diff options
Diffstat (limited to '38767.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 38767.txt | 13702 |
1 files changed, 13702 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/38767.txt b/38767.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f26f838 --- /dev/null +++ b/38767.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13702 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Spanish Highways and Byways, by Katharine Lee Bates + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Spanish Highways and Byways + +Author: Katharine Lee Bates + +Release Date: February 4, 2012 [EBook #38767] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPANISH HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + + + +SPANISH HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS + + [Illustration: SAN SEBASTIAN] + + + + + SPANISH HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS + + BY + KATHARINE LEE BATES + + _Author of "American Literature" "The English Religious Drama," etc._ + + ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY ENGRAVINGS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS + + _Published by_ THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + _New York MCM_ + + LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1900, + BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + + _Norwood Press_ + _J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith_ + _Norwood, Mass., U.S.A._ + + + + + Madre Mia + + AQUI TIENES TU LIBRO + + + + +Preface + + +A tourist in Spain can hope to understand but little of that strange, +deep-rooted, and complex life shut away beyond the Pyrenees. This book +claims to be nothing more than a record of impressions. As such, +whatever may be its errors, it should at least bear witness to the +picturesque, poetic charm of the Peninsula and to the graciousness of +Spanish manners. + + + + +Contents + + + Chapter Page + + I. "The Lazy Spaniard" 1 + II. A Continuous Carnival 11 + III. Within the Alhambra 27 + IV. A Function in Granada 39 + V. In Sight of the Giralda 48 + VI. Passion Week in Seville 58 + VII. Traces of the Inquisition 82 + VIII. An Andalusian Type 102 + IX. A Bull-fight 113 + X. Gypsies 132 + XI. The Route of the Silver Fleets 147 + XII. Murillo's Cherubs 162 + XIII. The Yolk of the Spanish Egg 183 + XIV. A Study in Contrasts 203 + XV. The Patron Saint of Madrid 214 + XVI. The Funeral of Castelar 233 + XVII. The Immemorial Fashion 246 + XVIII. Corpus Christi in Toledo 263 + XIX. The Tercentenary of Velazquez 283 + XX. Choral Games of Spanish Children 297 + XXI. "O la Senorita!" 338 + XXII. Across the Basque Provinces 362 + XXIII. In Old Castile 376 + XXIV. Pilgrims of Saint James 394 + XXV. The Building of a Shrine 409 + XXVI. The Son of Thunder 423 + XXVII. Vigo and Away 439 + + + + +List of Illustrations + + + San Sebastian _Frontispiece_ + Facing Page + Pasajes 8 + An Arab Gateway in Burgos 23 + Playing at Bull-fight. From painting by Bayeu 30 + The Mosque of Cordova 39 + The Columbus Monument in Granada 46 + The Alhambra. Hall of Justice 55 + Filling the Water-jars 62 + Off for the War. From painting by Rubio 71 + Looking toward the Darro 78 + A Milkman of Granada 101 + A Roman Well in Ronda 112 + The Giralda 131 + The Passing of the Pageants 146 + The Pageant of Gethsemane 167 + "Jesus of the Passion" 174 + "Christ of the Seven Words" 195 + Maria Santisima 210 + A Spanish Monk. From painting by Zurbaran 215 + A Seville Street 222 + An Old-fashioned Bull-fight. From painting by Goya 243 + The Bull-fight of To-day 258 + The King of the Gypsies 275 + Gypsy Tenants of an Arab Palace 290 + From the Golden Tower down the Guadalquivir 311 + Cadiz, from the Sea 318 + The Divine Shepherd. From painting by Murillo 339 + The Royal Palace in Madrid 354 + The Royal Family 359 + The Manzanares 366 + A Spanish Cemetery 375 + Toledo 382 + Toledo Cathedral. Puerta de los Leones 391 + St. Paul, the first Hermit. From painting by Ribera 398 + The Maids of Honor. From painting by Velazquez 407 + Dancing the Sevillana 414 + Within the Cloister 423 + The Trampler of the Moors 430 + Santiago Cathedral. Puerta de la Gloria 439 + St. James. From painting by Murillo 446 + + + + +SPANISH HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS + + + + +Spanish Highways and Byways + + + + +I + +"THE LAZY SPANIARD" + + "There is a difference between Peter and Peter."--CERVANTES: + _Don Quixote_. + + +"Spain is a contradiction," was the parting word of the Rev. William +H. Gulick, the honored American missionary whose unwearied kindness +looked after us, during the break in official representation, more +effectively than a whole diplomatic corps. "Spanish blood is a strange +_mezcla_, whose elements, Gothic, African, Oriental, are at war among +themselves. You will find Spaniards tender and cruel, boastful and +humble, frank and secretive, and all at once. It will be a journey of +surprises." + +We were saying good-by, on February 4, 1899, to sunshiny Biarritz, +whither Mrs. Gulick's school for Spanish girls had been spirited over +the border at the outbreak of the war. Here we had found Spanish and +American flags draped together, Spanish and American friendships +holding fast, and a gallant little band of American teachers spending +youth and strength in their patient campaign for conquering the +Peninsula by a purer idea of truth. Rough Riders may be more +pictorial, but hardly more heroic. + +We were barely through the custom house, in itself the simplest and +swiftest of operations, before the prophesied train of surprises +began. One of our preconceived ideas went to wreck at the very outset +on the industry of the Basque provinces. "The lazy Spaniard" has +passed into a proverb. The round world knows his portrait--that broad +_sombrero_, romantic cloak, and tilted cigarette. But the laborious +Spaniard can no longer be ignored. Even at Biarritz we had to reckon +with him, for the working population there is scarcely less Spanish +than French. Everybody understands both languages as spoken, and it is +a common thing to overhear animated dialogue where the talk is all +Spanish on the one side and all French on the other. The war set +streams of Spanish laborers flowing over the mountain bar into French +territory. Young men fled from conscription, and fathers of families +came under pressure of hard times. Skilled artisans, as masons and +carpenters, could make in Biarritz a daily wage of five francs, the +normal equivalent of five _pesetas_, or a dollar, while only the half +of this was to be earned on their native side of the Pyrenees. Such, +too, was the magic of exchange that these five francs, sent home, +might transform themselves into ten, eight, or seven and a half +_pesetas_. Even when we entered Spain, after the Paris Commission had +risen, the rate of exchange was anything but stable, varying not +merely from day to day, but from hour to hour, a difference of two or +three per cent often occurring between morning and evening. The +conditions that bore so heavily on the crafts were crushing the field +laborers almost to starvation. In point of excessive toil, those +peasants of northern Spain seemed to us worse off than Mr. Markham's +"Man with the Hoe," for the rude mattock, centuries out of date, with +which they break up the ground, involves the utmost bodily exertion. +And by all that sweat of the brow, they were gaining, on an average, +ten or twelve cents a day. + +No wonder that discontent clouded the land. We met this first at +Pasajes, on one of the excursions arranged for our pleasure by the +overflow goodness of that missionary garrison. The busiest of teachers +had brought us--a young compatriot from a Paris studio and myself--so +far as San Sebastian, where she lingered long enough to make us +acquainted with a circle of friends, and, incidentally, with Pasajes. +This Basque fishing hamlet is perched between hill and sea, with a +single rough-paved street running the length of the village from the +Church of St. Peter to the Church of St. John. Nature has not been +chary of beauty here. The mountain-folded Bay of Pasajes appears at +first view like an Alpine lake, but the presence of stately Dutch and +Spanish merchantmen in these sapphire waters makes it evident that +there must be an outlet to the ocean. Such a rift, in fact, was +disclosed as the strong-armed old ferry woman rowed us across, a deep +but narrow passage (hence the name) between sheer walls of rock, whose +clefts and crannies thrill the most respectable tourist with longings +to turn smuggler. The village clings with difficulty to its stony +strip between steep and wave. On one side of that single street, the +peering stone houses, some still showing faded coats of arms, are half +embedded in the mountain, and on the other the tide beats perilously +against the old foundation piles. + +Above the uneven roofs, on the precipitous hillside, sleep the dead, +watched over by Santa Ana from her neglected hermitage. Only once a +year, on her own feast day, is her gorgeous altar cloth brought forth +and her tall candles lighted, while the rats, who have been nibbling +her gilded shoes and comparing the taste of the blues and crimsons in +her painted robes, skurry into their holes at the unaccustomed sound +of crowding feet. Pasajes boasts, too, a touch of historical dignity. +From here Lafayette, gallant young Frenchman that he was, sailed for +America, and probably then, as now, little Basque girls ran at the +stranger's side with small hands full of wild flowers, and roguish +Basque boys hid behind boulders and tried to frighten him by playing +brigand, with a prodigious waving of thorn-branch guns and booming of +vocal artillery. + +But not the joy of beauty nor the pride of ancient memory takes the +place of bread. We approached a factory and asked of the workman at +the entrance, "What do you manufacture here?" "What they manufacture +in all Spain, nowadays," he answered, "misery." This particular +misery, however, had the form of tableware, the long rows of simple +cups and plates and pitchers, in various stages of completion, being +diversified by jaunty little images of the Basque ball players, whose +game is famous throughout the Peninsula. We finally succeeded in +purchasing one of these for fifteen cents, although the village was +hard put to it to make change for a dollar, and was obliged, with +grave apologies, to load us down with forty or so big Spanish coppers. + +"The lazy Spaniard!" Look at the very children as they romp about San +Sebastian. This is the most aristocratic summer resort in Spain, the +Queen Regent having a chalet on that artistic bay called the _Concha_ +or Shell. It is a crescent of shimmering color, so dainty and so +perfect, with guardian mountains of jasper and a fringe of diamond +surf, that it is hard to believe it anything but a bit of magical +jewel-work. It might be a city of fairyland, did not the clamor of +childish voices continually break all dreamy spells. What energy and +tireless activity! Up and down the streets, the cleanest streets in +Spain, twinkle hundreds of little _alpargatas_, brightly embroidered +canvas shoes with soles of plaited hemp. Spanish families are large, +although from the ignorance of the mothers and the unsanitary +condition of the homes, the mortality among the children is extreme. +Here is a household, for example, where out of seventeen black-eyed +babies but three have fought their way to maturity. Spanish parents +are notably affectionate, but, in the poorer classes, at least, +impatient in their discipline. It is the morning impulse of the busy +mother, working at disadvantage in her small and crowded rooms, to +clear them of the juvenile uproar by turning her noisy brood out of +doors for the day. Surprisingly neat in their dress but often with +nothing save cabbage in their young stomachs, forth they storm into +the streets. Here the stranger may stand and watch them by the hour as +they bow and circle, toss and tumble, dance and race through an +enchanting variety of games. The most violent seem to please them +best. Now and then a laughing girl stoops to whisk away the beads of +perspiration from a little brother's shining face, but in general they +are too rapt with the excitement of their sports to be aware of +weariness. Such flashing of eyes and streaming of hair and jubilee of +songs! + +One of their favorite games, for instance, is this: An especially +active child, by preference a boy, takes the name of _milano_, or +kite, and throws himself down in some convenient doorway, as if +asleep. The others form in Indian file, the _madre_, or mother, at the +head, and the smallest girl, Mariquilla, last in line. The file +proceeds to sing:-- + + "We are going to the garden, + Although its wicked warden, + Hungry early and late, + Is crouching before the gate." + +Then ensues a musical dialogue between the mother and Mariquilla:-- + + _Mother._ Little Mary in the rear! + + _Little Mary._ What's your bidding, mother dear? + + _Mother._ Tell me how the kite may thrive. + + _Little Mary [after cautiously sidling up to the doorway and + inspecting the prone figure there]._ + + He's half dead and half alive. + +Then the file chants again:-- + + "We are going to the garden, + Although its wicked warden, + Hungry early and late, + Is crouching before the gate." + + _Mother._ Little Mary in the rear! + + _Little Mary._ What's your bidding, mother dear? + + _Mother._ Of the kite I bid you speak. + + _Little Mary [after a second reconnoissance, which sends her + scampering back to her own place]._ + + He whets his claws and whets his beak. + +Here the enemy advances, beating a most appalling tattoo:-- + + _Kite._ Pum, pum! Tat, tat! + + _Mother._ Who is here and what is that? + + _Kite._ 'Tis the kite. + + _Mother._ What seeks the kite? + + _Kite._ Human flesh! A bite, a bite! + + _Mother._ You must catch before you dine. + Children, children, keep the line! + +And with this the dauntless parent, abandoning song for action, darts +with outspread arms in front of the robber, who bends all his energies +to reaching and snatching away Little Mary. The entire line, keeping +rank, curves and twists behind the leader, all intent on protecting +that poor midget at the end. And when the wild frolic has resulted in +her capture, and every child is panting with fatigue, they straightway +resume their original positions and play it all over again. In Seville +this game takes on a religious variation, the kite becoming the Devil, +and the _madre_ the angel Michael defending a troop of souls. In Cuba +we have a hawk pitted against a hen with her brood of chickens. + +We stepped into a Protestant Kindergarten one day to see how such +stirring atoms of humanity might demean themselves in school. Talk of +little pitchers! Here were some twoscore tiny jugs, bubbling full of +mischief, with one bright, sympathetic girl of twenty-two keeping a +finger on every dancing lid. Impossible, of course! But all her week's +work looked to us impossible. We had known diligent teachers in the +United States; this "lazy Spaniard," however, not only keeps her +Kindergarten well in hand from nine to twelve, but instructs the same +restless mites--so many of them as do not fall into a baby-sleep over +their desks--in reading and counting from two to four, gives a Spanish +lesson from six to seven, and struggles with the pathetic ignorance of +grown men and women in the night school from eight to half-past nine +or ten. + +The Spanish pastor and his wife, also teachers in day school, night +school, Sunday school, are no less marvels of industry. The +multiplication table, lustily intoned to the tramp of marching feet, +called us into a class-room where the older girls were gathered for +lessons in reading and writing, arithmetic and geography, sewing and +embroidery. The delicate little lady who presides over this lively +kingdom may be seen on Sunday, seated at the melodeon, leading the +chapel music--an exquisite picture of a Spanish senora, with the lace +mantilla crowning the black hair and gracefully falling to the slender +shoulders. We had heard her give an address on foreign soil, before an +audience of a hundred strangers, speaking with an irresistible fervor +of appeal, and no less charming was she at the head of her own table, +the soul of vivacious and winsome hospitality. + +As for the pastor himself, he carries the administrative burdens of +church and school, teaches the larger boys morning and afternoon, and +the men in the evening, preaches once on Thursday and twice on Sunday, +and slips in between these stated tasks all the innumerable incidental +duties of a missionary pastorate. And yet this man of many labors is +not only Spanish, but Philippine. His childhood was passed at Cavite, +the home of his father, a Spanish officer, who had chosen his bride +from a native family. The boy was put to school with the friars at +Manila, where, rather to the disgust of the soldier-father, he formed +the desire to enter the brotherhood. He was not blind--what students +are?--to the blemishes of his teachers. He had often stood by with the +other lads and shouted with laughter to see a group of friars, their +cassocks well girded up, drive a pig into their shallow pond and stab +the plunging creature there, that it might be counted "fish" and serve +them for dinner on Friday. But his faith in the order held firm, and, +when his novitiate was well advanced, he was sent to Madrid for the +final ceremonies. Here, by chance, he dropped into a Protestant +service, and after several years of examination and indecision, chose +the thorny road. + + [Illustration: PASAJES] + +All his wearing occupations do not dull that fine sense of courtesy +inherent in a Spanish gentleman. The sun itself had hardly risen when +we departed from San Sebastian, yet we found Don Angel at the station, +muffled in the inevitable Spanish _capa_, to say good-by once more and +assure us that, come what might, we had always "a house and a friend +in Spain." We laid down the local journal, hard reading that it was +with its denunciations of "the inhuman barbarities of the North +Americans toward the Filipinos," and ventured to ask for his own view +of the matter. + +"The United States," he answered, speaking modestly and very gently, +"means well and has, in the main, done well. When I say this in the +Casino, men get angry and call me a Yankee filibuster. But in truth +the Philippines are very dear to me and I carry a sad heart. It was +the protocol that did the mischief. It is not easy for simple +islanders to understand that words may say one thing and mean another. +Philippine faith in American promises is broken. And red is a hard +color to wash out. Yet I still hope that, when the days of slaughter +are over, peace and life may finally come to my unhappy birthplace +from your great nation. The Tagalos are not so worthless as Americans +seem to think, though the climate of the Philippines, like that of +Andalusia, tempts to indolence. But strong motives make good workers +everywhere." + + + + +II + +A CONTINUOUS CARNIVAL + + "This periodical explosion of freedom and folly."--BECQUER: _El + Carnaval_. + + +Having re-formed our concept of a Spaniard to admit the elements of +natural vigor and determined diligence, we were surprised again to +find this tragic nation, whose fresh grief and shame had almost +deterred us from the indelicacy of intrusion, entering with eager zest +into the wild fun of Carnival. Sorrow was still fresh for the eighty +thousand dead in Cuba, the hapless prisoners in the Philippines, the +wretched _repatriados_ landed, cargo after cargo, at ports where some +were suffered to perish in the streets. Every household had its tale +of loss; yet, notwithstanding all the troubles of the time, Spain must +keep her Carnival. "It is one of the saddest and most disheartening +features of the situation," said a Spaniard to us. "There is no +earnestness here, no realization of the national crisis. The +politicians care for nothing but to enrich themselves, and the people, +as you see, care for nothing but to divert themselves." + +Yet we looked from the madcap crowd to the closed shutters, keeping +their secrets of heartbreak, and remembered the words of Zorrilla, +"Where there is one who laughs, there is ever another who weeps in the +great Carnival of our life." + +The parks of San Sebastian were gay with maskers and music, tickling +brushes and showers of _confetti_, on our last day there, but the +peculiar feature of the festivity in this Basque city is "the baiting +of the ox." On that Carnival-Sunday afternoon we found ourselves +looking down, from a safe balcony, upon the old _Plaza de la +Constitucion_, with its arcaded sides. The genuine bull-fights, which +used to take place here, have now a handsome amphitheatre of their +own, where, when the summer has brought the court to San Sebastian, +the choicest Andalusian bulls crimson the sand of the arena. But the +_Plaza de la Constitucion_, mindful of its pristine glory, still +furnishes what cheap suggestions it can of the terrible play. The +square below was crowded with men and boys, and even some hoydenish +girls, many in fantastic masks and gaudy dominos, while the tiers of +balconies were thronged with eager spectators. A strange and savage +peal of music announced that "the bull" was coming. That music was +enough to make the hereditary barbarian beat in any heart, but "the +bull"! At the further corner of the _plaza_, pulled by a long rope and +driven by a yelling rabble, came in, at a clumsy gallop, an astonished +and scandalized old ox. Never did living creature bear a meeker and +less resentful temper. + +At first, beaten and pricked by his tormentors, he tore blindly round +and round the _plaza_, the long rope by which he was held dragging +behind him, and sometimes, as he wheeled about, tripping up and +overturning a bunch of the merrymakers. This was a joy to the +balconies, but did not often happen, as the people below showed a +marvellous dexterity in skipping over the rope just in time to escape +its swinging blow. Sometimes the poor, stupid beast entangled his own +legs, and that, too, was a source of noisy glee. But, on the whole, +he was a disappointing and inglorious ox. He caused no serious +accident. Nothing could ruffle his disposition. The scarlet cloaks +waved in his eyes he regarded with courteous interest; he wore only a +look of grieved surprise when he was slapped across the face with red +and yellow banners; tweaks of the tail he endured like a Socrates, but +now and then a cruel prod from a sharp stick would make him lower his +horns and rush, for an instant, upon the nearest offender. The +balconies would shout with the hope of something vicious and violent +at last, but the mobile crowd beneath would close in between the ox +and his assailant, a hundred fresh insults would divert his attention, +and indeed, his own impulses of wrath were of the shortest. To the end +he was hardly an angry ox--only a puzzled, baffled, weary old creature +who could not make out, for the life of him, into what sort of red and +yellow pasture and among what kind of buzzing hornets his unlucky +hoofs had strayed. + +Finally he gave the enigma up and stood wrapped in a brown study among +his emboldened enemies, who clung to his horns and tail, tossed +children upon his back, tickled his nostrils with their hat brims, and +showered him with indignities. The balconies joined in hooting him out +of the _plaza_, but he was so pleased to go that I doubt if human +scorn of his beastly gentleness really interfered with his appetite +for supper. He trotted away to that rude clang of music, the babies +who were dancing to it on their nurses' arms not more harmless than +he. And although that worrying half hour may have told upon his +nerves, and his legs may have ached for the unaccustomed exercise, no +blood was to be seen upon him. It was all a rough-and-tumble romp, +nothing worse, but the balconies would have liked it better had it +been flavored with a broken leg or two. A few sprawlings over the rope +really amounted to so little. But the _toro de fuego_ was to come +there Tuesday evening, and when this blazing pasteboard bull, with +fireworks spluttering all over him from horns to tail, is dragged +about among the throng, there is always a fine chance of explosions, +burnings, and even of blindings for life. + +But Carnival Tuesday found us no longer in sunny San Sebastian. We +were shivering over a _brasero_ in storied Burgos, a city chill as if +with the very breath of the past. And the Spanish _brasero_, a great +brass pan holding a pudding of ashes, plummed with sparks, under a +wire screen, is the coldest comfort, the most hypocritical heater, +that has yet come my way. + +Our Monday had been spent in a marvellous journey through the +Pyrenees, whose rugged sublimities were bathed in the very blue of +Velazquez, a cold, clear, glorious blue expanding all the soul. These +are haunted mountains, with wild legends of lonely castles, where +fierce old chieftains, beaten back by the Franks, shut themselves in +with their treasure and died like wounded lions in their lairs. We +passed fallen towers from whose summits mediaeval heralds had trumpeted +the signal for war, ruined convents whence the sound of woman's +chanting was wont to startle the wolves of the forest, mysterious +lakes deep in whose waters are said to shine golden crowns set with +nine precious pearls--those ducal coronets that Rome bestowed upon her +vassals--craggy paths once trod by pilgrims, hermits, jugglers, +minstrels, and knights-errant, and shadowy pine groves where, when +the wind is high, the shepherds still hear the weeping ghost of the +cruel princess, whose beauty and disdain slew dozens of men a day +until her love was won and scorned, so that she died of longing. + +We had reached Burgos at dusk and, without pausing for rest or food, +had sallied out for our first awe-stricken gaze up at the far-famed +cathedral towers, then had ignominiously lost our way over and over in +the narrow, crooked streets and been finally marched back to our hotel +by a compassionate, though contemptuous, policeman. My artist comrade +was fairly ill by morning with a heavy cold, but she would not hear of +missing the cathedral and sneezed three or four enraptured hours away +in its chill magnificence. As we came to know Spanish and Spaniards +better, they would exclaim "_Jesus, Maria y Jose!_" when we sneezed, +that the evil spirit given to tickling noses might take flight; but +the Burgos sacristan was too keen to waste these amenities on +stammering heretics. What we thought of the cathedral is little to the +purpose of this chapter. In a word, however, we thought nothing at +all; we only felt. It was our first introduction to one of the monster +churches of Spain, and its very greatness, the terrible weight of all +that antiquity, sanctity, and beauty, crushed our understanding. Like +sleepwalkers we followed our guide down the frozen length of nave and +aisles and cloisters; we went the round of the fifteen chapels, +splendid presence-chambers where the dead keep sculptured state; we +looked, as we were bidden, on the worm-eaten treasure-chest of the +Cid, on the clock whose life-sized tenant, Papa-Moscas, used to scream +the hours to the embarrassment of long-winded pulpiteers, on the +cathedral's crown of fretted spires whose marvellous tracery was +chiselled by the angels, and on the "Most Holy Christ of Burgos," the +crucified image that bleeds every Friday. + +Fulfilled with amazement, we searched our way back to the hotel +through the sleety rain, ate a shivering luncheon at the "_mesa +redonda_," that "round table" which is never round, and agreed to +postpone our anticipated visits to the haunts of the Cid until a less +inclement season. For of course we should come back to Burgos. The +proud old city seemed to fill all the horizon of thought. How had we +lived so long without it? That the stormy afternoon was not favorable +to exploration mattered little. We peeped down from our balconies into +the ancient streets, half expecting the exiled Cid to come spurring +up, seeking the welcome which we, like all the craven folk of Burgos, +must refuse him. + + "With sixty lances in his train my Cid rode up the town, + The burghers and their dames from all the windows looking down; + And there were tears in every eye, and on each lip one word: + 'A worthy vassal--would to God he served a worthy lord!' + Fain would they shelter him, but none durst yield to his desire. + Great was the fear through Burgos town of King Alphonso's ire. + Sealed with his royal seal hath come his letter to forbid + All men to offer harborage or succor to my Cid. + And he that dared to disobey, well did he know the cost-- + His goods, his eyes, stood forfeited, his soul and body lost. + A hard and grievous word was that to men of Christian race; + And since they might not greet my Cid, they hid them from his + face." + +Meanwhile the streets were a living picture-book. Muffled cavaliers, +with cloaks drawn up and hats drawn down till only the dance of +coal-black eyes, full of fire and fun, was visible between, saluted +our balcony with Carnival impertinence. Beggars of both sexes, equally +wound about with tattered shawls, reached up expectant hands as if we +were made of Spanish pennies. A funeral procession passed, with the +pale light of tapers, the chanting of priests, with purple-draped +coffin, and mourners trooping on foot--men only, for in Spain women +never accompany their dead either to church or grave. A troop of +infantry, whose dapper costume outwent itself in the last touch of +bright green gloves, dazzled by, and then came a miscellany of +maskers. It was rather a rag-tag show, take it all in all--red devils +with horns, friars extremely fat, caricatures of English tourists with +tall hats and perky blue eye-glasses, giants, dwarfs, tumblers, and +even a sorry Cid mounted on a sorrier Bavieca. But the climax of +excitement was reached when a novel bull-fight wheeled into view. It +was a stuffed calf this time, set on wheels and propelled by a merry +fellow of the tribe of Joseph, if one might judge by his multi-colored +attire. With white hood, black mask, blue domino, garnet arms, and +yellow legs, he was as cheery as a bit of rainbow out of that sombre +sky. All the people in sight hastened to flock about him, policemen +left their beats, and servant maids their doorways, an itinerant band +of gypsy girls ceased clashing their tambourines, the blind beggar +opened his eyes, and the small boys were in ecstasies. For over an +hour the populace played with that mimic bull in this one spot under +our windows, good-humored _caballeros_ lending their scarfs and cloaks +to delighted urchins, who would thrust these stimulating objects into +the calf's bland face and then run for their lives, while the motley +Mask trundled his precious image in hot pursuit behind them. We were +reminded of the scene months after by an old painting in the Escorial, +depicting an almost identical performance. Spain is not a land of +change. + +But that teeth-chattering cold, "_un frio de todos los demonios_," +eased our farewells to Burgos, and night found us dividing the +privileges of a second-class carriage with two black-bearded +Castilians, who slept foot to foot along the leather-cushioned seat on +the one side, while we copied their example on the other. I started +from my first doze at some hubbub of arrival to ask drowsily, "Is this +Madrid?" "Be at peace, senora!" cooed one of these sable-headed +neighbors, in that tone of humorous indulgence characteristic of the +dons when addressing women and children. "It is twelve hours yet to +Madrid. Slumber on with tranquil heart." So we lay like warriors +taking our rest, with our travelling rugs, in lieu of martial cloaks, +about us, until the east began to glow with rose and fire, revealing a +bleak extent of treeless, tawny steppe. + +We had only a few days to give to "the crowned city" then, but those +sufficed for business, for a first acquaintance with the _Puerta del +Sol_ and its radiating avenues, a first joy in the peerless _Museo del +Prado_, and a brilliant glimpse of Carnival. We found the great drive +of the _Prado_, on Ash Wednesday afternoon, reserved for carriages and +maskers. Stages were erected along one side of the way, and on the +other the park was closely set with chairs. Stages and chairs were +filled with a well-clad, joyous multitude, diverted awhile from their +pretty labors of shooting roses and showering _confetti_ by the +fascinating panorama before their eyes. The privileged landaus that +held the middle of the road were laden with the loveliest women of +Castile. Carriages, horses, and coachmen were all adorned, but these +showy equipages only served as setting to the high-bred beauty of the +occupants. The cream of Madrid society was there. The adults were +elegantly dressed, but not as masqueraders. The children in the +carriages, however, were often costumed in the picturesque habits of +the provinces--the scarlet cap and striped shawl of the Catalan +peasant, the open velvet waistcoat, puffed trousers, and blue or red +sash of the Valencian, the gayly embroidered mantle of the Andalusian +mountaineer, the cocked hat and tasselled jacket of the gypsy. Moors, +flower girls, fairies, French lords and ladies of the old regime, even +court fools with cap and bells, were brightly imaged by these little +people, to whom the maskers on foot seemed to have left the monopoly +of beauty. The figures darting among the landaus, in and out of which +they leaped with confident impudence, were almost invariably +grotesques--smirking fishwives, staring chimney-sweeps, pucker-mouthed +babies, and scarecrows of every variety. Political satires are sternly +forbidden, and among the few national burlesques, we saw nowhere any +representation of Uncle Sam. He was hardly a subject of the King of +Nonsense then. + +Squeaking and gibbering, the maskers, unrebuked, took all manner of +saucy liberties. A stately old gentleman rose from his cushion in a +crested carriage to observe how gallantly a bevy of ladies were +beating off with a hail of _confetti_ and bonbons an imploring +cavalier who ran by their wheels, and when he would have resumed his +seat he found himself dandled on the knees of a grinning Chinaman. +Sometimes a swarm of maskers would beset a favorite carriage, +climbing up beside the coachman and snatching his reins, standing on +the steps and throwing kisses, lying along the back and twitting the +proudest beauty in the ear or making love to the haughtiest. This +all-licensed masker, with his monstrous disguise and affected squeal, +may be a duke or a doorkeeper. Carnival is democracy. + +Meanwhile the inevitable small boy, whose Spanish variety is +exceptionally light of heart and heels, gets his own fun out of the +occasion by whisking under the ropes into this reserved avenue and +dodging hither and thither among the vehicles, to the fury of the +mounted police, whose duty it is to keep the public out. One +resplendent rider devoted his full energies for nearly an hour to the +unavailing chase of a nimble little rogue who risked ten of his nine +lives under coaches and in front of horses' hoofs, but always turned +up laughing with a finger at the nose. + +Yet this jocund day did not set without its tragedy. A hot-tempered +Madrileno, abroad with his wife, resented the attentions paid her by +one of the maskers and shot him down. The mortally wounded man was +found to be a physician of high repute. This was not the only +misadventure of the afternoon, a lady losing one eye by the blow of a +flying sugar-plum. + +Our next night journey was less fortunate than our first, though it +should be remembered that our discomforts were partly due to our +persistency in travelling second-class. The carriage had its full +complement of passengers, and each of our eight companions brought +with him an unlawful excess of small luggage. Valises, boxes, bundles, +sacks, cans, canes, umbrellas wedged us in on every side, while our +own accumulation of grips, shawl-straps, hold-alls, and sketching kit +denied us even the relief of indignation. We all sat bolt upright the +night through in an atmosphere that sickens memory. Not a chink of +window air would those sensitive _caballeros_ endure, while the smoke +of their ever puffing cigarettes clouded the compartment with an +uncanny haze that grew heavier hour by hour. Conversation, which +seldom flagged, became a violent chorus at those intervals when the +conductor burst in for another chapter of his serial wrangle with a +fiery gentleman who refused to pay full fare. Every don in the +carriage, even to the chubby priest nodding in the coziest corner, had +an unalterable conviction as to the rights and wrongs of that +question, and men we had supposed, from their swaying and snoring, +fast asleep, would leap to their feet when the conductor entered, +fling out their hands in vehement gestures, and dash into the midst of +the vociferous dispute. Lazy Spaniards, indeed! We began to wish that +the Peninsula would cultivate repose of manner. Our tempers were +sorely shaken, and when, in the pale chill of dawn, we arrived at +Cordova, sleepless, nauseated, and out of love with humanity, we had +every prospect of passing a wretched forenoon. + +Thus it is I am inclined to believe we lay down under an orange tree +and dreamed a dream of the "Arabian Nights." Or perhaps it was only +another freak of the Carnival. At all events, a cup of coffee, and the +world was changed. Cordova! A midsummer heat, a land of vineyards and +olive groves, palms and aloes, a white, unearthly city, with narrow, +silent, deathlike streets, peopled only by drowsy beggars and by +gliding maskers that seemed more real than this Oriental picture in +which they moved, high walls with grated, harem-like windows, and an +occasional glimpse, through some arched doorway, into a +marble-floored, rose-waving, fountain-playing patio, enchanted and +mysterious, a dream within a dream. Cordova is more than haunted. It +is itself a ghost. The court of the Spanish caliphs, at once the Mecca +and the Athens of the West, a holy city which counted its baths and +mosques by hundreds, a seat of learning whose universities were +renowned for mathematics and philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, and +medicine, and within whose libraries were treasured manuscripts by +hundreds of thousands, a star of art and poetry, it ever reproaches, +by this lovely, empty shadow, the Christian barbarism that spurned +away the Moors. + +The insulted Mosque of Cordova well-nigh makes Mohammedans of us all. +Entering by the studded Door of Pardon into the spacious Court of +Oranges, with its ancient trees and sparkling quintette of fountains, +one passes onward under the Arch of Blessings into a marble forest of +slender, sculptured pillars. The wide world, from Carthage to +Damascus, from Jerusalem to Ephesus and Rome, was searched for the +choicest shafts of jasper, breccia, alabaster, porphyry, until one +thousand four hundred precious columns bore the glory of rose-red +arches and wonder-roof of gilded and enamelled cedar. More than seven +thousand hanging lamps of bronze, filled with perfumed oil, flashed +out the mosaic tints,--golds, greens, violets, vermilions,--of +ceiling, walls, and pavement. All this shining sanctity culminated in +the Mihrab, or Prayer-Niche, an octagonal recess whose shell-shaped +ceiling is hollowed from a single block of pure white marble. This +Holy of Holies held the Koran, bound in gold and pearls, around +which the Faithful were wont to make seven turns upon their knees, an +act of devotion that has left indisputable grooves in the marble of +the pavement. + + [Illustration: AN ARAB GATEWAY IN BURGOS] + +The Christian conquerors splashed whitewash over the exquisite +ceiling, hewed down the pillars of the outer aisles to give space for +a fringe of garish chapels, and even chopped away threescore +glistening columns in the centre to make room for an incongruous +Renaissance choir, with an altar of silver gilt and a big pink +retablo. We could have wandered for endless hours among the strange +half-lights and colored shadows of that petrified faith of Islam, +marvelling on the processes of time. It is claimed that the Arab +mosque rose on the site of a Roman temple, whence Mahomet drove forth +Janus, to be in his own turn expelled by Christ. The race of those who +bowed themselves in this gleaming labyrinth has fared ill at Spanish +hands. Even now a Moor, however courteous and cultured, is refused +admission to certain Castilian churches, as the Escorial. + +How did we ever part from Cordova, from her resplendent, desecrated +mosque, her stone lanes of streets, her hinted patios, the Moorish +mills and Roman bridge of her yellow Guadalquivir? It must all have +been a morning dream, for the early afternoon saw us tucked away in +another second-class carriage speeding toward Granada. + +We were in beautiful Andalusia, _la tierra de Maria Santisima_. The +green slopes of the Sierra Morena, planted to the top with olive +groves, watched the beginnings of our journey, and banks of strange, +sweet flowers, with glimpses of Moorish minarets and groups of +dark-faced, bright-sashed peasants, looking as if they had just +stepped down from an artist's easel, beguiled us of all physical +discomforts save heat and thirst. When the sun was at its sorest, the +train drew up at a tumble-down station, and we looked eagerly for the +customary water seller, with his cry of "Water! Fresh water! Water +cooler than snow!" But it was too warm for this worthy to venture out, +and our hopes fastened on a picturesque old merchant seated in a shaft +of cypress shade beside a heap of golden oranges. Those juicy globes +were a sight to madden all the parched mouths in the train, and +imploring voices hailed the proprietor from window after window. But +our venerable hidalgo smoked his cigarette in tranquil ease, +disdaining the vulgarities of barter. At the very last moment we +persuaded a ragged boy in the throng of bystanders to fetch us a +hatful of the fruit. Then the peasant languidly arose, followed the +lad to our window, named an infinitesimal price, and received his coin +with the bow of a grandee. He was no hustler in business, this +Andalusian patriarch, but his dignity was epic and his oranges were +nectar. + +We shall never know whether or not we had an adventure that evening. A +wild-eyed tatterdemalion swung himself suddenly into our compartment +and demanded our tickets, but as all the Andalusians looked to our +unaccustomed view like brigands, we did not discriminate against this +abrupt individual, but yielded up our strips of pasteboard without +demur. A swarthy young Moor of Tangier, the only other occupant of the +carriage, sharply refused to surrender his own until the intruder +should produce a conductor's badge, whereupon the stranger swore in +gypsy, or "words to that effect," wrenched open the door and fled, +like Judas, into the outer dark. The Moor excitedly declared to us +that our tickets would be called for at the station in Granada, that +we should have to pay their price to the gate-keeper, and that our +irregular collector, hiding somewhere along the train, would be +admitted by that corrupt official to a share in the spoils. Moved by +our dismay, this son of the desert thrust his head through the window +at the next stop, and roared so lustily for the conductor and the +civil guard that, in a twinkling, the robber, if he was a robber, +popped up in the doorway again, like a Jack-in-the-box, and rudely +flung us back the tickets. Thereupon our benefactor, if he was a +benefactor, solemnly charged us never, on the Granada road, to give up +anything to anybody who wore no gilt on his cap. + +More and more the purple mountains were folding us about, until at +last we arrived at Granada, too tired for a thrill. Mr. Gulick's +constant care, which had secured us harborage in Madrid, had provided +welcome here. Content in mere well-being, it was not until the +following afternoon that tourist enterprise revived within us. Then we +somewhat recklessly wandered down from the Alhambra hill into the +heart of the People's Carnival, a second Sunday of festival given over +to the enjoyment of the lower classes. The grotesque costumes were +coarser than ever and the fun was rougher. The maskers cracked whips +at the other promenaders, blew horns, shook rattles, and struck about +them with painted bladders, but the balconies were bright with the +bewitching looks of Andalusian beauties, each vying with the rest in +throwing the many-colored _serpentinas_, curly lengths of paper that +crisp themselves in gaudy fetters about their captives. A single +business house in Granada claimed to have sold over a million of +these, representing a value of some ten thousand dollars, during +Carnival week. Southern Spain was grumbling bitterly against the +Government and the war taxes, and in Seville, where a tax is put on +masks, the Carnival had been given up this year as last; but Granada +would not be cheated of her frolic. Our study of this closing phase of +the Carnival was cut short by the recollection that it was, above all, +the _fiesta_ of pickpockets. Finding ourselves, on the superb _Paseo +del Salon_, in the midst of a hooting, jostling, half-gypsy mob, +rained upon with _confetti_, called upon in broken French and English, +pressed upon by boys and beggars, and happening to catch sight of the +stately bronze statue of Columbus which the women of Granada had +recently stoned because, by discovering America, he brought all the +Cuban troubles upon Spain, we took the hint of the wise navigator's +eye and decided that we two stray Yankees might be as well off +somewhere else. "Feet, why do I love you?" say the Spaniards; and so +said we, suiting the action to the word. + + + + +III + +WITHIN THE ALHAMBRA + + "The Sierra Nevada, an enormous dove which shelters under its + most spotless wings Saracen Granada."--ALARCON: _Los Seis + Velos_. + + +Our surprises were by no means over. We had come to Granada to bask in +the quintessence of earthly sunshine, and we found bleak rains, dark +skies, and influenza. The Moorish palace was indeed as wonderful as +our lifelong dream of it,--arched and columned halls of exquisite +fretwork, walls of arabesque where flushes and glints of color linger +yet, ceilings crusted with stalactite figures of tapering caprice, but +all too chill, even if the guides would cease from troubling, for +tarrying revery. We tarried, nevertheless, were enraptured, and caught +cold. We were dwelling in the village on the Alhambra hill, within the +circuit of the ruined fortress, in a villa kept by descendants of the +Moors, but the insolent grippe microbe respected neither ancient blood +nor republican. During the month of our residence, every member of the +household was brought low in turn, and there were days when even the +stubborn Yankees retreated to their pillows, lulled by the howling of +as wild March winds as ever whirled the grasshopper vane on Faneuil +Hall. From beyond the partition sounded the groans of our +fever-smitten hostess, and from the kitchen below arose the noise of +battle between our sturdy host and the rebel spoons and sauce-pans. If +we could not always swallow his bold experiments in gruel and +porridge, we could always enjoy the roars of laughter with which that +merry silversmith plied his unaccustomed labors. It is said that there +are only three months of the year when Granada is fit to live in, and +certainly February and March are not of these. But our delighted +spirits had no thought of surrender to our discomfited bodies. We +would not go away. It is better to ache in beautiful Granada than to +be at ease elsewhere. + +At the first peep of convalescence, we fled out of doors in search of +a sunbeam and discovered, again to our surprise, this immemorial +Alhambra hill as young as springtime. The famous fragments of towers, +with their dim legends of enchantment, all those tumbled masses of +time-worn, saffron-lichened masonry, are tragically old, yet the +tender petals of peach blossoms, drifting through the fragrant air, +lay pink as baby touches against those hoary piles. We rested beside +many an ancient ruin overclambered by red rosebuds or by branches +laden with the fresh gold of oranges, where thrushes practised songs +of welcome for the nightingales. We were too early for these sweetest +minstrels of the Alhambra, who, like the Moors of long ago, were +yearning on the edge of Africa for the Vega of Granada. + +One expects, shut in by the crumbling walls of the Alhambra, in shadow +of the ruddy towers, in sound of the Moslem fountains, to live with +dreams and visions for one's company, to have no associates less +dignified than the moonlight cavalcades of shadowy Arabian warriors, +whom the mountain caverns cast forth at stated seasons to troop once +more in their remembered ways, or lustrous-eyed, lute-playing +sultanas, or, at least, a crook-backed, snow-bearded magician, with a +wallet full of talismans, and footsteps that clink like the gold of +buried treasure. But here again the eternal fact of youth in the world +disconcerts all venerable calculations. The Alhambra dances and laughs +with children--ragamuffins, most of them, but none the less radiant +with the precious joy of the morning. + +They are gentle little people, too. It became well known on the hill +that we were Americans, yet not a pebble or rude word followed us from +the groups of unkempt boys among whom we daily passed. Once a mimic +regiment, with a deafening variety of unmusical instruments and a +genuine Spanish flag, charged on me roguishly and drew up in battle +square about their prisoner, but it was only to troll the staple song +of Spanish adolescence: "I want to be a soldier," and when I had +munificently rewarded the captain with a copper, the youngsters doffed +their varied headgear, dipped their banner in martial salute, and +contentedly re-formed their ranks. It was seldom that we gave money, +but we usually carried _dulces_ for the little ones, who, even the +dirtiest, have their own pretty standard of manners. + +Some half-dozen _pequenitos_, not one of whom was clearly out of +petticoats, were scampering off one day, for instance, their thanks +duly spoken, and their bits of candy just between hand and mouth, when +they turned with one accord, as if suddenly aware of an abruptness in +their leave-taking, and trotted back to bow them low, their tatters of +cap sweeping the ground, and lisp with all Spanish gravity, "Good +afternoon, senora." One chubby hidalgo tipped over with the +profundity of his obeisance, but the others righted him so solemnly +that the dignity of the ceremonial was unimpaired. + +The habit of begging, that plague of tourist resorts, is an incessant +nuisance on the Alhambra hill. Half-grown girls and young women were +the most shameless and persistent of our tormentors. Age can be +discouraged, and babyhood diverted, while the Spanish boy, if his +importunities are met by smile and jest, will break into a laugh in +the midst of his most pathetic appeals and let you off till next time. + +"A little money for our Blessed Lady's sake, senora. I am starving." + +"Wouldn't you rather have a cigarette?" + +"And that I would." + +"Then you are not starving, little brother. Run away. I have no +cigarettes." + +"But you have money for me, senora." + +"No, nor enough for myself, not enough to buy one tile of the +Alhambra." + +"Then may God take care of you!" + +"And of you!" + + [Illustration: PLAYING AT BULL-FIGHT] + +But the wild-haired, jet-eyed gypsy girl from the Albaicin is +impervious to mirth and untouched by courtesy. She would not do us the +honor of believing our word, even when we were telling the truth. + +"Five _centimos_ to buy me a scarlet ribbon! Five _centimos_!" + +"Not to-day, excuse me. I have no change." + +"Hoh! You have change enough. Look in your little brown bag and see." + +"I have no change." + +"Then give me a _peseta_. Come, now, a whole _peseta_!" + +"But why should I give you a _peseta_?" + +The girl stares like an angry hawk. + +"But why shouldn't you?" Darting away, she hustles together a group of +toddlers, hardly able to lisp, and drives them on to the attack. + +"Beg, Isabelita! Beg of the lady, little Conception! Beg, Alfonsito! +Beg, beg, beg! Beg five _centimos_, ten _centimos_! Beg a _peseta_ for +us all!" + +And out pop the tiny palms, and the babble of baby voices makes a +pleading music in the air. It is for such as these that the little +brown bag has learned to carry _dulces_. + +Before the month was over we had, in a slow, grippe-chastened fashion, +"done our Baedeker." We had our favorite courts and corridors in the +magical maze of the Moorish palace; we knew the gardens and fountains +of the _Generalife_, even to that many-centuried cypress beneath whose +shade the Sultana Zoraya was wont to meet her Abencerrage lover; our +fortunes had been told in the gypsy caves of the Albaicin; we had +visited the stately Renaissance cathedral where, in a dim vault, the +"Catholic Kings," Ferdinand and Isabella, take their royal rest; we +had made a first acquaintance with the paintings of the fire-tempered +Granadine, Alonso Cano, and paid our dubious respects to the convent +of Cartuja, with its over-gorgeous ornament and its horrible pictures +of Spanish martyrdoms inflicted by that "devil's bride," Elizabeth of +England. We had explored the parks and streets of the strange old +city, where we possessed, according to the terms of Spanish +hospitality, several houses; but better than the clamorous town we +liked our own wall-girdled height, with its songful wood of English +elms, planted by the Duke of Wellington, its ever murmuring runlets +of clear water, its jessamines and myrtles, its Arabian Nights of +mosque and tower, and its far outlook over what is perhaps the most +entrancing prospect any hill of earth can show. The sunset often found +us leaning over the ivied wall beneath the _Torre de la Vela_, that +bell-tower where the first cross was raised after the Christian +conquest, gazing forth from our trellised garden-nook on a vast +panorama of gray city all quaintly set with arch and cupola, of +sweeping plain with wealth of olive groves, vineyards, orange +orchards, pomegranates, aloes, and cypresses, bounded by glistening +ranks of snow-cloaked mountains. From the other side of the Alhambra +plateau, the fall is sheer to the silver line of the Darro. Across the +river rises the slope of the Albaicin, once the chosen residence of +Moorish aristocracy, but now dotted over, amid the thickets of cactus +and prickly pear, with whitewashed entrances to gypsy caves. Beyond +all shine the resplendent summits of the great Sierras. + +Yet it is strange how homely are many of the memories that spring to +life in me at the name of the Alhambra,--decorous donkeys, laden with +water-jars, trooping up the narrow footpath to the old Fountain of +Tears, herds of goats clinging like flies to the upright precipice, a +lurking peasant darting out on his wife as she passes with a day's +earnings hidden in her stocking and holding her close, with laughter +and coaxing, while he persistently searches her clothing until he +finds and appropriates that copper hoard, and our own cheery little +house-drudge washing our linen in a wayside rivulet and singing like a +bird as she rubs and pounds an unfortunate handkerchief between two +haphazard stones:-- + + "I like to live in Granada, + It pleases me so well + When I am falling asleep at night + To hear the _Vela_ bell." + +There is the proud young mother, too, whom we came upon by chance over +behind the Tower of the Princesses, where her pot of _puchero_ was +bubbling above a miniature bonfire, while the velvet-eyed baby boy +sucked his thumb in joyous expectation. She often made us welcome, +after that, to her home,--a dingy stone kitchen and bedroom, +unfurnished save for pallet, a few cooking-utensils, a chest or two, +and, fastened to the wall, a gaudy print of _La Virgen de las +Angustias_, the venerated _Patrona_ of Granada. But this wretched +abode, the remains of what may once have been a palace, opened on a +lordly pleasure-garden with walls inlaid with patterns of rainbow +tiles, whose broken edges were hidden by rose bushes. There were +pedestals and even fragments of images in this wild Eden, jets of +sparkling water and walks of variegated marble. In the course of the +month, English and Spanish callers climbed the hill to us and +encompassed us with kindness, but we still maintained our incorrigible +taste for low society and used to hold informal receptions on sunny +benches for all the tatterdemalions within sight. Swarthy boys, +wearied with much loafing, would thriftily lay aside their cigarettes +to favor us with conversation, asking many questions about America, +for whose recent action they gallantly declined to hold us +responsible. "It was not the ladies that made the war," said these +modern cavaliers of the Alhambra. + +Their especial spokesman was a shambling orphan lad of some fifteen +summers, with shrewd and merry eyes. Nothing pleased him better than +to give an ornamental hitch to the shabby, bright-colored scarf about +his thin, brown throat, and proceed to expound the political +situation. + +"You admire the Alhambra? I suppose you have no palaces in America +because your Government is a republic. That is a very good thing. Our +Government is the worst possible. All the loss falls on the poor. All +the gain goes to the rich. But there are few rich in Spain. America is +the richest country of all the world. When America fought us it was as +a rich man, fed and clothed, fighting a poor man weak from famine. And +the rich man took from the poor man all that he had. Spain has nothing +left--nothing." + +"Oh, don't say that! Spain has the Alhambra, and beautiful churches, +beautiful pictures." + +"Can one eat churches and pictures, my lady?" + +"And a fertile soil. What country outblooms Andalusia?" + +His half-shod foot kicked the battle-trampled earth of the immortal +hill contemptuously. + +"Soil! Yes. All the world has soil. It serves to be buried in." + +This budding politician graced us with his company one Sunday +afternoon, when we went down into Granada to see a religious +procession. Our Lady of Lourdes, escorted by a distinguished train of +ecclesiastical and civic dignitaries, with pomp of many shining lights +and sonorous instruments, with peal of church bells and incongruous +popping of fireworks, passed through extended ranks of candle-bearing +worshippers, along thronged streets, where every balcony was hung with +the national red and yellow, to the Church of Mary Magdalene. There +the sacred guest was entertained with a concert, and thence conducted, +with the same processional state, amid the same reverent salutations +of the multitude, back to her own niche. Our youthful guide showed +himself so devout on this occasion, kneeling whenever the image, borne +aloft in a glory of flowers and tapers, passed us, and gazing on every +feature of the pageant with large-eyed adoration, that we asked him, +as we climbed the hill again, if he would like to be a priest. But he +shrugged his shoulders. "There are better Christians in Spain than the +priests," he answered. + +The son of the house, Don Pepe, a young man of five and twenty, who +usually attended us on any difficult excursion, was also frankly +outspoken in his disapproval of the clergy. He could hardly hold his +countenance in passing a Franciscan friar. "There walks the ruin of +Spain," he muttered once, with bitter accent, turning to scowl after +the bareheaded, brown-frocked figure so common in Granada streets. We +had, indeed, our own little grudge against the friars, for they were +the only men of the city who forced us off the narrow sidewalks out +into the rough and dirty road. All other Granadines, from dandies to +gypsies, yielded us the strip of pavement with ready courtesy, but the +friars, three or four in Indian file, would press on their way like +graven images and drive us to take refuge among the donkeys. + +This escort of ours, formally a Catholic, was no more a lover of State +than of Church. He was eager to get to work in the world and, finding +no foothold, charged up his grievance against the Government. He was +firmly persuaded that Madrid had sold the Santiago and Manila +victories to Washington for sums of money down,--deep down in +official pockets. But his talk, however angry, would always end in +throwing out the hands with a gesture of despair. + +"But what use in revolutions? Spain is tired--tired of tumult, tired +of bloodshed, tired of deceit and disappointment. A new government +would only mean the old dogs with new collars. We, the people, are +always the bone to be gnawed bare. What use in anything? Let it go as +God wills." + +The Silvela and Polavieja ministry came in during our stay at Granada, +and the Liberal and Republican chorus against what was known as the +Reactionary Government swelled loud. "It means the yoke of the +Jesuits," growled our burly host. Our Alhambra dream suffered frequent +jars from these ignoble confusions of to-day. When we were musing +comfortably on the melancholy fortunes of Boabdil, a cheap newspaper +would be thrust before our eyes with an editorial headed "Boabdil +Sagasta." It is always best to do what one must. Since we could not be +left in peace to the imagination of plumy cavaliers, stars of Moslem +and Christian chivalry, who sowed this mount so thick with glorious +memories, we turned our thoughts to the poor soldiers from Cuba, +especially during the week throughout which they paraded the cities of +Spain in rag-tag companies under rude flags with the ruder motto: +"_Hungry Repatriados_." Their appearance was so woful that it became a +by-word. A child, picking up from a gutter one day a mud-stained, +dog-eared notebook, cried gleefully, "It's a _repatriado_." There was +no glamour here, but the courage and sacrifice, the love and anguish, +held good. + +Granada had borne her share in Spain's last war sorrow. So many of her +sons were drafted for the Antilles that her anger against America +waxed hot. A few months before our arrival every star-spangled banner +that could be hunted out in shop or residence was trampled and burned +in the public squares. The Washington Irving Hotel hastened to take +down its sign, and even the driver of its omnibus was sternly warned +by the people to erase those offensive American names from his vehicle +on pain of seeing it transformed into a chariot of fire. A shot, +possibly accidental, whistled through the office of the English +consul, who was given to understand, in more ways than one, that Spain +made little difference between "the cloaked enemy" and the foe in the +field. Meanwhile, month after month, the recruits were marched to the +station, and the City Fathers, who came in all municipal dignity to +bid the lads godspeed, were so overwhelmed by the weeping of the women +that they forgot the cream of their speeches. + +Among the new tales of Spanish valor told us on the Alhambra hill was +this:-- + +When lots were drawn for military service, one blithe young scapegrace +found in his hand a fortunate high number, but, walking away in fine +feather over his luck, he met the mother of a friend of his, sobbing +wildly as she went. Her son had been drafted, and the two hundred +dollars of redemption money was as far beyond her reach as those +dazzling crests of the Sierra Nevada are above the lame beggar at the +Alhambra gate. Then the kindly fellow, troubled by her grief and +mindful of the fact that, orphan as he was, his own parting would be +at no such cost of tears, offered to serve in her boy's stead. Her +passion of gratitude could not let his service go all unrecompensed. +Poorest of the poor, she went about among her humble friends, lauding +his deed, until she had collected, _peseta_ by _peseta_, the sum of +sixteen dollars, which she thrust into his hands to buy comforts for +the campaign. But another sobbing mother sought him out. He had saved +her neighbor's son; would he not save hers? Laughing at her logic and +moved by her faith in him, he answered: "I am only one man, senora. I +cannot go in place of two. But here are sixteen dollars. If you can +find a substitute at such a price, the money is yours." + +Sixteen dollars is a fortune to hunger and nakedness, and the +substitute was found. As the year wore on those two mothers did not +let the city forget its light-hearted hero, and a great assembly +gathered at the station to honor his return. A remnant of his comrades +descended from the train, but as for him, they said, he had died in +Cuba of the fever months before. + +His was no poetic death like that of the Abencerrages. Happy +Abencerrages! They knew the Alhambra in the freshness of her beauty. +Their last uplifted glances looked upon the most exquisite ceilings in +the world. Their blood left immortal stains on the marble base of the +fountain. But this young Spaniard, in his obscure Cuban grave, only +one out of the eighty thousand, will promptly be forgotten. _No +importa._ There must be something better than glory for the man who +does more than his duty. + + [Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF CORDOVA] + + + + +IV + +A FUNCTION IN GRANADA + + "O Love Divine, Celestial Purity, + Pity my cries! + My soul is prone before a clouded throne. + Let thy keen light arise, + Pierce this obscurity + And free my dream-bound eyes!" + --_Ganivet's Last Poem._ + + +The civilization of Spain, streaked as it is with Oriental barbarisms, +belated and discouraged as the end of the nineteenth century finds it, +is still in many respects finer than our own. In everything that +relates to grace and charm of social intercourse, to the dignified +expression of reverence, compassion, and acknowledgment, Spain puts us +to the blush. I was especially touched in Granada by the whole-souled +sympathy and veneration with which the city rendered public honors to +one of its sons, Angel Ganivet, who died in the preceding winter, a +poet hardly thirty. + +Although I had glanced over obituary notices of this Spanish writer in +the Paris papers, I had but a vague idea of his work and life, and +sought, before the night of the memorial ceremonies, for further +information. I appealed, first of all, to our table waiter, whose +keen black eyes instantly turned sad and tender. + +"_Pobre! Pobre!_ He threw himself into the river at Riga, in Russia, +where he was consul. It was at the close of the war. And he such a +genius! So young! So true a Spaniard! But all Granada will be at the +theatre. He left his play to Granada, asking that it be seen here +first of all. I have never read his books, but I have met him in the +streets, and lifted my hat to him for a wise _caballero_ who cared +greatly for Spain." + +My next appeal was to our kind neighbor, the English consul, who +assured me laughingly that he, like myself, was vainly ransacking the +few bookstores of Granada for Ganivet's works. + +"The first time I ever heard the name," he added, "was some three or +four years ago, when I noticed an old gentleman standing often in +front of my house, and gazing at the British coat-of-arms above my +door. He told me one day when I drew him into talk that he had a +nephew, Angel Ganivet, roaming in foreign lands. 'But he does not +forget his old uncle,' said he. 'I always receive my little pension +prompt to the day, and so I like to look at the foreign shields about +the city, and remember my nephew, far away, who remembers me.' That +was a trifle, of course, but it gave me a kindly feeling for the young +fellow, and I'm sorry he came to such an end. They found him in the +river, you know. I dare say it was suicide, and likely enough the +defeat of Spain had its share in causing his despondency; but nobody +knows. He was a zealous patriot, I understand, and all Granada seems +to take his death to heart." + +My next authority was an aged Granadine, a man of letters; but he had +not read Ganivet's books. + +"I have heard of him often," he said, "but I never met him. He was not +much in Granada, although he seems to have had a romantic affection +for the place. _Bueno!_ Its pomegranates are worth remembering. But +Ganivet liked to live in foreign countries, with the idea of +understanding his own better by comparison. He was young; he still had +hopes for Spain. Eighty years are on my head, and I have long done +with hoping. I have served in my country's armies, I have served in +her Government, I have seen much of Church and State, and since the +night when they murdered General Prim I have seen nothing good. But +Ganivet had faith in the national future, and the people, without +waiting to ask on what that faith was founded, love him for it, and +mourn his loss as if he had been their benefactor. They are all going +to pour into the theatre to-morrow night to hear his symbolic drama, +that not one in a hundred of them will try to understand, and the +hundredth will get it all wrong." + +The "function" took place in the _Gran Teatro de Isabel la Catolica_, +a name to conjure with throughout all Spain, and especially in +Granada. The day set for the performance, and widely advertised by +newspapers and posters for a month in advance, was a Wednesday. On +Tuesday, in a fever lest we be too late, we arrived at the ticket +office. We had our hurry all to ourselves. Apparently nobody else had +as yet taken a seat. The office was empty, save for us and our +attendant train of boys and beggars. + +The official in charge, deaf, slow, and courteous, invited us into a +private room and gave us rocking-chairs by the _brasero_, while he, +with paper and pencil, laboriously added the price of our _entradas_ +to the price of our modest box, and spent five minutes in subtracting +the amount from the figure of the small bill we handed him. The +counting out of the change was another strain on his arithmetic, and, +after all these toils, we were still without tickets. He said he would +"write them out at home," and we might send some one for them the next +day. But he affably offered to show us the theatre, and led us through +black passages to a great dusky space, where, while he struck match +after match, we could catch glimpses of pit and balconies, and even a +far-off stage, with a group of actors gathered about a lamp, +rehearsing the play. In Wednesday morning's paper, however, they +announced with entire nonchalance that they were not ready yet, and +would postpone the representation until Thursday. + +On Thursday evening the theatre, choking full though it was, hardly +presented a brilliant appearance. Granada is not Madrid, nor Seville, +and the best the Granadines had to offer their dead poet was the +tribute of their presence in such guise as they could command. The +big, barnlike theatre, with its rows of broken lamp-chimneys, looked +shabby, and the rag-tag proportion of the audience was so great that +it overflowed the _Paraiso_ into the aisles and doorways and all +conceivable corners. People were so jumbled and crumpled together +that, with reminiscences of my traveller's hold-all, I found myself +wondering if they would ever shake out smooth again. + +Whole families were there, from the infant in arms that invariably +screamed when the actors were reciting any passage of peculiar +delicacy, to the dozing old grandfather, who kept dropping his +cigarette out of his mouth in a way that threatened to set us all on +fire. The gentlemen, even in the boxes and the stalls, were generally +ungloved, and we did not see a dress suit in the house. Cloaks and +neckties were ablaze with color as usual, but the masculine toilets +eluded our stricter observation; for when the curtain was up, our eyes +were all for the stage, and between acts your Spaniard sits with hat +on head, enveloped in a cloud of tobacco smoke. + +But the Andalusian ladies made amends for everything. By some +prehistoric agreement, Spanish women have yielded the rainbow to the +men, reserving for their own attire the quiet elegance of black or the +festive beauty of pure white. The dress that evening, even in the +principal boxes, was conspicuously simple. But the clear brunette +complexions, the delicate contours, the rich black hair worn high and +crowned with natural flowers, the waving fans and flashing glances, +cast a glamour over the whole scene. + +The memorial rites themselves made up in quantity whatever they might +lack in quality, continuing from eight o'clock till two. An orchestra, +organized from Granada musicians for this occasion, opened the +programme. The bust of Ganivet, wrought by a young Granada sculptor, +was reverently unveiled. The star actor, Fuentes of Granada, who had +undertaken with his troupe to present his fellow-townsman's drama +purely as a labor of love, read an interpretation written by one of +Granada's leading critics. The orchestra was in evidence again, +introducing the first act, entitled "Faith." After this the orchestra +played Breton's serenade, "In the Alhambra," and the curtain rose for +the second act on so natural a scene-painting of the famous fortress +that the audience went wild with enthusiasm, and the blushing artist, +also a Granadine, had to be literally shoved from the wings upon the +stage to receive his plaudits. + +Between the second act, "Love," and the last act, "Death," came an +_andante elegiaco_, "written expressly for this artistic solemnity" by +a Granada composer. Here, again, the appreciation of the audience was +unbounded, and nothing would do but the reluctant master must leave +his box, struggle through the packed multitude to the conductor's +stand, and take the baton himself for a second rendering from the +first chord to the last. At the close of the third act the orchestra +did its part once more, and the celebration ended, somewhat +incongruously, with a lively bit of modern comedy. + +There was imperfection enough, had one been disposed to look for it. +The fifty members of the impromptu orchestra had hardly brought +themselves into accord, the acting was not of the best Spanish +quality, and the players had not half learned their parts. Every long +declamation was a duet, the prompter's rapid undertone charging along +beneath the actor's voice like a horse beneath its rider. But the +audience understood, forgave, were grateful, and sat with sublime +patience through the long pauses between the acts, repeating one to +another, "They say Fuentes is studying his speeches." As the caustic +old scholar had predicted, most of them, apparently, did not try to +understand the allegory. They applauded the obviously poetic touches, +the palpably dramatic situations, and when, in the Alhambra act, a +gypsy air was sung, the galleries delightedly caught it up and +chorused it over again. + +But in general that nondescript assembly looked on in passive gravity +while _El Escultor de su Alma_ was rendered, as their poet had +bidden, in their own theatre and for them. They may have gathered +hints and snatches of that mystical message from the dead, whose lofty +look, fixed in shining marble, dominated all the house. + +The restless Spirit of Man, seeking the perfect Truth, tears himself +loose from the bride of his youth, Heavenly Faith, and wanders in +beggary through the world. Yet Truth for him can only be the child of +his union with Faith, and in parting from one he has parted from both. +In old age, almost maddened by his wanderings and woes, he meets his +Truth again, full-grown and beautiful, but is so fierce and wild in +his desire to possess her that only Death can reconcile them--Death +and that Heavenly Faith who could not abandon him, though he had +forsaken her. + +Ganivet's mother, who, with his brothers, witnessed the play from +behind the scenes, is said to have rejoiced in it as a last solemn +assurance from her son of his secure repose in the Catholic faith of +his fathers. It may not have meant so much to that great audience, +many of whom could neither read nor write, but those tiers upon tiers +of dark Spanish faces were full of earnestness and of a proud content. +However it may have baffled their heads, this legacy of a play, in its +Alhambra setting, spoke clearly to their hearts. One ragamuffin said +to another, as an all-sufficient criticism, "He was thinking of +Granada when he wrote it." + +A few days later, I found and eagerly read Angel Ganivet's most +significant booklet, _Idearium_, published in the autumn of 1896, in +which he sets forth his dream for the future of his beloved country. + +Ganivet claims that the deepest moral element in Spanish character is +stoicism, "not the brutal and heroic stoicism of Cato, nor the serene +and majestic stoicism of Marcus Aurelius, nor the rigid and extreme +stoicism of Epictetus, but the natural and humane stoicism of Seneca." +He holds that Seneca, himself a Spaniard, found his philosophy in the +inherent genius of the country, and only gave voice to the indwelling +soul of Spain. The Spanish church, cherishing this element, became a +thing apart from the general Catholicism of Europe. The long warfare +and incidental intercourse with the Moors stamped Spanish Christianity +with its two other characteristic features of mysticism and +fanaticism. "Mysticism was like a sanctification of African +sensuality, and fanaticism was a turning against ourselves, when the +Reconquest ended, of the fury accumulated during eight centuries of +combat." + +The author, _muy espanol_, is naturally _muy catolico_, yet he +protests against violence in the repression of other forms of +religion. "Liberty should bring with it no fear." He believes that +Spain is, above all, _sui generis_, independent and individual. The +representative Spaniard is a free lance, striving and conquering by +his own impulse and under his own direction, like the Cid of old or +Cortes in the field of arms, like Loyola in the church, like Cervantes +in letters. He lays stress on the achievements of Spanish art--the +master paintings of Velazquez and Murillo, the master dramas of Lope +de Vega and Calderon, as expressing, better than political history has +expressed, that intensification of Spanish life resulting from the +struggle against the Arabs "and making of our nation a Christian +Greece." + + [Illustration: THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT IN GRANADA] + +He finds it logical and right that Spain, after her successive +periods of Roman influence, Visigothic influence, Arab influence, +and her modern era of colonial expansion, should now abandon foreign +policies and concentrate all her vitality within her own borders. Not +by the sword, but by the spirit, would he have Spain henceforth hold +sway over mankind, and especially over the Spanish-descended peoples +of South America. + +He winces under the monopoly of the term "American" by the citizens of +the United States--"a formidable nation," he admits, "very populous, +very rich, and apparently very well governed." He notes, in contrast, +the poverty and comparative anarchy of the South American republics, +but he urges still that the Spanish character, shaped through such +eventful centuries, is an entity, clear and firm, with qualities well +defined, whereas the Yankees are yet in the fusing pot. He would have +all the peoples of Hispanian descent recognize and realize in +themselves this Spanish individuality, effecting not a political +union, but a "confederation, intellectual and spiritual," whose first +aim should be the preservation of Spanish ideas and ideals, and the +second, the free gift of these to all the nations of the earth. + +The ancient glory of Spain, he says, has vanished like a dream; let a +new and whiter glory dawn. Her career of material conquest is ended. +Those savage struggles have left her faint and spent. Let her now seek +to attain, through purification and discipline, such fresh fulness of +life as shall insure the triumph of her spiritual forces--her fervent +faith and her unworldly wisdom. "Our Ulysses is Don Quixote." + + + + +V + +IN SIGHT OF THE GIRALDA + + "We were nearing Seville. I felt the eager throbbing of my + heart. Seville had ever been for me the symbol of light, the + city of love and joy."