert into the Clarendon, since in it, at least will be found water and shade, and an escape from the god of fire ! Well may Span- ish historians boast, that his orb at the creation first shone over Toledo, and never since has set on the dominions of the great king, who, as we are assured by Senor Berni, " has the sun for his hat," tiene al sol por su sombrero ; but humbler mortals who are not grandees of this solar system, and to whom a coup de soleil is neither a joke nor a metaphor, should stow away non- 140 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. conductors of heat in the crown of their beavers. Thus Apollo himself preserved us. And oh ! ye our fair readers, who chance to run such risks, and value complexion, take for heaven's sake a parasol and an Alcarraza. This clay utensil as its Arabic name al Karaset implies is a porous refrigeratory vessel, in which water when placed in a cur- rent of hot air becomes chilled by evaporation ; it is to be seen hung up on poles dangling from branches, suspended to waggons in short, is part and parcel of a Spanish scene in hot weather and localities ; every posada has rows of them at the entrance, and the first thing every one does on entering, before wishing even the hostess Good morning, or asking permission, is to take a full draught : all classes are learned on the subject, and although on the whole they cannot be accused of teetotalism, they are loud in their praises of the pure fluid. The common form of praise isagua muy rica very rich water. According to their proverbs, good water should have neither taste, smell, nor color, " ni sabor, olor, ni color" which neither makes men sick nor in debt, nor women widows, " que no enferma, no adeuda, no enviuda ;" and besides being cheaper than wine, beer, or brandy, it does not brutalize the consumer, nor deprive him of his common sense or good manners. As Spaniards at all times are as dry as the desert or a sponge, selling water is a very active business ; on every alameda and prado shrill voices of the sellers of drinks and mouth combustibles vendedores de combustibles de boca are heard crying, " Fire, fire, candela Water; who wants water ?" agua ; quien quiere agua? which, as these Orientals generally exaggerate, is des- cribed as mas fresco, que la nieve, or colder than snow ; and near them little Murillo-like urchins run about with lighted ropes like artillerymen for the convenience of smokers, that is, for every ninety and nine males out of a hundred ; while water-carriers, or rather retail pedestrian aqueducts, follow thirst like fire-engines ; the Aguador carries on his back, like his colleague in the East, a porous water-jar, with a little cock by which it is drawn out ; he is usually provided with a small tin box strapped to his waist, and in which he stows away his glasses, brushes, and some light azucarillos panales, which -are made of sugar and white of egg, WANT OF CLEANLINESS. 141 which Spaniards dip and dissolve in their drink. In the town, at particular stations water-mongers in wholesale have a shed, with ranges of jars, glasses, oranges, lemons, &c., and a bench or two on which the drinkers " untire themselves." In winter these are provided with an anafe or portable stove, which keeps a sup- ply of hot water, to take the chill off the cold, for Spaniards from a sort of dropsical habit, drink like fishes all the year round. Ferdinand the Catholic, on seeing a peasant drowned in a river, observed, " that he had never before seen a Spaniard who had had enough water." At the same time it must be remembered that this fluid is ap- plied with greater prodigality in washing their inside than their outside. Indeed, a classical author remarks that the Spaniards only learnt the use of hot water, as applicable to the toilette, from the Romans after the second Punic war. Their baths and therma were destroyed by the Goths, because they tended to encourage ofFeminacy ; and those of the Moors were prohibited by the Gotho-Spaniards partly from similar reasons, but more from a religious hydrophobia. Ablutions and lustral purifications formed an article of faith with the Jew and Moslem, with whom " clean- liness is godliness." The mendicant Spanish monks, according to their practice of setting up a directly antagonist principle, considered physical dirt as the test of moral purity and true faith ; and by dining and sleeping from year's end to year's end in the same unchanged woollen frock, arrived at the height of their am- bition, according to their view of the odor of sanctity, insomuch that Ximenez, who was himself a shirtless Franciscan, induced Ferdinand and Isabella, at the conquest of Granada, to close and abolish the Moorish baths. They forbade not only the Chris- tians but the Moors from using anything but holy water. Fire, not water, became the grand element of inquisitorial purifica- tion. The fair sex was warned by monks, who practised what they preached, that they should remember the cases of Susanna, Bath- sheba, and La Cava, whose fatal bathing under the royal palace at Toledo led to the downfall of the Gothic monarchy. Their aqueous anathemas extended not only to public, but to minutely private washings, regarding which Sanchez instructs the Spanish 142 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. confessor to question his fair penitents, and not to absolve the over- washed. Many instances could be produced of the practi- cal working of this enjoined rule ; for instance Isabella, the fa- vorite daughter of Philip II., his eye, as he called her, made a solemn vow never to change her shift until Ostend was taken. The siege lasted three .years, three months, and thirteen days. The royal garment acquired a tawny color, which was called Isabel by the courtiers, in compliment to the pious princess. Again, Southey relates that the devout Saint Eufraxia entered into a convent of 130 nuns, not one of whom had ever washed her feet, and the very mention of a bath was an abomination. These obedient daughters to their Capuchin confessors were what Gil de Avila termed a sweet garden of flowers, perfumed by the good smell and reputation of sanctity, " ameno jardin de flores, olo- rosaspor el buen odor y fama de santidad" Justice to the land of Castile soap requires us to observe that latterly, since the sup- pression of monks, both sexes, and the fair especially, have de- parted from the strict observance of the religious duties of their excellent grandmothers. Warm baths are now pretty generally established in the larger towns. At the same time, the interiors of bedrooms whether in inns or private houses, as well by the striking absence of glass and china utensils, which to English no- tions are absolute necessaries, as by the presence of French pie- dish basins, and duodecimo jugs, indicate that this u little damned spot" on the average Spanish hand, has not yet been quite rub- bed out. However hot the day, dusty the road, or long the journey, it has never been our fate to see a Spanish attendant use a single drop of water -as a detergent, or, as polite writers say, " perform his ablutions ; w the constant habit of bathing and complete wash- ing is undoubtedly one reason why the French and other conti- nentals consider our soap-loving countrymen to be cracked. Un- der the Spanish Goths the Hemerobaptistge, or people who washed their persons once a day, were set down as heretics. The Duke of Frias, when a few years ago on a fortnight's visit to an Eng- lish lady, never once troubled his basins and jugs; he simply rubbed his face occasionally with the' white of an egg, which, as Madame Daunoy records, was the only ablution of the Spanish ICED DRINKS. 143 ladies in the time of Philip IV. ; but these details of the dressing- room are foreign to the use made in Spain of liquids in kitchen and parlor. One word on chocolate which is to a Spaniard what tea is to a Briton coffee to a Gaul. It is to be had almost everywhere, and is always excellent ; the best is made by the nuns, who arc great confectioners and compounders of sweetmeats, sugarplums and orange-flowers, water and comfits, " Et tous ces mets sucres en pte, ou bien liquides Dont estomacs devots furent toujours avides." It was long a disputed point whether chocolate did 01 did not break fast theologically, just as happened with coffee among the rigid Moslems. But since the learned Escobar decided that liquidum non rumpit jejunium, a liquid does not break fast, it has become the universal breakfast of Spain. It is made just liquid enough to come within the benefit of clergy, that is, a spoon will almost stand up in it ; only a small cup is taken, una jicara, a Mexican word for the cocoa-nuts of which they were first made, generally with a bit of toasted bread or biscuit : as these jicaras have seldom any handles, they were used by the rich (as coffee- cups are among the Orientals) enclosed in little filigree cases of silver or gold ; some of these are very beautiful, made in the form of a tulip or lotus leaf, on a saucer of mother-o'-pearl. The flower is so contrived that, by a spring underneath, on rais- ing the saucer, the leaves fall back and disclose the cup to the lips, while, when put down, they re-close over it, and form a pro- tection against the flies. A glass of water should always be drunk after this chocolate, since the aqueous chasse neutralizes the bilious propensities of this breakfast of the gods, as Linnaeus called chocolate. Tea and coffee have supplanted chocolate in England and France ; it is in Spain alone that we are carried back to the breakfasts of Belinda and of the wits at Button's ; in Spain exist, unchanged, the fans, the game of ombre, tresillo and the coche de colleras, the coach and six, and omei &ocial usages of the age of Pope and the l Spectator.' Cold liquids in the hot dry summers of Spain are necessaries, not luxuries ; snow and ice drinks are sold in the streets at prices 144 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. so low as to be within the reach of the poorest classes the rich refrigerate themselves with agraz. This, the Moorish Hacaraz, is the most delicious and most refreshing drink ever devised by thirsty mortal ; it is the new pleasure for which Xerxes wished in vain, and beats the " hock and soda water," the " hoc crat in votis" of Byron, and sherry cobler itself. It is made of pounded unripe grapes, clarified sugar, and water it is strained till it becomes of the palest straw-colored arnber, and well iced. It is particu- larly well-made in Andalucia, and it is worth going there in the dog-days, if only to drink it it cools a man's body and soul. At Madrid an agreeable drink is sold in the streets ; it is called Miclii Michi, from the Valencian Mitj e Mitj, "half and half," and is as unlike the heavy wet mixture of London, as a coal-porter is to a pretty fair Valenciana. It is made of equal portions of barley water and orgeat of Ckufas, and is highly iced. The Spaniards, among other cooling fruits, eat their strawberries mixed with sugar and the juice of oranges, which will be found a more agree- able addition than the wine used by the French, or the cream of the English, the one heats, and the other, whenever it is to be had, makes a man bilious in Spain. Spanish ices, helados, are apt to be too sweet, nor is the sugar well refined ; the ices, when frozen very hard and in small forms, either representing fruits or shells, are called quesos, cheeses. Another favorite drink is a weak bottled beer mixed with iced lemonade. Spaniards, however, are no great drinkers of beer, notwithstanding that their ancestors drank more of it than wine, which was not then either so plentiful or universal as at the pre- sent ; this substitute of grapeless countries passed from the Egyp- tians and Carthagenians into Spain, where it was excellent, and kept well. The vinous Roman soldiers derided the beer-drinking Iberians, just as the French did the English before the battle of Agincourt. " Can sodden water barley-broth decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat ?" Polybius sneers at the magnificence of a Spanish king, because his home was furnished with silver and gold vases full of beer, of barley-wine. The genuine Goths, as happens everywhere to this day, were great swillers of ale and beer, heady and stupifying mixtures, according to Aristotle. Their Archbishop, St. Isidore, distinguished between celia ceria, ICED LEMONADE. 143 the ale, and cerbisia, beer, whence the present word cerbeza is derived. Spanish beer, like many other Spanish matters, has now become small. Strong English beer is rare and dear; among one of the infinite ingenious absurdities of Spanish cus- toms' law, English beer in barrels used to be prohibited, as were English bottles if empty but prohibited beer, in prohibited bot- tles, was admissible, on the principle that two fiscal negatives made an exchequer affirmative. PART I. 8 146 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY CHAPTER XIII. Spanish Wines Spanish Indifference Wine-making Vins du Pays- Local Wines Benicarl6 Valdepenas. THE wines of Spain deserve a chapter to themselves. Sherry indeed is not less popular among us than Murillo, in spite of the numbers of bad copies of the one, which are passed off for un- doubted originals, and butts of the other, which are sold neat as imported. The Spaniard himself is neither curious in port, nor particular in Madeira; he prefers quantity to quality, and loves flavor much less than he hates trouble ; a cellar in a private house, of rare, fine, or foreign wines, is perhaps a greater curiosity than a library of ditto books ; an hidalgo with twenty names simply sends out before his frugal meal for a quart of wine to the nearest shop, as a small burgess does in the City for a pint of por- ,ter. Local in every thing, the Spaniard takes the goods that the gods provide him, just as they come to hand ; he drinks the wine that grows in the nearest vineyards, and if there are none, then regales himself with the water from the least distant spring. It is so in every thing ; he adds the smallest possible exertion of his own to the bounties of nature ; his object is to obtain the largest produce for the smallest labor ; he allows a life-conferring sun and a fertile soil to create for him the raw mate-rial, which he ex- ports, being perfectly contented that the foreigner should return it to him when recreated by art and industry ; thus his wool, ba- rilla, hides, and cork-bark, are imported by him back again in the form of cloth, glass, leather, and bungs. The most celebrated and perfect wines of the Peninsula are port and sherry, which owe their excellence to foreign, not to na- tive skill, the principal growers and makers being Europeans, and their system altogether un-Spanish ; nothing can be more rude, antique, and unscientific than the wine-making in those localities WINES OF SPAIN. 147 where no stranger has ever settled. But Spain is a land bottled up for antiquarians, and it must be confessed that the national process is very picturesque and classical ; no Ariadne revel of Titian is more glittering or animated, no bas-relief more classical in which sacrifices are celebrated "To Bacchus, who first from out the purple grape Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine.' 7 Often have we ridden through villages redolent with vinous aroma, and inundated with the blood of the berry, until the very mud was encarnadined ; what a busy scene ! Donkeys laden with panniers of the ripe fruit, damsels bending under heavy baskets, men with reddened legs and arms, joyous and jovial as satyrs, hurry jostling on to the rude and dirty vat, into which the fruit is thrown indis- criminately, the black-colored with the white ones, the ripe bunches with the sour, the sound berries with those decayed ; no pains are taken, no selection is made ; the filth and negligence are com- mensurate with this carelessness \ the husks are either trampled under naked feet or pressed out under a rude beam in both cases every refining operation is left to the fermentation of nature, for there is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we may. The wines of Spain, under a latitude where a fine season is a certainty, might rival those of France, and still more those of the Rhine, where a good vintage is the exception, not the rule. Their varieties are infinite, since few districts, unless those that are very elevated, are without their local produce, the names, colors, and flavors of which are equally numerous and varied. The thirsty traveller, after a long day's ride under a burning sun, when seated quietly down to a smoking peppery dish, is enchanted with the cool draught of these vins du pays, which are brought fresh to him from the skins or amphora jars he longs to transport the appa- rently divine nectar to his own home, and wonders that " the trade" should have overlooked such delicious wine. Those who have tried the experiment will find a sad change for the worse come over the spirit of their dream, when the long-expected importation greets their papillatory organs in London. There the illusion is disp^.led; there to a cloyed, fastidious taste, to a judgment be- 148 i-'HE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. wildered and frittered away by variety of the best vintages, how flat, stale, and unprofitable does this much fancied beverage ap- pear ! The truth is, that its merit consists in the thirst and drink- ing vein of the traveller, rather than in the wine itself. Those, therefore, of our readers whose cellars are only stocked with choice Bordeaux, Xerez, and Champagne, may sustain with re- signation the absence of other sorts of Spanish grape juice. If an exception is to be made, let it be only in favor of Valdepenas and Manzanilla. The local wines may therefore be tossed off rapidly. The Navarrese drink their Peralta, the Basques their Chacolet, which is a poor vin ordinaire and inferior to our good cider. The Arragonese are supplied from the vineyards of Carinena ; the Catalans, from those of Sidges and Benicarlo ; the former is a rich sweet wine, with a peculiar aromatic flavor ; the latter is the well-known black strap, which is exported largely to Bor- deaux to enrich clarets for our vitiated taste, and as it is rich red, and full flavored, much comers to England to concoct what is denominated curious old port by those who sell it. The fiery and acrid brandy which is made from this Benicarlo is sent to the bay of Cadiz to the tune of 1000 butts a year to doctor up worse sherry. The central provinces of Spain consume but little of these ; Leon has a wine of its own which grows chiefly near Zamora and Toro, and it is much drunk at the neighboring and learned university of Salamanca, where, as it is strong and heady, it pro- motes prejudice, as port is said to do elsewhere. Madrid is sup- plied with wines grown at Tarancon, Arganda, and other places in its immediate vicinity, and those of the latter are frequently substituted for the celebrated Valdepenas of La Mancha, which was mother's milk to Sancho Panza and his two eminent progen- itors ; they differed, as their worthy descendant informed the Knight of the Wood, on the merits of a cask ; one of them just dipped his tongue into the wine, and affirmed that it had a taste of iron ; the other merely applied his nose to the bung-hole, and was positive that it smacked of leather ; in due time when the barrel was emptied, a key tied to a thong confirmed the degusta- tory acumen of these connoisseurs. THE BEST VINEYARDS. 149 The red blood of this " valley of stones" issues with such abundance, that quantities of old wine are often thrown away, for the want of skins, jars, and casks into which to place the new. From the scarcity of fuel in these denuded plains, the prunings of the vine are sometimes as valuable as the grapes. Even at Valdepenas, with Madrid for its customer, the wine con- tinues to be made in an unscientific, careless manner. Before the French invasion, a Dutchman, named Mutter, had begun to improve the system, and better prices were obtained ; whereupon the lower classes in 1808, broke open his cellars, pillaged them, and nearly killed him because he made wine dearer. It is made of a Burgundy grape which has been transplanted and trans- ported from the stinted suns of fickle France to the certain and glorious summers of La Mancha. The genuine wine is rich, full-bodied, and high-colored. It will keep pretty well, and im- proves for four or five years, nay, longer. To be really enjoyed it must be drunk on the spot ; the curious in wine should go down into one of the cuevas or cave-cellars, and have a goblet of the ruby fluid drawn from the big-bellied jar. The wine, when taken to distant places, is almost always adulterated ; and at Madrid with a decoction of logwood, which 'makes it almost poisonous, acting upon the nerves and muscular system. The best vineyards and bodegas or cellars are those which did belong to Don Carlos, and those which do belong to the Marques de Santa Cruz. One anecdote will do the work of pages in set- ting forth the habitual indifference of Spaniards, and the way things are managed for them. This very nobleman, wno cer- tainly was one of the most distinguished among the grandees in rank and talent, was dining one day with a foreign ambassador at Madrid, who was a decided admirer of Valdepenas, as all judi- cious men must be, and who took great pains to procure it quite pure by sending down trusty persons and sound casks. The Marques at the first glass exclaimed, " What capital wine ! where do you manage to buy it in Madrid ?" " I send for it," was the reply, " to your administrador at Valdepenas, Anglice unjust steward, and shall be very happy to get you some." The wine is worth on the spot about 57. the pipe, but the land carriage is expensive, and it is apt, when conveyed in skins, 150 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. to be tapped and watered by the muleteers, besides imbibing the disagreeable smack of the pitched pigskin. The only way to secure a pure, unadulterated, legitimate article, is to send up double quarter sherry casks ; the wine is then put into one, and that again is protected by an outer cask, which acts as a pre- ventive guard, against gimlets, straws, and other ingenious con- trivances for extracting the vinous contents, and for introducing an aqueous substitute. It must then be conveyed either on mules or in waggons to Cadiz and Santander. It is always as well to send for two casks, as accidents in this pays de Vimpr&ou constantly happen where wine and women are in the case. The importer will receive the most satisfactory certificates signed and sealed on paper, first duly stamped, in which the alcalde, the muleteer, the guardia, and all who have shared in the booty, will minutely describe and prove the accident, be it an upset, a breaking of casks, or what not. Very little pure Valde- penas ever reaches England ; the numerous vendors' bold asser- tions to the contrary notwithstanding. As sherry is a subject of more general interest, it will be treated with somewhat more detail. SHERRY. 151 CHAPTER XIV. Sherry Wines The Sherry District Origin of the Name Varieties of Soil Of Grapes Pajarete Rojas Clemente Cultivation of Vines- Best Vineyards The Vintage Amontillado The Capataz The Bo- dega Sherry Wine Arrope and Madre Vino A Lecture on Sherry in the Cellar at the Table Price of Fine Sherry Falsification of Sherry Manzanilla The Alpistera. SHERRY, a wine which requires more explanation than many of its consumers imagine, is grown in a limited nook of the Penin- sula, on the south-western corner of sunny Andalucia, which oc- cupies a range of country of which the town of Xerez is the capi- tal and centre. The wine-producing districts extend over a space which is included consult a map within a boundary drawn from the towns of Puerto de S a * Maria, Rota, San Lucar, Tribu- jena, Lebrija, Arcos, and to the Puerto again. The finest vint- ages lie in the immediate vicinity of Xerez, which has given therefore its name to the general produce. The wine, however, becomes inferior in proportion as the vineyards get more distant from this central point. Although some authors who, to show their learning, hunt for Greek etymologies in every word have derived sherry from ZIJQOC, dry, to have done so from the Persian Schiraz would scarcely have been more far-fetched. Sherris sack, the term used by Falstaff, no mean authority in this matter, is the precise seco de Xerez, the term by which the wine is known to this day in its own country ; the epithet seco, or dry the seek of old English authors, and the sec of French ones being used in contradistinc- tion to the sweet malvoisies and muscadels, which are also made of the same grape. The wine, it is said, was first introduced into England about the time of Henry VII., whose close alliance with Ferdinand and Isabella was cemented by the marriage of 152 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. . his son with their daughter. It became still more popular among us under Elizabeth, when those who sailed under Essex sacked Cadiz in 1596, and brought home the fashion of good " sherris sack, from whence," as Sir John says, " comes valor." The visit to Spain of Charles I. contributed to keeping up among his countrymen this taste for the drinks of the Peninsula, which extended into the provinces, as we find Howell writing from York, in 1645, for " a barrell or two of oysters, which shall be well eaten," as he assures his friend, " with a cup of the best sherry, to which this town is altogether addicted." During the wars of the succession, and those fatal quarrels with England occasioned by the French alliance and family compact of Charles III., our consumption of sherries was much diminished, and the culture of the vine and the wine-making was neglected and de- teriorated. It was restored at the end of last century by the family of Gordon, whose houses at Xerez and the Puerto most de- servedly rank among the first in the country. The improved quality of the wines was their own recommendation ; but as fashion influences everything, their vogue was finally established by Lord Holland, who, on his return from Spain, introduced su- perlative sherry at his undeniable table. The quality of the wine depends on the grape and the soil, which has been examined and analyzed by competent chemists. Omitting minute and uninteresting particulars, the first class and the best is termed the Albariza ; this whitish soil is composed of clay mixed with carbonate of lime and silex. The second sort is galled Barras* and consists of sandy quartz, mixed with lime and oxide of iron. The third is the Arenas, being, as the name indi- cates, little better than sand, and is by far the most widely ex- tended, especially about San Lucar, Rota, and the back of Arcos ; it is the most productive, although the wine is generally coarse, thin, and ill-flavored, and seldom improves after the third year : it forms the substratum of those inferior sherries which are largely exported to the discredit of the real article. The fourth class of soil is limited in extent, and is the Bugeo, or dark-brown loamy sand which occurs on the sides of rivulets and hillocks. The wine grown on it is poor and weak ; yet all the inferior produces ,of these different districts are sold as sherry wines, to the great VINES OF ANDALUCIA. 153 detriment of those really produced near Xerez itself, which do not amount to a fifth of the quantity exported. The varieties of the grape are far greater than those of the soil on which they are grown. Of more than a hundred different kinds, those called Listan and Palomino, Blanca are the best. The increased demand for sherry, where the producing surface is limited, has led to the extirpation of many vines of an inferior kind, which have been replaced by new ones whose produce is of a larger and better quality. The Pedro Ximenez, or delicious sweet-tasted grape which is so celebrated, came originally from Madeira, and was planted on the Rhine, from whence about two centuries ago one Peter Simon brought it to Malaga, since when it has extended over the south of Spain. It is of this grape that the rich and luscious sweet wine called Pajarete is made ; a name which some have erroneously derived from Pajaros, the birds, who are wont to pick the ripest berries ; but it was so called from the wine having been originally only made at Paxarete, a small spot near Xerez : it is now prepared everywhere, and thus the grapes are dried in the sun until they almost become raisins, and the syrop quite inspissated, after that they are pressed, and a little fine old wine and brandy is added. This wine is extremely costly, as it is much used in the rearing and maturation of young sherry wines. There is an excellent account of all the vines of Andalucia by Rojas Clemente. This able naturalist disgraced himself by being a base toady of the wretched minion Godoy, and by French parti- sanship, which is high treason to his own country. Accordingly, to please his masters, he "contrasts the frank generosity, the vivacity, and genial cordiality of the Xerezanos, with the sombre stupidity and ferocious egotism of the insolent people on the banks of the Thames," by whom he had just before been most hospita- bly welcomed. This worthy gentleman wrote, however, within sight of Trafalgar, and while a certain untoward event was rank- ling in his and his estimable patron's bosom. The vines are cultivated with the greatest care, and demand unceasing attention, from the first planting to their final decay. They generally fruit about the fifth year, and continue in full and excellent bearing for about thirty-five years more, when the 154 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. produce begins to diminish both in quantity and in quality. The best wines are produced from the slowest ripening grapes ; the vines are delicate, have a true bacchic hydrophobia, or antipathy to water are easily affected and injured by bad smells and rank weeds. The vine-dresser enjoys little rest ; at one time the soil must be trenched and kept clean, then the vines must be pruned, and tied to the stakes, to which they are trained very low ; anon insects must be destroyed ; and at last (he fruit has to be gath- ered and crushed. It is a life of constant care, labor, and ex- pense. The highest qualities of flavor depend on the grape and soil, and as the favored spots are limited, and the struggle and compe- tition for their acquisition great, the prices paid are always high, and occasionally extravagantly so ; the proprietors of vineyards are very numerous, and the surface is split and partitioned into infinite petty ownerships. Even the Pago de Macharnudo, the finest of all, the Clos de Vougeot, the Johannisberg of Xerez, is much subdivided ; it consists of 1200 aranzadas, one of which may be taken as equivalent to our acre, being, however, that quantity of land which can be ploughed with a pair of bullocks in a day of these 1200, 460 belong to the great house of Pedro Domecq, and their mean produce may be taken at 1895 butts, of which some 350 only will run very fine. Among the next most renowned pagos, or wine districts, may be cited Carrascal, Los Tercios, Barbiana alia y baja, Anina, San Julian, Mochiele, Car- raola, Cruz del Husillo, which lie in the immediate termino or boundary of Xerez ; their produce always ensures high prices in the market. Many of these vineyards are fenced with canes, the arundo donax, or with aloes, whose stiff-pointed leaves form p'ali- sadoes that would defy a regiment of dragoons, and are called by the natives the devil's toothpicks ; in addition, the capataz del campOj or country bailiff, is provided, like a keeper, with large and ferocious dogs, who would tear an intruder to pieces. The fruit when nearly mature is especially watched ; for, according to the proverb, it requires much vigilance to take care of ripe grapes and maidens Ninas y vinas, son mal de guardar. When the period of the vintage arrives, the cares of the pro- prietors and the labors of the cultivators and makers increase. THE VINTAGE. 