--VALDES: _La Hermana San Sulpicio_. + + +One of the wise sayings of Andalusia runs, "Do not squeeze the orange +till the juice is bitter." And so we said good-by to Granada before we +were ready to go, and persuaded ourselves, in defiance of maps and +time-tables, that our shortest route to Seville led by Ronda. The +weather did its very best to dampen our enthusiasm for this wildest of +crag aeries, equally famed for romantic beauty of outlook and +salubrity of air. Men live long in Ronda, unless, indeed, they hit +against a bullet while practising their hereditary trade of +_contrabandista_. They have a saying that octogenarians there are only +chickens, but one should not believe all that they say in Ronda. Did +we not clamber, slipping on wet stones, down a precipitous path to +peer, from under dripping umbrellas, at what our guide declared was an +old Roman bridge? "It doesn't look old and it doesn't look Roman," was +the artist's dubious comment, but our highly recommended conductor, a +Gib, as the English-Spanish natives of Gibraltar Rock are called, +assured us that it was built in the days of Julius Caesar, but had been +wonderfully well preserved. We eyed him thoughtfully, bearing in mind +that he had already pointed out the statue of a long-dead poet as a +living politician; but we meekly continued through the lashing rain to +follow his long footsteps over the breakneck ways of that natural +fortress where race after race has left its autograph. The Roman +columns of the church make the Arab cupolas look young, and put the +Gothic choir altogether out of countenance. A bright-shawled peasant +woman, who we fondly hoped might be a smuggler's wife, drew us +delicious water from a Roman well in a Moorish patio, where a mediaeval +king of gentle memory used to drink his wine from cups wrought of the +skulls of those enemies whom he had beheaded with his own sword. But +not all this, and more, could efface our doubts of that Roman bridge, +which, indeed, we found, on a belated perusal of our guide-books, had +been erected by a Malaga architect in the last century. + +The street rabble of Ronda was the rudest and fiercest we encountered +anywhere in Spain. Several times our guide wheeled suddenly to +confront some gypsyish lad, creeping up behind us with stone all ready +to throw, and when, at a glint of sunset through the stormy clouds, we +tried to slip out unattended to the neighboring _alameda_, with its +far-sweeping prospect of folded mountain ranges and its vertical view +of gorge and rushing river, the children actually hounded us back to +the hotel. Their leader was a scrofulous boy, with one cheek eaten +away, who had been taught to press his face so closely upon strangers +that, in fear of his open sore, they would hastily give money to keep +him back. He was a merry scamp and got a world of sport out of his +sickening business, laughing at the top of his voice to see himself +"avoided like the sun." + +Although the tempest had lulled by evening, Ronda, still inhospitable, +would not let us sleep. All up and down the window-grated street +sounded, from midnight to morning, a tinkling of guitars. It was, +forsooth, St. Joseph's Day, and every Don Jose, every Dona Josefa, +every little Pepe, every pretty Pepita, must be saluted by a serenade. +All Andalusians are musical, taking much pleasure, moreover, in one of +their own bits of philosophy, "The poorest player has his uses, for he +can at least drive the rats out of the house." Rats or no, we left +Ronda by the morning train. + +Our carriage was crowded with several Spaniards and a "Jew-Gib," who, +without saying "_oxte ni moxte_," assumed full charge of us and our +belongings for the journey. This unceremonious but really helpful +escort put every one of his fellow-travellers through a sharp +catechism as to birthplace, business, destination, and the like. Our +turn came first of all. "You are English?" "We speak English." "Ha!" +He fell into our own vernacular. "Came about three thousand miles to +Spain?" "Across the channel." He chuckled with prompt appreciation of +the situation and mendaciously translated to the carriage at large, +"The ladies are distinguished Londoners, on their way to visit +relatives in Seville," whereat the Andalusians smiled sleepily upon us +and asked permission to smoke. We consented cheerfully, as our Spanish +sisters had taught us that we should. "I like it," one pallid senora +had said on an earlier trip. "It makes me sick, yes, but men ought to +be men." + +We were journeying toward the very palace of the sun, with gray ranks +of olive trees standing guard on either hand. "And posted among them, +like white doves, could be seen now and again a few mills where the +bitter olive is wont to pour its juice." Orange plantations and hedges +of the bluish aloe, fig trees, palms, and all manner of strange, +tropical flowers gladdened our approach to Seville. And when, at last, +we saw from afar the world-praised Giralda, the Moorish bell-tower of +the cathedral, soaring pink into a purple sky, we felt as if we were +really arrived in fairyland. + +Our friendly Gib put his tall figure between us and the howling press +of swarthy porters and cab-drivers, scolded, expostulated, threatened, +picked out his men, beat down their prices, called up a policeman to +witness the bargain and take the number of our cab, raised his hat, +and vanished into grateful memory. + +Six weeks in Seville! And six weeks in a Seville home, where evening +after evening the gay youth of Andalusia laughed and sang, danced and +rattled the castanets, and cast about our wondering Western souls +strange witcheries from which we shall never more go free. It was all +as Oriental as a dream. The Sultana of the South lifted her gleaming +coronet of domes and pinnacles above such a kingdom of idle, delicious +mirth as has permanently unfitted us for considering it important to +do our duty. Our hereditary bits of Plymouth Rock were melted up in +that fervent heat. Right or wrong? "Where there is music, there can be +no harm." True or false? + + "In this world, my masters, + There's neither truth nor lie, + But all things take the color + Of the glass before the eye." + +Only six weeks, and yet we shall ever go homesick for Seville, for her +palm trees and orange gardens, her narrow streets like lanes of +shadow, her tiled and statued patios, with caged birds singing answer +to the ripple of the fountain, the musical midnight cry of her +_serenos_, "her black and burning eyes like beacons in the dark," her +sighing serenaders, "lyrical mosquitoes," outside the grated window or +beneath the balcony, her fragrances of rose and jessamine, her poetic +sense of values. A homeless Andalusian, dinnerless and in rags, strums +on his guitar, a necessity which he would not dream of selling for +such a mere luxury as bread, and is happy. There is always sun to +sleep in. There are always piquant faces and gliding forms to gaze +after. What more does a mortal want? Exquisite Seville! No wonder that +her exiled sons still sing, after years of "comfortable living" in +foreign cities:-- + + "When I am missing, hunt me down + In Andalusia's purple light, + Where all the beauties are so brown, + And all the wits so bright." + +Yet the old Arabian enchantment casts a glamour which the Anglo-Saxon +vision dimly recognizes as such and faintly strives against. To the +clear survey all is not charm. Grace, mirth, and music, on the one +hand, are offset by ignorance, suffering, and vice on the other. Many +evil things were told us, and some ugly things we saw, but to look on +Andalusia is to love her, even while realizing that to live with her +would put that love to a very stringent test. + +The lordly Guadalquivir, for instance, so fair to see from the +picture-making summit of the Giralda, as he lingers through his +blooming Paradise, forgetful of the ocean, is not altogether goodly. + + "Ay, ay, the black and stinging flies he breeds + To plague the decent body of mankind!" + +The Andalusian leisure was a perpetual delight to us. A typical +Seville shop reaches far along the street front, with many open doors, +and a counter running the full length. Here ladies sit in pairs and +groups, never singly, to cheapen fans and mantillas, while the smiling +salesmen, cigarette in hand, shrug and gesticulate and give back +banter for banter as gayly as if it were all a holiday frolic. Scraps +of the graceful bargaining would float to our ears. + +"Is the quality good?" + +"As good as God's blessing." + +Among the tempting wares of Seville are Albacete knives, with gorgeous +handles of inlaid ebony, tortoise, or ivory. The peasant women of +Andalusia so resent the charge of carrying these knives in their +garters that the Seville gamin dodges offence by asking them in an +unnecessarily loud voice if they carry garters in their knives. The +irascible dames do not stand upon fine points of rhetoric, however, +and when the small boy has delivered his shot, he does well to take to +his heels. We once saw one of these sturdy women, while a line of +soldiers, bristling with steel, was holding a street, seize a gallant +son of Mars by the shoulder and swing him, amid the laughter of his +comrades, out of her path as if he were a cabbage. Nobody knew how to +stop her, and she trudged serenely on, her broad back to those +helpless bayonets, down the forbidden way. + +The beggars of Seville are gentler than those of Ronda and Granada, +but hardly less numerous. Mendicant figures are thick as Guadalquivir +mosquitoes in my memory of Andalusia. Some of those pitiful children +will haunt me till I die. There was a forlorn urchin, with filmy, +frightful eyes, to be seen in all weathers crouching on one side of +the road leading up to the Alhambra, so dull and dreary a little +fellow that he hardly grasped the coppers when they were thrust into +his weakly groping hands, and hardly stayed his monotonous formula of +entreaty for his other monotonous formula of thanks. There was an +idiot child in Seville--a mere lump of deformity--that would rush out +upon the startled stranger with an inarticulate, fierce little yell, +clutching at charity with a tiny, twisted claw. He seemed the very +incarnation of childish woe and wrong. Almost every hand dived into +pocket for him, and he was probably worth far more to his proprietors +than his rival on the street, a crafty little girl, with the most +lustrous eyes that painter ever dreamed. They were not blue nor gray, +but a living light in which both those colors had been melted. + +The economists, who say so firmly that "nothing should ever be given +to mendicant children," can hardly have had the experience of seeing +Murillo's own cherubs, their wings hidden under the dirt, fluttering +about the car windows at Andalusian stations. I have it still on my +conscience that I occasionally gave away my comrade's share of our +luncheon as well as my own. She was too young and too polite to +reproach me, but too hungry to be comforted by the assurance that I +reproached myself. Sometimes a foreign traveller, very sure of his +Spanish, would attempt remonstrance with these small nuisances. I +remember one kindly Teuton in particular. Commerce had claimed him for +its own, but the predestined German professor shone out of his mild +blue eyes. A ragamuffin had mounted the car steps to beg at the +window, and Mein Herr delivered him such a lecture that the youngster +clung to his perch, fascinated with astonishment at the novel +doctrine, until the train was in alarmingly swift motion. + + [Illustration: THE ALHAMBRA. HALL OF JUSTICE] + +"This is a very bad habit of thine. I told thee so a month ago." + +"Me, sir?" + +"Thee, boy. When I passed over this road last, thou wert begging at +the windows, to my shame if not to thine. Tut, tut! Go thy ways. Look +for work, work, work." + +"Work, sir?" + +"Work, boy. And when thou hast found it, love it, and do it with a +will. Learn to read and write. Wash thy face and change thy customs, +and when thou art richer than I, then will I give thee a _peseta_." + +Mendicancy is bred of ignorance, and in the seventeen and a half +millions that make up the population of Spain, more than twelve +millions do not read nor write. + +Seville sight-seeing is no brief matter. You must climb the Giralda, +walk in the parks, view the yellowed fragments of the ancient city +wall, visit the tobacco factory, shop in _Las Sierpes_, buy pottery in +Triana, see the gypsy dances in the cafes, attend the Thursday +rag-fair, do reverence to the Columbus manuscripts in the _Biblioteca +Columbina_, look up the haunts of Don Juan, Figaro, Pedro the Cruel, +and explore the curious "House of Pilate," which, tradition says, was +built by a pilgrim noble after the Jerusalem pattern. You must lose +your heart to the Alcazar, the Alhambra of Seville, a storied palace +embowered in fountain-freshened gardens of palm and magnolia, oranges +and cypresses, rose and myrtle, with shadowy arcades leading to marble +baths and arabesqued pavilions. You must follow Murillo from gallery +to gallery, from church to church, above all, from the _Hospital de la +Caridad_, where hang six of his greatest compositions, to the _Museo +Provincial_, where over a score of the Master's sacred works, lovely +Virgins, longing saints, deep-eyed Christ-Childs, rain their sweet +influence. And first, last, and always, there is the cathedral. We had +been stunned at Burgos, blind to all save the Moorish features of +Cordova, almost untouched by the cold splendors of Granada, but to +Seville, as later to Toledo, we surrendered utterly. Beauty, mystery, +sublimity--these are Seville cathedral. Five centuries have gone to +the rearing and enriching of those solemn aisles and awful choir. The +colossal structure, second in size only to St. Peter's, is a majesty +before which Luther himself might well have trembled. Within a Spanish +cathedral one begins to understand the mighty hold of Roman +Catholicism on Spain. "I love," says Alarcon, whose jest and earnest +are as closely twined as fibres of the same heart, "the clouds of +incense which rise to the cupola of the Catholic temple, amid the +harmonies of the holy organ. (For this I am not a Protestant.)" And +elsewhere, writing of his childhood, he speaks of receiving in the +cathedral of Guadix all his first impressions of artistic +beauty,--beauty of architecture, music, painting, processional +splendors, tissue of gold and silver, cunning embroideries and +jewel-work, his first sense, in short, of poetry. And all these +impressions were inextricably blent with his first yearnings of holy +aspiration, his first passion of mystical devotion. But not even +Seville cathedral could win over our full sympathy. Too heavy were the +faces of the priests who "sang the gori gori," too selfish that wigged +and jointed doll, "Our Lady of Kings," with her sixty gorgeous +mantles, a few of which would have clothed all the poor of Andalusia. +Who shall draw the line between faith and superstition? + +But let not the tourist suppose he can escape his tyrant Baedeker even +at the top of the Giralda. There are excursions that must be taken to +points of interest outside the city. Most imperative of all is the +trip to the ruined Roman amphitheatre of Italica, guarded by the +mighty names of Scipio Africanus, Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius. Off +we start, a dozen strong, in a great, open carriage, all the +women-folk with fans and veils and with flowers in the hair. We rattle +past the cathedral, over the bridge to Triana and out into the +sweet-breathed country, passing many a picturesque group on the +road,--these two peasants, for example, with their yellow-handled +knives thrust into scarlet girdles, tossing dice under a fig tree. Our +meditations among the crumbling blocks of that savage play-house would +perhaps interest the reader less than our luncheon. Such Andalusian +dainties as we swallowed,--cold soups like melted salads, home-made +fig marmalade, cinnamon pastes of which the gypsies know the secret, +and sugared chestnuts overflowed by a marvellous syrup wherein could +be detected flavors of lemon peel, orange peel, and a medley of +spices! In that scene of ancient bloodshed, of the lion's wrath and +the martyr's anguish, we ate, drank, and were merry, but our banquet +tasted of ghosts. + + + + +VI + +PASSION WEEK IN SEVILLE + + "All that was gracious was bestowed by the Virgin, and she was + the giver of all that human creatures could ask for. God + frowned, while she smiled; God chastised, but she forgave; + this last notion was by no means a strange one. It is accepted + with almost absolute faith among the laboring classes of the + rural parts of Spain."--GALDOS: _Marianela_. + + +Holy week throngs Seville to overflowing. The devout no longer scourge +themselves in public, sprinkling the pavements with their blood, but +Spaniards flock from all Andalusia, from Madrid, and even from the +northern provinces to the sunny city on the storied Guadalquivir. +Hotel charges run from twelve dollars a day up to incredible figures; +a mere bed in a lodging house costs its three dollars, four dollars, +or five dollars a night, and fortunate are those who enjoy the +hospitality of a private home. + +The ceremonies opened Sunday morning with the procession of palms. We +had been told by our cathedral guide the day before that this +procession would take place at seven or half-past seven at the latest, +and had asked the maid to call us at half-past six. As the chiming +bells should have warned us, her knock was an hour tardy, but when, +breakfastless and eager, we reached the cathedral a few minutes after +eight, there was as yet no sign of a procession. Mass was being said +in the Sagrario and in several chapels, and the morning light poured +in through the rich-colored windows upon groups of kneeling figures +before every shrine. The women wore black mantillas, for, although +this most graceful of headdresses is losing credit on the fashionable +promenades of Seville, and is almost never seen in open carriages, +Holy Week demands it of all the faithful. + +We asked a white-robed young chorister when the procession would form. +He answered with encouraging precision, "In twenty minutes." We roamed +about for a half hour or more through those majestic spaces, beneath +those soaring arches, aspiration wrought in stone, until by chance in +that shifting multitude we came face to face with our guide of the day +before. We asked how soon the procession would form. He said, "In +twenty minutes," and we went home for coffee. + +When we returned the procession was streaming out of the cathedral +into the street of the _Gran Capitan_. It was simple and all the more +attractive for that simplicity. The colors of standards and vestments +were mainly purple and gold, and the long, yellow fronds of palm, +blown by the fresh breeze from the river, gleamed brighter than the +sheen of candle or of mitre. Turning the corner, the procession, now +facing the beautiful Giralda, entered by the ample Door of Pardon, +still incrusted with its Arabic decorations, into the Court of +Oranges, whose ripe fruit gave new touches of gold to the picture. + +Venders of palm were stationed in every sheltered corner, selling +their wares, more than twice the height of a man, at fifteen cents +the frond, while boys, darting about with armfuls of olive, were glad +to take a cent the branch, and not have the best of their leafy store +filched from them by sly old women, more intent, like the rest of us, +on getting a blessing than deserving it. + +Through the multitude the glittering palms and purple robes swept on +back into the cathedral, where the silent and remote archbishop, an +image of gold in his splendid apparel, shed his benediction not only +over the proud palms, but over every spray of "little gray leaves," +like those of Gethsemane. These blessed palms, sprinkled with holy +water and wafting strange fragrances of incense, would be carried home +and kept in myriad balconies all the year through, to protect the +house from "the all-dreaded thunder-stone." + +That Sunday afternoon at five o'clock we were leaning out expectantly +from our host's best balcony. With the constant Spanish courtesy, he +had betaken himself, with the children of the household, to a less +commanding balcony below, and his eldest son had considerately +withdrawn, accompanied by his fiancee, to a mere speck of a balcony +above. This left a dozen of us, Spanish, English, and American, to +enjoy as good a view as the city afforded of the processional +tableaux. + +The oblong _Plaza de la Constitucion_, the scene in days gone by of +many a tournament, _auto de fe_, and bull-fight, is bounded on one +side by the ornate Renaissance facade of the city hall, and on the +other, in part, by the plain front of the court-house, before which +criminals used to be done to death. Private dwellings, with their +tiers of balconies, one of which had fallen to our happy lot, cross +the wider end of the _plaza_, while the other opens into the brilliant +street of _Las Sierpes_, too narrow for carriages, but boasting the +gayest shop windows and merriest cafes of all the town. + +The _plaza_, always animated, fairly rippled with excitement this Palm +Sunday afternoon. The grand stand, erected in front of the city hall, +was filled, although many of the camp-chairs and benches placed in +thick-set rows on the farther side of the line of march were not yet +rented. Thursday and Friday are the days that draw the multitudes. The +crowd was bright with uniforms, most conspicuous being the spruce +white-edged, three-cornered hats and dark-blue, red-faced coats of the +civil guard. Venders of peanuts, peanut candy, macaroons, caramels, +and all manner of _dulces_ swung their baskets from one sweet-toothed +Spaniard to another, while wisely the water-seller went in their wake, +with the artistic yellow jar over his shoulder. One young pedler was +doing a flourishing business in crabs, the customers receiving these +delicacies in outstretched pocket handkerchiefs. + +Busy as our eyes were kept, we were able to lend ear to the +explanations of our Spanish friends, who told us that the church +dignitaries, after the procession of palms, took no official part in +the shows of Passion Week, although many of the clergy belonged, as +individuals, to the religious brotherhoods concerned. The church +reserves its street displays for Corpus Christi. These brotherhoods, +societies of ancient origin, and connected with some church or chapel, +own dramatic properties often of great intrinsic value and +considerable antiquity. + +For days before Holy Week one may see the members busy in the churches +at the task of arranging groups of sacred figures, vested as richly as +possible in garments of silk and velvet, with ornaments of jewels and +gold, on platforms so heavy that twenty-five men, at the least, are +needed to carry each. These litters are escorted through the principal +streets and squares of the city by their respective societies, each +brotherhood having its distinctive dress. It is customary for every +_cofradia_ to present two pageants--the first in honor of Christ; the +second, and more important, in honor of Mary, to whom chivalrous Spain +has always rendered supreme homage; but sometimes the two tableaux are +combined into one. + +After long watching and waiting we saw, far down _Las Sierpes_, the +coming of the first procession. A line of police marched in advance to +clear the road. Then appeared a loosely ordered company of fantastic +figures in blue capes and blue peaked caps, absurdly high and reaching +down to the shoulder, with holes cut for the eyes. From beneath the +capes flowed white frocks, and the gloves and sandals were white. +These "Nazarenes," who looked like a survival of the Carnival, +conducted in silence a litter upon which was erected an image of the +crucified Christ, with face uplifted as if in prayer. + +The pageant halted before the doors of the city hall to greet the +Alcalde, who rose from his red velvet chair and bared his head. Men +uncovered, and people stood all along the route, but acclamations were +reserved for Our Lady of the Star. Her attendant troop was dressed +like the preceding, with a star embroidered in white on the shoulder +of the blue tunic. Her litter was ablaze with candles and laden with +flowers; her outsweeping train was upborne by four little pages, and a +brass band followed her with unceasing music. + + [Illustration: FILLING THE WATER-JARS] + +Sunset colors were in the sky before the procession of the second +brotherhood arrived. At last, far down the _Sierpes_, the dusk was +dotted with the gleam of many tapers, and above these, most impressive +in the dim distance, glimmered a white figure high upon the cross. As +the pageant drew near, waves of incense rolled out upon the air. The +crash of trumpets and deep boom of drums announced that Our Lady of +the Angels was advancing upon the same platform with her Son, for +music in these Passion Week processions is always a sign of the +presence of the Virgin. The brothers of this retinue wore black, save +that their peaked caps were purple. + +As twilight gathered, a company of strange dark shapes bore past in +solemn hush the Most Holy Christ of the Waters. The Saviour hung upon +the cross, an angel receiving in a golden cup the blood from his +wounded side. Then her great banner of white and blue heralded the +approach of Our Lady of the Utter Grief, who passed with her +accustomed pomp of lights and music, holding to her eyes a +handkerchief said to be of the most exquisite lace. + +Night had fallen when, at eight o'clock, a maid left on vigil called +us all from the dinner table to see the beautiful procession of +white-robed figures conducting Our Father Jesus of the Silence. The +figure of Christ, resplendent in gold and purple, stood before Herod, +whose mail-clad soldiers guarded the prisoner. The Roman costumes were +so well copied, and all the postures and groupings so startlingly +natural, that _vivas_ went up all along the crowded square. As the +banner of the Virgin saluted the Alcalde, her attendants let fall +their long white trains, which swept out quite six yards behind, +reaching from one brother to the next and yielding a wonderfully fine +effect in the slow march. Our Lady of the Bitterness, toward whom +leaned the tender look of St. John, was robed in superb brocade, so +precious that her train, which stood stiffly out behind, was guarded +by a soldier with drawn sword. + +This closed the ceremonies of Palm Sunday, and the throng, catching +one from another the blithe, sweet Andalusian melodies, went singing +softly through the darkness on their various ways. + +After Palm Sunday a secular quiet fell upon Seville, not broken until +Wednesday. At five o'clock this March afternoon it was still so hot +that few people were rash enough to move about without the shelter of +parasols. Sevillian priests, sombre-robed as they were, sauntered +cheerily across the _plaza_ under sunshades of the gayest hues, +orange, green, azure, red, and usually all at once, but the shamefaced +Englishmen flapped up broad umbrellas of an uncompromising black. +There was a breezy flutter of fans on the grand stand, the +water-sellers had to fill their jars again and again, and the +multitude of smokers, puffing at their paper cigarettes to cool +themselves, really brought on a premature twilight. + +It was nearly seven before a score of gendarmes, marching abreast, +cleared the way for the procession. Then appeared, in the usual guise, +some twenty feet apart, two files of those strange shapes, with high, +peaked caps, whose visors descended to the breast, slowly advancing, +with an interval of about six feet from man to man. Their caps and +frocks were black, but the long capes glowed a vivid red. They carried +the customary lighted tapers, so tall that, when rested on the ground, +they reach to the shoulder. Midway between the files walked a +cross-bearer, followed by a Nazarene, who uplifted the standard of +St. Andrew's Cross in red on a black ground. Bearers of other insignia +of the order preceded the great litter, on which, under a golden palm +tree, was represented by life-size effigies the arrest of Christ among +His Disciples, St. Andrew having the foremost place. The second +pageant presented by this brotherhood was accompanied by bevies of +white-robed boys swinging censers and chanting anthems. Then came, in +effulgence of light, the Most Holy Virgin, escorted, as if she were +the earthly Queen of Spain, by a detachment of the Civil Guard, whose +white trimmings and gold belts gleamed in the candle rays. + +The remaining three _cofradias_ that had part in the Wednesday +ceremonies exhibited but one pageant each. A troop in black and gold +conducted a Calvary, with Mary Mother and Mary Magdalene both kneeling +at the foot of the cross, robed in the richest velvet. Figures in +white, with stripes of red, came after, with a yet more costly +Calvary. The well-carved crucifix rose from a gilded mound, and Our +Mother of Healing wore a gold crown of exceeding price. But the third +Calvary, all wrought in black and gold, the colors of the brotherhood, +which were repeated in standard and costume, won the plaudits of the +evening. Here Longinus, the Roman centurion, mounted on a spirited +horse, was in the act of piercing with his lance the Saviour's side. +Amid _vivas_ and _bravos_ this Passion picture passed, like its +predecessors, in clouds of incense and peals of solemn music. + +On Thursday the wearing of black was almost universal. We rummaged our +shawl straps for some poor equivalent of the Spanish black silks and +black mantillas. The Civil Guard was more superb than ever in +full-dress uniform, with red vests and white trousers. No sound of +wheels was suffered within the city limits, and late arrivals had to +commit their luggage to a porter and follow him on foot. + +At three o'clock, in the Sagrario of the cathedral, the archbishop +washed the feet of thirteen old paupers, who sat in two confronting +rows, looking neat as wax and happy as honey, each dressed in a +brand-new suit, with a long-fringed damask towel over his shoulder. +Their old blood had been warmed by the archbishop's own wine, for they +had just come from luncheon in the ecclesiastical palace, where they +had been served by the highest dignitaries of the church and the +proudest nobles of the city. The function of foot washing was not +taken too seriously. The fat canons smiled good-humoredly on their +archbishop, as his group of attendants lowered him to his knees and +lifted him again before every old man in turn, and the acolytes nudged +one another with boyish mirth over the rheumatic, embarrassed efforts +of the beneficiaries to put on their stockings. + +A Franciscan friar mounted the pulpit, however, and turned the +congregation, thickly sprinkled with English visitors, serious enough +by a succinct and fiery sermon, saying, in a nutshell, that love is +the glory of the religious life, but is the fruit only of Catholicism, +for nowhere, though one searches the world over, can there be found a +work of mercy--hospital, asylum, endowed school, charity of any sort +or kind--due to Protestantism. And the old paupers, glancing down at +their new suits and feeling the glow of their banquet, were glad to +the tips of their purified toes that their lots had been cast in +Catholic Spain. + +By six o'clock the squares and streets along the processional route +were thronged again, although our Spanish friends assured us that the +numbers were less than usual. The war feeling kept the Americans and, +to some extent, the English away, while many of the Spanish of the +provinces, who were accustomed to take their annual outing in Seville +during the _Semana Santa_, were held at home this year by poverty or +mourning. + +The first two pageants of the afternoon, those of the bull-fighters +and the cigarette-makers, were awaited with especial eagerness. For +these Seville brotherhoods, more than thirty in all, still maintain +something of the mediaeval structure of the guilds. Just as in England +and France, from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, or +thereabouts, organized companies of craftsmen used to present in +Passion Week successive scenes from the life of Christ, these Spanish +_cofradias_ to-day maintain such general lines of division in +performing a similar function. Yet any Catholic Sevillian may, if he +chooses, secure admission to any of these societies, irrespective of +his occupation. The young _caballero_ who chanced to be our prime +source of information this Thursday afternoon was himself of a +prominent family, a protege of the archbishop, and a student of law, +yet he belonged to the brotherhood of Fruit Venders, although his +devotion seemed a little languid, and he had excused himself on this +occasion from the long march in the breathless Nazarene garb. + +Not all the brothers feel bound to perform this penitential service +every Passion Week, and, indeed, not all the brotherhoods. Several of +the most elaborate pageants were missing from the ranks this year. +Such omissions are not as disastrous to the processional effect as +they would have been in England, for example, some six centuries ago. +Then the gilded and tapestried platforms, set on wheels, which the +processions conducted through the streets, were really stages, and at +the halting places the best actors of each guild played upon its +particular platform an appointed scene from the sacred drama. The +sequence of events was duly observed, and the spectator, standing in +market-place or at street corner, while one theatre after another +rolled by him, saw acted out with much finery of wardrobe and +ingenuity of machinery, with tragic dialogue and declamation, relieved +by comic interludes, all the Bible story, from the revolt of Lucifer +to the Day of Judgment. But modern Spain, abandoning the acting and +recitation and substituting puppets for living men, has let slip the +dramatic sequence, so that a few pageants less means only so much +abatement in the general splendor of the spectacle. + +The bull-fighters of Andalusia are eminently religious and are said, +likewise, to be remarkable for their domestic virtues. All their manly +fury is launched against the bull, and they have only gentleness left +for wives and children. I have heard no better argument for the bull +ring. At all events, these _toreros_, marching soberly in black, with +yellow belts, escorted with well-ordered solemnity an image of the +crucified Christ, followed by a queenly effigy of Our Lady of Refuge, +erect behind terraced ranks of candles on a flower-strewn litter, +under a costly canopy of black velvet embroidered with gold. The +cigarette-makers came after with their two pageants, Christ fastened +to the pillar, and Our Lady of Victory. + +It was, as usual, the second upon which the main expense had been +lavished. A great company of acolytes, richly clad and swinging +censers of pure silver, went in advance of the Virgin, and three bands +of music followed her with continuous acclaim, while a regiment of +soldiers attended as a guard of honor. Immediately in front of the +_paso_ went, surrounded by officers and aides, General Ochando, his +head uncovered and his breast glittering with decorations, for the +young king of Spain is a member of this _cofradia_, and had sent the +distinguished military governor of the Provinces, who has a palace in +Seville, to represent him. Especial enthusiasm was called out by this +image of Mary, for the cigarette-makers had just presented her with a +new mantle at a cost of nine thousand dollars. The brothers were +willingly aided by the seven thousand women who work in the immense +tobacco factory, the average contribution of each donor being two +_centimos_ (two-fifths of a cent) a week during the preceding year. No +wonder that the Virgin seemed to stand proudly upon her silvered +pedestal, her gorgeous new mantle streaming out until it almost +touched the head of a white-vested girl who walked barefoot close +behind the litter, so fulfilling a vow made in extremity of illness. + +Black and white were the banners and costumes of the third procession, +very effective through the deepening dusk. Their leading pageant was a +Gethsemane, famous for the beauty of the carving. Christ is +represented in prayer before an angel, who bears in one hand the cross +and in the other the cup of bitterness, while Peter, James, and John +are sleeping near their Master. These Passion groups are, with a few +exceptions of still earlier date, works of the seventeenth century, +the glorious period of Spanish art, the day of Murillo and Velazquez. +The most and best are from the hand of the Sevillian Montanes, of +chief repute in the Spanish school of polychrome sculpture, but this +Gethsemane was carved by his imitator, Roldan, whose daughter, La +Roldana, is accredited with the figure of the angel and with the +reliefs that adorn the pedestal. + +Another Virgin, who, like all the rest, seemed a scintillation of gold +and jewels, swept by, and a new troop of Nazarenes, this time in +purple and white, passed with two august pageants,--the Descent from +the Cross and the Fifth Anguish of Mary. Then came two files of +ash-colored figures, who marshalled, between their rows of starry +tapers, each taper bending toward its opposite, a vivid presentation +of the Crowning with Thorns; and, after this, their Mary of the +Valley, noted for the gracious sweetness of her countenance. This +image is held to be one of Montanes's masterpieces in wood-carving. + +Five processions had now passed, with their two pageants each, and the +hour was late, but we could not leave the balcony for anything so +commonplace as dinner. Far down the street of _Las Sierpes_ waved a +river of lights, announcing the advent of the most ancient of all the +Sevillian brotherhoods, Jesus of the Passion. The crowded _plaza_ rose +in reverence as the Crucifixion _paso_ was borne by, and Our Lady of +Mercy, too magnificent for her name, was greeted with rapturous +outcries. + + [Illustration: OFF FOR THE WAR] + +Just how and when and where something in the way of food was taken, I +hardly know, but as this, the last of the Thursday evening +processions, passed in music out of the _plaza_, a few of us made +speed by a deserted side street to the cathedral. We were too late for +the _Miserere_, which was just closing in that surprising hubbub, +the stamping of feet and beating of canes and chairs against the +floor, by which Spanish piety is wont to "punish Judas." But we took +our station near by the entrance to the Royal Chapel, wherein had been +erected the grand Holy Week monument, in white and gold, shaped like a +temple, and shining with innumerable silver lamps and taper lights. +Within this monument the Host, commonly spoken of in Spain as _Su +Majestad_, had been solemnly placed the night before, much as the +mediaeval church used to lay the crucifix, with requiems, under the +High Altar on Good Friday, and joyously bring it forth again Easter +morning. But Spanish Catholicism is strangely indifferent to dates, +burying the Host on Wednesday and celebrating the Resurrection +Saturday. + +All day long the Royal Chapel had been filled with relays upon relays +of kneeling worshippers, and the hush there had been so profound that +the hum of the tourist-haunted nave and the tumult of the streets +seemed faint and foreign to the hearing, like sounds a universe away. +Before this chapel entrance all the pageants, as they were borne in +silence through the cathedral, paused and did homage to the Host. +Having outstripped the procession, we had arrived in season to witness +three of these salutations. The Nazarenes, in passing, fell upon their +knees in the light of the great, gleaming monument, and each of the +heavy platforms was slowly swung about so that it faced this symbol of +Christ's sepulchre. + +Yet there was something besides devotion in the cathedral. As the +crowd pressed close, we felt, more than once, a fumbling at our +pockets, and the little artist lost her purse. The rest of us +comforted her by saying over and over that she ought to have known +better than to bring it, and by severally relating how cautious we had +been on our own accounts. + +It was hard upon eleven when we returned to the house, but the streets +were all alive with people. I went to the balcony at midnight, and +again at the stroke of one, and both times looked down upon a _plaza_ +crossed and recrossed in all directions by talkative, eager groups. +Many of these restless promenaders had been able to get no lodgings, +and were walking to keep warm. The pressure upon the hotels was so +great that one desperate stranger this Thursday night paid twenty +dollars for a cot from ten o'clock till two, and private hospitality +was taxed to a degree that nothing but Spanish courtesy and +good-nature could ever have endured. In the house which harbored us, +for instance, we were all fitted in as compactly as the pieces of a +puzzle, when the unexpected friends began to arrive. + +On Wednesday there appeared from the far north a man and wife, +acquaintances of ten years back. Our host and hostess greeted this +surprise party with Andalusian sunshine in their faces, and yielded up +their own room. Thursday morning there walked gayly in one of the +son's university classmates from Madrid. Don Pepe embraced him like a +brother, and surrendered the sofa, which was all he had left to give. +And this Thursday midnight, as a crowning touch, three more chums of +college days came clattering at the bell. Their welcome was as cordial +as if the household were pining for society. The tired maids, laughing +gleefully over the predicament, contributed their own mattresses and +pillows, and made up beds on the study floor, where Don Pepe camped +out with his comrades, to rise with a headache that lasted for days +after. + +By two o'clock I had taken my station on the balcony for an all-night +vigil. The most of the family bore me company for the cogent reason +that they had nowhere to sleep, but the other guests of the house held +out for only an hour or two, and then went blinking to their repose. +My memory of the night is strangely divided between the dreamlike, +unearthly pomps and splendors streaming through the square below and +the kindly, cheery people who came and went about me. The senora, +still fresh and charming, although she has wept the deaths of fourteen +out of her nineteen children, was merrily relating, with weary head +against her husband's shoulder, her almost insuperable difficulties in +the way of furnishing her table. The milkman roundly declared that if +she wanted a double quantity of the precious fluid (and goat's milk at +that), she must make it up with water. There was no meat to be had in +the Catholic city during these holy days, and even her baker had +forsaken his oven and gone off to see the sights. And the +black-bearded senor, who, like his wife, had not been in bed for forty +odd hours, laughed at her and comforted her, puffed harder than ever +at his cigarette, and roguishly quoted the saying, "He whom God loves +has a house in Seville." + +By two o'clock the seats on the grand stand were filling fast, the +_plaza_ hummed with excitement, the balconies resounded with song and +laughter, and the strong electric lights in front of the city hall +cast a hard, white brilliance over all the scene. The frying of +_calientes_, an Andalusian version of twisted doughnuts, was in savory +progress here and there on the outskirts of the throng, and our ever +thoughtful hostess did not fail to keep her balcony well supplied +with these crisp dainties. + +The twinkling of taper lights, so warm and yellow under those pallid +globes of electric glare, appeared while people were still hurrying to +their places; but hundreds upon hundreds of black and gold figures had +paced by before the first of their _pasos_ came into view. For these +processions of the dawn, _de madrugada_, call out great numbers of the +devout, who would thus keep the last watch with their Lord. The clocks +struck three as the leading pageant, a very ancient image of Christ, +bearing a silver-mounted cross of tortoise-shell, halted before the +Alcalde. A white banner wrought with gold heralded the Virgin, who +rose, in glistening attire, from a golden lake of lights. + +The wealthy _cofradia_ of San Lorenzo followed in their costly habits +of black velvet. They, too, conducted a pageant of Christ bearing His +cross, one of the most beautiful groups of Montanes, the pedestal +adorned with angels in relief. To the Christ, falling on the Via +Dolorosa, the brotherhood, with the usual disregard of historic +propriety, had given a royal mantle of ermine, embroidered with gold +and pearls. A large company of black-clad women, carrying candles, +walked behind the _paso_, on their penitential march of some eight +hours. Many of them were ladies delicately bred, whose diamonds +sparkled on the breast of the approaching Mary. For the Sevillian +senoras are accustomed to lend their most valuable gems to their +favorite Virgins for the _Semana Santa_, and San Lorenzo's Lady of +Grief is said to have worn this night the worth of millions. She +passed amid a great attendant throng, in such clouds of incense that +the eye could barely catch the shimmer of her silver pedestal, the +gleam of the golden broideries that almost hid the velvet of her +mantle, and the flashes and jets of light that shot from the +incredible treasure of jewels that she wore. + +The third troop of Nazarenes, robed in white and violet, bore for +banner a white cross upon a violet ground. Their Christ-pageant +pictured Pilate in his judgment seat in the act of condemning the Son +of God to death. Jesus, guarded by armed soldiers, calmly confronts +the troubled judge, at whose knee wait two little pages with a basin +of water and towels. + +And now came one of the most gorgeous features of the Holy Week +processions--a legion of Roman soldiers, attired as never Roman +soldiers were, in gold greaves and crimson tunics, with towering +snow-white plumes. But a splendid show they made as, marching to drum +and fife, they filed down _Las Sierpes_ and stretched "in never ending +line" across the _plaza_. Our most Holy Mary of Hope, who followed, +wearing a fair white tunic and a gold-embroidered mantle of green, the +color of the hopeful season, drowned the memory of that stern military +music in a silver concert of flutes. + +After this sumptuous display, the fourth band of Nazarenes, gliding +through the _plaza_ between night and day in their garb of black and +white, could arouse but little enthusiasm, although their Crucifixion +was one of the most artistic, and their Lady of the Presentation had +her poorest garment of fine satin. + +A pearly lustre was stealing through the sky, and the chill in the air +was thinning the rows of spectators on the grand stand, when +mysterious, dim-white shapes, like ghosts, bore by in utter silence a +pageant of Christ fainting beneath the burden of the cross. But soon +the clamor of drums and fifes ushered in another long array of Roman +soldiers, a rainbow host in red and pink and blue, crimson plumes +alternating with white, and golden shields with silver. The electric +lights, globed high overhead, took one look at this fantastic +cavalcade and went out with a gasp. + +It was now clear day. Canaries began to sing in their cages, and +parrots to scream for chocolate. Sleepy-eyed servant-maids appeared on +the balconies, and market women, leading green-laden donkeys, peered +forth from the side streets into the square. The morning light made +havoc with the glamour of the pageants. Something frank and practical +in the sunshine stripped those candle-lighted litters of their +dignity. Busy people dodged through the procession lines, and one +Nazarene after another might be seen slipping out of the ranks and +hurrying awkwardly, in his cumbersome dress, with the half-burned +taper under his arm, to the refuge of his own mosquito-netting and +orange tree. The tired crowd grew critical and irreverent, and openly +railed upon the Virgin of this ghostly _cofradia_ because her velvet +mantle was comparatively plain. "Bah! how poor it is! Are we to sit +here all the night for such stingy shows as that?" + +But the last brotherhood in the _madrugada_ processions had, with +their white frocks and blue caps and capes, suited themselves to the +colors of the day. The stumbling children, blind with sleep, whom +fathers were already leading off the square, turned back for a drowsy +gaze at the resplendent tunic of the Christ in the Via Dolorosa +_paso_, a tunic claimed to be the richest of all the garments worn by +the effigies of Jesus. So lovely was this trooping company in their +tints of sky and cloud, bearing a great blue banner and a shining +ivory cross, that they brought order and decorum with them. + +The division that escorted the Virgin marched on with especial +steadiness, not a peaked cap drooping, nor a boyish acolyte faltering +under the weight of his tall gilded censer. This most Holy Mary of +Anguish, whose litter and canopy were all of white and gold, swept by +in triumphal peals of music while the clocks were striking six. In +some mental confusion, I said good night to the people I left on the +balcony, and good morning to the people I met on the stairs, and ate +my breakfast before I went to bed. + +It seemed as if human nature could bear no more; the eyes ached with +seeing, and phantasmal processions went sweeping through our dreams; +yet Friday afternoon at five o'clock found our balcony, like all the +rest, full to overflowing. Some twenty thousand people were massed in +the _plaza_, and it was estimated that over one hundred thousand +waited along the line of march. Our Spanish entertainers, still +unrefreshed by any chance for sleep, were as gayly and punctiliously +attentive to their guests as ever, from our gallant host, who +presented the ladies with fragrant bouquets of roses and orange +blossoms, to the little pet of the household, who at the most +engrossing moments in the ceremonial would slip away from her +privileged stand on a footstool against the railing to summon any +member of the party who might be missing the spectacle. + +The Spanish colors floated out from city hall and court-house, but the +great concourse below was all in hues of mourning, the black mantillas +often falling over dresses of plain purple. The senoritas in the +balconies had substituted knots of black ribbon for the customary +flowers in the hair. Jet trimmings abounded, and the waving fans were +black. + +The coming procession, we were assured on every hand, would be the +most solemn of all and the most sumptuous. The habits of the Nazarenes +would be of satin, silk, and velvet. The images of Christ and the +Virgin would be attired with all possible magnificence of damask and +ermine, gold and jewels. Brotherhood would vie with brotherhood in +splendor, and one prodigy of luxury would succeed another. + +The leading company, whose far-trailing robes carpeted the street with +fine black velvet, stood for the olive industry. This _cofradia_ had +been poor and unimportant for generations, but in recent years a +devoted brother, a manufacturer of olive packing-barrels, had poured +forth his accumulated fortune upon the society, with the result that +their _pasos_ are now second in ostentation and expense to none. The +donor, long since too feeble to bear his taper in the line, lives in +humble obscurity, but his old heart swells with joy this great day of +the year when he sees, following the elaborate carving of the +Crucifixion, the dazzling chariot of Our Lady of Solitude. Upon her +mantle, which enjoys the proud distinction of being the very costliest +of all, he has lavished twenty thousand dollars. Longer by a yard than +any of the others, it was yet unable to find place for all the gold +which the zealous Nazarene had given for it, and the residue was +bestowed about the pedestal and canopy. The _paso_ is so heavy with +gold that it requires a double force of men to carry it; but each of +these hidden bearers, getting air as best he can through a silver +breathing-tube, is sure of a dollar for his recompense as well as two +glasses of good wine. + + [Illustration: GRANADA. LOOKING TOWARD THE DARRO] + +All the adornment of the litter is of pure gold, and such wealth of +jewels glinted from the Virgin's glorious raiment that a triple force +of Civil Guards was detailed for her protection. Her ardent worshipper +has denied her nothing. The very columns that uphold her canopy are +exquisite in carving, and it is his yearly pride to see that her +clouds of incense are the thickest, and her train of musicians the +most extended, in all that glittering line. + +The second _cofradia_ exhibited but a single pageant, relying for +effect upon the beauty of the sculpture. The Mater Dolorosa was bowed +in her desolation at the foot of the Holy Rood, from which hung only +the white folds of the winding-sheet. + +But the third brotherhood had bethought themselves to introduce, +between their austere Crucifixion and their shining image of Mary, +another preposterous parade of Roman soldiers--flower-colored, +plume-tossing, butterfly creatures far too bright, if not too good, +"for human nature's daily food." One whiff from Caesar's iron breast +would have blown them away like soap bubbles. + +The silversmiths trooped by in graver, more majestic state, their +purple velvet habits girded with gold cords. Upon a gilded pedestal, +wrought with high relief, was seen their Christ, bowed beneath a +precious cross of tortoise-shell and silver. Our Lady of Expectation +gleamed with gold and gems, and this haughty brotherhood received a +full meed of applause. + +Black from top to toe was the fifth procession. Their Jesus of the Via +Dolorosa bent beneath a sombre cross of ebony embossed with gold, but +the blithe young voices of the countless choir-boys, singing like +birds before the dawn, ushered in a sun-bright image of Mary. + +But something was amiss with the processional order. Where were the +stately ranks of Montserrat? Alas and alas! Scarcely had this +aristocratic _cofradia_ gone a hundred paces from their chapel when, +in the narrow street of Murillo, a leaning candle touched the lace +skirt of the Virgin and instantly all the front of the litter was in +flames. It was hardly a matter of minutes. From the balconies above +were dashed down pailfuls and pitcherfuls of water. The Nazarenes, +wrenching away the blue velvet mantle wondrously embroidered in gold +with castles, lions, and _fleurs de lis_, succeeded in rescuing a +ragged half of it, and the Civil Guards, drawing their swords and +forming a circle about the smoking litter, saved the jewels from +robbery. Perhaps the other _paso_, too, Christ of the Conversion of +the Penitent Thief, had some protecting influence. But in all this ado +about her finery, the poor Virgin's face, beloved for its winsome +look, was completely burned away. In sorry plight Our Lady of +Montserrat was hurried back to her chapel, and the swift rumor of the +disaster sent a superstitious trouble through the city. + +But more and more solemnly the taper-bearing troops of Nazarenes +poured by with the culminating pictures of the Passion. These last +three _cofradias_ presented each a single pageant. An escort in dark +purple conducted an impressive Descent from the Cross. The Virgin, her +crowned head bowed in anguish, clasps the drooping body of Christ to +her heart, while John and Mary Magdalene look on in hopeless sorrow. +Figures in black and white came after, with their sixteenth-century +carving, Christ of the Dying Breath, beneath the cross standing Our +Lady of Tears. And last of all, in slow, sad movement, their white +trains streaming like a line of light along the stone-paved way, +passed the second brotherhood of San Lorenzo, bearing the Most Blessed +Virgin in her Solitude. The gold of her mantle seemed one with the +gold of the candle rays, and, for many a silent watcher, those +gliding, gleaming, spiritlike forms will move forever down a shining +path in memory. So closed the Holy Week processions. + +"How sorry I am," said our host, with the Andalusian twinkle in his +eye. "It is almost eleven o'clock. Ladies and gentlemen, will you +please walk out to dinner?" + +On Saturday morning we went early to the cathedral for the closing +rite. The Sagrario was thronged. Some of the senoras had brought low +folding chairs with them, others sat upon the floor, but most of that +innumerable congregation knelt or stood. We were all facing the great +purple veil which concealed the high altar, with Roldan's retablo of +the Descent from the Cross. There was an hour or more of expectation, +during which rosaries slipped through the fingers of many a veiled +nun, and the soft murmur of prayer came from strong men as well as +from pale-faced women. Suddenly, while a shock of thunder crashed from +the organ, hidden ministrants sharply drew on hidden cords, the purple +curtain parted in the midst, and the two folds rolled asunder, +revealing the high altar, with its carving of the accomplished +Passion. The organ poured forth jubilees of victory, all the bells of +the cathedral pealed together, _Gloria in Excelsis_ soared in choral +chant, and amid the awe-stricken multitudes fallen to their knees, _Su +Majestad_ was borne in priestly procession from the tomb in the Royal +Chapel to the candles and incense which awaited at the high altar that +triumphal coming. + +Easter Sunday was celebrated by a bull-fight. + + + + +VII + +TRACES OF THE INQUISITION + + "I live a life more great than I. + The life I hope is life so high, + I die because I cannot die." + --_Santa Teresa de Jesus._ + + +All Spaniards venerate the name of _Isabel la Catolica_, nor is the +impressionable De Amicis the only foreigner who has trembled and wept +at Granada before the enshrined memorials, jewel box, mirror, missal, +and crown, of her royal womanhood. She is a precious figure in Spain's +sunset revery--a saint beneath a conquering standard, a silken lady in +a soldier's tent. Yet this peerless queen, merciful, magnanimous, +devout, "the shield of the innocent," caring supremely for the glory +of God and the good of her country, gave consent, albeit reluctant, to +the establishment of the Inquisition, Christianity's chief scandal and +Spain's most fatal blight. So ironic were the stars of Isabel. + +The Inquisition, it is true, originated in Italy early in the +thirteenth century and followed the flight of some of the Albigenses +into Aragon, but its work in Spain had been comparatively slight and +merciful until the "Catholic Kings," in the interests of religious +reform, for the purification of the national faith, let its horrors +loose. Wherever one moves in Spain the sickening breath of the _auto +de fe_ lingers in the air. In such a square, we read, was once a +mighty bonfire of Jews; beneath our feet, we are told, is a mass of +human bones and cinders. This sunshiny Seville, with her parks and +patios, her palms and orange groves, a city seemingly fashioned only +for love and song, had her army of nearly twoscore thousand martyrs, +who, dressed in the hateful _San Benitos_, yellow coats painted with +flames and devils, were burned to death here in our gay _Plaza de la +Constitucion_, then known as the _Plaza de San Francisco_, and in the +_Quemadero_ beyond the walls. As one mingles with some outdoor throng, +all intent on pageant, dance, or other spectacle, one shudders to +remember that just such dark, eager faces were ringed about the +agonies of those heroic victims. For there are two sides to the +Spanish Inquisition. If Spaniards were the inquisitors, Spaniards, +too, were the dauntless sufferers. The sombre gaze of the torturer was +met, as steel meets iron, by the unflinching eye of the tortured. But +"the unimaginable touch of Time" transforms all tragedy to beauty, and +red poppies, blowing on the grassy plain of the _Quemadero_, translate +into poetry to-day that tale of blazing fagots. + +Sometimes the victims were of foreign blood. Hakluyt has preserved the +simple narratives of two English sailors, who were brought by their +Spanish captors from the Indies as a sacrifice to the Holy House of +Seville. One, a happy-go-lucky fellow, Miles Phillips, who had been +too well acquainted in Mexico with the dungeons of the Inquisition, +slipped over the ship's side at San Lucar, made his way to shore, and +boldly went to Seville, where he lived a hidden life as a silk-weaver, +until he found his chance to steal away and board a Devon +merchantman. The other, Job Hortop, added to his two years of Mexican +imprisonment two more years in Seville. Then "they brought us out in +procession, every one of us having a candle in his hand, and the coat +with S. Andrew's cross on our backs; they brought us up on an high +scaffold, that was set up in the place of S. Francis, which is in the +chief street of Seville; there they set us down upon benches, every +one in his degree, and against us on another scaffold sate all the +Judges and the Clergy on their benches. The people wondered, and gazed +on us, some pitying our case, others said, burn those heretics. When +we had sat there two hours, we had a sermon made to us, after which +one called Bresinia, secretary to the Inquisition, went up into the +pulpit with the process, and called Robert Barret, ship-master, and +John Gilbert, whom two Familiars of the Inquisition brought from the +scaffold before the Judges, where the secretary read the sentence, +which was that they should be burnt, and so they returned to the +scaffold, and were burnt. + +"Then I, Job Hortop, and John Bone, were called, and brought to the +place, as before, when we heard our sentence, which was, that we +should go to the Galleys, and there to row at the oar's end ten years, +and then to be brought back to the Inquisition House, to have the coat +with S. Andrew's cross put on our backs, and from thence to go to the +everlasting prison remediless. + +"I with the rest were sent to the Galleys, where we were chained four +and four together.... Hunger, thirst, cold, and stripes we lacked +none, till our several times expired, and after the time of twelve +years, for I served two years above my sentence, I was sent back to +the Inquisition House in Seville, and there having put on the coat +with S. Andrew's cross, I was sent to the everlasting prison +remediless, where I wore the coat four years, and then upon great suit +I had it taken off for fifty duckets, which Hernando de Soria, +treasurer of the king's mint, lent me, whom I was to serve for it as a +drudge seven years." + +But this victim, too, escaped in a fly-boat at last, and on a certain +Christmas Eve, about the time when people in London were beginning to +like the comedies of a certain poor player, one Will Shakespeare, did +Job Hortop, Powder-maker and Gunner, walk quietly, after twenty-three +years of martyrdom, into the village of Redcliffe, where he had been a +ruddy English boy with no dream of the day when he should be "prest +forth" by Sir John Hawkins and compelled, sore against his will, to +embark for the West Indian adventure. + +Religious liberty now exists under the laws of Spain, although the +administration of those laws leaves much to be desired. In three old +conventual churches of Seville gather her three Protestant +congregations. Beneath the pavements of two of these heretic +strongholds old inquisitors sleep what uneasy sleep they may, while +one of the Protestant pastors, formerly a Catholic priest, has quietly +collected and stored in his church-study numerous mementos of the Holy +Office. Here may be seen two of those rare copies of the 1602 revision +of the Spanish Bible, by Cipriano de Valera, whom the Inquisition +could burn only in effigy, since the translator, who had printed his +book in Amsterdam, did not return to accompany the Familiars to the +_Quemadero_. Here are old books with horrible woodcuts of the +torments, and time-stained manuscripts, several bearing the seal and +signatures of the "Catholic Kings," these last so ill written that it +is hard to tell the name of Ferdinand from that of Isabella. Among +these are royal commissions, or licenses, granted to individual +inquisitors, records of _autos de fe_, and wills of rich inquisitors, +the sources of whose wealth would hardly court a strict examination. +Here, too, is the standard of the Holy Office, the very banner borne +through Seville in those grim processions. Its white silk is saffroned +now, but the strange seal of the Inquisition, a bleeding Christ upon +the cross, is clearly blazoned in the centre, while the four corners +show the seal of San Domingo. + +The Inquisition prison, the dreaded Holy House of Seville, is used as +a factory at present, and heresy no longer secures admission there; +but I looked up at its grated windows, and then, with a secret shiver, +down on the ground, where the Spanish pastor of antiquarian tastes was +marking out with his cane the directions of the far-branching +subterranean cells. We slipped into an outer court of the _fabrica_, +where the two gentlemen, effectively aided by a couple of sturdy lads, +pried up and flung back a sullen door in the pavement and invited me +to grope my darkling way down some twenty crumbling steps, overgrown +with a treacherous green mould. There was no refusing, in face of the +cloud of witnesses whose groans these stones had heard, and I took a +heart-breaking plunge into the honeycomb of chill, foul-smelling, +horror-haunted dungeons, whose roofs let fall a constant drip of water +and from whose black recesses I was the unwilling means of liberating +a choice variety of insects. + +"But even yet one cannot call one's self a Protestant in Spain, you +know," said an English diplomat to us in another city of Andalusia. +"It's not socially respectable. Spanish Protestants are the very scum +of the earth--illiterate, dirty, boorish. You couldn't associate with +them for a minute." + +"But that Spanish pastor who called on us yesterday was entirely a +gentleman," we remonstrated. "He has studied for seven years in +Switzerland and Scotland, seems more open-minded and intelligent than +most Spaniards we have met, and was so courteous and graceful in his +bearing--not to mention the whiteness of his linen--and so +entertaining in his talk, that the Spanish ladies in the room +chorussed his praises, after he had bowed himself out, and declared +him most delightful company." + +The diplomat twirled his mustache and smiled, as only diplomats can. +"And you owned up that he was a Protestant? And their faces darkened +as if a storm-cloud had blown over from the Sierras?" + +"Precisely so," we admitted, "and after that the best they could say +for him was that they never would have thought it." + +The diplomat claimed that he had made his point, while we protested +that the incident only went to show how unreasonable was the prejudice +of whose existence throughout Spain there can be no manner of doubt. + +Perez Galdos, for instance, the most popular novelist of the day, +stated to an American friend, who repeated it to us, that he frankly +could not afford to introduce the figure of a Protestant into one of +his stories. "It would not only kill that book," he said, "but it +would hurt the sale of everything I have in the market and embarrass +all my future undertakings. I should simply be risking the loss of my +reading public." And yet Senor Galdos is the author of "Dona +Perfecta," that artistic study of the conflict between new ideas and +old in Spain. In this significant novel, a civil engineer, a man of +thirty, whose scientific education in the large cities of Seville and +Madrid has been supplemented by study in Germany and England, comes to +one of those mediaeval towns, or corpses of towns, that rise so +spectre-like from the ash-colored plains of Old Castile. Crumbling +walls and blackened towers jealously guard the life of ages since, +that feudal life of high and low, pride of station, pride of animal +prowess, pride of holiness, pride of idleness, pride of ignorance; the +life of superstition, of family exclusiveness resulting in +intermarriage to the point of insanity; of that fierce local bigotry, +peculiarly Spanish, which dreads and hates all foreign intrusion. The +streets, devoid of business activity, swarm with vigorous mendicants, +who have no better shift, when times grow hard, than to deform the +children who are born to them like kittens in their mud-walled hovels. +The casino, where half the town smokes half its time away, hums with +malicious gossip. The university languidly pursues the studies of +Latin, scholastic divinity, Church history, and all that savors of the +past. Under the gray vault of the cathedral women kneel before the +image of the Christ Child, bringing Him a new pair of embroidered +pantalets and entreating of His rosy simplicity what they would not +dare ask from the "Ecce Homo"; or they kiss the satin-slippered feet +of the miracle-working Virgin and vow her, if their prayer is granted, +seven bright new swords of the finest Toledo workmanship to pierce her +patient heart. The man of scientific training, fresh from the modern +world, is brought into sharp collision with this dim old town. High +principles and essential, spiritual Christianity count him for +nothing; he is speedily denounced as no better than "a murderer, an +atheist, or a Protestant," and his strong young life is actually +beaten out by that blind, terrible force of Spanish fanaticism. So far +the novelist can go; such a hero he dares paint; but not a Protestant. + +The notions of Protestantism prevalent among the people, not the +peasants only, but the gentry, are little short of ludicrous. A +black-eyed lady of Cadiz was amazed at our assertion that Protestants +prayed. A Madrid senorita asked us, in friendly confidence, if it were +true that Protestants "denied Christ and spat on the Virgin." The +popular identification of Protestantism with all that is impious and +criminal we encountered as early as our second afternoon in Spain. We +were visiting, in the picturesque fishing-hamlet of Pasajes, a gaunt +Basque church, where the old dame who served as caretaker showed us a +waxen image of a sleeping girl, said, not without probability, to have +been brought from Rome. Beneath the figure is a burial stone, whose +inscription would locate it in the Catacombs. When friends of ours +were at Pasajes some three years before, the grandam's story ran that +the image was the likeness of a Christian martyr, slain by her pagan +father at Rome in the time of the Imperial persecutions; but the tale +glibly recited to us was this: "_Ay de mi!