155 The bunches are picked and spread out for some days on mat- tings j the unripe grapes, which have less substance and spirit, are separated, and are exposed longer to the sun, by which they improve. If the berries be over-ripe, then the saccharine pre- vails, and there is a deficiency of tartaric acid. The selected grapes are sprinkled with lime, by which the watery and acetous particles are absorbed and corrected. A nice hand is requisite in this powdering, which by the way, is an ancient African cus- tom, in order to avoid the imputation of FalstafF, < There is lime in this sack." The treading out the fruit is generally done by night, because it is then cooler, and in order to avoid as much as possible the plague of wasps, by whom the half-naked operators are liable to be stung. On the larger vineyards there is generally a jumble of buildings, which contain every requisite for making the wine, as well as cellars into which the must or pressed grape juice is left to pass the stages of fermentation, and where it re- mains until the following spring before it is removed from the lees. When the new wine is racked off, all the produce of the same vineyard and vintage is housed together, and called a partido or lot. The vintage, which is the all-absorbing, all engrossing moment of the year, occupies about a fortnight, and is earlier in the Rota districts than at Xerez, where it commences about the 20th of September ; into these brief moments the hearts, bodies, and souls of men are condensed ; even Venus, the queen of neighboring Cadiz, and who during the other three hundred and fifty-one days of the year, allies herself willingly to Bacchus, is now forgotten. Nobles and commoners, merchants and priests, talk of nothing but wine, which then and there monopolizes man, and is to Xerez what the water is at Grand Cairo, where the rising of the Nile is at once a pleasure and a profit. When the vintage is concluded, the custom-house officers take note in their respective districts of the quantity produced on each vineyard, to whom it is sold, and where it is taken to ; nor can it be resold or removed afterwards, without a permit and a charge of four per cent, ad valorem duty. It need not be said, that in a land where public officers are in- adequately paid, where official honesty and principle are all but unknown, a bribe is all-sufficient { false returns are regularly made, and every trick resorted to to facilitate trade, and transfer 156 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. revenue into the pockets of the collectors, rather than into the Queen's treasury ; thus are defeated the vexations and extor- tions of commerce-hampering excise, to hate which seems to be a second nature in man all over the world, Commissioners excepted. In the first year a decided difference takes place in these new wines; some become bastos or coarse, others sour and others good ; those only which exhibit great delicacy, body, and flavor are called finos or fine ; in a lot of one hundred butts, rarely more than from ten to fifteen can be calculated as deserving this epithet, and it is to the high price paid for these by the alma- cenistas or storers of wines, that the grower looks for remunera- tion ; the qualities of the wines usually produced in each particular termino or district do not vary much ; they have their regular character and prices among the trade, by whom they are per- fectly understood and exactly valued. These singular changes in the juice of grapes grown on the same vineyard, invariably take place, although no satisfactory reason has been yet assigned ; the chemical processes of nature have hitherto defied the investigations of man, and in nothing more than in the elaboration of that lusus naturse vel Bacchi, that va- riety of flavor which goes by the name of amontillado ; this has been given to it from its resemblance in dryness and quality to the wines of Montilla, near Cordova : the latter, be it observed, are scarcely known in England at all. nor indeed in Spain, ex- cept in their own immediate neighborhood, where they supply the local consumption. This amontillado, when the genuine pro- duction of nature, is very valuable, as it is used in correcting young Sherry wines, which are running over sweet ; it is very scarce, since out of a hundred butts of vino fino, not more than five will possess its properties. Much of the wine which is sold in London as pure amontillado, is a fictitious preparation, and made up for the British market. All sherries are a matured mixture of grape juice ; champagne itself is a manufactured wine ; nor does it much matter, provided a palatable and wholesome beverage be produced. In all the lead- ing and respectable houses, the wine is prepared from grapes grown in the district, nor is" there the slightest mystery made in explaining the artificial processes which are adopted ; the rear THE CAPATAZ. 157 ing, educating, and finishing as it were, of these wines, is a work of many years, and is generally intrusted to the Capataz, the chief butler, or head man, who very often becomes the real mas- ter ; this important personage is seldom raised in Andalucia, or in any wine-growing districts of Spain ; he generally is by birth an Austrian, or a native of the mountains contiguous to Santan- der, from whence the chandlers and grocers, hence called Los Montaneses, are supplied throughout the Peninsula. These High- landers are celebrated for the length of their pedigrees, and the tasting properties of their tongues ; we have more than once in Estremadura and Leon fallen in with flights of these ragged gen- try, wending, Scotch-like, to the south in search of fortune ; few had shoes or shirts, yet almost every one carried his family parch- ment in a tin case, wherein his descent from Tubal respectable, although doubtful was proven to be as evident as the sun is at noon day. These gentlemen of good birth and better taste seldom smoke, as the narcotic stupifying weed deadens papillatory delicacy. Now as few wine-masters in Spain would give up the cigar to gain millions, the Capataz soon becomes the sole possessor of the secrets of the cellar ; and as no merchants possess vineyards of their own sufficient to supply their demand, the purchases of new wines must be made by this confidential servant, who is thus ena- bled to cheat both the grower and his own employer, since he will only buy of those who give him the largest commission. Many contrive by these long and faithful services to amass great wealth ; thus Juan Sanchez, the Capataz of the late Petro Domecq, died recently worth 300,000. Towards his latter end, having been visited by his confessor and some qualms of conscience, he be- queathed his fortune to pious and charitable uses, but the bulk was forthwith secured by his attorneys and priests, whose charity began at home. As the chancellor is the keeper of the Queen's conscience, so the Capataz is the keeper of the bodega or the wine-store, which is very peculiar, and the grand lion of Xerez. The rich and populous town, when seen from afar, rising in its vine-clad knoll, is characterized by these huge erections, that look like the pent- houses under which men-of-war are built at Chatham. These 158 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. temples of Bacchus resemble cathedrals in size and loftiness, and their divisions, like Spanish chapels, bear the names of the saints to whom they are dedicated, and few tutelar deities have more numerous or more devout worshippers; but Romanism mixes itself up in everything of Spain, and fixes its mark alike on salt- pans and mine-shafts, as on boats and bodegas. These huge re- positories are all above ground, and are the antithesis of our under-ground cellars. The wines of Xerez are thus found to ripen both better and quicker, as one year in a bodega inspires them with more life than do ten years of burial. As these wines are more capricious in the developement of their character than young ladies at a boarding-school, the greatest care is taken in the selection of eligible and healthy situations for their education ; the neighborhood of all offensive drains or effluvia is carefully avoided, since these nuisances are sure to affect the delicately organized fluids, although they fail to damage the noses of those to whose charge they are committed ; and strange to say, in this land of contradictions, Cologne itself is scarcely more renowned for its twenty and odd bad smells ascertained by Coleridge, than is this same tortuous, dirty, and old fashioned Xerez. Here, as in the Rhenish city, all the sweets are bottled up for exportation, all the stinks kept for home consumption. The new bodegas are consequently erected in the newer portions of the town, in dry and open places ; connected \uith them are offices and workshops, in which everything bearing upon the wine trade is manufactured, even to the barrels that are made of American oak staves. The interior of the bodega is kept deliciously cool ; the glare outside is carefully excluded, while a free circulation of air is admitted ; an even temperature is very essential, and one at an average of 60 degrees is the best of all. There are more than a thousand bodegas registered at the custom house for the Xerez district ; the largest only belong to the first-rate firms, and mostly to Eu- ropeans, that is, to English and Frenchmen. A heavy capital is required, much patience and forethought, qualities which do not grow on these or on any hills of Spain. This necessity will be better understood when it is said, that some of these stores contain from one to four thousand butts, and that few really line sherries are sent out of them u 1 ten or t \velve years old. Supposing. WINE-MIXING. 159 therefore, that each hint averages in value only 25; it is evident how much time and investment of wealth is necessary. Sherry wine, when mature and perfect, is made up from many butts. The " entire," indeed, is the result of Xerez grapes, but of many different ages, vintages, and varieties of flavor. The contents of one barrel serve to correct another until the pro- posed standard aggregate is produced ; and to such a certainty has this uniform admixture been reduced, that houses are enabled to supply for any number of years exactly that particular color, flavor, body, &c., which particular customers demand. This wine improves very much with age, gets softer and more aromatic, and gains both body and aroma, in which its young wines are deficient. Indeed, so great is the change in all respects, that one scarcely can believe them ever to have been the same : the baby differs not more from the man, nor the oak from the acorn. That Capataz has attained the object of his fondest wishes, who has observed in his compositions the poetical principles of Horace, the callida junctura, the omne iulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci ; this happy and skilful junction of the sweet and solid, should unite mlness of body, an oily, nutty flavor and bouquet, dryness, absence from acidity, strength, durability, and spirituosity. Very little brandy is necessary, as the vivifying power of the unstinted sun of Andalucia imparts sufficient alcohol, which ranges from 20 to 23 per cent, in fine sherries, and only reaches about 12 in clarets and champagnes. Fine pure sherry is of a rich brown color, but in order to flatter the conven- ventional tastes of some English, " pale old sherry" must be had, and color is chemically discharged at the expense of delicate aroma. Another absurd deference to British prejudice, is the send- ing sherries to the East Indies, because such a trip is found some- times to benefit the wines of Madeira. This is not only expen- sive but positively injurious to the juice of Xerez, as the wine returns diminished in quantity, turbid, sharp, and deteriorated in flavor, while from the constant fermentation it becomes thinner in body and more spirituous. The real secret of procuring good sherry is to pay the best price for ic at the best house, and then to keep the purchase for many years in a good cellar before it is drunk. 160 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. To return *to the Capataz. This head master passes this life of probation in tasting. He goes the regular round of his butts, ascertaining the qualities, merits, and demerits of each pupil, which he notes by certain marks or hieroglyphics. He corrects faults as he goes along, making a memorandum also of the date and remedy applied, and thus at his next visit he is enabled to report good progress, or lament the contrary. The new wines, after the fermentation is past, are commonly enriched with an arrope, or sort of syrup, which is found very much to encourage them. There are extensive manufactories of this cordial at San Lucar, and wherever the arenas, or sandy soil, prevails. The mus',, or new grape juice, before fermentation has commenced, is boiled slowly down to the fifth of its bulk. It must simmer, and requires great care in the skimming and not being burnt. Of this, when dissolved, the vino de color, the madre vino, or mo. her wine, is made, by which the younger ones are nourished as by mother's milk. When old, this balsamic ingredient be- comes strong, perfumed as an essence, and very precious, and is worth from three to five hundred guineas a butt ; indeed it scarcely ever will be sold at all. All the principal bodegas have certain huge and time-honored casks which contain this divine ichor, which inspires ordinary wines with generous and heroic virtues ; hence possibly their dedication of their tuns not to saints and saintesses, but to Wellingtons and Nelsons. It is from these reservoirs that distinguished visitors are allowed just a sip. Such a compliment was paid to Ferdinand VII. by Pedro Domecq, and the cask to this day bears the royal name of its assayer. What- ever quantity is taken out of one of these for the benefit of younger wines, is replaced by a similar quantity drawn from the next oldest cask in the cellar. After a year or two trial of the new wines, it is ascertained how they will eventually turn out ; if they go wrong, they are expelled from the seminary, and shipped off to the leathern-tongued consumers of Hamburgh or Quebec, at about 15s. per butt. All the various forms, stages, and steps of education are readily ex- plained in the great establishments, among which the first are those of Domecq and John David Gordon, and nothing can exceed the cordial hospitality of these princely merchants; whoever TASTING WINE. 161 comes provided with a letter of introduction is carried off bodily, bags, baggage, and all, to their houses, which, considering the iniquity of Xerezan inns, is a satisfactory move. Then and there the guest is initiated into the secrets of trade, and is handed over to the Capataz, who delivers an explanatory lecture on vi- nology, which is illustrated, like those of Faraday, by experi- ments : tasting sherry at Xerez has, as Senor Clemente would say, very little in common with the commonplace customs of the London Docks. Here the swarthy professor, dressed somewhat like Figaro in the Barber of Seville, is followed by sundry jack- eted and sandalled Ganymedes, who bear glasses on waiters ; the lecturer is armed with a long stick, to the end of which is tied a bit of hollow cane, which he dips into each butt ; the subject is begun at the beginning, and each step in advance is explained to the listening party with the gravity of a judicious foreman of a jury : the sample is handed round and tasted by all, who, if they are wise will follow the example of their leader (on whom wine has no more effect than on a glass), by never swallowing the sips, but only permitting the tongue to agitate it in the mouth, until the exact flavor is mastered ; every cask is tried, from the young wine to the middle-aged, from the mature to the golden ancient. Those who are not stupefied by the fumes, cannot fail to come out vastly edified. The student should hold hard during the first tri- als, for the best wine is reserved until the last. He ascends, if he does not tumble off, a vinous ladder of excellence. It would be better to reverse the order of the course, and commence with the finest sorts while the palate is fresh and the judgment un- clouded. The thirster after knowledge must not drink too deeply now, but remember the second ordeal to which he will afterwards be exposed at the hospitable table of the proprietor, whose joy and pride is to produce fine wine and plenty of it, when his friends meet around his mahogany. What a grateful offering is then made to the jovial god, by whom the merchant lives, and by whom the deity is now set from his glassy prison free ! What a drawing of popping corks, half consumed by time ! what a brushing away of venerable cob- webs from flasks binned apart while George the Third was king ! The delight of the worthy Amphitryon on producing a fresh oot- 162 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tie, exceeds that of a prolific mother when she blesses her hus- band with a new baby. He handles the darling decanter, as if he dearly loved the contents, which indeed are of his own ma- king ; how the clean glasses are held up to the light to see the bright transparent liquid sparkle and phosphoresce within ; how the intelligent nose is passed slowly over the mantling surface, redolent with fragrancy ; how the climax of rapture is reached when the godlike nectar is raised to the blushing lips ! The wine suffices in itself for sensual gratification and for in- tellectual conversation : all the guests have an opinion ; what gentleman, indeed, cannot judge on a horse or a bottle ? When differences arise, as they will in matters of taste, and where bot- tles circulate freely, the master-host decides " Tells all the names, lays down the law, due ya est bon ; ah, goutez a." There is to him a combination of pleasure and profit in these genial banquets, these noctes ccenaeque Deum. Many a good connection is thus formed, when an English gentleman, who now, perhaps for the first time, tastes pure and genuine sherry. A good dinner naturally promotes good humor with mankind in general, and with the donor in particular. A given quantity of the present god opens both heart and purse-strings, until the tongue on which the magic flavor lingers, murmurs gratefully out, " Send me a butt of amontillado pasado, and another of seco reanejoj and draw for the cash at sight/ 7 An important point will now arise, what is the price ? That ever is the question and the rub. Pure genuine sherry, from ten to twelve years old, is worth from 50 to 80 guineas per butt, in the bodega, and when freight, insurance, duty, and charges are added, will stand the importer from 100 to 130 guineas in his cellar. A butt will run from 108 to 112 gallons, and the duty is 55. 6d. per gallon. Such a butt will bottle about 52 dozen. The reader will now appreciate the bargains of those " pale" and " golden sherries" advertised in the English newspapers at 865. the dozen, bottles included. They are marts expers, although much indebted to French brandy, Sicilian Marsala, Cape wine, Devonshire cider, and Thames water. ADULTERATION OF WINES. 163 The growth of wine amounts to some 400,000 or 500,000 arrobas annually. The arroba is a Moorish name, and a dry measure, although used for liquids ; it contains a quarter of a hundredweight; 30 arrobas go to a bota, or butt, of which from 8000 to 10,000 of really fine are annually exported ; but the quantities of so-called sherries, " neat as imported," in the manu- facture of which San Lucar is fully occupied, is prodigious, and is increasing every year. To give an idea of the extent of the growing traffic, in 1842 25,096 butts were exported from these districts, and 29,313 in 1843 ; while in 1845 there were ex- ported 18,135 butts from Xerez alone, and 14,037 from the Puerto," making the enormous aggregate of 32,172 butts. Now as the vineyards remain precisely the same, probably some por- tion of these additional barrels may not be quite the genuine pro- duce of the Xerez grape : in truth, the ruin of sherry wines has commenced, from the numbers of second-rate houses that have sprung up, which look to quantity, not quality. Many thousand butts of bad Niebla wine are thus palmed off on the enlightened British public after being well brandied and doctored ; thus a conventional notion of sherry is formed, to the ruin of the real thing ; for even respectable houses are forced to fabricate their wines so as to suit the depraved taste of their consumers, as is done with pure clarets at Bordeaux, which are charged with Her- mitages and Benicarlo. Thus delicate idiosyncratic flavor is lost, while headache and dyspepsia are imported ; but there is a fashion in wines as in physicians. Formerly Madeira was the vinous panacea, until the increased demand induced disreputable traders to deteriorate the article, which in the reaction became dishonored. Then sherry was resorted to as a more honest and wholesome beverage. Now its period of decline is hastening from the same causes, aud the average produce is becoming in- ferior, to end in disrepute, and possibly in a return to the wines of Madeira, whose makers have learnt a lesson in the stern school of adversity. Be that as it may, the people at large of Spain are scarcely acquainted with the taste of sherry wine, beyond the immediate vicinity in which it is made ; and more of it is swallowed at Gibraltar at the messes, than in either Madrid, Toledo, or Sala- 164 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. manca. Sherry is a foreign wine, and made and drunk by foreigners ; nor do the generality of Spaniards like its strong fla- vor, and still less its high price, although some now affect its use, because, from its great vogue in England, it argues civiliza- tion to adopt it. This use obtains only in the capital and richer seaports; thus at inland Granada, not 150 miles from Xerez, sherry would hardly be to be had, were it not for the demand created by our travelling countrymen, and even then it is sold per bottle, and as a liqueur. At Seville, which is quite close to Xerez, in the best houses, one glass only is handed round, just as only one glass of Greek wine was in the house of the father of even Lucullus among the ancient Romans, or as among the modern ones is still done with Malaga or Vino de Cypro ; this single glass is drunk as a chasse, and being considered to aid digestion, is called the golpe medico, the coup de medecin ; it is equivalent, in that hot country, to the thimbleful of Cura^oa or Cognac, by which coffee is wound up in colder England and France. In Andalucia it was no less easy for the Moor to encourage the use of water as a beverage, than to prohibit that of wine, which, if endued with strength, which sherry is, must destroy health when taken largely and habitually, as is occasionally found out at Gibraltar. Hence the natives of Xerez themselves infi- nitely prefer a light wine called Manzanilla, which is made near San Lucar, and is at once much weaker and cheaper than sherry. The grape from which it is produced grows on a poor and sandy soil. The vintage is very early, as the fruit is gathered before it is quite ripe. The wine is of a delicate pale straw color, and is extremely wholesome ; it strengthens the stomach, without heat- ing or inebriating, like sherry. All classes are passionately fond of it, since the want of alcohol enables them to drink more of it than of stronger beverages, while the dry quality acts as a tonic during the relaxing heats. It may be compared to the ancient Lesbian, which Horace quaffed so plentifully in the cool shade, and then described as never doing harm. The men employed in the sherry wine vaults, and who have therefore that drink at their command, seldom touch it, but invariably, when their work is THE ALPISTERA. 165 done, go to the neighboring shop to refresh themselves with a glass of " innocent" Manzanilla. Among their betters, clubs are formed solely to drink it, and with iced water and a cigar it trans- ports the consumer into a Moslem's dream of paradise. It tastes better from the cask than out of the bottle, and improves as the cask gets low. The origin of the name has been disputed ; some who prefer sound to sense derive it from Manzana, an apple, which had it been cider might have passed ; others connect it with the distant town of Manzanilla on the opposite side of the river, where it is neither made nor drunk. The real etymology is to be found in its striking resemblance to the bitter flavor of the flowers of camo- mile (manzanilla), which are used by our doctors to make a medi- cinal tea, and by those of Spain for fomentations. This flavor in the wine is so marked as to be at first quite disagreeable to strangers. If its eulogistic consumers are to be believed, the wine surpasses the tea in hygeeian qualities ; none, say they, who drink it are ever troubled with gravel, stone, or gout. Certainly, it is eminently free from acidity. The very best Manzanilla is to be had in London, of Messrs. Gorman, No. 16, Mark Lane. Since " Drink it, ye dyspeptics," was enjoined last year in the ' Handbook,' the importation of this wine to England, which pre- viously did not exceed ten butts, has in twelve short months over- passed two hundred ; a compliment delicate as it is practical, which is acknowledged by the author a drinker thereof with most profound gratitude. By the way, the real thing to eat with Manzanilla is the alpis- tera. Make it thus : To one pound of fine flour (mind that it is dry) add half a pound of double-refined, well-sifted, pounded white sugar, the yolks and whites of four very fresh eggs, well beaten together ; work the mixture up into a paste ; roll it out very thin ; divide it into squares about half the size of this page ; cut it into strips, so that the paste should look like a hand with fingers ; then dislocate the strips, and dip them in hot melted fine lard, until of a delicate pale brown ; the more the strips are curled up and twisted the better ; tVie aipistera should look like bunches of ribbons ; powder them over with fine white sugar. 166 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. They are then as pretty as nice. It is not easy to make them well ; but the gods grant no excellence to mortals without much labor and thought. So Venus the goddess of grace was allied to hard-working Vulcan, who toiled and pondered at his fire, as every cook who has an aspiring soul has ever done. SPANISH INNS. 167 CHAPTER XV. Spanish Inns : Why so Indifferent The Fonda Modern Improvements The Posada Spanish Innkeepers The Venta : Arrival in it Arrange- ment Garlic Dinner Evening Night Bill Identity with the Inns of the Ancients. HAVING thus, and we hope satisfactorily, discussed the eatables and drinkables of Spain, attention must naturally be next directed to those houses on the roads and in the towns, where these com- forts to the hungry and weary public are to be had, or are not to be had, as sometimes will happen in this land of " the unex- pected ;" the Peninsular inns, with few exceptions, have long been divided into the bad, the worse, and the worst; and as the latter are still the most numerous and national, as well as the worst, they will be gone into the last. In few countries will the rambler agree oftener with dear Dr. Johnson's speech to his squire Boswell, " Sir, there is nothing which has been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced, as by a good tavern." Spain offers many negative arguments of the truth of our great moralist and eater's reflection ; the inns in general are fuller of entertainment for the mind than the body, and even when the newest, and the best in the country, are indifferent if compared to those which Englishmen are accustomed to at home, ana have created on those high roads of the Continent, which they most frequent. Here few gentlemen will say with Falstaff, " Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn ?" Badness of roads and discomforts of ventas cannot well escape the notice of those who travel on horseback and slowly, since they must dwell on and in them ; whereas a rail whisks the passenger past such nuisances, with comet-like rapidity, and all things that are soon out of sight are quicker out of mind ; nevertheless, let no aspi- ring writer be deterred from quitting the highways for the by- ways of the Peninsula. " There is, Sir," as Johnson again said 168 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. to Boswell, " a good deal of Spain that has not been perambu- lated. I would have you go thither ; a man of inferior talents to yours, may furnish us with useful observations on that country." Why the public accommodations should be second-rate is soon explained. Nature and the natives have long combined to iso- late still more their Peninsula, which already is moated round by the unsocial sea, and is barricadocd by almost impassable mountains. The Inquisition all but reduced Spanish man to the condition of a monk in a wall-enclosed convent, by standing sentinel, and keeping watch and ward against the foreigner and his perilous novelties ;* Spain thus unvisited and unvisiting, became arranged for Spaniards only, and has scarcely required conveniences which are more suited to the curious wants of other Europeans and strangers who here are neither liked, wished for, nor even thought of, by natives who seldom travel ex- cept on compulsion and never for amusement ; why indeed should they ? since Spain is paradise, and each man's own parish in his eyes is the central spot of its glory. When the noble and rich visited the provinces, they were lodged in their own or in theii friends' houses, just as the clergy and monks were received into convents. The great bulk of the Peninsular family, not being overburdened with cash or fastidiousness, have long been and are inured to infinite inconveniences and negations ; they live at home in an abundance of privations, and expect when abroad to be worse off; and they well know that comfort never lodges at a Spanish inn ; as in the East, they cannot conceive that any trav- * The very word Novelty has become in common parlance synonymous with danger, change, by the fear of which all Spaniards are perplexed ; as in religion it is a heresy. Bitter experience has taught all classes that every change, every promise of a new era of blessing and prosperity has ended in a failure, and that matters have got worse : hence they not only bear the evils to which they are accustomed, rather than try a speculative ameliora tion, but actually prefer a bad state of things, of which they know the worst, to the possibility of an untried good. Mas vale el mal conocido^ que el bien por conocer. "How is my lady the wife of your grace?" says a Spanish gentleman to his friend. " Como estd mi Senora la esposa de listed 9" " She goes on without novelty'* ' : Sigue sin NovedadJ*' is the reply, if the fair one be much the same. " Vaya Usted con Dios, y que no hay a Novedad!" " Go with God, your grace ! and may nothing new happen/' says another, on starting his friend off on a journey. CONTINENTAL INNS. 169 elling should be unattended by hardships, which they endure with Oriental resignation, as cosas de Espana, or things of Spain which have always been so, and for which there is no remedy but patient resignation ; the bliss of ignorance, and the not knowing of any- thing better, is everywhere the grand secret of absence of dis- content while to those whose every-day life is a feast, every thing that does not come up to their conventional ideas becomes a failure, but to those whose daily bread is dry and scanty, whose drink is water, every thing beyond prison-fare appears to be luxury. In Spain there has been little demand for those accommodations which have been introduced on the continent by our nomade countrymen, who carry their tea, towels, carpets, comforts and civilization with them ; to travel at all for mere pleasure is quite a modern invention, and being an expensive affair, is the most in- dulged in by the English, because they can best afford it, but as Spain lies out of their hackneyed routes, the inns still retain much the same state of primitive dirt and discomfort, which most of those on the continent presented, until repolished by our hints and guineas. In the Peninsula, where intellect does not post in a Britannic britzcka and four, the inns, and especially those of the country and inferior order, continue much as they were in the time of the Romans, and probably long before them ; nay those in the very vicinity of Madrid, " the only court on earth, 3 ' are as classically wretched, as the hostelry at Aricia, near the Eternal City, was in the days of Horace. The Spanish inns, indeed, on the by- roads and remoter districts, are such as render it almost unad- visable for any English lady to venture to face them, unless pre- determined to go through roughing-it, in a way of which none who have only travelled in England can form the remotest idea; at the same time they may be and have been endured by even the sick and delicate. To youth, and to all men in enjoyment of good health, temper, patience, and the blessing of foresight, neither a dinner nor a bed will ever be wanting, to both of which hunger and fatigue will give a zest beyond the reach of art ; and fortu- nately for travellers, all the Continent over, and particularly in Spain, bread and salt, as in the days of Horace, will be found to PAT?T TT 9 170 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. appease the wayfarer's barking stomach, nor will he who after that sleeps soundly be bitten by fleas, " quien duerme bien, no le pican las pulgas." The pleasures of travelling in this wild land are cheaply purchased by these trifling inconveniences, which may always be much lessened by provision in brain and basket ; the expeditions teem with incident, adventure, and novelty ; every day and evening present a comedy of real life, and offer means of obtaining insight into human nature, and form in after-life a per- petual fund of interesting recollections : all that was charming will be then remembered, and the disagreeable, if not forgotten, will be disarmed of its .sting, nay, even as having been in a battle, will become a pleasant thing to recollect and to talk, may be twaddle, about. Let not the traveller expect to find too much ; if he reckons on finding nothing he will seldom be disappointed ; so let him not look for five feet in a cat, " no busces cinco pies at gato." Spain, as the East, is not to be enjoyed by the over- fastidious in the fleshly comforts ; there, those who over analyze, who peep too much behind the culinary or domestic curtains, must not expect to pass a tranquil existence. First and foremost among these refuges for the destitute comes ihefonda, the hotel. This, as the name implies, is a foreign thing, and was imported from Venice, which in its time was the Paris of Europe, the leader of sensual civilization, and the sink of every lie and iniquity. Its fondacco, in the same manner, served as a model for the Turkish fondack. Thcfonda is only to be found in the largest towns and principal seaports, where the presence of foreigners creates a demand and supports the establishment. To it frequently is attached a cafe, or " botil- lerid" a bottlery and a place for the sale of liqueurs, with a " neveria" a snowery where ices and cakes are supplied. Men only, not horses, are taken in at afonda ; but there is generally a keeper of a stable or of a minor inn in the vicinity, to which the traveller's animals are consigned. The fonda is tolerably furnished in reference to the common articles with which the sober indulgent natives are contented : the traveller in his com- parisons must never forget that Spain is not England, which too few ever can get out of their heads. Spain is Spain, a truism which cannot be too often repeated ; and in its being Spain consists THE FONDA. 171 its originality, its raciness, ; ts novelty, its idiosyncrasy, its best charm and interest, although the natives do not know it, and are every day, by a foolish aping of European civilization, paring away attractions, and getting commonplace, unlike themselves, and still more unlike their Gotho-Moro and most picturesque fathers and mothers. Monks, as we said in our preface, are gone, mantillas are going, the shadow of cotton versus corn has already darkened the sunny city of Figaro, and the end of all Spanish things is coming. Ay ! de mi Espana ! Thus in Spain, and especially in the hotter provinces, it is heal and not cold which is the enemy : what we call furniture car- pets, rugs, curtains, and so forth would be a positive nuisance, would keep out the cool, and harbor plagues of vermin beyond endurance. The walls of the apartments are frequently, though simply, whitewashed : the uneven brick floors are covered in winter with a matting made of the " esparto" rush, and called an " estera" as was done in our king's palaces in the days of Elizabeth : a low iron or wooden truckle bedstead, with coarse but clean sheets and clothes, a few hard chairs, perhaps a stiff- backed, most uncomfortable sofa, and a rickety table or so, com- plete the scanty inventory. The charges are moderate ; about two dollars, or Ss. 6d., per head a-day, includes lodging, break- fast, dinner, and supper. Servants, if Spanish, are usually charged the half; English servants, whom no wise person would take on the Continent, are nowhere more useless, or greater in- cumbrances, than in this hungry, thirsty, tealess, beerless, beef- less land ; they give more trouble, require more food and atten- tion, and are ten times more discontented than their masters, who have poetry in their souls ; an aesthetic love of travel, for its own sake, more than counterbalances with them the want of material gross comforts, about which their pudding headed four-full-meals- a-day attendants are only thinking. Charges are higher at Mad- rid, and Barcelona, a great commercial city, where the hotels are appointed more European-like, in accommodation and prices. Those who remain any time in a large town bargain with the innkeeper, or go into a boarding-house, " casa de "pupilos" or "de huespedes" where they have the best opportunity of learn- ing the Spanish language, and of obtaining an idea of national 172 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. manners and habits. This system is very common. The houses may be known externally by a white paper ticket attached to the extremity of one of the windows or balconies. This position must be noted ; for if the paper be placed in the middle of the balcony, the signal means only that lodgings are here to be let. Their charges are very reasonable. Since the death of Ferdinand VII. marvellous improvements have taken place in somefondas. In the changes and chances of the multitudinous revolutions, all parties ruled in their rotation, and then either killed or banished their opponents. Thus royal- ists, liberals, patriots, moderates. &c., each in their turn, have been expatriated ; and as the wheel of fortune and politics went round, many have turned to their beloved Spain from bitter exile in France and England. These travellers, in many cases, were sent abroad for the public good, since they were thus ena- bled to discover that some things are better managed on the other side of the water and Pyrenees. Then and there suspicion crossed their minds, although they seldom will admit it to a for- eigner, that Spain was not altogether the richest, wisest, strongest, and first of nations, but that she might take a hint or two in a few trifles, among which perhaps the accommodations for man and beast might be included. The ingress, again, of foreigners by the facilities offered to travellers by the increased novelties of steamers, mails, and diligence necessarily called for more waiters and inns. Every day, therefore, the fermentation occa- sioned by the foreign leaven is going on ; and if the national musto, or grape-juice, be not over-drugged with French brandy, something decent in smell and taste may yet be produced. In the seaports and large towns on the Madrid roads the twi- light of cafe and cuisine civilization is breaking from La belle France. Monastic darkness is dispelled, and the age of convents is giving way to that of kitchens, while the large spaces and am- ple accommodations of the suppressed monasteries suggest an easy transition into " first-rate establishments," in which the occupants will probably pay more and pray less. News, indeed, have just arrived from Malaga, that certain ultra-civilized hotels are actually rising, to be defrayed by companies and engineered by English, who seem to be as essential in regulating these nov- THE POSADA. 173 elties on the Continent as in the matters of railroads and steam- boats. Rooms are to be papered, brick floors to be exchanged for boards, carpets to be laid down, fireplaces to be made, and bells are to be hung, incredible as it may appear to all who re- member Spain as it was. They will ring the knell of nationality ; and we shall be much mistaken if the grim old Cid, when the first one is pulled at Burgos, does not answer it himself by knock- ing the innovator down. Nay, more, for wonders never cease ; vague rumors are abroad that secret and solitary closets are contemplated, in which, by some magical mechanism, sudden waters are to gush forth ; but this report, like others via Madrid and Paris telegraph requires confirmation. Assuredly, the spirit of the Holy Inquisition, which still hovers over orthodox Spain, will long ward off these English heresies, which are rejected as too bad even by free-thinking France. The genuine Spanish town inn is called the posada, as being meant to mean, a house of repose after the pains of travel. Strictly speaking, the keeper is only bound to provide lodging, salt, and the power of cooking whatever the traveller brings with him or can procure out of doors ; and in this it differs from ihefonda, in which meats and drinks are furnished. The posada ought only to be compared to its type, the khan of the East, and never to the inn of Europe. If foreigners, and especially Englishmen, would bear this in mind, they would save them- selves a great deal of time, trouble, and disappointment, and not expose themselves by their loss of temper on the spot, or in their note-books. No Spaniard is ever put out at meeting with neither attention nor accommodation, although he maddens in a moment on other occasions at the slightest personal affront, for his blood boils without fire. He takes these things coolly, which colder-blooded foreigners seldom do. The native, like the Oriental, does not expect to find anything, and accordingly is never surprised at only getting what he brings with him. His surprise is reserved for those rare occasions when he finds any- thing actually ready, which he considers to be a godsend. As most travellers carry their provisions with them, the uncertainty of demand would prevent mine host from filling his larder with perishable commodities ; and formerly, owing to absurd locaJ 174 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. privileges, he very often was not permitted to sell objects of consumption to travellers, because the lords or proprietors of the town or village had set up other shops, little monopolies of their own. These inconveniences sound worse on paper that in prac- tice ; for whenever laws are decidedly opposed to common sense and the public benefit, they are neutralized in practice ; the means to elude them are soon discovered, and the innkeeper, if he has not the things by him himself, knows where to get them. On starting next day a sum is charged for lodging, service, and dressing the food : this is called el ruido de casa, an indemnifica- tion to mine host for the noise, the disturbance, that the traveller is supposed to have created, which is the old Italian incommodo de la casa, the routing and inconveniencing of the house ; and no word can be better chosen to express the varied and never- ceasing din of mules, muleteers, songs, dancing, and laughing, the dust, the row, which Spaniards, men as well as beasts, kick up. The English traveller, who will have to pay the most in purse and sleep for his noise, will often be the only quiet person in the house, and might claim indemnification for the injury done to his acoustic organs, on the principle of the Turkish soldier who forces his entertainer to pay him teeth-money, to compensate for the damage done to his morals and incisors from masticating indifferent rations. Akin to the posada is the " parador," a word probably derived from Waradah, Arabice, " a halting-place ;" it is a huge caravan- sary for the reception of waggons, carts, and beasts of burden; these large establishments are often placed outside the town to avoid the heavy duties and vexatious examinations at the gates, where dues on all articles of consumption are levied both for municipal and government purposes. They are the old sisa, a word derived from the Hebrew Sisah, to take a sixth part, and are now called el derecho de puertas, the gate-due ; and have always been as unpopular as the similar octroi of France ; and as they are generally farmed out, they are exacted from the peasantry with great severity and incivility. There is perhaps no single grievance among the many, in the mistaken system of Spanish political and fiscal economy, which tends to create and keep alive, by its daily retail worry and often wholesale injustice* SPANISH INNKEEPERS. 175 so great a feeling of discontent and ill-will towards authority as this does ; it obstructs both commerce and travellers. The officers are, however, seldom either strict or uncivil to the higher classes, and if courteously addressed by the stranger, and told that he is an English gentleman, the official Cerberi open the gates and let him pass unmolested, and still more if quieted by the Vir- gilian sop of a bribe. The laws in Spain are indeed strict on paper, but those who administer them, whenever it suits their private interest, that is ninety-nine times out of a hundred, evade and defeat them ; they obey the letter, but do not perform the spirit, " se obedece, pero no se cumple ;" indeed, the lower classes of officials in particular are so inadequately paid that they are compelled to eke out a livelihood by taking bribes and little presents, which, as Backshish in the East, may always be offered, and will always be accepted, as a matter of compliment. The idea of a bribe must be concealed ; it shocks their dignity, their sense of honor, their "pundonor :" if, however, the money be given to the head person as something for his people to drink, the delicate attention is sacked by the chief, properly appreciated, and works its due effect. Another term, almost equivalent to the " posada," is the " meson," which is rather applicable to the inns of the rural and smaller towns, to the " liosterias" than to those of the greater. The " me- sonero" like the Spanish "ventera," has a bad reputation. It is always as well to stipulate something about prices beforehand. The proverb says, " Por un ladron, pierden ciento en el meson" " Ventera hermosa, mat para la boha." " For every one who is robbed on the road, a hundred arc in the inn." V The fairer the hostess, the fouler the reckoning." It is among these innkeepers that the real and worst robbers of Spain are to be met with, since these classes of worthies are everywhere only thinking how much they can with decency overcharge in their bills. This is but fair, for nobody would be an innkeeper if it were not for the profit. The trade of innkeeping is among those which are considered derogatory in Spain, where so many Hindoo notions of caste, self- respect, purity of blood, etc., exist. The harboring strangers for gain is opposed to every ancient and Oriental law of sacred hos- pitality. Now no Spaniard, if he can help it, likes to degrade 176 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. himself; this accounts for the number of fondas in towns being kept by Frenchmen, Italians, Catalans, Biscayans, who are all foreigners in the eye of the Castilian, and disliked and held cheap ; accordingly the innkeeper in Don Quixote protests that "he is a Christian, although a ventero, nay, a genuine old one Cristiano viejo rancio ; an old Christian being the common term used to distinguish the genuine stock from those renegade Jews and Moors who, rather than leave Spain, became pseudo- Christians and pub- licans. The country Parador, Meson, Posada, and Venta, call it how you will, is the Roman stabulum, whose original intention was the housing of cattle, while the accommodation of travellers was secondary, and so it is in Spain to this day. The accommodation for the beast is excellent ; cool, roomy stables, ample mangers, a never-failing supply of fodder and water, every comfort and lux- ury which the animal is capable of enjoying, is ready on the spot ; as regards man, it is just the reverse ; he must forage abroad for anything he may want. Only a small part of the barn is allotted him, and then he is lodged among the brutes below, or among the trusses and sacks of their food in the lofts above. He finds, in spite of all this, that if he asks the owner what he has got, he will be told that " there is everything," hay de todo, just as the rogue of a ventero informed Sancho Panza that his empty larder con- tained all the birds of the air, all the beasts of the earth, all the fishes of the sea, a Spanish magnificence of promise, which, when reduced to plain English, too often means, as in that case, there is everything that you have brought with you. This especially oc- curs in the venlas of the out-of-the-way and rarely-visited districts, which, however empty their larders, are full of the spirit of Don Quixote to the brim; and the everyday occurrences in them are so strange, and one's life is so dramatic, that there is much diffi- culty in " realizing," as the Americans say ; all is so like being in a dream or at a play, that one scarcely can believe it to be ac- tually taking place and true. The man of the note-book and the artist almost forget that there is nothing to eat ; meanwhile all this food for the mind and portfolio, all this local color and odd- ness, is lost upon your Spanish companion, if he be one of the better classes : he is ashamed where you are enchanted ; he THE VENTA. 177 blushes at the sad want of civilization, clean table-cloth, and beef, steaks, and perhaps he is right : at all events, while you are raving about the Goths, Moors, and this lifting up the curtain of two thousand years ago, he is thinking of Mivart's; and when you quote Martial, he and the ventero set you down as talking non- sense, and stark staring mad ; nay, a Spanish gentleman is often affronted, and suspects, from the impossibility to him, that such things can be objects of real admiration, that you are laughing at him in your sleeve, and considering his country as Roman, African^ or, in a word, as un-European, which is what he particularly dis- likes and resents. These ventas have from time immemorial been the subject of jests and pleasantries to Spanish and foreign wits. Quevedo and Cervantes indulge in endless diatribes against the roguery of the masters, and the misery of the accommodations, while Gongora compares them to Noah's ark ; and in truth they do contain a variety of animals, from the big to the small, and more than a pair, of more than one kind of the latter. The word venta is derived from the Latin vendendo, on the lucus a non lucendo principle of etymology, because provisions are not sold in it to travellers : old Covarrubias explains this mode of dealing as consisting " especially in selling a cat for a hare," which indeed was and is so usual a venta practice, that venderlo a uno gato por liebre has become in common Spanish parlance to be equiva- lent to doing or taking one in. The natives do not dislike the feline tribe when well stewed : no cat was safe in the Alhambra, the galley-slaves bagged her in a second. This venta trait of Iberian gastronomy did not escape the compiler of Gil Bias. Be that as it may, a venta strictly speaking, is an isolated country inn, or house of reception on the road, and, if it be not one of physical entertainment, it is at least one of moral, and accordingly figures in prominent characters in all the personal narratives and travels in Spain ; it sharpens the wit of both hungry cooks and lively authors, and ingenii largitor venter is as old as Juvenal. Many of these ventas have been built on a large scale by the noblemen or convent brethren to whom the village or adjoining territory belonged, and some have at a distance quite the air of a gentleman's mansion. Their walls, 9* 178 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. towers, and often elegant elevations, glitter in the sun, gay and promising, while all within is dark, dirty, and dilapidated, and no better than a whitened sepulchre. The ground floor is a sort of common room for men and beasts; the portion appropriated to the stables is often arched over, and is very imperfectly lighted to keep it cool, so that even by day the eye has some difficulty at first in making out the details. The ranges of mangers are fixed round the walls, and the harness of the different animals suspended on the pillars which support the arches ; a wide door always open to the road, leads into this great stable ; a small space in the interior is generally left unincumbered, into which the traveller enters on foot or on horseback ; no one greets him ; no obsequious landlord, bustling waiter, or simpering chambermaid takes any notice of his arrival : the ventero sits in the sun smok- ing, while his wife continues her uninterrupted chasse for " small deer" in the thick covers of her daughter's hair ; nor does the guest pay much attention to them ; he proceeds to a gibbous water- jar, which is always set up in a visible place, dips in with the ladle, or takes from the shelf in the wall an alcarraza of cold water ; refreshes his baked clay, refills it, and replaces it in its hole on the taller, which resembles the decanter stands in a but- ler's pantry: he then proceeds, unaided by ostler or boots, to se- lect a stall for his beast, unsaddles and unloads, and in due time applies to the ventero for fodder ; the difference of whose cool re- ception contrasts with the eager welcome which awaits the travel- ler at bedtime : his arrival is a godsend to the creeping tribe, who, like the ventero, have no regular larder ; it is not upstairs that he eats, but where he is eaten like Polonius ; the walls are frequently stained with the marks of nocturnal combats, of those internecine, truly Spanish guerrillas, which are waged without an Elliot treaty, against enemies who, if not exterminated, murder sleep. Were these fleas and French ladybirds unanimous, they would eat up a Goliath ; but fortunately, like other Spaniards, they never act together, and are consequently conquered and slaughtered in de- tail ; hence the proverbial expression for great mortality among men, mueren como chinches. Having first provided for the wants and comforts of his beast, for "the master's eye fattens the horse," the traveller begins to ARRANGEMENT OF THE VENTA. 179 think of himself. One, and the greater side of the building, is destined to the cattle, the other to their owners. Immediately opposite the public entrance is the staircase that leads to the upper part of the building, which -is dedicated to the lodgment of fodder, fowls, vermin, and the better class of travellers. The arrangement of the larger class of posadas and ventas is laid out on the plan of a convent, and is well calculated to lodge the greatest number of inmates in the smallest space. The ingress and egress are facilitated by a long corridor, into which the doors of the separate rooms open : these are called " cuartos" whence our word " quarters" may be derived. There is seldom any fur- niture in them ; whatever is wanted, is or is not to be had of the host from some lock-up store. A rigid puritan will be much dis- tressed for the lack of any artificial contrivance to hold water ; the best toilette on these occasions is a river's bank, but rivers in unvisited interiors of the Castiles are often rarer even than water- basins. It is, however, no use to draw nets in streams where there are no fish, nor to expect to find conveniences which no one else ever asks for, and those articles which seem to the foreigner to be of the commonest and daily necessity, are unknown to the natives. However, as there are no carpets to be spoiled, and cold water retains its properties although brought up in a horse-bucket or in the cook's brass cauldron, ablutions, as the albums express it, can. be performed. What a school, after all, a venta is to the slaves of comforts, and without how many absolute essentials do they manage to get on, and happily ! What lessons are taught of good-humored patience, and that British sailor characteristic of making the best of every occurrence, and deeming any port a good one in a storm ! Complaint is of no use; if. you tell the landlord that his wine is more sour than his vinegar, he will gravely reply, " Senor, that cannot be, for both came out of the same cask." The portion of the ground-floor which is divided by the public entrance from the stables, is dedicated to the kitchen and accom- modation of the travellers. The kitchen consists of a huge open range, generally on the floor, the ollas pots and culinary vessels being placed against the fire arranged in circles, as described by Martial, " multa villica quern coronat olid," who, as a good Span- 180 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. iard would do to this day, after thirty-five years' absence at Rome, writes, after his return to Spain, to his friend Juvenal a full account of the real comforts that he once more enjoys in his best- beloved patria, and which remind us of the domestic details in the opening chapter of Don Quixote. These rows of pipkins are kept up by round stones called " sesos" brains ; above is a high, wide chimney, which is armed with iron- work for suspending pots of a large size ', sometimes there are a few stoves of masonry, but more frequently they are only the portable ones of the East. Around the blackened walls are arranged pots and pipkins, gridi- rons arid frying-pans, which hang in rows, like tadpoles of all sizes, to accommodate large or small parties, and the more the better ; it is a good sign, " en casa llena, pronto se guisa cena." Supper is then sooner ready. The vicinity of the kitchen fire being the warmest spot, and the nearest to the flesh-pot, is the querencia, the favorite " resort" of the muleteers and travelling bagsmen, especially when cold, wet and hungry. The first come are the best served, says the proverb, in the matters of soup and love. The earliest arrivals take the cosiest corner seats near the fire, and secure the prompt- est non-attendance ; for the better class of guests there is some- times a " private apartment," or the boudoir of the ventera, which is made over to those who bring courtesy in their mouths, and seem to have cash in their pockets : but these out-of-the-way curiosities of comfort do not always suit either author or artist, and the social kitchen is preferable to solitary state. When a stranger enters into it, if he salutes the company, ' My lords and knights, do not let your graces molest yourselves," or courteously indicates his desire to treat them with respect, they will assuredly more than to return the compliment, and as good breeding is instinctive in the Spaniard, will rise and insist on his taking the best and highest seat. Greater, indeed, is their reward and satis- faction, if they discover that the invited one can talk to them in their own lingo, and understands their feelings by circulating his cigars and wine lota among them. At the side of the kitchen is a den of a room, into which the ventero keeps stowed away that stock of raw materials which forms the fonmlatinn of t.no national cuisine, and in which garlic DINNERS IN THE VENTA. 181 plays the first fiddle. The very name, like that of monk, is enough to give offence to most English. The evil consists, how- ever, in the abuse, not in the use : from the quantity eaten in all southern countries, where it is considered to be fragrant, palatable, stomachic, and invigorating, we must assume that it is suited by nature to local tastes and constitutions. Wherever any particular herb grows, there lives the ass who is to eat it. " Donde crece la escoba, ncrce el asno que la roya." Nor is garlic necessarily either a poison or a source of baseness ; for Henry IV. was no sooner born, than his lips were rubbed with a clove of it by his grand- father, after the revered old custom of Beam. Bread, wine, and raw garlic, says the proverb, make a young man go briskly, Pan, vino, y ajo crudo, hacen andar al mozo agudo. The better classes turn up their noses at this odoriferous delicacy of the lower classes, which was forbidden per statute by Alonzo XI. to his knights of La Banda ; and Don Quixote cautions Sancho Panza to be moderate in this food, as not becoming to a governor: with even such personages however it is a struggle, and one of the greatest sacrifices to the altar of civilization and les convenances. To give Spanish garlic its due, it must be said that, when administered by a judicious hand (for, like prussic acid, all depends on the quantity), it is far milder than the Eng- lish. Spanish garlic and onions degenerate after three years' planting when transplanted into England. They gain in pungen- cy and smell, just as English foxhounds, when drafted into Spain, lose their strength and scent in the third generation. A clove of garlic is called un diente, a tooth. Those who dislike the piquant vegetable must place a sentinel over the cook of the venta while she is putting into her cauldron the ingredients of his supper, or Avicenna will not save him ; for if God sends meats, and here they are a godsend, the evil one provides the cooks of the venta, who certainly do bedevil many things. Thrice happy, then, the man blessed with a provident servant who has foraged on the road, and comes prepared with cates on which no Castilian Canidia has breathed ; while they are stewing he may, if he be a poet, rival those sonnets made in Don Quixote on Sancho's ass, saddle-bags, and sapient attention to their pro- vend, " su cuerda providencia" The odor and good tidings of 182 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. the arrival of unusual delicacies soon spread far and wide in the village, and generally attract the Cum, who loves to hear something new, and does not dislike savory food : the quality of a Spaniard's temperance, like that of his mercy, is strained ; his poverty and not his will consents to more and other fastings than to those enjoined by the church ; hunger, the sauce of Saint Bernard, is one of the few wants which is not experienced in a Spanish venta. Our practice in one was to invite the curate, by begging him to bless the pot-luck, to which he did ample justice, and more than repaid for its visible diminution by good fellow- ship, local information, and the credit reflected on the stranger in the eyes of the natives, by beholding him thus patronized by their pastor and master. It is not to be denied in the case of a stew of partridges, that deep sighs and exclamations que rico ! " how rich !" escape the envious lips of his hungry flock when they behold and whifFthe odoriferous dish as it smokes past them like a railway locomotive. Nor, it must be said, was all this hospitality on one side ; it has more than once befallen us in the rude ventas of the Sala- manca district, that the silver haired cura, whose living barely furnished the means whereby to live, on hearing the simple fact that an Englishman was arrived, has come down to offer his house and fare. Such, or indeed any Spaniard's invitation is not to be accepted by those who value liberty of action or time ; seat rather the good man at the head of the venta board, and regale him with your best cigar, he will tell you of El gran Lor the great Lord the Cid of England ; he will recount the Duke's victories, and dwell on the good faith, mercy, and justice of our brave soldiers, as he will execrate the cruelty, rapacity, and per- fidy of those who fled before their gleaming bayonets. But, to return to first arrival at ventas, whether saddle-bag or stomach be empty of full, the ventero when you enter remains unmoved and imperturbable, as if he never had had an appetite, or had lost it, or had dined. Not that his genus ever are seen eating except when invited to a guest's stew ; air, the economical ration of the chameleon, seems to be his habitual sustenance, and still more as to his wife and womankind, who never will sit and eat even with the stranger j nay, in humbler Spanish families VENTA EATING. 183 they seem to dine with the cat in some corner, and on scraps ; this is a remnant of the Roman and Moorish treatment of women as inferiors. Their lord and husband, the innkeeper, cannot con- ceive why foreigners on their arrival are always so impatient, and is equally surprised at their inordinate appetite ; an English landlord's first question, " Will you not like to take some re- freshment ?" is the very last which he would think of putting ; sometimes by giving him a cigar, by coaxing his wife, flatter- ing his daughter, and caressing Maritornes, you may get a cou- ple of his polios or fowls, which run about the ground-floor, picking up anything, and ready to be picked up themselves and dressed. All the operations of cookery and eating, of killing, sousing in boiling water, plucking, et csetera, all preparatory as well as final, go on in this open kitchen. They are carried out by the ventera and her daughters or maids, or by some crabbed, smoke- dried, shrivelled old she-cat, that is, or at least is called, the " tia" "my aunt," and who is the subject of the good-humored remarks of the courteous and hungry traveller before dinner, and of his full stomach jests afterwards. The assembled parties crowd round the fire, watching and assisting each at their own savory messes, " Un ojo a la sarten, y otro a la gata" "One eye to the pan, the other to the real cat," whose very existence in a venta, and among the pots, is a miracle ; by the way, the naturalist will observe that their ears and tails are almost always cropped closely to the stumps. All and each of the travellers, when their respec- tive stews are ready, form clusters and groups round the frying- pan, which is moved from the fire hot and smoking, and placed on a low table or block of wood before them, or the unctuous con- tents are emptied into a huge earthen reddish dish, which in form and color is the precise paropsis, ,the food platter, described by Martial and by other ancient authors. Chairs are a luxury ; the lower classes sit on the ground as in the East, or on low stools, and fall to in a most Oriental manner, with an un-European ig- norance of forks;* for which they substitute a short wooden or * Forks are an Italian invention ; old Coiyate, who introduced this "neatnesse' 7 into Somersetshire, about 1600, was called furcifer by his 184 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. horn spoon, or dip their bread into the dish, or fish up morsels with their long pointed knives. They eat copiously, but with gravity with appetite, but without greediness ; for none of any nation, as a mass, are better bred or mannered than the lower classes of Spaniards. They are very pressing in their invitations whenever any eat- ing is going on. No Spaniard or Spaniards, however humble their class or fare, ever allow any one to corne near or pass them when eating, without inviting him to partake. " Guste usted coiner?" " Will your grace be pleased to dine ?" No traveller should ever omit to go through this courtesy whenever any Spaniards, high or low, approach him when at any meal, espe- cially if taking it out of doors, which often happens in these journeyings ; nor is it . altogether an empty form ; all classes consider it a compliment if a stranger, and especially an English- man, will condescend to share their dinner. In the smaller towns, those invited by English will often partake, even the better classes, and who have already dined ; they think it civil to accept, and rude to refuse the invitation, and have no objection to eating any given good thing, which is the exception to their ordi- nary frugal habits: all this is quite Arabian. The Spaniards seldom accept the invitation at once ; they expect to be urged by an obsequious host, in order to appear to do a gentle violence to their stomachs by eating to oblige him. The angels declined Lot's offered hospitalities until they were " pressed greatly." Travellers in Spain must not forget this still existing Oriental trait ; for if they do not greatly press their offer, they are under- stood as meaning it to be a mere empty compliment. We have known Spaniards who have called with an intention of staying dinner, go away, because this ceremony was not gone through ac- cording to their punctilious notions, to which our off-hand man- ners are diametrically opposed. Hospitality in a hungry, inn-less land becomes, as in the East, a sacred duty ; if a man eats all friends. Alexander Barclay thus describes the previous English mode of eating, which sounds very ventaish^ although worse mannered : " If the dishe be pleasaunt, eyther flesche or fische. Ten hands at once swarm in the dishe." AN EVENING AT A VENTA. 