_ The poor young lady! Her +father was a Protestant, and, of course, hated religion, and when his +daughter, so beautiful, was on her way to her first communion, he hid +behind a corner, with an axe, and of a sudden jumped out on her and +struck her dead." + +It is such prejudice that goes far toward justifying the maintenance +by foreign societies of Protestant churches in Spain. They cannot +stand alone, in face of all this hostility, and yet the country has +need of them. No European nation can nowadays be shut in to any single +channel of religious life, and doubtless, apart from all questions of +creed, there are Spanish temperaments to which the simpler _culto_ is +more natural than the elaborate ritual of Rome; but, waiving +discussion as to the relative gifts and graces of these two great +divisions of Christ's fellowship, the new seems essential, not for +itself alone, but as a stimulus and corrective to the old. Time may +make it clear that a purified Roman Catholicism is better suited to +the Latin races in general than plainer rites and less symbolic +worship, but there are heavy counts against the Roman Catholic Church +as it exists in Spain. The private lives of the clergy, as a class, +have been so open to reproach that even the finger-games and nonsense +songs of the little children, learned with their baby lispings, mock +priestly immorality. The Church, steward of untold wealth, has endowed +many charities, but the fundamental trust of knowledge it has most +sluggishly and inadequately dispensed. Santiago de Compostela, for +example, is a very nest of religious foundations. Thirty-six Christian +fraternities are gathered there, yet we were told on good authority +that not one peasant in a hundred of those within hearing of +Santiago's fivescore and fourteen holy bells can read and write. In +matters of State, the Church has utterly lost the allegiance of the +progressive party and, to a large extent, the political confidence of +the nation. As Spaniards study the history of their country, they +realize more and more that her colossal mistakes and misfortunes have +been due in large measure to Jesuit and Dominical policy--to the +father confessor in the royal chamber, the inquisitor in shadow of +the throne. With reference to the success of the Church in promoting +spiritual life, a beautiful young nun, her eyes glistening like happy +stars, assured us that there was more devotion in Catholic Spain than +in all the rest of Christendom. A scientist of repute, his voice +choking with grief and wrath, declared to us that the fetters of +superstition had become hopelessly riveted, during these ages of +Church control, on the Spanish mind. But call it what you will, +devotion or superstition, and admitting, as the tourist must, that it +is a most conspicuous and impressive feature of Spanish life, there +are nevertheless thousands of Spaniards, especially the younger men, +over whom it has lost sway. These are the _indiferentes_, many of whom +might find, as some have found, in a fresh presentation of +Christianity, the Godward impetus which they no longer gain from the +Church of Rome. + +The most cheerful _indiferente_ I encountered in Spain was a whimsical +old philosopher, well on his way to the nineties, yet so brisk and +hardy as almost to vie with Borrow's Portuguese dame whose hair "was +becoming gray" after a life of one hundred and ten years. His hair, +indeed, is white, and extreme age has written its deforming marks on +face and figure, yet he runs up the steepest stairs, reads the finest +print, fills his days with a close succession of labors and +amusements, and scoffs at religion as airily as if Death had passed +him on the crowded way and would never turn back to look for him +again. + +At our first meeting he offered, with characteristic kindness, to come +and read Spanish with me. As I had invaded Spain for the express +purpose of studying the Spanish drama, I took a volume of Calderon +from my trunk and hopefully awaited his visit. But it was a matter of +several visits before I could open my Calderon. The jaunty old +cavalier arrived, brimming over with chat and anecdote, and when at +last I hinted at the reading, produced with pride from his inner coat +pocket a little, paper-bound _geografia_ that he had written himself +for use in the Spanish schools, and proceeded to regale me with +extracts from its pages. I looked severely at the little artist, whose +eyes were dancing in a demure face, and endeavored to profit by this +unexpected course of instruction. The author chuckled much over his +sagacity in having arranged the subject-matter of his book in +paragraphs and not by question and answer. In the latter case, he +explained, the children would learn the answers without reading the +questions, a process bound to result in geographical confusion. The +little volume, as is the wont of school books in other lands, tended +to give to its students a disproportionate idea of the importance of +their own country. Spain and her colonies were treated in seventy +pages, Great Britain and her colonies in three, France in four, while +America, from Greenland to Patagonia, was handled as a single entity, +one figure each, and those absurdly small, being set for "her +population, army, and navy." The _Confederacion de los Estados Unidos_ +was barely mentioned as one of the five "States" of North America. + +But the only feature of his book for which the author felt called upon +to apologize, was the catering to popular superstition, as in stating, +for instance, that in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is +adored the veritable body of St. James. He cast a quizzical glance at +me in reading this, and then laughed himself purple in the face. "One +has to say these things in this country," he gasped, still breathless +from his mirth. "Drops of water must run with the stream. If only +there were a shrine where people might be cured of being fools!" + +Quick-witted as the old gentleman was, he presently detected a lack of +geographical enthusiasm in his audience. His literary vanity smarted +for a moment and then he fell to laughing, declaring that ladies +always had a distaste for useful information. "That old wife of mine" +could not abide arithmetic. He digressed into an explanation of the +Roman notation, making it quite clear to us wherein IX differs from +XI, and with antiquated courtliness of phrase, even for Spain, asked +our gracious permission to cause himself the pain of departure. + +He often reappeared. His wiry arm, reached through the Moorish bars of +the outer door, would give its own peculiarly energetic twitch to the +bell chain looped within. A maid, leaning over the railing of an upper +story, would call down the challenge inherited from good old fighting +times, "Who comes here?" And his thin voice would chirp the Andalusian +answer, "Peace." + +On his second visit he fairly gurgled with pleasure as he placed +another volume with his name on the title-page before me. Since I did +not incline to solid reading, behold him equally ready to supply me +with the sweets of literature! This, too, was a school book, a +somewhat haphazard collection of Castilian poems, with brief +biographies of the authors represented. Its novel educational feature +was the printing of each poem in a different type. The result was a +little startling to the eye, but the editor was doubtless right in +claiming that it made the reading harder for the children, and so +developed their powers through exercise. Here, again, he was ashamed +of the fact that fully two-thirds of the poems were religious. + +"But what can one do in this country?" he asked testily. "All the +reading books have to be like that. Bah! But we will not read these +pious verses. The others are much more entertaining." + +Determined not to wound him again by any lack of interest in books of +his own shaping, we sat patiently through page after page of that +juvenile school reader; but when, with a pamphlet on spelling and +punctuation, we had completed the list of his works, I once more +called his attention to Calderon. + +This struck him as a capital joke. He had never read Calderon himself, +he had hardly heard of Calderon, and that a foreigner, a woman at +that, should insist on reading Calderon, was funny enough to make his +old sides ache. There were modern authors in plenty who must certainly +write much better than an out-of-date fellow like that. He had books +that he could lend me. He had friends from whom he could borrow. But +nothing would please me but Calderon! Why under the fanciful moon +should I set my heart on Calderon? + +"_Bueno!_" he cried at last, whisking the mirthful tears from his +eyes. "_Vamos a ver!_ Let us go on and see!" + +We opened the classic volume at the Catholic Faust-drama, _El Magico +Prodigioso_, and began to read, soon passing into the great argument +between Cipriano and Lucifer as to the nature of God. Our guest, +sensitive to all impressions as he was, became immediately amazed and +delighted. + +"But this is lofty!" he exclaimed. "This is sublime! Good, Cipriano, +good! Now you have him! What will the devil say to that? _Vamos a +ver!_" + +At the close of that tremendous scene he shut the book, fairly panting +with excitement. But nevertheless there was a twinkle in his eye. He +knew now why I craved this Calderon. He was evidently a religious +writer, and women were all religious. It was an amiable feminine +weakness, like the aversion to geography and arithmetic. But his +indulgent chivalry rose to the occasion. Having learned my taste, such +as it was, he would gratify it to the utmost. + +"If you would only come and see my library!" he proposed. "I have +exactly the book there that will please you. I have not read it +myself, but it is very large, with most beautiful pictures, and it +tells these old stories about Lucifer and all that. I am sure it is +just what you would like. Will you not do your humble servant the +honor of coming to-morrow afternoon?" + +I ran over in my mind our engagements for the morrow. He mistook the +cause of my hesitation. + +"Indeed you need not be afraid to come," he urged. "My house is as +safe as a convent. That old wife of mine, too, will be sure to be +somewhere about. And you can bring the silent senorita with you." + +I was aware of a slight convulsion in "the silent senorita." She could +speak all the Spanish she chose, but she found the eccentricities of +this visitor so disconcerting that she affected ignorance, and he +supposed her mute presence at our interviews to be purely in deference +to the Spanish proprieties. + +My youthful chaperon, much elated by this reversal of our natural +positions, duly attended me the next day to our friend's surprisingly +elegant home. He was forever crying poverty and telling us, with the +tears that came to his old age as easily as the laughter, how the +hardships of life had beaten out of him every ambition save hope to +"gain the bread" until his death, but we found him luxuriously housed, +and I was afterward informed that he was one of the richest men in the +city. + +He ran with that wonderful sprightliness of his across the marbled +court to meet us, and ceremoniously conducted us up the handsome +staircase. He led us through all "our house," typically Andalusian, +with statues and urns of blossoming trees set in the open patios, with +Moorish arches and bright-hued tiles, shaded balconies, tapestried and +curtained beds, _braseros_, and rocking-chairs, and in every room +images and paintings of the saints, at which he made irreverent +grimaces. + +There were family portraits, too, before three of which he broke down +into weeping--the son who had died in the prime of manhood, the +daughter lost in her fair maidenhood, and, where the stormy sobs shook +him from head to foot, the Benjamin of his heart, a clear-eyed young +officer who had fallen in the Cuban war. The tears were still +streaming down the quivering old face when we turned silently +away--for what word of comfort would Americans dare to speak?--and +followed him to his study. + +He was of extravagant repute in his locality as a scholar and a man of +letters, and his study was what a study ought to be,--well furnished +with desk, pigeon-holes, all the tools of literary labor, and walled +with books. Among these was an encyclopaedia in which, to his frank +astonishment, he found an article of fifteen pages on Calderon. The +great volume we had come to see lay open on a reading stand. It was a +Spanish Bible, with the Dore illustrations. I wanted to look at the +title-page, but our eager host, proud to exhibit and explain, tossed +over the leaves so fast that I had no opportunity. + +As he was racing through the Psalms, impatient because of their dearth +of pictures, my eye was caught by the familiar passage, "As the hart +panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God." + +With prompt curiosity, he popped down his white head, in its +close-fitting skullcap, to see what I was noting, and instantly went +off into an immoderate gust of laughter. + +"_Muy bien!_" he wheezed, as soon as he could recover anything like a +voice. "But that is very cleverly put. He was a witty fellow who wrote +that. Just so! Just so! The deer goes to the water because he means to +get something for himself, and that is why the young men go into the +priesthood, and why the women go to mass. It's all selfishness, is +religion. But how well he says it!" + +"No, no!" I exclaimed, for once startled into protest. "He is saying +that religion is the impulse of thirst." + +The incorrigible old worldling took this for another jest, and, as in +gallantry bound, laughed harder at my sally than at poor King David's. + +"Excellent! Perfect! So it is! So it is! Religion is the impulse to +fill one's own stomach. Just what I have always said! 'As the hart +panteth after the water brooks'--ho, ho! I must try to remember that." + +His enthusiasm for Calderon soon kindled to a flame. As the plot +thickened he ceased to be of the slightest help in any difficulties +that the text might offer. In vain I would beseech him to clear up +some troublesome passage. + +"Oh, never mind!" he would say, vexed at the interruption. "They +didn't write very well in those old days. And I want to know which of +her three suitors Justina took. Three at once! What a situation! +_Vamos a ver!_ I hope it will be Cipriano." + +As the spell of Calderon's imagination passed more and more strongly +upon him, this most sympathetic of readers quite accepted, for the +time being, the poet's Catholic point of view, trembling for Cipriano +and almost choking with agitated joy when Justina, calling in her +extremity upon the name of God, put Lucifer to flight. But after we +had read the drama to the end, through its final scene of triumphant +martyrdom, he sat silent for several minutes, and then shook his head. + +"Not true; it is not true. There is no devil but the evil passions of +humanity. And as for Cipriano's definition of God--it is good, yes; it +is great, yes; but who can shut God into a definition? One might as +well try to scoop up the ocean in a cocoanut shell. No! All religions +are human fictions. We have come, nobody knows whence or why, into +this paltry, foolish, sordid life, for most of us only a fight to gain +the bread, and afterward--_Bueno!_ I am on the brink of the jump, and +the priests have not frightened me yet. Afterward? _Vamos a ver!_" + +This man had heard of Protestantism simply as an ignorant notion of +the lower classes. For the typical Spanish Protestant of to-day +presents a striking contrast to the typical Spanish Protestant of the +Reformation. When heresy first entered the Peninsula, it gained almost +no footing among the common people, who supposed Luther to be another +sort of devil and the Protestants a new variety of Jews or Moors; but +the rank and learning of Spain, the youthful nobility, illustrious +preachers and writers, officers and favorites of the Court, even men +and women in whose veins flowed the blood royal, welcomed with ardor +the wave that was surging over Europe. The very eminence of these +heretics sealed their doom. The Inquisition could not miss such +shining marks. The Holy Office did its work with abominable +thoroughness. Apart from the countless multitudes whom it did to death +in dungeon and torture-chamber, it burned more than thirty thousand of +the most valuable citizens of Spain and drove forth from the Peninsula +some three millions of Jews and Moors. The _autos de fe_ were +festivals. Among the wedding pomps for the French bride of Philip II, +a girl thirteen years old, was one of these horrible spectacles at +Toledo. The holiday fires of Seville and Valladolid drank the most +precious blood of Andalusia and Castile. Though Saragossa had a mind +to Huguenot fuel; though Pamplona, on one festal day, heaped up a +holocaust of ten thousand Jews; though Granada, Murcia, and Valencia +whetted their cruel piety on the Moors who had made the southern +provinces a garden of delight; yet in all these cities, as in Toledo, +Logrono, and the rest, the Spanish stock itself was drained of its +finest and most highly cultivated intelligence, its sincerest +conscience, purest valor, its most original and independent thought. +Spain has been paying the penalty ever since. Her history from Philip +II has been a judgment day. + +No root of the Lutheran heresy survived in the Peninsula. The new +Protestantism does not spring from the old. The blood of the Spanish +martyrs was not the seed of the Spanish church. The Protestant of +to-day is far removed, socially and politically, from the courtiers, +marquises, knights of Santiago--those gallant cavaliers who were +stripped upon the scaffold of their honorable decorations and clad in +the yellow robe of infamy. This nineteenth-century Protestant may be a +lawyer or a journalist, but by exception. Ordinarily he is a petty +farmer, a small shop-keeper, mechanic, miner, day-laborer, of humble +calling and of lowly life. In politics he is almost surely a +republican. When the monarchy was overthrown, in '68, Protestantism +was, for the moment, in favor, and hundreds of the triumphant party +hastened to profess the reformed faith. With the return of a Roman +Catholic court and perhaps upon the discovery that the new +Christianity, too, has its burden and its yoke, many fell away. + +Yet Protestantism has now an assured footing in Spain. Protestant +churches may be found in most of the important cities. There are some +fifty foreign preachers and teachers in the field, aided by nearly +eighty Spanish pastors and colporteurs. The number of Spanish +communicants is between three and four thousand, the church attendance +is reckoned at nine thousand, and there are five thousand Spanish +children in the Protestant schools. Several centres have been +established for the sale of Bibles and Protestant books, and six or +seven Protestant periodicals are published and circulated. In answer +to the continual Romish taunt that Protestantism is a war of sects, a +house divided against itself, a Protestant Union was organized at +Madrid in the spring of 1899. All, save two, of the fifteen missions, +supported by various societies of Great Britain, Germany, +Switzerland, and America, joined hands in this. Only the Plymouth +Brethren and the Church of England held aloof. + + [Illustration: A MILKMAN OF GRANADA] + +The Inquisition exists no longer. Religious liberty, even in Spain, +has the support of law. Yet still the Spanish Protestant, this poor, +plain Protestant of to-day, as obscure as those Galilean fishermen +whom the Master called, is harassed by petty persecutions. Children +sing insulting verses after him in the street, especially that pious +ditty:-- + + "Get away with you, Protestants, + Out of our Catholic Spain, + That the Sacred Heart, the Sacred Heart, + May love our land again." + +He is jealously watched on the passing of "His Majesty the Wafer" and +pursued with mud and spittings if he fails to do it homage. College +boys rub charcoal over the front of his chapel and stone his +schoolroom windows; work is refused him; promotion denied him; his +rent is higher than his neighbor's, yet not his neighbor's family nor +his landlord's cross his threshold. If scorn can burn, he feels the +_auto de fe_. + + + + +VIII + +AN ANDALUSIAN TYPE + + "'True,' quoth Sancho: 'but I have heard say there are more + friars in heaven than knights-errant.' 'It may be so,' replied + Don Quixote, 'because their number is much greater than that + of knights-errant.' 'And yet,' quoth Sancho, 'there are + abundance of the errant sort.' 'Abundance indeed,' answered + Don Quixote, 'but few who deserve the name of + knights.'"--CERVANTES: _Don Quixote_. + + +It might have been in Seville, though it was not, that I met my most +_simpatico_ example of the Andalusian. He was of old Sierra stock, +merry as the sunshine and gracious as the shadows. Huge of build and +black as the blackest, he was as gentle as a great Newfoundland dog, +until some flying spark of a word set the dark fires blazing in his +eyes. This was no infrequent occurrence, for the travelling +Englishman, as frank as he is patriotic, cannot comprehend the zest +with which well-to-do Spaniards, even in time of war, escape military +service by a money payment. Not the height and girth of our young +giant, nor his cordial courtesy and winning playfulness, shielded him +from the blunt question, "Why didn't you go over to Cuba, a great +fellow like you, and fight for your flag?" His usual rejoinder was the +eloquent Southern shrug of the shoulder, twist of the eyebrow, and +waving lift of the hand, with the not easily answerable words, "And to +what good?" But now and then the query came from such a source or was +delivered with so keen a thrust that his guarded feeling outleaped +reserve. The sarcasms and mockeries that then surged from him in a +bitter torrent were directed chiefly against Spain, although the +American eagle rarely went scot-free. "Ah, yes, it is a fine fowl, +that! He has the far-seeing eye; he has the philanthropic beak and +claw!" But it was the golden lion of Spain against which his harshest +gibes were hurled--"_un animal domestico_, that does not bite." + +No one of the party was a tithe as outspoken as our Spaniard himself +in condemning the errors of the Spanish campaign or censuring the +methods of the Spanish Government. If he turned angrily toward a +criticism from a foreigner, it was only, in the second instant, to +catch it up like a ball and toss it himself from one hand to the +other--like a ball that burns the fingers. + +Such wrath can easily be the seamy side of love, and, in a way, the +man's national pride was measured by his national shame; but always +over these outbursts there brooded that something hopelessly resigned, +drearily fatalistic, which seems to vitiate the Spanish indignation +for any purposes of practical reform. To suggestions of sympathy he +responded with a pathetic weariness of manner, this handsome young +Hercules, so radiant with the joy of life, who, in his normal mood, +sprinkled mirth and mischief from him as a big dog shakes off water +drops. + +"What can one do? I am a Spaniard. I say it to myself a hundred times +a day. I am a Spaniard, and I wish my country were worth the fighting +for, worth the dying for. But is it? Is it worth the toothache? God +knows the truth, and let it rest there. Oh, you need not tell me of +its past. It was once the most glorious of nations. Spaniards were +lords of the West. But--ah, I know, I know--Spain has never learned +how to rule her colonies. He who sows brambles reaps thorns. The +Church, too, has done much harm in Spain--not more harm than another. +I am a Catholic, but as I see it, priests differ from other men only +in this--in the cafe sit some bad men and many good, and in the choir +kneel some good priests and many bad. The devil lurks behind the +cross. But Spain will never give up her Church. It is burned in. You +are a heretic, and like my figure, do you not? It is burned in. There +is no hope for Spain but to sink her deep under the earth, and build a +new Spain on top. And why do I not work for that new Spain? How may a +man work? There is talk enough in Spain as it is. Most Spaniards talk +and do no more. They go to the cafes and, when they have emptied their +cups, they draw figures on the tables and they talk. That is all. The +new Spain will never come. What should it be? Oh, I know better what +it should not be. It should have no king. A republic--that is right. +Perhaps not a republic precisely like America. It may be," and the +melancholy sarcasm of the tone deepened, "there could be found +something even better. But Spain will not find it. Spain will find +nothing. + +"What can one do? I know Spain too well. Now, hear! I am acquainted +with a _caballero_. I have been his friend ten years and more. But he +has had the luck, not I. For, first, when we were at the university, +he had a fortune left to him. He became betrothed to a senorita whom +he loved better than his eyelashes. He travelled for his pleasure to +Monte Carlo, and played his fortune all away in one week. He came back +to Madrid, and went to one of the Ministers, to whom his father had in +former days done a great service. My friend said: 'I am to marry. The +lady expects to share the fortune which I have lost. My position is +not honorable. I must have an opening, a chance to redeem myself, or I +shall stand disgraced before her.' The Minister sent him to one of the +Cuban custom-houses, and in two years he returned with great wealth. +On his wedding journey he spent a night at Monte Carlo and gambled it +away to the last _peseta_. A stranger had to lend him money to get +home with his bride. Was he not ashamed and troubled? Ashamed? I do +not know. But troubled? Yes, for he wanted to play longer. Every one +is as God has made him, and very often worse. Again he went to the +Minister, whose heart was softer than a ripe fig and who found him a +post in the Philippines. This time he made a fortune much quicker than +before, knowing better how to do unjustly, but a few weeks before the +war he came home and lost it all again at Monte Carlo. And now he is +horribly vexed, for it is another Minister, and, besides, there are no +colonies to enrich him any more. + +"What use to care for Spain? No, no, no, no, no! Spain is a good +country to leave--that is all. And you do well to travel in Spain. +American ladies like change, and Spain is not America. Here you are +not only in a different land, but in a different century. You can say, +when you come out, that you have been journeying a hundred years ago." + +On another occasion one of those pleasant individuals who would, as +the Spaniards say, "talk of a rope in the house of one who had been +hanged," saw fit to entertain the dinner-table with anecdotes of +Spanish cruelty. + +"But Spaniards are not cruel," protested our young blackamoor in his +softest voice an hour later, stroking with one great hand the head of +a child who nestled against his knee. "What did that English fellow +mean? Why should any one think that Spaniards are cruel?" + +I ran over in mind a few of the frightful stories of Las Casas, that +good Dominican friar who would not hold his peace when he saw the +braining of Indian babies and roasting of Indian chiefs. I remembered +how De Soto tossed his captives to the bloodhounds, and what +atrocities were wrought in the tranquil realm of the Incas; I recalled +the horrors of the Inquisition, but these things were of the past. So +I answered, "Perhaps the bull-fights have done something to give +foreigners that impression." + +Unlike many educated Spaniards who would rather attend the bull-fights +than defend them, he squared his shoulders for an oration. + +"The bull-fights? But why? Bull-fights are not cruel--not more cruel +than other sports in other countries. I have been told of prize-fights +in America. I beg your pardon. I see by your look that you do not like +them. And, in truth, I do not altogether like the bull-fights. The +horses! They are blindfolded, and it is short, but I have seen--ah, +yes! You would not wish to hear what I have seen. I have been often +sorry for the horses. Yet some pain is necessary in everything, is it +not? In nature, perhaps? In society, perhaps? Even, if you will pardon +the illustration, in the deliverance of the Filipinos from Spanish +tyranny?" + +I briefly suggested that there was no element of necessity in +bull-fights. + +The waving hand apologized gently for dissent. + +"But, yes! The bulls are killed for food. That is what foreigners do +not seem to understand. It may be ugly, but it is universal. To supply +men with meat, to feed great cities with the flesh of beasts--it is +not pleasant to think of that too closely. But how to help it? Do you +not have slaughter-houses in America? These also we have in Spain. I +have visited one. It seemed to me much worse than the bull-ring. +Faugh! I did not like it. The cattle stood trembling, one behind +another, waiting for the blow. I should not like to die like that. I +would rather die in the wrath of battle like a _toro bravo_. Oh, it is +not cruel. Do not think it. For these bulls feel no fear. It is fear +that degrades. They may feel pain, but I doubt--I doubt. They feel the +wildness of anger, and they charge and charge again until the +_estocada_, the death stab. That is not so bad a way to die, is it? +Any man would choose it rather than to stand in terror, bound and +helpless, hearing the others fall under the axe and seeing his turn +draw near. Yes, yes! The bull-ring rather than the slaughter-house for +me!" + +This was a novel view of the case to the auditor, who ignominiously +shifted her ground. + +"But what country uses the slaughter-house as a spectacle and a sport? +It is one thing to take life for food, and another to make a holiday +of the death struggle." + +Again that deprecatory waving of the hands. + +"I beg your pardon. I do not know how it is in America. Perhaps" +[circumflex accent] "all is merciful and noble there. But when I was +in England I saw something of the chase and of the autumn shooting. I +saw a poor little fox hunted to the death. It was not for food. The +dogs tore him. I saw wounded birds left in the cover to die. It was +too much trouble to gather them all up. And the deer? Does not the +stag suffer more in his flight than the bull in his struggle? I +believe it. To run and run and run, always growing weaker, while the +chase comes nearer--that is an agony. The rage of combat has no terror +in it. I would not die like the deer, hunted down by packs of dogs and +men--and ladies. I would die like the bull, hearing the cheers of the +multitude." + +The big fellow bent over the baby that was dropping to sleep against +his knee, and slipped the drowsy little body, deftly and tenderly, to +a sofa. Such sweetness flooded the soft black eyes, as they were +lifted from the child, that it was hard to imagine them sparkling with +savage delight over the bloody scenes of the _corrida de toros_. I +asked impulsively how long it was since he had seen a bull-fight. +Brows and hands and shoulders were swift to express their appreciation +of the bearings of the question, and the voice became very music in +courteous acquiescence. + +"Ah, it is four years. Of course, I was much younger then. Yes, yes! +It might not please me now. _Quien sabe?_ And yet--I beg your +pardon--I think I shall go next Sunday in Madrid, on my way to Paris. +It is so weary in London on the Sundays. It was always colder Sunday, +and there was not even a cafe. There was nowhere to go. There was +nothing to do. Why is that good? At the bull-fight one feels the joy +of life. Is it more religious to sit dull and dismal by the fire? I +had no use for the churches. Walking is not amusing, unless the sun +shines and there is something gay to see. I do not like tea, and I do +not care for reading. Spaniards like to laugh and be merry, and when +there is nothing to laugh for, life is a heaviness. There is no +laughter in a London Sunday. I hope Paris will be better, though I +believe there are no bull-fights there as yet. You are not pleased +with me, but let me tell you why I love the _corrida_. It is not for +the horses, you remember. I have sometimes looked away. But why should +I pity the bulls, when they are mad with battle? They do not pity +themselves. They are glad in their fury, and I am glad in seeing it. +But I am more glad in the activity and daring of the men. When they +run risks, that is what makes me cheer. It is not that I would have +them hurt. I am proud to find men brave. And I am excited and eager to +see if they escape. Do you not understand? If you would go +yourself--just once--no? Is it always no? Then let me tell you what is +the best of all. It is to stand near the entrance and watch the people +pass in, all dressed in their holiday clothes, and all with holiday +faces. It is good and beautiful to see them--especially the ladies." + +The most attractive qualities of our young Spaniard were his mirth and +courtesy. His merriment was so spontaneous and so buoyant that his +grace of manner, always tempered to time and place and person, became +the more apparent. His humor dwelt, nevertheless, in the borderlands +of irony, and it was conceivable that the rubs of later life might +enrich its pungency at the cost of its kindliness. He was excellent at +games (not sports), especially the game of courtliness (not +helpfulness). The letter was not posted, the message slipped his +memory, the errand was done amiss, but his apologies were poetry. He +made a pretty play of the slightest social intercourse. We would open +our Baedeker at the map which we had already, in crossing Spain, +unfolded some hundred times. He would spring as lightly to his feet as +if his mighty bulk were made of feathers, and stand, half bowing, +arching his eyebrows in appeal, spreading out his hands in offer of +assistance, but not venturing to approach them toward the book until +it was definitely tendered him. Then he would receive it with +elaborate delicacy of touch, unfold the creased sheet with a score of +varied little flourishes, and restore the volume with a whole fresh +series of gesticulatory airs and graces. The next instant he would +peep up from under his black lashes to detect the alloy of amusement +in our gratitude, and drop his face flat upon the table in a boyish +bubble of laughter, saying:-- + +"Ah! But you think we Spaniards make much of little things. It is +true. We are best at what is least useful." + +Light-hearted Andalusian though he was, he had full share of the +energy and enterprise of young manhood. Like the dons of long ago, he +was equipping himself for the great Western adventure. Despite his +Spanish wrath against America, she had for him a persistent +fascination. All his ambitions were bent on a business career in New +York, the El Dorado of his imagination. But it was no longer, at the +end of the nineteenth century, a case of leaping aboard a galleon and +waving a Toledo blade in air. The commercial career demands, so he +fancied, that its knight go forth armed cap-a-pie in the commercial +tongues. Thus he had spent four years of his youth and half of his +patrimony in London and Berlin, and now, after this hasty visit home, +purposed to go to Paris, for a year or two of French. This unsettled +life was little to his liking, but beyond gleamed the vision of a Wall +Street fortune. + +Yet even now, at the outset of his task, a frequent lethargy would +steal over his young vigor. It was curious to see, when the March wind +blew chill or the French verbs waxed crabbed, how all his bearing lost +its beauty. There was a central dignity that did not lapse, but the +brightness and effectiveness were gone. His big body drooped and +looked lumpish. His comely face was clouded by an animal sluggishness +of expression. Foreign grimaces twisted across it, and something very +like a grunt issued from beneath his cherished first mustache. His +sarcasm became a little savage. He would sit for hours in a brooding +fit, and, when an inexorable call to action came, obey it with a look +of dreary patience older than his years. It was as if something +inherent in his nature, independent of his will, weighed upon him and +dragged him down. The Spain at which he gibed and from which he would +have cut himself away was yet a millstone about his neck. He was in +the heyday of his youth, progressive and determined, but the torpid +blood of an aged people clogged his veins. Spain will never lose her +hold on him, despite his strongest efforts. His children may be +citizens of the great Republic, but he must be a foreigner to the end. +He must wander a stranger in strange cities, puzzling his Spanish wits +over alien phrases and fashions and ideals, unless, indeed, his spirit +loses edge, and he drifts into chill apathy of disappointment on +finding that his golden castles in America are wrought of that same +old dream-stuff which used to be the monopoly of castles in Spain. + +But it is best to leave ill-boding to the gypsies. Good luck may take +a liking to him, if only for the music of his laugh. For even if +blithe heart and courtly bearing bring no high cash value in the +modern business market, they may smooth the road to simple happiness. +Moreover, a Spaniard dearly loves a game of chance, and at the worst, +our fortune-seeker will have thrown his dice. His may seem to the +Yankee onlooker but a losing play, and yet--who knows? "He who sings +frightens away his ills." God's blessing sails in summer clouds as +lightly as in costly pleasure yachts. Out of a shaft of sunshine, a +cup of chocolate, and a cigarette, this Andalusian immigrant, though +stranded in an East Side tenement, may get more luxury than can be +purchased by a multi-millionaire. + + [Illustration: A ROMAN WELL IN RONDA] + + + + +IX + +A BULL-FIGHT + + "I wish no living thing to suffer pain."--SHELLEY: _Prometheus + Unbound_. + + +From our first crossing of the Pyrenees we were impressed, even beyond +our expectation, with the Spanish passion for the bull-fight. The more +cultivated Spaniards, to be sure, are usually unwilling to admit to a +foreigner their pleasure in the pastime. "It is brutal," said a young +physician of Madrid, as we discussed it. "It is a very painful thing +to see, certainly. I go, myself, only two or three times a year, when +the proceeds are to be devoted to some religious object--a charity or +other holy work." + +No sight is more common in streets and parks than that of a group of +boys playing _al toro_--one urchin charging about with sticks fastened +to his shoulders for horns, or with a pasteboard bull's head pulled +over his ears, and others waving scarlet cloths and brandishing +improvised swords and lances. It is said that in fierce Valencia +youths have sometimes carried on this sport with knives for horns and +swords, the spectators relishing the bloodshed too well to interfere. +Not easily do such lads as these forgive the little king for crying, +like the sensitive child he is, the first time he was taken to the +bull-ring. + +The _corridas de toros_, although denounced by some of the chief +voices in Spain, are held almost a national shibboleth. Loyal +supporters of the queen regent will add to their praises the sigh, "If +only she loved the bull-fight!" Cavaliers and ladies fair reserve +their choicest attire to grace these barbarities. It is a common +saying that a Spaniard will sell his shirt to buy a ticket to the +bull-ring, but whatever the deficiencies of the inner costume, the +dress that meets the eye is brave in the extreme. It is recently +becoming the fashion for _caballeros_, especially in the north of +Spain, to discard those very fetching cloaks with the vivid +linings--cloaks in which Spaniards muffle their faces to the eyebrows +as they tread the echoing streets of cities founded some thousand or +fifteen hundred years ago. But for a good old Spanish bull-fight, the +good old Spanish costumes are out in force, the bright-hued _capas_ +and broad _sombreros_, and for the ladies, who also are beginning to +discard the customary black mantilla for Parisian headgear, the +exquisite white mantillas of early times and the largest and most +richly decorated fans. + +It is in such places as the grim Roman amphitheatre of Italica, whose +grass-grown arena has flowed so red with martyrdoms of men and beasts, +that one despairs most of Spanish ability to give up the bull-fight. +It is in the air, in the soil, in the blood; a national institution, +an hereditary rage. "But it is the link that holds your country bound +to barbarism. The rest of the world is on the forward move. I tell +you, the continuance of the bull-fight means the ruin of Spain," urged +a gigantic young German, in our hearing, on his Spanish friend. The +slight figure of the Madrileno shook with anger. "And I tell _you_" he +choked, "that Spain would rather perish with the bull-fight than +survive without it." _Isabel la Catolica_, who earnestly strove to +put down these savage contests, wrote at last to her Father Confessor +that the task was too hard for her. The "Catholic Kings" could take +Granada, unify Spain, establish the Inquisition, expel Moors and Jews, +and open the Americas; but they could not abolish bull-fighting. Nor +was Pius V, with his denial of Christian burial to all who fell in the +arena, and his excommunication for princes who permitted _corridas de +toros_ in their dominions, more successful. The papal bull, like the +bulls of flesh and blood, was inevitably overthrown. + +Spanish legend likes to name the Cid as the first _torero_. + + "Troth it goodly was and pleasant + To behold him at their head, + All in mail on Bavieca, + And to hear the words he said." + +In mediaeval times the sport was not without chivalric features. +Knights fought for honor, where professionals now fight for _pesetas_. +When the great Charles killed a bull with his own lance in honor of +the birth of Philip II, the favor of the Austrian dynasty was secured. +The Bourbons looked on the sport more coldly, but as royalty and +nobility withdrew, the people pressed to the fore. Out of the hardy +Spanish multitude rose a series of masters,--Romero the shoemaker, +who, in general, gave to the art its modern form; Martincho the +shepherd, who, seated in a chair with his feet bound, would await the +charging brute; Candido, who would face the bull in full career and +escape by leaping to its forehead and over its back; Costillares, who +invented an ingenious way of getting in the death-stroke; the famous +Pepe Hillo, who, like Candido, perished in the ring; a second Romero, +said to have killed five thousand six hundred bulls; Montes the +brick-layer, and a bloody band of followers. Andalusia is--alas!--the +classic soil of the bull-fight, as every peasant knows, and Seville +the top of Andalusia. + + "I have a handsome lover, + Too bold to fear the Devil, + And he's the best _torero_ + In all the town of Seville." + +The extravagance of the popular enthusiasm for these _fiestas de +toros_ is often ridiculed on the stage, where dramas dealing with +bull-fighting, especially if they bring in the heroes of the arena, +Pepe Hillo, Romero, Costillares, are sure to take. One _zarzuela_ +represents a rheumatic old _aficionado_, or devotee of the sport, +trying, with ludicrous results, to screw his courage to the point of +facing the bull. Another spends its fun on a Madrid barber, who is +likewise a brain-turned patron of the ring. Disregarding the shrill +protests of his wife, he lavishes all his time, love, and money on the +_corridas_ and encourages his daughter's _novio_, an honest young +paper-hanger, to throw over his trade and learn to _torear_. After two +years of the provincial arenas, the aspirant, nicknamed in the ring +The Baby, has nothing but torn clothes and bruises to show for his +career, and his sweetheart, eager to recall him from the hazardous +profession, vows a waxen bull, large as life, to the Virgin, in case +he returns to papering, with its humble security and its regularity of +wages. Mary hears. On that great occasion, The Baby's debut at Madrid, +the barber, who has just been lucky in the lottery, rents for him a +gorgeous suit of second-hand finery, but in the _Plaza de Toros_ not +even a rose-and-silver jacket can shield a quaking heart. The Baby is +a coward born, and from the first rush of the first bull comes off +with a bloody coxcomb, crying out his shame on the shoulder of his +Pilar, who shall henceforth have him all her own. + +The little artist and I went into Spain with the firm determination +not to patronize the bull-fight. Half our resolution we kept,--her +half. Wherever we turned we encountered suggestions of the _corrida_. +Spanish newspapers, even the most serious, devote columns to _Los +Toros_. Bull-fighting has its special publications, as _El Toril_ and +_El Toreo Comico_, and its special dialect. On the morning after a +holy day the newspapers seem actually smeared with the blood of +beasts. In the bull-fight season, from Easter to All Saints, +_corridas_ are held every Sunday in all the cities of southern and +central Spain, while the smaller towns and villages butcher as many +bulls as they can possibly afford. The May and June that I passed in +the capital gave me a peculiar abhorrence of the Madrid Sunday,--that +feverish excitement everywhere; the rattle of all those extra +omnibuses and cars with their red-tasselled mules in full gallop for +the _Plaza de Toros_; that sense of furious struggle and mortal agony +hanging over the city all through the slow, hot afternoon; those +gaping crowds pressing to greet the _toreros_, a gaudy-suited company, +on their triumphal return in open carriages; that eager discussion of +the day's tragedy at every street-corner and from seat to seat along +the _paseos_, even at our own dainty dinner table and on our own +balconies under the rebuking stars. At this strange Sabbath service +the Infanta Isabel, whose mother's birth was celebrated by the +slaying of ninety-nine bulls, is a regular attendant, occupying the +royal box and wearing the national colors. A French bull-fighter, +visiting the Spanish capital, was invited by the Infanta to an +audience and presented with a diamond pin. Not even the public +mourning for Castelar could induce Madrid to forego the _corrida_ on +that Sunday just before his burial. Past the very senate-house where +his body lay in state rolled the aristocratic landaus, whose ladies +displayed the gala-wear of white mantillas. + +But the Sundays were not enough. Every Catholic feast-day called for +its sacrifice. Granada could not do fitting honor to Corpus Christi +with less than three "_magnificas corridas_." The royal saint of +Aranjuez, Fernando, must have his pious birthday kept by an orgy of +blood. At the _fiesta_ of Christ's Ascension all Spain was busy +staining his earth with the life-stream of His creatures. Valladolid +was, indeed, ashamed to have torn to death only seven horses, but +Segovia rejoiced in an expert who sat at his work and killed his bulls +with drawing-room ease. Bordeaux improved the occasion, with aid of +two celebrated Spanish _espadas_, by opening a French _Plaza de +Toros_, and Valencia had the excitement of sending to the infirmary +one _torero_ with a broken leg and another with a crushed foot. Such +accidents are by no means uncommon. A _matador_ was mortally wounded +in the Valencia ring that summer, a _banderillero_ was trampled at the +Escorial, and those favorite stabbers, Reverte and Bombita, were +themselves stabbed by avenging horns. + +If there is a temporary dearth of saint days, Spanish ingenuity will +nevertheless find excuse for _corridas_. Bulls must bleed for holy +charity,--for hospitals, foundling asylums, the families of workmen +out on strike. If the French squadron is at Cadiz, hospitality demands +a bull-fight. In the interests of popular education, an historical +_corrida_ was arranged, with instructed _toreros_ to display the +special styles of bull-killing that have prevailed from the Cid to +Guerrita. Again, as a zoological by-play, an elephant was pitted +against the bulls. This, too, had precedent, for did not Philip IV +once keep his birthday by turning in among the horned herd a lion, a +tiger, a camel, and a bear, "all Noah's ark and AEsop's fables"? A bull +of Xarama vanquished them every one and received the gracious reward +of being shot dead by Philip himself. + +It was on a Wednesday afternoon, at one of the three grand _corridas_ +of the Seville _Feria_, that I became an accomplice in this Spanish +crime. Our friends in Seville, people of cultivation and liberal +views, had declared from the first that we could have no conception of +Spanish life and character without sharing in the national _fiesta_. +"We ourselves are not enthusiasts," they said. "In fact, we disapprove +the bull-fight. We regard it as demoralizing to the community at +large. It is, nevertheless, a thing scientific, artistic, heroic, +_Spanish_. Besides, a large portion of the proceeds goes to charity. +We do not attend the _corridas_, except now and then, especially when +we have foreign guests who wish to see them. Before going they all +regard bull-fighting as you do, as an atrocity, a barbarity, but +invariably they return from the _Plaza de Toros_ filled with delight +and admiration. They say their previous ideas were all wrong, that it +is a noble and splendid spectacle, that they want to see it again and +again, that they cannot be too grateful to us for having delivered +them from prejudice." + +I winced at the word. I have a prejudice against being prejudiced, and +to the bull-fight I went. + +My yielding came too late for securing places in a box or in any part +of the house from which one can make exit during the performance. Our +gory-looking tickets admitted us to the uppermost row of high, +whitewashed, stone seats of the circus proper, where we were soon +inextricably wedged in by the human mass that formed around and below +us. The hour of waiting passed merrily enough. The open amphitheatre, +jammed to its full capacity of fourteen thousand, lay half in +brilliant sunlight and half in creeping shadow. Above us arched the +glowing blue sky of Seville, pricked by the rosy Giralda, and from +time to time a strong-winged bird flew over. The great arena, strewn +with yellow sand, was enclosed by a dark red barrier of wood, about +the height of a man. This was encircled, at a little distance, by a +more secure and higher wall of stone. The concourse was largely +composed of men, both roughs and gentles, but there was no lack of +ladies, elegantly dressed, nor of children. Two sweet little girls in +white-feathered hats were just in front of us, dancing up and down to +relieve the thrills of expectancy. White mantillas, pinned with +jewels, bent from the boxes, while the daughters of the people dazzled +the eye with their festival display of Manila shawls, some pure white, +some with colored figures on a white ground or a black, and some a +rainbow maze of capricious needle-work. The rich-hued blossoms of +Andalusia were worn in the hair and on the breast. The sunny side of +the circus was brightly dotted by parasols, orange, green, vermilion, +and fans in all the cardinal colors twinkled like a shivered +kaleidoscope. The men's black eyes glittered under those broad +_sombreros_, white or drab, while they puffed their cigarettes with +unwonted energy, scattering the ashes in soft gray showers over their +neighbors on the seats below. The tumult of voices had a keener note +of excitement than I had yet heard in Spain, and was so loud and +insistent as often to drown the clashing music of the band. The cries +of various venders swelled the mighty volume of noise. Water-sellers +in vivid blouses and sashes, a red handkerchief twisted around the +neck, on the left shoulder a cushion of folded carpeting for the +shapely, yellow-brown jar, and a smart tin tray, holding two glasses, +corded to the belt, went pushing through the throng. Criers of +oranges, newspapers, crabs, and cockles, almond cakes, fans, and +photographs of the _toreros_, strove with all the might of their lungs +against the universal uproar. + + "Crece el entusiasmo; + Crece la alegria; + Todo es algazara; + Todo es confusion." + +A tempest of applause marked the entrance in a box above of a popular +_prima donna_, who draped a resplendent carmine scarf over the railing +before her seat. Immediately the complete circuit of the rail was +ablaze with color, cloaks and shawls instantly converting themselves +into tapestry. + +At last two attendants entered the arena, walked up to a hydrant in +the centre, fastened on a hose, and watered the great circle. They +pulled out the hydrant and raked sand over the hole. Simple as these +actions were, a dreadful quiet fell on all the circus. + +A trumpet blared. Mounted _alguaciles_, or police, tricked out in +ancient Spanish costume, on blue saddles, and with tall blue plumes in +their hats, rode in and cleared the arena of all stragglers. A door +opened, and forth issued the full circus troupe, making a fine show of +filigree, and urging their wretched old nags to a last moment of +equine pride and spirit. Amid roars of welcome, they flaunted across +the sanded enclosure and saluted the presiding officer. He dropped the +key of the _toril_, that dark series of cells into which the bulls had +been driven some hours before. An _alguacil_ caught the key and handed +it to the _torilero_, who ran with it toward a second door, ominously +surmounted by a great bull's head. Then there was a twinkling of the +pink stockings and black sandals. Most of the gay company leaped the +barrier, and even the _chulos_ who remained in the ring placed +themselves within convenient distance of the rail. Some of the +_picadores_ galloped out, but a few awaited the coming charge, their +long pikes in rest. The door on which all eyes were bent flew open, +and a bellowing red bull rushed in. The fierce, bloodthirsty, horrible +yell that greeted him checked his impetuous onset. For a few seconds +the creature stood stock-still, glaring at the scene. Heaven knows +what he thought of us. He had had five perfect years of life on the +banks of the Guadalquivir,--one baby year by his mother's side, one +year of sportive roving with his mates, and then had come the trial of +his valor. He had found all the herdsmen gathered at the ranch one +morning, and, nevertheless, flattered himself that he had evaded those +hateful pikes, _garrochas_, that were always goading him back when he +would sally out to explore the great green world. At all events, here +he was scampering alone across the plain. But promptly two horsemen +were at his heels, and one of these, planting a blunt _garrocha_ on +his flank, rolled the youngster over. Up again, panting with surprise +and indignation, he felt a homesick impulse to get back to the herd, +but the second horseman was full in his path. So much the worse for +the horseman! The mettlesome young bull lowered his horns and charged +the obstacle, only to be thrown back with a smarting shoulder. If he +had yielded then, his would have been the quiet yoke and the long, +dull life of labor, but he justified his breed; he charged anew, and +so proved himself worthy of the arena. Three more years of the deep, +green river-reeds and the sweet Andalusian sunshine, three years of +free, far range and glad companionship, and then the end. His days had +been exempt from burden only to save his wild young strength for the +final tragedy. One summer morning those traitors known as decoy-oxen, +with bells about the neck, came trotting into the herd. The noble +bulls, now at their best hour of life, the glory of their kind, +welcomed these cunning guests with frank delight and interest, and +were easily induced to follow them and their tinkling bells across the +rich pastures, along rough country roads, even to the city itself and +the fatal _Plaza de Toros_. The herdsmen with their ready pikes +galloped behind the drove, and everywhere along the way peasants and +townsfolk would fall in for a mile or two to help in urging the +excited animals onward to their cruel doom. + +In that strange, maddening sea of faces, that hubbub of hostile +voices, the bull, as soon as his blinking eyes had effected the change +from the darkness of the _toril_ to the glaring light and gaudy +colors of the coliseum, caught sight of a horseman with the familiar +pike. Here was something that he recognized and hated. Lowering his +head, the fiery brute dashed with a bellow at that tinselled figure. +Ah, the pike had never been so sharp before! It went deep into his +shoulder, but could not hold him back. He plunged his horns, those +mighty spears, into the body of the helpless, blindfolded horse, which +the _picador_, whose jacket was well padded and whose legs were cased +in iron, deliberately offered to his wrath. The poor horse shrieked, +plunged, reeled, and fell, the _chulos_ deftly dragging away the +armored rider, while the bull ripped and trampled that quivering +carcass, for whose torment no man cared, until it was a crimson, +formless heap. + +Such sickness swept over me that I did not know what followed. When I +looked again, two bloody masses that had once been horses disfigured +the arena, and the bull, stuck all over like a hedge-hog with +derisive, many-colored darts, had gone down under Guerrita's steel. + +My friends, observing with concern that I was not enjoying myself as +much as they had promised, tried to divert my attention to the +technical features of their ghastly game. It was really, they +explained, a drama in three acts. It is the part of the mounted +_picador_ to draw off the first rage and vigor of the bull, weakening +him, but not slaying him, by successive wounds. Then the jaunty +_banderilleros_, the streamers of whose darts must correspond in color +with their costumes, supply a picturesque and amusing element, a comic +interlude. Finally an _espada_, or _matador_, advances alone to +despatch the tortured creature. The death-blow can be dealt only in +one of several fashions, established by rule and precedent, and the +_espada_ who is startled into an unprofessional thrust reaps a bitter +harvest of scoffs and hisses. + +A team of gayly-caparisoned mules with jingling bells had meanwhile +trundled away the mangled bodies of the slaughtered animals, fresh +sand had been thrown over the places slippery with blood, and the band +pealed the entrance of the second bull. This was a demon, black as a +coal, with a marvellous pride and spirit that availed him nothing. +Horse after horse crashed down before his furious rushes, while the +circus, drunk with glee, shouted for more victims and more and more. +It was a massacre. At last our hideous greed was glutted, and the +_banderilleros_ took their turn in baiting the now enfeebled but +undaunted bull. Wildly he shook himself, the fore half of his body +already a flood of crimson, to throw off the ignominy of those +stinging darts. The _chulos_ fretted and fooled him with their waving +cloaks of red and yellow, till at last the creature grew hushed and +sullen. A strain of music announced that the _matador_ Fuentes was +asking beneath the president's box permission to kill the bull. For my +part, I gave the bull permission to kill the man. Fuentes, all pranked +out in gray and gold, holding his keen blade behind him and +flourishing a scarlet square of cloth, swinging from a rod, the +_muleta_, advanced upon the brute. That bleeding body shook with a new +access of rage, and the other _espadas_ drew near and stood at watch. +But even before a blow was struck the splendid, murdered creature sank +to his knees, staggered up once more, sank again with crimson foam +upon his mouth, and the music clashed jubilantly while Fuentes drove +the weapon home. And again the team of mules, with foolish tossing of +their bright-ribboned heads, jerked and jolted their dead kindred off +the scene. + +The third bull galloped in with a roar that was heard far beyond the +_Plaza_ and gored his first two horses so promptly and so frightfully +that, while the hapless beasts still struggled in their agony, the +amphitheatre howled with delirious joy. Several _capas_ were caught +away on those swift, effective horns, and one _picador_ was hurt. But +the rain of darts teased and bewildered the bull to the point of +stupidity, although he was dangerous yet. + + "Dark is his hide on either side, but the blood within doth boil; + And the dun hide glows, as if on fire, as he paws to the turmoil. + His eyes are jet, and they are set in crystal rings of snow; + But now they stare with one red glare of brass upon the foe." + +It was the turn of Bombita, a dandy in dark-green suit with silver +trimmings; but his comrades, pale and intent, stood not far off and +from time to time, by irritating passes, drew the bull's wrath upon +themselves, wearying him ever more and more, until at last Bombita had +his chance to plant a telling blow. + +Would it never end? Again the fatal door swung open, and the fourth +bull bounded in to play his tragic role. He was of choicest pedigree, +but the utter strangeness of the scene turned his taurine wits. He +made distracted and aimless rushes hither and thither, unheeding the +provocations of the horsemen, until he came upon the spot drenched +with his predecessor's life-blood. He pawed away the hasty covering of +sand, sniffed at that ominous stain, and then, throwing up his head +with a strange bellow, bolted back to the door by which he had +entered, and turned tail to the arena. The fourteen thousand, crazy +with rage, sprang to their feet, shook their fists, called him _cow_. +The _chulos_ brandished their cloaks about his horns; men leaned over +from the barrier and prodded him with staffs. Finally, in desperation, +he turned on the nearest horse, rent it and bore it down. The +_picador_, once set up by the _chulos_ upon his stiff, iron-cased +legs, his yellow finery streaked with red from his lacerated horse, +tugged savagely at the bridle to force that dying creature to a second +stand. One attendant wrenched it by the tail, another beat it +viciously over the face; the all-enduring beast, his entrails swinging +from a crimson gash, struggled to his feet. The _picador_ mounted, +drove in the spurs, and the horse, rocking and pitching, accomplished +a few blind paces toward those dripping horns that horribly awaited +him. But to the amazement and scandal of the _aficionados_, the circus +raised a cry of protest, and the discomfited rider sprang down in the +very moment when his horse fell to rise no more. A _chulo_, at his +leisurely convenience, quieted those kicking hoofs by a stab,--the one +drop of mercy in that ocean of human outrage. + +Straw-colored darts, wine-colored darts, sky-colored darts, were +pricking the bull to frenzy. I wished he had any half-dozen of his +enemies in a clear pasture. Those glittering dragon-flies were always +just out of reach, but he stumbled on the sodden shape of the unhappy +horse and tossed it again and again, making the poor carcass fling up +its head and arch its neck in ghastly mockery of life. Cowardice +avails a bull as little as courage. This sorry fighter had been deeply +pierced by the _garrochas_, and now, as he galloped clumsily about +the arena, in unavailing efforts to escape from his tormentors, his +violent, foolish plunges made the dark blood flow the faster. It was +Guerrita, Guerrita the adored, Guerrita in gold-laced jacket and +violet trousers, who struck the ultimate blow, and so cleverly that +_sombreros_ and cigarettes, oranges and pocket-flasks, came raining, +amid furies of applause, into the arena. This was such a proud moment +as he had dreamed of long ago in the Cordova slaughter-house, when, +the little son of the slaughter-house porter, he had stolen from his +bed at midnight to play _al toro_ with the calves, and then and there +had solemnly dedicated himself to the glorious profession. Now the +master of his art and the idol of all Spain, easily making his +seventy-five thousand dollars a year, earning, in fact, three thousand +on that single afternoon, Guerrita little foresaw that with the coming +autumn he should go on pilgrimage to _La Virgen del Pilar_, and before +her beloved shrine at Saragossa cut off his bull-fighter's pigtail and +renounce the ring. + +The fifth bull was black as ebony. He dashed fearlessly into the +arena, charged and wheeled and tossed his horns in the splendor of his +strength, sending every red-vested _chulo_ scrambling over the wall. +Then he backed to the middle of the sanded circle, snorting and pawing +the earth. Another instant, and the nearest horse and rider went +crashing against the barrier. The _picador_, with a bruised face, +forced up the gasping horse, mounted and rode it, the beast treading +out its entrails as it went, to meet a second charge. But the swaying +horse fell dead before it reached those lowered horns again. The next +_picador_, too, went down heavily under his jade and received an +awkward sprain. He mounted once more, to show that he could, and the +circus cheered him, but his horse, torn to death, could not bear his +weight. He gave it an angry push with the foot as he left it writhing +in its life-blood. This whirlwind of a bull, who shook off all but one +of the _banderillas_, mortified even the _matadores_. Disregarding the +red rag, he rushed at Fuentes himself. The nimble _torero_ leapt +aside, but the bull's horn struck his sword and sent it spinning half +across the arena. His comrades immediately ran, with waving _capas_ +and bright steel, to his aid, but that too intelligent bull, fighting +for his life, kept his foes at bay until the circus hissed with +impatience. The _toreros_, visibly nettled, gathered closer and +closer, but had to play that death-game cautiously. This bull was +dangerous. The coliseum found him tedious. He took too long in dying. +Stabbed again and again and again, he yet agonized to his feet and +shook those crimsoned horns at his tormentors, who still hung back. It +really was dull. The _matadores_ buzzed about him, worrying his dying +sight, but he stood sullen in their midst, refusing the charges to +which they tempted him, guarding his last drops of strength, and, +cardinal offence in a _toro_, holding his head too high for the +professional stroke. His vital force was ebbing. Red foam dripped from +his mouth. That weary hoof no longer pawed the earth. The people +shouted insults even to their pet Guerrita, but Guerrita, like the +rest, stood baffled. At last that formidable figure, no longer black, +but a red glaze of blood and sweat and foam, fell in a sudden +convulsion. Then his valiant murderers sprang upon him, the stabs came +thick and fast, and the jingling mule-team pranced in to form his +funeral cortege. + +One more,--the sixth. I was long past indignation, past any acuteness +of pain, simply sickened through body and soul and unutterably +wearied with this hideous monotony of slaughter. The last bull, a +white star shining on his black forehead, tore into the arena, raced +all about the circle, and struck with amazing rapidity wherever he saw +a foe. Three horses were down, were up again, and were forced, all +with trailing intestines, to a second charge. The bull flashed like a +thunderbolt from one to another, rending and digging with his savage +horns, until three mangled bodies writhed on the reddened sand, and +stabbers watched their chances to run forward and quiet with the knife +the horrible beating of those hoofs in air. The circus yelled delight. +It had all been the work of a moment,--a brave bull, a great +sensation! For the performers it was rather too much of a good thing. +Those disembowelled carcasses cluttered up the arena. The scattered +entrails were slippery under foot. The dart-throwers hastened to the +next act of the tragedy. Theirs was a subtlety too much for the +fury-fuddled wits of that mighty, blundering brute. He galloped to and +fro, spending his strength in useless charges and, a score of times, +ignoring the men to hook wildly at their brandished strips of colored +cloth. The darts had been planted and he was losing blood. The +_matador_ went to his work, but the uncivil bull did not make it easy +for him. Bombita could not get in a handsome blow. The house began to +hoot and taunt. A stentorian voice called to him to "kill that bull +to-morrow." Exasperated by the laughter that greeted this sally, +Bombita drove his Toledo blade to its mark. While the final scene of +general stabbing was going on, boys, men, even women vaulted into the +arena, played over again with one another the more memorable +incidents, ran to inspect those shapeless carcasses of what God +created horses, and escorted the funeral train of the bull, one +small boy riding in gleeful triumph on top of the great black body, +harmless and still at last. As we passed out by a hallway where the +dead animals had been dragged, we had to pick our way through pools of +blood and clots of entrails. Thus by the road of the shambles we came +forth from hell. + + [Illustration: THE GIRALDA] + +"I do not understand at all," sincerely protested my Spanish host, +disconcerted by the continued nausea and horror of red dreams which, +justly enough, pursued me for weeks after. "It was a very favorable +_corrida_ for a beginner,--no serious accident, no use of the +fire-darts, no houghing of the bull with the demi-lune, nothing +objectionable. And, after all, animals are only animals; they are not +Christians." + +"Who were the Christians in that circus?" I asked. "How could devils +have been worse than we?" + +He half glanced toward the morning paper but was too kindly to speak +his thought. It was not necessary. I had read the paper, which gave +half a column to a detailed account of a recent lynching, with +torture, in the United States. + + + + +X + +GYPSIES + + "'Life is sweet, brother.' + + "'Do you think so?' + + "'Think so!--There's night and day, brother, both sweet + things; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things; + there's likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, + brother; who would wish to die?' + + "'I would wish to die.' + + "'You talk like a gorgio--which is the same as talking like a + fool--were you a Rommany Chal you would talk wiser. Wish to + die, indeed!