185 the provender by himself, he cannot expect to have many friends. Generally speaking, the offer is not accepted : it is always de- clined with the same courtesy which prompts the invitation. " Muchas gracias, buen provecho le haga a usted" " Many thanks much good may it do your grace," an answer which is analo- gous to the prosit of Italian peasants after eating or sneezing. These customs, both of inviting and declining, tally exactly, and even to the expressions used among the Arabs to this day. Every passer-by is invited by Orientals "Bismillah ya seedee" which means both a grace and invitation " In the name of God, sir, (i. e.) will you dine with us?" or " Tafud' -dal," "Do me the favor to partake of this repast." Those who decline reply, "Henee an," " May it benefit." Supper, which, as with the ancients, is their principal meal, is seasoned with copious draughts of the wine of the country, drunk out of a jug or bota which we have already described, for glasses do not abound ; after it is done, cigars are lighted, the rude seats are drawn closer to the fire, stories are told, principally on robber or love events, the latter of which are by far the truest. Jokes are given and taken ; laughter, inextinguishable as that of Homer's gods, forms the chorus of conversation, especially after good' eat- ing or drinking, to which it is the best dessert. In due time songs are sung, a guitar is strummed, for some black-whiskered Figaro is sure to have heard of the " arrival," and steals down from the pure love of harmony and charms of a cigar ; then flock in peasants of both sexes, dancing is set on foot, the fatigues of the day are forgotten, and the catching sympathy of mirth extending to all, is prolonged until far into the night ; during which, as they take a long siesta in the day, all are as wakeful as owls, and worse cauterwaulers than cats ; to describe the scene baffles the art of pen or pencil. The roars, the dust, the want of every- thing in these low-classed ventas, are emblems of the nothingness of Spanish life a jest. One by one the company drops off; the better classes go up stairs, the humbler and vast majority make up their bed on the ground, near their animals, and like them, full of food and free from care, fall instantly asleep in spite of the noise and discomfort by which they are surrounded. This coun- terfeit of death is more equalizing, as Don Quixote says, than 186 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. death itself, for an honest Spanish muleteer stretched on his hard pallet sleeps sounder than many an uneasy trickster head that wears another's crown. " Sleep," says Sancho, " covers one over like a cloak," and a cloak or its cognate mantle forms the best part of their wardrobe by day, and their bed furniture by night. The earth is now, as it was to the Iberians, the national bed ; nay, the Spanish word which expresses that commodity, cama, is derived from the Greek xof^a*. Thus they are lodged on the ground floor, and thereby escape the three classes of little animals which, like the inseparable Graces, are always to be found in fine climates in the wholesale, and in Spanish ventas in the retail. Their pillow is composed either of their pack-saddles or saddle- bags j their sleep is short, but profound. Long before daylight all are in motion ; " they take up their bed," the animals are fed, harnessed, and laden, and the heaviest sleepers awakened : there is little morning toilette, no time or soap is lost by biped or quad- ruped in the processes of grooming or lavation : both carry their wardrobes on their back, and trust to the showers and the sun to cleanse and bleach ; their moderate accounts are paid, salutations or execrations (generally the latter), according to the length of the bills, pass between them and their landlords, and another day of toil begins. Our faithful and trustworthy squire seldom failed for a couple of hours after leaving the venta to pour forth an elo- quent stream of oaths, invectives, and lamentations at the dearness of inns, the rascality of their keepers, in general, and of the host of the preceding night in particular, although probably a couple of dollars had cleared the account for a couple of men and ani- mals, and he himself had divided the extra-extortion with the honest ventero. These Spanish venta scenes vary every day and night, as a 'new set of actors make their first and last appearance before the tra- veller ; of one thing there can be no mistake, he has got out of England, and the present year of our Lord. Their undeniable smack of antiquity gives them a relish, a borracha, which is un- known in Great Britain, where all is fused and modernized down to last Saturday night : here alone can you see and study those manners and events which must have occurred on the same sites when Hannibal and Scipio were last there, as it would be very THE VENTORILLO. 187 easy to work out from the classical authors. We would just sug- gest a comparison between the arrangement of the Spanish coun- try venta with that of the Roman inn now uncovered at the en- trance of Pompeii, and its exact counterpart, the modern " os- tena" in the same district of Naples. In the Museo Borbcnico will be found types of most of the utensils now used in Spain, while the Oriental and most ancient style of cuisine is equally easy to be identified with the notices left us in the cookery books of antiquity. The same may be said of the tambourines, cas- tanets, songs, and dances, in a word, of everything ; and, in- deed, when all are hushed in sleep, and stretched like corpses amid their beasts, the Valencians especially, in their sandals and kilts, in their mantas, and in and on their rush-baskets and mat- tings, we feel that Strabo must have beheld the old Iberians ex- actly in the same costume and position, when he told us what we see now to be true, TO n^eov ev aayotc, sv 61$ nig %ai onfiadoxoi- TOf (Jt. The " ventorillo" is a lower class of venta for there is a deeper bathos ; it is the German kneipe or hedge ale-house, and is often nothing more than a mere hut, run up with reeds or branches of trees by the road-side, at which water, bad wine, and brandy, " aguardiente," tooth water, are to be sold. The latter is always detestable, raw, and disflavored with anniseed, and turns white in water like Eau de Cologne, not that the natives ever expose it to such a trial. These " ventorillos" are at best suspicious places, and the haunts of the spies of regular robbers, or of skulking footpads when there are any. who lurk inside with the proprietress ; she herself generally might sit as a model for Hecate, or for one of the witches in Shakspeare over their cauldron ; her attendant imps are, however, sufficiently interesting personages to form a chapter by themselves. 88 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. CHAPTER XVI. Spanish Robbers A Robber Adventure Guardias Civiles Exaggerated Accounts Cross of the Murdered Idle Robber Tales French Ban dittiphobia Robber History Guerrilleros Smugglers Jose Maria- Robbers of the First Class The Ratero Miguelites Escorts and Es- copeteros Passes ; Protections, and Talismans Execution of a Robber. AN olla without bacon would scarcely be less insipid than a volume on Spain without banditti ; the stimulant is not less neces- sary for the established taste of the home-market, than brandy is for pale sherries neat as imported. In the mean time, while the timid hesitate to put their heads into this supposed den of thieves as much as into a house that is haunted, those who are riot scared by shadows, and do not share in the fears of cockney critics and delicate writers in satin-paper albums, but adventure boldly into the hornet's nest, come back in a firm belief of the non-existence of the robber genus. In Spain, that pays de Vimprtvu, this unex- pected absence of personages who render roads uncomfortable, is one of the many and not disagreeable surprises, which await those who prefer to judge of a country by going there themselves, rather than to put implicit faith in the foregone conclusions and stereo- typed prejudices of those who have not, although they do sit in judgment on those who have, and decide " without a view." T'lis very summer, some dozen and more friends of ours have made tours in various parts of the Peninsula, driving and riding un- armed and unescorted through localities of former suspicion, with- out having the good luck of meeting even with the ghost of a de- parted robber; in truth and fact, we cannot but remember that such things as monks and banditti were, although they must be spoken of rather in the past than in the present tense. The actual security of the Spanish highways is due to the Moderados, as the French party and imitators of the juste milieu are called, and at the head of whom may be placed Senor Marti- A ROBBER ADVENTURE. 139 nez de la Rosa. He, indeed, is a moderate in poetry as well as politics, and a rare specimen of that sublime of mediocrity which, according to Horace, neither men, gods, nor booksellers can tole- rate ] his reputation as an author and statesman alas ! poor Cer- vantes and Cisneros proves too truly the present effeteness of Spain. Her pen and her sword are blunted, her laurels are sear, and her womb is barren ; but among the blind, he who has one eye is king. This dramatist, in the May of 1833, was summoned from his exile at Granada to Madrid by the suspicious Calomarde. The mail in which he travelled was stopped by robbers, about ten o'clock of a wet night near Almuradiel ; the guard, at the first notice, throwing himself on his belly, with his face in the mud, in imitation of the postilions, who pay great respect to the gentle- men of the road. The passengers consisted of himself, a Ger- man artist, and an English friend of ours now in London, and who, having given up his well-garnished purse at once with great good-humor, was most courteously treated by the well-satisfied recipients ; not so the Deutscher, on whom they were about to do personal violence in revenge for a scanty scrip, had not his pro- fession been explained by our friend, by whose interference ho was let off. Meanwhile, the Don was hiding his watch in the car riage lining, which he cut open, and was concealing his few dol - lars, the existence of which when questioned he stoutly denied They, however, re-appeared under threats of the bastinado, which were all but inflicted. The passengers were then permitted to depart in peace, the leader of their spoilers having first shaken hands with our informant, and wished him a pleasant journey *~ "May your grace go with God and without novelty ;" adding, " You are a caballero, a gentleman, as all the English are ; the German is a pobrecito, a poor devil ; the Spaniard is an embustero, a regular swindler. 37 This latter gentleman, thus hardly de- lineated by his Lavater countryman,, has since more than got- ten back his cash, having risen to be prime minister to Chris- tina, and humble and devoted servant of Louis-Philippe, cosas de Espana. Possibly this little incident' may have facilitated the introduction of mounted guards, who are now stationed in towns, and by whom 190 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. the roads are regularly patrolled ; they are called guardias civiles, and have replaced the ancient "brotherhood" of Ferdinand and Isabella. As they have been dressed and modelled after the fash- ion of the transpyrenean gendarmerie, the Spaniards, who never lose a chance of a happy nickname, or of a fling at the things of their neighbor, whom they do not love, term them, either Polizon- tes or Polizones, words with which they have enriched their phra- seology, and that represent the French polissons, scoundrels, or they call them Hijos de Luis-Philipe, " sons of Louis-Philippe ;" for they are ill-bred enough, in spite of the Montpensier marriage, and the Nelsonic achievements of Monsieur de Joinville, to con- sider the words as synonymes. The number of these rogues, French king's sons, civil guards, call them as you will, exceeds five thousand. During the recent Machiavelianisms of their putative father, they have been quite as much employed in the towns as on the highway, and for politi- cal purposes rather than those of pure police, having been used to keep down the expression of indignant public opinion, and instead of catching thieves, in upholding those first-rate criminals, foreign and domestic, who are now robbing poor Spain of her gold and liberties ; but so it has always been. Indeed, when we first ar- rived in the Peninsula, and naturally made enquiries about ban- ditti, according to all sensible Spaniards, it was not on the road that they were most likely to be found, but in the confessional boxes, the lawyers' offices, and still more in the bureaux of gov-. ernment ; and even in England some think that purses are ex- posed to more danger in Chancery Lane and Stone Buildings, than in the worst cross-road, or the most rocky mountain pass in the Peninsula. It will be long, however, before this " great fact " is believed within the sound of Bow-bells, where many of those who provide the reading public with correct information, dislike having to eat their own words, and to have their settled opinions shaken or con- tradicted. Nor is it pleasant at a certain time of life to go again to school, as one does when studying Niebuhr's Roman History, and then to find that the alphabet must be re-begun, since all that was thought to be right is in fact wrong. Distant Spain is ever looked at through a telescope which either magnifies richness and THE MURDERED MAN'S CROSS. 191 goodness, from which half at least must be deducted according to the proverb, de los diner os y bondad, se ha de guitar la mitad, or darkens its dangers and difficulties through a discolored medium. A bad name given to a dog or country is very adhesive ; and the many will repeat each other in cuckoo-note. " II y a des choses," says Montesquieu, " que tout le monde dit, parcequ'elles ont ete dites une fois ;" thus one silly sheep makes many, who will fol- low their leader ; ovejas y bobas, donde va una, van todas. So in the end error becomes stamped with current authority, and is re- ceived, until the false, imaginary picture is alone esteemed, and the true, original portrait scouted as a cheat. It has so long and annually been considered permissible, when writing about romantic Spain, to take leave of common sense, to ascend on stilts, and converse in the Cambyses vein, that thosf who descend to humble prose, and confine themselves to com- monplace matter-of-fact, are considered not only to be insesthetic, unpoetical, and unimaginative, but deficient in truth and power of observation. The genius of the land, when speaking of itself and its things, is prone to say the thing which is not ; and it must be admitted that the locality lends itself often and readily to misconceptions. The leagues and leagues of lonely hills and wastes, over which beasts of prey roam, and above which vul- tures sulkily rising part the light air with heavy wing, are easily peopled, by those who are in a prepared train of mind, with equally rapacious bipeds of Plato's unfeathered species. Rocky passes, contrived as it were on purpose for ambuscades, tangled .glens overrun with underwood, in spite of the prodigality of beauty which arrests the artist, suggest the lair of snakes and robbers. Nor is the feeling diminished by meeting the frequent crosses set up on classically piled heaps, which mark the grave of some murdered man, whose simple, touching epitaph tells the name of the departed, the date of the treacherous stab, and en- treats the passenger, who is as he was, and may be in an instant as he is, to pray for his unannealed soul. A shadow of death hovers over such spots, and throws the stranger on his own thoughts, which, from early associations, are somewhat in unison with the scene. Nor is the welcome of the outstretched arms of these crosses over-hearty, albeit they are sometimes hung with 192 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. flowers, which mock the dead. Nor are all sermons more elo- quent than these silent stones, on which such brief emblems are fixed. The Spaniards, from long habit, are less affected by them than foreigners, being all accustomed to behold crosses and bleeding crucifixes in churches and out ; they moreover well know that by far the greater proportion of these memorials have been raised to record murders, which have not been perpetrated by robbers, but are the results of sudden quarrel or of long brooded- over revenge, and that wine and women, nine times out of ten, are at the bottom of the calamity. Nevertheless, it makes a stout English heart uncomfortable, although it is of little use to be afraid when one is in for it, and on the spot. Then there is no better chance of escape, than to brave the peril and to ride on. Turn, therefore, dear reader, a deaf ear to the tales of lo- cal terror which will be told in every out-of-the-way village by the credulous, timid inhabitants. You, as we have often been, will be congratulated on having passed such and such a wood, and will be assured that you will infallibly be robbed at such and such a spot a few leagues onward. We have always found that this ignis fatuus, like the horizon, has receded as we advanced ; the dangerous spot is either a little behind or a little before the actual place- it vanishes, as most difficulties do, when boldly approached and grappled with. At the same time these sorts of places and events admit of much fine writing when people get safely back again, to say nothing of the dignity and heroic elevation which may be thus obtained by such an exhibition of valor during the long vaca- tion. Peaked hats, hair-breadth escapes from long knives and mustachios, lying down for an hour on your stomach with your mouth in the mud. are little interludes so diametrically opposed to civilization, and the humdrum, unpicturesque routine of free Britons who pay way and police rates, that they form almost ir- resistible topics to the pen of a ready writer. And such exciting incidents are sure to take, and to affect the public at home, who, moreover, are much pleased by the perusal of authentic accounts from Spain itself, and the best and latest intelligence, which tally with their own preconceived ideas of the land. Hence those au- thors are the most popular who put the self-love of their reader BANDITTIPHOB1A OF FRENCH TOURibTS. 193 in best humor with his own stock of knowledge. And this ac- f counts for the frequency, in Peninsular sketches, personal narra- tives, and so forth, of robberies which are certainly oftener to be met with in their pages than on the plains of the Peninsula. The writers know that a bandit adventure is as much expected in the journals of such travels as in one of Mrs. RatclifFe's romances ; such fleeting books are chiefly made by " striking events /" ac- cordingly, the authors string together all the floating traditional horrors which they can scrape together on Spanish roads, and thus feed and keep up the notion entertained in many counties in England, that the whole Peninsula is peopled with banditti. If such were the case society could not exist, and the very fact, of almost all the reporters having themselves escaped by a miracle, might lead to the inference that most other persons escape like- wise : a blot is not a blot till it is hit. Our ingenious neighbors, strange to say in SQ gallant a people, have a still more decided bandittiphobia. According to what the badauds of Paris are told in print, every rash individual, before he takes his place in the dilly for Spain, ought by all means to make his will, as was done four hundred years ago at starting on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; possibly this may be predicated in the spirit of French diplomacy, which always has a concealed arriere pensee, and it may be bruited abroad, on the principle with which illicit distillers and coin-forgers give out that certain localities are haunted, in order to scare away others, and thus preserve for themselves a quiet possession. Perhaps the supera- bundance of 1'esprit Franqais may give color and substance to forms insignificant in themselves, as a painter lost in a brown study over a coal fire converts cinders into castles, monsters, and other creatures of his lively imagination ; or it may be, as con- science makes cowards of all, that these gentlemen really see a bandit in every bush of Spain, and expect from behind every rock an avenging minister of retaliation, in whose pocket is a list of the church plate, Murillos, &c. which were found missing after their countrymen's invasion. Be that as it may, even so clever a man as Monsieur Quinet, a real Dr. Syntax, fills pages of his recent Vacances with his continual trepidations, although, from having arrived at his journey's end without any sort of accident, PART TT. 10 194 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. albeit not without every kind of fear, it might have crossed him, that the bugbears existed only in his own head, and he might have concealed, in his pleasant pages, a frame of mind the exhibition of which, in England at least, inspires neither interest nor re- spect ; an over-care of self is not over-heroic. It must be also admitted that the respectability and character of many a Spaniard is liable to be misunderstood, when he sets forth on any of his travels, except in a public wheel conveyance ; as we said in our ninth chapter, he assumes the national costume of the road, and leaves his wife and long-tailed coat behind nirn. Now as most Spaniards are muffled up and clad after the approved melodrame fashion of robbers, they may be mistaken for them in reality ; indeed they are generally sallow, have fierce black eyes, uncombed hair, and on these occasions neglect the daily use of towels and razors ; a long beard gives, and not in Spain alone, a ferocious ruffian-like look, which is not diminished when gun and knife are added to match faces a la Brutus. Again, these wor- thies thus equipped, have sometimes a trick of staring rather fix- edly from under their slouched hat at the passing stranger, whose, to them, outlandish costume excites curiosity and suspicion ; nat- urally therefore some difficulty does exist in distinguishing the me- rino from the wolf, when both are disguised in the same clothing a zamarra sheepskin to wit. A private Spanish gentleman, who, in his native town, would be the model of a peaceable and inoffensive burgess, or a respectable haberdasher, has, when on his commercial tour, altogether the appearance of the Bravo of Venice, and such-like heroes, by whom children are frightened at a minor theatre. In consequence of the difficulty of outliving what has been learnt in the nursery, many of our countrymen have, with the best intentions, set down the bulk of the population of the Peninsula as one gang of robbers they have exaggerated their numbers like Falstaff's men of buckram ; the said imagined Rinaldo Rinaldinis being probably in a still greater state of alarm from having on their part taken our said countrymen for robbers, and this mutual misunderstanding continues, until both explain their slight mistake of each other's character and intention. Al- though we never fell into the error of thus mistaking Spanish oeaceable traders for privateers and men-of-war, yet that injustice IDLE ROBBER TALES. 193 has been done by them to us ; possibly this compliment may have been paid to our careful observation of the bearing and garb of their great Rob Roy himself and in his own country, which, to one about to undertake, in those days, long and solitary rides ovei the Peninsula, was an unspeakable advantage. But even in those perilous times, robberies were the exception, not the rule, in spite of the full, whole, and exact particulars of natives as well as strangers ; the accounts were equally exag- gerated by both parties ; in fact, the subject is the standing dish, the common topic of the lower classes of travellers, when talking and smoking round the venta fires, and forms the natural and agreeable religio loci, the associations connected with wild and cut-throat localities. Though these narrators' pleasure is mingled with fear and pain, they delight in such histories as children do in goblin tales. Their Oriental amplification is inferior only to their credulity, its twin sister, and they end in believing their own lies. Whenever a robbery really does take place, the report spreads far and wide, and gains in detail and atrocity, for no mule- teer's story or sailor's yarn loses in the telling. The same dire event, names, dates, and localities only varied, is served up, as a monkish miracle in the mediaeval ages was, at many other places, and thus becomes infinitely multiplied. It is talked of for months all over the country, while the thousands of daily passengers who journey on unhurt are never mentioned. It is like the lot- tery, in which the great prize alone attracts attention, not the infinite majority of blanks. These robber-tales reach the cities, and are often believed by most respectable people, who pass their lives without stirring a league beyond the walls. They sympa- thize with all who are compelled to expose themselves to the great pains and perils, the travail of travel, and they endeavor with the most good-natured intentions to dissuade rash adventurers from facing them, by stating as facts, the apprehensions of their own credulity and imagination. The muleteers, venteros, and masses of common Spaniards see in the anxious faces of timid strangers, that their audience is in the listening and believing vein, and as they are garrulous and egotists by nature, they seize on a theme in which they alone hold forth ; they are pleased at being considered an authority, and 196 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. with the superiority which conveying information gives, and the power of inspiring fear confers ; their mother- wit, in which few nations surpass them, soon discovers the sort of information .which " our correspondent" is in want of, and as words here cost nothing, the gulping gobemouche is plentifully supplied with the required article. These reports are in due time set up in type, and are believed because in print ; thus the- tricks played on poor Mr. Inglis and his note-book were the laughter of the whole Pen- insula, grave authorities caught the generous infection, until Mr. Mark's robber-jokes at Malaga wera booked and swallowed as if he had been an apostle instead of a consul. As it was our fate to have wandered up and down the Peninsula when Ferdinand VII. was King of the Spains, and Jose Maria, at whose name old men and women there tremble yet, was auto- crat of Andalucia, the moment was propitious for studying the philosophy of Spanish banditti, and our speculations were much benefitted by a fortunate acquaintance with the redoubtable chief himself, from whom, as well as from many of his intelligent fol- lowers, we received much kindness and valuable information, which is acknowledged with thankfulness. Historically speaking, Spain has never enjoyed a good cha- racter in this matter of the highway ; it had but an indifferent reputation in the days of antiquity, but then, as now, it was generally the accusation of foreigners. The Romans who had no business to invade it, were harassed by the native guerrilleros, those undisciplined bands who waged the " little war," which Iberia always did. Worried by these unmilitary voltigeurs, they called all Spaniards who resisted them " latrones ;" just as the French invaders, from the same reasons, called them la drones or brigands, because they had no uniform as if the wear- ing a schako given by a plundering marshal, could convert a pillager into an honest man, or the want of it could change into a thief, a noble patriot who was defending his own property and country ; but 1 habit ne fait pas le moine, say the French, and aunque la mona se viste de seda, mona se queda, although a mon- key dresses in silk, monkey it remains, rejoin the Spaniards. Armed men are in fact the weed of the soil of Spain, in peace or war ; to have their hand against all mankind seems to be an GUERRILLEROS. 197 instinct in every descendant of Ishmael, and particularly among this Quixotic branch, whose knight-errants, reformers on horse- back, have not unfrequently been robbers in the guise of gentle- men. During the war against Buonaparte, the Peninsula swarmed with insurgents, many of whom were inspired by a sense of loyalty, with indignation at their outraged religion, and with a deep-rooted national loathing of the gabacho, and good service did these Minas and Co. do to the cause of their lawful king ; but others used patriotic professions as specious cloaks to cover their instinctive passion for a lawless and freebooting career, and before the liberation of the country was effected, had become formidable to all parties alike. The Duke of Welling- ton with his characteristic sagacity, foresaw, at his victorious con- clusion of the struggle, how difficult it would be to weed out " this strange fruit borne on a tree grafted by patriotism." The transi- tion from murdering a Frenchman, to plundering a stranger, appeared a simple process to these patriotic scions, whose num- bers were swelled with all who were, or who considered them- selves to be, ill used with all who could not dig<, and were ashamed to beg. The evil was diminished during the latter year of the reign of Ferdinand VII. , when the old hands began to die off, and an advance in social improvement was unquestionably general, before which these lawless occupations gave way, as surely as wild animals of prey do before improved cultivation. These evils, that are abated by internal quiet and the continued exertions of the authorities, increase with troubled times, which, as the tempest calls forth the stormy petrel, rouse into dangerous action the worst portions of society, and create a sort of civil ca- chexia, as we now see in Ireland. Another source was, not to say is, Gibraltar, that hot-bed of contraband, that nursery of the smuggler, the prima maleria of a robber and murderer. The financial ignorance of the Spanish government calls him in, to correct the errors of Chancellors of Exchequers: " trovata la legge, trovato Pinganno." The fiscal regulations are so ingeniously absurd, complicated, and vexatious, that the honest, legitimate merchant is as much embarrassed as the irregular trader is favored. The operation of excessive du- ties on objects which people must, and therefore will have, is as 198 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. strikingly exemplified in the case of tobacco in Andalucia, as it is in that, and many other articles on the Kent and Sussex coasts : in both countries the fiscal scourge leads to breaches of the peace, injury to the fair dealer, and loss to the revenue ; it renders idle, predatory, and ferocious, a peasantry which, under a wiser sys- tem, and if not exposed to overpowering temptation, might become virtuous and industrious. In Spain the evasjon of such laws is only considered as cheating those who cheat the people ; the vil- lagers are heart and soul in favor of the smuggler, as they are of the poacher in England; all their prejudices are on his side. Some of the mountain curates, whose flocks are all in that line, deal with the crime in their sermons as a conventional, not a moral one ; and, like other people, decorate their mantel-pieces with a painted clay figure of the sinner in his full mojo dress. The smuggler himself, so far from feeling degraded, enjoys the reputa- tion which attends success in personal adventure, among a people proud of individual prowess ; he is the hero of the Spanish stage, and comes on equipped in full costume, with his blunderbuss, to sing the well-known " Yo ! que soy contrabandista ! yo ho /" to the delight of all listeners, from the Straits to the Bidasoa, custom- house officers not excepted. The prestige of such a theatrical exhibition, like the ' Robbers' of Schiller, is enough to make all the students of Salamanca take to the high road. The contrabandista is the Turpin, the Macheath of reality, and those heroes of the old ballads and theatres of Eng- land, who have disappeared more in consequence of enclosures, rapid conveyances, and macadamization (for there is nothing so hateful to a highwayman as gas and a turnpike), than from fear of the prison or the halter. The writings of Smollett, the recol- lections of many now alive of the dangers of Hounslow Heath and Finchley Common, recall scenes of life and manners from which we have not long emerged, and which have still more recently been corrected in Spain. The contrabandista in his real character is welcome in every village ; he is the newspaper and channel of intelligence ; he brings tea and gossip for the curate, money and cigars for the attorney, ribands and cottons for the women ; he is magnificently dressed, which has a great charm for all Moro-Ibe- rian eyes ; he is bold and resolute " none but the brave deserve FIRST-CLASS BANDITS. 199 the fair; 5 ' a good rider and shot ; he knows every inch of the in- tricate country, wood or water, hill or dale ; in a word, he is ad- mirably educated for the high-road for what Froissart, speaking of the celebrated Amerigot Tetenoire, calls " a fay re and godlie life." A.nd the transition from plundering the king's revenue to taking one of his subjects' purse on the highway is easy. Many circumstances combined to make this freebooting career popular among the lower classes. The delight of power, the ex- hibition of daring and valor, the temptation of sudden wealth, always so attractive to half-civilized nations, who prefer the rich spoil won by the bravery of an hour, to that of the drudgery of years ; the gorgeous apparel, the lavish expenditure, the song, the wassail, the smiles of the fair, and all the joyous life of liberty, freemasonry, and good fellowship, operated with irresistible force on a warlike, energetic, and imaginative population. This smuggling was the origin of Jose Maria's career, who rose to the highest rank and honors of his profession, as did Napo- leon le Grand and " Jonathan Wild the Great," and principally, as Fielding says of his hero, by a power of doing mischief, and a principle of considering honesty to be a corruption of honosty, the qualities of an ass (ovog). But it is a great mistake to suppose that there always are men fitted to be captains of formidable gangs ; nature is chary in the 'production of such specimens of dangerous grandeur, and as ages may elapse before the world is cursed with another Alaric, Buonaparte, or Wild, so years may pass before Spain witnesses again another Jose Maria. The Ladron en grande, the robber on a great scale, is the grandee of the first class in his order ; he is the captain of a regularly-organized band of followers, from eight to fourteen in number, well armed and mounted, and entirely under command and discipline. These are very formidable ; and as they seldom attack any travellers except with overwhelming forces, and under circumstances of ambuscade and surprise, where every thing is in their favor, resistance is generally useless, and can only lead to fatal accidents. Never, for the sake of a sac de nuit, risk being sent to Erebus ; submit, therefore, at once and with good grace to the summons, which will take no denial, of " abajo" down, " boca a\ tierra" mouth to the earth. Those who have a 200 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. score or so of dollars, four or five pounds, the loss of which will ruin no man, are very rarely ill-used ; a frank, confident, and good-humored surrender not only prevents any bad treatment, but secures even civility during the disagreeable operation : pistols and sabres are after all, a poor defence compared to civil words, as Mr. Cribb used to say. The Spaniard, by nature high-bred and a " caballero" responds to any appeal to qualities of which he thinks his nation has reason to be proud ; he respects coolness of manner, in which bold men, although robbers, sympathize. Why should a man, because he loses a few dollars, lose also his presence of mind or temper, or perhaps life ? Nor are these gran- dees of the system without a certain magnanimity, as Cervantes knew right well. Witness his graphic account of Roque Guinart, whose conduct to his victims and behavior to his comrades tallied, to our certain knowledge, with that observed by Jose Maria, and was perfectly analogous to the similar traits of character exhi- bited by the Italian bandit Ghino de Tacco, the immortalized by Dante, as well as by our Robin Hood and Diana's foresters. Being strong, they could afford to be generous and merciful. Notwithstanding these moral securities, if only by way of making assurance doubly sure, an Englishman will do well when travelling in exposed districts to be provided with a decent bag of dollars, which makes a handsome purse, feels heavy in the hand, and -is that sort of amount which the Spanish brigand thinks a native of our proverbially rich country ought to have with him on his travels. He has a remarkable tact in estimating from the look of an individual, his equipage, &c., how much, ready money it is befitting his condition for him to have about him : if the sum should not be enough, he resents severely his being robbed of the regular perquisite to which he considers him- self entitled by the long-established usage of the high-road. The person unprovided altogether with cash is generally made a severe example of, pour encourager les autres, either by being well beaten or stripped to the skin, after the fashion' of the thieves of old, near Jericho. The traveller should have a watch of some kind one with a gaudy gilt chain and seals is the best suited ; not to have one exposes him to more indignities than a scantily- .filled purse. The money may have been spent, but the absence THE RATERO. 