--A Rommany Chal would wish to live forever!' + + "'In sickness, Jasper?' + + "'There's the sun and stars, brother.' + + "'In blindness, Jasper?' + + "'There's the wind on the heath, brother; if I could only feel + that, I would gladly live forever. _Dosta_, we'll now go to + the tents and put on the gloves; and I'll try to make you feel + what a sweet thing it is to be alive, brother!'" + --GEORGE BORROW. + + +No foreigner has known the Zingali better than George Borrow, the +linguistic Englishman, who could speak Rommany so well that gypsies +all over Europe took him for a brother. In the employ of the English +Bible Society, he spent some five adventurous years in Spain, +wandering through the wilds and sharing the life of shepherds, +muleteers, even the fierce _gitanos_. As he found the Spanish gypsies +half a century ago, so, in essentials, are they still--the men +jockeys, tinkers, and blacksmiths, the women fortune tellers and +dancers, the children the most shameless little beggars of all the +Peninsula. Yet there has been an improvement. + +The _gitanos_ are not such ruffians as of old, nor even such arrant +thieves, although it would still be unwise to trust them within call +of temptation. + + "There runs a swine down yonder hill, + As fast as e'er he can, + And as he runs he crieth still, + 'Come, steal me, Gypsyman.'" + +Still more compromising is the Christmas carol:-- + + "Into the porch of Bethlehem + Have crept the gypsies wild, + And they have stolen the swaddling clothes + Of the new-born Holy Child. + + "Oh, those swarthy gypsies! + What won't the rascals dare? + They have not left the Christ Child + A single shred to wear." + +There are wealthy gypsies, whose wives and daughters go arrayed with +the utmost elegance of fashion, in several Spanish cities. Seville has +her gypsy lawyer, but her gypsy bull-fighter, who died two years ago, +was held to reflect even greater credit on the parent stock. + +By law the gypsies are now established as Spaniards, with full claim +to Spanish rights and privileges--_Nuevos Castellanos_, as they have +been called since the day when Spain bethought her of these Ishmaels +as "food for powder" and subjected them to the regular military +draft. Even in Granada, where the gypsy community still lives in +semi-barbarism, there are hopeful signs. The _gitanos_ drive a sharp +trade in donkeys, but their forge fires, gleaming far up the Albaicin +in the evening, testify to their industry. The recent opening by the +municipality of schools for the gypsy children has already wrought a +marked change for the better. Some half-dozen dirty little palms, +outstretched for _cinco centimos_, pester the stranger to-day where +scores used to torment him, and the mothers take pride in the literary +accomplishments of their tawny broods. On one occasion, when, having, +as the Spanish say, "clean pockets," I firmly declined to see a small +gypsy girl dance or hear her sing, the mother assured me, as a last +greedy expedient, that "the child could pray." + +On the Alhambra hill the gypsies, who scent tourists from afar and +troop thither, on the track of newly arrived parties, like wolves to +their banquet, are picturesque figures enough, the men in peaked hats, +spangled jackets, and sashes of red silk, the women with bright +handkerchiefs bound over their raven hair, large silver earrings, gay +bodices, and short, flounced petticoats. + +There is one old _gitano_, in resplendent attire, who haunts the +Alhambra doors and introduces himself to visitors, with bows queerly +compounded of condescension and supplication, as the King of the +Gypsies, modestly offering his photograph for a _peseta_. If you turn +to your attendant Spaniard and ask, _sotto voce_, "But is this truly +the Gypsy King?" you will receive a prompt affirmative, while the +quick-witted old masquerader strikes a royal attitude, rolls his eyes +prodigiously, and twirls his three-cornered hat at arm's length above +his head, until its tinsel ornaments sparkle like crown jewels. But no +sooner is his Majesty well out of hearing than your guide hastens to +eat his own words. "No, no, no! He is not the King of the Gypsies, but +he is a gypsy, yes, and it is better not to have his ill will." + +Whether this hardened pretender could cast the evil eye or not, we +never knew, for having bought two of his pictures at the first onset, +we suffered ever afterward the sunshine of his favor. In fact we often +made a wide detour rather than pass him on the hill, for he would +spring to his feet at our remotest approach and stand bowing like an +image of perpetual motion, his hat brandished high in air, until our +utmost in the way of answering nods and smiles seemed by contrast +sheer democratic incivility. + +The swarthy faces and glittering eyes of the gypsies meet one +everywhere in the Granada streets, but to see them in their own +precinct it is necessary to take off your watch, empty your pockets of +all but small silver and coppers, and go to the Albaicin. This hill, +parted from the Alhambra by the deep ravine of the gold-bearing Darro, +was in Moorish times the chosen residence of the aristocracy. Still +Arabian arches span the gorge, and many of the toppling old houses +that lean over the swift, mountain-born current, shabby as they look +to the passer-by, are beautiful within with arabesque and fretwork, +carven niches, delicate columns and open patios, where fountains still +gush and orange blossoms still shed fragrance. Such degenerate palaces +are often occupied by the better class of gypsies, those who traffic +in horses, as well as in donkeys, while their women, grouped in the +courts and doorways, embroider with rainbow wools, in all fantastic +patterns, the stout mantles of the Andalusian mountaineers. + +As we climbed the Albaicin, fronting as it does the hill of the +Alhambra, the exceeding beauty of the view at first claimed all our +power of seeing. Below was the gray sweep of the city and beyond the +fruitful plain of Granada, its vivid green shading into a far-off +dimness like the sea. Just opposite us rose the fortress of the +Alhambra, a proud though broken girdle of walls and towers, while in +the background soared the dazzling snow peaks of the Sierra Nevada, +glistening with unbearable splendor under the intense blue of the +Andalusian sky. + +In the midst of our rhapsodies I became aware of a shrill voice at my +feet, a persistent tug at my skirts, and reluctantly dropped my eyes +on a comely little gypsy lass lying along a sunny ledge and +imperiously demanding _cinco centimos_. + +"Now what would you do with _cinco centimos_ if you had them?" + +With the universal beggar gesture she pointed to her mouth. "Buy a +rusk. I am starving. I am already dead of hunger." + +Crossing her hands upon her breast, she closed her eyes in token of +her mortal extremity, but instantly flashed them open again to note +the effect. + +"Your cheeks are not the cheeks of famine." + +At a breath the young sorceress sucked them in and succeeded, plump +little person though she was, in looking so haggard and so woe-begone +that our political economy broke down in laughter, and we gave her the +coveted cent in return for her transformation act. + +Off she darted, with her wild locks flying in the wind, and was back +in a twinkling, a circlet of bread suspended from her arm. She tripped +along beside us for the rest of the afternoon, using the rusk +sometimes as a hoop, sometimes as a crown, sometimes as a peephole. +She tossed it, sang through it, dandled it, stroked it, and +occasionally, while the bread approximated more and more in hue to her +own gypsy complexion, took an artistic nibble, dotting the surface +with a symmetrical curve of bites. It was not mere food to her; it was +luxury, it was mirth--like a Lord Mayor's feast or a Delmonico +breakfast. + +Following the _Camino del Sacro Monte_, marked by many crosses, our +attention was more and more withdrawn from the majestic views spread +out before us to the gypsies, whose cave dwellings lined the way. +Burrowing into the earth, from the midst of thickets of prickly pear, +are these strange abodes, whose chimneys rise abruptly out of the +green surface of the hillside. Dens as they are, the best of them +possess some decencies. Flaps of cloth serve them for doors, their +peering fronts are whitewashed, they are furnished with a stool or +two, a box of tools or clothing, a few water-jars, a guitar, and, in +the farther end of the lair, a family bedstead, or more often a heap +of dirty sheepskins. Cooking tins, bottles, saddles, and coils of rope +hang on the rough walls; there may be a shelf of amulets and toys for +sale, and the indispensable pot of _puchero_ simmers over a handful of +fire. + +Out from these savage homes swarmed a whining, coaxing, importunate +horde of sly-eyed women and an impish rabble of children. Young and +old clutched at us with unclean hands, clung to us with sinewy brown +arms, begged, flattered, demanded, and dragged us bodily into their +hill. We felt as if we had gone back to German fairy tales and had +fallen into the evil grip of the gnomes. Hardly could escort, +carriage, and a reckless rain of coppers break the spell. We were +forced to taste their repulsive messes, to cross witch palms with +silver, to buy even the roadside weeds the urchins gathered before our +eyes. We were birds for the plucking, sheep for the shearing. Only +when we had turned our pockets inside out to show that we had not a +"little dog" left, were we suffered to go free, followed, doubtless, +by the curses of Egypt, because we had yielded such poor picking. + +In Seville, too, the gypsies have their own quarter, but in proportion +as Seville is a gentler city than Granada, so are the looks and +manners of her gypsy population more attractive. Crossing the yellow +Guadalquivir by the bridge of Isabel Segunda, we come immediately on +the picturesque, dark-visaged figures, with their uneffaced suggestion +of wildness, of freedom, of traditions apart from the common humdrum +of humanity. The boy, clad in one fluttering garment, who is +perilously balancing his slender brown body on the iron rail; the +bright-kerchiefed young mother, thrusting her tiny black bantling into +our faces; the silent, swarthy men who lean along the bridge side, +lithe even in their lounging;--all have a latent fierceness in their +look. Their eyes are keen as knives--strange eyes, whose glitter masks +the depth. But as we go on into the potter's suburb of Triana, into +the thick of the gypsy life, we are not more seriously molested than +by the continual begging, nor is this the rough, imperious begging of +Granada; a flavor of Sevillian grace and fun has passed upon it. Offer +this bush-headed lad, pleading starvation, the orange he has just +tossed away, and he will double up over the joke and take to his +little bare heels. Give to the fawning sibyl who insists on telling +your fortune a red rose for her hair, and the chances are that she +will rest content. But the time to see the gypsies in their glory is +during the three days and nights of the _Feria_. + +On the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth of April Seville annually +keeps, on the _Prado de San Sebastian_, where the Inquisition used to +light its fires, the blithest of spring festivals. The _Feria_ is a +fair, but much more than a fair. There are droves upon droves of +horses, donkeys, cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs. There are rows upon +rows of booths with toys, booths with nuts and candies, booths with +the gay-handled Albacete knives and daggers. There are baskets upon +baskets of rainbow fans, mimic fighting cocks, oranges, and other +cheap Sevillian specialties. Cooling drinks are on sale at every turn, +but there is no drunkenness. There are thousands and tens of thousands +of people in motion, but there is no bustling, no elbowing, no +rudeness of pressure. Dainty little children wander alone in that +tremendous throng. The order and tranquillity that prevail by day and +night in this multitude of merrymakers render it possible for the +_Feria_ to be what it is. For during these enchanted April hours even +the noblest families of Seville come forth from the proud seclusion of +their patios and live in _casetas_, little rustic houses that are +scarcely more than open tents, exposed to the gaze of every passer-by. + +A lofty bridge, crossed by two broad flights of stairs and tapering to +a tower, stands at the intersection of the three chief _Feria_ +avenues. The bridge is brilliantly illuminated by night, and +close-set globes of gas, looped on running tubes along both sides of +these three festal streets, pour floods of light into the _casetas_. +Chinese lanterns in red and yellow abound, and lines of banner-staffs +flaunt the Spanish colors. The _casetas_ are usually constructed of +white canvas on a framework of light-brown fretwood, though the +materials are sometimes more durable. + +Clubhouses are large and elaborate, and individual taste varies the +aspect of the private tents. The more important families of Seville +own their _casetas_, but in general these airy abodes are rented from +year to year, the price for the three days of the _Feria_ ranging from +twenty-five dollars on the central avenue to five dollars for the more +remote houselets on the two streets that branch off at right angles. +The numerous byways are occupied by cafes, booths, penny shows, and +the like, the gypsies having one side of a lane to themselves. The +other side is given over to circus-rings, merry-go-rounds, +cradle-swings marked "For Havana," "For Manila," "For Madrid," dancing +dwarfs, braying bands, caged bulls, and tents provided with peepholes +through which one may see "The Glorious Victory of the Spanish Troops +at Santiago," and other surprising panoramas of the recent war. These +are in high favor with soldiers and small boys, whose black heads bump +together at every aperture. + +Such attractions are especially potent over the country folk, who come +jogging into Seville during fair time, mounted two or three together +on jaded horses, sorry mules, and even on indignant little donkeys. +Their peasant costumes add richly to the charm of the spectacle, and +their simplicity makes them an easy spoil for the canny folk of Egypt. +You see them especially in the cool of the early morning, when trade +in cattle is at its liveliest. Ten to one they have been fleeced +already by the _gitanos_, who, out in the great meadow where the +live-stock is exposed for sale, have their own corner for "dead +donkeys," as the Sevillians term the decrepit old beasts that have +been magically spruced up for the occasion. Cervantes has his jest at +"a gypsy's ass, with quicksilver in its ears." + +Then comes the turn of the _gitanas_, looking their prettiest, with +roses in hair, and over the shoulders those captivating black silk +shawls embroidered in many-colored patterns of birds and flowers. The +younger enchantresses keep watch, each in front of her family tent, +before whose parted curtains the more ill-favored women of the +household are busy frying the crisp brown _bunuelos_, a species of +doughnut dear to the Spanish tooth. + +As you loiter down the lane, be you wide-eyed shepherd from the +provinces, or elegant grandee from Madrid, or haughty foreigner from +London or Vienna, the sturdy sirens rush upon you, seize you by arm or +neck, and by main force tug you into their tented prisons, from which +you must gnaw your way out through a heap of hot _bunuelos_. Or you +may compromise on a cup of Spanish chocolate, flavored with cinnamon +and thick as flannel, or perhaps win your liberty by gulping down a +cupful of warm goat's milk. The prices shock the portliest purses, but +at your first faint sign of protest a gathering mob of gypsies presses +close with jeers and hisses, and even the frying-pan sputters +contempt. + +The _Feria_ presents its most quiet aspect during the afternoon. Some +twenty or thirty thousand of the promenaders have been drawn off by +the superior attraction of the bull-fight, and others have retired for +their siestas. Yet there are thousands left. This is a grand time for +the children, who disport themselves in the avenues with whistles, +swords, balls, kites, and other trophies from the toy booths. These +little people are exquisitely dressed, often in the old Andalusian +costumes, and tiny lad and tiny lass, of aristocratic look and +bearing, may be seen tripping together through one of the graceful +national dances in the midst of a sidewalk throng. The toddlers, too, +are out, under charge of happy nursemaids. + +Even the babies have been brought to the fair, and lie, contentedly +sucking their rosy thumbs, in the doorways of the _casetas_. The lords +of these doll-houses are enjoying peaceful smokes together in the +background of the open parlors, which are furnished with as many +chairs as possible, a piano, and a central stand of flowers; while +semicircles of silent ladies, languidly waving the most exquisite of +fans, sit nearer the front, watching the ceaseless stream of +pedestrians, and beyond these the double procession of carriages, +which keep close rank as they advance on one side of the avenue and +return on the other. It is bad form not to go to the _Feria_ once at +least in a carriage. Large families of limited means hire spacious +vehicles resembling omnibuses, and, squeezed together in two opposite +rows, drive up and down the three chief streets for hours. + +There are crested landaus, with handsome horses, gay donkey-carts, +decked out with wreaths and tassels, shabby cabs, sporting red and +yellow ribbons on their whips, tooting coaches--every sort and kind of +contrivance for relieving humanity of its own weight. There are +mounted cavaliers in plenty, and occasionally, under due masculine +escort, a fair-haired English girl rides by, or a group of Spanish +senoras, who have come into Seville on horseback from their country +homes. But all this movement is slow and dreamy, the play of the +children being as gentle as the waving of the fans. + +Even Gypsy Lane shares in the tranquillity of the drowsy afternoon. We +were captured there almost without violence, and, while we trifled +with the slightest refreshment we could find, a juvenile entertainment +beguiled us of our coppers with pleasurable ease. A coquettish midget +of four summers innocently danced for us the dances that are not +innocent, and a wee goblin of seven, who could not be induced to +perform without a cap, that he might pull it down over his bashful +eyes, stamped and kicked, made stealthy approaches and fierce starts +of attack through the savage hunting jigs inherited from the ancient +life of the wilderness. The women swung their arms and shrilled wild +tunes to urge the children on, but a second youngster who attempted +one of these barbaric dances for us broke down in mid career, and, +amid a chorus of screaming laughter, buried his blushes in his +mother's lap. The tent had become crowded with stalwart, black +_gitanos_, but they were in a domestic mood, smiled on the children's +antics, and eyed us with grim amusement as the women caught up from +rough cradles and thrust into our arms those elfish babies of theirs. +Even the infant of five days winked at us with trickery in its jet +beads of vision. But so inert was gypsy enterprise that we were +suffered to depart with a few _pesetas_ yet in our possession. + +In the evening, from eight till one, the _Feria_ is perfect Fairyland. +Under the light of those clustered gas globes and butterfly-colored +lanterns pass and repass the loveliest women of the world. Beautifully +clad as the senoritas have been during morning and afternoon, their +evening toilets excel and crown the rest. White-robed, white-sandalled, +their brown, bewitching faces peeping out from the lace folds of white +mantillas, with white shawls, embroidered in glowing hues, folded over +the arm, and delicate white fans in hand, they look the very poetry of +maidenhood. Months of saving, weeks of stitching, these costumes may +have cost, but the _Feria_ is, above all, a marriage mart, and the +Andalusian girl, usually so strictly guarded, so jealously secluded, +never allowed to walk or shop alone, is now on exhibition. As these +radiant forms glide along the avenues, the men who meet them coolly +bend and look full into their faces, scanning line and feature with +the critical air of connoisseurs. But well these cavaliers illustrate +the Andalusian catch:-- + + "Because I look thee in the face, + Set not for this thy hopes too high, + For many go to the market-place + To see and not to buy." + +The girl's opportunity is in her dancing. Every Andalusian woman, high +or low, knows the _Sevillana_. Some have been trained in it by +accredited teachers of the art, but the most learn the dance in +childhood, as naturally as they learn to speak and sing. They are +never weary of dancing it, morning, noon, and night, two girls +together, or a girl and a lad, but such dancing is confined to the +Moorish privacy of the Spanish home--except in Fair time. Then the +whole world may stand before the _casetas_ and see the choicest +daughters of Seville dancing the dance that is very coquetry in +motion. Rows of girls awaiting their turn, and of matrons who are +chaperoning the spectacle, sit about the three sides of the mimic +drawing-room. A dense crowd of men, crying "_Ole! Ole!_" and +commenting as freely on the figures and postures of the dancers as if +they were ballet artistes in a cafe chantant, is gathered close in +front. For their view these rhythmic maidens dance on, hour after +hour, until their great, dusky eyes are dim with sleep. The tassels of +curly ribbon, tinted to match the dainty touches of color in their +costumes, seem to droop in exhaustion from the tossing castanets. What +matter? For a Spanish girl to reach her twenty-fifth birthday without +a _novio_ is a tragedy of failure, and these tired dancers are well +aware that _caballeros_ are making the rounds from _caseta_ to +_caseta_, on purpose to select a wife. + +In Gypsy Lane there is no sugar coating. The Flamenco dances are +directly seductive. The life of the forest animal seems reproduced in +the fierceness, the fitfulness, the abandon, of each strange series of +abrupt gesticulations. Yet these gypsy women, boldly as they play on +the passions of the spectators, care only for Gentile money, and fling +off with fiery scorn the addresses that their songs and dances court. +Many a flouted gallant could tell the tale of one who + + "Like a right gypsy, hath, at fast and loose, + Beguiled me to the very heart of loss." + +Husbands and lovers look on at the dancers' most extreme poses, even +caresses, in nonchalant security. While one _gitana_ after another +takes the stage, a crescent of men and women, seated behind, cheer her +on with cries and clappings, strummings of the guitar, and frenzied +beatings of the floor with staff and stool. Yet their excitement, even +at its apparent height, never sweeps them out of their crafty selves. +Beyond the dancer they see the audience. Disdain and dislike are in +the atmosphere, and never more than when the rain of silver is at its +richest. Still they follow the gypsy law, "To cheat and rob the +stranger always and ever, and be true only to our own blood." + + [Illustration: THE PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS] + + + + +XI + +THE ROUTE OF THE SILVER FLEETS + + "Paul, the Physician, to Cristobal Colombo, greeting. I + perceive your magnificent and great desire to find a way to + where the spices grow." + + "And thus leade they their lyves in fullfilling the holy + hunger of golde. But the more they fill their handes with + finding, the more increaseth their covetous desire." + --_Decades in the New Worlde._ + + +I wanted to go from Seville to Cadiz by water. I longed to sail by the +"Silver Road" in the wake of the silver fleets. The little artist, as +befitted her youth, preferred a Manila shawl to that historic +pilgrimage. So I proposed to make this trifling trip alone. + +Don Jose was shocked. Merriest and most indulgent of hosts, he was +inclined at this point to play the tyrant. If I must see Cadiz, well +and good. He would take me to the morning express and put me under +charge of the conductor. At Utrera, an hour farther on, his son would +come to the train and see that all was well. At _Puerto de Santa +Maria_, another hour distant, I should be met by a trusted friend of +the family, who would transfer me to another train and another +conductor, and so speed me for my third hour to Cadiz, where I should +be greeted by a relative of mine hostess and conveyed in safety to his +home. + +I appreciated the kindness involved in this very Andalusian +programme, but otherwise it did not appeal to me. That was not the way +Columbus went, nor Cortes. And much as I delighted in the Alhambra, +and the Mosque of Cordova, and the Alcazar of Seville, I did not feel +called upon to bow a New England bonnet beneath the Moorish yoke. + +Thus Don Jose and I found ourselves quietly engaged in an +Hispano-American contest. He heartily disapproved of my going, even by +train. "_Una senora sola!_ It is not the custom in Andalusia." His +plan of campaign consisted in deferring the arrangements from day to +day. "_Manana!_" Whenever I attempted to set a time for departure he +blandly assented, and presently projected some irresistibly attractive +excursion for that very date. His household were all with him. His +wife had not been able to procure the particular _dulces_ +indispensable to a traveller's luncheon. Even my faithless comrade, +draped in her flower-garden shawl, practised the steps of a +_seguidilla_ to the rattle of the castanets and laughed at my defeats. + +At last, grown desperate, I suavely announced at the Sunday dinner +table that I was going to Cadiz that week. My host said, "_Bueno!_" +and my hostess, "_Muy bien!_" But there was no surrender in their +tones. On Monday, instead of writing the requisite notes to these +relays of protectors along the route, Don Jose took us himself, on a +mimic steamboat, for a judicious distance down the Guadalquivir. +Tuesday he put me off with Roman ruins, and Wednesday with a private +gallery of Murillos. By Thursday I grew insistent, and, with shrug and +sigh, he finally consented to my going by train on Friday. I still +urged the boat, but he heaped up a thousand difficulties. There wasn't +any; it would be overcrowded; I should be seasick; the boat would +arrive, wherever it might arrive, too late for my train, whatever my +train might be. Compromise is always becoming, and I agreed to take +the nine o'clock express in the morning. + +After the extended Spanish farewells, for to kiss on both cheeks and +be kissed on both cheeks down a long feminine line, mother, daughters, +and maid-servants, is no hasty ceremony, I sallied forth at half-past +eight with Don Jose in attendance. He called a cab, but in Spain the +cabbies are men and brothers, and this one, on learning our +destination, declared that the train did not start until half-past +nine and it was much better for a lady to wait _en casa_ than at the +depot. This additional guardianship goaded me to active remonstrance. +Why not take the cab for the hour and look up a procession on our way +to the station? There are always processions in Seville. This appealed +to both the pleasure-loving Spaniards, and we drove into the palmy +_Plaza de San Fernando_, where an array of military bands was +serenading some civic dignitary. + +The music was of the best, and we fell in with the large and varied +retinue that escorted the musicians to the palace of the archbishop. +As they were rousing him from his reverend slumbers with _La Marcha de +Cadiz_, I caught a twinkle in Don Jose's eye. Did he hope to keep me +chasing after those bands all the forenoon? I awakened the cabman, +whom the music had lulled into the easy Andalusian doze, and we +clattered off to the station. Of all silent and forsaken places! I +looked suspiciously at Don Jose, whose swarthy countenance wore an +overdone expression of innocent surprise. A solitary official +sauntered out. + +"Good morning, senor! Is the express gone?" asked the driver. + +"Good morning, senor! There isn't any express to-day," was the reply. +"The express runs only Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays." + +"What a pity," cooed Don Jose, contentedly. "You will have to wait +till to-morrow." + +"Yes, you can go to-morrow," indulgently added the driver, and the +official chimed sweetly in, "_Manana por la manana!_" + +"But is there no other train to-day?" I asked. + +The official admitted that there was one at three o'clock. Don Jose +gave him a reproachful glance. + +"But you do not want to go by train," said my ingenious host. "Perhaps +to-morrow you can go by steamboat." + +"Perhaps I can go by steamboat now," I returned, seizing my +opportunity. "When does that boat start?" + +Nobody knew. I asked the cabman to drive us to the Golden Tower, off +which sea-going vessels usually anchor. Don Jose fell back in his +seat, exhausted. + +The cabman drove so fast, for Seville, that we ran into a donkey and +made a paralyzed beggar jump, but we reached the river in time to see +a small steamer just in the act of swinging loose from the pier. In +the excitement of the moment Don Jose forgot everything save the +necessity of properly presenting me to the captain, and I, for my +part, was absorbed in the ecstasy of sailing from the foot of the +Golden Tower along the Silver Road. + +It was not until a rod of water lay between boat and wharf that the +captain shouted to Don Jose, who struck an attitude of utter +consternation, that this craft went only to Bonanza, and no +connection could be made from there to Cadiz until the following +afternoon. And I, mindful of the austere dignity that befitted these +critical circumstances, could not even laugh. + +It was a dirty little boat, with a malodorous cargo of fish, and for +passengers two soldiers, two peasants, and a commercial traveller. But +what of that? I was sailing on a treasure ship of the Indies, one of +those lofty galleons of Spain, "rowed by thrice one hundred slaves and +gay with streamers, banners, music," that had delivered at the Golden +Tower her tribute from the hoard of the Incas, and was proudly bearing +back to the open roads of Cadiz. + +We dropped down past a noble line of deep-sea merchantmen, from +Marseilles, Hamburg, and far-away ports of Norway and Sweden. We +passed fishing boats casting their nets, and met a stately Spanish +bark, the _Calderon_. On the shores we caught glimpses of orange grove +and olive orchard, lines of osiers and white poplars, and we paused at +the little town of Coria, famous for its earthen jars, to land one of +our peasants, while a jolly priest, whose plain black garb was +relieved by a vermilion parasol, tossed down cigars to his friends +among the sailors. + +Then our galleon pursued her course into the flat and desolate regions +of the _marismas_. These great salt marshes of the Guadalquivir, +scarcely more than a bog in winter, serve as pasture for herds of +hardy sheep and for those droves of mighty bulls bred in Andalusia to +die in the arenas of all Spain. For long stretches the green bank +would be lined with the glorious creatures, standing like ebony +statues deep amid the reeds, some entirely black, and many black with +slight markings of white. The Guadalquivir intersects in triple +channel this unpeopled waste, concerning whose profusion of plant life +and animal life English hunters tell strange tales. They report flocks +of rosy flamingoes, three hundred or five hundred in a column, +"glinting in the sunshine like a pink cloud," and muddy islets studded +thick with colonies of flamingo nests. Most wonderful of all, the +camel, that ancient and serious beast of burden, a figure pertaining +in all imaginations to the arid, sandy desert, keeps holiday in these +huge swamps. It seems that, in 1829, a herd of camels was brought into +the province of Cadiz, from the Canaries, for transport service in +road-building and the like, and for trial in agriculture. But the +peculiar distaste of horses for these humpy monsters spoiled the +scheme, and the camels, increased to some eighty in number, took +merrily to the marshes, where, in defiance of all caravan tradition, +they thrive in aquatic liberty. The fascination of this wilderness +reached even the dingy steamer deck. Gulls, ducks, and all manner of +wild fowl flashed in the sunshine, which often made the winding river, +as tawny as our James, sparkle like liquid gold. + +If only it had been gold indeed, and had kept the traceries of the +Roman keels that have traversed it, the Vandal swords whose red it has +washed away, the Moorish faces it has mirrored, the Spanish-- + +"_Usted come?_" + +It might have been Cortes who was offering that bowl of _puchero_, but +no! Cortes would have mixed it in his plumy helmet and stirred it with +that thin, keen sword one may see in the Madrid _Armeria_. This was a +barefooted cabin boy, in blue linen blouse and patched blue trousers, +with a scarlet cloth cap tied over his head by means of an +orange-colored handkerchief. The dancing eyes that lit his shy brown +face had sea blues in them. He was a winsome little fellow enough, but +I did not incline to his cookery. While I was watching river, shores, +and herds and chatting with the _simpatico_ sailor, who, taking his +cue from my look, expressed the deepest abhorrence of the bull-fights, +which, I make no doubt, he would sell his dinner, jacket, bed, even +his guitar, to see, I had taken secret note of the cuisine. This +child, who could not have counted his twelfth birthday, kindled the +fire in a flimsy tin pail, lined with broken bricks. He cracked over +his knee a few pieces of driftwood, mixed the fragments with bits of +coal which he shook out of a sheepskin bottle, doused oil over the +whole, and cheerfully applied the match, while the commercial +traveller hastily drew up a bucket of water to have on hand for +emergencies. Then the boy, with excellent intentions in the way of +neatness, whisked his blackened hands across the rough end of a rope +and plunged them into the pot of _garbanzos_, to which he added beans, +cabbage, remnants of fried fish, and other sundries at his young +discretion. And while the mess was simmering, he squatted down on the +deck, with his grimy little feet in his fists, rocking himself back +and forth to his own wild Malaga songs, and occasionally disengaging +one hand or the other to plunge it into the pot after a tasty morsel. + +"Will you eat?" he repeated manfully, reddening under the scrutiny of +stranger eyes. + +"Many thanks! May it profit yourself!" + +I opened my luncheon, and again we exchanged these fixed phrases of +Spanish etiquette, although after the refusals enjoined by code of +courtesy, the boy was finally induced to relieve me of my more +indigestible goodies. + +"Did you ever hear of Columbus?" I asked, as we munched chestnut cakes +together, leaning on the rail. + +"No, senora," he replied, with another blush, "I have heard of +nothing. I know little. I am of very small account. I cook and sing. I +am good for nothing more." + +And is it to this those arrogant Spanish boasts, which rang like +trumpets up and down the Guadalquivir, have come at last! + +We were in the heart of a perfect sapphire day. The river, often +turbulent and unruly, was on this April afternoon, the sailors said, +_buen muchacho_, a good boy. The boat appeared to navigate herself. +The captain nodded on his lofty perch, and the engineer was curled up +in his own tiny hatchway, trying to read a newspaper, which the fresh +breeze blew into horns and balloons. The rough cabin bunks were full +of sleeping forms, and the leather wine-bottles, flung down carelessly +in the stern, had cuddled each to each in cozy shapes, and seemed to +be sleeping, too. The two soldiers, who had been gambling with coppers +over innumerable games of dominos, were listening grimly to the +oratory of the commercial traveller. + +"No fighting for me!" this hero was declaiming. "In strenuous times +like these a man ought to cherish his life for the sake of his +country. Spain needs her sons right here at home. It is sweet, as the +poet says, to die for the _patria_, but to live for the _patria_ is, +in my opinion, just as glorious." + +"And more comfortable," grunted one of the soldiers, while the other +gave a hitch to those red infantry trousers which look as if they had +been wading in blood, and walked forward to view from the bows the +little white port of Bonanza. + +As the boat went no farther, I had to stain my silver route by a +prosaic parenthesis of land. It was some comfort to remember that +Magellan waited here for that expedition from Seville which was the +first to sail around the globe. I think I travelled the three miles +from Bonanza, Good Weather, to San Lucar de Barrameda in Magellan's +own carriage. It was certainly old enough. As I sat on a tipsy chair +in the middle of a rude wagon frame mounted on two shrieking wooden +wheels, and hooded with broken arches of bamboo, from which flapped +shreds of russet oilcloth, I entered into poignant sympathy with +Magellan's ups and downs of hope and fear. The jolting was such a +torture that, to divert my attention, I questioned the driver as to +the uses of this and that appliance in his rickety ark. + +"And what are those ropes for, there in the corner?" was my final +query. + +"Those are to tie the coffins down when I have a fare for the +cemetery," he replied, cracking his whip over the incredibly lean mule +that was sulkily jerking us along. + +"Please let me get out and walk," I entreated. "You may keep the +valise and show me the way to the inn, and I can go quite as fast as +that mule." + +"Now, don't!" he begged, with even intenser pathos. "Strangers always +want to walk before they get to the inn, and then the people laugh at +me. I know my carriage isn't very handsome, but it's the only one in +Bonanza. Just do me the favor to keep your seat a little longer." + +I had been lurched out of it only a minute before, but I could not +refuse to sacrifice mere bodily ease to the pride of Spanish spirit. + +Notwithstanding Don Jose's dark predictions, this was the only trial +of the trip. To realize to the full the honesty, kindliness, and +dignity of the everyday Spaniard, one needs to turn off from the +sight-seer's route. On the beaten tourist track are exorbitant hotels, +greedy guides, cheating merchants, troops of beggars--everywhere "the +itching palm." But here in San Lucar, for instance, where I had to +spend twenty-four hours at a genuine Spanish _fonda_, the proprietor +took no advantage of the facts that I was a foreigner, a woman, and +practically a prisoner in the place until the Saturday afternoon train +went out, but gave me excellent accommodations, most respectful and +considerate treatment, and the lowest hotel bill that I had seen in +Spain. + +San Lucar has, in early Spanish literature, a very ill name for +roguery, but, so far as my brief experience went, Boston could not +have been safer and would not have been so genial. I strayed, for +instance, into a modest little shop to buy a cake of soap, which its +owner declined to sell, insisting that I ought to have a choicer +variety than his, and sending his son, a lad of sixteen, to point me +out more fashionable counters. This youth showed me the sights of the +pleasant seashore town, with its tiers of closely grated windows +standing out from the white fronts of the houses, and its sturdy +packhorses and orange-laden donkeys streaming along the rough stone +streets, and when, at the inn door, I hesitatingly offered him a piece +of silver, doffed his cap with smiling ease, and said he did not take +pay for a pleasure. + +Once off the regular lines of travel, however, speed is out of the +question. I might have gone from Seville to Cadiz in three hours; +thanks to historic enthusiasms, it took me nearer three days. After +escaping from San Lucar, I had to pass four hours in Jerez, another +whitewashed, palm-planted town, whose famous sherry has made it the +third city in Spain for wealth. The thing to do at Jerez is to visit +the great _bodegas_ and taste the rich white liquors treasured in +those monster casks, which bear all manner of names, from Christ and +His twelve disciples to Napoleon the Great; but mindful, in the light +of Don Jose's admonitions, that the weak feminine estate is "as water +unto wine," I contented myself with seeing the strange storage basin +of the mountain aqueduct--an immense, immaculate cellar, where endless +vistas of low stone arches stretch away in the silent dusk above the +glimmer of a ghostly lake. + +The train for Cadiz must needs be two hours late this particular +evening, but my cabman drove me to approved shops for the purchase of +bread and fruit, and then, of his own motion, drew up our modest +equipage in a shady nook opposite the villa of the English consul, +that I might enjoy my Arcadian repast with a secure mind. Jehu +accepted, after due protestations, a share of the viands, and +reciprocated the attention by buying me a glass of water at the +nearest stand, much amused at my continued preference for Jerez water +over Jerez wine. + +One of the Jerez wine merchants, German by birth, shared the railway +carriage with me for a while, and after the social wont of Continental +travel fell to discussing the war. "The Spaniards deserved to be +beaten," he declared, "but the Yankees didn't deserve to beat. They +were conceited enough before, heaven knows, and now they expect all +Europe to black their shoddy shoes. Your own country was a bit to +blame in blocking every effort to keep them in their place." + +I felt it time to explain that I was not English, but American. Much +disconcerted, he did his best to make amends. + +"I wouldn't have said that for the world if I had known you were an +American--but it's every syllable true." + +He thought over this remark in silence for a moment, his Teutonic +spirit sorely strained between kindliness and honesty, and tried +again. + +"I would like to say something good about the United States, I would +indeed,--if there was anything to say." + +It seemed to occur to him, after a little, that even this apology left +something to be desired, and he brightened up. + +"Wouldn't you like some roses? They sell them here at this station. +There comes a boy now with a nice, big bunch. One _peseta_! I think +that's too dear, don't you?" + +I hastened to assent. + +"The lady says that's too dear. Seventy-five _centimos_? No. The lady +can't pay that. Sixty _centimos_? No. The lady can't afford sixty +_centimos_. Fifty _centimos_? No. The lady says fifty _centimos_ is +too much. She will take them at forty _centimos_. Here's a half +_peseta_. And you must give me back a fat dog." + +The boy held back the penny and tried to substitute a cent. + +"Oh, sir, please, sir, forty-five _centimos_! There are two dozen +roses here, and all fresh as the dawn. Give me the puppy-dog over." + +But the German, who knew how to put even a sharper edge on the +inveterate Spanish bargaining, secured for the value of eight cents, +instead of twenty, his great bouquet of really beautiful roses, and +presented it with as much of a bow as the carriage limits permitted. + +"I meant to pay all the time, you know; but one can always make a +better trade, in Spain, if it is done in the name of a lady." And he +added, with that sudden tact which innate goodness and delicacy give +to the most blundering of us mortals, "If you don't like to take them +from a stranger for yourself, you will take them as my peace-offering +to your country." + +I was reminded again of my native land by another fellow-traveller--a +Spaniard of the Spaniards, this time, one of the Conservative and +Catholic leaders, greeted at the various stations by priests and monks +and friars, whose hands he solemnly kissed. This distinguished +personage was absorbed in a voluminous type-written manuscript, from +which he occasionally read aloud to the band of political confidants +who accompanied him. It was an arraignment of the Liberal Party, and, +by way of exposing the errors of the Sagasta government, included a +merciless resume of the Spanish naval and military disasters, with +elaborate comparisons of the American and Spanish equipments. He was +then on his way to join in a consoling pilgrimage to a certain image +of Christ, which had been cudgelled by a grief-maddened priest whose +dying mother the image had failed to heal. + +These surroundings more or less jostled my sixteenth-century dream, +but I held to it so stubbornly that, when pyramids of salt began to +glimmer like ghosts along the way, and a sweeping curve of lights +warned me of our approach to Cadiz, I made a point of seeing as little +as possible. It was midnight, but Spanish hours are luckily so late +that Don Jose's friends were still at the height of evening +sociability and regaled me with alternate showers of sweetmeats and +questions. Finally, after many exclamations of horror at the audacity +of the trip, all the feminine hospitality of the household lighted me +to a chamber whose walls were hung with pictures of martyrs and +agonizing saints. Among these I counted five colored representations +of Christ opening his breast to display the bleeding heart. + +The next morning I promptly took boat to _Puerto de Santa Maria_, +embarked on the return steamer, and so at last found myself once more +on the Silver Road, entering Cadiz harbor from the sea. + +To be sure, the _Montserrat_ was riding proudly in my view, although +the warships to which she had been used to curtsy in the open roads of +Cadiz would never cut those shining waves again. The waters were as +turquoise blue as if they had just come from the brush of an old +master, and the towered city rose before us like a crystal castle in +the air. Its limited space, built as it is within great sea walls on +an outlying rock, which only a rope of sand moors to the mainland, has +necessitated narrow streets and high houses, whose _miradores_, +lookouts that everywhere crown the terraced roofs, give this +battlemented aspect to the town. One of the most ancient and tragic +cities known to time, claiming Hercules for its founder, in turn +Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Gothic, Moorish, Spanish, it yet +looks fresh as a water-lily. I could have spent another three days in +gazing. And this sparkling vision was Spain's _Copa de Plata_, the +Silver Cup which has brimmed with the gold and pearls of America, with +blood and flame and glory. Its riches have taken to themselves wings, +but its high, free spirit and frank gayety abide. Still the +Andalusians sing:-- + + "_Viva_ Cadiz, Silver Cadiz, + Whose walls defy the sea, + Cadiz of the pretty girls, + Of courtesy and glee! + + "Good luck to merry Cadiz, + As white as ocean spray, + And her five and twenty cannon + That point Gibraltar way!" + +But I am bound to add that the cannon do not look dangerous. + + + + +XII + +MURILLO'S CHERUBS + + "Angels o'er the palm trees flying, + Touch their waving fronds to rest. + Bid them give no wind replying. + Jesus sleeps on Mary's breast. + Blessed angels, hold the peeping + Branches still as altar-place, + For the Holy Child is sleeping + Close beneath His Mother's face." + --LOPE DE VEGA. + + +Spanish love for childhood, and the precocity and winsomeness of +Spanish children, impressed me from my first hour in the Peninsula. +"There is no road so level as to be without rough places," and the +initial days of my Madrid residence, after my artist comrade had gone +back to Paris and the spring salons, might have been a trifle lonely +save for baby society. I was living in a delightful Spanish household, +but the very excess of courtesy reminded me continually that I was a +Yankee and a heretic. As time passed, friendship ripened, and it is +to-day no empty form of words when I am assured that I have "my house +in Madrid." But at the outset I felt myself not only an American +alien, but an Andalusian exile. The "only Court" is such a prosaic +contrast to Seville that my impulse was to betake myself with books +to the great park of the Buen Retiro, the magnificent gift of Olivares +to his royal master, and let the Madrid world, at least the adult +portion of it, go by. For while the larger Madrilenos were busy with +their own plays of politics, bull-fights, and flirtation, the little +ones had happy afternoons in that historic park of many a tragedy, +where convents, palaces, and fortifications have all made way for the +children's romping ground. Resting on a rustic seat in the leafy +shade, with the rich, thrilling notes of the nightingale answering the +bell call of the cuckoo from the deeper groves beyond, I could watch +these budding Spaniards to heart's content. + +It was well to observe them from a distance, however, for their young +voices were of the shrillest. Among the boys, an energetic few were +developing muscle by tag and leap-frog; more were flying kites, +cracking whips, twirling slings, and brandishing the terrors of pewter +swords; while at every turn, beside some flashing fountain or beneath +some spreading oak, I would come upon a group of urchins playing _al +toro_ with the cheap, gaudy capes of red and yellow manufactured for +the children's sport. The girls were skipping rope, rolling hoop, +teaching one another the steps of endless dances, and whispering +momentous secrets in statue-guarded grottos, or thickets of flowering +shrubs, or whatsoever safe, mysterious nook their fluttering search +could find. + +Here was a school out for its daily airing, a pretty procession of +rainbow-clad little damsels, marshalled by the black-veiled figures of +graceful nuns, and pacing with all decorum down a crowded avenue; but +the moment the troop turned into some sequestered by-path, how it +would break into a shimmering confusion of butterflies, darting +hither and thither in those jewel-green lights and sea-green shadows, +the nuns casting their dignity to the winds and scampering with the +swiftest! Wandering after I would come, perhaps, upon an open space +where the smaller boys were gathered, delicate little lads riding +horse-headed sticks, digging with mimic spades, and tossing big, soft, +red and yellow balls, while mothers and nurses sat about in circle on +the stone benches, calling out sharp-toned cautions to their +respective charges. + +And everywhere in the park were toddling babies, clasping dolls, +tugging at gay balloons, dragging wooden donkeys on wheels, and +tumbling over live puppies. They were pale, engaging, persistent +little creatures, with a true Spanish inability to learn from +experience. I saw one aristocratic cherub, white as snow from +feathered cap to ribboned shoes, take ten successive slappings because +he muddied his hands. The angry nurse would make a snatch for the +naughty fingers, roughly beat off the dirt, and cuff the culprit +soundly. His proud little mouth would tremble; he would wink hard and +fast, but there was not a tear to be seen, not a cry to be heard, and +no sooner had her peasant clutch released him than back went the baby +hands, grubbing deep into the mire. A gorgeous civil guard finally +distracted her attention, and the last view I had of the child showed +him blissfully squatted in the very middle of a puddle, splashing with +arms and legs. + +White is almost the universal wear of the prattling age in the Buen +Retiro, although now and then some lily fairy would flit by with +saffron sash and harmonious saffron stockings, or costume similarly +touched by pink or blue. The Scotch plaids, too, were in favor as +sashes, and at rare intervals I encountered a tot sensibly attired in +stout plaid frock. But the white of this childish multitude was +thickly flecked with mourning suits, complete to bits of black gloves +and even to jet studs in the collars. Among the sad sights of the +Retiro was an epileptic boy, led and half supported between two +sweet-faced, youthful ladies, both in widow's crepe, who screened him +with caresses as his fit took him and he foamed and screamed in +piteous helplessness. This pathetic trio, ever seeking seclusion, was +ever followed by a retinue of idlers, who, for all their intrusive +staring, were silent and sympathetic. + +The nursemaids formed not the least attractive feature of the +kaleidoscopic picture. Most wore white caps, fastened with gilded pins +or knots of rose or russet; but the nurses counted the best, from the +mountain province of Santander, were distinguished by bright-colored +handkerchiefs twisted about the head. Here, as in the _Elysees_, +baby-wagons are seldom seen. The nurses carry in arms the black-eyed +infants, who bite away at their coral necklaces quite like little +Yankees. + +But Spanish traits soon declare themselves. In the centre of the park +is an artificial pond, where lads in their first teens, too old for +play, lean languidly over the iron railings, and, while they throw +crumbs to the flock of forlorn-looking ducks or watch the dip of the +red oar-blades that impel the pleasure boats, brag of their amorous +adventures and exchange the scandal of the _Prado_. Sometimes their +love chat is of sweeter tenor, for many of these schoolboys have +already spoken their betrothal vows, which the Church will not let +them lightly break. Spaniards often marry under twenty-one, and even a +recent wedding in Madrid, where neither bride nor bridegroom had +reached the fifteenth year, was hardly thought amiss, in view of the +fact that there was parental money to maintain them. + +And why had the stately city of Valladolid been under a reign of +terror for half the week just past, with shutters up, doors barred, +and women and children kept at home for safety, while bands of young +men swayed in bloody struggle through her famous squares and streets, +but because a cadet and a student must needs lose heart to the same +maid? Cupid, not Santiago, is the patron saint of Spain. And Cupid, +for all his mischief, has some very winning ways. Our boyish +sentimentalists of the Buen Retiro, for instance, easily fall into +song, and the native melodies, always with something wild and Oriental +in their beat, ring across the little lake into the woods beyond till +the birds take up the challenge and every tree grows vocal. + +One afternoon, on my way to the park, I bought from a roadside vender +a handful of small, gaudily bound children's books, and had no sooner +found what I fondly supposed was a sequestered seat than a tumult of +little folks surrounded me, coaxing to hear the stories. These tales, +so taken at random, may throw a little light on the literature of +Spanish nurseries. There was the life of the Madonna, which we passed +over, as the children said they had read it in school and knew it, +every word, already. So we turned to the astonishing career of the +great soldier, Kill-Bullet, who could easily stop a cannon-ball +against his palm, and to an account of that far-off land where it +rained gold in such profusion that nobody would work, until finally +all the people, weary of a wealth which induced no tailor to stitch +and no shoemaker to cobble, no baker to bake and no dairy-maid to +churn, rose by common consent and shovelled the gold into the river. +We read of hot-tempered little Ambrose, who left the gate of his +garden open, so that a hen cackled in and began to scratch under a +rose bush, whereupon the angry boy chased her furiously all over the +garden-beds until his summer's work was trampled into ruin, and his +papa came and explained to him how disastrous a thing is wrath. There +was a companion moral tale for little girls, telling how Inez used to +make faces until her mamma told her that she would grow up with a +twisted mouth and nobody would marry her, whereat did little Inez +promptly reform her manners. One favorite volume, with a cover which +displayed a wild-whiskered old ogre in a fiery skullcap gloating over +a platterful of very pink baby, told how good little Violet saved her +bad sisters, Rose and Daisy, from his dreadful gullet, by aid of an +ugly monkey, whom her promised kiss transformed into a fairy prince. I +was glad to find, in that country where so little is done to train +children in the love of animals, the ancient tale of the four +musicians, the donkey, the dog, the cat, and the cock, who escaped in +their old age from the death that threatened them at the hands of +ungrateful masters and, by a free exercise of their musical talents, +captured the house of a robber-band, putting its inmates to confusion +and flight. Many of the stories, indeed, would have been recognized by +young Americans, but the proportion of saint-lore was larger than that +of fairy-lore, and, now and then, some familiar property had suffered +a Spanish change, as the invisible cap which had become an invisible +cape of the sort used for playing bull-fight. + + [Illustration: THE PAGEANT OF GETHSEMANE] + +The nursery rhymes, too, so far as I chanced upon them, were of the +universal type with Spanish variations. A Castilian mother plays +Peek-a-boo with her baby quite as an English mother does, except that +the syllables are _Cu? Tras!_ The father's foot trots the child to a +Catholic market. + + "Trot, little donkey! Donkey, trot! + We must buy honey to please the pet. + If San Francisco has it not, + We'll go to San Benet." + +Baby's toes are counted as the eternal five little pigs, and also +thus, with a preliminary tickling of the rosy sole:-- + +"Here passed a little dove. This one caught it. This one killed it. +This one put it on to roast. This one took it off again. And this +teeny-teeny-teeny scamp ate it all up!" + +Spanish patty-cakes are followed by a Spanish grace. + + "Patty-cakes, oh! Patty-cakes, ah! + The sweetest cakes are for dear mama. + Patty-cakes, oh! Patty-cakes, ah! + The hardest pats are for poor papa, + + "Bread, O God! Bread, dear God, + For this little child to-day! + Because he's such a baby + He cannot pay his way." + +The Spanish nursery seems richer in rhymes than ours. Nurse bends +Baby's left hand into a rose-leaf purse, for example, and gives it +little taps with one finger after another of Baby's right hand, +singing:-- + + "A penny for Baby's purse + From papa, mama, and nurse. + A penny, a penny to pay! + Let no thief steal it away!" + +And then the tiny fist is doubled tight. + +When the child, again, is first dressed in short clothes, he is +propped up in a corner and coaxed to take his first step with the +rhyme:-- + + "One little step, Baby-boy mine! + Come, Little Man, step up! + And thou shalt have a taste of wine + From Godfather's silver cup." + +This rhyming fashion the little ones take with them out of babyhood +into their later childhood. The urchin admonishes his whistle:-- + + "Whistle, whistle, Margarita, + And you'll get a crust of bread, + But if you do not whistle + I'll cut off your little head." + +The little girl learns the scales in process of rocking her doll to +sleep:-- + + Don't pin-prick my poor old dolly, _Do_ + Respect my domestic matters. _Re_ + Methinks she grows melancholy, _Mi_ + Fast as her sawdust scatters. _Fa_ + Sole rose of your mama's posy, _Sol_ + Laugh at your mama, so! _La_ + Seal up your eyes all cozy. _Si_ + _La Sol Fa Mi Re Do._ + +With Spanish children, as with ours, Christmas Eve, or _Noche Buena_, +is a season of gleeful excitement. They do not hang up stockings for +Santa Claus, but they put out their shoes on the balcony for the Kings +of the East, riding high on camel-back, to fill with sweets and +playthings. Considerate children, too, put out a handful of straw for +the tired beasts who have journeyed so far over the Milky Way. On some +balconies the morning sun beholds rocking-horses and rocking-donkeys, +make-believe theatres and bull-rings, with toy images of soldiers, +bulls and Holy Families; but if the child has been naughty and +displeased the Magi, his poor little shoes will stand empty and +ashamed. + +The dramatic instinct, so strong in Spaniards, is strikingly +manifested in the children's games. These little people are devoted to +the theatre, too, and may be seen in force at the matinees in the +Apolo, Lara, and Zarzuela. Afternoon performances are given only on +Sundays and the other Catholic _fiestas_, which last, numerous enough, +are well within reach of the Puritan conscience. At these matinees +more than half the seats in the house are occupied by juvenile +ticket-holders, from rows of vociferous urchins in the galleries, to +round-eyed babies cooing over their nurses' shoulders. If the play is +an extravaganza, abounding in magic and misadventure, the rapture of +the childish audience is at its height. + +The close attention with which mere three-year-olds follow the action +is astonishing. "_Bonito!_" lisping voices cry after each fantastic +ballet, and wee white hands twinkle up and down in time with the merry +music. When the clown divests himself, one by one, of a score of +waistcoats, or successively pulls thirty or forty smiling dairy-maids +out of a churn, little arithmeticians all over the house call out the +count and dispute his numbers with him. When the dragon spits his +shower of sparks, when chairs sidle away from beneath the unfortunates +who would sit down or suddenly rise with them toward the ceiling, when +signboards whirl, and dinners frisk up chimney, cigars puff out into +tall hats, and umbrellas fire off bullets, the hubbub of wonder and +delight drowns the voices of the actors. + +The house is never still for one single instant. Babies cry wearily, +nurses murmur soothingly, mystified innocents pipe out questions, +papas rebuke and explain, exasperated old bachelors hiss for silence, +saucy boys hiss back for fun--all together the Madrid matinee affords +a far better opportunity to study child life than to hear the comedy +upon the boards. + +The boy king of Spain is, of course, a fascinating figure to his child +subjects. We were told at San Sebastian, where the Queen Regent has a +summer palace, that on those red-letter days when the king takes a sea +dip, children come running from far and near to see him step into the +surf, with two stalwart soldiers gripping the royal little fists. And +no sooner has the Court returned to the sumptuous, anxious palace of +Madrid, than the boy bathers of San Sebastian delight themselves in +playing king, mincing down the beach under the pompous military escort +that they take turns in furnishing one another. + +In Madrid, too, the sightseeing crowds that gather before the royal +palace or at the doors of the _Iglesia del Buen Suceso_, where the +Queen Regent, with her "august children," sometimes attends the +_Salve_ on Saturday afternoons, are thickly peppered with little +folks, eager to "see the king." They are often disappointed, for the +precious life is jealously guarded, especially while the Carlist cloud +still broods above the throne. During my stay in Madrid, a man with a +revolver under his coat was arrested on suspicion in the vestibule of +the theatre known as _La Comedia_, where the queen was passing the +evening. Sceptical Madrid shrugged its shoulders and said: "Stuff and +nonsense! When the Ministers want the queen to sign a paper that isn't +to her liking, they make a great show of devotion and pounce down on +some poor devil as an anarchist, to frighten her into being meek and +grateful." And, in fact, the prisoner was almost immediately released +for lack of any incriminating evidence. For weeks after, nevertheless, +the royal movements were more difficult to forecast, and on the daily +drives the kinglet was often missing from the family group. + +But, undiscouraged, every afternoon the children would fringe the +palace side of the _Plaza de Oriente_, hoping to see the royal +carriage go or come with their young sovereign, whose portrait, a +wistful, boyish face above a broad lace collar, is printed in one of +their school reading books over the inscription, "To the Head of the +State honor and obedience are due." Expectant youngsters, in the +all-enveloping black pinafores that remind the eye of Paris, with book +satchels made of gay carpeting over the shoulder, would shake out +their smudgy handkerchiefs, often stamped with the likenesses of +famous _toreros_, and help themselves to one another's hats in +readiness to salute; but the elegant landau, preceded by an escort of +two horsemen, dashes by so swiftly that their long waiting would be +rewarded only by the briefest glimpse of bowing bonnets and of a +small gloved hand touching the military cap that shades a childish +face. + +It is a pale and sober little face as I have seen it, but Madrilenos +resent this impression and insist that his youthful Majesty is "sturdy +enough," and as merry as need be. They say that the buoyancy which he +inherits from his father is crossed by strange fits of brooding, due +to his mother's blood, but that he is, in the main, a merry-hearted +child. Although he has masters for his studies now, his affection +still clings to his Austrian governess, whom, none the less, he dearly +loves to tease. When she is honored by an invitation to drive with the +Queen Regent, for example, Alphonsito hastens to hide her hat and then +joins most solicitously in her fluttered search, until her suspicion +darts upon him, and his prank breaks down in peals of laughter. Madrid +was especially sensitive about him last year, for he, Alfonso XIII, +godson of Pope Leo XIII, was thirteen years of age--an iteration of +the unlucky omen that really ought to be satisfied with the loss of +the Spanish colonies. His mother, in honor of his birthday, May +seventeenth, distributed five thousand dollars among orphan asylums +and other charities, and held a grand reception in the Hall of the +Ambassadors, where the slight lad in cadet uniform, enthroned beside +the Queen Regent between the two great lions of gilded bronze, +received the congratulations of a long procession of bowing ministers, +admirals, captain generals, prelates, and those haughty grandees of +Spain whose ancient privilege it is to wear their hats in the royal +presence; but the shrinkage of his realm since his last birthday must +have been uppermost in the mind of even the young lord of the +festival. _Pobrecito!_ one wonders what thoughts go on behind those +serious brows of his, when, for instance, he looks down from his +palace windows at the daily ceremony of guard-mounting in the +courtyard. It is such a gallant sight; the martial music is so +stirring; the cavalry in blue and silver sit their white steeds so +proudly, with the sun glistening on their drawn swords and the wind +tossing their long, white, horsehair plumes, that all these tales of +defeat and loss must puzzle the sore boy heart and cast confusing +shadows down the path before him. + +Little as the Spaniards love the Queen Regent, to whom they cannot +pardon her two cardinal offences of being a "foreigner" and of +disliking the bull-fight, they have a certain affection for Alfonso +XIII, "the only child born a king since Christ." Indeed, Spain seems +to have been always sympathetic toward childhood in palaces. Enter +this wonderful _Armeria_ of Madrid, where those plumed and armored +kings, on richly caparisoned chargers, whom we have come to know in +the paintings of the _Museo del Prado_, seem to have leapt from the +canvases to greet us here in still more lifelike guise, albeit not +over graciously, with horse reined back and mighty lance at poise. Any +fine morning they may all come clattering out into the _Plaza de +Armas_--and where will the United States be then? Here stands a +majestic row of them--Philip II, in a resplendent suit of gold-inlaid +plate-armor; Maximilian, whose visor gives him the fierce hooked beak +of an eagle; Sebastian of Portugal, with nymphs embossed in cunning +work on his rich breastplate; and Charles V, three times over, in +varieties of imperial magnificence. + + [Illustration: "JESUS OF THE PASSION"] + +But opposite these stern warriors is a hollow square of boy princes, +and of noble _ninos_ whose visors hide their identities in long +oblivion. The armor of these childish figures is daintily wrought, +with tender touches of ruffs and cuffs, scallops and flutings and +rosettes. Often only the upper half of the body is incased in steel, +the slender legs playing the dandy in puffed trousers of striped +velvet--scarlet, green, and buff--silk hose, and satin slippers. +Little Philip III proudly displays a diminutive round shield, with a +relief of battle scenes in gold. The plate armor of little Philip IV +is stamped with lions and castles, eagles and spears. And his little +son, Don Baltasar Carlos, bestrides a spirited pony and wears at the +back of his helmet a tuft of garnet feathers. + +The _Prado_ galleries abound in royal children. This same _infante_, +Don Baltasar, is seen here in the foreground of a lonely landscape, +with desolate blue hills beyond and driving clouds above. But all the +more bright and winsome glows the form of the six-year-old horseman, +the gold-fringed, pink sash that crosses his breast streaming out far +behind with the speed of his fearless gallop. Supreme among the +_Prado_ children, of course, is the little daughter of Philip IV, the +central figure of the world-renowned _Las Meninas_. All in vain does +her charming maid of honor kneel to her with the golden cup; all in +vain does the dwarf tease the drowsy dog. The solemn puss, undiverted, +will not stir from her pose nor alter the set of her small features +until the artist, standing half disdainfully before his easel, gives +the word. She has waited for it now hard upon two hundred and fifty +years, but the centuries beat in vain against that inflexible bit of +propriety. + +Even the royal burial vaults beneath the grim Escorial have in their +chill grandeur of marble halls an especial Panteon for babies, +princely innocents whose lives are reckoned in months more often than +in years. Gold and blue and red brighten their great white sepulchre, +and above the altar smiles the Christ Child, with the graven words, +"Suffer the children to come unto me." But for Alfonso XIII a sombre +sarcophagus waits in the haughtiest and gloomiest of all the Panteons, +where only kings, and queens who were mothers of kings, may lie. + +It is not royal childhood alone that is dear to this strange, +romantic, monstrously inconsistent heart of Spain. The cruelty of +Spaniards to horses and donkeys sickens even the roughest Englishman, +yet almost every voice softens in speaking to a child, and during my +six months in Spanish cities I saw nothing of that street brutality +toward the little ones which forces itself upon daily notice in +Liverpool and London. Spanish children are too often ill-cared for, +but despite the abuses of ignorant motherhood and fatherhood, such +vivid, vivacious, bewitching little people as they are! Enter a +Spanish schoolroom and see how vehemently the small brown hands are +wagged in air, how the black eyes dance and the dimples play, what a +stir and bustle, what a young exuberance of energy! They race to the +blackboards like colts out at pasture. They laugh at everything, these +sons of "the grave Spaniard," and even the teacher will duck his head +behind the desk for a half-hidden ecstasy over some dunce's blunder or +some rogue's detected trick. + +But their high spirits never make them unmindful of those courtesies +of life in which they have been so carefully trained. There is an +old-fashioned exaggeration about their set phrases of politeness. Just +as the casual caller kisses the lady's feet, in words, and she +reciprocates by a verbal kissing of his hand, so the school children +respond to the roll call with a glib: "Your servant, sir." Ask a +well-bred boy his name, and he rattles back, "Jesus Herrera y +La-Chica, at the service of God and yourself." They learn these +amenities of speech with their first lispings. I was much taken aback +one day in Seville by a child of eighteen months. Not in the least +expecting this infant, whose rosy face was bashfully snuggled into his +young aunt's neck, to understand, I said to her, "What a fine little +fellow!" Whereupon Master Roly-poly suddenly sat up straight on her +arm, ducked his head in my direction, and gravely enunciated, "_Es +favor que Usted me hace_"--"It is a compliment you pay me." I could +hardly recover from the shock in time to make the stereotyped +rejoinder, "_No es favor, es justicia_"--"No compliment, but the +truth." To this Don Chubbykins sweetly returned, "_Mil gracias_"--"A +thousand thanks," and I closed this uncanny dialogue with the due +response, "_No las merece_"--"It does not merit them." + +Servants, neighbors, passers-by, beggars, all prompt the children in +these shibboleths of good manners, adorning the precept with example. +"Would you like to go with us to the picture gallery this afternoon?" +I once asked a laddie of artistic tastes at a boarding-house table. +"_Si, senora_," he replied, whereupon several of the boarders, greatly +scandalized, hastened to remind him, but in the gentlest of tones, of +the essential addition, "_con mucho gusto_" to which we were bound to +reply, "The pleasure will be ours." The girls, even more than the +boys, are bred in these formal fashions of intercourse. Every morning +they ask if you have rested well, and express grief or gratification, +according to your response. In Mrs. Gulick's school, mere midgets of +six and eight, returning from class, will not close the doors of their +rooms if you are in sight, though perhaps seated at a reading table in +the farther end of the corridor, lest they should appear inhospitable. +On our return from Italica, a thirsty child of seven, heated to +exhaustion with the sun and fun of that Andalusian picnic, refused to +touch the anise-seed water which some good Samaritan had handed up to +the dusty carriage, until the glass had been offered to every one +else, driver included, leaving, in the sequel, little enough for her. +On our midnight return from the _Feria_, this same _nina_ of gentle +memory, staggering and half crying with sleepiness, would nevertheless +not precede any of her elders in entering the home door. "After you," +she sobbed, with hardly voice enough to add, "And may you all rest +well!" "The same to you," chorussed the adults, trooping by, and her +faint murmur followed, "Many thanks." + +"Shall I give you this fan when I go away," I asked her once, "or +would you rather have it now to take to the party?" She wanted it then +and there, but what she answered was, "I shall be best pleased to take +it when you like best to give it." + +You must beware of saying to a little Spanish maid, "What a beautiful +rosebud in your hair!" Instantly the hand is busy with the pins. "It +is at your disposal." You hastily protest, "A thousand thanks, but no, +no, no! It is very well placed where it is." Off comes the flower, +notwithstanding, and is fastened into your belt. For when the elder +sister has insisted on giving you (until the next ball) those dancing +slippers which you so rashly admired, and the sister's _novio_ went +home the night before without his cloak, because you had approved its +colors (although he sent his man around for it before breakfast), what +can the children do but follow suit? Even their form of "Now I Lay Me" +is touched with their quaint politeness:-- + + "Jesus, Joseph, Mary, + Your little servant keep, + While, with your kind permission, + I lay me down to sleep." + +The precocity of Spanish children is a recognized fact. An educational +expert, a Frenchman who holds a chair in an English university, +assured us that beyond a doubt Spanish children, for the first dozen +years of life, develop more rapidly than any other children of Europe. +Yet, although these clever little Spaniards are so punctiliously +taught to put the pleasure of others before their own, they are +treated with universal indulgence. Soldiers lining the curbstones on +occasion of a royal progress will let the children press in beside +them and cling to their valorous legs, until the military array seems +variegated with a Kindergarten. My farewell glimpse of Toledo, on +Corpus Christi Day, makes a pretty picture in memory. The red-robed +cardinal, who had come to the station to take his train, was fairly +stormed by all the children within sight, clamoring for his blessing. +In vain the attendant priests tried to scatter the throng, and ladies +of high degree, planting their chairs in a circle about the prelate, +acted as a laughing body-guard. It was all of no avail. The little +people danced up and down with eagerness, dodged under arms, and +slipped between elbows. They knelt upon the cardinal's very feet, +rapturously kissing his red-gloved hand and clasping to their +pinafores and blouses the sacred trinkets he distributed. And he, +patting the bobbing black pates, wherever he could get a chance, +smiled on the little ones and forbade them not. + +The affection lavished on children in the household circle is often +poetic and passionate. I observed one day a brusque young fellow of +twenty-four, whom we had thought rather a hard, catch-penny sort of +person, suddenly gather a four-year-old nephew to his heart and cover +the dimpled face with kisses, while the look in his own black eyes was +the look of a St. Anthony. I stood once in a crowded cathedral and +lost all sense of the service in contemplation of an ugly manikin, +with coarse features and receding forehead, who held a frail baby boy +tight against his breast. This was a blue-eyed, fair-haired wean, with +a serious, far-away expression, and from time to time, attracted by +the gilt of the ceiling, he raised a tiny pink fore-finger and pointed +upward, while the father's animal face, never turned away from the +child, became transfigured with love and worship. He took the baby +out, when it had fallen asleep upon his shoulder, and it was good to +see that dense throng open and make a lane for him, every man, however +brutal or frivolous his aspect, being careful not to jostle the +drooping, golden head. + +But Spanish children, so caressed and so adored, are nevertheless +modest in their bearing, and fall shyly back before a stranger. I +remember a beaming grandfather displaying to us two blushing little +men, bidding them open their eyes wide that we might contrast colors, +turn back to back that we might measure heights, and in various ways +put their small selves on show, all which they did in mute obedience, +but at the word of release flew together, flung their arms about each +other's necks, rolled under the nearest table, and curled up into the +least possible bunch of bashful agony. + +The pictures, frescos, and carvings of Spanish churches often reflect +the looks of Spanish childhood. The Holy Family gives a wide range of +opportunity, especially in the ministering cherubs. There is a +crucifix in one of the twenty-two aisle chapels of Toledo cathedral, +where three broken-hearted mites of angels, just three crying babies, +are piteously striving to draw out the nails from the Sufferer's hands +and feet. Many of the saint-groups admit of child figures, too, as the +St. Christopher, which almost invariably appears as a colossal nave +painting, "the Goliath of frescos." + +It would be strange, indeed, if children were not beloved in the +country of Murillo. Spain has let the most of his beggar-boy pictures +go to foreign collections, but she has cherished his Holy Families and +cherub-peopled Annunciations. Such ecstatic rogues as those Andalusian +cherubs are! Their restless ringlets catch azure shadows from the +Virgin's mantle; they perch tiptoe on the edges of her crescent moon; +they hold up a mirror to her glory and peep over the frame to see +themselves; they pelt St. Francis with roses; they play bo-beep from +behind the fleecy folds of cloud; they try all manner of aerial +gymnastics. But a charm transcending even theirs dwells in those baby +Christs that almost spring from the Madonna's arms to ours, in those +boy Christs that touch all boyhood with divinity. The son of the +Jewish carpenter, happy in his father's workshop with bird and dog; +the shepherd lad whose earnest eyes look toward his waiting flock; +the lovely playmates, radiant with innocent beauty, who bend together +above the water of life--from these alone might Catholic Spain have +learned the sacredness of childhood. But Spain first showed Murillo +the vision that he rendered back to her. + + + + +XIII + +THE YOLK OF THE SPANISH EGG + + "From Madrid to Heaven, and in Heaven a little window for + looking back to Madrid."--_Popular Saying._ + + +Few foreigners can understand the sentiment of Spaniards for their +capital. Madrid is the crown city of Spain, not by manifest destiny, +but by decree of Philip II, who, as his nature was, better loved the +harsh Castilian steppe, baked by summer suns and chilled by +treacherous winds, than the romantic sierras and gracious river +valleys where earlier royal seats had been established. If in Madrid +the desert blossoms like the rose, it is a leafless rose, for the city +has no suburbs. It lacks both the charm of environment so potent in +Granada and Seville and the charm of ancient story, which these share +with those other bygone courts--Toledo, Valladolid, Valencia, +Saragossa. It is not a vital organ of modern European civilization, +like artistic Paris or strenuous London. And yet it is more +cosmopolitan, and hence less distinctively Spanish than other cities +of the Peninsula. It is devoted to the bull-fight and the lottery, +abounds in beggars and prostitutes, does not take naturally to +commerce, and is sadly behindhand with popular education. Yet +Madrilenos cannot be persuaded that the skies behold its equal, and +even over the Anglo-Saxon stranger its fascination gradually steals. + +In the first place, the mirth of the home life beguiles the serious +foreigner. Spanish households have a pleasantness quite their own. All +the natural vivacity and kindliness of the people find free play at +home, where servants sing and children prattle, ladies chatter and +gentlemen jest, all in an atmosphere of ease, leisure, and spontaneous +sociability. The father is not preoccupied with business, the mother +has never dreamed of belonging to a woman's club, the children have +little taste for reading, and few books to read. So talking is the +order of the day, and, Sancho Panza! how they talk! Lingering half the +morning over the _desayuno_ of thick, cinnamon-flavored chocolate, +into which are dipped strips of bread, two-thirds of the afternoon +over the _almuerzo_, a substantial repast of meat and vegetables, +fruit and _dulces_, and all the evening over the _comida_, where soup +and the national dish of _puchero_ are added to the noontide bill of +fare, they chatter, chatter, chatter, like the teeth of Harry Gill. + +Still, as of old, Spaniards are temperate in food and drink. "It's as +rare to see a Spaniard a drunkard as a German sober," wrote Middleton +three centuries ago. They use more water than wine, and although they +have a grand appetite for sweets, they take them in comparatively +simple forms. The national lack of enterprise is conspicuous even +here, for dearly as the Spaniard dotes on chocolate and sugar, Madrid +does not make her own chocolate creams, but imports them from Paris to +sell, when they are too hard to eat, at a price too high to pay. + +But smoking and talking are indulgences which Madrilenos carry to +excess. Lounging on the balcony, a gayly painted case of paper +cigarettes at hand, they will pass hours in bantering their wives, +whom they worship much as they worship the images of Mary, delighting +to dress them in fine clothes and glittering trinkets, and expecting +in return, it is said, their pardon for a multitude of sins. And when +my lord saunters forth to "rest" in one of the iron chairs that line +the promenades, or in a cafe window, or at an open-air table before +one of the frequent stalls of cooling beverages, the women of the +house flock together in some airy corner, stitching away on their +endless embroideries, and receiving, with "a million kisses" and a +chorus of shrill welcomes, the mantilla-veiled ladies who come to +call. + +If the afternoon is frying hot, it is just possible that the +gallivanting don will bethink himself to send home a tray of +_horchata_, a snowy, chilly, puckery refreshment, eaten by aid of +wafers in the form of little tubes that look and taste much like +wrapping paper. This treat gives fresh animation to the emulous +tongues. The slightest neighborhood incident, as recounted in such a +group, takes on a poetic vividness and a dramatic intensity, and when +it is all told over again at the dinner-table, excitement waxes so +high that long after the dishes and cloth have been removed the family +may still be found seated around the board, flashing a thousand lights +of suggestion and surmise on that dull bit of scandal. The husband +cannot cease from discussion long enough to read the evening paper, +nor the wife to send the little ones to bed, and midnight may find the +three generations, from grandfather to four-year-old, still talking +with might and main. + +Accustomed guests come at once to the dining room, ready to contribute +their share to the lively clash of voices, or to take part in one of +the characteristic games of a Spanish family circle, as lottery. In +this favorite pastime, victory, including a goodly handful of coppers, +falls to him whose checked and numbered square of pasteboard is most +quickly filled with beans. These are placed on the squares called by +the bag-holder, who draws numbers haphazard from his sibylline sack. +When the small hours come in, the company may adjourn to the sala for +dancing and music, but conversation under cover of these gushes on +more impetuously than ever--the Castilian art of arts. + +One of the chief graces of the _tertulias_ consists in their +informality--their frank simplicity. Even on a saint day--a day +consecrated to the saint whose name some member of the family +bears--while all the nearer friends drop in for congratulation, with +perhaps a gift of flowers, in case of a lady, or sweetmeats for a +child, the _tertulia_ requires no further exercise of hospitality than +an open door and a feast of words. There is more blithesomeness, for +_hay santo en casa_ (there is a saint in the house), but no more +parade, with its preliminary fret and fuss. + +The streets of Madrid, too, have a curious fascination. In the morning +hours there is the picturesque confusion of the market. The donkeys +are unladen here, there, and everywhere, and the sidewalks and squares +promptly dotted over with bright little heaps of delicious Toledo +cherries, Valencian apricots, Murcian lemons, and all the greens of +the season. The peasant women, squatted among their lettuces and +cucumbers, seem much more interested in gossiping with their neighbors +than in securing customers. Babies tumble about, crushing the pinks +and roses, and cabmen good-naturedly pick their way as best they can +among these various vegetable and human obstacles. Venders of books, +too, like to pave the street with rows of open volumes, whose pages +are soon dimmed with dust, and artisans, especially cobblers, set up +their benches just outside their doors, and add the click of their +hammers to the general din. + +In the early afternoon the shady side of the street is lined with the +outstretched forms of workingmen, taking the indispensable siesta. +Some rest their black pates on arm or folded jacket or bag of tools, +but plenty of bronzed laborers slumber peacefully all prone on the hot +paving, with not so much as a cabbage leaf for a pillow. Beggars lie +along the stone benches of the _paseos_ and parks, cabmen sleep on +their cabs, porters over their thresholds, and I once turned away from +a church I had come far to visit, not having the hardihood to waken +the verger, who, keys in hand, was snoring like an organ, sprawled +across half a dozen granite steps. + +As the cool of evening approaches, the overcrowded houses of the poor +pour forth entire families into the street, where supper is cooked and +eaten, and all manner of domestic operations carried on. Before every +door is at least one black-eyed baby, in a little wooden cage +something like a churn, with rim running under the armpits, so that +the child, safe from straying or falling, may be left to his own +devices. As darkness deepens, out come the stars and the _serenos_. +These latter, in Madrid, no longer cry fair weather, but they hold the +keys of the houses--an arrangement that I never learned to take +seriously. + +Returning from visit or theatre in the evening, I found it difficult +to say with requisite solemnity to the driver, "Would you be so kind +as to shout for Celestino?" The driver promptly roars, "Celestino!" +and twinkling lights come bobbing toward us from far and near, but no +Celestino. "He's in the wineshop," suggests Isidro, whose charge +begins three houses above. "He's eating iron," asserts Pedro, in the +phrase describing those colloquies which a Spanish suitor carries on +with his divinity through the grating. Then we all chorus, +"Celestino!" and again, "Celestino!" and again, "Celestino!" + +At this a cloaked figure comes running across the square, waving a +lantern over his head and vociferating jocund apologies: "I regret it +extremely. I am stricken with sorrow. But at the first call I was +wetting my lips at the fountain, and at the second I was pausing to +exchange four words only with the lady of my soul, and at the third I +said _Vamos!