201 of* a watch can only be accounted for by a premeditated intention of not being robbed of it, which the " ladron" considers as a most unjustifiable attempt to defraud him of his right. The Spanish " ladrones" are generally armed with a blunder- buss, that hangs at their high-peaked saddles, which are covered with a white or blue fleece, emblematical enough of shearing pro- pensities ; therefore, perhaps, the order of the golden fleece has been given to certain foreigners, in reward for having eased Spain of her independence and Murillos. Their dress is for the most part very rich, and in the highest style of the fancy ; hence they are the envy and models of the lower classes, being arrayed after the fashion of the smuggler, or the bull-fighter, or in a word, the " majo" or dandy of Andalucia, which is the home and head- quarters of all those who aspire to the elegant accomplishments and professions just alluded to. The next class of robbers omit- ting some minor distinctions, such as the " salteadores" or two or three persons who lie in ambuscade nndjump out on the unpre- pared traveller is the " ratero" " the rat." He is not brought regularly up to the profession and organized, but takes to it on a sudden, and for the special occasion which, according to the proverb, makes a thief, La ocasion hace al ladron ; and having committed his petty larceny, returns to his pristine occupation or avocation. The "raterillo" or small rat, is a skulking footpad, who seldom attacks any but single and unprotected passengers, who, if they get robbed, have no one to blame but themselves ; for no man is justified in exposing Spaniards to the temptation of doing a little something in that line. The shepherd with his sheep, the ploughman at his plough, the vine-dresser amid his grapes, all have their gun, ostensibly for their individual protec- tion, which furnishes means of assault and battery against those who have no Other defence but their legs and virtue. These self-same extemporaneous thieves are, however, remarkably civil to armed and prepared travellers; to them they touch their hats, and exclaim, " Good day to you, my lord knight," and " May your grace go with God/' with all that innocent simplicity which is observable in pastorals, opera-ballets, and other equally correct representations of rural life. These rats are held in as 10* 202 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY profound contempt by the higher classes of the profession, as political ones used to be, before parties were betrayed by turn- coats, who, with tails and without, deserted to the enemies' camp. The ladron en grande looks down on this sneaking competitor as a regular M.D. and member of the College of Physicians does on a quack, who presumes to take fees and kill without a licence. However despicable, these rats are very dangerous ; lacking the generous feeling which the possession of power and united force bestows, they have the cowardice and cruelty of weakness: hence they frequently murder their victim, because dead men tell no tales. The distinction between these higher and lower classes of rogues will be better understood by comparing the Napoleon of war, with the Napoleon of peace. The Corsican was the ladron en grande ; he warred against mankind, he led his armed followers to pillage and plunder, he made his den the receiving house of the stolen goods of the Continent : but he did it openly and manfully by his own right hand and good sword ; and valor and audacity are qualities too high and rare not to command admiration qualified, indeed, when so misapplied. Louis-Phi- lippe is a raterOj who, skulking under disguise of amity and good faith, works out in the dark, and by cunning, his ends of avarice and ambition ; who, acting on the artful dodger (no) principle, while kissing the Queen, picks her pocket of a crown. It must be stated for the purposes of history that at the time when Spain was, or was said to be, overrun with rats and rob- bers, there was, as Spaniards have it, a remedy for everything except death ; and as the evils were notorious, it was natural that means of prevention should likewise exist. If the state of things had been so bad as exaggerated report would infer, it would have been impossible that any travelling or traffic could have been managed in the Peninsula. The mails a T nd diligences, being protected by government, were seldom attacked, and those who travelled by other methods, and had proper recommenda- tions, seldom failed in being provided by the authorities with a sufficient escort. A regular body of men was organized for that purpose; they were called " Miguelites" from, it is said, one Miguel de Prats, an armed satellite of the famous or infamous MIGUELITES. 203 Caesar Borgia. In Catalonia they are called " Mozos de la Escuadra" " Lads of the squadron, land marines ;" they are the modern " Hermandad" the brotherhood which formed the old Spanish rural armed police. Composed of picked and most active young men, they served on foot, under the orders of the military powers ; they were dressed in a sort of half uniform and half majo costume. Their gaiters were black instead of yellow, and their jackets of blue trimmed with red. They were well armed with a short gun and a belt round the waist in which the ammunition was placed, a much more convenient contri- vance than our cartouche-box; they had a sword, a cord for securing prisoners, and a single pistol, which was stuck in their sashes, at their backs. This corps was on a perfect par with the robbers, from whom some of them were chosen ; indeed, the common condition of the " indulto," or pardon to robbers, is to enlist, and extirpate their former associates set a thief to catch a thief; both the honest and renegade Miguelites hunted " la mala gente" as gamekeepers do poachers. The robbers feared and respected them ; an escort of ten or twelve Miguelites might brave any number of banditti, who never or rarely attack where resistance is to be anticipated ; and in travelling through suspected spots these escorts showed singular skill in taking every precaution, by throwing out skirmishers in front and at the sides. They covered in their progress a large space of ground, taking care never to keep above two together, nor more distant from each other than gun-shot ; rules which all travellers will do well to remember, and to enforce on all occasions of suspicion. The rare instances in which Englishmen, especially officers of the garrison of Gibraltar, have been robbed, have arisen from a neglect of this precaution ; when the whole party ride together they may be all caught at once, as in a casting-net. It may be remarked that Spanish robbers are very shy in at- tacking armed English travellers, and particularly if they appear on their guard. The robbers dislike fighting, and the more as they do so at a disadvantage, from having a halter round their necks, and they hate danger, from knowing what it is ; they have no chivalrous courage, nor any more abstract notions of fair play than a Turk or a tiger, who are too uncivilized to throw away a 204 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. chance ; accordingly, they seldom join issue where the defendants seem pugnacious, which is likely to be the case with Englishmen. They also peculiarly dislike English guns and gunpowder, which, in fact, both as arms and ammunition, are infinitely superior to those of Spain. Though three or four Englishmen had nothing to fear, yet where there were ladies it was better to be provided with an escort of Miguelites. These men have a keen and ac- curate eye, and were always on the look-out for prints of horses and other signs, which, escaping the notice of superficial observ- ers, indicated to their practised observations the presence of danger. They were indefatigable, keeping up with a carriage day and night, braving heat and cold, hunger and thirst. As they were maintained at the expense of the government, they were not, strictly speaking, entitled to any remuneration from those travellers whom they were directed to escort ; it was. however, usual to give to each man a couple of pesetas a day, and a dollar to their leader. The trifling addition of a few cigars, a " bota" or two of wine, some rice and dried cod-fish for their evening meal, was well bestowed ; exercise sharpened thier appetites ; and they were always proud to drink to their master's long life and purse, and protect both. Those, whether natives of foreigners, who could not obtain or afford the expense of an escort to themselves, availed themselves of the opportunity of joining company with some party who had one. It is wonderful how soon the fact of an escort being granted was known, and how the number of travellers increased, who were anxious to take advantage of the convoy. As all go armed, the united allied forces became more formidable as the number increased, and the danger became less. If no one happened to be travelling with an escort, then travellers waited for the passage of troops, for the government's sending money, tobacco, or any- thing else which required protection. If none of these opportuni- ties offered, all who were about to travel joined company. This habit of forming caravans is very Oriental, and has become quite national in Spain, insomuch that it is almost impossible 'to travel alone, as others will join ; weaker and smaller parties will unite with all stronger and larger companies whom they meet going the same road, whether the latter like it or not. The muleteers are TRAVELLING ESCORTS. 205 most social and gregarious amongst each other, and will often en- deavor to derange their employer's line of route, in order to fall in with that of their chance-met comrades. The caravan, like a snow-ball, increases in bulk as it rolls on ; it is often pretty considerable at the very outset, for, even before starting the mule- teers and proprietors of carriages, being well known to each other, communicate mutually the number of travellers which each has got. Travelling in out-of-the-way districts in a " coche de colleras" and especially if accompanied with a baggage-waggon, exposes the party to be robbed. When the caravan arrives in the small villages it attracts immediate notice, and if it gets wind that the travellers are foreigners, they are supposed to be laden with gold and booty. Such an arrival is a rare event ; the news spreads like wildfire, and collects all the " mala gente" the bad set of idlers and loiterers, who act as spies, and convey intelligence to their confederates; again, the bulk of the equipage, the noise and clatter of men and mules, is seen and heard from afar, by robbers if there be any, who lurk in hiding-places or eminences, and are well provided with telescopes, besides with longer and sharper noses, which, as Gil Bias says, smell coin in travellers' pockets, while the slow pace and impossibility of flight renders such a party an easy prey to well mounted horsemen. This condition of affairs, these dangers, real or imaginary, and these precautions, existed principally in journeys by cross roads, or through provinces rarely visited, and unprovided with public carriages ; if, however, such districts were reputed the worst, they often had the advantage of being freer from regular bands, for where there are few passengers, why should there be robbers, who like spiders place their nets where the supply of flies is sure ? and little do the humbler masses of Spain care either for robbers or revolutionists ; they have nothing to lose, and are be- neath the notice of pickpockets or pseudo-patriots. Their rags an their safeguard, a fine climate clothes them, a fertile soil feedtr them ; they doze away in the happy want and poverty, ever the best protections in Spain, or strum their guitars and sing staves in praise of empty purses. The better provided have to look out for themselves ; indeed, whenever the law is insufficient men 206 THE SPANIARDS AND TPIEIR COUNTRY. it into their own hands, cither to protect themselves or their pro- perty, or to administer wild justice, and obtain satisfaction for wrongs, which in plain Spanish is called revenge. An Irish land- lord arms his servants and raises walls round his " demesne" an English squire employs watchers and keepers to preserve his pheasants so in suspected localities a Spanish hidalgo protects his person by hiring armed peasants ; they are called " escopete- ros," people with guns a definition which is applicable to most Spaniards. When out of town this custom of going armed, and early acquaintance with the use of the gun, is the principal rea- son why, on the shortest notice, bodies of men, whom the Spanish call soldiers, are got together ; every field furnishes the raw mate- rial a man with a musket. Baggage, commissariat, pay, rations, uniform, and discipline, which are European rather than Oriental, are more likely to be found in most other armies than in those of Spain. These things account for the facility with which the Spanish nation flies so magnanimously to arms, and after 'bush- fighting and buccaneering expeditions, disappears at once after a reverse ; " every man to his own home," as of old in the East, and that, with or without proclamation. These " escopeteros" occasionally robbers themselves, live either by robbery or by the prevention of it ; for there is some honor among thieves ; " entre lobos no se come" " wolves don't eat each other," unless very hard up indeed. These fellows naturally endeavor to alarm travellers with over-exaggerated accounts of dangers, ogres and antres vast, in order that their services may be engaged ; their inventions are often believed by swallowers of camels, who note down as facts, these tricks upon travellers got up for the occasion, by people who are making long noses at them, behind their backs ; but these longer lies are among the accidents of long journeys, " en luengas vias, luengas mentiras." As we are now writing history, it may be added that great men like Jose Maria often granted passports. This true trooper of the Deloraine breed was untrammelled with the fetters of spelling. Although he could barely write his name, he could rubricate* * The kings of Spain seldom use any other royal signature, except the ancient Gothic rubrica, or mark. This monogram is something like a Runic knot. Spaniards exercise much ingenuity in these intricate flourishes, which TALISMANIC DEFENCES. 207 as well as any other Spaniard in command, or Ferdinand VII. him- self. " His mark" was a protection to all who would pay hirn black mail. It was authenticated with such a portentous griffon- age as would have done credit to Ali Pacha. An intimate friend of ours, a merry gastronomic dignitary of Seville, who was going to the baths of Caratraca, to recover from over indulgence in rich ollas and valdepenas, and had no wish, like the gouty abbot of Boccaccio, to be put on robber regimen, procured a pass from Jose Maria, and took one of his gang as a travelling escort, who sat on the coach-box, and whom he described to us as his " san- tito" his little guardian angel. W -lo on the subject of this spiritual and supernatural protec- tion, h may be added that firm faith was placed in the wearing a relic, a medal of the Virgin, her rosary or scapulary. Thus the Duchess of Abrantes this very autumn hung the Virgen del Pilar round the neck of her favorite bull-fighter, who escaped in con- sequence. Few Spanish soldiers go into battle without such a preservative in their petos, or stuff waddings, which is supposed to turn bullets, and to divert fire, like a lightning conductor, which probably it does, as so few are ever killed. In the more romantic days of Spain no duel or tournament could be fought without a declaration from the combatants, that they had no relic, no engano or cheat, about their persons. Our friend Jose Maria attributed his constant escapes to an image of the Virgin of Grief of Cordova, which never quitted his shaggy breast. Indeed, the native districts of the lower classes in Spain may be generally known by their religious ornaments. These talismanic amulets are selected from the saint or relic most honored, arid esteemed most efficacious, in their immediate vicinity. Thus the " Santo Rostro," or Holy Countenance of Jaen, is worn all over the king- dom of Granada, as the Cross of Caravaca is over Murcia ; the rosary of the Virgin is common to all Spain. The following they tack on to their names, as a collateral security of authenticity. It is said that a rubrica without a name is of more value than a name without a rubrica. Sancho Panza tells Don Q,uixote that his rubrica alone is worth, not one, but three hundred jackasses. Those who cannot write rubricate ; "No saber firmar? not to know how to sign one's name, is jokingly held in Spain to be one of the attributes of grandeeship. 208 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. miraculous proof of its saving virtues was frequently painted in the convents : A robber was shot by a traveller and buried ; his comrades, some time afterwards passing by, heard his voice, " this fellow in the cellarage ;" they opened the grave and found him alive and unhurt, for when he was killed, he had hap- pened to have a rosary round his neck, and Saint Dominick (its inventor) was enabled to intercede with the Virgin in his behalf. This reliance on the Virgin is by no means confined to Spain, since the Italian banditti always wear a small silver heart of the Madonna, and this mixture of ferocity and superstition is one of the most terrific features of their character. Saint Nicholas, however, the English " Old Nick," is in all countries the patron of schoolboys, thieves, or, as Shakspeare calls them, " Saint Nicholas's clerks." " Keep thy neck for the hangman, for I know thou worshippest St. Nicholas as a man of falsehood may;" and like him, Santu Diavolu, Santu Diavoluni, Holy Devil, is the ap- propriate saint of the Sicilian bandit.' San Dimas, the " good thief," is a great saint in Andalucia, where his disciples are said to be numerous. A celebrated carv- ing by Montanes, in Seville, is called ' El Cristo, del luen ladronj " the Christ, of the good thief;" thus making the Saviour a subordinate person. Spanish robbers have always been remark- ably good Roman Catholics. In the Rinconete y Cortadillo, the Lurker and Cutpurse of Cervantes, whose Monipodio must have furnished Fagin to Boz, a box is placed before the Virgin, to which each robber contributes, and one remarks that he "Tobs for the service of God, and for all honest fellows." Their moun- tain confessors of the Friar Tuck order, animated by a pious love for dollars when expended in expiatory masses, consider the payment to them of good doubloons such a laudable restitution, such a sincere repentance, as to entitle the contrite culprit to ample absolution, plenary indulgence, and full benefit of clergy. Notwithstanding this, these ungrateful " good thieves" have been known to rob their spiritual pastors and masters, when they catch them on the high road. To return to the saving merit of these talismans. We our- selves suspended to our sheepskin jacket one of the silver medals of Santiago, which are sold to pilgrims at Compostella, and ar- EXECUTION OF A ROBBER. 209 rived back again to Seville from the long excursion, safe and sound and un pillaged except by venteros and our faithful squire an auspicious event, which was entirely attributed by the aforesaid dignitary to the intervention vouchsafed by the patron of the Spains to all who wore his order, which thus protects the bearer as a badge does a Thames waterman from a press- gang. An account of the judicial death of one of the gang of Jose Maria, which we witnessed, will be an appropriate conclusion to these remarks, and an act of justice towards our fair readers for this detail of breaches of the peace, and the bad company into which they have been introduced. Jose de Roxas, commonly called (for they generally have some nickname) El Veneno, " Poison," from his viper-like qualities, was surprised by some troops : he made a desperate resistance, and when brought to the ground by a ball in his leg, killed the soldier who rushed for- ward to secure him. He proposed when in prison to deliver up his comrades if his own life were guaranteed to him. The offer was accepted, and he was sent out with a sufficient force ; and such was the terror of his name, that they surrendered them- selves, not however to him, and were pardoned. Veneno was then tried for his previous offences, found guilty, and condemned : he pleaded that he had indirectly accomplished the object for which his life w*as promised him, but in vain ; for such trials in Spain are a mere form, to give an air of legality to a predeter- mined sentence : the authorities adhered to the killing letter of their agreement, and " Kept the word of promise to the ear, But broke it to the hope.' 7 As Veneno was without friends or money, wherewith Gines Pas- samonte anointed the palm of justice and got free, the sentence was of course ordered to be carried ir. to effect. The courts of law and the prisons of Seville are situated near the Pla^a San Francisco, which has always been the site of public executions. On the day previous nothing indicates the scene which will take place on the following morning ; everything connected with this ceremony of death is viewed with horror bv Spaniards, not from 210 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. that abstract abhorrence of shedding blood which among other na- tions induces the lower orders to detest the completer of judicial sentences, as the smaller feathered tribes do the larger birds of prey, but from ancient Oriental prejudices of pollution, and be- cause all actually employed in the operation are accounted infa- mous, and lose their caste, and purity of blood. Even the gloomy scaffolding is erected in the night by unseen, unknown hands, and rises from the earth like a fungus work of darkness, to make the day hideous and shock the awakening eye of Seville. When the criminal is of noble blood the platform, which in ordinary cases is composed of mere carpenter's work, is covered with black baize. The operation of hanging, among so unmechanical a people, with no improved patent invisible drop, used to be con- ducted in a cruel and clumsy manner. The wretched culprits were dragged up the steps of the ladder by the executioner, who then mounted on their shoulders and threw himself off with his victims, and, while both swung backwards and forwards in the air, was busied, with spider-liKe fingers, in fumbling about the neck of the sufferers, until being satisfied that life was extinct he let himself down to the ground by the bodies. Execution by hanging was, however, graciously abolished by Ferdinand VII., the beloved ; this father of his people determined that the future death for civil offences should be strangulation, a mode of re- moving to a better world those of his children who deserved it which is certainly more in accordance with the Oriental bow- string. Veneno was placed, as is usual, the day before his execution, " en capilla" in a chapel or cell set apart for the condemned, where the last comforts of religion are administered. This was a small room in the prison, and the most melancholy in that dwell- ing of woe, for such indeed, as Cervantes from sad experience knew, and described a Spanish prison to be, it still is. An iron grating formed the partition of the corridor, which led to the chamber. This passage was crowded with members of a chari- table brotherhood, who were collecting alms from the visitors, to be expended in masses for the eternal repose of the soul of the criminal. There were groups of officers, and of portly Francis- can friars smoking their cigars and looking carefully from time EXECUTION OF A ROBBER. 211 to time into the amount of the contributions, which were to benefit their bodies, quite as much as the soul of the condemned. The levity of those assembled without formed, meantime, a heartless contrast with the gloom and horror of the melancholy interior. A small door opened into the cell, over which might well be in- scribed the awful words of Dante '' Lasciate ogni speranza, roi ch' entrate !' ? At the head of this room was placed a table, with a crucifix, an image of the Virgin, an^ two wax tapers, near which stood a si- lent sentinel with a drawn sword ; another soldier was stationed at the door, with a fixed bayonet. In a corner of this darkened apartment was the pallet of Veneno ; he was lying curled up like a snake, with a striped coverlet (the Spanish mania) drawn closely over his mouth, leaving visible only a head of matted locks, a glistening dark eye, rolling restlessly out of the white socket. On being approached he sprung up and seated himself on a stool : he was almost naked ; a chaplet of beads hung across his exposed breast, and contrasted with the iron chains around his limbs : Superstition had riveted her fetters at his birth, and the Law her manacles at his death. The expression of his face, though low and vulgar, was one which once seen is not easily forgotten, a slouching look of more than ordinary guilt : his sallow complex- ion appeared more cadaverous in the uncertain light, and was heightened by a black, unshorn beard, growing vigorously on a half-dead countenance. He appeared to be reconciled to his fate, and repeated a few sentences, the teaching of the monks, as by rote : his situation was probably more painful to the spectator than to himself an indifference to death, arising rather from an igno- rance of its dreadful import, than from high moral courage : he was the Bernardino of Shakspeare. " a man that apprehends death no more dreadfully than a drunken sleep, careless, reck- less, and fearless of what 5 s past, present, and to come, insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal." Next morning the triple tiers of the old balconies, roofs, and whole area of the Moorish and most picturesque square were crowded by the lower orders ; the men wrapped up in their cloaks (it was a December morning) the women in their man 812 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tillas, many with young children in their arms, brought in the beginning of life to witness its conclusion. The better classes not only absent themselves from these executions, but avoid any allusion to the subject as derogatory to European civilization ; the humbler ranks, who hold the conventions of society very cheap, give loose to their morbid curiosity to behold scenes of terror, which operates powerfully on the women, who seem im- pelled irresistibly to witness sights the most repugnant to their nature, and to behold sufferings which they would most dread to undergo; they, like children, are the great lovers of the horrible, whether in a tale or in dreadful reality ; to the men it was as a tragedy, where the last scene is death -death which rivets the at- tention of all, who sooner or later must enact the same sad part.* They desire to see how the criminal will conduct himself; they sympathize with him if he displays coolness and courage, and despise him on the least symptom of unmanliness. An open square was then formed about the scaffold by lines of soldiers drawn up, into which the officers and clergy were admitted. As the fatal hour drew nigh, the increasing impatience of the multi- tude began to vent itself in complaints of how slowly the time passed that time of no value to them, but of such precious im- port to him, whose very moments were numbered. When at length the cathedral clock tolled out the fatal hour, a universal stir of tiptoe expectation took place, a pushing forward to get the best situations. Still ten minutes had to elapse, for the clock of the tribunal is purposely set so much later than that of the cathedral, in order to afford the utmost possible chance of a reprieve. When that clock too had rung out its knell, all eyes were turned to the prison-door, from whence the miserable man came forth, attended by some Franciscans. He had chosen that order to assist at his dying moments, a privilege always left to the criminal. He was clad in a coarse yellow baize gown, the color which denotes the crime of murder, and is appropriated al- ways to Judas Iscariot in Spanish paintings. He walked slowly on his last journey, half supported by those around him, and stopping often, ostensibly to kiss the crucifix held before him by * '' Chacun fuit & le voir naitre, chacun court a le voir mourir !" Mon- taigne. EXECUTION OF A ROBBER. 213 a friar, but rather to prolong existence sweet life ! even yet a moment. When he arrived reluctantly at the scaffold, he knelt down on the steps, the threshold of death ; the reverend attend- ants covered him over with their blue robes his dying confes- sion was listened to unseen. He then mounted the platform at- tended by a single friar; addressed the crowd in broken sen- tences, with a gasping breath told them that he died repentant, that he was justly punished, and that he forgave his executioner. " Mi delito me mata, y no ese liombre" rny offence puts me to death, and not this fellow ; as " Ese hombre" is a contemptuous expression, and implies insult, the ruling feeling of the Spaniard was displayed in death against the degraded functionary. The criminal then exclaimed, " Viva la fe ! viva la religion ! viva el rey ! viva el nombre de Jesus /" All of which met no echo from those who heard him. His dying cry was " Viva la Virgin San- tisima /" at these words the devotion to the goddess of Spain burst forth in one general acclamation, " Viva la Santisima !'' So strong is their feeling towards the Virgin, and so lukewarm their comparative indifference towards their king, their faith, and their Saviour ! Meanwhile the executioner, a young man dressed in black, was busied in the preparations for death. The fatal instrument is simple : the culprit is placed on a rude seat ; his back leans against a strong upright post, to which an iron collar is attached, enclosing his neck, and so contrived as to be drawn ^home to the post by turning a powerful screw. The executioner bound so tightly the naked legs and arms of Veneno, that they swelled and became black -a precaution not unwise, as the fa- ther of this functionary had been killed in the act of executing a struggling criminal. The priest who attended Veneno was a bloated, corpulent man, more occupied in shading the sun from his own face, than in his ghostly office ; the robber sat with a writhing "look of agony, grinding his clenched teeth. When all was ready, the executioner took the lever of the screw in both hands, gathered himself up for a strong muscular effort, and, at the moment of a preconcerted signal, drew the iron collar tight, while an attendant flung a black handkerchief over the face a convulsive pressure of the hands and a heaving of the chest were the only visible signs of the passing of the robber's spirit. After 214 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. a pause of a few moments, the executioner cautiously peeped under the handkerchief, and after having given another turn to the screw, lifted it off, folded it up, carefully put it into his pocket, and then proceeded to light a cigar " with that air of satisfaction, Which good men wear who've done a virtuous action." The face of the dead man was slightly convulsed, the mouth open, the eye-balls turned into their sockets from the wrench. A black bier, with two lanterns fixed on staves, and a crucifix, was now set down before the scaffold also a small table and a dish, into which alms were again collected, to be paid to the priests who sang masses for his soul. The mob having discussed his crimes, abused the authorities and judges, and criticised the manner of the new executioner (it was his maiden effort), began slowly to disperse, to the great content of the neighboring silver- smiths, who ventured to open their closed shutters, having hith- erto placed more confidence in bolts and bars, than in the moral example presented to the spectators. The body remained on the scaffold till the afternoon ; it was then thrown into a scavenger's cart, and led by the " pregonero" the common crier, beyond the jurisdiction of the city, to a square platform called " La mesa del Rey" the king's table, where the bodies of the executed are quartered and cut up "a pretty dish to set before a king." Here the carcase was hewed and hacked into pieces by the bungling executioner and his attendants, with that inimitable de- " fiance of anatomy for which they and Spanish surgeons are equally renowned 11 Le gambe di lui gettaron in una fossa . II Diavol ebbe 1'alma. i lupi Fossa." " The legs of the robber were thrown in a hole, The wolves got his bones, the devil his soul." THE SPANISH DOCTOR. 