_ and at the fourth--look you, I am here." So he unlocks +the door and lights the stairway with his lantern until I have +ascended the first flight, when he cheerily calls out, "_Adios!_" and +shuts me into darkness which I am expected to illuminate for my +further climb by striking matches. + +Madrid streets are by no means altogether delectable. Some are broad +and well kept, but others are narrow, dirty, and malodorous. Worst of +all, to my own thinking, is the Madrid stare, which, hardly less +offensive than the Paris stare, is more universal. It is amusing to +see how fearlessly a matron of eighteen sallies forth alone, while +many Madrid spinsters of fifty would not go a block unattended. Nor +are annoyances confined to staring. Even in reputable shops a woman +soon learns to be on her guard, when her attention is especially +called to book or picture, lest it prove "a silliness." + +Madrid is better than the cities of Andalusia, and worse than the +cities of northern Spain, in its treatment of women. A young Spanish +girl cannot walk alone, however sedately, in Seville, without a +running fire of salutations--"Oh, the pretty face!" "What cheeks of +rose!" "Blessed be thy mother!" "Give me a little smile!" And even in +Madrid, Spanish girls of my acquaintance have broken their fans across +the faces of men who tried to catch a kiss in passing. + +In Madrid, as almost everywhere in Spain, begging is a leading +industry. So many beg from laziness or greed that it is easy to lose +patience, the most essential part of a traveller's Spanish outfit. The +ear is wearied by the everlasting drone and whine: "Oh, dear lady, for +the love of God! All day my children have had no bread. Give me five +_centimos_, only five _centimos_, and Heaven will pay you back. Lady! +lady! lady! lady! Five _centimos_, in the name of all the saints!" And +the eye is offended by the continual obtrusion of ulcers, cripplings, +and deformities. No less than Seville and Granada, Madrid abounds with +child beggars. There were two jolly little cripples on the Prado, who +used to race, each on his one leg, to overtake me before I should +reach the Museo steps. Another boy, on whose face I never saw a smile, +sat at the corner of a street I daily passed, holding out two +shapeless blocks of hands. By the gate of the Buen Retiro was +stationed a blind man, with a girl wean on his knee. It was pathetic +and amusing to see him feeding her the supper of bread and milk, for +the spoon in his groping hand and the pout of her baby mouth often +failed to make connection. + +The prevalence of eye disease in Spain is probably due to sun, to +dust, and to generations of poverty. The pounding of a blind man's +stick upon the pavement is one of the most common city sounds. The +charitable may often be seen leading the blind across the streets. I +tried it myself once with an imperious old woman, who clung to the +curbstone some twenty minutes before she could muster courage for the +plunge, lecturing me fluently all the time on the dangers of a rash +disposition. There are, of course, many cases of fraud--cases where, +when the day's work is over, the blind see and the lame walk. One of +the popular _coplas_ has its fling at these:-- + + "The armless man has written a letter; + The blind man finds the writing clear; + The mute is reading it aloud, + And the deaf man runs to hear." + +Yet it is certain that among the beggars of Madrid is a heartrending +amount of genuine misery. One day I passed an aged _ciego_, sitting on +a doorstep, in the Alcala, his white head bowed upon his breast in +such utter weariness of dejection that I paused to find him a copper. +But better charity than mine came to comfort that worn heart. A lame +old peanut woman limped up to him, with the pity of the wretched for +the wretched. She drew from her apron pocket a coin which I had rarely +seen--_dos centimos_, two-fifths of a cent in value. An Austrian, who +had lived in Spain four years, told me he had never once encountered +that paltry piece of money. But she could not spare it all. "Hast thou +one _centimo_ for change, brother mine?" she asked. And the blind +man's sensitive fingers actually found in his lean leather purse that +tiny metal bit, which only the poorest of the poor ever see in +circulation. He gravely kissed the coin she gave and made with it the +sign of the cross on brow and breast, saying, "Blessed be this gift, +my sister, which thy mercy has bestowed on a man of many troubles! May +our Mother Mary keep for thee a thornless rose!" + +"And may God, who sends the cold according to our rags, lighten all +thy griefs! Rest thou in peace," she replied. + +"Go thou with God," was his answer. + +Begging was a recognized and licensed industry in Madrid a year ago, +though a bill of reform, whose fate I have failed to learn, was then +under consideration. A mother would gather her brood about her and go +forth for her day's work. They beg up and down their accustomed beat +during the morning, eat as their gains allow, lie down in the dust +together for the afternoon siesta, and rise to be diligent in business +during the hours of fashionable promenade. They stop pedestrians, +chase carriages, press into shops to torment the customers at the +counter, and reach beseeching palms through the open windows of cafes. +Gentlemen escorting ladies are their peculiar victims, for well they +know that many a man who never gives under other circumstances is +ashamed to seem ungenerous under survey of starry eyes. + +There is only one phrase that will shake off the professional beggar, +"May God aid you!" On hearing this he makes it a point of religious +honor to fall back. But as I could not use that formula without +feeling myself something between a shirk and a hypocrite, I had to get +on as best I could with the ineffectual, "Pardon me, my brother," to +which should properly be added _Por Dios_ (for God's sake). + +The Spanish mendicant knows nothing of the Anglo-Saxon feeling, "To +beg I am ashamed." No Rare Ben Jonson has thundered in his ears:-- + + "Art thou a man? and sham'st thou not to beg? + To practise such a servile kind of life? + Why, were thy education ne'er so mean, + Having thy limbs, a thousand fairer courses + Offer themselves to thy election. + Either the wars might still supply thy wants + Or service of some virtuous gentleman, + Or honest labor: nay, what can I name, + But would become thee better than to beg?" + +From the Spanish point of view, on the contrary, it is manual labor, +not beggary, that stains the escutcheon. A German lady of my +acquaintance said to a strongly built man who was pleading for alms, +"If you will carry my bag up these stairs, I will gladly pay you." +Deeply insulted, he folded his cloak about him with hidalgo dignity, +saying, "Madame, I am a beggar, not a laborer." Certain monasteries +send out brothers, with plates and bags, on a daily begging +round--brothers who may belong to the first families of Spain. The +Church is often cited as indorsing mendicancy. Extolling almsgiving as +a prime virtue, and itself maintaining a vast number of charitable +institutions, it has not yet assimilated modern methods of relief. + +A favorite story for children, used as supplementary reading in the +schools, is called "The Medal of the Virgin." This is, in fact, a +Roman Catholic version of "Fortunatus's Purse." Its small heroine, +Mary of the Angels, is an orphan, defrauded by a miser of her rich +inheritance and treated with barbarity by the uncle and aunt for whom +she is an uncomplaining drudge. But once, in festive hour, they give +her five _centimos_, which this generous innocent promptly bestows on +a beggar woman, who holds a baby in her ragged arms. In return, the +beggar gives the child a queer, old-fashioned mite of a coin, which +turns out to have the Wall Street quality of heaving up a little +mountain of gold above itself every hour or two. + +Mary of the Angels sallies forth for a tour of the country, pouring +handfuls of gold into the laps of the beggars who sit at the church +doors and city gates, until she is escorted wherever she goes by an +army of the halt and blind singing her praises. At last, having given +away such Pyrenees of gold that not a beggar could be found in all the +land for a century to come, the footsore little philanthropist begs +the Virgin to relieve her of the coin. The Madonna descends in a beam +of light, the Christ Child smiling from her arms, yet in the radiant +group Mary of the Angels recognizes the objects of her earliest +charity. "For I," explains the Madonna, "am the holy beggar from +heaven. The poor of the earth give me their tears and prayers, and for +such alms do I hold out my hand to all the sorrowful." + +Yet the progressive element in Spain is all the more ashamed of the +beggars because they are not ashamed of themselves, and a few years +may see Madrid swept as clear of mendicancy as is San Sebastian +to-day. + +Madrid is such an easy-going city that one hardly realizes at first +how well it performs certain of its functions. Its water supply, for +instance, is excellent, although when one sees the picturesque groups, +with those same clay water-jars over which Rebecca smiled on Jacob, +lingering about the gray stone fountains, one expects a patriarchal +flavor in the liquid. The tramway service of Madrid, everything +radiating from the _Puerta del Sol_, is most convenient, although +electricity is a little slow in coming to the relief of horse-flesh. +The shops, fairly well stocked, gild commerce with Spanish graces. You +accept a chair, you pass the courtesies of the day, the gentleman who +serves you, often with cigar in mouth, is seldom sure as to just what +goods he has on hand, and is still more rarely dogmatic as to their +price. + +The tug of war, however, comes in getting them delivered. Ten days +before quitting Madrid I bought at one of the best of the _librerias_ +a number of books, including several illustrated catalogues of the +Velazquez sala. These last were pretty trifles bound in white +parchment, and as I intended them for gifts, I wanted fresh copies. +"You wish them clean, all of them?" asked the proprietor, with an +accent of surprise. I replied that I did, and would moreover be +obliged if he could fit them with envelopes ready for mailing. +Envelopes he had none, but he promised to tie them up in separate +parcels. "And books and bill will come without fail this afternoon?" +He looked pained to the heart. "This very morning, senora. You will +find them awaiting you on your return." On the third day I sent a +note, and on the fifth a boy arrived with the bulk of my purchase, but +no catalogues nor bill. I explained to the lad, who smilingly besought +me to give myself no concern, that I was on the point of leaving the +city for good, and preferred not to go away in debt; but the days +passed, and my inability to extort that reckoning became the jest of +the household. At last, driven to desperate measures, I went +through noonday heat to the store, and actually found that +procrastinating bookseller scattering cigar ashes over a little heap +of catalogues, while he contemplated the pictures of each copy in +turn. "Behold, senora," he exclaimed, as serenely as if not ten +minutes had elapsed since our parting, "here I have for you immaculate +booklets, stainless, faultless, such as will rejoice those fortunate +friends to whom you have the amiability to send them. And I am this +instant about to prepare them for the post with inviolate security." + + [Illustration: "CHRIST OF THE SEVEN WORDS"] + +I expressed my obligations, but entreated him to draw up the account +and let me settle it then and there, as I was within twenty-four hours +of departure. "And in travelling," I added apologetically, "it is +difficult to send back money." At the obnoxious word he flung up hands +and eyebrows. "Senora!" I left the shop, feeling vaguely that I had +been guilty of a flagrant indelicacy, as well as black ingratitude. +The catalogues, very slightly wrapped, arrived on the morrow, just in +time to be thrust into my shawl strap, and I paid the bill amid the +final agitation, so unfavorable to arithmetic, of porters and +farewells. + +I had worse fortune in trying to subscribe for a certain popular +periodical. I went to the office in the designated business hours, to +find that, of the three men who should have been there, one had +already gone, one had not arrived, and the third had "stepped out for +a little rest." The janitor left in charge, a sympathetic person who +could not read nor write, thought if I would return on Sunday at my +luncheon hour, there might be somebody there qualified to receive my +subscription and address, but, he sagely added, "in this world we are +sure of nothing." + +Madrid possesses the _Biblioteca Nacional_ with valuable manuscripts +and something like one million books, handsomely housed, where +arrangements are made for over three hundred readers, but here, as in +the other Spanish cities, public libraries in the American sense of +libraries largely used by the general public are practically +non-existent. The bookstores, too, except for the latest Spanish +publications, leave much to be desired. As a rule, one can get only +the most meagre information concerning texts and editions of the +national classics, and the supply of new French novels or new German +plays is far less complete than the stock of Paris gloves and German +cutlery. This last, so canny have the honest Teutons grown, is usually +engraved _Toledo_. + +In variety of weather, however, Madrid surpasses all expectations, +furnishing the sultriest heat, the chilliest cold, the dustiest dust, +and the most prodigious crashes of thunder and lumps of hail to be +found in the meteorological market, and all these within a few hours +of one another. But what with fans, _braseros_, balconies, +_horchaterias_, an army of street waterers, and, most essential of +all, an inexhaustible fund of good humor, the Madrileno contrives to +live on friendly terms with his climate, although he dares not lay +aside his cloak before "the fortieth of May." + +Apart from bull-fights and riots, those rages of excitement that seem +to indicate a periodical fevering of the southern blood, the Madrileno +takes his pleasures with a dignified simplicity. The city is +exceedingly rich in open squares, well-shaded parks, and long reaches +of green promenade, and here, with several dozen cigarettes and a few +coppers for water and _agraz_, he wiles the hours away, chatting with +friends and admiring the ladies who roll past in spruce landaus. Over +the gate of the social paradise of Madrid it must be written, "No +admittance except in coaches," for a carriage seems essential to high +life. Liveried coachman, rather than powdered butler, is the _sine qua +non_. During the hot season this outdoor parade is in gay career at +midnight, and whole families, babies and nurses included, may be seen +gathered in festive knots around small refreshment tables, within +sound of fountain spray and garden music. There are open-air concerts, +and concerts in smoke-beclouded halls, greensward dances, and dances +stepped on cafe tables among disordered clusters of bottles and +glasses, and there is always the theatre, on which your Spaniard +dotes. + +In the winter season there is opportunity to enjoy classic drama at +the _Teatro Espanol_, where the Bernhardt of Spain, "La Guerrero," +supported by her grandee husband, Mendoza, holds sway. When I saw them +they were using short farces of Cervantes and Lope de Rueda for +curtain raisers to a romantic drama by Tirso de Molina and a modern +society play by Echegaray. I saw them, too, in Zorrilla's singular +dramatic version of "Don Juan," the only play allowed in Spanish +theatres on the night of All Saints. + +From March to November, however, the _Teatro Espanol_ is closed, and +there is little doing at the _Teatro Real_, an aristocratic temple of +Italian opera. During the summer season the theatrical opportunities +of Madrid are mainly limited to the popular _zarzuelas_, or operettas, +four of which are usually given in an evening. Each theatre offers a +new programme of these every night, but there is little of literary +interest except, now and then, a taking trifle from the pen of +Hartzenbusch or Echegaray. + +The Madrid theatre recks naught of early risers. The opening +vaudeville is seldom under way before nine o'clock; the house is +cleared after each performance, and often the encores and repetitions +prolong a popular _zarzuela_ quite beyond the hour limit. On the other +hand, if the audience is small, the opening piece may be cut down to +the merest outline. I remember one such occasion when the boxes were +so empty and the farce so familiar that the orchestra fairly chaffed +the actors off the stage. "Enough, enough! Thou mayst withdraw!" +chanted the lyric lover to an intruding servant. "And so mayst thou," +called out a voice from among the violins. "I've told my passion to +the stars," continued the actor in his most mellifluous tenor, making +the distant love of the Spanish stage to a lady who was smiling +frankly on the audacious fiddler. "Poor stars!" interpolated this +worthy so sympathetically that everybody laughed, the singer wound up +his transports in the shortest possible order, and the remaining +scenes were hardly more than pantomime. But such was the universal +good nature and indifference to business exactitudes, that neither +artists nor ticket-holders took this curtailment of their rights in +umbrage. + +Among the excellences of Madrid must be counted her _museos_. The +_Armeria_, with its plumed and steel-clad warriors, all at tourney, is +no mere lumber room of wicked old iron, as might have been expected, +but a new canto of the "Faery Queene." The _Museo Naval_ still smells +of the boundless brine and Isles of Spicery. The _Museo Arqueologico +Nacional_ sweeps one, as on the magic carpet of Alhambra legend, +through the entire tragedy of Spain. Here are the successive leaves of +her strange picture-book--scratched, prehistoric flints, grass-woven +Iberian sandals, rudely sculptured shapes in sandstone grasping wine +cups that suggest whole Rubaiyats, Phoenician anchors, bronze tables +of Roman laws, Moorish arabesques, mediaeval altars, modern wares and +fineries, while barbaric spoils of Peruvian idols, Mexican +feather-shields, sacrificial stones, and figures of forest lords speak +to the imagination of that vast colonial empire which rose out of a +dream to melt again like very dreamstuff, leaving "not a rack behind." +These I have seen, but there are twice as many more Madrid museums +which I had not time to see, and which, I am told, are no less rich in +rarities and no less effective in pictorial beauty of arrangement. + +Of the art galleries, who can say enough? The supreme _Museo del +Prado_ so magnetizes pilgrim feet that it is hard to spare even a few +hours for the _Academia de Bellas Artes_, with its grand Murillos and +calm Zurbarans, or the _Museo de Arte Moderno_, with its succession of +canvases depicting scene upon scene of death, decay, murder, +execution, starvation, battle, torture, frenzy. Whatever is most +horrible in the story of the Peninsula--Juana the Mad staring at her +husband's coffin, the bloody fall of the betrayed Torrijos and his +band, the nobles of Portugal doing shuddering homage to the exhumed +corpse of Inez de Castro, all that moves disgust, distress, dismay, +seems flaunted here. The technique is French, but the subjects are +Spanish. Many of the pictures have historical dignity and +faithfulness, a few reproduce the modern national types, with a +preference for bull-fighters and anarchists over fishermen and +peasants, but one misses the spiritual beauty that went hand in hand +with the spiritual terror of the older art. Do the Spanish painters of +to-day derive only from Goya and Ribera? + +The old-time popular ceremonies are fast fading out of Europeanized +Madrid. Even the Christmas mirth is waning, though still on _Noche +Buena_ the _Plaza Mayor_ is close set with booths, and the Infanta +Isabel, _muy Madrilena_ that she is, makes a point of driving through +and heaping her carriage with fairings. On Twelfth Night, too, there +are a few small boys to be seen scampering about the streets, looking +for the arrival of the Magi. Every year drops something of the +mediaeval heritage, and it has fallen to my lot to chronicle the +passing of one of Madrid's most ancient and comfortable rites. The +principal saint days of June, July, and August are preceded by +_verbenas_, or evening fairs, chief among these being the _Verbena de +San Juan_, on Midsummer Night. Many a baby has a grand frolic this +evening, rocked back and forth on his mamma's knees, laughing eyes to +laughing eyes, while she dips her head to his and tickles his little +neck with kisses in time to the ancient ditty:-- + + "Recotin, recoton! + The bells of St. John! + There's a festival on. + Recotin, recotin, recoton!" + +Far along the _Prado_ gleam the busy fires over which are merrily +bubbling the oiliest and brownest of _bunuelos_. The rows of lighted +stalls, which have sprung up like mushrooms on either side of the +promenade, present to the revelling, roving, shifting throng an +amazing variety of tawdry knickknacks, ingeniously devised to meet no +human want. As we drove slowly up and down, enjoying the scene, while +beggars ran beside the carriage and hawkers darted out upon us with +shrill cries, the "American girl" of our little group strove earnestly +to find "something to buy." + +The most useful and convenient article for a traveller that could be +discovered was a pasteboard bull's head on a long stick, but her +chaperon, mindful of trunk dimensions, discouraged this purchase so +effectively that Little Boston gracefully made herself amends by +presenting us all with images of St. John. These scandalously +represented the Baptist as a ballet girl in short cotton-wool skirts +and gilt ribbons, waving a banner with one hand and leading a +two-legged lamb with the other. + +As midnight drew near, carriages and foot-folk all pressed toward the +stately Cybele fountain. It seems that there was once, in the _Puerta +del Sol_, a magic spring whose waters, sprinkled at Midsummer Midnight +on the most unlikely head, insured a wedding within the year. Trams +and cabs, riots and bloodshed, drove the precious charm away to the +_Prado_, even to this same Cybele fountain, which for many generations +has continued to work bridal miracles. So recently as 1898, as soon as +the clock in the tower of the stately Bank of Spain struck midnight, +with wedding cadences lingering in its peal, eager feet went splashing +through the broad marble basin, and the enchanted water, thrown by +handfuls and cupfuls far out over the crowd, sparkled even on bald +pates and wigs. + +But alas for Madrid and her Midsummer Night's Dream! Some prosaic +person got wet and tattled to the Alcalde. So when in natural +agitation, on our only Verbena of St. John, we had persuaded the +compassionate coachman to drive as close as close might be to the +fountain, we encountered a bristling, unromantic railing, and outside +of this a grim circle of police, frowning menace on that disconcerted +host. Every moment more carriages, with veiled ladies and rheumatic +gentlemen, dashed up, and the indignant crowd surged forward to the +very buttons of authority. But midnight chimed in vain. One desperate +graybeard vaulted over the railing, only to be hustled back with +contumely. In general, however, that great press of people remained as +meek as the lions of Cybele's chariot--a lack of spirit only to be +accounted for by remembering that this midnight company was made up of +the shamefaced and rejected, such an assemblage of blighted beings as, +now that the last spell is snapped, earth will never see again. Even +the decorous Cybele laughed in her marble sleeve. + +So passes the old Madrid; but there is a new Madrid, of which a word +still waits to be said. + + + + +XIV + +A STUDY IN CONTRASTS + + "Here you have them, the two Spains, unlike, antagonistic, + squared for conflict." + --_Vida Nueva._ + + +The world-old struggle between conservatism and advance is at its most +dramatic point in Spain. The united forces of clericalism and +militarism work for the continuance of ancient institutions, methods, +ideas, and those leaders who do battle in the name of liberalism are +too often nothing more than selfish politicians. But with all these +odds against progress, it is making way. The mass of the people, kept +so long in the darkness of ignorance and superstition, are looking +toward the light. During my last week in Madrid I chanced upon two +extreme expressions of these warring principles. The first was a royal +and religious ceremony, the second a monster mass meeting,--the one +intent on cherishing the past, the other clamoring at the gates of the +future. + +I was looking over the _Imparcial_ as I took my coffee one morning, +when my eye fell on an item to the effect that there would be _capilla +publica en Palacio_ at ten o'clock. A traveller learns to jump at +opportunity. Public service in the royal chapel promised to be of +interest, and half-past nine found me waiting, with a miscellaneous +company of gentles and tatterdemalions, natives and foreigners, on the +palace side of the _Plaza de Armas_, the expectant throng streaming +far down the paved and covered way. We were well marshalled by +soldiers, who kept the crowd in form of a long troop, and banded this +by military lines, with gleaming bayonets. These bands, but a few feet +apart, were effectual in preventing crowding and disorder, and when at +last the doors were thrown open, a double rank of soldiers closed in +before the portal as often as the entering file showed any tendency to +press and hurry, and thus passed us through by small divisions, so +that there was no unseemly struggling on the succession of bare, plain +stairways that led to the upper galleries. + +For "public service in the royal chapel," I was now to discover, does +not mean that the public is admitted to the chapel itself. This is +small, but very Spanish, with profusion of gilding, imposing altar, +and frescoed saints, the characteristic splendor being tempered with a +no less characteristic gloom, an effect enhanced by austere columns of +gray marble. On days of public service, which are usually high feast +days, three long galleries, forming three sides of a great quadrangle, +are traversed by the court in passing from the royal rooms to the +chapel door, and it is to these galleries only that the public is +admitted. On such occasions the gallery walls are hung with richly +colored tapestries from the magnificent collection of eight hundred +pieces that enriches the royal _Tapiceria_. + +The instant I crossed the threshold these tapestries blazed upon the +eye, so dazzling in their beauty that it was difficult to grasp the +general situation. Civil Guards, in gala uniform, each armed with a +pike taller than himself, were stationed at intervals of about six +feet all along these tapestried walls, holding the carpeted way open +for the passage of the royal and ecclesiastical party. The public +hastened to fill in the spaces left between the guards, so that when +the dignitaries paced the length of the three galleries, they walked +between continuous human lines of mingled soldiery and spectators. We +were of various ages, sizes, colors, and quite as picturesque, take it +all in all, as the slowly stepping group on which our eyes were +focussed. + +A division of the royal escort, marching with drawn swords, preceded +the Queen Regent, a slight and elegant figure in white and heliotrope, +her mantilla pinned with diamonds. She walked in royal solitude, with +a bearing of majesty and grace, but her face had a hard and almost +sour look, which of itself might account for her unpopularity. The +King and the younger Infanta did not take part in the day's ceremony, +but the Princess of Asturias followed her mother, a fresh-faced girl, +charmingly dressed in white and blue, with pearls and turquoises. A +respectful step or two in the rear of her niece, yet at her side +rather than behind, came in rich green silk adorned with emeralds the +stout, gray-puffed, easy-going Infanta Isabel, her broad, florid face +beaming with affability. The guards had passed stern word down the +line for all hats to be off, but there was no sign of greeting, so far +as I saw, from the spectators to the royal party, except as now and +then some happy Spaniard bowed him to the dust in acknowledgment of a +nod, as familiar as a wink, from this popular Infanta. + +The occasion of this stately function was the elevation of the Papal +Nuncio to the rank of cardinal. He passed in all priestly +magnificence of vestments and jewels, his red hat borne before him on +a cushion. He was attended by the chief clerics of Court and capital, +but even these gorgeous personages were outshone by the military and +naval officers, whose breasts were a mosaic of medals, and whose +headgear such erections of vainglory as to hush the crested cockatoo +with shame. The Gentlemen of the Palace, too, were such peacocks in +their glittering coats of many colors, their plumes and sashes, gold +lace and silver lace, that the plump Ladies in Waiting, for all their +pride of velvet, satin, and brocade, looked like mere hens in the wake +of strutting chanticleers. + +The American mind is ill prepared to do homage to the dress parades of +European courts, and I laid by the memory to laugh over when I should +have reached a place and hour where laughter would be inoffensive. As +the Diplomatic Corps, in its varied costumes, came trooping on, twice +a whisper ran along the gazing lines. "The Turk!" and the traditional +enemy of Spain limped smilingly past, a bent, shrewd-faced old +Mussulman, whose Oriental finery was topped by the red fez. "The +Yankee!" and Spain's latest adversary strode by in the person of the +newly arrived United States Minister, decorously arrayed in dress suit +and a Catholic expression. + +The chapel doors closed on this haughty train, and we, the invited +public, cheerily proceeded to pass a social hour or two in chat and +promenade and in contemplation of the tapestries. Even the Civil +Guards unbent, dancing their babies, lending their pikes to delighted +urchins, and raising forbidden curtains to give their womenkind +furtive peeps into the royal apartments. Most astonishing was the +maltreatment of those priceless tapestries. Small boys, unrebuked, +played at hide and seek under the heavy folds, old men traced the +patterns with horny fingers, and the roughest fellows from the streets +lounged stupidly against them, rubbing dirty-jacketed shoulders over +the superb coloring. The most splendid series displayed was from a +master-loom of the Netherlands, illustrating the conquest of Tunis by +Charles V--marvellously vivid scenes, where one beholds the spread of +mighty camps, the battle shock of great armies and navies, and, like +shrill chords of pain in some wild harmony, the countless individual +tragedies of war. The scimitar of the Turk flashes down on the Spanish +neck, while the upturned eyes are still too fierce for terror; the +turbaned chief leans from his gold-wrought saddle to scan the severed +heads that two blood-stained sons of the prophet are emulously holding +up to his survey, hoping to recognize in those ghastly faces enemies +of rank; white-robed women on the strand, their little ones clinging +to their knees, reach arms of helpless anguish toward the smitten +galley of their lords, who are leaping into the waves for refuge from +the Christian cannonade. + +I wondered how the Turkish Minister liked those tapestries, as his +stooped-back Excellency passed in conference with a Chinese mandarin, +who must have studied his costume from a teacup. For we had all been +hustled into rows again to make that human lane through which the +Royalties and the Reverends returned from their devotions. I was +facing a quaint old tapestry of Christ enthroned in glory, with the +beasts of the Apocalypse climbing over Him like pet kittens, and this +so distracted my attention that I omitted to ask the amiable Infanta +Isabel, who would, I am sure, have told anybody anything, what had +taken place. But I read it all in the _Epocha_ that evening--how her +Majesty with her own august hands had fitted the red hat to the +Nuncio's tonsured head, and how the new-made cardinal had addressed +her in a grateful oration, praising her virtues as manifested in "the +double character of queen and mother, an example rich in those +peculiar gifts by which your Royal Grace has won the veneration and +love of the noble and chivalrous Spanish people, the especial +affection of the Father of the Faithful, and the respect and sympathy +of all the world." For her and for the youthful monarch of Spain he +invoked the favor of Heaven, and uttered a fervent hope that the cup +of bitterness which this most Catholic nation had bowed herself to +drink might be blessed to her in a renewal of strength and a +reconquest of her ancient preeminence among the peoples of the earth. + +The most significant expression of "new Spain" that I encountered in +Madrid was a mass meeting--a rare and novel feature in Spanish public +life. I blundered upon it as foolishly as one well could. The second +day of July was the first anniversary of the founding of a daring +Madrid weekly, the _Vida Nueva_, to which, attracted by its literary +values, as well as its political courage, I had subscribed. The sheet +is usually issued Sunday, but as I was on the point of going out one +Saturday afternoon my _Vida Nueva_ arrived, accompanied by two +non-committal tickets. They gave entrance to the _Fronton Central_, +"only that and nothing more." I called one of the pretty senoritas of +the household into council, and she sagely decided that these were +tickets to _pelota_, the Basque ball game, played in one or another of +the various Madrid halls almost every summer afternoon. It seemed a +little too considerate in the _Vida Nueva_ to provide for the +recreation of its subscribers, but I was growing accustomed to +surprises of Spanish courtesy, and tucked the tickets away in a safe +corner. The folded newspaper rustled and whispered, and finally +fluttered to my feet, but I was eager to be off, and, after the blind +fashion of mortals, put it by. + +It was my privilege to dine that day with two compatriots, and one of +these, who knows and loves Spain better than many Spaniards do, began +at once to tell me of that most unusual occurrence, a Madrid mass +meeting, to take place this very evening. Of course we resolved to go, +although my friend's husband was not in the city, and no other escort +would countenance so harebrained an expedition. For the street to +which this valiant lady led the way was choked with a flood of men +surging toward an open door. The hall for the "meeting," a word which +the Spanish language has fully adopted, was the _Fronton Central_, and +admission was by ticket. Light dawned on my dim wits, and, while my +two companions, with dignified and tranquil mien, stood themselves up +against the outer wall, I besought a leisurely cabman, who insisted on +waiting to pick up a little ragamuffin clamoring for a ride, to drive +me in hot haste to my domicile. Here I searched out the tickets, put +away only too carefully, and took a fleeting glance at the _Vida +Nueva_, which urged all "men of heart" to celebrate the eve of its +anniversary by their presence at this mass meeting. + +I had not realized that there were so many men of heart in Madrid. The +street on my return was worse than before. The cabman objected +strenuously to leaving us in these tempestuous surroundings, and, +since there were only two tickets, we two elders of the trio agreed +that the American girl was all too young for such an escapade, and +forthwith despatched her, under his fatherly care, to the hotel. Then +came the tug of war. We saw men fighting fiercely about the door, we +heard the loud bandying of angry words, we were warned again and again +that we could never get through the jam, we were told that, tickets or +no tickets, ladies would not, could not, and should not be admitted; +it was darkly hinted that, before the evening was over, there would be +wild and bloody work within those walls. But we noticed a few other +women in the throng, and decided, from moment to moment, to wait a +little longer, and see what happened next. Meanwhile, we were almost +unjostled in the midst of that excited, struggling crowd, often +catching the words: "Stand back there! Don't press on the ladies! +Leave room!" And when it came to the final dash we had well-nigh a +clear passage. Our tickets gave access only to the floor of a big, +oblong hall, closely packed with a standing mass of some ten thousand +men; but a debonair personage in authority conducted us, with more +chivalry than justice, to the reserved boxes in the gallery, where we +occupied perfect seats,--for which other people probably held +tickets,--in the front row, overlooking all the house. + + [Illustration: MARIA SANTISIMA] + +So much for Spanish indulgence to audacious womenfolk. But as to the +meeting itself, what was it all about? In Spain one word suffices for +an answer. _Montjuich_ has become a Liberal rallying cry, although the +movement is not bound in by party lines. It is the Dreyfus _affaire_ +in a Spanish edition. The _Castello de Montjuich_ is a strong +fortress, with large magazines and quarters for ten thousand soldiers. +It is built on a commanding height, the old Mountain of the Jews, just +outside Barcelona, and has again and again suffered bombardment and +storm. But in this latest assault on Montjuich the weapons are words +that burn and pens keener than swords. It was on the seventh of June, +1896, that the famous bomb was exploded in Barcelona. It was taken for +an Anarchist outrage, and over two hundred men, including teachers, +writers, and labor leaders, were arrested on suspicion. Nearly two +months passed, and, despite the offer of tempting rewards, no trace of +the culprits had been found. In the Fortress of Montjuich the guards +deputed to watch the prisoners, acting more or less under superior +authority, which itself may have been influenced by Jesuit suggestion, +began on the fourth of August to inflict tortures upon the accused for +the purpose of extracting evidence. The trials were by military +procedure, power sat in the seat of justice, and innocent men, it is +believed, were condemned on the strength of those forced +confessions--mere assents, wrung from them by bodily agony, to +whatever their guards might dictate. But many persisted in denial, and +in course of time a number were released, maimed, in certain cases, +for life. Others were shot, and a score still lay in prison. The +fortress dungeons are deep and dark, but little by little the cries +and groans of the "martyrs of Montjuich" penetrated the dull stone and +sounded throughout Spain. + +On the fourteenth of May, last year, the _Vida Nueva_, this bold young +periodical in the van of the Liberal cause, brought out an illustrated +number devoted to "The Torments of Montjuich." Other periodicals +sprang to its support and kept the Government busy with denunciations, +while they vehemently called for a revision of the judicial process, +with the hope of releasing the men still under sentence and clearing +the names of those who had perished. Mass meetings to urge such +revision, which could be accorded only by vote of the Cortes, were +held in Barcelona, Saragossa, Valencia, Santander, and other principal +cities, all demanding revision in the sacred names of patriotism, +humanity, and justice. + +Our Madrid mass meeting was of chief consequence in impressing the +Government with the weight of popular opinion. The swaying multitude +was called to order at quarter of ten by Senor Canalejas, who +introduced a notable array of speakers. There were representatives of +labor, of republicanism, of the press, a Catalan charged with a +greeting from Barcelona, the champion of Spanish Socialism, Pablo +Iglesias by name, and great men of the nation, Azcarate, Moret, and +Salmeron. Spanish eloquence at its best thrills the blood to wine, and +the swift succession of orators, fourteen all told, played on the vast +audience like master artists on a murmurous organ. Yet there was no +disorder. A generous and grateful hearing was accorded the Count of +Las Almenas, who frankly declared himself a conservative in politics +and an apostolic Roman Catholic in religion, but in the name of both +these creeds a lover of justice and humanity. Since for these he ever +held himself ready to do battle in the Cortes, he gave the meeting his +pledge that he would support Azcarate in the motion for revision. + +But the wrath and grief of the audience could hardly be controlled +when one of the released prisoners took the platform to recount the +horrors of Montjuich. He told of dungeons with earth floor and one +grated window, of savage guards determined to gain the crosses and +pensions promised to those who should extract evidence. He told how +the helpless captives, weakened by confinement, were tortured with +cords, whips, sleeplessness, hunger, and thirst. Bound as they were, +water was held before their parched mouths, with the sinister words, +"Confess what we bid you, and you shall drink." When the famished men +begged for food, they were answered with the lash, or, more +fiendishly, with shreds of salt codfish, which increased their thirst +a hundred fold. One man in his desperation sprang to the lamp and +quaffed the dirty oil. They licked the moisture from their dungeon +walls. They thrust white tongues through the grating to catch the +drops of rain. Soon the guards proceeded to more violent torments, +wrenching, burning, and probing the quivering flesh with a devilish +ingenuity of torture, making a derisive sport of their atrocious work. +One of the victims went mad while undergoing torture by compression of +the head. Others, on hearing the coming steps of the guards, strove to +escape their cruel hands by suicide. One drank a bowl of disinfectant +found in his cell, one beat his forehead against the wall, one strove +to drive a rusted nail into his heart. + +It was a frightful tale to hear. I looked across the hall to where a +Spanish flag was hung. Yellow wax is funeral wax, and Alarcon, who +sees in yellow a symbol of death and of decay, laments that it is the +color of half the Spanish banner. "_Ay de la bandera espanola!_" But +surely there is hope for Spain, while she has sons who, in grasp of a +military tyranny which has rendered such crimes possible, contend in +open field for the overthrow of the "black Spain" of the Inquisition, +and still bear heart of hope for a white, regenerated Spain, where +religion shall include the love of man. + + + + +XV + +THE PATRON SAINT OF MADRID + + "Labre, cultive, cogi + Con piedad, con fe, con celo, + Tierras, virtudes y cielo." + + +Spain seems actually skied over with the wings of guardian angels. The +traditional tutelar of the nation, Santiago, counts for less, +especially in the south and centre of the Peninsula, than might be +expected, and was long since officially superseded by the Virgin; but +cities, hamlets, families, individuals, all have their protecting +saints. Some are martyrs, some bishops, some apostles, while Cordova +rests secure beneath the shining plumes of the angel Raphael. Towns +and townlets hold festivals for their celestial patrons, honoring them +with fairs, horse-races, processions, dances, and whatsoever else may +be appropriate to the season and characteristic of the locality, as +ball games, bull-fights, or even a miracle play. Only Seville, +mirth-loving Seville, who makes holiday on the slightest provocation, +can never invite her two beautiful guardians, Santa Justa and Santa +Rufina, to a jubilee. These holy maidens used to keep a pottery booth +in Triana, now the gypsy quarter of the city, where, refusing to +worship the Roman Venus, they won the crown of martyrdom. But their +industrious habits cling to them still, and, by night and by day, +while the centuries pass, they uphold the Giralda. An anointed vision, +like Murillo's, may see their graceful forms hovering in mid-air on +either side of the famous tower, which their strong brown arms hold +firm even in tempests. If the ladies should let go, the Giralda would +fall, and so the Sevillians are driven to the ungallant course of +ignoring these really useful patrons and gadding off to adjacent towns +whose saints are at leisure to be entertained. + + [Illustration: A SPANISH MONK] + +By the eternal contradiction that prevails in all things Spanish, it +has come to pass that Madrid, the elegant capital and royal residence, +is under the guardianship of a peasant saint. Here, in the eleventh +century, Isidro was born, say the priests, of poor but Catholic +parents. If not precisely a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, he +was next door to that humble estate, being a digger of wells and +cellars. He dug with such piety that God aided him by miracles, +causing troublesome rocks to melt like wax at the touch of his spade, +and springs of healing water to leap in the pits of his fashioning. He +was a tiller of the ground, besides, a hireling farm servant, whose +agricultural methods, though seemingly irregular, caused his master's +granaries to overflow. As he went to the fields in the fresh spring +mornings, the young Isidro would scatter handfuls of seed for the +birds, saying, "Eat, God's little birds, for when our Lord looks forth +in dawn, He looks upon us all." And as he dropped the wheat and barley +in the furrows, ever he murmured, "This for God, and this for us; this +for the birds, and this for the ants." "For the ants, too?" mockingly +asked the rustics who planted beside him, but Isidro steadfastly +replied, "For the ants, too, since they are God's ants, and His royal +bounty is for all His household." No wonder that the Almighty had +Isidro's fields in special charge, sending sun and rain in due season +that the harvest might suffice for every claimant. Such divine care +was the more necessary, because this dreamy plough-boy spent most of +his time in the churches, or on his knees in the shadow of the fruit +trees, until his profane companions called him Lazybones. + +Isidro was no effective patron of Madrid as yet, but ran away from the +Moors, when they invaded the city, finding farm service in a +neighboring village. Here he married a maiden whose lovely soul, +according to Lope de Vega, shone through her guileless face like a +painting through its glass. She was no less devout than her husband, +and went every evening to trim the altar in a lonely shrine of the +Virgin. There was a stream to be crossed on the way, and in times of +freshet Our Lady would appear in person and lead her by the hand over +the tops of the waves. Such dainty stepping as it must have been! And +once, when Isidro accompanied his wife, they both crossed in a boat +suddenly improvised from her mantilla, which was not a thread the +worse for the experience. + +The miracle-working power that developed in San Isidro was first +exercised, as became a farmer, on suffering beasts and bad weather. +His early influence over water grew more and more pronounced, rain +refreshing the thirsty fields at his bidding, and medicinal fountains +gushing from rocks at the stroke of his hoe. And when, one sunshiny +morning, his wife let their baby boy slip from her arms into the +depths of the well and ran in distress to her husband, the saint, who +for once was working on the farm, did not scold her, as the priestly +authors seem to think would have been the natural course, but calmly +said, "My sister, what is there to cry about?" And when, after a +season of prayer, these exemplary parents proceeded to the well, its +waters had risen to the brink, lifting the little John, as on a +silver-tissue cushion, safe to their embrace. Isidro still retained +his youthful peculiarities as a laborer, often praying all day long in +the churches, while his yoke of oxen did the ploughing just as well +without him. On one occasion, when he arrived too late for mass, the +gates of heaven opened to his vision, as he knelt before the closed +church door, and he was permitted to witness a celestial mass, where +Christ was both priest and wafer, with choirs of angels chanting the +holy service. Even his charities cost him little, for when the _olla_ +of vegetables and fish, that his wife made every Saturday for the +poor, had all been eaten, a word from Isidro was enough to replenish +the pot. If he emptied his sack of corn on the snow for a flock of +hungry pigeons, the sack was full when he reached the mill; and when +he threshed his master's wheat a second and a third time for the +beggars, the very chaff turned into golden grain. + +His best quality, which almost makes his cult desirable in Spain, +continued to be his love for animals, especially for birds. These sang +their sweetest songs as he passed by, and often flew down from the +poplar branches to brush their little wings against his blouse. And +he, who had raised his master's daughter from the dead, did not +disdain to work miracles of healing and of life on maltreated horses. +Madrid would do well to give her guardian saint a season ticket to +the bull-ring. Even the despised and cudgelled ass had a share in his +protection. A sacrilegious wolf that thought to make a meal of +Isidro's donkey, left to graze outside a church where the saint had +gone to pray, was struck dead--perhaps by the donkey's heels. This +kindly rustic, who had separated from his wife for greater sanctity, +died on St. Andrew's Day and was buried in the cemetery of St. +Andrew's Church in Madrid. Such sepulture was not to his liking, and +twice his ghost appeared to ask that the body might be removed to the +church, as was presently done, all the bells of St. Andrew's ringing +of their own accord to give it welcome. The tomb immediately began to +work miracles, and Isidro became such a favorite with the people that +when, in 1212, a shepherd guided Alfonso VIII, lost with his vanguard +in the wild passes of the Sierra Morena, to the great battle of Las +Navas de Tolosa, where the armies of the Holy Cross broke forever the +dominion of the Moors in Central Spain, nothing would do but the story +that this shepherd was Isidro himself. Above the tomb of the saint a +chapel was erected, perhaps by Alfonso, perhaps by _Isabel la +Catolica_. There seems to be a conflict of authorities here, but all +testimonies agree that the angels used to come down and sing in the +chapel Saturday afternoons. + +Madrid formally accepted Isidro as patron in the summer of 1232, when +the labors of the husbandmen, on the point of perishing from drought, +were saved by the body of the Holy Peasant, which, borne in priestly +procession, called down floods of rain; but it was not until the times +of Philip III, some four centuries later, that the actual canonization +of Isidro was granted by Rome. On May 15, 1620, the _Plaza Mayor_, +that handsome square which has been the theatre of so many +tournaments, executions, and _autos de fe_, the scene, two years +later, of the beatification of Loyola, was inaugurated by a splendid +festival in honor of San Isidro. From that day to this his worship has +not waned. The miracle-working bones, which were carried to the bitter +death-bed of Philip III, and comforted the passing of the great and +generous spirit of Charles III, are still held to be more potent than +physicians. Churches, oratories, and chapels have been built to him +all over the Peninsula, the Franciscan Friars founded a convent of San +Isidro in Rome, and his name is a part of our new geography lesson in +the Antilles and the Philippines. Only four years ago his urn was +borne in penitential procession through Madrid, with double +supplications for rain on the parched country, and for a swift and +happy ending of the Cuban war. All priestly, military, civic, and +governmental pomp went to make up that stately escort, the ladies of +Madrid showering the train as it passed beneath their balconies with +flowers, poems, and _confetti_. The saint did what he could. The +procession had been so skilfully timed that the rains began that very +night, but the Cuban war was a matter out of his province. His +dealings had always been with water, not with blood. + +There is significance in this devotion of proud Castile to San Isidro. +Spain is essentially as democratic as America. Her proverbs tell the +story: "Many a man gets to heaven in tow breeches;" "Do what your +master bids you, and sit down with him at table;" "Nobody is born +learned, and even bishops are made of men;" "Since I am a man I may +come to be Pope;" "The corpse of the Pope takes no more ground than +that of the sacristan;" "Every man is the son of his own works." + + "Said the leaf to the flower: 'O fie! + You put on airs indeed! + But we sprang, both you and I, + From the selfsame little brown seed.'" + +Pedler, porter, beggar treat you as social equals and expect a full +return of courtesy. It is told in Madrid how a great diplomatic +personage not long ago was eating his picnic luncheon in a hired +carriage. The driver, lunching also, leaned back from his seat, +clinked glasses, and drank the gentleman's health. The dignitary +glared with astonishment and wrath. "Man! I am the Imperial Ambassador +of Nation So-and-So." "What of it?" returned the driver, taking +another bite of his peppery Spanish sausage; "I am the Head Hostler of +Stables Such-and-Such." + +Again and again, in recent times as in ancient, have the rank and file +of the Spanish nation asserted their dignity of manhood. An edict of +Charles III, forbidding the Madrilenos to muffle themselves in their +beloved long cloaks and hide their faces under their big slouch hats, +raised a furious riot in the capital. Should a king dictate the +fashion of a man's garments? And when the stupid weakness of Charles +IV and the baseness of his son Fernando had delivered Spain over to +Napoleon, when French armies held her fortresses, and Murat, with +twenty-five thousand troops, ruled Madrid by logic of steel and iron, +it was the Spanish people who, from Asturias to Andalusia, sprang to +the defence of a country abandoned by princes, councils, and +grandees. The Spanish people, not the Spanish nobles, preserved the +independence of the nation and actually broke the career of the +Corsican conqueror. The Italian king, Amadeo, so much better than his +fortunes, was welcomed at Valencia in 1871 with simple verses, spoken +by a child, that breathe even from their opening stanza this native +spirit of democracy:-- + + "The High Lord of the Heavens + Created men one day, + All mortal and all equal, + All shapen out of clay; + For God recked not of nations, + Of white and black and brown, + But on His human children + Impartially looked down." + +It is not then so strange as it appears at first hearing that a Piers +Plowman should be patron of Madrid. + +From Alfonso VIII to Alfonso XIII, a matter of some seven centuries, +Isidro has been in high repute with royalty. The "Catholic Kings" made +him rich gifts; Philip II, bigot of bigots, cherished an especial +veneration for the ghostly protector who had brought his delicate +childhood safely through smallpox and epileptic seizures; the +passion-wasted Philip IV did him public homage; Charles the Bewitched +made a solemn progress to his shrine to thank him for recovery from +illness; even the bright young Bourbon, Philip V, had scarcely arrived +in Madrid before he hastened to worship the efficacious body of San +Isidro. The urn has been opened at intervals to give their successive +Majesties of Spain the grewsome joy of gazing on the bones, and it +has been the peculiar privilege of Spanish queens, on such occasions, +to renew the costly cerements. The devotion of the present regent to +these relics keeps pace with that of her predecessors. + +Where royalty leads, aristocracy is swift to follow, and Isidro has a +gorgeous wardrobe of embroidered standards, palls, canopies, burial +cloths, and everything that a skeleton could require, but "for a' that +and a' that" the laboring people of Castile never forget that the +Canonized Farmer especially belongs to them. His fortnight-long +_fiesta_ is the May outing of the rustic population all about Madrid. + +We will start on this pilgrimage from the _Puerta del Sol_, because +everything in Madrid starts from the _Puerta del Sol_. From this great +open parallelogram in the centre of the city, surrounded by lofty +hotels and Government buildings, bordered with shops and cafes, +brightened with fountains, thronged with trams, carriages, people, +always humming with voices, always surging with movement, run ten of +the principal streets of the capital. The _Alcala_, most fashionable +of promenades, and _San Jeronimo_, beloved of wealthy shoppers, +conduct to the noble reaches of parks and _paseos_ in the east; the +handsome _Arenal_ and historic _Calle Mayor_ lead west to the royal +palace, with its extensive gardens known as the _Campo del Moro_; +_Montera_, with two less elegant avenues, points to the north, where +one may find the university, the Protestant churches, and the tragic +site of the _Quemadero_; and three corresponding streets open the way +to the south, with its factories, hospitals, old churches, and +world-famed _Rastro_, or rag fair. + + [Illustration: A SEVILLE STREET] + +But during the early days of the _Romeria_, which begins on May 15, +all the throbbing tide of life pours toward the southwest, for the +goal of the pilgrimage, the Hermitage of San Isidro, built over one of +his miraculous wells by the empress of Charles I, in gratitude for a +cure experienced by her august husband after drinking of the waters, +stands on the farther bank of the Manzanares. The trams, literally +heaped with clinging humanity, pass out by the _Calle Mayor_ and cross +the _Plaza Mayor_. The innumerable 'buses and cabs make a shorter cut, +but all varieties of vehicle are soon wedged together in the broad +thoroughfare of Toledo. Here we pass the big granite church of San +Isidro el Real, once in possession of the Jesuits, but on their +expulsion from Spain, in 1767, consecrated to the Santo Labrador. His +body was borne thither, with all solemn ceremonial, from the chapel in +St. Andrew's; and his poor wife, who had also been sainted, by a +courteous Spanish afterthought, under the attractive title of _Maria +de la Cabeza_, Mary of the Head, was allowed to lay her celebrated +skull beneath the same roof,--a greater liberty than he had permitted +her during the latter half of their earthly lives. The Madrid +Cathedral, hard by the royal palace, is still in slow process of +building, the work being hampered and delayed for lack of funds, +although her Majesty sets a devout example by contributing $300 a +month. Meanwhile, San Isidro el Real serves as the cathedral church of +the diocese. + +This _Calle de Toledo_, where Isidro dug several of his medicinal +wells, is always gay with arcades and booths and drapers' shops; but +now, during the _Romeria_, it is a veritable curbstone market, where +oranges, sashes, brooms, mantles, picture frames, saucepans, fiddles, +mantillas, china, jackets, umbrellas, fans, dolls, bird-cages, +paintings of saints, and photographs of ballet dancers are all cried +and exhibited, hawked and held under nose, in one continuous tumult. + +As we approach the bare mass of masonry known as the Gate of Toledo, +we cast, for all our festival mood, a clouded glance in the direction +of the barbarous slaughter-houses of Madrid. Here the stronger beasts +are blinded by the thrust of darts, and also hamstrung, to render them +helpless under the deliberate butchery of their tormentors, who often +amuse themselves by a little bull-fight practice with the agonized +creatures before striking the final blow--a place of such atrocious +cruelties that even the seasoned nerves of an Austrian surgeon +recently visiting it gave way, and he fainted as he looked. There is +work for San Isidro here. + +The jam of equipages on the Bridge of Toledo gives us abundant time to +observe the statue of the Holy Peasant, in a stone niche, lifting his +baby from the well, and the companion statue of Mary of the Skull. And +there is the Manzanares to look at, that sandy channel along which +dribble a few threads of water--threads that the washerwomen of Madrid +seek after like veins of silver. Small boys are wading from one bank +to the other, hardly troubling themselves to roll up their trousers. +It is said that Philip IV, surveying his pompous bridge across the +Manzanares, was wickedly advised by one of his courtiers to sell the +bridge or else buy a river. It is a curious bit of irony to hold the +festival of the Water Saint beside a river bed almost as dry as his +bones. + +But the crowd has now become so mad and merry that it distracts +attention alike from architecture and physical geography. Will all the +dexterity of foot-police and mounted guards ever succeed in +disentangling this snarl of equipages? Who cares? Everybody is +laughing. Everybody, too, is helping, so far as lungs can help. A +daring Aragonese, with a blue and white checked handkerchief knotted +about his head and a scarlet blanket over his shoulders, tries to dash +across the bridge and rejoin his screaming children. He stumbles +before a jovial omnibus, whose four horses, adorned with beribboned +straw hats, gaze coyly out from under the torn brims like so many +metamorphosed Maud Mullers. A distant guard roars a warning. The crowd +bellows in sympathy. A liveried coachman rears his spirited pair of +bays. A cock-hatted gypsy, with half his tribe packed into his cart, +tries to follow suit, and tugs savagely at the stubborn mouths of +mules whose heads are liberally festooned with red and green tassels. +In front of these safely passes the Aragonese, only to bring up +against the great wheel of a picnic wagon, whose occupants, mostly +senoritas in the sunrise Philippine shawls, thrust out their pretty +heads, all crowned with flowers instead of hats, and rain down saucy +salutations. The crowd chimes in with every variety of voluble +impudence. He catches at the long gold fringe of the nearest shawl, +saves himself from falling at the price of a shriek of wrath from the +senorita, plunges desperately on, is struck by a cab horse, the poor +beast being half blinded by the tickling plumes that droop over eyes +and nose, and amid volleys of ridicule and encouragement reels to the +shelter of the sidewalk. But a very precarious shelter it is, so +narrow that the lads are positively obliged to fling their arms about +the lasses to hold the fluttering skirts back from peril of wheels and +hoofs. Everywhere what audacity, what fun, what color, and what noise! +Troops on troops of foot travellers, usually in family groups, and +often stained with the dust of an all-day tramp! The wives generally +carry the hampers, and the husbands sometimes shoulder the babies. +Squads of young fellows frolic along, each with his supply of +provisions tied up in a gaudy handkerchief. The closer the nudging the +better they like it; a slap from a girlish hand is almost as good as a +kiss. Isidro knew all about it in his day. But this clownish jollity +grows rougher and rougher, and the crack and sting from a coachman's +whip tempt a reply with the pilgrim's staff. The guards, hoarse and +purple, wipe their dripping brows. It is early afternoon yet, too, and +the larking and license are as nothing to what may be expected before +midnight. + +It is a little better when, at last, the bridge is left behind. +Turning to the northwest, the dusty road runs on beside the river and +beneath the bluffs lined with rowdyish folk, who shout down greetings +to their acquaintances and compliments to the ladies, toward the +_ermita_. A certain Juan de Vargas, riding over this same route one +day, lifted his eyes to the uplands to see how his farm-hand, Isidro, +was getting on with the ploughing. Blessed Isidro! Before and after +went two stalwart young angels, still in shining white, each driving a +celestial yoke of oxen. + +Times have changed. The sight that greets our eyes is emphatically +human--a great country fair, a pandemonium of rude, good-natured +revelry. The beggars who have been chasing the carriage, the cripples +outstripping the rest, thrust withered arms, ulcerous legs, and all +manner of profitable deformities into our very faces as we alight, +even clutching at the coins with which we pay the coachman. We make +our way, as best we can in the rough press, between two rows of +booths toward the church. There is the usual Spanish variety of penny +toys on sale--balls, baskets, whips, kites, jumping-jacks, balloons, +and every other conceivable trifle admitting of the colors red and +yellow. But the great traffic is in those articles especially +consecrate to San Isidro--frosted cakes, probably made after the +recipe of _Maria de la Cabeza_, clay vessels of every shape and size +for carrying away the healing waters, and, first and foremost, +_pitos_, or whistles. The priests would have us believe that San +Isidro was forever droning psalms, but ploughmen know a ploughman's +music, and the sacred whistles lead the sales in the _Romeria_. It is +impiety not to purchase at least one of these, and the more devout you +are, the more _pitos_ will you buy. The Infanta Isabel, aunt of his +Little Majesty, fills her emblazoned coach every year with these +shrill pipes in all their variety of queer disguises--fans, birds, +puffing grotesques, and, above all, paper flowers. He is no lover +worth the having who does not bring his sweetheart a San Isidro rose +with a _pito_ for a stem. The ear-torture of an immense fair-ground +delighting in an infinity of whistles may be left to the sympathetic +imagination. We cling to the memory of Burns, and bear for his bonny +sake what we could hardly endure for any such sham laborer as Isidro. + +The hearing is not the only sense to do penance in this pilgrimage. +The Water Saint has never thought to work a miracle of cleanliness +upon his peasant votaries, and the smell that bursts out upon us from +the opening doors of the church might put us to flight, were flight +still possible. But, caught in the human current, we are swept on into +the gilded, candle-lighted, foul-aired oratory, with its effigies of +Santo Labrador and Santa Labradora. All day long the imperious ringing +of the bell at the shortest of intervals has been calling one company +of the faithful after another up the bare brown hill to that +unventilated temple. When there is no squeezing room left for even a +dwarf from the pygmy show, the doors are closed, the bell is silenced, +and the rustics are marshalled in rapid procession before the altar, +where they pay a penny each, receive a cheap print of San Isidro, and +kiss the mysterious, glass-cased relic which a businesslike young +ecclesiastic touches hastily to their lips. The frank sound of the +kissing within is accompanied by the tooting of _pitos_ without. We +stand at one side, looking at the priests and wondering how their +consciences are put together, but half ashamed to watch with heretic +eyes the tears of joy, the fervors of prayer, the ecstasies of faith, +that are to be seen in many of these simple, passionate faces filing +by. Here comes a little girl treading as if on air and clasping her +picture of the saint to her lips, brows, and heart with such abandon +of delighted adoration as one must go to Spain to see. + +Released from the Hermitage, we fill our lungs with sweeter breath, +give skirts a vigorous shake in the vain hope that we may not carry +away too many deserters from the insect retinue of our recent +associates, and turn down toward the river. Our short cut leads us +among heaps and heaps of bales packed with the graceful clay jars. How +many an anxious mother will trudge her weary miles across this dry +Castilian steppe, bearing with all her other burdens a _botija_ of the +healing water to some little sufferer at home! Wonderful water, +warranted to make whole the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, and +put to rout all ills that flesh is heir to, especially fevers, tumors, +erysipelas, paralysis, and consumption! It is as potent to-day as when +it first gushed from the earth at the bidding of the young Isidro, for +did it not work a notable cure, as late as 1884, on the Infanta Dona +Paz de Bourbon, sister of Alphonso XII? + +We linger a few minutes at the edge of the bluff, looking down upon +the animated scene below, from which rises the hum as of an +exaggerated beehive. The long green stretch of valley meadow is one +wave of restless color. Thickly dotted with booths for refreshment, +for sale of the San Isidro wares, for penny shows, farces, wax +figures, and all manner of cheap entertainments, it still has space +for dancers, wrestlers, _pelota_ players, for swings, stilts, and +merry-go-rounds, and, above all, for the multitude of promenaders, +sleepers, and feasters. The bright May sunshine gleams and dazzles on +the soldiers' helmets, flashes out all the hues and tints of the +varied costumes, and even lends a grace to the brown patches on the +browner tents. The tossing of limbs in the wild, free dances, the +flutter of the red and yellow flags, the picturesque grouping on the +grass of families, complete to dog and donkey, around the platter of +homely fare and the skin bottle of wine--all this makes a panorama on +which one would gladly gaze for hours. + +Going down into the heart of the festivity, the interest still grows. +We enter one of the cleanest _cantinas_ and invest a _peseta_ in a +bottle of sarsaparilla, not for our own drinking, having seen the +water in which the glasses are washed, but as a protection against the +horde of beggars and the gypsy fortune tellers. It works like a charm. +As we respond to the whining appeals with the civilities of social +greeting and an offered glass of our innocent beverage, the ragged +petitioners are straightway transformed into ladies and gentlemen. +They draw themselves erect, quaff the cup to our long life and +happiness, discuss in self-respecting tones the weather and the fete, +and then, without another hint of solicitation, bid us courteous +farewells. We mean to take out a patent on the sarsaparilla treatment +of Spanish mendicancy. + +The tent itself is, like the rest, shabby and tumbledown, furnished +with rough tables and benches, where cadets are playing dominos as +they drink, and two country sweethearts are delectably eating what +appears to be a sardine omelette off the same cracked plate. A clumsy +lantern hangs overhead, racks of bottles are fastened up along the +canvas walls, and all about the trampled earth floor stand water jars, +great bowls of greens, and baskets of the crusty Spanish bread. A pale +young Madrileno drops in for a glass of wine, but before indulging has +the shy little rustic who serves him take a sip, languidly begging her, +"Do me the favor to sweeten my drink." The yellow cigarette-stains +show on his white fingers as he pats her plump bare arm. The child, +for she is scarcely more, and as brown as an acorn, responds to these +amenities by giving the smiling exquisite alternate bites of her hunk +of goat's-milk cheese, while her mother keeps a sharp eye on them +both. + +Comedy and tragedy are busy all about us. A newly arrived family plods +wearily by in ludicrous procession, headed by a tall father carrying a +baby and closed by a short child carrying a cat. A showy man of middle +age, playing the gallant to an overdressed brunette, is suddenly +confronted by his furious wife in boy's attire, so unluckily well +disguised that, before recognizing her, he has replied to her rush of +invective with a blow which bids fair to make one of her eyes, at +least, blacker than those of her rival. Traditional ballads are +trolled, popular songs are echoed from group to group, and, despite +bad odors, fleas, and whistles, we are reluctant to leave. But the +afternoon grows late, the _Arganda_ and _Valdepenas_ are beginning to +burn in the southern blood, an occasional flourish of cudgels or of +fists sends the police scurrying across the field, and, being nothing +if not discreet, we pay our parting respects to San Isidro. + +Coming home by way of the _Prado_ and passing the proud shaft of +yellow-brown granite that towers far above its enclosing cypress +trees, as glory above death, we are reminded that this gala month has +brought another _fiesta_ to Madrid. Every second of May the capital +commemorates with solemn masses, with stately civic processions, and a +magnificent military review, the patriots who fell fighting in the +streets on that terrible Monday of 1808, _El Dos de Mayo_, which +brought to pass the war of independence. One may read of that fierce +carnage in the vivid pages of Galdos or behold it in the lurid +paintings of Goya. To see once is to see forever that line of French +soldiery, with steady musket at shoulder, but with eyes bent on the +ground, while they shoot down squad after squad of their defenceless +victims. In pools of blood lie the contorted bodies, with heads and +breasts horribly torn by crimson wounds, while of those who wait their +turn to fall beside them some cover the eyes, one stupidly gnaws his +hands, one kneels and wildly peers from under his shaggy hair into +the very muzzle of the gun before him, one flings back his head with a +savage grin, half of fright and half of courage, one desperately +strips bare his breast and in agony of horror glares upon the guns, +but the most are crouching, shuddering, sinking--and all only an item +in the awful cost that the Spanish people have paid for Spanish +liberties. The celebration of 1899 was no less brilliant than usual, +although many of the Madrid papers spoke bitterly of the shadow that +the disastrous first of May must henceforth cast on the glorious +Second. It is indeed gall and wormwood to all Spain that the Manila +defeat so nearly coincides with the proudest day in Spanish annals. + +The saint of _El Dos de Mayo_ is Saint Revolution, as democratic in +one way as Saint Agriculture in another. When these two patrons of +Madrid understand how to work in fellowship, when there comes a +Government in Spain that cares chiefly to promote the welfare of the +laboring people, the world may discover anew the vitality and noble +quality of this long-suffering nation. + +We saw the _Romeria_ once more, driving through late in the evening, +when the closed booths glimmered white on the silent meadow. + +"Yes, it is all a pack of lies," said a thoughtful Catholic, "but what +is one to do? A man cannot believe in religion--and yet how to live +without it? The more I stay away from mass the more I want and need +it. Think of the comfort these peasants take with their San Isidro!" + +The moonlight shone serene and beautiful on those patched, shabby +tents, transforming them to silver. + + + + +XVI + +THE FUNERAL OF CASTELAR + + "The death of the Republic will be, for you, for us, and for + all, the death of liberty. The death of liberty will be the + death of the Republic, and as liberty is the only thing in the + world that rises from the dead, with liberty shall rise again, + in good time, the Republic."--EMILIO CASTELAR: _Inaugural + Address_, 1873. + + +The present state of Spanish politics was amusingly expounded to me by +a spirited young philosopher of Cadiz. + +"In the north," he said, "the prevailing sentiment is for Don Carlos. +Nocedal is doing all he can to fan it in Andalusia, but it finds its +natural home in the northern provinces. To be sure, there is San +Sebastian, where the Court summers, which consequently upholds the +Queen, and there are Republican groups; but the north of Spain, +broadly speaking, is Carlist. The centre favors the reigning family. +Possession is a strong argument, and the royal forces hold Madrid. +Barcelona is Republican. Those Catalans are always thirsty for a +fight. But the middle tract of Spain, as a whole, accepts the existing +monarchy. Castilians are too gallant to strike against a woman and a +child. The south is Republican. For the best part of the century Cadiz +and Malaga have stood for revolution. Where was the army of Isabel II +defeated? And why has the Queen never seen the Alhambra? + +"But, let me tell you, these Carlists, these Royalists, these +Republicans are all fools. If there is anything hopeless in this +world, it's Spanish politics. All the uproar of the Revolution ended +in murdering our best man and driving out our best king. For myself, I +mean to work hard and marry soon, and have a little Spain in my own +house that shall express my own convictions. My children shall be good +Catholics, but not superstitious bigots. They shall be well educated, +if I have to send them to France or England for it. They shall be +disciplined, but under the law of liberty. And with that I propose to +be content. All my politics are to be kept under my own roof, where I +can work my ideas into permanent form. I am sick of the way in which +Spain boils with ideas that only destroy one another." + +This Sir Oracle was two-and-twenty, with the prettiest of girlish +photographs in his vest pocket, and the smallest of savings in the +bank, but I remembered his words in the days of mourning for Emilio +Castelar. + +The illustrious tribune, heavy-hearted with the troubles of his +country, had gone to the home of friends, at a village in sunny +Murcia, for the rest and comfort that nature always gave him. His +almost boyish optimism, "_nino grande y grande nino_" that he was, had +kept him assured of peace even after the destruction of the _Maine_, +and assured of victory even after the battle of Manila. Hence the +pressure of fact told on him all the more cruelly. "I die a victim of +Spain's agony," he wrote in a personal letter shortly before the end, +and his last article for publication, finished on the day of his +death, a gloomy discussion of the outlook for the Peace Conference, +contains bitter references to the national disasters and to the +ravages of the "criminal troop of pirates in the Philippines." + +He died on Thursday, the twenty-fifth of May, within hearing of the +Mediterranean waves he loved so well, with tender faces bent over him, +and the crucifix at his lips. The news of his death aroused this +grief-weary nation to a fresh outburst of sorrow. Some lamented him as +one of the chief orators of modern Europe, recalling his eloquence in +the tempestuous times of the Revolution, when he "intoned mighty hymns +in praise of liberty, democracy, and the sacred Fatherland!" Some +mourned the patriot, pointing proudly to the honorable poverty in +which this holder of many offices, at one time almost absolute +dictator, had lived and died. Some wept for the cordial, generous, +noble-hearted man, the joy of his friends and idol of his household. +His political sympathizers bewailed the loss of the Spanish apostle of +democracy, the lifelong champion of liberty. And many not of his +following nor of his faith felt that a towering national figure had +disappeared and another glory of Spain vanished away. + +The first wreath received was from a Republican club that sent the +pansies of memory. Among the five hundred telegrams and cablegrams +that arrived within a few hours at the country-seat where he had died +was one from over seas, which read: "To Castelar: In thy death it +seems as if we had lost the last treasure left to us, the voice of the +Spanish race. In thy death Spain has become mute. Yet let me believe +that thou respondest, 'She will speak again.'" + +The coming of the body to the capital was a triumphal progress. A +large escort of friends, who had made speed to Murcia from all parts +of the Peninsula, accompanied it, and there were crowds at the +stations, even in the mid-hours of the night, with tears, handfuls of +roses, wreaths, and poems of farewell. There was often something very +touching about these offerings. At one of the smaller towns a young +girl hastily gathered flowers from the garden attached to the station, +broke off a spray from a blossoming tree, tied these with the bright +ribbon from her hair, and, clambering up, hung this simple nosegay +among the costly tributes that already nearly covered the outer sides +of the funeral car. In another crowded station the village priest came +hurrying forward, bared his head with deepest reverence before the +garlanded coach, as if before the altar, and chanted the prayers for +the dead. Again, a group of workmen, allowed to enter the car, fell on +their knees before the bier and prayed. + +The train was met on its arrival in Madrid by an immense concourse of +people. Senor Silvela and other distinguished representatives of the +Government were there, church dignitaries, presidents of political +societies and literary academies, but, above all, the people. It was +the great, surging multitude that gave the Republican leader his +grandest welcome. + +This poor shell of Castelar, the man said to bear "the soul of a Don +Quixote in the body of a Sancho Panza," lay in state through Sunday +and a part of Monday in the _Palacio del Congreso_. The vestibule had +been converted into a _capilla ardiente_. Masses were chanted +ceaselessly at the two candle-laden altars, the perfume from the ever +increasing heaps of flowers was so oppressive that the guards had to +be relieved at short intervals, and the procession of people that +filed rapidly past the bier, often weeping as they went, reached out +from the Morocco lions of the doorway to the _Prado_ and the Fountain +of Neptune. Many of the humblest clad, waiting half the day in line, +held pinks or lilies, fast withering in the sun, to drop at the feet +of the people's friend. Early on Monday afternoon the doors were +closed, and by half-past three the funeral cortege began to form in +the _Prado_ for its four-hour march by way of the _Calle de Alcala_, +_Puerta del Sol_, _Calle Mayor_, and _Cuesta de la Vega_, to the +cemetery of San Isidro. + +By the never failing Spanish courtesy, I was invited to see the +procession from the balcony of a private house in the _Alcala_. I +found my hostess, a vivacious little old lady, whose daughter had +crowned her with glory and honor by marrying into the nobility, much +perturbed over the failure of the Queen Regent to show sympathy with +the popular grief. + +"There were one hundred and forty-nine wreaths sent in. The very +number shows that the royal wreath was lacking. I am a Conservative, +of course. Canovas was my friend, and has dined here often and often. +You see his portrait there beside that of my daughter, _la Marquesa_. +But Canovas loved Castelar, and would not, like Silvela, have grudged +him the military honors of a national funeral. As if the dead were +Republicans! The dead are Spaniards, and Castelar is a great Spaniard, +as this tremendous throng of people proves. There were not nearly so +many for Canovas, though the aristocracy made an elegant display; +there were not so many for Alfonso XII, though all that Court and +State and army could do was done, and the Queen rode in the splendid +ebony coach in which Juana the Mad used to carry about the body of +that handsome husband of hers. + +"But the people know their losses. Never in my life have I seen the +_Alcala_ so full as this. Silvela has had to give way, and the troops +will come--at least a few of them. But not a word, not a flower, from +the Queen! She sent a magnificent wreath for Canovas, and a beautiful +letter to his widow. But for Castelar, her people's hero, nothing. Ah, +she is not _simpatica_. She does not know her opportunities. She does +not understand the art of winning love. Only a year ago she sent a +wreath to the funeral of Frascuelo, the _torero_. And everybody knows +how she hates the bull-fight. But if she could drop her prejudices +then to be at one with the feeling of her capital, why not now? They +say she has a neuralgic headache to-day. _Ay, Dios mio!_ I should +think she might." + +Listening to this frank chatter and watching that mighty multitude, I +was reminded of one of the Andalusian _coplas_:-- + + "The Republic is dead and gone; + Bury her out of the rain. + But see! There is never a _Panteon_ + Can hold the funeral train." + +And this, in turn, suggested another of those popular refrains:-- + + "The moon is a Republican, + And the sun with open eye; + The earth she is Republican, + And Republican am I." + +But who can understand this ever baffling Spain? After all, what was +the significance of that assembled host? How far was it drawn by +devotion to the man, and how far by devotion to the idea for which he +stood? How far by idle curiosity, by the Spanish passion for pomps and +shows, and, above all, for a crowd, by that strange Spanish delight +in _mucha gente_? So far as eye could tell, this might have been the +merriest of fetes. The wide street was a sea of restless color. +Uniforms, liveries, parasols, hats, frocks, pinafores, kerchiefs, +blouses, sashes, fans, flecked the sunshine with a thousand hues. Here +loitered a messenger boy in vivid scarlet; there passed a waiter with +a silver tray gleaming on his head; here a market woman bent beneath +her burden of russet sacks bursting with greens; there stood a priest +in shovel hat and cassock, smelling a great red rose; here a gallant +in violet cape escorted a lady flaming in saffron; there a beaming old +peasant, with an azure scarf tied over his white head, threw an orange +to attract the attention of a plodding porter, whose forehead was +protected from the cords binding the boxes to his back by several +folds of purplish carpeting. + +Streets and sidewalks, balconies and windows, all were full, and +everywhere such eagerness, such animation, and such stir! The children +sitting on the curbstone rocked their little bodies back and forth in +excitement. Young mothers danced their crying infants, and young +fathers shifted the babies of a size or two larger from one shoulder +to the other. A boy in a red cap climbed a small locust tree, from +whose foliage his head peeped out like an overgrown cherry. The crowd +indignantly called the attention of authority to this violation of the +city laws. A glittering member of the Civil Guard sonorously ordered +the culprit down. The laughing lad refused to budge, inviting this +embarrassed arm of the law to reach up and get him. The Guard darkly +surveyed the slender stem already swaying with the boy's slight +weight. The fickle crowd, whose every face seemed to be upturned +toward that defiant cherry, cheered the rebel and tossed him +cigarettes and matches, wherewith he proceeded to enjoy a smoke. The +Guard caught a few cigarettes in mid-career, pocketed them, smiled +benevolently, and walked away. The lad saucily saluted, and the +multitude, suddenly impartial, pelted them both with peanuts. + +Thus it was that the Madrid populace awaited the last coming of +Castelar. Even when the funeral train was passing, the crowd showed +scant respect. Not half the men uncovered for the bier, although I was +glad to see the cherry cap whisked off. And one picturesque gentleman +stood throughout with his back to the procession, making eyes at his +novia in the gallery above our own. + +The Government, which had finally assumed the charges and care of the +obsequies, had been remiss in not providing lines of soldiers to hold +an open way for the cortege. As it was, the procession could hardly +struggle through the mass of humanity that choked the street. A +solitary rider, mounted, like Death, on a white horse, went in +advance, threatening the people with his sword. A division of the +Civil Guard followed, erect and magnificent as ever, their gold bands +glittering across their breasts, but their utmost efforts could not +effectually beat back the crowd. Men scoffed at the drawn blades and +pushed against the horses with both hands. The empty "coach of +respect," black as night, its sable horses tossing high white plumes, +pressed after, and then came some half dozen carriages overflowing +with wreaths and palms, and all that wealth of floral gifts. The crowd +caught at the floating purple ribbons, and called aloud the names +upon the cards; a monster design, with velvet canopy, from the +well-known daily, _El Liberal_, a beautiful crown from the widow of +Canovas, and, later in the procession, alone upon the coffin, a +nosegay of roses and lilies, brought in the morning by a child of +four, a little "daughter of the people," and bearing the roughly +written words, "Glory to Castelar!--A workingman." + +The train of mourners, impeded as it was by the multitude, seemed +endless. After the representatives of certain charities there walked, +in gala uniform, white-headed veterans of war. A great company of +students followed, their young faces serious and calm in that tempting +hurly-burly of the street, and after them an overwhelming throng of +delegates from all manner of commercial and craft unions. Even the +press wondered that Castelar's death should move so profoundly the +trading and laboring classes, almost every store and workshop in +Madrid closing for the afternoon. Then came the Republican committees, +and behind them the representatives of countless literary, scientific, +and artistic associations. + +At this point in the procession a place had been made for all or any +who might wish, as individuals, to follow Castelar to the tomb. Some +fifteen hundred had availed themselves of the opportunity--a motley +fellowship. The gentlemen preceding, those who had come as delegates +from the industrial and learned bodies of all Spain, wore almost +without exception the correct black coat and tall silk hat, and paced, +when they could, with a steady dignity, or halted, when they must, +with a grave patience, that did more to quiet the unruly host of +spectators than all the angry charges of the police. But the fifteen +hundred showed the popular variety of costume--capes and blouses, +broad white hats and the artisan's colored cap. Some of them were +smoking, an indecorum which, by a self-denial that counts for much +with Spaniards, nowhere else appeared in the long array. + +But whatever might be the deficiencies of dress or bearing, here, one +felt, was the genuine sorrow, here were the men who believed in +Castelar and longed to do him honor. The impulsive onlookers responded +to this impression, and more than one rude fellow, who had been +skylarking a minute before, elbowed his way into the troop and fell +soberly into such step as there was. Music would have worked wonders +with that disorderly scene, but the bugles and cornets were all in the +far rear. The representatives of the provinces, as they struggled by, +were hailed with jokes and personalities. The chanting group of +clergy, uplifting the same ebony cross that they had borne for +Canovas, did not entirely hush the crowd, nor did even the +black-plumed hearse itself, with its solemn burden. For close after +came, bearing tapers, a group of political note, closed by Sagasta and +Campos, and then the chiefs of army and navy, including Blanco and +Weyler. Behind these walked the city fathers, the senators, the +diplomats, ex-ministers,--among them Romero, Robledo,--then the +archbishop, and, finally, Silvela, with his colleagues. + +The procession was closed by a military display and a line of empty +coaches, sent, according to Spanish custom, as a mark of respect. The +coach sent by Congress, a patriotic blaze of red and yellow, with +coachman and footman in red coats and yellow trousers, and horses +decked with red and yellow plumes, looked as if it had started for the +circus and had missed its way. + + [Illustration: AN OLD-FASHIONED BULL-FIGHT] + +The sight of the politicians seemed to serve as spark to the +Republican fuel. Even while the hearse was passing somebody shouted, +"Long live Castelar!" but the crowd corrected the cry to "Long live +the glorious memory of Castelar!" Then came a heterogeneous uproar: +"Death to the friars!" "Long live the Republican Union!" "Down with +Reaction!" "Down with the Jesuits!" "Down with Polavieja!" "Down with +the Government!" "Up with the Republic!" "Long live Spain!" "Long live +the army!" "Long live Weyler!" + +A woman was run over in the confusion and a man was trampled, but the +procession, aided as much as possible by the Civil Guards and the +police, slowly worked its way through the _Alcala_ to the _Puerta del +Sol_, where the people poured upon it like an avalanche, with ever +louder cries against ministry and clergy, until the scene in front of +the Government Building suggested something very like a mob. Silvela +bore his silvered head erect and exerted a prudent forbearance. But +few arrests were made, and the military force that sallied out from +the Government Building merely stood in the gates to awe the rioters. +After an hour and a quarter the transit of the square was effected. +The disturbances were renewed in the _Calle Mayor_ with such violence +that the ministers were advised to withdraw, but they only entered the +funeral coaches, and, the Guards exerting themselves to the utmost, a +degree of order was at last secured. While the cortege was descending +the difficult hill of La Vega, the Queen, standing in one of the +palace balconies, opera glass in hand, sent a messenger for a report +of the state of affairs in her capital, and was visited and reassured +by a member of the Government. + +After this stormy journey the cemetery of San Isidro was reached at +nightfall, and the silent orator laid to rest in the patio of _Santa +Maria de la Cabeza_, beside his beloved sister, Concha Castelar. Even +here Republican _vivas_ were raised, and again, later in the evening, +before the house of Weyler, who appeared upon the balcony in answer to +repeated calls. This general, more popular with Spaniards than with +us, discreetly absented himself on Tuesday from the high mass chanted +for Castelar in the Church of _San Francisco el Grande_, where there +was an imposing display of uniforms and decorations. + +While the people still talked of their lost leader and proposed +monuments and medals in his honor, the Government held firmly on its +course. The Royal Progress for the opening of the Cortes on the +following Friday was a suggestive contrast to the procession of +Monday. Soldiers lined the curbstones all the way from the Royal +Palace to the Congress Hall, bands were posted at intervals, the royal +escort, splendidly mounted and equipped, was in itself a formidable +force, while additional troops, in gala dress, paraded all the city. +The balconies along the royal route were handsomely draped, but the +people looked on at the gorgeous array of coaches, gilded and +emblazoned, each drawn by six or eight choice horses, with sumptuous +plumes and trappings, and attended by a story-book pomp of quaintly +attired postilions, coachmen, and outriders, in a silence that was +variously explained to me as indicating respect, hostility, +indifference. + +I heard no _vivas_ and saw no hats raised even for the affable Infanta +Isabel, riding alone in the tortoise-shell carriage, nor for the +Princess of Asturias, girlishly attractive in rose color and white, +nor for the bright-faced young King, ready with his military salute as +he passed the foreign embassies, nor for the stately Regent, robed as +richly as if she were on her way to read a gladder message than that +which the opposition journals indignantly declared "no message, but a +pious prayer of resignation." + +And while Madrid jarred and wrangled, the flowers brought by the +little daughter of the workingman drooped on the marble slab above +Castelar's repose. + + + + +XVII + +THE IMMEMORIAL FASHION + + "For as many auchours affirme (and mannes accions declare) + that man is but his mynde; so it is to bee daily tride, that + the bodie is but a mixture of compoundes, knitte together like + a fardell of fleashe, and bondell of bones, and united as a + heavie lumpe of Leade (without the mynde) in the sillie + substance of a shadowe."--THOMAS CHURCHILL, GENTLEMAN. + + +My Spanish hostess, brightest and prettiest of little ladies despite +the weight of sorrow upon sorrow, came tripping into my room one +afternoon with her black eyes starry bright under the lace mantilla. + +"And where have you been to get so nicely rested?" + +"To a _duelo_." + +I turned the word over in my mind. _Duelo?_ Surely that must mean the +mourning at a house of death, when the men have gone forth to church +and the burial, and the women remain behind to weep together, or one +of those tearful _At Homes_ kept, day after day, until the mass, by +the ladies of the afflicted household for their condoling friends. But +such a smiling little senora! I hardly knew what degree of sympathy +befitted the occasion. + +"Were you acquainted with the--the person?" + +"No, I had never seen him. He had been an officer in the Philippines +many years, and came home very ill, fifteen days since. I wept +because I knew his mother, but I wept much. Women, at least here in +Spain, have always cause enough for tears. I thought of my own +matters, and had a long, long cry. That is why I feel better. There is +so little time to cry at home. I must see about the dinner now." + +And she rustled out again, leaving me to meditate on Spanish +originality, even in grief. + +In any country the usages of death are no less significant than the +usages of life. That grim necropolis of Glasgow, with its few shy +gowans under its lowering sky, those tender, turf-folded, +church-shadowed graveyards of rural England, those trains of mourners, +men by themselves and women by themselves, walking behind the bier in +mid-street through the mud and rain of wintry Paris to the bedizened +Pere Lachaise or Montparnasse--such sights interpret a nation as truly +as its art and history; but the burial customs of Spain, especially +distinctive, are, like most things Spanish, contradictory and baffling +to the tourist view. "La Tierra de Vice Versa" is not a country that +he who runs may read. + +The popular verses and maxims treat of death with due Castilian +solemnity and an always unflinching, if often ironic, recognition of +the mortal fact. "When the house is finished," says the proverb, "the +hearse is at the door." Yet this Spanish hearse is one of the gayest +vehicles since Cinderella's coach. If the groundwork is black, there +is abundant relief in mountings of brilliant yellow, but the funeral +carriage is often cream-white, flourished over with fantastic designs +in the bluest of blue or the pinkest of pink. Coffins, too, may be +gaudy as candy-boxes. The first coffin we saw in Spain was bright +lilac, a baby's casket, placed on gilt trestles in the centre of a +great chill church, with chanting priests sprinkling holy water about +it to frighten off the demons, and a crowd of black-bearded men +waiting to follow it to the grave. Such a little coffin and not a +woman near! The poor mother was decently at home, weeping in the midst +of a circle of relatives and neighbors, and counting it among her +comforts that the family had so many masculine friends to walk in the +funeral procession and show sympathy with the household grief. There +would be, on the ninth day after and, for several years to come, on +the anniversary of the death, as many masses as could be afforded said +in the parish church, when, again, the friends would make it a point +of duty to attend. + +The daily papers abound in these notices, printed in a variety of +types, so as to cover from two to ten square inches, heavily bordered +with black, and surmounted, in case of adults, with crosses, and with +cherubs' heads for children. I take up a copy of _La Epocha_ and read +the following, under a cross: "Third Anniversary. Senorita Dona +Francisca Fulana y Tal died the twenty-sixth of June, 1896, at +twenty-one years of age. R. I. P. Her disconsolate mother and the rest +of the family ask their friends and all pious persons to be so good as +to commend her to God. All the masses celebrated to-morrow morning in +the Church of San Pascual will be applied to the everlasting rest of +the soul of the said senorita. Indulgences are granted in the usual +form." It is the third anniversary, too, of a titled lady, whose +"husband, brothers, brothers-in-law, nephews, uncles, cousins, and all +who inherit under her will" have ordered masses in two churches for +the entire day to-morrow, and announce, moreover, that the +ecclesiastical authorities grant "one hundred and forty days of +indulgence to all the faithful for each mass that they hear, sacred +communion that they devote, or portion of a rosary that they pray for +the soul of this most noble lady." + +In the case of another lady of high degree, who died yesterday, +"having received the Blessed Sacraments and the benediction of his +Holiness," the Nuncio concedes one hundred days of indulgence, the +Archbishop of Burgos eighty, and the Bishops of Madrid, Alcala, +Cartagena, Leon, and Santander forty each; while a marquis who died a +year ago, "Knight of the Illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece," is +to have masses said for his soul in seven churches, not only all +through to-morrow, but for the two days following. + +May all these rest in peace, and all who mourn for them be comforted! +Yet thought drifts away to the poor and lowly, whose grief cannot find +solace in procuring this costly intercession of the Church for the +souls they love. It seems hard that the inequalities of life should +thus reach out into death and purgatory. We used, during our sojourn +in Granada, to meet many pathetic little processions on "The Way of +the Dead." Over this hollow road, almost a ravine, the fortress walls, +with their crumbling towers, keep guard on the one side, and the +terraced gardens of the _Generalife_, with their grand old cypresses, +on the other. And here, almost every hour of the day, is climbing a +company of four rough men, carrying on their shoulders a cheap coffin, +which perhaps a husband follows, or a white-haired father, or, hand in +hand, bewildered orphan boys. The road is so steep that often the +bearers set their burden down in the shadow of the bank-side, and +fling themselves at full length on the ground beside it, thriftily +passing from man to man the slow-burning wax match for their paper +cigarettes. I remember more than one such smoking group, with a +solitary mourner, hat in hand and eyes on the coffin, yet he, too, +with cigarette in mouth, standing patiently by. All who pass make the +sign of the cross, and even the rudest peasant uncovers his head. Very +shortly the bearers may be seen again, coming down the hill at a merry +pace, the empty box, with its loose, rattling lid, tilted over the +shoulder now of one, now of another; for the children of poverty, who +had not chambers of their own nor the dignity of solitude in life, lie +huddled in a common pit after death, without coffin-planks to sever +dust from dust. + +A century ago it was usual to robe the dead in monastic garb, +especially in the habit of St. Francis or of the Virgin of Carmen, and +within the present generation bodies were borne to the grave on open +biers, the bystanders saluting, and bidding them farewell and quiet +rest:-- + + "'Duerme in paz!' dicen los buenos. + 'Adios!' dicen los demas." + +But now the closed coffin of many colors is in vogue. In the Santiago +market we met a cheerful dame with one of these balanced on her head, +crying for a purchaser, and up the broad flights of steps to the +Bilbao cemetery we saw a stolid-faced young peasant-woman swinging +along with a child's white coffin, apparently heavy with the weight of +death, poised on the glossy black coils of hair, about which she had +twisted a carmine handkerchief. + +Very strange is the look of a Spanish cemetery, with its ranges of +high, deep walls, wherein the coffins are thrust end-wise, each above +each, to the altitude of perhaps a dozen layers. These cells are +sometimes purchased outright, sometimes rented for ten years, or five, +or one. When the friends of the quiet tenant pay his dues no longer, +forth he goes to the general ditch, _osario comun_, and leaves his +room for another. Such wall graves are characteristically Spanish, +this mode of burial in the Peninsula being of long antiquity. Yet the +rich prefer their own pantheons, sculptured like little chapels, or +their own vaults, over which rise tall marbles of every device, the +shaft, the pyramid, the broken column; while a poor family, or two or +three neighboring households, often make shift to pay for one large +earth grave, in which their dead may at least find themselves among +kith and kin. Spanish cemeteries are truly silent cities, with streets +upon streets enclosed between these solemn walls, which open out, at +intervals, now for the ornamented patios of the rich, now for the +dreary squares peopled by the poor. Here in a most aristocratic +quarter, shaded by willows, set with marbles, paved with flower beds, +sleeps a duke in stately pantheon, which is carved all over with +angels, texts, and sacred symbols, still leaving room for medallions +boasting his ancestral dignities. A double row of lamps, with gilded, +fantastically moulded stands, and with dangling crystals of all +colors, leads to the massive iron door. What enemy has he now to guard +against with that array of bolts and bars? Here are a poet's palms +petrified to granite, and here a monument all muffled in fresh +flowers. Here the magnificent bronze figure of a knight, with sword +half drawn, keeps watch beside a tomb, while the grave beyond a rose +bush guards as well. And here an imaged Sandalphon holds out open +hands, this legend written across his marble scarf, "The tear falleth; +the flower fadeth; but God treasureth the prayer." + +There is a certain high-bred reserve about these costly sepulchres, +but turning to the walls one comes so face to face with grief as to +experience a sense of intrusion. Each cell shows on its sealed door of +slate or other stone the name and age of its occupant, and perhaps a +sentiment, lettered in gilt or black, as these: "We bear our loss--God +knows how heavily." "Son of my soul." "For thee, that land of larger +love; for me, until I find thee there, only the valley of sorrow and +the hard hill of hope." + +Most of the cells have, too, a glassed or grated recess in front of +this inscription wall, holding tributes or memorials--dried flowers, +colored images of saints and angels, crucifixes, and the like. +Sometimes the resurrection symbol of the butterfly appears. In the +little cemetery at Vigo we noticed that the flower-vases were in form +of great blue butterflies with scarlet splashes on their wings. +Sometimes there are locks of hair, personal trinkets, and often card +or cabinet photographs, whose living look startles the beholder. Out +from a wreath of yellow immortelles peeps the plump smile of an old +gentleman in modern dress coat; a coquettish lady in tiara and +earrings laughs from behind her fan; and a grove of paper shrubbery, +where tissue fairies dressed in rose petals dance on the blossoms, +half hides the eager face of a Spanish midshipman. Where the +photographs have faded and dimmed with time, the effect is less +incongruous, if not less pathetic. + +The niches of children contain the gayest possible little figures. +Here are china angels in blue frocks, with pink sleeves and saffron +pantalets, pink-tipped plumes, and even pink bows in their goldy hair. +Here is a company of tiny Hamlets, quaint dollikins set up in a circle +about a small green grave, each with finger on lip, "The rest is +silence." Here are two elegant and lazy cherubs, their alabaster +chubbiness comfortably bestowed in toy chairs of crimson velvet on +each side of an ivory crucifix. And here is a Bethlehem, and here a +Calvary, and here the Good Shepherd bearing the lamb in His bosom; and +here, in simple, but artistic wood carving, the Christ with open arms, +calling to a child on sick-bed to come unto Him, while the mother, +prostrate before the holy feet, kisses their shadow. One cannot look +for long. It is well to lift the eyes from the niche graves of Granada +to the glory of the Sierra Nevada that soars beyond, and turn from the +patios of San Isidro to the cheerful picture of Madrid across the +Manzanares, even though, prominent in the vista, rises the cupola of +_San Francisco el Grande_. This is the National Pantheon, and within, +beneath the frescoed dome, all aglow with blue and gold, masses are +chanted for the dead whom Spain decrees to honor, as, so recently, for +Castelar. + +Near this church a viaduct, seventy-five feet high, crosses the _Calle +de Segovia_; and, despite the tall crooked railings and a constant +police patrol, Madrilenos bent on suicide often succeed in leaping +over and bruising out their breath on the stones of the street below. +It is a desperate exit. The Seine and Thames lure their daily victims +with murmuring sound and the soft, enfolding look of water, but +Spaniards who spring from this fatal viaduct see beneath them only the +cruel pavement. That life should be harder than stone! And yet the +best vigilance of Madrid cannot prevent fresh bloodstains on the +_Calle de Segovia_. + +Near the cemetery of San Isidro, across the Manzanares, are two other +large Catholic burial grounds, and the _Cementerio Ingles_. + +"But murderers, atheists, and Protestants are buried way off in the +east," said the pretty Spanish girl beside me. + +"Oh, let's go there!" I responded, with heretic enthusiasm; but I had +reckoned without the cabman, who promptly and emphatically protested. + +"That's not a pleasant place for ladies to see. You would better drive +in the _Prado_ and _Recoletos_, or in the _Buen Retiro_." + +We told him laughingly that he was speaking against his own interests, +for the Civil Cemetery was much farther off than the parks. He +consulted his dignity and decided to laugh in return. + +"It is not of the _pesetas_ I think first when I am driving ladies. +But" (with suave indulgence) "you shall go just where you like." + +So in kindness he gathered up his reins and away we clattered sheer +across the city. Presently we had left the fountain-cooled squares and +animated streets behind, had passed even the ugly, sinister _Plaza de +Toros_, and outstripped the trolley track; but still the road +stretched on, enlivened only by herds of goats and an occasional +_venta_, where drivers of mule trains were pausing to wet their dusty +throats. We met few vehicles now save the gay-colored hearses, and few +people except groups of returning mourners, walking in bewildered +wise, with stumbling feet. + +"The Cemetery of the Poor is opposite the Civil Cemetery," said our +cabman, "and they have from thirty to fifty burials a day. The keeper +is a friend of mine. He shall show you all about." + +A bare Castilian ridge rose before us, where a farmer, leaning on his +scythe, was outlined against the sky like a silhouette of Death. And +at last our cheery driver, humming bars from a popular light opera, +checked his mettlesome old mare,--who plunged down hills and scrambled +up as if she were running away from the bull-ring, where she must soon +fulfil her martyrdom,--between two dismal graveyards. From the larger, +on our right, tiptoed out a furtive man and peered into the cab as if +he thought we had a coffin under the seat. + +He proved a blood-curdling conductor, always speaking in a hoarse +whisper and glancing over his shoulder in a way to make the stoutest +nerves feel ghosts, but he showed us, under that sunset sky, memorable +sights--ranks upon ranks of gritty mounds marked with black, wooden +crosses, a scanty grace for which the living often pay the price of +their own bread that the dead they love may pass a year or two out of +that hideous general fosse. Then the sexton reluctantly led us to the +unblessed, untended hollow across the way, where rows of brick +sepulchres await the poor babies who die before the holy water touches +them, where recumbent marbles press upon the dead who knew no upward +reach of hope, and where defiant monuments, erected by popular +subscription and often bearing the blazonry of a giant quill, denote +the resting-places of freethinkers and the agitators of new ideas. +There were some Christian inscriptions, whether for Protestants or not +I do not know, but to my two companions there was no distinction of +persons in this unhallowed limbo. + +Our dusty guide led us hurriedly from plot to plot. + +"They say the mothers cheat the priests, and there are babies over +yonder that ought to be here, for the breath was out of them before +ever they were baptized. They say the priests had this man done to +death one night, because he wrote against religion. He was only +twenty-two. The club he belonged to put up that stone. They say there +are evil words on it. But I don't know myself. I can't read, thanks to +God. They say it was through reading and writing that most of these +came here." + +"But those are not evil words," I answered. "They are, 'Believe in +Jesus and thou shalt be saved.'" + +He hastily crossed himself, "Do me the favor not to read such words +out loud. Here is another, where they say the words are words of +hell." + +I held my peace this time, musing on that broad marble with its one +deep-cut line, "The Death of God." + +"And over there," he croaked, pointing with his clay-colored thumb, +"is _Whiskers_." + +The senorita, whose black eyes had been getting larger and larger, +gave a little scream and fairly ran for the gate. + +Spaniards have usually great sympathy for criminals, newspaper +accounts of executions often closing with an entreaty for God's mercy +on "this poor man's soul," but _Whiskers_, the Madrid sensation of a +fortnight since, was a threefold murderer. Passion-mad, he had shot +dead in the open street a neighbor's youthful wife, held the public at +bay with his revolver, and mortally wounded two Civil Guards, before +he turned the fatal barrel on himself. + +"His family wanted him laid over the way," continued that scared +undertone at my ear, "but the bishop said no. A murderer like that was +just as bad as infidels and Protestants, and should be buried out of +grace." + +I felt as if Superstition incarnate were walking by my side, and after +one more look at that strangely peopled patch of unconsecrated ground, +with its few untrimmed cypresses and straggling rose bushes, hillside +slopes about and glory-flooded skies above, I gave Superstition a +_peseta_, which he devoutly kissed, and returned to the cab, followed +by the carol of a solitary bird. + +I remember a similar experience in Cadiz. I had driven out with one of +my Spanish hostesses to the large seaside cemetery, a mile beyond the +gate. This is arranged in nine successive patios, planted with palms +and cypresses. In the niches, seashells play a prominent part. The +little angel images, as gay as ever, with their pink girdles and their +purple wings, may be seen swinging in shells, sleeping in shells, and +balancing on the edge of shells to play their golden flutes. Near by +is an English and German cemetery, with green-turfed mounds and a +profusion of blossoming shrubs and flower beds. Not sure of the +direction, as we were leaving the Catholic enclosure I asked a +bandy-legged, leather-visaged old sexton, who might have been the very +one that dug Ophelia's grave, if the "Protestant cemetery" was at our +right. He laid down his mattock, peered about among the mausolea to +see if we were quite alone, winked prodigiously, and, drawing a bunch +of keys from the folds of his black sash, started briskly down a +by-path and signed to us to follow. He led us through stony passages +out beyond the sanctified ground into a dreary, oblong space, a patch +of weeds and sand, enclosed by the lofty sepulchral walls, but with a +blessed strip of blue sky overhead. + +"Here they are!" he chuckled. "They wouldn't confess, they died +without the sacraments, and here they are." + +Some names lettered on the wall seemed to be those of Dutch and +Norwegian sailors, who had perhaps died friendless in this foreign +port. There were pebble-strewn graves of Jews, and upright marbles +from which the dead still seemed to utter voice: "I refuse the prayers +of all the saints, and ask the prayers of honest human souls. I +believe in God." And another, "God is knowledge." And another, "God is +All that works for Wisdom and for Love." + +"Are there burial services for these?" I inquired. + +If the Church of England could have seen that crooked old sexton go +through his gleeful pantomime! + +"There's one that comes with some, and they call him Pastor! And he +scrapes up a handful of dirt--so! And he flings it at the coffin--so! +And then he stands up straight and says, 'Dust to dust!' I've heard +him say it myself." + +"God of my soul!" cried the Spanish lady in horror, and to express her +detestation of such a heathenish rite, she spat upon the ground. + +The monarchs of Spain do not mingle their ashes. Who knows where +Roderick sleeps? Or does that deathless culprit still lurk in mountain +caverns, as tradition has it, wringing his wasted hands and tearing +his white beard in unavailing penitence? The "Catholic kings," +Ferdinand and Isabella, lie, not where they had planned, in that +beautiful Gothic church of Toledo, _San Juan de los Reyes_, on whose +outer walls yet hang the Moorish chains struck from the limbs of +Christian captives, but in Granada, the city of their conquest, where +they slumber proudly, although their coffins are of plainest lead and +their last royal chamber a small and dusky vault. Pedro the Cruel is +thrust away in a narrow wall-grave beneath the _Capilla Real_ of +Seville cathedral. His brother, the Master of Santiago, whom he +treacherously slew in one of the loveliest halls of the Alcazar, is +packed closely in on his left, and Maria de Padilla, for whose sake he +cut short the hapless life of Queen Blanche, on his right. Pleasant +family discussions they must have at the witching hour of night, when +they drag their numb bones out of those pigeon-holes for a brief +respite of elbow room! San Fernando, the Castilian conqueror of +Castile, canonized "because he carried fagots with his own hands for +the burning of heretics," is more commodiously accommodated in a +silver sarcophagus in the chapel above, where Alfonso the Learned also +has long leisure for thought. Another Alfonso and another Fernando, +with another wife of Pedro the Cruel, keep their state in Santiago de +Compostela, and still another Alfonso and two Sanchos have their +splendid tombs in the _Capilla Mayor_ of Toledo cathedral, while in +its _Capilla de los Reyes Nuevos_, a line descended from that brother +whom Pedro murdered, sleeps the first John, with the second and third +Henrys. + + [Illustration: BULL-FIGHT OF TO-DAY] + +Cordova cathedral, although this lovely mosque recks little of +Christian majesties, has the ordinary equipment of an Alfonso and a +Fernando, and the Royal Monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos shelters +Alfonso VIII, with his queen, Eleanor of England. In less noted +churches, one continually chances on them, _rey_ or _reina_, _infante_ +or _infanta_, dreaming the centuries away in rich recesses of fretted +marble and alabaster, with the shadow of great arches over them and +the deep-voiced chant around. + +But since Philip II created, in his own sombre likeness, the monastery +of the Escorial, rising in angular austerity from a spur of the bleak +Guadarrama Mountains, the royal houses of Austria and Bourbon have +sought burial there. The first and chief in the dank series of +sepulchral vaults, the celebrated _Panteon de los Reyes_, is an +octagon of black marble, placed precisely under the high altar, and +gloomily magnificent with jasper, porphyry, and gold. It has an altar +of its own, on whose left are three recesses, each with four long +shelves placed one above another for the sarcophagi of the kings of +Spain, and on whose right are corresponding recesses for the queens. +As the guide holds his torch, we read the successive names of the +great Charles I, founder of the Austrian line; the three Philips, in +whom his genius dwindled more and more; and the half-witted Charles +II, in whom it ignobly perished. The coffin lid of Charles I has twice +been lifted, once as late as 1871, in compliment to the visiting +Emperor of Brazil, and even then that imperial body lay intact, with +blackened face and open, staring eyes. The gilded bronze coffin of +Philip II was brought to his bedside for his inspection in his last +hour of life. After a critical survey he ordered a white satin lining +and more gilt nails--a remarkable sense of detail in a man who had +sent some ten thousand heretics to the torture. + +Looking for the Bourbons, we miss the first of them all, the +melancholy Philip V, who would not lay him down among these Austrians, +but sleeps with his second queen, the strong-willed Elizabeth +Farnese, in his cloudy retreat of San Ildefonso, within hearing of the +fountains of La Granja. His eldest son, Luis the Well-Beloved, who +died after a reign of seven months, rests here in the Escorial, but +Fernando VI, also the son of Philip's first queen--that gallant little +Savoyarde who died so young--was buried in Madrid. Charles III, best +and greatest of the Spanish Bourbons, is here, the weak Charles IV, +Fernando VII, "The Desired" and the Disgraceful, and Alfonso XII, +while a stately sarcophagus is already reserved for Alfonso XIII. + +To the cold society of these five Austrian and five Bourbon sovereigns +are admitted nine royal ladies. Of these, the first three are in good +and regular standing--the queen of Charles I and mother of Philip II, +the fourth queen of Philip II and mother of Philip III, the queen of +Philip III and mother of Philip IV. But here is an intruder. Philip +IV, who had an especial liking for this grewsome vault, and used often +to clamber into his own niche to hear mass, insisted on having both +his French and Austrian queens interred here, although the first, +Isabel of Bourbon, is not the mother of a Spanish king, the promising +little Baltasar having died in boyhood. The brave girl-queen of Philip +V is here, in double right as mother both of Luis and Fernando VI, and +here is the wife of Charles III and mother of Charles IV. But of sorry +repute are the last two queens, the wife of Charles IV and mother of +Fernando VII, she who came hurrying down those slippery marble stairs +in feverish delirium to scratch _Luisa_ with scissors on her selected +coffin, and this other, Maria Cristina, wife of Fernando VII and +mother of the dethroned Isabel, a daughter who did not mend the story. +It will not be long before she returns from her French exile to enter +into possession of the sarcophagus that expects her here, even as +another sumptuous coffin awaits the present regent. Pity it is for +Isabel, whose name is still a byword in the Madrid cafes! But she +always enjoyed hearing midnight mass in this dim and dreadful crypt, +and will doubtless be glad to come back to her ancestors, such as they +were, and take up her royal residence with them in "dust of human +nullity and ashes of mortality." + + + + +XVIII + +CORPUS CHRISTI IN TOLEDO + + "A blackened ruin, lonely and forsaken, + Already wrapt in winding-sheets of sand, + So lies Toledo till the dead awaken, + A royal spoil of Time's resistless hand." + --ZORRILLA: _Toledo_. + + +In the thirteenth century the doctrine of transubstantiation assumed +especial importance. Miracle plays and cathedral glass told thrilling +stories of attacks made by Jews on the sacred Wafer, which bled under +their poniards or sprang from their caldrons and ovens in complete +figure of the Christ. The festival of Corpus Christi, then established +by Rome, was devoutly accepted in Spain and used to be celebrated with +supreme magnificence in Madrid. Early in the reign of Philip IV, +Prince Charles of England, who, with the adventurous Buckingham, had +come in romantic fashion to the Spanish capital, hoping to carry by +storm the heart of the Infanta, stood for hours in a balcony of the +Alcazar, gazing silently on the glittering procession. How they swept +by through the herb-strewn, tapestried streets--musicians, +standard-bearers, cross-bearers, files of orphans from the asylums, +six and thirty religious brotherhoods, monks of all the orders, +barefoot friars, ranks of secular clergy and brothers of charity, the +proud military orders of Alcantara, Calatrava, and Santiago, the +Councils of the Indies, of Aragon, of Portugal, the Supreme Council of +Castile, the City Fathers of Madrid, the Governmental Ministers of +Spain and Spanish Italy, the Tribunal of the Holy Office, preceded by +a long array of cloaked and hooded Familiars, bishops upon bishops in +splendid, gold-enwoven vestments, priests of the royal chapel +displaying the royal banner, bearers of the crosier and the +sacramental vessels, the Archbishop of Santiago, royal chaplains and +royal majordomos, royal pages with tall wax tapers, incense burners, +the canopied mystery of the Eucharist, the king, the prince, +cardinals, nuncio, the inquisitor general, the Catholic ambassadors, +the patriarch of the Indies, the all-powerful Count-Duke Olivares, +grandees, lesser nobility, gentlemen, and a display of Spanish and +German troops, closed by a great company of archers. So overwhelming +was that solemn progress, with its brilliant variety of sacerdotal +vestments, knightly habits, robes of state and military trappings, its +maces, standards, crosses, the flash of steel, gold, jewels, and +finally the sheen of candles, the clouds of incense, the tinkling of +silver bells before the _Santisimo Corpus_, that the heretic prince +and his reckless companion fell to their knees. One Spanish author +pauses to remark that for these, who could even then reject the open +arms of the Mother Church, the assassin's blow and the Whitehall block +were naturally waiting. + +Such a pomp would have been worth the seeing, but we had arrived at +Madrid almost three centuries too late. Catholic friends shrugged +shoulder at mention of the Corpus procession, "_Vale poco._" And as +for the famous _autos sacramentales_, which used to be celebrated at +various times during the eight days of the Corpus solemnity, they may +be read in musty volumes, but can be seen in the city squares no more. +Calderon is said to have written the trifling number of seventy-two, +and Lope de Vega, whose fingers must have been tipped with pens, some +four hundred. + +If only our train, which then would not have been a train, had brought +us, who then would not have come, to Madrid in season for a Corpus +celebration under the Austrian dynasty, we could have attended an +open-air theatre of a very curious sort. All the way to the _Plaza_, +we would have seen festivity at its height, pantomimic dances, merry +music, struttings of giants and antics of dwarfs, and perhaps groups +of boys insulting cheap effigies of snakes, modelled after the +monstrous _Tarasca_, carried in the Corpus parade in token of Christ's +victory over the Devil. At intervals along the route, adorned with +flowers and draperies, and reserved for the procession and the +dramatic cars, would have been altars hung with rich stuffs from the +Alcazar and the aristocratic palaces; silks and cloth of gold, +brocades, velvets, and shimmering wefts of the Indies. The one-act +play itself might be after the general fashion of the mediaeval +Miracles,--verse dialogue, tuned to piety with chords of fun, for the +setting forth of Biblical stories. Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Moses +feeding the Israelites with manna, the patience of Job, the trials of +Joseph, David, and Daniel, were thus represented. + +More frequently, the _auto sacramental_ belonged to the so-called +Morality type of early Christian drama, being an allegorical +presentation of human experience or exposition of church doctrine. +Such were "The Fountain of Grace," "The Journey of the Soul," "The +Dance of Death," "The Pilgrim." Sometimes a Gospel parable, as the +"Lost Sheep" or the "Prodigal Son," gave the dramatic suggestion. But +these Spanish spectacles sought to associate themselves, as closely as +might be, with the Corpus worship, and many of them bear directly, in +one way or another, upon this sacrament. + +If, for instance, we had chanced on the Madrid festival in 1681, we +could have witnessed in the decorated _Plaza_, with its thronged +balconies, the entrance of four scenic platforms or cars. The first, +painted over with battles, bears a Gothic castle; the second, with +pictures of the sea, a gallant ship; the third, a starry globe; the +fourth, a grove and garden, whose central fountain is so shaped as to +form, above, the semblance of an altar. In the complicated action of +the play, when the Soul, besieged in her fortress by the Devil, whose +allies are the World and the Flesh, calls upon Christ for succor, the +hollow sphere of the third car opens, revealing the Lord enthroned in +glory amid cherubim and seraphim; but the climax of the triumph is not +yet. That stout old general, the Devil, rallies fresh forces to the +attack, such subtle foes as Atheism, Judaism, and Apostasy, and +whereas, before, the Senses bore the brunt of the conflict, it is the +Understanding that girds on armor now. Yet in the final outcome not +the Understanding, but Faith draws the veil from before the altar of +the fourth car, and there, in the consecrated vessel for the holding +of the Wafer, appears the "Passion Child," the white bread from +Heaven, "very flesh and very blood that are the price of the soul's +salvation." + +That is the way Spain kept her Corpus _fiesta_ in the good old times +of Charles the Bewitched; but not now. After the procession, the +bull-fight; and after the bull-fight, the latest vaudeville or ballet. +Last year it rained on Corpus Thursday, which fell on the first of +June, and Madrid gave up the procession altogether. Some of the +Opposition papers started the cry that this was shockingly irreligious +in Silvela, but when the Government organs haughtily explained that it +was the decision of the archbishop and Senor Silvela was not even +consulted, the righteous indignation of the Liberals straightway +subsided. The procession, which was to have been a matter of +kettledrums and clarionets, soldiery, "coaches of respect" from the +palace and the city corporation, and a full showing of the parochial +clergy, did not seem to be missed by the people. Corpus has long +ceased to be a chief event in the Capital. + +There are a few cities in Spain, however, where the Corpus fete is +maintained with something of the old gayety and splendor. Bustling +Barcelona, never too busy for a frolic, keeps it merrily with an +elaborate parade from the cathedral all about the city, +and--delightful feature!--the distribution of flowers and sweetmeats +among the ladies. The procession in Valencia resembles those of Holy +Week in Seville. On litters strewn with flowers and thick-set with +candle-lights are borne carved groups of sacred figures and richly +attired images of Christ and the Virgin. But it is in lyric Andalusia +that these pageantries are most at home. Among her popular _coplas_ is +one that runs:-- + + "Thursdays three in the year there be, + That shine more bright than the sun's own ray-- + Holy Thursday, Corpus Christi, + And our Lord's Ascension Day." + +Cadiz, like Valencia, carries the _pasos_ in the Corpus procession. In +Seville, where the street displays of Holy Week are under the charge +of the religious brotherhoods, or _cofradias_, Corpus Christi gives +opportunity for the clergy and aristocracy to present a rival +exhibition of sanctified luxury and magnificence. + +But it is in beautiful belated Granada that the Corpus fete is now at +its best. A brilliantly illustrated programme, whose many-hued cover +significantly groups a gamboge cathedral very much in the background, +and a flower-crowned Andalusian maiden, draped in a Manila shawl, with +a prodigious guitar at her feet, very much in the foreground, +announces a medley of festivities extending over eleven days. This +cheerful booklet promises, together with a constant supply of military +music, balcony decorations, and city illuminations, an assortment of +pleasures warranted to suit every taste--infantry reviews, cavalry +reviews, cadet reviews, masses under roof and masses in the open, +claustral processions, parades of giants, dwarfs, and _La Tarasca_, a +charity raffle in the park under the patronage of Granada's most +distinguished ladies, the erection of out-of-door altars, the +dispensing of six thousand loaves of bread among the poor (from my +experience of Granada beggars I should say the supply was +insufficient), a solemn Corpus procession passing along white-canopied +streets under a rain of flowers, three regular bull-fights with the +grand masters Guerrita, Lagartijillo, and Fuentes, followed by a +gloriously brutal _corrida_, with young beasts and inexperienced +fighters, cattle fair, booths, puppet shows, climbing of greased +poles, exhibition of fine arts and industries, horse racing, polo, +pigeon shoot, trapeze, balloon ascensions, gypsy dances, and fireworks +galore. + +But even faithful Granada shared in the strange catalogue of +misfortunes which attended Corpus last year. The rains descended on +her Chinese lanterns, and the winds beat against her Arabic arches +with their thousands of gas-lights. On the sacred Thursday itself, the +Andalusian weather made a most unusual demonstration of hurricane and +cloudburst, with interludes of thunder and lightning. Great was the +damage in field, vineyard, and orchard, and as for processions, they +were in many places out of the question. Even Seville and Cordova had +to postpone both parades and bull-fights. But this was not the worst. +In Ecija, one of the quaintest cities of Andalusia, an image of the +Virgin as the Divine Shepherdess, lovingly arrayed and adorned with no +little outlay by the nuns of the Conception, caught fire in the +procession from a taper, like Seville's Virgin of Montserrat in the +last _Semana Santa_. The _Divina Pastora_ barely escaped with her +jewels. Her elaborate garments, the herbage and foliage of her +pasture, and one of her woolly sheep were burned to ashes. In Palma de +Mallorca, a romantic town of the Balearic Isles, a balcony, whose +occupants were leaning out to watch the procession, broke away, and +crashed down into the midst of the throng. A young girl fell upon the +bayonet of a soldier marching beneath, and was grievously hurt. Others +suffered wounds which, in one case at least, proved fatal. The +Opposition journals did not fail to make capital out of these untoward +events, serving them up in satiric verse with the irreverent +suggestion that, if this was all the favor a reactionary and +ultra-Catholic government could secure from Heaven, it was time to go +back to Sagasta. + +The ecclesiastical Toledo, seat of the Primate of all Spain, is one +of the Spanish cities which still observe Corpus Christi as a high +solemnity, and Toledo is within easy pilgrimage distance of Madrid. I +had already passed two days in that ancient capital of the Visigoths, +ridding my conscience of the sightseers' burden, and I both longed and +dreaded to return. The longing overcame the dread, and I dropped in at +the _Estacion del Mediodia_ for preliminary inquiries. I could +discover no bureau of information and no official authorized to +instruct the public, but in this lotus-eating land what is nobody's +business is everybody's business. There could not be a better-humored +people. The keeper of the bookstand abandoned his counter, his +would-be customers lighting cigarettes and leaning up against trucks +and stacks of luggage to wait for his return, and escorted me the +length of the station to find a big yellow poster, which gave the +special time-table for Corpus Thursday. The poster was so high upon +the wall that our combined efforts could not make it out; whereupon a +nimble little porter dropped the trunk he was carrying, and climbed on +top of it for a better view. In that commanding position he could see +clearly enough, but just when my hopes were at the brightest, he +regretfully explained that he had never learned to read. As he +clambered down the proprietor of the trunk, who had been looking on +with as much serenity as if trains never went and starting bells never +rang, mounted in turn. This gentleman, all smiles and bows and tobacco +smoke, read off the desired items, which the keeper of the bookstand +copied for me in a leisurely, conversational manner, with a pencil +lent by one bystander on a card donated by another. + +There is really something to be said for the Spanish way of doing +business. It takes time, but if time is filled with human kindliness +and social courtesies, why not? What is time for? Whenever I observed +that I was the only person in a hurry on a Madrid street, I revised my +opinion as to the importance of my errand. + +As I entered the station again on the first of June at the penitential +hour of quarter past six in the morning, I was reflecting complacently +on my sagacity as a traveller. Had I not bethought me that, even in +the ecclesiastical centre of Spain and on this solemn festival, there +might be peril for a stranger's purse? What financial acumen I had +shown in calculating that, since my round-trip ticket to Toledo before +had cost three dollars, second class, I could probably go first class +on this excursion for the same sum, while two dollars more would be +ample allowance for balcony hire and extras! And yet how prudent in me +to have tucked away a reserve fund in a secret pocket inaccessible +even to myself! But why was the station so jammed and crammed with +broad-hatted Spaniards? And what was the meaning of that long line of +roughs, stretching far out from the third-class ticket office? +Bull-fight explained it all. Even reverend Toledo must keep the Corpus +holy by the public slaughter of six choice bulls and as many hapless +horses as their blind rage might rend. Worse than the pagan altars +that reeked with the blood of beasts, Spain's Christian festivals +demand torture in addition to butchery. + +There were no first-class carriages, it appeared, upon the Corpus +train, and my round-trip ticket, second class, cost only a dollar, +leaving me with an embarrassment of riches. Pursing the slip of +pasteboard which, to my disgust, was stamped in vermilion letters +_Corrida de Toros_, I sped me to the train, where every seat appeared +to be taken, although it lacked twenty minutes of the advertised time +for departure; but a bald-headed philanthropist called out from a +carriage window that they still had room for one. Gratefully climbing +up, I found myself in the society of a family party, off for Toledo to +celebrate the saint-day of their hazel-eyed eight-year-old by that +treat of treats, a child's first bull-fight. When they learned that I +was tamely proposing to keep Corpus Christi by seeing the procession +and not by "assisting at the function of bulls," their faces clouded; +but they decided to make allowance for my foreign idiosyncrasies. + +The train, besieged by a multitude of ticket-holders for whom there +were no places, was nearly an hour late in getting off. The ladies +dozed and chattered; the gentlemen smoked and dozed; little Hazel-eyes +constantly drew pictures of bulls with a wet finger on the window +glass. Reminded again by my handbag literature that Toledo is a nest +of thieves, I would gladly have put away my extra money, but there was +never a moment when all the gentlemen were asleep at once. + +It was after ten when we reached our destination, the boy wild with +rapture because we had actually seen a pasture of grazing bulls. A +swarm of noisy, scrambling, savage-looking humanity hailed the arrival +of the train, and I had hardly made my way even to the platform before +I felt an ominous twitch at my pocket. The light-fingered art must +have degenerated in Toledo since the day of that clever cutpurse of +the "Exemplary Tales." Turning sharply, I confronted a group of my +fellow-worshippers, who, shawled and sashed and daggered, looked as +if they had been expressly gotten up for stage bandits. From the +shaggy pates, topped by gaudy, twisted handkerchiefs--a headdress not +so strange in a city whose stone walls looked for centuries on Moorish +turbans--to the bright-edged, stealthy hemp sandals, these were +pickpockets to rejoice a kodak. Their black eyes twinkled at me with +wicked triumph, while it flashed across my mind that my old hero, the +Cid, was probably much of their aspect, and certainly gained his +living in very similar ways. There were a full score of these +picturesque plunderers, and not a person of the nineteenth century in +sight. Since there was nothing to do, I did it, and giving them a +parting glance of moral disapproval, to which several of the sauciest +responded by blithely touching their forelocks, I pursued my pilgrim +course, purged of vainglory. At all events, I was delivered from +temptation as to a questionable _peseta_ in my purse--my pretty Paris +purse!--and I should not be obliged to travel again on that odious +bull-fight ticket. + +We were having "fool weather," blowing now hot, now cold, but as at +this moment the air was cool, and every possible vehicle seemed +packed, thatched, fringed with clinging passengers, I decided, not +seeking further reasons, to walk up to the town. And what a town it +is! Who could remember dollars? So far from being decently depressed, +I was almost glad to have lost something in this colossal monument of +losses. It seemed to make connection. + +Between deep, rocky, precipitous banks, strongly flows the golden +"king of rivers, the venerable Tajo," almost encircling the granite +pedestal of the city and spanned by ancient bridges of massy stone, +with battlemented, Virgin-niched, fierce old gates. And above, upon +its rugged height, crumbling hourly into the gritty dust that stings +the eye and scrapes beneath the foot, lies in swirls on floor and +pavement, blows on every breeze and sifts through hair and clothing, +is the proud, sullen, forsaken fortress of "imperial Toledo." Still it +is a vision of turrets, domes, and spires, fretwork, buttresses, +facades, but all so desolate, so dreary, isolated in that parched +landscape as it is isolated in the living world, that one approaches +with strangely blended feelings of awe, repugnance, and delight. + +On we go over the Bridge of Alcantara, wrought aeons since by a gang of +angry Titans--the guidebooks erroneously attribute it to the Moors and +Alfonso the Learned--with a shuddering glance out toward the ruins of +feudal castles, here a battlemented keep set with mighty towers, there +a great, squat, frowning mass of stone, the very sight of which might +have crushed a prisoner's heart. Up, straight up, into the grim, gray, +labyrinthine city, whose zigzag streets, often narrowing until two +laden donkeys, meeting, cannot pass, so twist and turn that it is +impossible on entering one to guess at what point of the compass we +will come out. These crooked ways, paved with "agony stones," are +lined with tall, dark, inhospitable house fronts, whose few windows +are heavily grated, and whose huge doors, bristling with iron bosses, +are furnished with fantastic knockers and a whole arsenal of bolts and +chains. + + [Illustration: THE KING OF THE GYPSIES] + +Gloomy as these ponderous structures are, every step discloses a +novelty of beauty,--a chiselled angel, poised for flight, chased +escutcheons, bas-reliefs, toothed arches, medallions, weather-eaten +groups of saints and apostles gossiping in their scalloped niches +about the degeneracy of the times. The Moors, whose architecture, says +Becquer, seems the dream of a Moslem warrior sleeping after battle in +the shadow of a palm, have left their mark throughout Toledo in the +airy elegance of the traceries magically copied from cobwebs and the +Milky Way. That tragic race, the Jews, have stamped on the walls of +long-desecrated synagogues their own mysterious emblems. And Goths and +Christian knights have wrought their very likenesses into the stern, +helmeted heads that peer out from the capitals of marvellous columns +amid the stone grapes and pomegranates most fit for their heroic +nourishment. But all is in decay. Here stands a broken-sceptred statue +turning its royal back on a ragged vender of toasted _garbanzos_. Even +the image of Wamba has lost its royal nose. + +You may traverse whispering cloisters heaped with fallen crosses, with +truant tombstones, and severed heads and limbs of august prophets. +Cast aside in dusky vaults lie broken shafts of rose-tinted marbles +and fragments of rare carving in whose hollows the birds of the air +once built their nests. Through the tangle of flowers and shrubbery +that chokes the patios gleam the rims of alabaster urns and basins of +jasper fountains. Such radiant wings and faces as still flash out from +frieze and arch and column, such laughing looks, fresh with a dewy +brightness, as if youth and springtime were enchanted in the stone! +And what supreme grace and truth of artistry in all this bewildering +detail! On some far-off day of the golden age, when ivory and agate +were as wax, when cedar and larch wood yielded like their own soft +leaves, the magician must have pressed upon them the olive leaf, the +acacia spray, the baby's foot, that have left these perfect traces. +And how did mortal hand ever achieve the intricate, curling, +unfolding, blossoming marvel of those capitals? And who save kings, +Wambas and Rodericks, Sanchos, Alfonsos, and Fernandos, should mount +these magnificent stairways? And what have those staring stone faces +above that antique doorway looked upon to turn them haggard with +horror? City of ghosts! The flesh begins to creep. But here, happily, +we are arrived in the _Plaza de Zocodover_, where Lazarillo de Tormes +used to display his talents as town crier, and in this long-memoried +market-place, with its arcaded sides and trampled green, may pause to +take our bearings. + +Evidently the procession is to pass here, for the balconies, still +displaying the yellow fronds of Palm Sunday, are hung with all manner +of draperies--clear blue, orange with silver fringes, red with violet +bars, white with saffron scallops. Freed from sordid cares about my +pocket, I give myself for a little to the spell of that strange scene. +Beyond rise the rich-hued towers of the Alcazar, on the site where +Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, the Cid, and an illustrious line of Spanish +monarchs have fortified themselves in turn; but Time at last is +conqueror, and one visits the dismantled castle only to forget all +about it in the grandeur of the view. From the east side of the +_Zocodover_ soars the arch on whose summit used to stand the +_Santisimo Cristo del Sangre_, before whom the Corpus train did +reverence. And here in the centre blazed that momentous bonfire which +was to settle the strife between the old Toledan liturgy and the new +ritual of Rome; but the impartial elements honored both the Prayer +Books placed upon the fagots, the wind wafting to a place of safety +the Roman breviary, while the flames drew back from the other, with +the result that the primitive rite is still preserved in an especial +chapel of the cathedral. + +A glorious _plaza_, famed by Cervantes, loved by Lope de Vega, but now +how dim and shabby! On the house-fronts once so gayly colored, the +greens have faded to yellows, the reds to pinks, and the pinks to +browns. The awning spread along the route of the procession is fairly +checkered with a miscellany of patches. I pass the compliments of the +day with a smiling peasant woman, whose husband, a striking +color-scheme in maroon blanket, azure trousers, russet stockings, and +soiled gray sandals, offers me his seat on the stone bench beside her. +But I am bound on my errand, and they bid me "Go with God." I select a +trusty face in a shop doorway and ask if I can rent standing room in +the balcony above. Mine honest friend puts his price a trifle high to +give him a margin for the expected bargaining, but I scorn to haggle +on a day when I am short of money, and merely stipulate, with true +Spanish propriety, that no gentlemen shall be admitted. This makes an +excellent impression on the proprietor, who shows me up a winding +stair with almost oppressive politeness. A little company of ladies, +with lace mantillas drooping from their graceful heads, welcome me +with that courteous cordiality which imparts to the slightest +intercourse with the Spanish people (barring pickpockets) a flavor of +fine pleasure. Because I am the last arrival and have the least claim, +they insist on giving me the best place on the best balcony and are +untiring in their explanations of all there is to be seen. + +The procession is already passing--civil guards, buglers, drummers, +flower wreaths borne aloft, crosses of silver and crosses of gold, +silken standards wrought with cunning embroideries. But now there come +a sudden darkness, a gust of wind, and dash of rain. The ranks of +_cofradias_ try in vain to keep their candles burning, the pupils from +the colleges of the friars, with shining medals hung by green cords +about their necks, peep roguishly back at the purple-stoled dignitary +in a white wig, over whom an anxious friend from the street is trying +to hold an umbrella. The Jesuit _seminaristas_ bear themselves more +decorously, the tonsures gleaming like silver coins on their young +heads. The canons lift their red robes from the wet, and even bishops +make some furtive efforts to protect their gold-threaded chasubles. +Meanwhile the people, that spectral throng of witches, serfs, feudal +retainers, and left-overs from the Arabian Nights, press closer and +closer, audaciously wrapping themselves from the rain in the rich old +tapestries of France and Flanders, which have been hung along both +sides of the route from a queer framework of emerald-bright poles and +bars. The dark, wild, superstitious faces, massed and huddled +together, peer out more uncannywise than ever from under these +precious stuffs which brisk soldiers, with green feather brushes in +their caps, as if to enable them to dust themselves off at short +notice, are already taking down. + +All the church bells of the city are chiming solemnly, and the +splendid _custodia_, "the most beautiful piece of plate in the world," +a treasure of filigree gold and jewels, enshrining the Host, draws +near. It is preceded by a bevy of lovely children, not dressed, as at +Granada, to represent angels, but as knights of chivalry. Their dainty +suits of red and blue, slashed and puffed and trimmed with lace, flash +through the silvery mist of rain. Motherly voices from the balconies +call to them to carry their creamy caps upside down to shield the +clustered plumes. Their little white sandals and gaiters splash +merrily through the mud. + +A flamingo gleam across the slanting rain announces Cardinal Sancha, +behind whom acolytes uplift a thronelike chair of crimson velvet and +gold. Then follow ranks of taper-bearing soldiers, and my friends in +the balcony call proudly down to different officers, a son, a husband, +a blushing _novio_, whom they present to me then and there. The +officers bow up and I bow down, while at this very moment comes that +tinkling of silver bells which would, I had supposed, strike all +Catholic Spaniards to their knees. It is perhaps too much to expect +the people below to kneel in the puddles, but the vivacious chatter in +the balconies never ceases, and the ladies beside me do not even cross +themselves. + +The parade proceeds, a gorgeous group in wine-colored costume carrying +great silver maces before the civic representation. The governor of +the province is pointed out to me as a count of high degree, but in +the instant when my awed glance falls upon him he gives a monstrous +gape unbecoming even to nobility. The last of the spruce cadets, who +close the line, have hardly passed when the thrifty housewife +beseeches our aid in taking in out of the rain her scarlet balcony +hanging, which proves to be the canopy of her best bed. But the sun is +shining forth again when I return to the street to follow the +procession into the cathedral. + +Already this gleam of fair weather has filled the _Calle de Comercio_ +with festive senoritas, arrayed in white mantillas and Manila shawls +in honor of the bull-fight. Shops have been promptly opened for a +holiday sale of the Toledo specialties--arabesqued swords and daggers, +every variety of Damascened wares, and marchpane in form of mimic +hams, fish, and serpents. The Toledo steel was famous in Shakespeare's +day, even in the mouths of rustic dandies, whose geographical +education had been neglected. When the clever rogue, Brainworm, in one +of Jonson's comedies, would sell Stephen, the "country gull," a cheap +rapier, he urges, "'Tis a most pure Toledo," and Stephen replies +according to his folly, "I had rather it were a Spaniard." But onward +is the glorious church, with its symmetric tower, whose spire wears a +threefold crown of thorns. The exterior walls are hung, on this one +day of the year, with wondrous tapestries that Queen Isabella knew. An +army of beggars obstructs the crowd, which presses in, wave upon wave, +through the deep, rich portals in whose ornamentation whole lifetimes +have carved themselves away. + +Within this sublime temple, unsurpassed in Gothic art, where every +pavement slab is worn by knees more than by footsteps, where every +starry window has thrown its jewel lights on generations of believers, +one would almost choose to dwell forever. One looks half enviously at +recumbent alabaster bishops and kneeling marble knights, even at dim +grotesques, who have rested in the heart of that grave beauty, in that +atmosphere of prayer and chant, so long. Let these stone figures troop +out into the troubled streets and toil awhile, and give the rest of us +a chance to dream. But the multitude, which has knelt devoutly while +_Su Majestad_ was being borne into the _Capilla Mayor_, comes pouring +down the nave to salute the stone on which--ah me!