215 CHAPTER XVII. The Spanish Doctor : his Social Position Medical Abuses Hospitals Medical Education Lunatic Asylums Foundling Hospital of Seville Medical Pretensions Dissection Family Physician Consultations Medical Costume Prescriptions Druggists Snake Broth Salve for Knife-cuts. THE transition from the Spanish ventero to the ladron was easy, nor is that from the robbers to the doctors of Spain difficult ; the former at least offer a polite alternative, they demand " your money or your life," while the latter in most cases takes both; yet these able practitioners, from being less picturesque in cos- tume, and more undramatic in operations, do not enjoy so bril- liant a European reputation as the bandits. Again, while our critical monitors cry thieves on every road of the Peninsula, no friendly warning is given against, the Sangrado, whose aspect is more deadly than the coup de soleil of a Castilian sun : woe waits the wayfarer who falls into his hands ; the patient cannot be too quick in ordering the measure to be taken of his coffin, or, as Spaniards say, of his tombstone, which last article is shadowed out by the first feeling of the invalid's pulse tomar el pulso, es prognosticar al enfermo la loza. It was probably from a knowl- edge of this contingent remainder, that Monsieur Orfila went, or was sent, from Paris to Madrid, about the time of the Montpe*- sier marriage with the Infanta, in the hopes of rescuing her elder and reigning sister, the " innocent" Isabel, from the fatal native lancets a well-meant interference of the foreigner, by the way, which the Spanish faculty resented and rejected to P man ; nor were the guarded suggestions of this eminent toxicolo- giste, or investigator of poisons, with regard to the administration of medicines and dispensaries, received so thankfully as they de- served. However magnificently endowed in former times were the hos- 216 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. pitals and almshouses of Spain, the provision now made for poor and ailing humanity is very inadequate. The revenues were first embezzled by the managers, and since have almost been swept away. Trustees for pious and charitable uses are de- fenceless against armed avarice and appropriation in office ; and being corporate bodies, they want the sacredness of private inter- ests, which every one is anxious to defend. Hence the greedy minion Godoy began the spoliation, by seizing the funds, and giving in lieu government securities, which of course turned out to be worthless. Then ensued the French invasion, and the con- fiscation of military despots. Civil war has done the rest ; and now that the convents are suppressed, the deficienpy is more evi- dent, for in the remoter country districts the monks bestowed re- lief to the poor, and provided medicines for the sick. With few exceptions, the hospitals, the Casas de Misericordia, or houses for the destitute, are far from being well conducted in Spain, while those destined for lunatics, and for exposed children, not- withstanding recent improvements, do little credit to -science and humanity. The base, brutal, and bloody Sangrados of Spain have long been the butts of foreign and domestic novelists, who spoke many a true word in their jests. The common expression of the peo- ple in regard to the busy mortality of their patients, is, that they die like bugs, mueren como chinches. This recklessness of life, this inattention to human suffering, and backwardness in curative science, is very Oriental ; for, however science may have set westward from the East, the arts of medicine and surgery have not. There, as in Spain, they have long been subordinate, and the professors held to be of a low caste a fatal bar in the Penin- sula, where the point of personal honor is so nice, and men will die rather than submit to conventional degradations. The sur- geon of the Spanish Moors was frequently a despised and de- tested Jew, which would create a traditionary loathing of the calling. The physician was of somewhat a higher caste ; but he, like the botanist and chemist, was rather to be met with among the Infidels than the Christians. Thus Sancho the Fat was obliged to go in person to Cordova in search of "good advice. And still in Spain, as in the East, all whose profession is to put THE SPANISH DOCTOR. 217 Jiving creatures to death, are socially almost excommunicated ; the butcher, bull-fighter, and public executioner for example. Here the soldier who sabres, takes the highest rank, and he who cures, the lowest; here the M.D.'s, whom the infallible Pope consults and the autocrat king obeys, are admitted only into the sick rooms of good company, which, when in rude health, shuts on them the door of their saloons ; but the excluded take their revenge" on those who morally cut them, and all Spaniards are very dangerous with the knife, and more particularly if surgeons. Madrid is indeed the court of death, and the necrology of the JGscorial furnishes the surest evidence of this fact in the prema- ture decease of royalty, which may be expected to have the best advice and aid, both medical and theologico-therapeutical, that the capital can afford ; but brief is the royal span, especially in the case of females and infantes, and the result is undeniable in these statistics of death ; the cause lies between the climate and the doctor, who, as they aid the other, may fairly be left to settle the question of relative excellence between each other. The Spanish medical man is shunned, not only from ancient prejudices, and because he is dangerous like a rattlesnake, but from jealousies that churchmen entertain against a rival profes- sion, which, if well-received, might come in for some share of the legacies and power-conferring secrets, which are obtained easily at deathbeds, when mind and body are deprived of strength. Again, a Spanish surgeon and a Spanish confessor take different views of a patient; one only wishes, or ought to wish, to preserve him in this world, and the other in the next, neither probably in their hearts having much opinion of the remedies adopted by each other : the spiritual practice changes not, for novelty itself, a her- esy in religion, is not favorably beheld in any thing else. Thus the universities, governed by ecclesiastics, persuaded the poor bigot Philip III. to pass a law prohibiting the study of any new system of medicine, and requiring Galen, Hippocrates, and Avi- cenna. Dons and men for whom the sun still continued to stand still, scout the exact sciences and experimental philosophy as dan- gerous innovations, which, they said, made every medical man a Tiberius, who, because he was fond of mathematics where strict demonstration is necessary, was rathe: negligent in his religious PART IT. 11 218 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. respect for the gods and goddesses of the Pantheon ; and so, in 1830, they scared the timid Ferdinand VII. (whose resemblance to Tiberius had nothing to do with Euclid) by telling him that the schools of medicine created materialists, heretics, citizen-kings, chartists, barricadoers, and revolutionists. Thereupon the beloved monarch shut up the lecture rooms forthwith, opening, it is true, by way of compensation, a tauromachian university ; men in- deed might be mangled, but bulls were to be mercifully put out of their misery, secundem artem, and with the honors of sci- ence. This low social position is very classical : the physicians of Rome, chiefly liberty freed slaves, were only made citizens by Csesar, who wished to conciliate these ministers of the fatal sisters when the capital was wanting in population after extreme emigra- tions an act of favor which may cut two ways ; thus Adrian VI. (tutor to the Spanish Charles V.) approved of there being 500 medical practitioners in the Eternal City, because otherwise " the" multitude of living beings would eat each other up." However, when his turn came to be diminished, the grateful people sere- naded his surgeon, as the " deliverer of the country." In our days, there was only one medical man admitted by the Seville sangre su, the best or noblest set (whose blood is held to be blue, of which more anon) when in rude and antiphlebotomical health ; and every stranger was informed apologetically by the exclusive Amphitryons that the M. D. was de casa conocida, or born of a good family ; thus his social introduction was owing to personal, not professional qualifications. And while adventurers of every kind are betitled, the most prodigal dispenser of Spanish honors never dreams of making his doctor even a titulado, a rank some- what higher than a pair de France, and lower than a medical baronetage in England. This aristocratical ban has confined doctors much to each other's society, which, as they never take each other's physic, is neither unpleasant nor dangerous. At Seville the medical tertulia, club or meeting, was appropriately held at the apothecary's shop of Campelos, and a sable junta or consultation it was, of birds of bad omen, who croaked over the general health with which the city was afflicted, praying, like Sangrado in < Gil Bias,' that by the blessing of Providence much MEDICAL PRACTICE. 219 sickness might speedily ensue. The crowded or deserted state of this rookery was the, surest evidence of the hygeian condition of the fair capital of Bsetica, and one which, when we lived there, we have often anxiously inspected ; for, whatever be the pleasant- ries of those in insolent health, when sickness brings in the doctor, all joking is at an end ; then he is made much of even in Spain, from a choice of evils, and for fear of the confessor and undertaker. The poor in no countries have much predilection for the hospi- tal ; and in Spain, in addition to pride, which everywhere keeps many silly sick out of admirably-conducted asylums, here a well- grounded fear deters the patient, who prefers to die a natural death. Again, from their being poor, the necessity of their living at all, is less evident to the managers than to the sufferers ; as, say the Malthusians, there is no place vacant at Nature's table d'hote to those who cannot pay, so bed and board are not pressed on Spanish applicants, by the hospital committee ; an admitted pa- tient's death saves trouble and expense, neither of which are pop- ular in a land where cash is scarce, and a love for hard work not prevalent, where a sound man is worth little, and a sick one still less ; nor is every doctor always popular for working cures, as could be exemplified in sundry cases of Spanish wives and heirs in general ; therefore in the hospitals of the Peninsula, if only half die, it is thought great luck : the dead, moreover, tell no tales, and the living sing praises for their miraculous escape. El medico lleva la plata, pero Dios es que sana ! God works the cure, the doctor sacks the fee ! Meanwhile the sextons are busy and merry, as those in Hamlet, and as indeed all gravediggers are, when they have a job on hand that will be paid for ; deeply do they dig into the silent earth, that bourn from whence no travellers return to blab. They sing and jest, while dust is heaped on dust, and the corpus delicti covered, and with it the blunders of the medico ; thus all parties, the deceased excepted, are well satisfied ; the man with the lancet is content that disagreeable evidence should be put out of sight, the fellow-laborer with the spade is thankful that con- stant means of living should be afforded to him; and when the funeral is over, both carry out the proverbial practice of Peninsu 220 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. lar survivors : Los muertos en la liuesa, y los vivos a la mesa, the dead in their grave, the quick to their dinner. But at no period were Spaniards careful even of their own lives, and much less of those of others, being a people of untender bowels. Familiarity with pain blunts much of the finer feelings of persons employed even in our hospitals, for those who live by the dead have only an undertaker's sympathy for the living, and are as dull to the poetry of innocent health, as Mr. Giblet is to a sportive house-fed lamb. Matters are not improved in Spain, where the wounds, blood, and slaughterings of the pastime bull- fight, the mueran or death mob-cries, and paselepor las armas, the shoot him on the spot, the Draco and Durango decrees, and prac- tices of all in power, educate all sexes to indifference to blood ; thus the fatal knife-stab or surgeon's cut are viewed as cosas de Espana and things of course. The philosophy of the general in- difference to life in Spain, which almost amounts to Oriental fa- talism, in the number of executions and general resignation to bloodshed, arises partly from life among the many being at best but a struggle for existence ; thus in setting it in the cast, the player only stakes coppers, and when one is removed, there is somewhat less difficulty for survivors ; hence every one is for him- self and for to-day ; apres moi le deluge, el ultimo mono se ahoga, the last monkey is drowned, or as we say, the devil takes the hind- most. The neglect of well-supported, well-regulated hospitals, has re- coiled on the Spaniards. The rising profession are deprived of the advantages of walking them, and thus beholding every nice difficulty solved by experienced masters. Recently some efforts have been made in large towns, especially on the coasts, to intro- duce reforms and foreign ameliorations ; but official jobbing and ignorant routine are still among the diseases that are not cured in Spain. In 1811, when the English army was at Cadiz, a physi- cian, named Villarino, urged by some of our indignant surgeons, brought the disgraceful condition of Spanish hospitals before the Cortes. A commission was appointed, and their sad report, still extant, details how the funds, food, wine, &c., destined for the pa- tients were consumed by the managers and their subalterns. The results were such as might be expected ; the authorities held to- MEDICAL ABUSES. 221 gethei, and persecuted Villarino as a revolucionario, or reformer, and succeeded in disgracing him. The superintendent of this establishment was the notorious Lozano de Torres, who starved the English army after Talavera, and was " a thief and a liar," in the words of the Duke. The Regency, after this very exposure of his hospital, promoted him to the civil government of old Cas- tile; and Ferdinand VII., in 1817, made him Minister of Justice. As buildings, the hospitals are generally very large ; but the space is as thinly tenanted as the unpeopled wastes of Spain. In Eng- land wards are wanting for patients in Spain, patients for wards The names of some of the greatest hospitals are happily chosen ; that of Seville, for instance, is called La Sangre, the blood, or Las Cinco Llagas, the five bleeding wounds of our Saviour, which are sculptured over the portal like bunches of grapes. Blood is an ominous name for this house and home of Sangrado, where the lancet, like the Spanish knife, gives no quarter. In instru- ments of life and death, this establishment resembles a Spanish arsenal, being wanting in everything at the critical moment its dispensary, as in the shop of Shakspeare's apothecary, presented a beggarly account of empty pill-boxes, while as to a visiting Brodie, the part of that Hamlet was left out. The grand hospital at Madrid is called el general, the General, and the medical as- sistance is akin to the military co-operation of such Spanish generals as Lapena arid Venegas, who in the moment of need left Graham at Barrosa, and the Duke at Talavera, without a shadow of aid. There is nothing new in this, if the old proverb tells truth, socorros de Espana, o tarde o nunca ; Spanish suc- cors arrive late or never. In cases of battle, war, and sudden death as in peace, the professional men, military or medical, are apt to assist in the meaning of the French word assister, which signifies to be present without taking any part in what is going on. And this applies, where knocks on the head are concerned, not to the medical men only, but to the universal Spanish nation ; when any one is stabbed in the streets, he will infallibly bleed to death, unless the authorities arrive in time to pick him up, and to bind up his wounds : every one else 'Englishmen exoepted, we describe things witnessed passes on the other side ; not from any fear at the sight of blood, nor abhorrence of murder, but 222 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. from the dread which every Spaniard feels at the very idea of getting entangled in the meshes of La Justicia, whose ministers lay hold of all who interfere or are near the body as principals or witnesses, and Spanish justice, if once it gets a man into its fangs, never lets him go until drained of his last farthing. The schools and hospitals, especially in the inland remote cities, are very deficient in all improved mechanical appliances and mo- dern discoveries, and the few which are to be met with are mostly of French and second-rate manufacture. It is much the same with their medical treatises and technical works ; all is a copy, and a bad one ; it has been found to be much easier to translate and borrow than to invent; therefore, as in modern art and literature, there is little originality in Spanish medicine. It is chiefly a veneering of other men's ideas, or an adaptation of ancient and Moorish science. Most of their terms of medicinal art, as well as of drugs, jalea, elixir, jarave, rob, sorbete, julepe, &c., are purely Arabic, and indicate the sources from whence the knowledge was obtained, for there is no surer historical test than language of the origin from whence the knowledge of the science was derived with its phraseology ; and whenever Spaniards depart from the daring ways of their ancestors, it is to adopt a timid French system. The few additions to their medical libraries are translations from their neighbors, just as the scanty materia medica in their apotheca- ries' shops is rendered more dangerous and ineffective by quack nostrums from Paris. It is a serious misfortune to sanative science in the Peninsula, that all that is known of the works of thoughtful, careful Germany, of practical, decided England, is passed through the unfair, inaccurate alembic of French transla- tion ; thus the original becomes doubly deteriorated, and the sacred cosmopolitan cause of truth and fact is too often sacrificed to the Gallic mania of suppressing both, for the honor of their own country. Can it be wondered, therefore, that the acquaint- ance of the Spanish faculty with modern works, inventions, and operations is very limited, or that their text-books and authorities should too often be still Galen. Celsus, Hippocrates, and Boer- haave ? The names of Hunter, Harvey, and Astley Cooper, are scarcely more known among their M.D.'s than the last discove- LUNATIC ASYLUMS. -223 ries of Herschel ; the light of such distant planets has not had time to arrive. To this day the Colegio de San Carlos, or the College of Surgeons of Madrid, relies much or. teaching the obstetric art by means of wax preparations ; but learning a trade on paper is not confined in Spain to medical students ; the great naval school at Seville is dedicated to San Telmo, who, uniting in himself the attributes of the ancient Castor and Pollux, appears in storms at the mast-head in the form of lights to rescue seamen. Hence, whenever it comes on to blow, the pious crews of Spanish crafts fall on their knees, and depend on this marine Hercules, instead of taking in sail, and putting the helm up. Our tars, who love the sea propter se, for better for worse, having no San Telmo to help them in foul weather (although the somewhat irreverent gunner of the Victory did call him of Trafalgar Saint Nelson), go to work and perform the miracle themselves aide toi, et le del t'aidera. In our time, the middies in this college were taught navigation in a room, from a small model of a three-decker placed on a large table ; and thus at least they were not exposed to sea-sickness. The Infant Antonio, Lord High Admiral of Spain, was walking in the Retire gardens near the pond, when it was proposed to cross in a boat; he declined, saying, " Since I sailed from Naples to Spain I have never ven- tured on water." But, in this and some other matters, things are managed differently on the Thames and the Baetis. Thus, near Greenwich Hospital, a floating frigate, large as life, is the school of young chips of old blocks, who every day behold in the veterans of Cape St. Vincent and Trafalgar living examples of having "done their duty." The evidence of former victories thus becomes a guarantee for the realization of their young hopes, and the future is assured by the past. Next to the barracks, prisons, arsenals, and fortresses of Spain, the establishments for suffering mortality are the least worth seeing, and are the most to be avoided by wise travellers, who can indulge in much better specimens at home. This assertion will be better understood by a sketch or two taken on the spot a few years ago. The so-called asylums for lunatics are termed in Spanish hospitales de locos, a word derived from the Arabic, 224 . THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. locao, mad ; they, like the cognate Morostans (^wooc) of Cairo, were generally so mismanaged, that the directors appeared to be only desirous of obtaining admission themselves. Insanity seemed to derange both the intellects of the patients and to harden the bowels of their attendants, while the usual misappropriation of the scanty funds produced a truly reckless, makeshift, wretched result. There was no attempt at classification, which indeed is no thing of Spain. The inmates were crowded together, the monomaniac, the insane, the raving mad, in one confusion of dirt and misery, where they howled at each other, chained like wild beasts, and were treated even worse than criminals, for the passions of the most, outrageous were infuriated by the savage lash. There was not even a curtain to conceal the sad necessi- ties of these human beings, then reduced to animals: everything was public even unto death, whose last groan was mingled with the frantic laugh of the surviving spectators. In some rare cases the bodies of those whose minds are a void, were confined in solitary cells with no other companions save affliction. Of these, many, when first sent there by friends and relations to be put out of the way, were not mad, soon indeed to become so, as solitude, sorrow, and the iron entered their brain. These establishments, which the natives ought to hide in shame, were usually among the first lions which they forced on the stranger, and especially on the Englishman, since, holding our worthy countrymen, to be all locos, they naturally imagined that they would be quite at home among the inmates. They, in common with many others on the Continent, entertain a notion that all Britons bold have a bee in their bonnet ; they think so on many, and perhaps not always unreasonable, grounds. They see them preferring English ways, sayings, and doings, to their own, which of itself appears to a Spaniard, as to a French- man, to be downright insanity. Then our countrymen tell the truth in bulletins, use towels, and remove superfluous hairs daily. And letting alone other minor exhibitions of eccentricity, are not the natives of England, Scotland, and Ireland guilty of three ac- tions, any one of which would qualify for Bedlam if the Lord Chancellor were to issue a writ de lunatico inquirendo ! have FOUNDLING HOSPITALS. 225 they not bled for Spain, in purse and person, on the battle-field, on the railroad, in the Stock Exchange ? " Oh tribus Antyceris caput insanabile !" To return, however, to Spanish madmen and their hospitals, the sight was a sad one, and alike disgraceful to the sane, and degrading to the insane native. The wild maniacs implored a " loan" from the foreigner, for from their own countrymen they had received a stone. A sort of madness is indeed seldom want- ing to the frantic energy and intense eagerness of all Spanish mendicants ; and here, albeit the reasoning faculties were gone, the national propensity to beg and borrow survived the wreck of intellect, and in fact it was and is the indestructible " common sense" of the country. There was generally some particular patient whose aggravated misery made him or her the especial object of cruel curiosity. Thus, at Toledo, in 1843, the keepers (fit wild beast term) al- ways conducted strangers to the cage or den of the wife of a cele- brated Captain-General and first-rate fusilier of Catalonia, an officer superior in power to our Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. She was permitted to wallow in naked filth, and be made a public show. The Moors, at least, do not confine their harmless female maniacs, who wander naked through the streets, while the men are honored as saints, whose minds are supposed to be wandering in heaven. The old Iberian doctors, according to Pliny, professed to cure madness with the herb vettonica, and hydrophobia with decoction of the cynorrhodon or dog-rose-water, as being doubly, unpalateable to the rabid canine species. The modern Spaniards seemed only to desire, by ignorance and ill-usage, to darken any lucid interval into one raving uniformity. ,The foundling hospitals were, when we last examined them, scarcely better managed than the lunatic asylums ; they are called casas de espositos, houses of the exposed or la Cuna, the cradle, as if they were the cradle, not the coffin, of miserable in- fants. Most large cities in Spain have one of those receptacles ; the principal being in the Levitical towns, and the natural fruit of a rich celibate clergy, both regular and secular. The Cuna in our time might have been defined as a place where innocents 226 THE SPANIAR )S AND THEIR COUNTRY. were massacred, and natural children deserted by their unnatural parents were provided for by being slowly starved. These hos- pitals were first founded at Milan in 787, by a priest named Datheus. That of Seville, which we will describe, was estab- lished by the clergy of the cathedral, and was managed by twelve directors, six lay and six clerical ; few, however, attended or con- tributed save in subjects. The hospital is situate in the Calle de la Cuna ; near an aperture left for charitable donations, is a mar- ble tablet with this verse from the Psalms, inscribed in Latin, " When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me in." A wicket door is pierced in the wall, which opens on being tapped to admit the sinless children of sin ; and a nurse sits up at night to receive those exposed by parents who hide their guilt in darkness. " Toi que P amour fit par un crime, Et que Pamour defait par un crime a son tour, Funeste ouvrage de Pamour, De Pamour funeste victime." Some of the babies are already dying, and are put in here in order to avoid the expense of a funeral ; others are almost naked, while a few are well supplied with linen and necessaries. These latter are the offspring of the better classes, by whom a tempo- rary concealment is desired. With such the most affecting let- ters are left, praying the nurses to take more than usual care of a child which will surely be one day reclaimed, and a mark or ornament is usually fastened to the infant, in order that it may be identified hereafter, if called for, and such were the precise customs in antiquity. Every particular regarding every exposed babe is registered in a book, which is a sad record of human crime and remorse. Those children which are afterwards reclaimed, pay about six- pence for every day during which the hospital has maintained them ; but little attention is paid to the appeals for particular care, or to the promise of redemption, for Spaniards seldom trust each other. Unless some name is sent with it. the child is bap- tized with one given by the raatron, and it usually is that of the FOUNDLING HOSPITAL AT SEVILLE. 227 saint of the day of its admission. The number was very great, and increased with increasing povert} 7 ", while the funds destined to support the charges decreased from the same cause. There is a certain and great influx nine months after the Holy week and Christmas, when the whole city, male and female, pass the night in kneeling to relics and images, &c. ; accordingly nine months afterwards, in January and November, the daily numbers often exceed the usual average by fifteen to twenty. There is always a supply of wet nurses at the Cuna, but they are generally such as from bad character cannot obtain situa- tions in private families ; the usual allotment was three children to one nurse. Sometimes, when a respectable woman is looking out for a place as wet-nurse, and is anxious not to lose her breast of milk, she goes, in the meanwhile, to the Cuna, when the poor child who draws it off plumps up a little, and then, when the supply is withdrawn, withers and dies. The appointed nurses dole out their milk, not according to the wants of the infants, but to make it do for their number. Some few are farmed out to poor mothers who have lost their own babe ; they receive about eight shillings a month, and these are the children which have the best chance of surviving, for no woman who has been a mother, and has given suck, will willingly, when left alone, let an infant die. The nurses of the Cuna were familiar with starva- tion, and even if their milk of human kindness were not dried up or soured, they have not the means of satisfying their hungry number. The proportion who died was frightful ; it was indeed an organized system of infanticide. Death is a mercy to the child, and a saving to the establishment ; a grown-up man's life never was worth much in Spain, much less that of a deserted baby. The exposure of children to immediate death by the Greeks and Romans, was a trifle less cruel than the protracted dying in these Spanish charnel-houses. This Cuna, when- last we visited it, was managed by an inferior priest, who, a true Spanish unjust steward, misapplied the funds. He became rich, like Gil Bias's overseer at Valladolid, by taking care of the pro- perty of the poor and fatherless ; his well-garnished quarters and portly self were in strange contrast with the conditions of his wasted charges. Of these, the sick and dying were separated 228 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. from the healthy ; the former were placed in a large room, once the saloon of state, whose gilded roof and fair proportions mocked the present misery. The infants were laid in rows on dirty mat- tresses, along on the floor, and were left unheeded and unat- tended. Their large heads, shrivelled necks, hollow eyes, and wax wan figures, were shadowed with coming death. Called into existence by no wish or fault of their own, their brief span was run out ere begun, while their mother was far away exclaiming, " When I have sufficiently wept for his birth, I will weep for his death." Those who were more healthy lay paired in cradles arranged along a vast room ; but famine was in their cheeks, need starved in their eyes, and their shrill cry pained the ear on passing the threshold ; from their being underfed, they were restless and ever moaning. Their existence has indeed begun with a sob, with El primer sottozo de la Cuna, the first sigh of the cradle, as Rioja says, but all cry when entering the world, while many leave it with smiles. Some, the newly exposed, just parted from their mother's breast, having sucked their last farewell, looked plump and rosy ; they slept soundly, blind to the future, and happily un- conscious of their fate. About one in twelve survived to idle about the hospital, ill clad, ill fed, and worse taught. The boys were destined for the army, the girls for domestic service, nay, for worse, if public report did not wrong their guardian priest. They grow up to be selfish and unaffectionate ; having never known what kindness was, their young hearts closed ere they opened ; " the world was not their friend, nor the world's law." It was on their heads that the bar- ber learned to shave, and on them were visited the sins of their parents ; having had none to care for them, none to love, they re- venged themselves by hating mankind. Their occupation con- sisted in speculating on who their parents may be, and whether they should some day be reclaimed and become rich. A few oc- casionally are adopted by benevolent and childless persons, who, visiting the Cuna, take a fancy to an interesting infant ; but the child is liable ever after to be given up to its parents, should they reclaim it. Townshend mentions an Oriental custom at Barce- lona, where the girls when marriageable were paraded in proces- MEDICAL PRETENSIONS. 