--on which the +Virgin set her blessed foot December 18, 666, when she alighted in +Toledo cathedral to present the champion of the Immaculate Conception, +St. Ildefonso, with a chasuble of celestial tissue. The gilded, +turreted shrine containing that consecrated block towers almost to the +height of the nave. A grating guards it from the devout, who can only +touch it with their finger tips, which then they kiss. Hundreds, with +reverend looks, stand waiting their turn--children, peasants, +bull-fighters, decorated officers, refined ladies, men of cultured +faces. The sound of kissing comes thick and fast. Heresy begins to +beat in my blood. + +Not all that heavenward reach of columns and arches, not that +multitudinous charm of art, can rid the imagination of a granite +weight. I escape for a while to the purer church without, with its +window-gold of sunshine and lapis-lazuli roof. When the mighty magnet +draws me back again, those majestic aisles are empty, save for a tired +sacristan or two, and the silence is broken only by a monotone of +alternate chanting, from where, in the _Capilla Mayor_, two priests +keep watch with _El Senor_. + +"He will be here all the afternoon," says the sacristan, "and nothing +can be shown; but if you will come back to-morrow I will arrange for +you to see even Our Lady's robes and gems." + +Come back! I felt myself graying to a shadow already. Of course I +longed to see again that marvellous woodwork of the choir stalls, with +all the conquest of Granada carved amid columns of jasper and under +alabaster canopies, but I was smothered in a multitude of ghosts. They +crowded from every side,--nuns, monks, soldiers, tyrants, magnificent +archbishops, the martyred Leocadia, passionate Roderick, weeping +Florinda, grim Count Julian, "my Cid," Pedro the Cruel, those five +thousand Christian nobles and burghers of Toledo, slain, one by one, +at the treacherous feast of Abderrahman, those hordes of flaming Jews +writhing amid the Inquisition fagots. I had kept my Corpus. I had seen +the greatest of all _autos sacramentales_, Calderon's masterpiece, +"Life is a Dream." + +"On a single one of the Virgin's gold-wrought mantles," coaxed the +sacristan, "are eighty-five thousand large pearls and as many +sapphires, amethysts, and diamonds. I will arrange for you to see +everything, when Our Lord is gone away." + +But no. I am a little particular about treasures. Since Toledo has +lost the emerald table of King Solomon and that wondrous copy of the +Psalms written upon gold leaf in a fluid made of melted rubies, I will +not trouble the seven canons to unlock the seven doors of the +cathedral sacristy. Let the Madonna enjoy her wealth alone. I have +_pesetas_ enough for my ticket to Madrid. + + + + +XIX + +THE TERCENTENARY OF VELAZQUEZ + + "It is a sombre and a weeping sky + That lowers above thee now, unhappy Spain; + Thy 'scutcheon proud is dashed with dimming rain; + Uncertain is thy path and deep thy sigh. + All that is mortal passes; glories die; + This hour thy destiny allots thee pain; + But for the worker of thy woes remain + Those retributions slowly forged on high. + + "Put thou thy hope in God; what once thou wert + Thou yet shalt be by labor of thy sons + Patient and true, with purpose to atone; + And though the laurels of the loud-voiced guns + Are not with us to-day, this balms our hurt-- + Cervantes and Velazquez are our own." + --DUKE OF RIVAS: _For the Tercentenary_. + + +The celebration, as planned, was comparatively simple, but enthusiasm +grew with what it fed upon. The Knights of Santiago held the first +place upon the programme, for into that high and exclusive order the +artist had won entry by special grace of Philip IV. Even Spain has +been affected by the modern movement for the destruction of +traditions, and certain erudite meddlers, who have been delving in the +State archives, declare that there is no truth in the following +story, which, nevertheless, everybody has to tell. + +The legend runs that Velazquez became a knight of St. James by a royal +compliment to the painter of _Las Meninas_. This picture, which seems +no picture, but life itself, eternizes a single instant of time in the +palace of Philip IV, that one instant before the fingers of the little +Infanta have curved about the cup presented by her kneeling maid, +before the great, tawny, half-awakened hound has decided to growl +remonstrance under the teasing foot of the dwarf, before the reflected +faces of king and queen have glided from the mirror, that fleeting +instant while yet the courtier, passing down the gallery into the +garden, turns on the threshold for a farewell smile, while yet the +green velvet sleeve of the second dwarf, ugliest of all pet monsters, +brushes the fair silken skirts of the daintiest of ladies-in-waiting, +while yet the artist, so much more royal than royalty, flashes his +dark-eyed glance upon the charming group. + +But if Velazquez looks prouder than a king, Philip proved himself here +no uninspired painter. Asked if he found the work complete, the +monarch shook his head, and, catching up the brush, marked the red +cross of St. James on the pictured breast of the artist. So says the +old wives' tale. At all events, in this way or another, the honor was +conferred, with the result that on the three hundredth birthday of +Velazquez, June 6, 1899, dukes and counts and marquises flocked to the +Church of _Las Senoras Comendadoras_, where the antique Gregorian mass +was chanted for the repose of their comrade's soul. + +By the latest theology, the "Master of all Good Workmen" would not +have waited for this illustrious requiem before admitting the painter +to "an aeon or two" of rest, but the Knights of Santiago have not yet +accepted Kipling as their Pope. + +On the afternoon of the same day the _Sala de Velazquez_ was +inaugurated in the _Museo del Prado_, taking, with additions, the room +formerly known as the _Sala de la Reina Isabel_, long the _Salon +Carre_ of Madrid, where Raphaels, Titians, Del Sartos, Duerers, Van +Dycks, Correggios, and Rembrandts kept the Spanish Masters company. +Portico and halls were adorned in honor of the occasion; the bust of +Velazquez, embowered in laurels, myrtles, and roses, was placed midway +in the Long Gallery, fronting the door of his own demesne; but the +crown of the _fiesta_ consisted in the new and far superior +arrangement of his pictures. The royal family and chief nobility, the +Ministers of Government, the Diplomatic Corps, and delegations of +foreign artists made a brilliant gathering. The address, pronounced by +an eminent critic, reviewed what are known as the three styles of +Velazquez. Never was art lecture more fortunate, for this _Museo_, +holding as it does more than half the extant works of the great +realist, with nearly all his masterpieces, enabled the speaker to +illustrate every point from the original paintings. A rain of +aristocratic poems followed, for a Spaniard is a lyrist born, and +turns from prose to verse as easily as he changes his cuffs. As +Monipodio says, in one of Cervantes' "Exemplary Tales": "A man has but +to roll up his shirt-sleeves, set well to work, and he may turn off a +couple of thousand verses in the snapping of a pair of scissors." +These Dukes of Parnassus and Counts of Helicon did homage to the +painter in graceful stanzas, not without many an allusion to Spain's +troubled present. If only, as one sonneteer suggested, the soldiers +of _Las Lanzas_ had marched out from their great gilt frame and gone +against the foe! A programme of old-time music was rendered, and +therewith the _Sala de Velazquez_ was declared open. + +To this, as to all galleries and monuments under State control, the +public was invited free of charge for the week to come. The response +was appreciative, gentility, soldiery, ragamuffins, bevies of +schoolgirls with notebooks, and families of foreigners with opera +glasses grouping themselves in picturesque variety, day after day, +before the art treasures of Madrid, while beggars sat in joyful squads +on the steps of the museums, collecting the fees which the doorkeepers +refused. + +During these seven days, artistic and social festivals in honor of +Velazquez abounded, not only in Madrid, but throughout Spain. Palma +must needs get up, with photographs and the like, a Velazquez +exposition, and Seville, insisting on her mother rights, must arrange +a belated funeral, with mass and sermon and a tomb of laurels and +flowers, surmounted by brushes, palette, and the cloak and helmet of +the Order of Santiago. In the capital the _Circulo de Bellas Artes_ +sumptuously breakfasted the artists from abroad. The dainties were +spiced with speeches, guitars, ballet, gypsy songs and dances, +congratulatory telegrams, and a letter posted from Parnassus by Don +Diego himself. Two valuable new books on Velazquez suddenly appeared +in the shop windows, and such periodicals as _La Ilustracion_, _Blanco +y Negro_, _La Vida Literaria_, and _El Nuevo Mundo_ vied with one +another in illustrated numbers, while even the one-cent dailies came +out with specials devoted to Velazquez biography and criticism. The +Academy of San Fernando rendered a musical programme of Velazquez +date, the Queen Regent issued five hundred invitations to an +orchestral concert in the Royal Palace, and there was talk, which +failed to fructify, of a grand masquerade ball, where the costumes +should be copied from the Velazquez paintings and the dances should be +those stepped by the court of Philip IV. + +The closing ceremony of the week was the unveiling of the new statue +of Velazquez. Paris owes to Fremiot an equestrian statue of the +painter, who, like Shakespeare in his Paris statue, is made to look +very like a Frenchman, but the horse is of the most spirited Spanish +type. A younger Velazquez may be seen in Seville, at home among the +orange trees, and the _Palacio de la Biblioteca y Museos Nacionales_ +in Madrid shows a statue from the hand of Garcia. Still another, an +arrogant, striding figure, was standing in the studio of Benlliure, +ready for its journey to the Paris exposition. The tercentenary +statue, by Marinas, is also true to that haughty look of Velazquez. It +represents him seated, brush and palette in hand, the winds lifting +from his ears those long, clustering falls of hair, as if to let him +hear the praises of posterity. Little he cares for praises! That +artist's look sees nothing but his task. + +The unveiling took place late on Wednesday afternoon, in front of the +_Museo del Prado_, where the statue stands. A turquoise sky and a +light breeze put all the world in happy humor. The long facade of the +_Museo_ was hung with beautiful tapestries. Handsome medallions bore +the names of painters associated in one way or another with +Velazquez--Herrera el Viejo, his first master in Seville; Pacheco, his +second Sevillian teacher and his father-in-law; Luis Tristan of +Toledo, for whom he had an enthusiastic admiration; El Greco, that +startling mannerist, whose penetrating portraiture of faces, even +whose extraordinary effects in coloring were not without influence on +the younger man; Zurbaran, his almost exact contemporary, enamored no +less than Velazquez himself of the new realism emanating from the +great and terrible Ribera; Murillo, whose developing genius the +favored Court painter, too high-hearted for envy, protected and +encouraged, and Alonzo Cano, the impetuous artist of Granada, to whom, +too, Velazquez was friend and benefactor. + +Spanish colors and escutcheons were everywhere. In decorated tribunes +sat the royal family and the choicest of Madrid society, with the +members of the _Circulo de Bellas Artes_, who were the hosts of the +day, and with distinguished guests from the provinces and abroad. +Romero Robledo, as President of the Society of Fine Arts, welcomed the +Queen, closing his brief address with the following words: "Never, +senora, will your exalted sentiments be able to blend with those of +the Spanish people in nobler hour than this, commemorating him who is +forever a living national glory and who receives enthusiastic +testimony of admiration from all the civilized world." Their Majesties +drew upon the cords, the two silken banners parted, and the statue was +revealed to the applauding multitude. While the royal group +congratulated the sculptor, the ambassadors of Austria and Germany +laid magnificent wreaths, fashioned with a due regard to the colors of +their respective nations, at the feet of Velazquez. The eminent French +artists, Carolus Duran and Jean Paul Laurens, bore a crown from France +and delighted the audience by declaring that "the painter of the +Spanish king was himself the king of painters." Nothing since the war +had gladdened Spain more than the presence and praises of these two +famous Parisians; the reverence of Madrid for Paris is profound. The +tributes of Rome and London excited far less enthusiasm. Still more +wreaths, and more and more, were deposited by a procession of +delegates from the art societies of all Spain, headed by Seville, the +bands playing merrily meanwhile, until that stately form of bronze +seemed to rise from out a hill of laurels, ribbons, and flowers. + +This is the first Velazquez celebration which has had universal +recognition. The painter was hardly known to Europe at large until the +day of Fernando VII, who was induced by his art-loving wife, Isabel of +Braganza, to send the pictures from the royal palaces, all those +accumulated treasures of the Austrian monarchs, to the empty building, +designed for a natural history museum, in the _Prado_. This long, low +edifice is now one of the most glorious shrines of art in the world. +It is a collection of masterpieces, showing the splendors that are +rather than the processes by which they came to be. There is only one +Fra Angelico, but there are ten Raphaels and four times as many +Titians. In the Netherlands, no less than in Italy, the Spanish sway +gathered rich spoils. There are a score of Van Dycks, threescore of +those precious little canvases by Teniers, while as for Rubens, he +blazes in some sixty-four Christian saints, heathen goddesses, and +human sinners, all with a strong family resemblance. But although the +Italian and Flemish schools are so magnificently represented, the +wealth of Spanish painting is what overwhelms the visitor. Here are +four rooms filled with the works of Goya--whose bones, by the way, +arrived in Madrid from France for final sepulture a few days before +the celebration. Little more heed was paid to this advent than to that +of the United States ambassador, who, it may be noted, was not +presented to the Queen until the Velazquez jubilee was well over. But +as for Goya, this unnoised entry was appropriate enough, for he, whom +De Amicis has called "the last flame-colored flash of Spanish genius," +used, during his later life, to make the long journey from Bordeaux to +Madrid every week for no other purpose than to gloat upon the Sunday +bull-fight, coming and going without speech or handshake, only a pair +of fierce, bloodthirsty eyes. This fiery Aragonese painted +bull-fights, battles, executions, and Inquisition tortures with blacks +that make one shudder and reds that make one sick. He painted the +brutal side of pleasure as well as of pain, filling broad canvases +with dancing, feasting peasants--canvases that smell of wine and +garlic, and all but send out a roar of drunken song and laughter. + + [Illustration: GYPSY TENANTS OF AN ARAB PALACE] + +Goya lived in the day of Charles IV, whose court painter he was, and +against whom this natural caricaturist must have borne a special +grudge, so sarcastic are his portraits of the royal family; but his +genius is allied to that of Velazquez's powerful contemporary, Ribera. +The _Museo del Prado_ has abundant material for a Ribera _sala_, since +it possesses no less than fifty-eight of his works, but the official +put in charge of it would probably go mad. The paintings are mercifully +scattered and, well for such of us as may be disposed to flight, can +be recognized from afar by their dusks and pallors--ascetic faces +gleaming out from sable backgrounds, wasted limbs of naked saints +tracing livid lines in the gloom of caverns, and, against an +atmosphere dark as the frown of God, the ghastly flesh of tortured +martyrs, and dead Christs drooping stiffly to the linen winding-sheet. +One is appalled at the entrance of the Long Gallery by the two vast, +confronting canvases of Prometheus, less a Titan than a convulsion of +Titanic agony, and of Ixion, crushed not only beneath the wheel, but +under that cold, tremendous blackness of hell made actual. Far down +one side of the hall they stretch, those paintings upon paintings of +torment, emaciation, the half-crazed visionary, and the revolting +corpse. But there is no escape from Ribera, he who + + "tainted + His brush with all the blood of all the sainted." + +Turning back to the Spanish cabinets that open from the vestibule we +come upon a piteous San Sebastian, the blanched young form bound fast +and already nailed by arrows to the ebon-hued trunk of a leafless +tree. Descending the staircase to the _Sala de Alfonso XII_, we must +pass an attenuated old anchoress, whose sunken face and praying hands +have the very tint of the skulls that form the only ornaments, almost +the only furniture, of her dreary cave. We may as well brave the +terrors of this first half of the Long Gallery, where El Greco's livid +greens will at least divert attention, and where, opposite the +collection of Riberas, wait the gracious Murillos to comfort and +uplift. + +Yet Ribera, ruffian though he was, is not solely and exclusively a +nightmare artist. He could give sweetest and most tranquil color when +he chose, as his "Jacob's Dream" here testifies, with the dim gold of +its angel-peopled ladder; and for all the spirit of bigotry that +clouds his work, there is Catholic fervor in these pictures and +masterly truthfulness up to the point where the senses need the +interpretation of the soul. There is more than anatomy, too, in these +starved old saints; there is the dread of judgment. Ribera depicts +supernatural terror, where Goya shows the animal shock of death. + +Another Spanish phase appears in Zurbaran. In his most effective work +we have not Goya's blood color, nor Ribera's blacks, nor the celestial +violets of Juan de Joanes, but the grays of the monastic renunciation, +the twilight that is as far from rapture as from anguish. His gowned, +cowled, corded figures pass before the eye in the pale tints of the +cloister. The shadow of cathedral walls is over them. The _Prado_ has +been strangely indifferent to Zurbaran, who is far more fully +represented in the galleries of Andalusia; but it has in its baker's +dozen two important and characteristic works, both visions of San +Pedro Nolasco. In one the entranced saint, whose figure might be +carved in stone,--stone on which ray from stained-glass window never +fell,--gazes upon an angel, whose vesture, crossed by a dark green +scarf, is flushed with the faintest rose. In the second the sombre +cell is illuminated for an instant by the apparition of St. Peter the +Apostle, head downward, as in his crucifixion, his naked form dazzling +against a vague redness of light like a memory of pain. + +One glance at a wall aglow with Madonna blues reminds us that Spanish +sacred art does not culminate in Ribera nor in Zurbaran. The Christian +faith has had almost as pure, poetic, and spiritual an utterance in +the land of the Inquisition as in Italy itself. This is not Murillo's +hour; it is the triumph of Velazquez and the realists that Spain is +celebrating to-day; but none the less it is a joy of joys to walk by +the Murillos on the way to the laurelled bust and the crowded _sala_. +These are the pictures that are rather in heaven than earth. Where +Mary, divine in her virginal loveliness, is not upborne among the +golden clouds, the radiant-plumed angel kneels on her cottage floor +and the wings of the descending dove beat whiteness through the air. +Here is realism and more. The Mater Dolorosa has those luminous +sea-blue eyes of Andalusia, but they tell of holy tears. The Crucified +is no mere sufferer, but the suffering Son of God, and the crown of +thorns, while dripping blood, haloes his brows with the redemption of +the world. + +The genius of Velazquez dwelt not above the earth, but upon it, in the +heart of its most brilliant life. He was no dreamer of dreams; he +"painted the thing as he saw it," and with what sure eyes he saw, and +with what a firm and glowing brush he painted! His _sala_ surrounds us +at once with an atmosphere of brightness, beauty, elegance, variety, +delight. His work is so superb, so supreme, that, like perfect +manners, it puts even the humblest of us at our ease. We are not +artists, but we seem to understand Velazquez. + +Of course we don't. No knight of the palette would admit it for an +instant. What can the rabble know of the mysterious compoundings and +touchings from which sprang these splendors of color that outshine the +centuries? Young men with streaming hair are continually escorting +awed-looking senoras about the room, discoursing with dramatic +vehemence on the "periods" of the Master's work. As a youth at +Seville, they explain, Velazquez had of necessity taken religious +subjects, for the Church was the chief patron of art in Andalusia; +but his natural bent even then displayed itself in tavern studies and +sketches of popular types, as the "Water-seller of Seville" and the +"Old Woman Frying Eggs." Of his early religious pieces the +archbishop's palace of Seville keeps "San Ildefonso Receiving the +Chasuble from the Hands of the Virgin," and the National Gallery of +London secured "Christ in the House of Martha," but "The Adoration of +the Kings" hangs here at our right as we enter the Velazquez _sala_. A +little stiff, say these accomplished critics, with a suggestion of the +dry manner of his master, Pacheco, but bear you in mind that this is +the production of a youth of twenty. It is obvious, too, that +Andalusians, not celestial visions, served him as models. + +A longing to see the Tintorets and Titians, those starry treasures of +the dark Escorial, drew him to Madrid at twenty-three. Here he was +fortunate in finding friends, who brought his portraits to the notice +of Philip IV, a dissolute boy ruled by the Count-Duke Olivares. Youth +inclines to youth. Velazquez was appointed painter to the king at the +same salary as that paid to the royal barber, and henceforth he had no +care in life but to paint. And how he painted! His first portraits of +Philip show a blond young face, with high brow, curled mustache, the +long Hapsburg chin, and eyes that hint strange secrets. Again and +again and again Velazquez traced those Austrian features, while the +years stamped them ever more deeply with lines of pride and sin--a +tragic face in the end as it was ill-omened in the beginning. But the +masterpiece of Velazquez's twenties is "The Drunkards," a scene of +peasant revelry where the young are gloriously tipsy and the old are +on the point of maudlin tears. Here it is, _Los Borrachos_, farther +to the right. In looking on it one remembers that a contemporary +realist, in the Protestant island which has often been so sharp a +thorn in Spain's side, likewise crowned the achievement of his +springtime by a group of topers, Prince Hal and Falstaff and their +immortal crew. + +Not the influence of Rubens, who spent nine months in Spain in +1628-29, painting like the wind, nor a visit to the Holy Land of +Raphael and Michael Angelo could make Velazquez other than he was. +This "Vulcan's Forge," which we see here, painted in Italy, is +mythological only in the title. Back he came at the royal summons, to +paint more portraits--Philip over and over, on foot, on horseback, +half length, full length, all lengths; the winsome Infante Baltasar, +as a toddling baby with his dwarf, as a gallant little soldier, +hunter, horseman, and in the princely dignity of fourteen, when he had +but three more years to live; the sad French queen, the king's +brother, the magnificent Olivares, the sculptor Montanes, counts, +dukes, buffoons. Within these twenty years Velazquez produced his two +most famous works of religious tenor--"Christ Bound to the Column," a +"captain jewel" of the London National Gallery, and that majestic +"Crucifixion" before which Spaniards in the _Prado_ bare their heads. +But the crown of this period is _Las Lanzas_, or "The Surrender of +Breda," which holds the place of honor on the wall fronting the door. +It is vivid past all praise, and nobler than any battle scene in its +beauty of generosity. The influence of Italy had told especially on +Velazquez's backgrounds. The bright, far landscapes opening out beyond +his portrayed figures, especially those on horseback,--and his horses +are as lifelike as his dogs,--give to the _sala_ an exhilarating +effect of free space and wide horizons. + +In 1650 he made his second visit to Rome, where he portrayed Pope +Innocent X. Nine years of glorious work in Spain remained to him. +Still he painted the king, even at his royal prayers, for which there +was full need, and the young Austrian queen, who had succeeded the +dead mother of the dead Baltasar. On that happy left-hand wall of the +_sala_ shines, in all its vigorous grace, the "Mercury and Argos," but +if the hundred eyes of Argos are ready to close, their place is +supplied by the terrible scrutiny of a row of portraits, embarrassing +the boldest of us out of note-taking. How those pairs of pursuing +black eyes, sage and keen and mocking, stare the starers out of +countenance! The series of pet dwarfs is here, old AEsop, and Menippus, +and the sly buffoon, "Don Juan of Austria." Of these two wonder-works, +_Las Meninas_, "The Maids of Honor," has a room to itself, and thus +_Las Hilanderas_, "The Weavers," becomes the central magnet of this +returning wall. A saint picture and even a coronation of the Virgin +cannot draw the crowds from before this ultimate triumph of the +actual--this factory interior, where a group of peasant women fashion +tapestries, while a broad shaft of sunshine works miracles in color. + +And this, too, is Spanish. Cervantes is as true a facet of many-sided +Spain as Calderon, and Velazquez as Murillo. With all the national +propensity to emotion and exaggeration, Spaniards are a truth-seeing +people. The popular _coplas_ are more often satiric than sentimental. +They like to bite through to the kernel of fact, even when it is +bitter. Velazquez, with his rich and noble realism, is of legitimate +descent. + + + + +XX + +CHORAL GAMES OF SPANISH CHILDREN + + "Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, + She turns to favor and to prettiness." + --SHAKESPEARE: _Hamlet_. + + +On one of my last afternoons in Madrid, I visited again my early +haunts in the _Buen Retiro_, for a farewell sight of the children +there at play. After all, it is one of the prettiest things to be seen +in Spain, these graceful, passionate, dramatic little creatures +dancing in tireless circles, and piping those songs that every _nina_ +knows, without being able to tell when or where or from whom she +learned them. Only very small boys, as a rule, join the girls in these +fairy rings, though occasionally I found a troop of urchins marching +to a lusty chorus of their own. One, which I heard in Madrid, but +whose parrots are more suggestive of Seville, runs something like +this:-- + + "In the street they call Toledo + Is a famous school for boys, + Chundarata, chundarata, + Chundarata, chun-chun; + Where all we lads are going + With a most heroic noise, + Chundarata, chundarata, + Chundarata, chun-chun. + + "And the parrots on their perches, + They mock us as we go, + Chundarata, chundarata, + Chundarata, chun-chun. + 'I hate my school,' whines Polly, + 'For my master beats me so,' + Chundarata, chundarata, + Chundarata, chun-chun." + +Another, which came to me in fragments, is sung in playing soldier. + + "The Catalans are coming, + Marching two by two. + All who hear the drumming + Tiptoe for a view. + Ay, ay! + Tiptoe for a view. + Red and yellow banners, + Pennies very few. + Ay, ay! + Pennies very few. + + "Red and yellow banners! + The Moon comes out to see. + If moons had better manners, + She'd take me on her knee. + Ay, ay! + Take me on her knee. + She peeps through purple shutters, + Would I were tall as she! + Ay, ay! + Would I were tall as she! + + "Soldiers need not learn letters, + Nor any schooly thing, + But unless they mind their betters, + In golden chains they'll swing. + Ay, ay! + In golden chains they'll swing. + Or sit in silver fetters, + Presents from the King. + Ay, ay! + Presents from the King." + +This ironic touch, so characteristically Spanish, reappears in many of +the games, as in _A La Limon_, known throughout the Peninsula and the +Antilles. I should expect to find it, too, in corners of Mexico, South +America, the Philippines, wherever the Spanish oppressor has trod and +the oppressor's children have sported in the sun. The little players, +ranged in two rows, each row hand in hand, dance the one toward the +other and retreat, singing responsively. With their last couplet, the +children of the first line raise their arms, forming arches, and the +children of the second line, letting go hands, dance under these +arches as they respond. + + 1. "_A la limon, a la limon!_ + All broken is our bright fountain. + + 2. "_A la limon, a la limon!_ + Give orders to have it mended. + + 1. "_A la limon, a la limon!_ + We haven't a bit of money. + + 2. "_A la limon, a la limon!_ + But we have money in plenty. + + 1. "_A la limon, a la limon!_ + What kind of money may yours be? + + 2. "_A la limon, a la limon!_ + Oh, ours is money of eggshells. + + 1. "_A la limon, a la limon!_ + An arch for the lords and ladies. + + 2. "_A la limon, a la limon!_ + Right merrily we pass under." + +Another lyric dialogue, whose fun is spent on the lean purses of +students and the happy-go-lucky life of Andalusia, must have +originated since the overthrow, in 1892, of the leaning tower of +Saragossa. The stanzas are sung alternately by two rows of children, +advancing toward each other and retreating with a dancing step. + + 1. "In Saragossa + --Oh, what a pity!-- + Has fallen the tower, + Pride of the city. + + 2. "Fell it by tempest, + Fairies or witches, + The students will raise it, + For students have riches. + + 1. "Call on the students, + Call louder and louder! + They've only two coppers + To buy them a chowder. + + 2. "Chowder of students + Is sweeter than honey, + But the gay Andalusians + Have plenty of money. + + 1. "The gay Andalusians + Have fiddle and ballad, + But only two coppers + To buy them a salad. + + 2. "In Saragossa + --Oh, what a pity!-- + Has fallen the tower, + Pride of the city." + +Unchildlike innuendoes pervade that curious game of many variants in +which the priest and abbess play a leading part. Two children are +chosen for these dignitaries, while the others call out the names of +such flowers, fruits, or vegetables as each may decide to personate. +"I'm a cabbage." "I'm a jasmine." "I'm a cherry." Then the little +sinners kneel in a circle, crying:-- + + "Through the door, up the stairs, + On the floor, say your prayers!" + +and chant some childish gibberish, during which no one must laugh on +pain of a forfeit. After this, all sing:-- + + "The house of the priest it cracked like a cup. + Half fell down and half stood up. + Sir Priest, Sir Priest, now tell us aright, + In whose house did you sleep last night? + + _Priest._ With the rose slept I. + + _Rose._ Fie, O fie! + I never saw your tonsured head. + + _Priest._ Then with whom did you make your bed? + + _Rose._ With the Pink. + + _Pink._ I should think! + I never saw your petals red. + + _Rose._ Then with whom did you make your bed? + + _Pink._ With the lily. + + _Lily._ Don't be silly! + I never heard your fragrant tread. + + _Pink._ Then with whom did you make your bed? + + _Lily._ With the priest. + + _Priest._ Little beast! + If I went near you, may I fall dead! + + _Lily._ Then with whom did you make your bed? + + _Priest._ With the abbess, I. + + _Abbess._ Oh, you lie!" + +But this seems to be the conclusion of the game. + +The most of these choral songs, however, are sweet and innocent, +concerned with the natural interests of childhood, as this:-- + + "The shepherdess rose lightly + Laran--laran--larito, + The shepherdess rose lightly + From off her heather seat--O. + + "Her goats went leaping homeward, + Laran--laran--larito, + Her goats went leaping homeward + On nimble little feet--O. + + "With strong young hands she milked them, + Laran--laran--larito, + With strong young hands she milked them + And made a cheese for treat--O. + + "The kitty watched and wondered, + Laran--laran--larito, + The kitty crept and pondered + If it were good to eat--O. + + "The kitty sprang upon it, + Laran--laran--larito, + The kitty sprang upon it + And made a wreck complete--O. + + "Scat, scat, you naughty kitty! + Laran--laran--larito, + Scat, scat, you naughty kitty! + Are stolen cheeses sweet--O?" + +The baby girls have a song of their own, which, as a blending of +doll-play, gymnastics, music, mathematics, and religion, leaves little +to be desired. + + "Oh, I have a dolly, and she is dressed in blue, + With a fluff of satin on her white silk shoe, + And a lace mantilla to make my dolly gay, + When I take her dancing this way, this way, this way. + [_Dances Dolly in time to the music._ + + "2 and 2 are 4, 4 and 2 are 6, + 6 and 2 are 8, and 8 is 16, + And 8 is 24, and 8 is 32! + Thirty-two! Thirty-two! + Blessed souls, I kneel to you. [_Kneels._ + + "When she goes out walking in her Manila shawl, + My Andalusian dolly is quite the queen of all. + Gypsies, dukes, and candy-men bow down in a row, + While my dolly fans herself so and so and so. + [_Fans Dolly in time to the music._ + + "2 and 2 are 4, 4 and 2 are 6, + 6 and 2 are 8, and 8 is 16, + And 8 is 24, and 8 is 24! + Twenty-four! Twenty-four! + Blessed souls, I rise once more." + +They have a number of bird-games, through which they flit and flutter +with an airy grace that wings could hardly better. In one, the +children form a circle, with "the little bird Pinta" in the centre. +The chorus, dancing lightly around her, sings the first stanza, and +Pinta, while passing about the circle to make her choice, sings the +rest, with the suggested action. The child chosen becomes Pinta in +turn. + + _Chorus._ "The little bird Pinta was poising + On a scented green lemon-tree spray. + She picked the leaf and the blossom, + And chanted a roundelay. + + _Pinta._ "Song in the land! + While April is yet a newcomer, + O mate of my summer, + Give to me a hand now, + Both hands I seek, O! + Take a Spanish kiss, now, + On the rosy cheek, O!" + +Equally pretty and simple is the Andalusian play of "Little White +Pigeons." The children form in two rows, which face each other some +ten or twelve yards apart. One row sings the first stanza, dancing +forward and slipping under the "golden arches" made by the lifted arms +of the second row. The second row sings and dances in turn, passing +under the "silver arches" to Granada. + + 1. "Little white pigeons + Are dreaming of Seville, + Sun in the palm tree, + Roses and revel. + Lift up the arches, + Gold as the weather. + Little white pigeons + Come flying together. + + 2. "Little white pigeons + Dream of Granada, + Glistening snows on + Sierra Nevada. + Lift up the arches, + Silver as fountains. + Little white pigeons + Fly to the mountains." + +The Spanish form of "Blindman's Buff" begins with "giving the pebble" +to determine who shall be the Blind Hen. A child shuts in one hand the +pebble and then presents both little fists to the other children +passing in file. Each, while all sing the first stanza given below, +softly touches first one of the hands, then the other, and finally +slaps the one chosen. If this is empty, she passes on. If it holds the +pebble, she must take it and be the one to offer the hands. The child +who finally remains with the pebble in her possession, after all have +passed, is the Blind Hen. As the game goes on, the children tease the +Blind Hen, who, of course, is trying to catch them, by singing the +second stanza given below. + + 1 + + "Pebble, O pebble! + Where may it be? + Pebble, O pebble! + Come not to me! + Tell me, my mother, + Which hand to choose. + This or the other? + That I refuse, + This hand I choose." + + 2 + + "She's lost her thimble, + Little Blind Hen. + Better be nimble! + Try it again! + Who'll bring a taper + For the Blind Hen? + Scamper and caper! + Try it again! + Try it again!" + +Other games as well known to American children as "Blindman's Buff" +are played by little Spaniards. They understand how to make the +"hand-chair" and "drop the button," only their button is usually a +ring. "Hide the Handkerchief" carries with it the familiar cries of +_hot_ and _cold_, but our "Puss in the Corner" becomes "A Cottage to +Rent." + + "'Cottage to rent?' + 'Try the other side, + You see that this + Is occupied.'" + +In religious Seville the dialogue runs:-- + + "'A candle here?' + 'Over there.' + 'A candle here?' + 'Otherwhere.' + + "'Candle, a candle!' + 'Loss on loss.' + 'Where is light?' + 'In the Holy Cross.'" + +For all these games, common to childhood the world over, have a +rhyming element in the Peninsula, where, indeed, the ordinary +intercourse of children often carries verses with it. For instance, +our youngsters are content with cries of "Tell-tale!" and +"Indian-giver!" but under similar provocation the fierce little +nurslings of Catholic Spain will sing:-- + + "Tell-tale! Tell-tale! + In hell you'll be served right, + All day fed on mouldy bread, + And pounded all the night!" + +The other baby-curse is to the same effect:-- + + "He who gives and takes again, + Long in hell may he remain! + He who gives and takes once more, + May we hear him beat on the Devil's door!" + +The Spanish form of tag has a touch of mythological grace. One child, +chosen by lot, is the Moon, and must keep within the shadow. The +others, Morning-stars, are safe only in the lighted spaces. The game +is for the Morning-stars to run into the shadow, daring the Moon, +who, if successful in catching one, becomes a Morning-star in turn, +and passes out into the light, leaving the one caught to act the part +of Moon. As the Morning-stars run in and out of the Moon's domain, +they sing over and over the following stanza:-- + + "O the Moon and the Morning-stars! + O the Moon and the Morning-stars! + Who dares to tread--O + Within the shadow?" + +Even in swinging, the little girls who push carry on a musical +dialogue with the happy holder of the seat. + + "'Say good-day, say good-day + To Miss Fannie Fly-away! + At the door the guests are met, + But the table is not set. + Put the stew upon the fire. + Higher, higher, higher, higher! + Now come down, down, down, down, + Or the dinner will all burn brown. + Soup and bread! soup and bread! + I know a plot of roses red, + Red as any hero's sword, + Or the blood of our Holy Lord. + Where art thou, on the wing?' + 'No, I'm sitting in the swing.' + 'Who're thy playmates way up there?' + 'Swallows skimming through the air.' + 'Down, come down! The stew will burn. + Let the rest of us have a turn.'" + +In playing "Hide and Seek," the seeker must first sit in a drooping +attitude with covered eyes, while the others stand about and threaten +to strike him if he peeps:-- + + "Oil-cruet! Don't do it! _Ras con ras!_ + Pepper-pot? Peep not! _Ras con ras!_" + +The menacing little fists are then suddenly withdrawn. + + "No, no! Not a blow! + But a pinch on the arm will do no harm. + Now let the birdies take alarm!" + +And off scamper the hiders to their chosen nooks. When they are safely +tucked away, the indispensable Mother, standing by, sings to the +seeker that stanza which is his signal for the start:-- + + "My little birds of the mountain + Forth from the cage are flown. + My little birds of the mountain + Have left me all alone." + +Spanish forfeit games are numerous and ingenious. In one of these, +called "The Toilet," the players take the names of Mirror, Brush, +Comb, Towel, Soap, and other essentials, including Jesus, Devil, and +Man Alive, these last for exclamatory purposes. As each is mentioned +by the leader of the game, he must rise instantly, on pain of forfeit, +no matter how fast the speaker may be rattling on: "_Jesus!_ When will +that _devil_ of a _maid_ bring me my _powder_ and _perfumes_?" +Characteristic titles of other forfeit games are, "The Key of Rome," +"The Fan," "The Fountain," "I Saw my Love Last Night." The sentences +vary from such gentle penalties as "The Caress of Cadiz" to the +predicament of putting three feet on the wall at once. + +The choral verses are often mere nonsense. + + "Pipe away! pipe away! + Let us play a little play! + What will we play? + We'll cut our hands away. + Who cut them, who? + Rain from out the blue. + Where is the rain? + Hens drank it up again. + Hens? And where are they? + Gone their eggs to lay. + Who will eat them up? + Friars when they sup. + What do friars do? + Sing 'gori-gori-goo.'" + +Watching Spanish children, one may see two little girls, say White +Rose and Sweetness, fly out into an open space, where White Rose +carefully places the tips of her small shoes in touch with those of +Sweetness. Then they clasp hands, fling their little bodies as far +back as these conditions permit, and whirl round and round, singing +lustily--until they are overcome by giddiness--the following +rigmarole, or one of its variants:-- + + "Titirinela, if you please! + Titirinela, bread and cheese: + 'What is your father's worshipful name?' + 'Sir Red-pepper, who kisses your hands.' + 'And how does he call his beautiful dame?' + 'Lady Cinnamon, at your commands.' + Titirinela, toe to toe! + Titirinela, round we go!" + + [Illustration: FROM THE TOWER OF GOLD DOWN THE GUADALQUIVIR] + +Even in some of their prettiest games the verses have a childish +incoherence. Some dozen little girls form a circle, for instance, with +the Butterfly in the centre. They lift her dress-skirt by the border, +and hold it outspread about her. Another child, on the outside, runs +around and around the ring, singing:-- + + "Who are these chatterers? + Oh, such a number! + Not by day nor by night + Do they let me slumber. + They're daughters of the Moorish king, + Who search the garden-close + For lovely Lady Ana, + The sweetest thing that grows. + She's opening the jasmine + And shutting up the rose." + +Then the children suddenly lift their hands, which are holding +Butterfly's frock, so as to envelop her head in the folds. The little +singer outside continues:-- + + "Butterfly, butterfly, + Dressed in rose-petals! + Is it on candle-flame + Butterfly settles? + How many shirts + Have you woven of rain? + Weave me another + Ere I call you again." + +These songs are repeated seven times. Then comes another stanza:-- + + "Now that Lady Ana + Walks in garden sweet, + Gathering the roses + Whose dew is on her feet, + Butterfly, butterfly, + Can you catch us? Try it, try!" + +With this the circle breaks and scatters, while Butterfly, blinded as +she is by the folds of her own skirt wrapped about her head, does her +best to overtake some one, who shall then become her successor. + +Many of the games are simplicity itself. Often the play is merely a +circle dance, sometimes ending in a sudden kneeling or sitting on the +ground, One of the songs accompanying this dance runs:-- + + "Potatoes and salt must little folks eat, + While the grown-up people dine + Off lemons and chestnuts and oranges sweet, + With cocoanut milk for wine. + On the ground do we take our seat, + We're at your feet, we're at your feet." + +Sometimes a line of children will form across the street and run, hand +in hand, down its length, singing:-- + + "We have closed the street + And no one may pass, + Only my grandpa + Leading his ass + Laden with oranges + Fresh from the trees. + Tilin! Tilin! + Down on our knees! + Tilin! Tilin! Tilin! Tilin! + The holy bell of San Agustin!" + +A play for four weans, training them early to the "eternal Spanish +contradiction," consists in holding a handkerchief by its four +corners, while one of them sings:-- + + "Pull and slacken! + I've lost my treasure store. + Pull and slacken! + I'm going to earn some more. + _Slacken!_" + +And at this, the other three children must _pull_, on pain of forfeit, +whereas if the word is _pull_, their business is to _slacken_. + +They have a grasshopper game, where they jump about with their hands +clasped under their knees, singing:-- + + "Grasshopper sent me an invitation + To come and share his occupation. + Grasshopper dear, how could I say no? + Grasshopper, grasshopper, here I go!" + +In much the same fashion they play "Turkey," gobbling as they hop. + +I never found them "playing house" precisely after the manner of our +own little girls, but there are many variants for the dialogue and +songs in their game of "Washerwoman." The Mother says: "Mariquilla, +I'm going out to the river to wash. While I am gone, you must sweep +and tidy up the house." + +"_Bueno, madre._" + +But no sooner is the Mother out of sight than naughty Mariquilla +begins to frisk for joy, singing:-- + + "Mother has gone to wash. + Mother'll be gone all day. + Now can Mariquilla + Laugh and dance and play." + +But the Mother returns so suddenly that Mariquilla sees her barely in +time to begin a vigorous sweeping. + + "'What hast been doing, Mary?' + 'Sweeping with broom of brier.' + 'A friar saw thee playing.' + 'He was a lying friar.' + 'A holy friar tell a lie!' + 'He lied and so do you.' + 'Come hither, Mary of my heart, + 'And I'll beat thee black and blue.'" + +After this lively exercise, the washerwoman goes away again, charging +Mariquilla to churn the butter, then to knead the bread, then to set +the table, but always with the same disastrous results. The Mother +finally condemns her to a dinner of bread and bitters, but Mariquilla +makes a point of understanding her to say bread and honey, and shares +this sweetness with her sympathetic mates who form the circle. This +time the beating is so severe that the children of the ring raise +their arms and let Mariquilla dodge freely in and out, while they do +all they can to trip and hinder the irate washerwoman in her pursuit. + +There is another washing game of more romantic sort, the chorus +being:-- + + "'Bright is the fountain, + When skies are blue. + Who washed my handkerchief? + Tell me true!' + 'Three mountain maidens + Of laughing look. + White went their feet + In the running brook. + One threw in roses, + And jasmine one. + One spread thy handkerchief + In the sun.'" + +Spanish children "play store," of course, but they are such dramatic +little creatures that they need no broken ware for their merchandise. +A row of them will squat down in the middle of the street, clasp their +hands under the hollow of their knees, and crook out their arms for +"handles." Then a customer wanders by, asking, "Who sells honey-jars?" +The merchant disrespectfully replies, "That do I, Uncle of the Torn +Trousers." The shabby customer answers with Castilian dignity, "If my +trousers are torn, my wife will mend them." The merchant then opens +negotiations. "Will you buy a little jar of honey?" "What's your +price?" The merchant is not exorbitant. "A flea and a louse." The +probabilities are, unhappily, that the customer has these commodities +about him, and he inclines, though cautiously, toward the bargain. + +"Your little honey-jars are good?" + +"Very good." + +"Do they weigh much?" + +"Let's see." + +So they pick up an hilarious little honey-jar by its handles and tug +it away between them, not letting it touch the ground, to the +sidewalk. Here the merchant and customer have designated four spaces +as Heaven, Limbo, Purgatory, and Hell, but on a preliminary +paving-stone--let truth need no apology!--they have done some artistic +spitting, with the result that four different figures in saliva are +presented to the little honey-jar. These four figures bear a secret +relation to the four spaces on the sidewalk, and the prisoner must +make his choice. "This!" he ventures. "Hell!" scream the merchant and +customer, and drag him, shrieking and struggling, to his doom. The +next, perhaps, will have the luck to hit on Heaven, for every little +honey-jar must take his chance in this theological lottery. + +Sometimes the market becomes a transformation scene. The children hold +up their forefingers for candles, but embarrass the merchant by +doubling these up whenever the customer is on the point of buying. +Just as the bargain is about to be concluded, the little candles +vanish and the children roll themselves into bunches of grapes, some +proving sweet and others sour. Again, they make themselves over into +pitchers, cushions, and all variety of domestic articles, becoming at +last a pack of barking dogs which rush out on the customer, snap at +his legs, and drive him off the premises. + +Again, it is a chicken-market on which the Uncle of the Torn Trousers +chances, where one by one he buys all the hens and chickens, but +forgets to buy the rooster, and when, by and by, this lordly fowl, +waxing lonely, cock-a-doodle-doos, the hens and chickens come +scurrying back to him, more to the profit of the merchant than to the +satisfaction of the customer. + +In another of the chicken games, the Mother leaves Mariquilla in +charge of the brood, with directions, if the wolf comes, to fling him +the smallest. But he comes so often that, when the Mother returns, +there are no chickens left. Then she and Little Mary go hunting them, +hop-hop-hop through Flea Street, bow-wow-wow through Dog Street, and +so on without success, until it occurs to them to scatter corn. +Thereupon with peep-peep-peep and flip-flap-flutter all the chickens +appear, but only to fly at the negligent Mother, who left them to the +jaws of the wolf, and assail her with such furious pecks that she must +run for her life, the indignant chicks racing in wild pursuit. + +There is a market-garden game, where one acts as gardener, others as +vegetables, and others as customers. Others, still, come creeping up +as thieves, but are opposed by a barking dog, which they kill. The +gardener summons them before the judge. A trial is held, with much +fluent Spanish argument pro and con, and the prisoners are condemned +to execution for the murder of the dog. But at the last thrilling +moment, when they have confessed their sins to the priests, and been +torn from the embraces of their weeping friends, the dog trots +cheerfully in, so very much alive that all the criminals are pardoned +in a general dance of joy. + +The little girls have a favorite shopping game. In this the children +are seated, shoulder to shoulder, in two rows that face each other. +Every child takes the name of some cloth, silks and satins being +preferred. The leader of the game runs around the two rows, singing:-- + + "Up the counter, down the counter! + How can I buy enough? + Down the counter, up the counter! + I choose this velvet stuff." + +Little Velvet immediately jumps to her feet and follows the leader, +who continues choosing and calling, choosing and calling, until the +stock is exhausted and she can go home with all her purchases most +conveniently trooping at her heels. + +But the plays dearest to the black-eyed _ninas_ are love plays, of +which they have a countless number. Most of these consist of the +dancing, singing circle, with a child in the centre who chooses a +mate. Some are as simple as this:-- + + "Milk and rice! + I want to marry + A maiden nice. + I may not tarry. + It is not this, + Nor this, nor this. + 'Tis only this + Whom I want to marry." + + [Illustration: CADIZ FROM THE SEA] + +_Ambo, ato_ is hardly more elaborate. When in the exchange of question +and answer, the child would choose her page and touches one of the +circle, the mercenary mites dance on faster than ever, until she +offers whatever gift she has, a flower, apple, or any trifle at hand. +Then the page runs in and kneels before her. The circle dances about +the two, singing the refrain, until the first child slips out and +joins them, leaving the second in the centre to begin the game over +again. + + "_Ambo, ato, matarile, rile, rile? + Ambo, ato, matarile, rile, ron?_ + + 1. "What do you want, matarile, rile, rile? + What do you want, matarile, rile, ron? + + 2. "I want a page, matarile, rile, rile. + I want a page, matarile, rile, ron. + + 1. "Choose whom you will, matarile, rile, rile. + Choose whom you will, matarile, rile, ron. + + 2. "I choose Pedro, matarile, rile, rile. + I choose Pedro, matarile, rile, ron. + + 1. "What will you give him, matarile, rile, rile? + What will you give him, matarile, rile, ron? + + 2. "I'll give him an orange, matarile, rile, rile. + I'll give him an orange, matarile, rile, ron. + + 1. "He answers yes, matarile, rile, rile. + He answers yes, matarile, rile, ron." + +"The Charcoal Woman" requires an odd number of players. The circle +dances about a little girl who stands all forlorn in the centre. The +chorus sings the first stanza, the child sings the second, which has +reference to the fact that Spanish charcoal is often made from laurel +wood, and the chorus, in a comforting tone, the third. Then, while the +child runs about and about the circle as if seeking, the chorus +angrily sings the fourth stanza, accusing her of ambition, and the +little charcoal woman retorts with the fifth, making her choice as she +sings the last four words. At this the circle breaks, the children +quickly choosing mates and dancing by pairs. The one who is left +without a partner takes her place in the centre as the next Charcoal +Woman. + + 1. + + _Chorus._ "Who would say that the charcoal woman, + Sooty, sooty charcoal woman, + In all the city and all the land + Could find a lover to kiss her hand? + + 2. + + _Charcoal Woman._ + "The little widow of good Count Laurel + Has no one left her for kiss or quarrel. + I want a sweetheart and find me none. + Charcoal women must bide alone. + + 3. + + _Chorus._ "Poor little widow, so sweet thou art, + If there's no other to claim thy heart, + Take thy pick of us who stand + Ready to kiss thy sooty hand. + + 4. + + _Chorus._ "The charcoal woman, the charcoal woman, + Proud little black little charcoal woman, + Goes seeking up and seeking down + To find the Count of Cabratown. + + 5. + + _Charcoal Woman._ + "I would not marry the Count of Cabra. + Never will marry the Count of Cabra. + Count of Cabra! Oh, deary me! + I'll not have him,--_if you're not he!_" + +Just such coquettish touches of Spanish spirit and maiden pride appear +in many of the songs, as, for instance, in one of their counting-out +carols, "The Garden." + + "The garden of our house it is + The funniest garden yet, + For when it rains and rains and rains, + The garden it is wet. + And now we bow, + Skip back and then advance, + For who know how to make a bow + Know how to dance. + AB--C--AB--C + DE--FG--HI--J. + If your worship does not love me, + Then a better body may. + AB--C--AB--C, + KL--MN--OP--Q. + If you think you do not love me, + I am sure I don't love you." + +Sometimes these dancing midgets lisp a song of worldly wisdom:-- + + "If any cadet + With thee would go, + Daughter, instantly + Answer no. + For how can cadet, + This side of Heaven, + Keep a wife + On his dollars seven? + + "If any lieutenant + Asks a caress, + Daughter, instantly + Answer yes. + For the lieutenant + Who kisses thy hand + May come to be + A general grand." + +And, again, these babies may be heard giving warning that men betray. + + "The daughters of Ceferino + Went to walk--alas! + A street above, a street below, + Street of San Tomas. + The least of all, they lost her. + Her father searched--alas! + A street above, a street below, + Street of San Tomas. + And there he found her talking + With a cavalier, who said, + 'Come home with me, my darling, + 'Tis you that I would wed.' + + "Oh, have you seen the pear tree + Upon my grandpa's lawn? + Its pears are sweet as honey, + But when the pears are gone, + A turtle-dove sits moaning, + With blood upon her wings, + Amid the highest branches, + And this is what she sings: + 'Ill fares the foolish maiden + Who trusts a stranger's fibs. + She'd better take a cudgel + And break his ugly ribs.'" + +The dance for "Elisa of Mambru" begins merrily, and soon saddens to a +funereal pace. + + "In Madrid was born a maiden--carabi! + Daughter of a general--carabi, huri, hura!" + +The song goes on to tell of Elisa's beautiful hair, which her aunt +dressed so gently for her with a golden comb and crystal curling-pins, +and how Elisa died and was carried to church in an elegant coffin, and +how a little bird used to perch upon her grave and chirp, _pio_, +_pio_. + +Mambru himself is the pathetic hero of Spanish childhood. This Mambru +for whom the little ones from Aragon to Andalusia pipe so many simple +elegies, the Mambru sung by Trilby, is not the English Marlborough to +them, but, be he lord or peasant, one of their very own. + + "Mambru is gone to serve the king, + And comes no more by fall or spring. + + "We've looked until our eyes are dim. + Will no one give us word of him? + + "You'd know him for his mother's son + By peasant dress of Aragon. + + "You'd know him for my husband dear + By broidered kerchief on his spear. + + "The one I broider now is wet. + Oh, may I see him wear it yet!" + +At the end of this song, as of the following, the little dancers throw +themselves on the ground, as if in despair. + + "Mambru went forth to battle. + Long live Love! + I listen still for his coming feet. + The rose on the rose bush blossoms sweet. + + "He will come back by Easter. + Long live Love! + He will come back by Christmas-tide. + The rose on the bush has drooped and died. + + "Down the road a page is riding. + Long live Love! + 'Oh, what are the tidings that you bear?' + The rose on the bush is budding fair. + + "'Woe is me for my tidings!' + Long live Love! + 'Mambru lies cold this many a morn.' + Ay, for a rose bush sharp with thorn! + + "A little bird is chirping. + Long live Love! + In the withered bush where no more buds blow, + The bird is chirping a note of woe." + +A game that I often watched blithe young Granadines playing under the +gray shadow of Alhambra walls, seems to be a Spanish version of +"London Bridge is Falling Down." Two children are chosen to be Rose +and Pink. These form an arch with their uplifted arms, through which +run the other children in a line, headed by the Mother. A musical +dialogue is maintained throughout. + + "_Rose and Pink._ + To the viper of love, that hides in flowers, + The only way lies here. + + _Mother._ + Then here I pass and leave behind + One little daughter dear. + + _Rose and Pink._ + Shall the first one or the last + Be captive of our chain? + + _Mother._ + Oh, the first one runs too lightly. + 'Tis the last that shall remain. + + _Chorus._ + Pass on, oho! Pass on, aha! + By the gate of Alcala!" + +The last child is caught by the falling arms and is asked whether she +will go with Rose or Pink. She shyly whispers her choice, taking her +stand behind her elected leader, whom she clasps about the waist. When +all the children of the line have been successively caught in the +falling arch, and have taken their places behind either Rose or Pink, +the game ends in a grand tugging match. Rose and Pink hold hands as +long as they can, while the two lines try to drag them apart. All the +while, until the very last, the music ripples on:-- + + "_Rose and Pink._ + Let the young mind make its choice, + As young minds chance to think. + Now is the Rose your leader, + Or go you with the Pink? + Let the young heart make its choice + By laws the young heart knows. + Now is the Pink your leader, + Or go you with the Rose? + + _Chorus._ + Pass on, oho! Pass on, aha! + By the gate of Alcala!" + +Another favorite is "Golden Ear-rings." Here the Mother, this time a +Queen, sits in a chair, supposedly a throne, and close before her, on +the floor, sits the youngest daughter; before this one, the next +youngest, and so on, in order of age. Two other children, holding a +handkerchief by the corners, walk up and down the line, one on one +side and one on the other, so passing the handkerchief above the heads +of the seated princesses. Then ensues the musical dialogue between +these two suitors and the Queen. + + "'We've come from France, my lady, + And Portugal afar. + We've heard of your fair daughters, + And very fair they are.' + + 'Be they fair or no, senores, + It's none of your concern, + For God has given me bread for all, + And given me hands to earn.' + + 'Then we depart, proud lady, + To find us brides elsewhere. + The daughters of the Moorish king + Our wedding rings shall wear.' + + 'Come back, my sweet senores! + Bear not so high a crest. + You may take my eldest daughter, + But leave me all the rest.'" + +The dialogue is transferred to one of the suitors and to the princess +at the farther end of the line, on whose head the handkerchief now +rests. + + "'Will you come with me, my Onion?' + 'Fie! that's a kitchen smell.' + 'Will you come with me, my Rosebud?' + 'Ay, gardens please me well.'" + +In similar fashion all the daughters are coaxed away until only the +youngest remains, but she proves obdurate. They may call her Parsley +or Pink; it makes no difference. So the suitors resort to bribes, the +last proving irresistible. + + "'We'll buy you a French missal.' + 'I have a book in Latin.' + 'In taffeta we'll dress you.' + 'My clothes are all of satin.' + 'You shall ride upon a donkey.' + 'I ride in coaches here.' + 'We'll give you golden ear-rings.' + 'Farewell, my mother dear.'" + +In some of the many variants of this game, the Queen herself, adequate +as she may be to earning her own living, is wooed and won at last. + +I have not met with fairy-lore among these children's carols. The only +fairy known to Spain appears to be a sort of spiritualistic brownie, +who tips over tables and rattles chairs in empty rooms by night. The +grown-up men who write of him say he frightens women and children. He +can haunt a house as effectually as an old-time ghost, and a _Casa del +Duende_ may go begging for other tenants. One poor lady, who went to +all the trouble of moving to escape from him, was leaning over the +balcony of her new home,--so the story goes,--to see the last cartful +of furniture drive up, when a tiny man in scarlet waved a feathered +cap to her from the very top of the load and called, "Yes, senora, we +are all here. We have moved." + +So the childish imagination of Spain, shut out from fairyland, makes +friends with the saints in such innocent, familiar way as well might +please even Ribera's anchorites. The adventurous small boy about to +take a high jump pauses to pray:-- + + "Saint Magdalene, + Don't let me break my thigh! + Oh, Saint Thomas, + Help this birdie fly!" + +The little girls express decided preferences for one saint over +another. + + "Old San Anton, + What has he done? + Put us in the corner every one. + + "San Sebastian + Is a nice young man. + He takes us to walk and gives us a fan." + +Santa Rita is best at finding lost needles, and San Pantaleon is a +humorist. + + "San Pantaleon, + Are twenty and one + Children enough for an hour of fun + Slippers of iron + Donkey must try on. + Moors with their pages + Ride in gold stages. + But if you want a + Girdle, Infanta, + Cucurucu, + 'Bout-face with you!" + +At this one of the children dancing in circle whirls around, remaining +in her place, but with back turned to the centre and arms crossed over +her breast, although her hands still hold those of her nearest +neighbors. The rhyme is sung over and over, until all the little +figures have thus turned about and the circle is dancing under +laughable difficulties. + +But the dearest saint of all is San Sereni. Two of the best-known +games are under his peculiar blessing. One of these is of the genuine +Kindergarten type, the children dancing in a circle through the first +two lines of each stanza, but then loosing hands to imitate, in time +to the music, the suggested action. + + "San Sereni, + The holy--holy-hearted! + Thus for thee + The shoemakers are cobbling. + Thus, thus, thus! + Thus it pleases us." + +Even so it pleases seamstresses to stitch, laundresses to wash, +carpenters to saw, silversmiths to tap, ironsmiths to pound, and +little folks to dance, all for "San Sereni de la buena, buena vida." +In the second game, a gymnastic exercise, whose four movements are +indicated in the four stanzas, he is apostrophized as "San Sereni del +Monte, San Sereni cortes." + + "San Sereni of the Mountain, + Our saint of courtesy, + I, as a good Christian, + Will fall upon my knee. + + "San Sereni of the Mountain, + Where the strong winds pass, + I, as a good Christian, + Will seat me on the grass. + + "San Sereni of the Mountain, + Where the white clouds fly, + I, as a good Christian, + Upon the ground will lie. + + "San Sereni of the Mountain, + Where earth and heaven meet, + I, as a good Christian, + Will spring upon my feet." + +With the legend of St. Katharine and her martyrdom childish fancy has +played queer caprices. + + "In Cadiz was a wean--ah! + The gentlest ever seen--ah! + Her name was Catalina. + Ay, so! + Her name was Catalina. + + "Her father, Moslem cruel, + He made her bring in fuel. + Her mother fed her gruel. + Ay, so! + Her mother fed her gruel. + + "They beat her Tuesday, Wednesday, + They beat her Thursday, Friday, + They beat her Saturday, Monday. + Ay, so! + They beat her hardest Sunday. + + "Once bade her wicked sire + She make a wheel most dire, + Of scissors, knives, and fire. + Ay, so! + Of scissors, knives, and fire. + + "The noble Christian neighbors, + In pity of her labors, + Brought silver swords and sabres. + Ay, so! + Brought silver swords and sabres. + + "By noon her task was ended, + And on that wheel all splendid + Her little knee she bended. + Ay, so! + Her little knee she bended. + + "Then down a stair of amber + She saw the cherubs clamber: + 'Come rest in our blue chamber.' + Ay, so! + She rests in their blue chamber." + +Little Spaniards are not too intolerant to make a play-fellow of the +Devil. In one of their pet games, the children form in line, with the +invaluable Mother in charge. To each child she secretly gives the name +of a color. Then an Angel comes in with a flying motion and calls, for +instance, "Purple!" But there is no Purple in the company. It is then +the Devil's turn, who rushes in, usually armed with a table-fork, and +roars for "Green." There is a Green in the line, and she has to follow +the Demon, while the Angel tries again. All right-minded spectators +hope that the Angel will have the longer array at the last. + +The Virgin's well-beloved name comes often into the children's songs. + + "For studying my lessons, + So as not to be a dunce, + Papa gave me eight dollars, + That I mean to spend at once. + Four for my dolly's necklace, + Two for a collar fine, + And one to buy a candle + For Our Lady's shrine." + +Even the supreme solemnity of the Wafer borne through the kneeling +streets cannot abash the trustful gaze of childhood. + + "'Where are you going, dear Jesus, + So gallant and so gay?' + 'I am going to a dying man + To wash his sins away. + And if I find him sorry + For the evil he has done, + Though his sins are more than the sands of the sea, + I'll pardon every one.' + + "'Where are you going, dear Jesus, + So gallant and so gay?' + 'I'm coming back from a dying man + Whose sins are washed away. + Because I found him sorry + For the evil he had done, + Though his sins were more than the sands of the sea, + I've pardoned every one.'" + +The affairs of State as well as of Church have left their traces on +the children's play. As the little ones dance in circle, their piping +music tells a confused tale of Spanish history within these latter +days. + + "In Madrid there is a palace, + As bright as polished shell, + And in it lives a lady + They call Queen Isabel. + Not for count nor duke nor marquis + Her father would she sell, + For not all the gold in Spain could buy + The crown of Isabel. + + "One day when she was feasting + Within this palace grand, + A lad of Aragon walked in + And seized her by the hand. + Through street and square he dragged her + To a dreary prison cell, + And all that weary way she wept, + The lady Isabel. + + "'For whom art weeping, lady? + What gives thy spirit pain? + If thou weepest for thy brothers, + They will not come again. + If thou weepest for thy father, + He lies 'neath sheet of stone.' + 'For these I am not weeping, + But for sorrows of mine own. + + "'I want a golden dagger.' + 'A golden dagger! Why?' + 'To cut this juicy pear in two. + Of thirst I almost die.' + We gave the golden dagger. + She did not use it well. + Ah, no, it was not pears you cut, + My lady Isabel." + +These dancing circles keep in memory the assassination of Marshal +Prim. + + "As he came from the Cortes, + Men whispered to Prim, + 'Be wary, be wary, + For life and for limb.' + Then answered the General, + 'Come blessing, come bane, + I live or I die + In the service of Spain.' + + "In the _Calle del Turco_, + Where the starlight was dim, + Nine cowardly bullets + Gave greeting to Prim. + The best of the Spaniards + Lay smitten and slain, + And the new King he died for + Came weeping to Spain." + +This new king, Amadeo, is funnily commemorated in another dancing +ditty, "Four Sweethearts." + + "Maiden, if they ask thee, + Maiden, if they ask thee, + If thou hast a sweetheart--_ha_, _ha_! + If thou hast a sweetheart, + Answer without blushing, + Answer without blushing, + 'Four sweethearts are mine--_ha_, _ha_! + Four sweethearts are mine. + + "'The first he is the son of-- + The first he is the son of + A confectioner--_ha_, _ha_! + A confectioner. + Sugar-plums he gives me, + Sugar-plums he gives me, + Caramels and creams--_ha_, _ha_! + Caramels and creams. + + "'The second is the son of-- + The second is the son of + An apothecary--_ha_, _ha_! + An apothecary. + Syrups sweet he gives me, + Syrups sweet he gives me, + For my little cough--_hack_, _hack_! + For my little cough. + + "'The third he is the son of-- + The third he is the son of + The barber to the court--_ha_, _ha_! + The barber to the court. + Powders rare he gives me, + Powders rare he gives me, + And a yellow wig--_ha_, _ha_! + And a yellow wig. + + "'The fourth? Oh, 'tis a secret, + The fourth? Oh, 'tis a secret. + Our new Italian king--_ha_, _ha_! + Our new Italian king. + He gives me silk and satin, + He gives me silk and satin, + Velvet, gold, and gems--_ha_, _ha_! + Velvet, gold, and gems.'" + +Strangest of all is the dramatic little dialogue, which one with an +ear for children's voices may hear any day in Madrid, telling of the +death of Queen Mercedes. + + "'Whither away, young King Alfonso? + (Oh, for pity!) Whither away?' + 'I go seeking my queen Mercedes, + For I have not seen her since yesterday.' + + "'But we have seen your queen Mercedes, + Seen the queen, though her eyes were hid, + While four dukes all gently bore her + Through the streets of sad Madrid. + + "'Oh, how her face was calm as heaven! + Oh, how her hands were ivory white! + Oh, how she wore the satin slippers + That you kissed on the bridal night! + + "'Dark are the lamps of the lonely palace. + Black are the suits the nobles don. + In letters of gold on the wall 'tis written: + _Her Majesty is dead and gone_.' + + "He fainted to hear us, young Alfonso, + Drooped like an eagle with broken wing, + But the cannon thundered: 'Valor, valor!' + And the people shouted: 'Long live the king!'" + +Spanish wiseheads say that the children's choral games are already +perishing, that the blight of schools and books is passing upon the +child-life of the Peninsula, and soon there will be no more time for +play. The complaint of the _ninas_ is much to the same effect, yet +they wear their rue with a difference:-- + + "Not even in the _Prado_ + Can little maidens play, + Because those staring, teasing boys + Are always in the way. + + "They might be romping with us, + For they're only children yet, + But they won't play at anything + Except a cigarette. + + "Now let me tell you truly: + If things go on like this, + And midgets care for nothing + But to walk and talk and kiss, + + "No plays will cheer the _Prado_ + In future times, for then + The little boys of seven + Will all be married men." + + + + +XXI + +"O LA SENORITA!" + + "Since the English education came into fashion, there is not a + maiden left who can feel true love."