229 sion through the streets, and any desirous of taking a wife was at liberty to select his object by " throwing his handkerchief." This Spanish custom still prevails at Naples, Such was the Cuna of Seville when we last beheld it. It is now, as we have recently heard with much pleasure, admirably conducted, having been taken in charge by some benevolent ladies, who here as elsewhere are the best nurses and guardians of man in his first or second infancy, not to say of every intermediate stage. Our readers will concur in deeming that wight unfortunate who falls ill in Spain, as, whatever be his original complaint, it is too often followed by secondary and worse symptoms, in the shape of the native doctor; and if the judgment passed by Spaniards on that member of society be true, Esculapius cannot save the inva- lid from the crows ; the faculty even at Madrid are little in ad- vance of their provincial colleagues, nay, often they are more destructive, since, being practitioners in the only court, the hea- ven on earth, they are in proportion superior to the medical men of the rest of the world, of whom of course they can learn noth- ing. They are,, however, at least a century behind their brother professors of England. An unreasonable idea of self-excellence arises both in nations and in individuals, from having no knowl- edge of the relative merits of others, and from having few grounds or materials whereon to raise comparison ; it exists therefore the strongest among the most uninformed and those who mix the least in the world. Thus in spite of manifold deficiencies, some of which will be detailed, the self-esteem of these medical men ex- ceeds, if possible, that of the military ; both have killed their " ten thousands." They hold themselves to be the first salreurs, physicians, and surgeons on earth, and the best qualified to wield the shears of the Parcse. It would be a waste of time to try to dispel this fatal delusion ; the well-intentioned monitor would sim- ply be set down as malevolent, envious, and an ass ; for they think their ignorance the perfection of human skill. Few for- eigners can ever hope to succeed among them, nor can any native who may have studied abroad, easily introduce a better system : his elder brethren would make common cause against him as an innovator ; he would be summoned to no consultations, the most 230 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. lucrative branch of practice, while the confessors would poison the ears of the women (who govern the men) with cautions against the danger to their souls, of having their bodies cured by a Jew, a heretic, or a foreigner, for the terms are almost convertible. Meanwhile, as in courts of justice and other matters in Spain, all sounds admirably on paper the forms, regulations, and sys- tem are perfect in theory. Colleges of physicans and surgeons superintend the science, the professors are members of infinite learned societies, lectures are delivered, examinations are con- ducted, and certificates duly signed and sealed, are given. The young Galenista is furnished with a licence to kill, but what is wanting from beginning to end, to practitioner and patient, is life. The medical men know, nevertheless, every aphorism of the an- cients by rote, and discourse as eloquently and plausibly on any case as do their ministers in Cortes. Both write capital theories and opinions extemporaneously. Their splendid language sup- plies words which seem to have cost thought. What is deficient is that clinical and best of education where the case is brought before the student with the corollary of skilful treatment : acci- dental deaths are consequently more common than cures. Dissection again is even now repulsive to their Oriental preju- dices the pupils learn rather by plates, diagrams, models, pre- parations, and skeletons, than from anatomical experiments on a subject. As among the ancients and in the East to this day an idea is prevalent among the masses in Spain, that the touch of a dead body pollutes ; nor is the objection raised by the clergy, that it savors of impiety to mutilate a form made in the image of God, yet exploded. It will be remembered by our medical readers, if we have any, that Vezalius, the father of modern anatomy, when at Madrid was demanded by the Inquisition from Philip II., to be burnt for having performed an operation. The king sent him to expiate his sin by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land he was ship- wrecked, and died of starvation at Zante. Can it be wondered at, with such a theoretical education, that practice should continue to be antiquated, classical, and Oriental, and necessarily very limited ? In difficult cases of compound fracture, gun-shot wounds, the doctors give the patient up almost at once, although they continue to meet and take fees, until death FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 231 relieves him of his complicated sufferings. In chronic cases and slighter fractures they are less dangerous \ for as their pottering remedies do neither good nor harm, the struggle for life and death is left to nature, who sometimes works the cure. In acute dis- eases and inflammations they seldom succeed ; for however fond of the lancet, they only nibble with the case, and are scared at the bold decided practice of Englishmen, whereat they shrug up shoulders, invoke saints, and descant learnedly on the impossibil- ity of treating complaints under the bright sun and warm air of Catholic Spain, after the formulae of cold, damp, and foggy, here- tical England. Most Spaniards who can afford it have their family or bolster doctor, the Mexico de Cabecera, and their confessor. This pair take care of the bodies and souls of the whole house, bring them gossip, share their puchero, purse, and tobacco. They rule the husband through the women and the nursery, nor do they allow their exclusive privileges to be infringed on. Etiquette is the life of a Spaniard, and often his death, since every one has heard (the Spaniards swear it is all a French lie) that Philip III. was killed rather than violate a form. He was seated too near the fire, and, although burning, of course as king of Spain the impropriety of moving himself never entered his head, and when he requested one of his attendants to do so, none^ in the absence of the proper officer whose duty it was to superintend the royal chair, ventured to take that improper liberty. In case of sudden emergencies among her Catholic Majesty's subjects, unless the family doctor be present, any other one. even if called in, generally declines acting until the regular Esculapius arrives. An English medi- cal friend of ours saved a Spaniard's life by chancing to arrive when the patient, in an apoplectic fit, was foaming at the rnouth and wrestling with death ; all this time a strange doctor was sit- ting quietly in the next room smoking his cigar at the brasero, the chafing-dish, with the women of the family. Our friend instantly took thirty ounces from the sufferer's arm, not one of the Spanish party even moving from their seats. Thus Apollo preserved him ! The same medical gentleman happened to accidentally call on a person who had an inflammation in the cornea of the eye : on questioning he found that many consultations had been previously 232 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. held, at which no determination was come to until at the last, when sea-bathing was prescribed, with a course of asses' milk and Chiclana snake-broth ; our heretical friend, who lacked the true faith, just touched the diseased part with caustic. When this application was reported at the next consultation, the native doctors all crossed themselves with horror and amazement, which was increased when the patient recovered in a week. As a general rule at the first visit, they look as wise as possible, shake their heads before the women, and always magnify the com- plaint, which is a safe proceeding all over the world, since all physicians can either kill or cure the patient ; in the first event they get .greater credit and reward, while in the other alternative, the disease, having been beyond the reach of art, bears the blame. The medicos exhibit considerable ingenuity in prolonging an ap- parent necessity for a continuance of their visits. A common in- terest induces them to pull together a rare exception in Spain and play into each other's hands. The family doctor, whenever appearances will in anywise justify him, becomes alarmed, and requires a consultation, a Junta. Whatever any Spanish Junta is in affairs of peace or war need not be explained ; and these are like the rest, they either do nothing, or what they do do, is done badly. At these meetings from three to seven Medicos de apela- cion, consulting physicians, attend, or more, according to the pa- tient's purse : each goes to the sick man, feels his pulse, asks him some questions, and then retires to the next room to consult, gen- erally allowing the invalid the benefit of hearing what passes. The Protomedico, or senior, takes the chair and while all are lighting their cigars, the family doctor opens the case, by stating the birth, parentage, and history of the patient, his constitution, the complaint, and the medicines hitherto prescribed. The senior next rises, and gives his opinion, often speaking for half an hour ; the others follow in their rotation, and then the Protomedico, like a judge, sums up, going over each opinion with comments : the usual termination is either to confirm the previous treatment, or make some insignificant alteration : the only certain thing is to appoint another consultation for the next day, for which the fees are heavy, each taking from three to five dollars. The consulta PRESCRIPTIONS. 233 tion often lasts many hours, and becomes at last a chronic com- plaint. It must be said, in justice to these able practitioners, that as a body they are careful in their dress : external appearance, not to say finery in apparel, raises in the eyes of the many, a profession which here is of uncertain social standing. On the same princi- ple how careful is the costume, how brilliant are the shirt-studs of foreign fiddlers when in England ! The worthy Andalucian doctor of our Spanish family, and an efficient one, as two of his patients now at rest could testify, never paid a visit except when gaily attired. So the Matador, when he enters the arena to kill a bull, is clad as a first-rate dandy majo. This attention to per- son arises partly from the Moro-Ibero love of ostentation, and partly from sound Galenic principles and a high sense of profes- sional duty. The ancient authorities enforced on the practitioner an attention to everything which created cheerful impressions, in order that he might arrive at the patient's pillow like a messen- ger of good tidings, and as a minister of health, not of death. They held that a grave costume might suggest unpleasant asso- ciations to the sick man. Raven-colored undertaker tights, and a funereal, cadaverous look to match, are harbingers of blue devils and black crape, which no man, even when in blessed health, contemplates with comfort ; while the effect of such a fades hip- pocratica staring in the face of a poor devil whose life is despaired of, must be fatal. The prescriptions of these well-dressed gentleman are some- what more old-fashioned than their coats. Their grand recipe in the first instance is to do nothing beyond taking the fee and leav- ing nature alone, or, as the set phrase has it, dejar a la naturaleza. The young, and those whose constitutions are strong and whose complaints are weak, do well under the healing influence of their kind nurse Nature, and recover through her vis medicatrix, which, if not obstructed by art, everywhere works wonderful cures. The Sangrado will say that a Spanish man or woman is more marvel- lously made than a clock, inasmuch as his or her machinery has a power in itself to regulate its own motions, and to repair acci- dents ; and therefore the watchmaker who is called in, need not be in a hurry to take it to pieces when a little oiling and cleaning 234 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. may set all to rights. The remedies, when the proper time for their application arrives, are simple, and are sought for rather among the vegetables of the earth's surface than from the mine- rals in its bowels. The external recipes consist chiefly of papers smeared with lard, applied to the abdomen, sinapisms and mustard poultices to the feet, fomentations of marsh mallows or camomile flowers, and the aid of the curate. The internal remedies, the tisanes, the Leches de Almendras, de Surras, decoctions of rice, and so forth, succeed each other in such regular order, that the patient scholar has nothing to do but repeat the medical passage in Horace's ' Satires.' In no country, however, can all the sick be always expected to recover even then, since " Para todo hay remedio, sino para la muerte" " There is a remedy for everything except death." If by chance the patient dies, the doctor and the disease bear the blame. Perhaps the old Iberian custom was the safest ; then the sick were exposed outside their doors, and the advice of casual passengers was asked, whose prescriptions were quite as likely to answer as images, relics, snake-soup, or milk of almonds or asses : " And, doctor, do you really think That asses' milk I ought to drink ? It cured yourself, I grant, is true, But then 't was mother's milk to you." . Nor, if the doctors knew how to prescribe them, are the nicer and most efficacious remedies, the preparations of modern chemical science, to be procured in any except the very largest towns ; al- though, as in Romeo's apothecary, " the needy" shelves are filled with empty boxes " to make a show." The trade of a druggist is anything but free, and the numbers are limited ; none may open a Botica without a strict examination and licence ; although, of course, this is to be had for money. None may sell any potent medicine, except according to the prescription of some local medi- cal man ; everything is a monopoly. The commonest drugs are often either wanting or grossly adulterated, but, as in their arse- nals and larders, no dispenser will admit such destitution ; hay de todo, I have everything, swears he, and gallantly makes up the prescription simply by substituting other ingredients ; and as the correct ones nine times out often are harmless, no great injury is SNAKE BROTH. <* 235 sustained. There is nothing new in this, for Quevedo, in his Za- hurdas de Pluton, or Satan's Pigsties, introduces a yellow-faced bilious judge scourging Spanish apothecaries for doing exactly the same, " Hence your shops," quoth he, for he both preached and flogged, " are arsenals of death, whose ministers here get their pills (balls rather) which banish souls from the earth ;" but these and other things have been long done with impunity, as Pliny said, no physician was ever hung for murder. One advan- tage of general distrust in drugs and doctors is, that the great masses of the people think very little about them or their com- plaints : thus they escape all fancied and imaginary complaints, which, if indulged in, become chronic, and more difficult to cure than those afflicting the body for who can minister to a mind diseased? Again, from this want of confidence in remedies, very little physic at all is taken ; owing to this limited demand, druggists' shops are as rare in Spain as those of booksellers. No red, green, or blue bottles illuminate the streets at night, and there are more of these radiant orbs in the Fore street of the capital of the west of England, than in the whole capital of the Spains, albeit with a population six times greater. It is true that, at Madrid, feeding on plum-pudding, diluted with sour cider and clotted cream, is not habitual. Many of the prescriptions of Spain are local, and consist of some particular spring, some herb, some animal, or some partic- ular air, or place, or bath is recommended, which, however, is said to be very dangerous, unless some resident local medico be first consulted. One example is as good as a thousand: near Cadiz is Chiclana, to which the faculty invariably transport those patients whom they cannot cure, that is, about ninety-five in the hundred ; so in chronic complaints, sea-bathing there is prescribed, with a course of asses' milk; and if that fail, then a broth made of a long, harmless snake, which abounds in the aromatic wastes near Barrosa. We have forgotten the generic name of this val- uable reptile of Esculapius, one of which our naturalists should take alive, and either breed from it in the Regent's Park, or at least investigate his comparative anatomy with those exquisite vipers which rrake, as we have shown, such delicious pork at Montanches. 236 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. We cannot refrain from giving one more prescription. Many of the murders in Spain should rather be called homicides, being free from malice prepense, and caused by the readiness of the na- tional cuchillo, with which all the lower classes are armed like wasps ; it is thus always at hand, when the blood is most on fire, and before any refrigeratory process. commences. Thus, where an unarmed Englishman closes his fist, a Spaniard opens his knife. This rascally instrument becomes fatal in jealous broils, when the lower classes light their anger at the torch of the Furies, and pre- fer using, to speaking daggers. Then the thrust goes home : and however unskilled the regular Sangrados may be in anatomy and handling the scalpel, the universal people know exactly how to manage their knife and where to plant its blow ; nor is there any mistake, for the wound, although not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, " 't will serve." It is usually given after the treacherous fashion of their Oriental and Iberian ancestors, and if possible by a stab behind, and " under the fifth rib;" and " one blow" is enough. The blade, like the cognate Arkansas or Bowie knife of the Yankees, will " rip up a man right away," or drill him until a surgeon can see through his body. The number killed on great religious and other festivals, exceeds those of most Spanish battles in the field, although the occurrence is scarcely noticed in the newspapers, so much is it a matter of course : but crimes which call forth a second edition and double sheet in our papers, are slurred over on the continent, for foreigners conceal what we most display. In minor cases of flirtation, where capital punishment is not called for, the offending party just gashes the cheek of the peccant one. and suiting the word to the action, observes, " ya estas sena- laa ;" " Now you are marked." This is precisely winkel quarte, the gash in the cheek, which is the only salve for the touchy hon- or of a German student, when called ein dummer junge, a stupid youth : " Und ist die quart gesessen So ist der touche vergessen." Again, " Mira que te pego, mira que te mato," " Mind I don't strike thee mind I don't kill thee ;" are playful fondling expres- THE PARISH DOCTOR. 237 sions of a Maja to a Majo. When this particular gash is only threatened, the Seville phrase was, " Mira que te pinto un jabe- que j" " Take care that 1 don't draw you a xebeck" (the sharp Mediterranean felucca). " They jest at wounds who never felt a scar," but whenever this jabeque has really been inflicted, the patient, ashamed of the stigma, and not having the face to show himself or herself, is naturally anxious to recover a good char- acter and skin, which only one cosmetic, one sovereign panacea, can effect. This in Philip IV. 's time was cat's grease, which then removed such superfluous marks ; while Don Quixote con- sidered the oil of Apariccio to be the only cure for scratches in- flicted by female or feline claws. In process of time, as science advanced, this was superseded by Unto del liombre, or man's grease. Our estimable friend Don Nicolas Molero, a surgeon in high practice at Seville, assured us that previously to the French invasion he had often prepared this cataleptic specific, which used to be sold for its weight in gold, until, having been adulterated by unprincipled empirics, it fell into disrepute. The receipt of the balsam of Fierabras has puz- zled the modern commentators of Don Quixote, but the kindness of Don Nicolas furnished us with the ingredients of this pommade divine, or rather morta/e. " Take a man in full health who has been just killed, the fresher the better, pare off the fat round the heart, melt it over a slow fire, clarify, and put it away in a cool place for use." The multitudinous church ceremonies and holidays in Spain, which bring crowds together, combined with the sun, wine, and women, have always ensured a supply of fine subjects. In Spain, as elsewhere, the doctor mania is an expensive amusement, which the poor and more numerous class, especially in rural localities, seldom indulge in. Like their mules, they are rarely ill, and they only take to their beds to die. They have, it is true, a parish doctor, to whom certain districts are ap- portioned ; when he in his turn succumbs to death, or is other- wise removed, the vacancy is usually announced in the newspa- pers, and a new functionary is often advertised for. His trifling salary is made up of payments in money and in kind, so much in corn and so much in cash ; the leading principle is cheapness, 238 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. and, as in our new poor-law, that proficient is preferred, who will contract to do for the greatest number at the smallest charge. His constituents decline sometimes to place full confidence in his skill or alacrity : they oftener do consult the barber, the quack, or curandero ; for there is generally in orthodox Spain some charlatan wherever sword, rosary, pen, or lancet is to be wielded. The nostrums, charms, relics, incantations, &c., to which re- course is had, when not mediaeval, are scarcely Christian ; but the spiritual pharmacopoeia of this land of Figaro is far too im- portant to form the tail-piece of any chapter. SPIRITUAL REMEDIES FOR THE BODY. 239 CHAPTER XVIII. Spanish Spiritual Remedies for the Body Miraculous Relics Sanative Oils Philosophy of Relic Remedies Midwifery and the Cinta of Tor- tosa Bull of Crusade. THE Reverend Dr. Fernando Castillo, an esteemed Spanish author and teacher, remarks, in his luminous life of St. Dome- nick, that Spain has been so bountifully 'provided by heaven with fine climate, soil, and extra number of saints, that his country- men are prone to be idle and to neglect such rare advantages. Certainly they may not dig and delve so deeply as is done in lands less favored, but the reproach of omitting to call on Hercu- les to do their work, or of not making the most of Santiago in any bodily dilemma, is a somewhat too severe reproach : nowhere in case of sickness have the saving virtues of relics, and the ad- jurations of holy monks, been more implicitly relied on. As our learned readers well know, the medical practice of the ancients was, as that of the Orientals still is, more peculiar than scientific. When disease was thought to be a divine punishment for sin, it was held to be wicked to resist by calling in human aid : thus Asa was blamed, and thus Moslems and Spaniards resign themselves to their fate, distrusting, and very properly, their medical men : u Am I a god, to kill or make alive ?" In the large towns, in these days of progress, some patients may " suffer a recovery" according to European practice ; but in the country and remote villages, and we speak from repeated per- sonal experience, the good old reliance on relics and charms is far from exploded ; and however Dr. Sangrado and Philip III., whose decrees on medical matters yet adorn the Spanish statutes at large, deplore the introduction of perplexing chemistry, mine- ral therapeuticals still remain a considerable dead letter, as the church has transferred the efficacy of faith from spiritual to tem- poral concerns, and gun-shot wounds. Even Ponz, the Lysons 240 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. of Spain, and before the Inquisition was abolished, ventured to express -surprise at the number of images ascribed to St. Luke, who, says he, was not a sculptor, but a physician, whence possi- bly their sanative influence. The old Iberians were great her- balist doctors ; thus those who had a certain plant in their houses, were protected, as a blessed palm branch now wards off light- ning. They had also a drink made of a hundred herbs, and hence called centum herba, a bebida de cien h'erbas, which, like Morison's vegetable pills, cured every possible disease, and was so palatable that it was drunk at banquets, which modern physic is not ; moreover, according to Pliny, they cured the gout with flour, and relieved elongated uvulas by hanging purslain round the patient's throat. So now the curas y curanderos, country cu- rates and quacks, furnish charms and incantations, just as Ulys- ses stopped his bleeding by cantation : a medal of Santiago cures the ague, a handkerchief of the Virgin the ophthalmia, a bone of San Magin answers all the purposes of mercury, a scrap of San Frutos supplied at Segovia the loss of common sense the Virgin of Ona destroyed worms in royal Infantes, and her sash at Tortosa delivers royal Infantas. Every Murcian peasant be- lieves that no disease can affect him or his cattle, if he touches them with the cross of Caravaca, which angels brought from heaven and placed on a red cow. When we were last at Man- resa, the worthy man who showed the cave in which Loyola the founder of the Jesuits did penance for a year, increased an hon- est livelihood by the sale of its pulverized stones, that were swal- lowed by the faithful in cases in which an English doctor would prescribe Dover's or James's powders. Every province, not to say parish, has its own tutelar saint and relic, which are much honored and resorted to in their local jurisdiction, and very little thought of out of it, their power to cure having been apparently granted to them by Santiago, as a commission to commit is by Queen Victoria to a magistrate, whose authority does not extend beyond the county bounds. Zaragoza was admirably provided : a portion of the liver of Santa Engracia was anciently resorted to, in cases where blue pill would be beneficial ; the oil of her lamps, which never smoked the ceilings, cured lamparones, or tu- mors in the neck, while that which burnt before the Virgen del COSTUME OF CONVALESCENTS. 241 Pilar, or the image of the Virgin which came down from heaven on a pillar, restored lost legs ; Cardinal de Retz mentions in his Memoirs having seen a man whose wooden substitutes became needless when the originals grew again on being rubbed with it ; and this portent was long celebrated by the Dean and Chapter, as well it deserved, by an especial holiday, for Macassar oil cannot do much more. This graven image is at this moment the object of popular adoration, and disputes even with the worship of to- bacco and money : countless are the mendicants, the halt, blind, and the larne, who cluster around her shrine, as the equally af- flicted ancients, with whom physicians were in vain, did around that of Minerva ; and it must be confessed that the cures worked are almost incredible. It may be said that all this is a raking up of remnants of mediaeval superstition and darkness, and it is probable that the medical men in Madrid and the larger towns, and especially those who have studied at Paris, do not place implicit confidence in these spiritual, nor indeed in any other purely Spanish reme- dies; but their tried medicinal properties are set forth at length in scores of Spanish county and other histories which we have the felicity to possess, all of which have passed the scrutinizing ordeal of clerical censors, and have been approved of as contain- ing nothing contrary to the creed of the Church of Rome or good customs ; nor can it be permitted that a church which professes to be always one, the same, and the only true one, should at its own convenience " turn its back on itself," and deny its own drugs and doctrines. Nothing is set down here which was not perfectly notorious under the reign of Ferdinand VII. ; and whatever the doctors of physic or theology may now disbelieve in Spain, more reliance is still placed, in the rural districts, where foreign civilization has not penetrated, on miracles than on medicines. We have often and often seen little children in the streets dressed like Franciscan monks Cupids in cowls whose pious parents had vowed to clothe them in the robes of this order, pro- vided its sainted founder preserved their darlings during measles or dentition. Nothing was more common than that women, nay, ladies in good society, should appear for a year in a particular . PART TT. 12 242 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. religious dress, called el habito, or with some religious badge on their sleeves in token of similar deliverance. One instance in our time amused all the tertuiias of Seville, who maliciously attributed the sudden relief which a fair high-born unmarried invalid experienced from an apparent dropsical complaint to causes not altogether supernatural ; Pues, Don Ricardo, li and so, Mas- ter Richard," would her friends of the same age and rank often say, "you are a stranger; go and ask dearest Esperanto, why she wears the Virgin of Carmel ; come back and let us know her story, and we will tell you the real truth." Vaya ! vaya! Don Ricardo, usled es muy majadero, " Go to, Master Richard, your Grace is an immense bore," replied the penitent, if she suspected the authors and motive of the embassy. The pious in antiquity raised temples to Minerva medica or Esculapius, as Spaniards do altars to Na. Senora de los Reme- dios, our Lady of the Remedies, and to San Roque, whose inter- vention renders " sound as a roach," a proverb devised in his honor by our ancestors, who, before the Reformation, trusted likewise to him ; and both thought, if Cicero is to be credited, that these tutelars did at least as much as the doctor. Alas ! for the patient credulity of mankind, which still gulps down such medicinal quackery as all this, and which long will continue to do so even were one of the dead to rise from the grave, to de- precate the absurd treatment by which he and so many have been sacrificed. However, by way of compensation, the saving the soul has been made just as primary a consideration in Spain as the curing the body has been in England. These relics, charms, and amulets represent our patent medicines : and the wonder is how any one in Great Britain can be condemned to death in this world, or how any one in the Peninsula can be doomed to perdition in the next : possibly the panaceas are in neither case quite specific. Be that as it may, how numerous and well appointed are the churches and convents there, compared to the hospitals ; how amply pro- vided the relic-magazine with bones and spells, when compared to the anatomical museums and chemists' shops ; again, what a flock of holy practitioners come forth after a Spaniard has been stabbed, starved, or executed, not one of whom would have stir- PHILOSOPHY OF RELICS. 243 red a step to save an army of his countrymen when alive ; and what coppers are now collected to pay masses to get his soul out of purgatory ! Beware, nevertheless, gentle Protestant reader, of dying in Spain, except in Cadiz or Malaga, where, if you are curious in Christian burial, there is snug lying for heretics ; and for your life avoid being even sick at Madrid, since if once handed over to the faculty make thy last testament forthwith, as if the judgment passed on their own doctors by Spaniards be true, Esculapius can not save thee from the crows : avoid the Spanish doctors therefore like mad dogs, and throw their physic after them. The masses and many in Spain have their own tutelars and refuges for the destitute ; the kings and queens whom God preserve ! have their own especial patroness by prerogative, in the image of the Virgin of Atocha at Madrid, which they and the rest of the royal family visit every Sunday in the year when in royal health. No sooner was the sovereign^ taken dangerously ill, and the court physicians at a loss what to do, as sometimes is the case even in Madrid, than the image used to be brought to his bedside ; witness the case of Philip III., thus described by Bas- sompierre in his dispatch : u Les medecins en desesperent depuis ce matin que 1'on a commence a user des remedes spirituels, et faire transporter au palais I'image de N. D. de Athoche." The patient died three days after the image was sent for. Although neither priest nor physician might credit the sanative properties of rags and relics, they gladly called them in, for if the case then went wrong, how could mortal man be expected to suc- ceed when the supernatural remedy had failed ? All inquests in awkward cases are hushed up by ascribing the death to the visi- tation of God. Again, if a relic does not always cure it rarely kills, as calomel has been known to do. This interruptive principle, one distinct from human remedies, is admitted by the church in the prayers for sick persons ; and where faith is sincere, even relics must offer a powerful moral medical cordial, by acting on the imagination, and giving confidence to the patient. This chance is denied to the poor Protestant, nay, even to a newly-con- verted tractarian, for truly, to believe in the efficacy of a monkish bone, the lesson must have been learnt in the nursery. Their 244 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. substitute in Lutheran lands, in partibus infidelium, is found in laudanum, news, and gossip ; the latter being the grand specific by which Sir Henry kept scores of dowagers alive, to the despair of jointure-paying sons, from marquises down to baronets ; and how real comfort is conveyed by the gentle whisper, " Your ladyship can not conceive what an interest his or her Royal Highness the takes *in your ladyship's convalescence !" The form of the moral restorative will vary according to climate, creeds, manners, &c. ; it is to the substance alone that the philo- sophical physician will look. That chord must be touched, be it what it may, to which the pulse of the patient will respond ; nor, provided he is recovered, do the means much signify. One word only on Spanish midwifery. There is a dislike to male accoucheurs, and the midwife, or comadre, generally brings the Spaniard into the world by the efforts of nature and the aid of manteca de puerco, or hogs' lard, a launching appropriate enough to a babe, who, if it survives to years of discretion, will assu- redly love bacon. The newly-born is then wrapped up, like an Egyptian mummy, and is carefully protected from fresh air, soap, and water ; an amulet is then hung round its neck to disarm the evil eye, or some badge of the Virgin is to ensure good luck : thus the young idea is taught from the cradle, what errors are to be avoided and what safeguards are to be clung to, lessons which are seldom forgotten in after-life. Without entering further into baby details, the scanty population of the Peninsula may in some measure be thus accounted for. . Parturition also is frequently fa- tal ; in ordinary cases the midwife does very well, but when a difficulty arises she loses her head 'and patient. It is in these trying moments, as in the critical operations of the kitchen, that a male artiste is preferable. The Queens and Infantas of Spain have additional advantages. The palladium of the city of Tortosa is the cinta* or girdle, which the Virgin, accompanied by St. Peter and St. Paul, brought herself from heaven to a priest of the cathedral in 1178 ; an event in honor of which a mass is still said every second Sun- day in October. The gracious gift was declared authentic in * Hallarse en Cinta is the Spanish equivalent for our " being in the family way." SPIRITUAL AIDS TO ACCOUCHEMENT. 245 1617, by Paul V., and to justify his infallibility it works every sort of miracle, especially in obstetric cases ; it is also brought out to defend the town on all occasions of public calamity, but failed in the case of Suchet's attack. This girdle, more wonderful than the cestus of Venus, was conveyed in 1822, by Ferdinand VII. J s command, in solemn procession to Aranjuez, in order to facilitate the accouchement of the two Infantas, and as Lucina when duly invoked favored women in travail, so their Royal Highnesses were happily delivered, and one of the babes then born, is the husband of Isabel II. For humbler Castilian women, when preg- nant, a spiritual remedy was provided by the canons of Toledo, who took the liveliest interest in many of the cases. The grand entrance to the cathedral had thirteen steps, and all females who ascended and descended them ensured an early and easy time of it. No wonder therefore, when these steps were reduced to the number of seven, that the greatest possible opposition should have been made by the fair sex, married and unmarried. All these things of Spain are rather Oriental ; and to this day the Barbary Moors have a cannon at Tangiers by which a Christian ship was sunk, and across this their women sit to obtain an easy delivery. In all ages and countries where the science of midwifery has made small progress, it is natural that some spiritual assistance should be contrived for perils of such inevitable recurrence as childbirth. The panacea in Italy was the girdle of St. Margaret, which became the type of this Cinta of Tortosa, and it was re- sorted to by the monks in all cases of difficult parturition. It was supposed to benefit the sex, because when the devil wished to eat up St. Margaret, the Virgin bound him with her sash, and he became tame as a lamb. This sash brought forth sashes also, and in the 17th century had multiplied so exceedingly, that a travel- ler affirmed " if all were joined together, they would reach all down Cheapside ;" but the natural history of relics is too well known to be enlarged upon. Any account of Spanish doctors without a death, would be dull as a blank day with fox-hounds, although the medical man, differ- ing from the sportsman, dislikes being in at it. He, the moment the fatal sisters three are running into their game, slips out, and leaves the last act to the clergyman : hence the Spanish saying, 246 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. " when the priest begins, the physician ends." It is related in the history of Don Quixote, that no sooner did the barber feel the poor knight's wrist, than he advised him to attend to his soul and send for his confessor ; and now, when a Castilian hidalgo takes to his bed, his friends pursue much the same course, nor does the catastrophe often differ. Lord Bacon, great in wise saws and instances, prayed that his death might come from Spain, because then it would be long on the journey ; but he was not aware that the gentleman in black formed an exception to the proverbial pro- crastination and dilatoriness of their fellow countrymen. As pa- tients are soon dispatched, the law* of the land subjects every physician to a fine of ten thousand maravedis who fails after his first visit to prescribe confession 1 ; the chief object in sickness be- ing, as the preamble states, to cure the soul ; and so it is in Italy, where Gregory XVI. issued in 1845 three decrees ; one to for- bid railroads, another to prohibit scientific meetings, and a third to order all medical menvto cease to attend invalids who had not sent for the priest and communicated after the third visit. In Spain, the first question asked in our time of the sick man was, not whether he truly repented of his sins, but whether he had got the Bull ; and if the reply was in the negative, or his old nurse had omitted to send out and buy one, the last sacraments were denied to the dying wretch. One word on this wonderful Bull, that disarms death of its sting, and which, although few of our readers may ever have heard of it, plays a far more important part in the Peninsula than the quadruped does in the arena. Fastings are nowhere more strictly enjoined than here, where Lent represents the Ramadan of the Moslem. The denials have been mitigated to those faith- ful who have good appetites, by the paternal indulgence of their holy father at Rome, who, in consideration that it was necessary to keep the Spanish crusaders in fighting condition in order more effectually to crush the infidel, conceded to Saint Ferdinand the permission that his army might eat meat rations during Lent, pro- vided there were any, for, to the credit of Spanish commissariats in general, few troops fast more regularly and religiously. The auspicious day on which the arrival is proclaimed of this welcome # Recopilacion ; Lib. iii Tit. xvi. Ley 3. BULL OF CRUSADE. 247 bull that announces dinner, is celebrated by bells merry as at a marriage feast ; in the provincial cities mayors and corporations go to cathedral in what is called state, to the wonder of the mob and amusement of their betters at the resurrection of quiz coaches, the robes, maces, and obsolete trappings, by which these shadows of a former power and dignity hope to mark individual and collective insignificancy. A copy of this precious Bull can- not of course be had for nothing, and as it must be paid for, and in ready money, it forms one of the certain branches of public income. Although the proceeds ought to be expended on cru- sading purposes, Ferdinand VII., the Catholic King, and the only sovereign in possession of such a revenue, never contributed one mite towards the Christian Greeks in their recent struggle against the Turkish unbelievers. These bulls, or rather paper-money notes, are prepared with the greatest precautions, and constituted one of the most profitable articles of Spanish manufacture ; a maritime war with England was dreaded, not so much from regard to the fasting transatlantic souls, as from the fear of losing, as Dr. Robertson has shown, the sundry millions of dollars and silver dross remitted from America, in exchange for these spiritual treasures. They were printed at Seville, at the Dominican convent, the Porta co&li ; but Souit, who now it appears is turning devotee, burnt down this gate of heaven, with its passports, and the presses. The bulls are only good for the year during which they are issued; after twelve months they become stale and unprofitable. There is then, says Blanco White, and truly, for we have often seen it, " a prodigious hurry to obtain new ones by all those who wish well to their souls, and do not overlook the ease and comfort of their stomachs." A fresh one must be annually taken out, like a game-certificate, before Spaniards venture to sport with flesh or fowl, and they have reason to be thankful that it does not cost three pounds odd : for the sum of dos reales, or less than sixpence, man, woman, and child, may obtain the benefit of clergy and cookery ; but evil be- tides the uncertificated poacher, treadmills for life are a farce, perdition catches his soul. His certificate is demanded by the keeper of conscience when he is caught in the trap of sickness, and if without one, his conviction is certain ; he cannot plead 248 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. ignorance of the law, for a postscript and condition is affixed to all notices of jubilees, indulgences, and other purgatorial benefits, which are fixed on the church doors ; and the language is as courteous and peremptory as in our popular assessed tax-paper " Se ha de tener la bula :" you must have the bull ; if you ex- pect to derive any relief from these relaxations in purgatory, which all Spaniards most particularly do : hence the common phrase used by any one, when committing some little peccadillo in other matters, tengo mi bula para todo I have got my bull, my license to do any thing. The possession of this document acts on all fleshly comforts like soda on indigestion, indeed, it neutralizes everything except heresy. As it is cheap, a Protes- tant resident, albeit he may not quite believe in its saving effects, will do well to purchase one for the sake of the peace of mind of his weaker brethren, for in this religion of forms and outer obser- vances, more horror is felt by rigid Spaniards, at seeing an Eng- lishman eating meat during a fast, than if he had broken all the ten commandments. The sums levied from the nation for these bulls is very large, although they are diminished before finally paid into the exchequer ; some of the honey gathered by so many bees will stick to their wings, and the place of chief commissioner of the Bula is a better thing than that in the Excise or Customs of unbelieving countries. To return to the dying man : if he has the bull, the host is brought to him with great pomp ; the procession is attended by crowds who bear crosses, lighted candles, bells and incense ; and as the chamber is thrown open to the public, the ceremony is ac- companied by multitudes of idlers. The spectacle is always im- posing, as it must be, considering that the incarnate Deity is be- lieved to be present. It is particularly striking on Easter Sunday, when the host is taken to all the sick who have been unable to communicate in the parish church. Then the priest walks either under a gorgeous canopy, or is mounted in the finest carriage in the town ; and while all as he passes kneel to the wafer which he bears, he chuckles internally at his own reality of power over his prostrate subjects ; the line of streets are gaily decorated as for the triumphal procession of a king : the windows are hung with velvets and tapestries, and the balconies filled with the fair BURIAL DRESSES. 249 sex arrayed in their best, who sbower sweet flowers down on the procession just at the moment of its passage, and sweeter smiles during all the rest of the morning on their lovers below, whose more than divided adoration is engrossed by female divinities. To die without confession and communication is to a Spaniard the most poignant of calamities, as he cannot be saved while he is taught that there is in these acts a preserving virtue of their own, independent of any exertions on his part. The host is given when human hopes are at an end, and the heat, noise, confusion, and excitement, seldom fail to kill the already exhausted patient. Then, when life's idle business at a gasp is o'er, the body is laid out in a capilla ardiente, or an apartment prepared as a chapel, by taking out the furniture ; where the family is rich, a room on the ground floor is selected, in which a regular altar is dressed up, and rows of large candles lighted placed around the body ; the public is then allowed to enter, even in the case of the sovereign : thus we beheld Ferdinand VII. laid out dead and full dressed with his hat on his head, and his stick in his hand. This public ex- hibition is a sort of coroner's inquest ; formerly, as we have often seen, the body was clad in a monk's dress, with the feet naked and the hands clasped over the breast ; the sepulchral shadow then thrown over the dead and placid features by the cowl, seldom failed to raise a solemn undefinable feeling in the hearts of spec- tators, speaking, as it did, a language to the living which could not be misunderstood. The woollen dresses of the mendicant orders were by far the most popular, from the idea that, when old, they had become too saturated with the odor of sanctity for the vile nostrils of the evil one ; and as a tattered dress often brought more than half-a-dozen new ones, the sale of these old clothes was a benefit alike to the pious vendor and purchaser ; those of St. Francis were preferred, because at his triennial visits to purgatory, he knows his own, and takes them back with him to heaven ; hence Milton peopled his shadowy limbo with wolves in sheep's clothing : " who, to be sure of Paradise. Dying put on the robes of Dominick, Or in Franciscan think to pass unseen." Women in our tim* were often laid out in nun's dresses, wear- 12* 250 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. ing also the scapulary of the Virgin of Carmel, which she gave to Simon Stock, with the assurance that none who died with it on, should ever suffer eternal torments. The general adoption of these grave fashions induced an accurate foreigner to remark, that no one ever died in Spain except nuns and monks. In this hot country, burial goes hand in hand with death, and it is absolutely necessary from the rapidity with which putrefaction comes on. The last offices are performed in somewhat an indecent manner : formerly the interment took place in churches, or in the yards near them, a custom which from hygeian reasons is now prohibited. Public cemeteries, which give at least 4 per cent, interest, have been erected outside the towns, in which long lines of catacombs gape greedily for those occupants who can pay for them, while a wide ditch is opened every day for those who cannot. In this campo santo, or holy field, death levels all ranks, which seems hard on those great families who have built and endowed chapels to secure a burial among their ancestors. They however raised no objections to the change of law, nor have ever much troubled themselves about the dilapidated sepulchres and crumbling effigies of their " grandsires cut in alabaster ;" the real opposition arose from the priests, who lost their fees, and thereupon assured their flocks, that a future resurrection was anything but certain to bodies committed into such new-fangled depositories. Be that as it may, the corpse in its slight coffin is carried out, followed by the male relations, and is then put into its niche without further form or prayer. Ladies who die soon after, mar- riage, and before the bridal hours have danced their measure, are sometimes buried in their wedding dresses, and covered with flowers, the dying injunctions of Shakspeare's Queen Cathe- rine : " When I am dead, good wench. Let me be used with honor 5 strew me o'er With maiden flowers, that all the world may know I was a chaste wife to my grave." At such funerals the coffin is opened in the catacomb, to gratify the indecent curiosity of the crowd ; the dress is next day dis- cussed all over the town, and the entierro or funeral is pronounced to be muy lucido or very brilliant ; but life in Spain is a jest, and BURIAL OP THE POFR. 251 these things show it. The place assigned for children who die under seven years of age lies apai : from that of the adults ; their early death is held in Spain to be rather a matter of congratula- tion than of grief, since those whom the gods love die young ; their epitaphs tell a mixed tale of joy and sorrow. El parvulo fue arrebatado a la gloria, the little one was snatched up into Paradise : " There is beyond the sky a heaven of joy and love. And holy children, when they die, go to that world above n Yet nature will not be put aside, and many a mother have we seen, loitering alone near the graves, adorning them with roses and plucking up weeds which have ng business to grow there ; the little corpses are carried to the tomb by little children of the same age, clad in white, and are strewed with flowers short- lived as themselves, sweets to the sweet. The parents return home yearning after the lost child its cradle is empty, its piteous moan is heard no more, its playthings remain where it left them, and recall the cruel gap which grief cannot fill up, although it " Stuffs out its vacant garments with its form." The bodies of the lower orders, dressed in their ordinary attire are borne to their long home by four men, as is described by Martial ; " no useless coffins enclose their breasts," they are car- ried forth as was the widow's son at Nain. And often have we seen the frightful death-tray standing upright at the doors of the humble dead, with a human outline marked on the wood by the death-damp of a hundred previous burdens. Such bodies are cast into the trench like those of dogs, and often naked, as the survivors or sextons strip them even of their rags. Those poorer still, who cannot afford to pay the trifling fee, sometimes during the night, suspend the bodies of their children in baskets, near the cemetery porch. We once beheld a cloaked Spaniard pacing mournfully in the burial-ground of Seville, who, when the public trench was opened, drew from beneath the folds the body of his dead child, cast it in and disappeared. Thus half the world lives without knowing how the other half dies. In the upper ranks the etiquette of the funeral commences 252 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. after the reality is over. The first necessary step is within three days to pay a visit of condolence to the family ; this is called para dar elpesame. The relations are all assembled in the best room, and seated on chairs placed at the head, the women at one end and the men at another. When a condoling lady and gentle- man enter, she proceeds to shake hands with all the other ladies one after another, and then seats herself in the next vacant chair ; the gentleman bows to each of the men as he passes, who rise and return it, a grave durab-show of profound affliction being kept up by all. On reaching the chief mourners, they are ad- dressed by each condoler with this phrase, " Acompano a usted en su sentimiento ;" "I share in the affliction of your grace ;" the company meanwhile remain silent as an assemblage of under- takers. After sitting among them the proper time, each retires with much the same form. In a few days afterwards a printed letter is sent round in the name of all the surviving relations to announce the death to the friends of the family, and to beg the favor of attendance at the funeral service : these invitations are are all headed with a cross (-[-), which is called El Cristus. Before the invasion of the ene- my, who not only destroyed the walls of convents, but sapped reli- gious belief also, very many books were printed, and private let- ters written, with this sign prefixed. In our time sundry medical men at Seville always headed with it their prescriptions, the Car- dinal Archbishop having granted a certain number of years' re- lease from purgatory to all who sanctified with this mark their recipes even of senna and rhubarb. Under this cross, in the invi- tation, are placed the letters R. I. P. A., which signify " Requi- escat in pace. Amen." At the appointed hour the mourners meet in the casa mortuaria, or the house of death, and proceed to- gether to church. All are dressed in full black, and before the progress of paletots and civilization, wore no cloaks : this, as it rendered each man of them more uncomfortable than St. Bartho- lomew was without his skin, was considered an offering of genu- ine grief to the manes of the deceased. Uncloaking in Spain is, be it remembered, a mark of respect, and is equivalent to our taking ofF the hat. When the company arrives at church, they are received by the ministers, and the ceremony is very solemnly FUNERAL SERVICE. 253 performed before a catafalque covered with a pall, which is placed before the altar, and is brilliantly lighted up with wax candles. As soon as the service is concluded, all advance and bow to the chief mourners, who are seated apart, and thus the tragedy con- cludes. Parents do not put on mourning for their children, which is a remnant of the patriarchal and Roman superiority of the head of the family, for whom, however, when dead, all the other mem- bers pay the most observant respect. The forms and number of days of mourning are most nicely laid down, and are most rigidly observed, even by distant relations, who refrain from all kinds of amusements : " None bear about the mockery of woe. To public dances or to private show." We well remember the death of a kind and venerable Marquesa at Seville just before the carnival, whose chief grief at dying, was the thought of the namber of young ladies who would thus be de- prived of their balls and masquerades ; many, anxious and oblig- ing, were the inquiries sent after her health, and more even were the daily prayers offered up to the Virgin, for the prolongation of her precious existence, could it be only for a few weeks. November drear, brings in other solemnities connected with the dead, and in harmony with the fall of the sear and yellow leaves, to which Homer compares the races of mortal men. The night before the first of November our All Hallow-e'en is kept in Spain as a vigil or wake ; it is the fated hour of love divinations and mysteries ; then anxious maidens used to sit at their balco- nies to see the image of their destined husbands pass or not pass by. November the first is dedicated to the sainted dead, and No- vember the second to all souls ; it is termed in Spanish el dia de los difuntos, the day of the dead, and is most scrupulously observed by all who have lost during the past year some friend, some rela- tion how few have not ! The dawn is ushered in by mournful bells, which recal the memory of those who cannot come back at the summons ; the cemeteries are then visited ; at Seville, long processions of sable-clad females, bearing chased lamps on staves, walk slowly round and round, chaunting melancholy dirges, re- turning when it gets dusk in a long line of glittering lights. The 254 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. graves during the day are visited by those who take a sad inte- rest in their occupants, and lamps -and flower garlands are sus- pended as memorials of affection, and holy water is sprinkled, every drop of which puts out some of the fires of purgatory. These picturesque proceedings at once resemble the Eed es Se- gheer of modern Cairo, the feralia of the Romans, the Ns^eoia of the Greeks : here are the flower offerings of Electra, the funes assensi, the funeral torches of pagan mourners, which have vainly been prohibited to Christian Spaniards by their early Council of Illiberis. In Navarre, and in the north-west of Spain, bread and wheat offerings called robos are made, which are the doles or gifts offered for the souls' rest of the deceased by the pious of ancient Rome. As on this day the cemetery becomes the putflic attraction, it too often looks rather a joyous fashionable promenade, than a sad and religious performance. The levity of mere strangers and the mob, contrasts strangely with the sorrow of real mourners. But life in this world presses on death, and the gay treads on the heels of pathos ; the spot is crowded with mendicants, who appeal to the order of the day, and importune every tender recollection, by begging for the sake of the lamented dead. Outside the dreary walls all is vitality and mirth ; a noisy sale goes on of cakes, nuts, and sweetmeats, a crash of horses and carriages, a din and flow of bad language from those who look after them, which must vex the repose of the benditas animas, or the blessed souls in purga- tory, for whom otherwise all classes of Spaniards manifest the fondest affection and interest. Such is the manner in which the body of a most orthodox Catholic Castilian is committed to the earth ; his soul, if it goes to purgatory, is considered and called blessed by anticipation, as the admittance into Paradise is certain, at the expiration of the term of penal transportation, that is, " when the foul crimes done in the days of nature are burnt and purged away," as the ghost in Hamlet says, who had not forgotten his Virgil. If the scholar objects to a Spanish clergyman, that the whole thing is Pagan, he will be told that he may go farther and fare worse. In the case of a true Roman Catholic, this term of hard labor may be much shortened, since that can be done by masses, any number of PURGATORY. 255 which will be said, if first paid for. The vicar of St. Peter holds the keys, which always unlock the gate to those who offer the golden gift by which Charon was bribed by ./Eneas ; thus, to a judicious rich man, nothing, supposing that he believes the Pope versus the Bible, is so easy as to get at once into Heaven ; nor are the poor quite neglected, as any one may learn who will read the extraordinary number of days' redemption which may be ob- tained at every altar in Spain by the performance of the most trumpery routine. The only wonder is how any one of the faith- ful should ever fail to secure his delivery from this spiritual Botany Bay without going there at all, or, at least, only for the form's sake. It was calculated by an accurate and laborious German, that an active man, by spending three shillings in coach- hire, might obtain in an hour, by visiting different privileged altars during the Holy week, 29,639 years, nine months, thirteen days, three minutes and a half diminution of purgatorial punish- ment. This merciful reprieve was offered by Spanish priests in South America, on a grander style, on one commensurate with that colossal continent ; for a single mass at the San Francisco in Mexico, the Pope and prelates granted 32,310 years, ten days, and six hours' indulgence. As a means of raising money, says our Mexican authority, " I would not give this simple institution of masses for the benefit of souls, for the power of taxation pos- sessed by any government ; since no tax-gatherer is required ; the payments are enforced by the best feelings, for who would not pay to get a parent's or friend's soul from the fire ?" Purgatory has thus been a Golconda mine of gold to his Holiness, as even the poorest have a chance, since charitable persons can deliver blank souls by taking out a habeas animam writ, that is, by pay- ing the priest for a mass. The especial days are marked in the almanac, and known to every waiter at the inn ; moreover, notice is put on the church door, Hoy se saca anima, " this day you can get out a soul." They are generally left in their warm quarters in winter, and taken out in the spring. Alas for poor Protestants, who, by non-payment of St. Peter's pence, have added an additional act of heresy, and the worst of all, the one which Rome never pardons. These defaulters can only hope to be saved by faith, and its fruits, good works ; they 256 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. must repent, must quit their long-cherished sins, and lead a new life ; for them there is no rope of St. Francis to pull them out, if once in the pit : no rosary of St. Dominick to remove them, quick, presto, begone, from torment to happiness. Outside the pale of the Vatican, their souls have no chance, and inside the frontiers of Spain their bodies have scarcely a better prospect, should they die in that orthodox land. There the greatest liberal barely tolerates any burial at all of their black-blooded heretical carcasses, as no corn will grow near them. Until within a very few years at seaport towns, their bodies used to be put in a hole in the sands, and beyond low water mark ; nay, even this con- cession to the infidel offended the semi-Moro fishermen, who true believers and persecutors feared that their soles might be poi- soned : not that either sailor or priest ever exhibited any fear of taking British current coin, all cash that comes into their nets being most Catholic, so says the proverb, El dinero es muy Catolico. Matters connected with the grave have been placed, as regards Protestants, on a much more pleasant footing within these last few years ; and it may be a consolation to invalids, who are sent to Spain for change of climate, and who are particular, to know, in case of accidents, that Protestant burial-grounds are now per- mitted at Cadiz, Malaga, and in a few other places. The history of the permission is curious, and has never, to the best of our be- lief, been told. In the days of Philip II. Lutherans were counted in many degrees worse than dogs ; when caught alive, they were burnt by the holy tribunal ; and when dead, were cast out on the dunghill. Even when our poltroon James I. sent, in 1622, his ill-judged olive-bearing mission, by which Spain was saved from utter humiliation, Mr. Hole, the secretary of the ambassador, Lord Digby, having died at Santander, the body was not allowed to be buried at all ; it was put into a shell, and sunk in the sea ; but no sooner was his lordship gone, than "the fishermen," we quote from Somers' tracts, " fearing that they should catch no fish as long as the coffin of a heretic lay in their waters," fished it up, " and the corpse of our countryman and brother was thrown above ground to be devoured by the fowls of the air." In the treaty of 1630, the 31st Article provided for the disposal of the LUTHERAN BURIAL. 257 goods of those Englishmen who might die in Spain, but not for their bodies. " These," says a commentator of Rymer, " must be left sinking above ground, to the end that the dogs may be sure to find them.''" When Mr. Washington, page to Charles I., died at Madrid, at the time his master was there, Howell, who was present, relates that it was only as an especial favor to the suitor of the Spanish Infanta that the body was allowed to be in- terred in the garden of the embassy, under a fig-tree. A few years afterwards, 1650, Ascham, the envoy of Cromwell, was assassinated, and his corpse put, without any rights, into a hole ; but the Protector was not a man to be trifled with, and knew well how to deal with a Spanish government, always a craven and bully, from whom nothing ever is to be obtained by concession and gentleness, which is considered as weakness, while every- thing is to be extorted from its fears. He that very year com- manded a treaty to be prepared for the proper burial of his sub- jects, .to which the blustering Spaniard immediately assented. This provision was stipulated into the treaty of Charles II. in 1664, and was conceded and ratified again in 1667 to Sir Richard Fanshawe. No step, however, appears to have been taken before 1796, when Lord Bute purchased a spot of ground for the burial of Englishmen outside the Alcala-gate, at Madrid. During the war, when all Spain was a churchyard to our countrymen, this bit of land was taken possession of by a worthy Madrilenian. not for his place of sepulture, but for good and profitable cultivation. In 1831 Mr. Addington caused some researches to be made, and the original conveyance was found in the Coitiaduria de Hypothc- cas, the registry of deeds and mortgages which backward Spain possesses, and which advanced England does not. The intruder was ejected after some struggling on his part. Before Lord Bute's time the English had been buried at night and without ce- remonies, in the garden of the convent de los Recoletos ; and, as Lord Bute's new bit of ground was extensive and valuable, the pious monks wished to give up the English corner in their gar- den, in exchange for it ; but the transfer was prevented by the recent law which forbade all burial in cities. The field pur- chased by Lord Bute is low unenclosed and uncultivated; fortu- 258 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. nately it has not been much wanted, only fifteen Protestants hav- ing died at Madrid during the last thirty years. In November, 1831, Ferdinand VII. finally settled this grave question by a de- cree, in which he granted permission for the erection of a Pro- testant burial-ground in all towns where a British consul or agent should reside, subject to most degrading conditions. The first cemetery set apart in Spain, in virtue of this gracious decree from a -man replaced on his throne by the death of 30,000 English- men, was the work of Mr. Mark, our consul at Malaga ; he en- closed a spot of ground to the east of that city, and placed a tab- let over the entrance, recording the royal permission, and above that a cross. Thus he appealed to the dominant feelings of Spaniards, to their loyalty and religion. The Malaganians were amazed when they beheld this emblem of Christianity raised over the last home of Lutheran dogs, and exclaimed, " So even these Jews make use of the cross !" The term Jew, it must be re- membered, is the acme of Spanish loathing and vituperation. The first body interred in it was that of Mr. Boyd, who was shot by the bloody Moreno, with the poor dupe Torrijos and the rest of his rebel compan ions. THE SPANISH FIGARO. 259 CHAPTER XIX. The Spanish Figaro Mustachios Whiskers Beards Bleeding He raldic Blood Blue, Red, and Black BloodFigaro's Shop The Bara- tero Shaving and Toothdrawing. FEW who love Don Quixote, will deem any notice on the Pe- ninsular surgeon complete in which the barber is not mentioned, even be it in a postscript. Although the names of bpth these learned professors have long been nearly synonymous in Spain, the barber is much to be preferred, inasmuch as his cuts are less dangerous, and his conversation is more agreeable. He with the curate formed the quiet society of the Knight of La Mancha, as the apotheeary and vicar used to make that of most of our coun- try squires of England. Let, therefore, every Adonis of France, now bearded as a pard although young, nay, let each and all of our fair readers, albeit equally exempt from the pains and penal- ties of daily shaving, make instantly, on reaching sunny Seville, a pilgrimage to the shrine of San Figaro. His shop apochry- phal it is to be feared as other legendary localities lies near the cathedral, and is a no less established lion than the house of Dul- cinea is at Toboso, or the prison tower of Gil Bias is at Segovia. Such is the magic power of genius. Cervantes and Le Sage have given form, fixture, and local habitation to the airy nothings of their fancy's creations, while Mozart and Rossini, by filling the world with melody, have bidden the banks of the Guadalquivir re-echo to their sweet inventions. To those even who have no music in their souls, the movement from doctors to barbers is harmonious in a land where beards were long honored as the type of valor and chivalry, and where shaving took the precedence of surgery ; and even to this day, la tienda de barbero, the shop of the man of the razor, is better supplied than many a Spanish hospital both with patients and cutting instruments. One word first on the black whiskers of 260 THE SPANIARDS AND THEIR COUNTRY. tawny Spain. These patillas, as they are now termed, must be distinguished from the ancient mustachio, the mostacho, a very classical but almost obsolete word, which the scholars of Sala- manca have derived from juvai