--ALARCON. + + +During my stifling night journey from Madrid to the north I had much +chat with Castilian and German ladies in the carriage about Spanish +girls. Our talk turned especially on their reading, so reminding me of +an incident of the past spring. On an Andalusian balcony I once found +a little girl curled up in the coolest corner and poring over a +shabby, paper-bound book. On my expressing interest in the volume, she +presented it at once, according to the code of Spanish manners. "The +book is at the disposal of your worship." But as the bundle of +tattered leaves was not only so precious to her own small worship, but +also greatly in demand among her worshipful young mates, whose +constant borrowing seemed a strain even on Andalusian courtesy, I +retained it merely long enough to note the title and general +character. The next time I entered a book-shop I expended ten cents +for this specimen of juvenile literature--"the best-selling book in +Seville," if the clerk's word may be taken--and have it before me as I +write. On the cover is stamped a picture of two graceful senoritas, +perusing, apparently, this very work, "The Book of the Enamored and +the Secretary of Lovers," and throughout the two hundred pages are +scattered cheap cuts, never indecent, but suggesting violent ardors of +passion--embracings, kissings, gazings, pleadings, with hearts, +arrows, torches, and other ancient and honorable heraldry of Cupid. +The title-page announces that this is a fifth edition of ten thousand +copies. + + [Illustration: THE DIVINE SHEPHERD] + +The opening section is on "Love and Beauty," enumerating, by the way, +the "thirty points" essential to a perfect woman. "Three things +white--skin, teeth, and hands. Three black--eyes, eyebrows, and +eyelashes. Three rosy--lips, cheeks, and nails." But warning is duly +given that even the thirty points of beauty do not make up a sum total +of perfection without the mystic, all-harmonizing quality of charm. + +Next in order are the several sets of directions for winning the +affections of maid, wife, and widow, with a collection of edifying +sentiments from various saints and wits concerning widows. +Descriptions of wedding festivities follow, with a glowing +dissertation on kisses, "the banquet-cups of love." After this stands +a Castilian translation of an impassioned Arab love-song with the +burden, _Todo es amor_. Maxims on love, culled chiefly from French +authorities, are succeeded by an eighteenth-century love-catechism:-- + + "_Question._ Art thou a lover? + + _Answer._ Yes, by the grace of Cupid. + + _Question._ What is a lover? + + _Answer._ A lover is one who, having made true and faithful + declaration of his passion, seeks the means of gaining the love + of her whom he adores." + +This is the first lesson. The second treats of the five signs of love, +the third of love's duties, the fourth gives the orison of lovers--a +startling adaptation of the Lord's Prayer--and their creed: "I believe +in Cupid, absolute Lord of Love, who gives to lovers all their joys, +and in her whom I love most, for most lovable is she, on whom I think +without ceasing, and for whom I would sacrifice gladly my honor and my +life." + +There is nothing here, it will be noticed, of the Englishman's proud +exception:-- + + "I could not love thee, Dear, so much, + Loved I not honor more." + +Love has its own beatitudes, too. "Blessed are they who love +sincerely. Blessed are they of merry mood. Blessed are lovers who have +patience. Blessed are the rich, for love delights to spend." + +A "Divination of Dreams," "copied from an ancient manuscript found in +the ruins of the convent of San Prudencio, in Clavijo," that famous +battle-ground where St. James first trampled the Moors, next engages +attention. To dream of a fan is sign of a coming flirtation; of a +banner, success in war; of a woman's singing, sorrow and loss; of +stars, fair fortune in love; of fire, good luck at cards; of a black +cat, trouble from the mother-in-law; of closed eyes, your child in +mortal peril; of birds, joy and sweet content; of a ghost, ill health; +of scissors, a lover's quarrel; of wine, a cheating Frenchman; of +shoes, long journeys; of angels, good tidings from far away. Some of +these omens are a surprise to the uninitiated reader. It is bad luck +to behold in a dream images of Christ and the Virgin. A church, seen +from within, denotes alms; from without, death. To dream of the altar +arrayed for high mass betokens grave misfortune. Other omens are +significant of Spanish discontents. To dream of a Jesuit brings +miseries and betrayals; of a military officer, tyranny and brutality; +of a king, danger; of a republic, "abundance, happiness, honors, and +work well recompensed." Often these divinations run into rhyme, as:-- + + "Dream of God at midnight dim, + And by day you'll follow Him." + +The next section of this Complete Guide is given over to snatches of +love-song, which Andalusian children know by heart. These five are +fairly representative:-- + + "Mine is a lover well worth the loving. + Under my balcony he cries: + 'You have maddened me with your grace of moving, + And the beaming of your soft black eyes.'" + + "Though thou go to the highest heaven, + And God's hand draw thee near, + The saints will not love thee half so well + As I have loved thee here." + + "If I had a blossom rare, + I would twine it in thy hair, + Though God should stoop and ask for it + To make His heaven more exquisite." + + "Such love for thee, sent forth from me, + Bears on such iron gate + That I, used so, no longer know + Whether I love or hate." + + "The learned are not wise, + The saints are not in bliss; + They have not looked into your eyes, + Nor felt your burning kiss." + +Then comes a "New Dictionary of Love," defining some two hundred +doubtful terms in Cupid's lexicon, as _forever_, _no_, _unselfish_. +After this we are treated to the language of fan flirtation, of +handkerchief flirtation, of flower flirtation, and "the clock of +Flora," by which lovers easily make appointments,--one, two, three, +being numbered in rose, pink, tulip, and so on. A cut of a youth +toiling at a manuscript-laden desk introduces some fifty pages of +model love-letters, which seem, to the casual eye, to cover all +contingencies. A selection of verses used for adding a grace to +birthday and saint-day gifts comes after, and this all-sufficient +compendium concludes with a "Lovers' Horoscope." + +A single illustration of the sort of reading that Spanish girls find +in their way should not, of course, be pressed too far, and yet any +one who had seen the pretty group of heads clustered for hours over +these very pages on that shaded balcony would not deny the book +significance. A taste for the best reading is not cultivated in +Spanish girls, even where the treasures of that great Castilian +literature are accessible to them. Convent education knows nothing of +Calderon. As for books especially adapted to girlhood, we have just +examined a sample. + +Love and religion are the only subjects with which a senorita is +expected to concern herself, and the life of the convent is often a +second choice. Even when a Spanish girl wins her crown of wifehood +and motherhood, her ignorance and poverty of thought tell heavily +against the most essential interests of family life. The Spanish bride +is often a child in years. Pacheco's direction for painting the +Immaculate Conception ran, "Our Lady is to be pictured in the flower +of her age, from twelve to thirteen." This was three centuries ago, +but Spain changes slowly. The girl of to-day, nevertheless, marries +later than her mother married. I remember one weary woman of forty +with eighteen children in their graves and the three who were living +physical and mental weaklings. She told us of a friend who married at +fourteen and used to leave her household affairs in confusion while +she stole away to a corner to play with her dolls. Her husband, a +grave lawyer in middle life, would come home to dinner and find his +helpmeet romping with the other children in the _plaza_. + +The Spanish girl is every whit as fascinating as her musical, cloaked +gallant confides to her iron-grated lattice. Indeed, these amorous +serenades hardly do her justice, blending as she does French animation +with Italian fervor. In Andalusia she dances with a grace that makes +every other use of life seem vain. And when she bargains, there is +nothing sordid about it. Her haggling is a social condescension that +at once puts the black-eyed young salesman at her mercy. + +"But the fan seems to me the least bit dear, senor." + +He shrugs his shoulders and flings out his arm in protest. + +"Ah, senorita! You see not how beautiful the work is. I am giving it +away at six _pesetas_." + +She lifts her eyebrows half incredulously, all bewitchingly. + +"At five _pesetas_, senor." + +He runs his hand through his black hair in chivalrous distress. + +"But the peerless work, senorita! And this other, too! I sacrifice it +at four _pesetas_." + +She touches both fans lightly. + +"You will let us have the two at seven _pesetas_, senor?" + +Her eyes dance over his confusion. He catches the gleam, laughs back, +throws up his hands. + +"_Bueno_, senorita. At what you please." + +It takes a Spaniard to depict a throng of Spanish ladies,--"fiery +carnations or starry jasmine in their hair, cheeks like blush roses, +eyes black or blue, with lashes quivering like butterflies; cherry +lips, a glance as fickle as the light nod of a flower in the wind, and +smiles that reveal teeth like pearls; the all-pervading fan with its +wordless telegraphy in a thousand colors." In such a throng one sees +not only the typical "eyes of midnight," but those "emerald eyes" +which Cervantes knew, and veritable pansy-colored eyes dancing with +more than pansy mischief. But the voices! In curious contrast to the +tones of Spanish men, soft, coaxing, caressing, the voices of the +women are too often high and harsh, suggesting, in moments of +excitement, the scream of the Andalusian parrot. "O Jesus, what a +fetching hat! The feather, the feather, see, see, see, _see_ the +feather! Mary Most Pure, but it must have cost four or five _pesetas_! +Ah, my God, don't I wish it were mine!" The speaker who gets the lead +in a chattering knot of Spanish women is a prodigy not only of +volubility, but of general muscular action. She keeps time to her +shrill music with hands, fan, elbows, shoulders, eyebrows, knees. She +dashes her sentences with inarticulate whirs and whistles, and +countless pious interjections: _Gracias a Dios! Santa Maria! O Dios +mio!_ The others, out-screamed and out-gesticulated, clutch at her, +shriek at her, fly at her, and still, by some mysterious genius, +maintain courtesy, grace, and dignity through it all. Yet it is true +that the vulgar-rich variety is especially obnoxious among Spaniards. +An overdressed Spanish woman is frightfully overdressed, her voice is +maddening, her gusts of mirth and anger are painfully uncontrolled. +This, however, is the exception, and refinement the rule. + +The legendary Spanish lady is forever sitting at a barred window, or +leaning from a balcony, coquetting with a fan and dropping arch +responses to the "caramel phrases" of her guitar-tinkling cavalier. + + "You're always saying you'd die for me. + I doubt it nevertheless; + But prove it true by dying, + And then I'll answer yes." + +For, loving as they are, Spanish sweethearts take naturally to +teasing. "When he calls me his Butterfly, I call him my Elephant. Then +his eyes are like black fire, for he is ashamed to be so big, but in a +twinkling I can make him smile again." The scorn of these dainty +creatures for the graces of the ruling sex is not altogether affected. +I shall not forget the expression with which a Sevillian belle, an +exquisite dancer, watched her _novio_ as, red and perspiring, he flung +his stout legs valiantly through the mazes of the _jota_. "Men are +uglier than ever when they are dancing, aren't they?" she remarked to +me with all the serenity in the world. And a bewitching maiden in +Madrid, as I passed some favorable comment upon the photographs of her +two brothers, gave a deprecatory shrug. "Handsome? _Ca!_" (Which is +_no_ many times intensified.) "But they are not so ugly, either,--_for +men_." + +The style of compliment addressed by _caballeros_ to senoritas is not +like "the quality of mercy," but very much strained indeed. "Your eyes +are two runaway stars, that would rather shine in your face than in +heaven, but your heart is harder than the columns of Solomon's temple. +Your father was a confectioner and rubbed your lips with honey-cakes." +Little Consuelo, or Lagrimas, or Milagros, or Dolores, or Peligros +laughs it off, "Ah, now you are throwing flowers." + +The _coplas_ of the wooer below the balcony are usually sentimental. + + "By night I go to the patio, + And my tears in the fountain fall, + To think that I love you so much, + And you love me not at all." + + "Sweetheart, little Sweetheart! + Love, my Love! + I can't see thy eyes + For the lashes above. + Eyes black as midnight, + Lashes black as grief! + O, my heart is thirsty + As a summer leaf." + + "If I could but be buried + In the dimple of your chin, + I would wish, Dear, that dying + Might at once begin." + + "If thou wilt be a white dove, + I will be a blue. + We'll put our bills together + And coo, coo, coo." + +Sometimes the sentiment is relieved by a realistic touch. + + "Very anxious is the flea, + Caught between finger and thumb. + More anxious I, on watch for thee, + Lest thou shouldst not come." + +And occasionally the lover, flouted overmuch, retorts in kind. + + "Don't blame me that eyes are wet, + For I only pay my debt. + I've taught you to cry and fret, + But first you taught me to forget." + + "I'll not have you, Little Torment, + I don't want you, Little Witch. + Let your mother light four candles + And stand you in a niche." + +The average Spaniard is well satisfied with his senora as she is. He +did her extravagant homage as a suitor, he treats her with kindly +indulgence as a husband, but he expects of her a life utterly bounded +by the _casa_. "What is a woman?" we heard one say. "A bottle of +wine." And those few words tell the story why, with all their charm, +home-love, and piety, the Spanish women have not availed to keep the +social life of the Peninsula sound and sweet. + + "But to admire them as our gallants do, + 'Oh, what an eye she hath! Oh, dainty hand! + Rare foot and leg!' and leave the mind respectless, + This is a plague that in both men and women + Makes such pollution of our earthly being." + +The life of the convent is attractive to girls of mystic temperament, +like the _Maria_ of Valdes, but many of these lively daughters of the +sun regard it with frank disfavor. One of the songs found in the +mouths of little girls all over the Peninsula is amusingly expressive +of the childish aversion to so dull a destiny. + + "I wanted to be married + To a sprightly barber-lad, + But my parents wished to put me + In the convent dim and sad. + + "One afternoon of summer + They walked me out in state, + And as we turned a corner, + I saw the convent gate. + + "Out poured all the solemn nuns + In black from toe to chin, + Each with a lighted candle, + And made me enter in. + + "The file was like a funeral; + The door shut out the day; + They sat me on a marble stool + And cut my hair away. + + "The pendants from my ears they took, + And the ring I loved to wear, + But the hardest loss of all to brook + Was my mat of raven hair. + + "If I run out to the garden + And pluck the roses red, + I have to kneel in church until + Twice twenty prayers are said. + + "If I steal up to the tower + And clang the convent bell, + The holy Abbess utters words + I do not choose to tell. + + "My parents, O my parents, + Unkindly have you done, + For I was never meant to be + A dismal little nun." + +I came but slightly in contact with Spanish nuns. Among the figures +that stand out clear in memory are a kindly old sister, at Seville, in +the _Hospital de la Caridad_, who paused midway in her exhibition of +the famous Murillos there to wipe her eyes and grieve that we were +Protestants, and an austere, beautiful woman in _La Cuna_, or +Foundling Asylum of Seville, who caressed a crying baby with the +passionate tenderness of motherhood denied. The merriest Spanish +_hermana_ of our acquaintance we encountered on the French side of the +Pyrenees. At Anglet, halfway between Biarritz and Bayonne, is the +Convent of the Bernardines, Silent Sisters. The visitor sees them only +from a distance, robed in white flannel, with large white crosses +gleaming on the back of their hooded capes. These, too, were +originally white, and the hoods so deep that not even the profile of +the features could be seen; but the French Government, disturbed by +the excessive death-rate in this order, recently had the audacity to +interfere and give summary orders that the hoods be cut away, so that +the healthful sunshine might visit those pale faces. The mandate was +obeyed, but, perhaps in sign of mournful protest, the new hoods and +capes are black as night. These women Trappists may recite their +prayers aloud, as they work in field or garden, or over their +embroidery frames, but they speak for human hearing only once a year, +when their closest family friends may visit them and listen through a +grating to what their disused voices may yet be able to utter. From +all other contact with the world they are shielded by an outpost guard +of a few of the Servants of Mary, an industrious, self-supporting +sisterhood, whose own convent, half a mile away, is a refuge for +unwedded mothers and a home for unfathered children. Hither the +pitying sisters brought, a few days before our visit, a wild-eyed girl +whom they had found lying on one of the sea rocks, waiting for the +rising tide to cover her and her shame together. The chief treasure of +this nunnery, one regrets to add, is the polished skull of Mary +Magdalene. + +That one of the Servants of Mary who showed us over the Trappist +convent was a bright-eyed Spanish dame of many winters, as natural a +chatterbox as ever gossiped with the neighbors in the sun. Her glee in +this little opportunity for conversation was enough to wring the heart +of any lover of old ladies. She walked as slowly as possible and +detained us on every conceivable pretext, reaching up on her rheumatic +tiptoes to pluck us red and white camellias, and pointing out, with a +lingering garrulity, the hardness of the cots in the bare, cold little +cells, the narrowness of the benches in the austere chapel, and, in +the cheerless dining room, the floor of deep sand, in which the +Bernardines kneel throughout their Friday dinner of bread and water. +Longest of all, she kept us in the cemetery, all spick and span, with +close-set rows of nameless graves, each with a cross shaped upon it in +white seashells. The dear old soul, in her coarse blue gown, with tidy +white kerchief and neatly darned black hood and veil, showed us the +grave of her own sister, adding, proudly, that her four remaining +sisters were all cloistered in various convents of Spain. + +"All six of us nuns," she said, "but my brother--no! He has the +dowries of us all and lives the life of the world. Just think! I have +two nephews in Toledo. I have never seen them. My sister's grave is +pretty, is it not? They let me put flowers there. Oh, there are many +families in Spain like ours, where all the daughters are put into +convents. Spain is a very religious country. The sons? Not so often. +Sometimes, when there is a conscription, many young men become priests +to escape military service but it is the women who are most devout in +Spain." + +And after the rustic gate was shut on the sleeping-place of the +Bernardines, scarcely more silent and more dead beneath the sod than +above it, she still detained us with whispered hints of distinguished +Spanish ladies among those ghostly, far-off figures that, pitchfork or +pruning knife in hand, would fall instantly upon their knees at the +ringing of the frequent bell for prayers. Spanish ladies, too, had +given this French convent many of its most costly treasures. We said +good-by to our guide near an elaborate shrine of the Madonna, which a +bereaved Spanish mother had erected with the graven request that the +nuns pray for the soul of her beloved dead. + +"Even we Servants of Mary are not allowed to talk much here," said in +parting this most sociable of saints, clinging to us with a +toil-roughened, brown old hand. "It is a holy life, but quiet--very +quiet. I have been here forty-four years this winter. My name is +Sister Solitude." + +The nun whom I knew best was an exquisite little sister just back from +Manila. During several months I went to her, in a Paris convent, twice +or three times a week, for Spanish lessons. The reception room in +which I used to await her coming shone not as with soap and water, but +as with the very essence of purity. The whiteness of the long, fine +curtains had something celestial about it. The only book in sight, a +bundle of well-worn leaves bound in crimson plush and placed with +precision in the centre of the gleaming mahogany table, was a volume +of classic French sermons,--the first two being on Demons, and the +next on Penance. Further than this I never read; for very punctually +the slight figure, in violet skirt and bodice, with a white cross +embroidered upon the breast, swept softly down the hall. A heavy +purple cord and a large-beaded rosary depended from the waist. In +conversation she often raised her hand to press her ring, sign of her +sacred espousals, to her lips. Her type of face I often afterward saw +in Spain, but never again so perfect. Her complexion was the richest +southern brown, the eyes brightening in excitement to vivid, flashing +black. The eyebrows, luxuriant even to heaviness, were nevertheless +delicately outlined, and the straight line of the white band +emphasized their graceful arch. The nose was massive for a woman's +face, and there was a slight shading of hair upon the upper lip. The +mouth and chin, though so daintily moulded, were strong. Not the +meek, religious droop of the eyelids could mask the fire, vigor, +vitality, intensity, that lay stored like so much electricity behind +the tranquil convent look. + +We would go for the lesson to a severe little chamber, whose only +ornament was a crucifix of olive wood fastened against the wall. Then +how those velvet eyes would glow and sparkle in the eagerness of +rushing speech! The little sister loved to tell of her Manila +experience, almost a welcome break, I fancied, in the monotonous peace +of cloister life. All that Sunday morning, when the battle was on, the +nuns maintained their customary services, hearing above their prayers +and chants and the solemn diapason of the organ, the boom, boom, boom +of our wicked American cannon. For, according to this naive historian, +Catholic Spain, best beloved of Our Lady among the nations of the +earth, had labored long in the Philippines to Christianize the +heathen, when suddenly, in the midst of those pious labors with which +she was too preoccupied to think of fitting out men-of-war and +drilling gunners, a pirate fleet bore down upon her and overthrew at +once the Spanish banner and the Holy Cross. Tears sparkled through +flame as the _hermanita_ told of her beautiful convent home, now half +demolished. The sisters did not abandon it until six weeks after the +battle, but as the nunnery stood outside the city walls, their +superior judged it no safe abode for Spanish ladies, and ordered them +away. The French consul arranged for their transport to Hongkong on a +dirty little vessel, where they had to stay on deck, the twenty-seven +of them, during their week's voyage, suffering from lack of proper +shelter and especially from thirst, the water supply running short the +second day out. But all this was joy of martyrdom. + +"Is not Hongkong a very strange city?" I asked. "Did it seem to you +more like Manila than like Paris and Madrid?" + +The little sister's voice was touched with prompt rebuke. + +"You speak after the fashion of the world. All cities look alike to +us. Ours is the life of the convent. It matters nothing where the +convent stands." + +Stimulated by reproof, I waxed impertinent. "Not even if it stands +within range of the guns? Now, truly, truly, were you not the least +bit frightened that morning of the battle?" + +The sunny southern smile was a fleeting one, and left a reminiscent +shadow in the eyes. + +"Frightened? Oh, no! There were no guns between us and Paradise. From +early dawn we heard the firing, and hour after hour we knelt before +the altar and prayed to the Mother of God to comfort the souls of the +brave men who were dying for _la patria_; but we were not frightened." + +There were strange jostlings of ideas in that cloistered cell, +especially when the dusk had stolen in between our bending faces and +the Spanish page. + +Once we talked of suicide. That morning it had been a wealthy young +Parisian who had paid its daily tribute to the Seine. + +"What a horror!" gasped the little sister, clasping her slender hands +against her breast. "It is a mortal sin. And how foolish! For if life +is hard to bear, surely perdition is harder." + +"It does not seem to me so strange in case of the poor," I responded, +waiving theology. "But a rich man, though his own happiness fails, +has still the power of making others happy." + +"Ah, but I understand!" cried Little Manila, her eyes like stars in +the dimness. "The devil does not see truth as the blessed spirits do, +but sees falsehoods even as the world. And so in his blindness he +believes the soul of a rich man more precious than the souls of the +poor, and tempts the rich man more than others. Yet when the devil has +that soul, will he find it made of gold?" + + [Illustration: MADRID ROYAL PALACE] + +One chilly November afternoon, gray with a fog that had utterly +swallowed the Eiffel Tower above its first huge uprights, which +straddled disconsolately like legs forsaken of their giant, she +explained in a sudden rush of words why Spain had been worsted in the +war with America. + +"Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. As with persons, so with +nations. Those that are not of His fold He gives over to their fill of +vainglory and greed and power, but the Catholic nations He cleanses +again and again in the bitter waters of defeat--ah, in fire and blood! +Yet the end is not yet. The rod of His correction is upon Spain at +this hour, and the Faithful are glad in the very heart of sorrow, for +even so shall her sins be purged away, even so shall her coldness be +quickened, even so shall she be made ready for her everlasting +recompense." + +"And the poor Protestant nations?" I asked, between a smile and a +sigh. + +The little sister smiled back, but the Catholic eyes, for all their +courtly graciousness, were implacable. + +She was of a titled family and had passed a petted childhood in +Madrid. There she had been taken, on her seventh birthday, to a +_corrida de toros_, but remembered it unpleasantly, not because of the +torture inflicted on the horses and bulls, but because she had been +frightened by the great beasts, with their tossing horns and furious +bellowing. Horns always made her think of the devil, she said. From +her babyhood she had been afraid of horns. + +One day a mischievous impulse led me to inquire, in connection with a +chat about the Escorial, "And how do you like Philip II?" + +The black eyes shot one ray of sympathetic merriment, but the Spaniard +and the nun were on their guard. + +"He was a very good Catholic," she replied demurely. + +"So was _Isabel la Catolica_," I responded. "But don't you think she +may have been a trifle more agreeable?" + +"Perhaps she was a little more _simpatica_," admitted the _hermanita_, +but that was her utmost concession. She would not even allow that +Philip had a sorry end. + +"If his body groaned, his soul was communing with the Blessed Saints +and paid no heed." + +At the corner of the street which led under the great garden wall to +the heavily barred gate of the convent was a flower-stand. The shrewd, +swift-tongued Madame in charge well knew the look of the unwary, and +usually succeeded in selling me a cluster of drooping blossoms at +twice the value of the fresh, throwing in an extra leaf or stem at the +close of the bargain with an air of prodigal benevolence. The handful +of flowers would be smilingly accepted by the little sister, but +instantly laid aside nor favored with glance or touch until the close +of the visit, when they would be lifted again with a winsome word of +acknowledgment and carried away, probably to spend their sweetness at +the marble feet of the Virgin. In vain I tried to coax from this +scorner of God's earth some sign of pleasure in the flowers +themselves. + +"Don't you care for tea-roses?" "_Ah, el mundo pasa._ But their color +is exquisite." + +Yet her eyes did not turn to the poor posy for the two hours +following. + +"This mignonette has only the grace of sweetness." + +"It is a delicate scent, but it will not last. _El mundo pasa._" + +She held the sprays at arm's length for a moment, and then laid them +down on a mantel at the farther end of the room. + +"I am sorry these violets are not fresher." + +"But no! The touch of Time has not yet found them. Still, it is only a +question of to-morrow. _El mundo pasa._" + +"Yes, the world passes. But is it not good while it lasts?" + +"The world good! No, no, and a thousand times no. Behold it now at the +end of the nineteenth century,--wars and sorrows and bitter +discontents, evil deeds and evil passions everywhere. Do you see the +peace of Christ in the faces on the Paris streets? The blossoms of +this earth, the pleasures of this world, the affections of this life, +all have the taste of death. But here in God's own garden we live even +now His everlasting life." + +"You are always glad of your choice? You never miss the friends of +your childhood?" + +"Glad, glad, glad. Glad of my choice. Glad to see no more the faces of +father and mother. And for them, too, it is great joy. For Catholic +parents it is supreme delight to give up their children to the Holy +Church. The ways of the world are full of slippery places, but when +they leave us here, they know that our feet are set on the very +threshold of heaven." + +Sometimes the slight form shivered in the violet habit, and the dark +foreign face looked out with touching weariness from its frame of soft +white folds. + +"You are cold? You are tired? Will you take my cloak? Were the +children troublesome to-day?" + +It was always the same answer: "_No importa. No importa._ It matters +not. Our life is not the life of flesh and blood." + +And indeed, as I saw her in the Christmas service among the other +Spanish sisters, those lovely figures in white and violet making +obeisance before the altar until their veiled foreheads almost touched +the pavement, bowing and rising again with the music like a field of +lilies swaying in the breeze, I felt that she was already a being of +another world, before she had known this. Over her had been chanted +the prayers for the dead. The strange ceremony of taking the veil had +been her burial rite. The convent seemed a ghost land between earth +and heaven. + +My _hermanita_ belonged to one of the teaching orders, and despite the +strange blanks in her knowledge, for secular lore had been, so far as +possible, excluded from her education, she was representative of the +finer and more intelligent class of Spanish nuns. In Granada I heard +of the nuns chiefly as the makers of those delicious _dulces_, sugared +fruits, which were indispensable to a child's saint-day, and there I +was taught the scoffing epitaph:-- + + "Here lies Sister Claribel, + Who made sweetmeats very well, + And passed her life in pious follies, + Such as dressing waxen dollies." + + [Illustration: THE ROYAL FAMILY] + +To the spinster outside the nunnery Spain has little to offer. Small +heed is paid to her except by St. Elias, who, on one day of Holy Week, +walks about all Seville with a pen in his hand, peering up at the +balconies and making note of the old maids. Since Andalusia expresses +the theory of counterparts by saying, "Every one has somewhere in the +world his half orange," the spinster can hardly hope for a +well-rounded life. Careers are not open to her. There are "advanced +women" in Spain, the most eminent being Emelia Pardo Bazan, novelist, +lecturer, editor, who advocates for women equal educational and +political privileges with men, but who has not yet succeeded in +opening the doors. The voice of Spanish women, nevertheless, is +sometimes heard by Spanish statesmen, as when delegation after +delegation of senoras who had relatives held as prisoners by the +Filipinos invaded the senate-house with petitions until they could no +longer be ignored. + +A more thorough and liberal education for Spanish women is the +pressing need to-day. There is, of course, great lack of primary +schooling. A girl in her late teens, wearing the prettiest of +embroidered aprons and with the reddest of roses in her hair, once +appealed to me in Toledo for help. She had been sent from a +confectioner's to deliver a tray of wheaten rolls at a given address, +and she could read neither the names of streets nor the numbers of +houses. But the higher education will carry the lower with it. Spain +is degenerate in this regard. The Moors used to have at Cordova an +academy for girls, where science, mathematics, and history were +taught. Schools for Spanish girls at present impart little more than +reading and writing, needle-work, the catechism, the four rules of +arithmetic, and some slight notion of geography. French and music, +recognized accomplishments, are learned by daughters of the privileged +class from their governesses or in the convents. Missionary work in +Spain has largely concerned itself with the educational question, and +Mrs. Gulick's project for the establishment of a woman's college in +Madrid, a college without distinction of creed, is the fruit of long +experience. Little by little she has proven the intellectual ability +of Spanish girls. She established the International Institute at San +Sebastian, secured State examination for her _ninas_ and State +recognition of their eminent success, and even won for a few of them +admission to the University of Madrid, where they maintained the +highest rank throughout the course. All that Spanish girls need is +opportunity. + +But if the senoritas are so charming now, with their roses and their +graces and their fans, why not leave them as they are, a page of +mediaeval poetry in this strenuous modern world? If only they were +dolls outright and did not suffer so! When life goes hard with these +high-spirited, incapable creatures, it goes terribly hard. I can see +yet the tears scorch in the proud eyes of three undowered sisters, +slaving at their one art of embroidery from early till late for the +miserable pittance that it brought them. "We shall rest when we are +dead," said the youngest. The absolute lack of future for these brave, +sensitive girls, well-born, well-bred, naturally as keen as the +keenest, but more ignorant, in matters of common education, than the +children of our lowest grammar grade, is heart-breaking. If such girls +were stupid, shallow, coarse, it would be easier; but the Spanish type +is finely strung. Once I saw an impulsive beauty fly into that gust of +angry passion which Spaniards term the _rabia espanola_. A clumsy, +well-intentioned young Austrian had said a teasing word, and in the +fraction of a second the girl, overwrought with secret toils and +anxieties, was in a tempest of tears; but the wrath that blazed across +them burned the offender crimson. The poor fellow sent for his case of +choice Asturian cider, cooling in the balcony, read the evening news +aloud and discoursed on the value of self-control, but not even these +tactful attentions could undo, for that evening at least, the work of +his blundering jest. The girl flashed away to her chamber, her +handkerchief bitten through and through, and the quick fierce sound of +her sobs came to me across the hall deep into the night. + +Wandering over Spain I found everywhere these winning, vivid, helpless +girls, versed in needlework and social graces, but knowing next to +nothing of history, literature, science, all that pertains to +intellectual culture. Some were hungry to learn. More did not dream of +the world of thought as a possible world for them. Among these it was +delightful to meet, scattered like precious seed throughout the +Peninsula, the graduates of the International Institute. So far as a +stranger could see, education had enhanced in them the Spanish +radiance and charm, while arming these with wisdom, power, and +resource. + + + + +XXII + +ACROSS THE BASQUE PROVINCES + + "The Oak Tree of Guernica + Within its foliage green + Embraces the bright honor + Of all the Basque demesne. + For this we count thee holy, + Our ancient seal and sign; + The fibres of our freedom + Are interlaced with thine. + + "Castile's most haughty tyrants + Beneath thy solemn shade + Have sworn to keep the charter + Our fearless fathers made; + For noble on our mountains + Is he who yokes the ox, + And equal to a monarch + The shepherd of the flocks." + --_National Song of the Basques._ + + +It did not seem to me historically respectful to take leave of Spain +without having made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santiago. A +dauntless friend crossed the sea to bear me company. Hygienic pilgrim +that she is, she came equipped not with cockle shells and sandal +shoon, but with sleeping bags, coffee, and cereals. Many a morning, in +traversing those northern provinces, where the scenery was better than +the breakfast, we blessed her boxes of "grape nuts," and many a night, +doomed to penitential beds, we were thankful to intrench ourselves +against the stings and arrows of outrageous insects in those spacious +linen bags, that gather close about the neck, or, when dangers +thicken, above the head, leaving only a loophole for the breath. + +Our point of departure was that city of nature's fancy-work, San +Sebastian. Then, in the early half of July, it was all alive with +expectancy, looking every day for the coming of the Court. It is +reputed to be the cleanest town of the Peninsula, and is, in truth, as +bright as a wave-washed pebble. Nevertheless, it is a favorite waltz +hall of the fleas, which shamelessly obtrude themselves even into +conversation. + +The chief summer industry of San Sebastian is sea-bathing. The +soldiers begin it at six o'clock in the morning, marching by regiments +down to the Concha, clearing for action, and striking out into the +gentle surf, all in simultaneous obedience to successive words of +command. Some two hours later teams of oxen draw scores of jaunty +bathing cars down near the white lip of this opalescent shell of +water, and there the long day through all ages, sizes, and ranks of +humanity sport in the curling foam or swim far out into the sparkling +bay. + +San Sebastian is the capital of Guipuzcoa, one of the three Basque +provinces. These lie among the Cantabrian mountains, and are +delightfully picturesque with wheat-growing valleys and well-wooded +heights. As the train wandered on, in its pensive Spanish fashion, we +found ourselves now in Scotland, in a beautiful waste of heather and +gorse, now amid the English ivy and hawthorn, hearing the song of the +English robin, and now in our own New England, with the hilly reaches +of apple orchards and the fields upon fields of tasselled Indian +maize. + +The Basques are a thrifty folk, and have cultivated their scant acres +to the utmost. The valleys are planted with corn, the lower hills are +ridged and terraced for a variety of crops. Above are walnuts and +chestnuts, and the flintiest summits serve for pasturage. It was +curious to see men at work on those steep slopes that had been scooped +out into a succession of narrow shelves, and more strange yet to catch +glimpses of peasants ploughing the very mountain top, picturesque +figures against the sky. + +The reaping is of the cleanest. The harvest fields have a neat, +scoured look, as if the women had been over them with scrubbing +brushes. Yet this utilitarian soil admits of oaks and beeches, ferns +and clover, morning glories, dandelions, pimpernel, and daisies. + +All that sunny morning the train swung us blithely on from one charm +of the eyes to another--from a ruined watch-tower, where red-handed +Carlists had crouched, to a bright-kerchiefed maiden singing amid her +beehives; from a range of abrupt peaks, cleft by deep gorges, to +sycamore-shaded byways and poplar-bordered streams; from a village +graveyard, the pathetic little parallelogram enclosed in high gray +walls and dim with cypress shadows, to a tumbling, madcap torrent +spanned by a time-gnawed Roman arch. Shooting the heart of some black +hill, the train would run out on a mere ledge above a valley hamlet, +and from pure inquisitiveness, apparently, ramble all around the +circle, peering down from every point of view on the cluster of great, +patriarchal houses, sometimes of timber and plaster, more often of +stone, where whole clans dwell together under the same red-tiled roof. +Queer old houses these, occasionally topped with blue chimneys, and +now and then with a fantastic coat of arms sculptured over the door, +or a fresco of saints and devils blazoned all across the front. +Sometimes freshly whitewashed, these Basque houses have more often a +weather-worn, dingy look, but, however black the timbers, lines of +clean linen flutter airily from roofs and balconies. + +They are a decent, self-respecting, prosperous people, these Basque +mountaineers, of whose history my companion told me stirring tales. +They are supposed, though not without dispute, to be the oldest race +in Europe, descendants of those original Iberians whom the +westward-trooping Aryans drove into the fastnesses of the Pyrenees. +They have their own language, of Asiatic type. They themselves believe +that it was spoken in the Garden of Eden. There are some twenty-five +dialects of the _Vascuense_, and it is so difficult for foreigners +that even George Borrow spoke it "with considerable hesitation," and +one exhausted student, abandoning the struggle, declared that the +words were all "written Solomon and pronounced Nebuchadnezzar." The +Basques attribute their hardy virtues to the crabbedness of their +speech, telling how the devil, after slaving over their vocabulary for +seven years, had succeeded in learning only three words, and threw up +his lesson in a pet, so that to this day he remains unable to meddle +with their peasant piety. What little literature there is in the +Basque language is naturally of the popular cast--hero songs, dancing +songs, dirges, hymns, and folk-lore. + +The Basques are noted for their passionate love of liberty. The sturdy +peasant is lord of his own rugged farm, and insists on tilling it in +his own primitive way, breaking the soil with rude mattock more often +than with plough. An English engineer, laying a railroad through +Alava, tried his best to make his men abandon their slow, laborious +method of carrying the earth in baskets on their heads. He finally had +all the baskets removed by night, and wheelbarrows left in their +places. But the unalterable Basques set the loaded wheelbarrows on +their heads, and staggered about beneath these awkward burdens until, +for very shame, he had to give them back their baskets. + +The peasant drives over the mountain roads in a ponderous ox-cart, +with two clumsy disks of wood for wheels. The platform is wrought of +rough-hewn beams, five or seven, the middle one running forward to +serve as pole. All the structure, except the iron tires and nails, is +of wood, and the solid wooden wheels, as the massive axle to which +they are riveted turns over and over, make a most horrible squeaking. +It is a sound dear to the peasantry, for they believe the oxen like +it, and, moreover, that it frightens away the devil; but once upon a +time a town of advanced views voted a fine of five dollars for any man +who should bring this musical abomination within its limits. Thereupon +a freeborn Basque rose with the dawn, selected his best carved oaken +yoke, draped the red-stained sheepskin a trifle more carefully than +usual above the patient eyes of his great smooth oxen, and took his +way, "squeakity-squeak, squeakity-squeak," straight to the door of the +_Ayuntamiento_, city hall, where he paid his twenty-five _pesetas_, +and then devoted the rest of the day to driving all about the streets, +squeaking out his money's worth. This is no servile temper, and it was +not until our own generation that the dearly cherished liberties of +the Basques were wrested away. + + [Illustration: THE MANZANARES] + +These warders of the Pyrenees, for the Basques of Navarre and those +now known as French Basques must not be forgotten, did good service in +helping the Visigoths beat back the northward-pressing Moors and the +southward-pressing Franks; but when the Basque provinces of Spain were +incorporated with Leon and Navarre, and later with Castile, the +mountaineers stood stubbornly for their _fueros_, or peculiar rights. + +My comrade's lecture had reached this point, when, finding ourselves +at Amorebieta, in the Province of Vizcaya, or Biscay, we suddenly +descended from the train, and handed our bags to an honest Basque +porter, who deposited them on the floor of an open waiting room, in +full reach of an honest Basque population. For ourselves, we turned +our faces toward the centre of Vizcayan glory, the famous Tree of +Guernica. We entered a rustic train, that seemed entirely undecided +which way to go. The station agent blew a little tin horn, green +meadows and wattled fences began to glide past the car windows, and +the interrupted discourse was resumed. + +The lawmakers of Vizcaya were duly chosen by their fellow-nobles, for +every Basque held the rank of _hidalgo_, or "son of somebody." The +deputies met every two years in the village of Guernica, sitting on +stone benches in the open air beneath the sacred oak, and there +elected the _Senores de Vizcaya_. Even the kings of Spain were allowed +no grander title, but had to come to the Tree of Guernica, at first in +person, later by deputy, and there swear to observe the _fueros_. To +this green shadow came the peasant from his lonely farm-house, high on +the mountainside, to answer before his peers to such charges as might +be brought against him; for within the sanctuary of his home the law +could lay no hand on him or his. + +It was the Carlist wars that changed all this. The _fueros_, of which +a list dating from 1342 is still extant, granted the Basque provinces +a Republican Constitution that almost realized an ideal democracy, +with immunity from taxes save for their own needs, and from military +service beyond their own boundaries. But when the dynastic strife +broke out, the Basques put on the white cap of Don Carlos and bore the +brunt of the conflict. We had already passed through Vergara, where, +in 1839, Espartero ended the first Carlist war by a treaty which +compelled the Basques to lay down their arms. But the cost of this +rebellion was paid in blood. Their political status was practically +unaffected. At the close of the second Carlist war, in 1876, Alfonso +XII signalized his victory by meting out to them a terrible +punishment, abrogating the precious _fueros_ that the Tree of Guernica +had guarded for so many centuries. The Government imposed, moreover, +its salt and tobacco monopolies, and made the Basques subject to +military conscription. At every station we saw Spain's Vizcayan +soldiers, red-capped and red-trousered, with blue-belted frock coats, +under which beat hearts of doubtful loyalty. The son of Alfonso XII +will have to reckon with the Basques, when the third Carlist war shall +be declared, but it may be doubted whether the _fueros_, which Don +Carlos, of course, promises to restore, will ever come home to nest +again in the Guernica Oak. + +My erudite fellow-vagabond was just pointing out the typical shape of +the Basque head, with its broad forehead, long, narrowing face, curved +nose, and pointed chin, when we reached Guernica. Such a sweet and +tranquil village as it is, set in the beauty of the hills, with the +dignity and pathos of its history pervading every hushed, +old-fashioned street! The guide, whom two affable ladies, sharers of +our carriage in the little picnic train, had taken pains to look up +for us at the station, was not, we judged, a favorable specimen of the +haughty Basque _hidalgo_. He was a dull, mumbling, slouchy lad, who +sunk his voice to an awed whisper as we passed the escutcheon-carved +palace of a count. But he led us by pleasant ways to the modern _Casa +de Juntas_, or Senate House, where we were shown the assembly room, +with its altar for mass, the library and other apartments, together +with the portraits of the twenty-six first _Senores de Vizcaya_, from +Lope the Pirate, who forced back the invading Galicians in 840, to the +Infante Don Juan, under whom the Basque provinces were finally +incorporated with Castile. + +Close by the _Casa de Juntas_, which stands in a dreamy bit of park as +fresh and trim as an English cathedral close, rises a pillared +portico. There, where brown-eyed little Basque girls, their brown +braids blowing in the breeze, were dangling green figs above their +laughing mouths, used to sit, on those seven stone seats, the grave +Basque fathers, making laws, meting out judgment, and regulating all +the affairs of this simple mountain republic. The portico, bearing as +joint devices the lion and castle of Spain and the three wolves of +Vizcaya, was formerly enveloped in the leafy shadow of the Sacred +Tree; but what rises behind it now is only the gaunt stem of a +patriarchal oak, a very Abraham of plants, all enclosed in glass, as +if embalmed in its casket. Before the portico, however, grows a lusty +scion, for the Tree of Guernica is of unbroken lineage, shoots being +always cherished to succeed in case the centuried predecessor fail. + +In presence of this despoiled old trunk, majestic with memories, we +felt an honest awe and longed to give it adequate salute. My comrade +levelled her kodak and took front views, back views, and side views +with such spendthrift enthusiasm that the custodian, deeply impressed, +presented her with a dried leaf from the junior, cunningly pricked out +so as to suggest the figure of the tree. The national song of the +Basques, a matter of some dozen stanzas, written principally in "j's," +"rr's," and "tz's," takes its theme, if one may trust the Castilian +translation, from this symbolic oak. + +The historian wished to do nothing more in Guernica but sit and gaze +forever on that spectral trunk, but the reminder that piety was a +hardly less marked Basque characteristic than political independence, +finally induced her to follow our guide to the church. A Basque church +has its distinctive features, including a belfry, a lofty, plain +interior, with galleries, and often a votive ship, gayly painted and +fully rigged, suspended from the ceiling. The lad bore himself with +simple-minded devotion, offering us on stubby finger tips the holy +water and making due obeisance before each gilded shrine. + +But my attention was soon fascinated by a foot-square relief on a blue +ground of Santiago-- + + "Good Saint James upon the milkwhite steed, + Who leaves his bliss to fight for chosen Spain." + +I had hardly anticipated such a stalwart, vigorous, not to say violent +saint, with his white horse galloping, his gold-sandalled feet +gripping the great stirrups, his gold-fringed, crimson robe and azure +mantle streaming on the wind, his terrible sword glittering high in +air. This was clearly not a person to be trifled with, and I looked +about for the historian to tell her that we must be pressing forward +on our pilgrimage. But she had stolen out, every sympathetic Basque +image of the sculptured doorway conspiring to keep a stony silence and +conceal her flight, and had sped back to the Tree of Guernica, from +whose contemplation she was torn away only by a fairy-tale of supper. + +Of the several Basque churches which we visited, including the bridal +church of Louis XIV, far-famed San Juan de Luz, whose sides and west +end are portioned off by three tiers of galleries, fairest in memory +is the sixteenth-century church of Begona in Bilbao. It abounds, as +coast churches should, in suggestions of that mighty, mysterious +neighbor, at once so cruel and so beneficent, the sea. Instead of +votive ships, the walls are hung with paintings of vessels in scenes +of appalling peril. One is scudding madly before a tropical gale; one +has her rigging ragged by hurricane and her decks lashed with tempest; +one, careened upon her side, lies at the mercy of the billows, which +are sweeping over her and tumbling her crew like ninepins into the +deep. But the presence of the pictures, bold dashes of the modern +brush amid dim old paintings of saints and martyrs, tells that Our +Lady of Begona succored her sailors in distress, who, on their safe +return, came hither to offer thanks for their preservation and to +leave these mementos of their danger and her efficient aid. + +"Is your Virgin so very powerful?" we asked of a chorister boy while +he drew the cords to part the curtains that screened the jewelled +image throned in a recess above the high altar. + +"I should rather think she was," answered the little fellow in a glow. +"Why, let me tell you! Robbers, the accursed ones, came here on a dark +midnight to steal her precious stones. They entered by a window, those +sons of wretched mothers, and put up a long ladder against the altar +wall. The wickedest of them all, senoras, he climbed the ladder and +raised his hand to take Our Lady's crown. And in that instant the +great bells overhead began to ring, and all the bells of all Bilbao +pealed with them, and the people waked and came running to the rescue +of Our Lady, and the robbers were put to death." + +Our expression did not quite satisfy his boyish ardor, and he pointed +convincingly toward a handsome silver plaque. "And this, too, +witnesses Our Lady's power. It was given in memory of the cholera +time, when people were dying like flies in all the towns about. But +after Our Lady was carried in procession through the streets of +Bilbao, not one died here, except a sinful man who would not turn his +head to look upon her." + +"That is a painting of the procession, the large picture over there on +the wall?" + +"No, no, senoras. That picture commemorates another of Our Lady's +wonderful deeds. The floods were threatening the city, but Our Lady, +with many censers and candles, was borne down to the river bank, and +she ordered the water to go back, and it obeyed her, and all the town +was saved." + +We retreated to the cloisters, from which one has a superb view of the +valley of the Nervion, for Our Lady of Begona dwells high upon a +hilltop. Only the afternoon before we had been in serene Guernica, a +strange contrast to this mining capital of Vizcaya, this bustling, +noisy, iron-grimed Bilbao, in which the Basques take such delight. It +is not a city to gratify the mere tourist, who expects the people of +the lands through which he is pleased to pass to devote themselves to +looking picturesque. But even Spain is something more than food for +the kodak, and this sooty atmosphere of smelting works and factories, +traffic and commerce, means life to Spanish lungs. It is little to my +credit that I took more interest in the fact that Bilbao used to +supply Shakespeare's cronies with rapiers, under the name of +"bilboes," than in statistics regarding those millions of tons of ore +which its iron mines are now annually exporting to Great Britain. The +many English in Bilbao, miners and artisans, with the influence they +shed around them, make the streets rougher and uglier than in purely +Spanish towns. On the other hand, they bring a spirit of religious +independence, so that it is not strange to find the Spanish +Protestants of Bilbao a numerous and vigorous body, counting as a +pronounced element in the community. + +From the idle peace of the Begona cloisters, as from the old-time +world, we looked long on this Spanish city of to-day, seething with +manifold activities. We seemed to understand how, to the middle-class +Spaniard, hemmed in by all this mediaeval encumbrance of barracks, +cathedrals, castles, and thrones, such cities as Bilbao and Barcelona, +pulsing with industrial energy and enterprise, are "more beautiful +than Beauty's self." The Basques, like the Catalans, take readily to +business. They set their mountain cascades to turning mill-wheels, +they canal their little Nervion till it can give passage to ships of +four thousand tons burden, they paint the night with the flare of +mighty furnaces. Every year they are building more wharves, more +railroads, more electric tramways, and they are so prodigiously proud +of their new iron bridge, with its flying ferry, which whisks +passengers over from Portugalete to Las Arenas at the rate of two +hundred a minute, that they stamp it on their characteristic jewelry. +That cunning Eibar work of the Basque provinces displays again and +again, on locket, bracelet, brooch, this incongruous design of the +_Puente Vizcaya_ beaten on chased steel in gold. + +We looked regretfully out over those significant reaches of land which +we would have liked to explore to the last hearthstone. The Basque +provinces! We had not even set foot in Vitoria, the capital of Alava, +where is preserved the grim old _machete_ by which Basque governors +were sworn into office. "May my head be cut off with this knife," ran +the oath, "if I do not defend the _fueros_ of my fatherland." + +And we longed to attend one of the peasant festivals, to see the lads +play _pelota_ and the lasses step Basque dances to the music of the +village pipers, to hear the wild old marches and battle tunes that +have roused the Roman and the Moor to arms. The mystery plays of the +Basques were famous once, and although these naive dramas are now +mainly confined to Christmas and Easter, who could say that we might +not chance on some saint-day fragment? There was soon to take +place, too, in one of the Vizcayan hamlets a "blessing of the fields," +a processional harvest rite of pagan antiquity, formerly universal in +Spain, but now confined to a few rural districts. We had a hundred +reasons for lingering--but what are reasons? Pilgrims of St. James +must put fresh peas in their shoes and be off for Compostela. + + [Illustration: SPANISH CEMETERY] + + + + +XXIII + +IN OLD CASTILE + + "With three thousand men of Leon from the city Bernard goes, + To protect the soil Hispanian from the spear of Frankish foes; + From the city which is planted in the midst between the seas, + To preserve the name and glory of old Pelayo's victories. + + "The peasant hears upon his field the trumpet of the knight,-- + He quits his team for spear and shield and garniture of might; + The shepherd hears it 'mid the mist,--he flingeth down his crook, + And rushes from the mountain like a tempest-troubled brook." + --LOCKHART: _Spanish Ballads_. + + +The journey from Bilbao to Santander is a continuous glory of mountain +views. The train runs saucily along under beetling crags, whence the +gods of the hills may well look down in wonder and displeasure on this +noisy invasion of their solitude. We almost saw those ancient +majesties folding themselves grandly in mantles of purple shadow, but +hardly less royal in bearing were the muffled figures of the lonely +shepherds tending their flocks on the very summits. + +The modern Province of Santander is the renowned Montana, the mountain +lair which nourished the chivalry of Old Castile, and from which they +made wild sallies to the south, troop after troop, generation after +generation, until the Moorish standards were beaten back from the +plains about Toledo to the Sierras of Andalusia. Its capital city, +Santander, named from St. Andrew, was one of the four coast towns +which rendered signal service to Fernando in the conquest of Seville. +These towns, lying as they did over against the Cinque Ports of +England, came into so frequent conflict with British mariners as to be +made in the days of Edward III the subject of a special treaty. + +A summer resort, however, is a summer resort the world over, and we +found the historic city, which has gracefully fitted itself to the +curve of its beautiful bay, crowded with idle people, elaborately +dressed, who sat long at the noonday breakfast, and longer yet at the +evening dinner, and then longest of all on the benches in the park, +where bands clashed and fireworks flared, until the very stars began +to blink for sleepiness. + +Spaniards have a veritable passion for pyrotechnics, and our dreams +until the dawn would be punctuated by the airy report of rockets, as +if, so Galdos suggests, "the angels were cracking nuts in the sky." +Every now and then in those soft warm nights there rose a shout of +song from the street, and peeping down from the balcony, we would see +half a dozen lads and lasses leaping along through the middle of the +road, all abreast and hand in hand, in one of their boisterous peasant +dances. + +There are no fewer dangers and sorrows for girls in Spain than in the +other Latin lands. In the low-vaulted, mighty-pillared, deep-shadowed +crypt under the old cathedral, a crypt that is the very haunt of +religious mystery and dread, we came upon a penitent kneeling before +the altar, a bit of written paper pinned to her back. In a stir of the +chill air this fluttered to the ground, and as she, unconscious of +its loss, bowed herself before another shrine, we picked up the paper +with a half thought of restoring it; but seeing in the first glance +that it was a rudely written prayer, entreating the Virgin's pity and +pardon for her lover and herself, we let it fall again at Mary's feet. +All manner of thank-offerings, waxen limbs, eyes, and ears, were hung +in these candle-lit recesses, little spaces of gold amid the gloom. We +had grown accustomed to such fragments of anatomy in the shop-windows, +where even votive stomachs are displayed for sale. + +Although Santander is a dawdler's paradise, the residents of the city +to whom we had letters were no holiday makers, but Spaniards of the +earnest, thoughtful, liberal type, busy with large tasks of their own, +but never too busy, being Spaniards, to show unstinted kindness to the +strangers within their gates. Our brief stay did not admit of a tithe +of the excursions they had in mind for us, but my comrade achieved a +trip to Santillana del Mar, birthplace of the doughty Gil Blas. + +In the latest version of her adventures, she set forth from Santander +under the bluest of skies, in company with the most bewitching of +senoritas. They left the train at Torrelavega, where the shade of +Garci Laso, one of King Pedro's victims, would doubtless have welcomed +them, had not their attention been taken up with a picturesque +coachman, who was standing dreamily on the station platform. This +Adonis proved a complete paragon, who, as they took their romantic +course over the hills, delightedly pointed out ivied tower, broken +portcullis, and the like, as tidbits for the kodak. + +Santillana is the shrine of Santa Juliana, a Roman martyr, whose body +is said to have been carried thither in the ninth century. Her +devotees among the mountain wilds built her in this green valley, +overhung by a rude old fortress, a precious church, a jewel of the +early Romanesque, about whose walls a thriving community soon +gathered. Santillana was throughout the Middle Ages the most important +place between Burgos and Oviedo, and gave name to all that part of the +Montana. The successive Marquises of Santillana were then great +personages in Spain, playing a leading part at Court. One of the +proudest families of Old Castile, they claimed descent from the Cid, +and cherished the memory of another heroic ancestor, who, in 1385, +sacrificed his life to save his king. + + "'Your horse is faint, my King, my Lord! your gallant horse is + sick,-- + His limbs are torn, his breast is gored, on his eye the film is + thick; + Mount, mount on mine, O mount apace, I pray thee mount and fly! + Or in my arms I'll lift your Grace,--their trampling hoofs are + nigh! + + * * * * * + + "'Nay, never speak; my sires, Lord King, received their land from + yours, + And joyfully their blood shall spring, so be it thine secures; + If I should fly, and thou, my King, be found among the dead, + How could I stand 'mong gentlemen, such scorn on my gray head?' + + * * * * * + + "So spake the brave Montanez, Butrago's lord was he; + And turned him to the coming host in steadfastness and glee; + He flung himself among them, as they came down the hill,-- + He died, God wot! but not before his sword had drunk its fill." + +The city of Santillana, whose lords once laid claim to the sovereignty +of Santander, has shrunk to a forgotten village, and the neglected +church is dropping into ruins; but the inhabitants have abated not a +jot of that fierce local patriotism which blinds the provincial +Spaniard to all defects of his birthplace and to all excellences of +rival towns. A graybeard told the stranger ladies that Santillana was +the oldest city in Spain and its cathedral the most beautiful. This +latter statement they were almost ready to accept, so richly carven +was the yellow stone and so harmonious the proportions of nave and +aisle. When they arrived at this miniature Durham they found it closed +and silent, with three little boys sleeping on the steps. Through the +benevolence of the ever present Spanish loafers, the sacristan was +sought out and a ragged escort formed for their progress from chapel +to chapel, where rare old pictures and frescos glowed across the dusk. +Best of all were the venerable cloisters, weed-grown and tumble-down, +but lovely as a mediaeval dream with mellow-tinted arch and column, and +with capitals of marvellous device. This crumbling church still keeps +a dazzling hoard of treasures. All the front of the high altar is +wrought of solid silver, the reredos is a miracle of art, and the +paintings of old masters that moulder here unseen would long since in +any other land than Catholic Spain have been the spoils of gallery and +museum. + +The cathedral stands just outside the town, whose narrow, crooked +streets daunted the carriage; but these enthusiastic sightseers were +all the better pleased to foot the flagging that many a clinking tread +had worn and to touch on either side, with their extended hands, the +fortresslike houses built of heavy stone and dimly emblazoned with +fierce armorial bearings. These grim dwellings were gladdened by the +grace of vine-clad balconies, where children frolicked and women +crooned quaint melodies over their needlework. + + "Will no one tell me what she sings? + Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow + For old, unhappy, far-off things + And battles long ago." + +The inn was merely the customary Spanish _venta_, rough and poor, the +darkness of whose long, low room clouds of tobacco smoke from clumps +of gambling muleteers were making blacker yet; but lemonade was served +to the ladies in the open porch with a charm of cordial courtesy far +beyond Delmonico's. + +As they quaffed this modest refreshment and watched the shifting +groups about the _venta_, which seemed the centre of the social life, +there suddenly appeared upon the scene a ghost from the modern world, +an everyday gentleman in a straw hat, as citified and up to date as if +he had that moment stepped out of a Madrid cafe. All the loungers +within and without the _venta_ sprang to their feet, bared their +heads, and bowed low to this anachronism with so profound a deference +that the tourists began to wonder if the irrepressible Gil Blas had +come alive again. Not he! This was the Marquis of Santillana, bearing +under his arm instead of a sword a bundle of newspapers. The first +Marquis of Santillana had been a famous warrior and troubadour. This +latest "inheritor of old renown," seating himself in the midst of his +thronging vassals, graciously proceeded, much like a University +Extension lecturer, to read aloud, with simple explanations, the news +of the day. Such is the final form of _noblesse oblige_ in the feudal +valley of Santillana. + +We were tempted to hunt out other nooks and eyries in the mountains of +Santander, to see something of the famous sardine fisheries, to drive +along the many-storied coast all the way to Gijon, paying our respects +in passing to a noble oak of Asturias, one of the three largest trees +of Europe; but always the uplifted sword of St. James drove us on. If +we would reach Compostela in season for the annual _fiesta de +Santiago_, there was no time to lose. So, in default of a nearer +railway connection, we started due south for Palencia. Our route ran +at first through a land of hills, maize, and stone walls that might +have been New England, except for the women scratching away in the +hay-fields, and politely saluting the train with a flourish of their +pitchforks. + +Then more and more the landscape became Spanish. Little stone hamlets +dozed in ever shallower valleys, mule trains and solitary horsemen +moved slowly down poplar-bordered highways, white as chalk; there was +a slumbering peasant for every speck of shade. But while the men took +their siestas, often sleeping where the drowsiness had befallen them, +with arm thrown about the wooden plough or with head pillowed on the +thrashing roller, there were always women at work--figures clad in the +very colors of the harvest, red and gold and purple, binding sheaves, +sweeping the fields with stout brush brooms, tending flocks and herds +by the rivers, following stray sheep over the hills, with only a +handkerchief at the most to protect their heads from the terrible +noonday sun. As the afternoon wore on, we found ourselves in the +melancholy reaches of brown Castilian plain, with the adobe towns, +the miserable mud villages, open-air threshing floors, and arid, +silent, Oriental look. + + [Illustration: TOLEDO] + +The only cloud in sight was that which rested for a moment on my +comrade's face. She had so newly come from our clean and wholesome +fatherland that certain features of the Spanish inns still shook her +high serenity of soul, and she had suddenly discovered that Baedeker +significantly characterized the Palencia hotel as "an indifferent +Spanish house." In the discreet language of our excellent guidebook +this was no less than a note of warning, a signal of alarm. But even +Baedeker is fallible, and on arriving at the _Gran Hotel Continental_, +we were met by all the Castilian dignity and grave kindliness of +greeting, and led to rooms whose floors shone with oil and scrubbing, +whose curtains, towels, and sheeting were white as mountain snow, and +whose furnishings were resplendent with two dozen chairs upholstered +in orange satin. We seated ourselves in rapture on one saffron throne +after another, drank fresh milk from polished glasses, and slept, for +this only night of all our Santiago pilgrimage, the sleep of the +unbitten. A sweet-voiced _sereno_ intoning the hours set our dreams to +music. + +The following morning we spent in the cathedral, which, though of +plain exterior, except for the many-imaged "Door of the Bishop," is +all lightness, grace, and symmetry within. The organ was pealing and +women were kneeling for the mass as we went softly down the +high-vaulted nave, our spirits played upon now by the dignity of +pointed arches and of clustered columns and now by delicate beauties +in tracery and carving. Only here and there were we aware of a jarring +note, as in chancing upon a great crucifix whose Christ was decked +out in two elegant lace petticoats and a white silk crinoline +embroidered over with silver thread. + +When the chant had died away, an affectionate old sacristan, in a +curious red and black coat, delivered us with sundry farewell pats and +pinches over to the charge of a subordinate, who proceeded to display +the hidden treasures. These are far from overwhelming, after the +glittering hoards of Burgos, Seville, and Toledo, but they are as odd +an assortment as sacristy ever sheltered. There was an absurd portrait +of Charles I, a freak of foreshortening. At first sight it seemed to +be the skeleton of a fish, but on viewing it through a peephole the +creature had become a human face. Even so, it was hardly a flattering +likeness of the founder of the Austrian line; but as it was Charles I +who stripped Palencia of her original powers and dignities, one would +not expect to find him complimented here. + +We turned our attention to the vestments, which, though few, are +peculiarly artistic, with devices, stitched in gold thread and in +jewel reds and greens, of pomegranates, roses, ecclesiastical coats of +arms, angels, Maries, Nativities, and Adorations. These were +appropriate enough, but even our reserved conductor, a monastic youth +who wore a white, openwork tunic over his black suit, smiled +disdainfully as he put before us a time-yellowed ivory box arabesqued +with men and lions, the jewel casket of some pet sultana. "But why +should it be here?" He shrugged his shoulders. "In truth, it is not +holy--a woman's thing! Nor do I know how it came to us, but what we +have we keep." + +The sacristy certainly seems to have kept more than its share of +_custodias_. Our guide first brought out a dainty structure, where +grieving angels uplift the cross, and the Sufferer's halo is wrought +of pearls and gems. This was replaced by another, a marvel of +goldsmith's craft, turreted and crocketed with fine gold, while all +about the base are figured Annunciations, Visitations, and other +mysteries. Rich as they were, neither of these could compare with that +famous pyx of the Escorial, inlaid with ten thousand precious stones. +Then our conductor took us with a mighty turning of monster keys, +pulling of rusty bolts, and fall of clanging chains, to see the +supreme _custodia_ of all, one great dazzle of silver from fretted +base to dome and pinnacle, save as among the Corinthian columns of the +first stage glisten golden forms of the Apostles, and of the second, +winged shapes of cherubim and seraphim. This shining tower, some three +or four centuries old, is beheld by Palencia only on Corpus Christi +Day, when, holding at its heart the golden monstrance which holds the +Host, it passes as a triumphal car throughout the city. Priests +walking on either side make a feint of drawing it by tasselled cords, +but "little would it budge for that," said our guide, in high disdain, +opening a door in the frame beneath to reveal the benches where strong +men sit concealed and toil at a motor crank. He had much more to show +us, including precious old tapestries of the Netherlands, and a St. +Katharine by Zurbaran, with a light on the kneeling figure as pure and +bright as a moonbeam; but we had to press the fee on his Castilian +pride, when at last the vulgarity of luncheon summoned us away. + +For the historian, basking in this last smile of civilization, the +afternoon passed blissfully among the orange chairs, but I sallied +forth once more, attended by our benignant landlady. The rays of the +sun flashed down like deadly arrows and I had pleaded for a carriage, +but longed to beg its pardon when it came, so faded, rheumatic, and +yet august was that fat old chariot, groaning and tottering as it +rolled, but lowering the pomp of a velvet-carpeted staircase whenever +we desired to alight. + +Our progress made a grand sensation in those drowsy streets and +squares, a retinue soon gathered, and nobody seemed surprised when, +after a round of Jesuit and Dominican churches, we drew up before the +madhouse. I had wished to look upon this building, because it is +reputed to have been a dwelling of the Cid; but the hero of Castile +was as unknown to my gentle escort as to the medical priest whom she +must needs call forth to meet me, or to the hapless lunatics whom he, +in turn, insisted on my seeing. A town which had forgotten its chief +citizen naturally fails to keep on sale photographs of its cathedral, +so we packed our memories in default of anything more substantial and +took the evening train to the northwest. + +Four hours of hushed, moonlit plain, and then Leon! This is a name of +thrilling memories, and we stepped out into the midnight silence of +that once royal capital whose kingdom "stretched from the Atlantic +Ocean to the Rhone," so awed that even a rickety 'bus, and a smuggler +who tried to hide his trunk behind our honest luggage, hardly broke +the spell. My comrade, still new to Spanish ways, had fears that the +illustrated card which I had forgotten to stamp would not have reached +the hotel. She asked me why I did not telegraph; but some days later, +when we sent a telegram at noon, took a way-train at five, and reached +our destination at ten, simultaneously with the telegram which I might +as well have brought in my pocket, she was set free from New World +prejudices. The unstamped card went through without question, a +picture of a pretty mountain maid being quite as acceptable to the +postal clerks as the portrait of their young king. + +We were expected at the hotel, the best in town, but so dirty and +malodorous that we would better have camped under the stars. There had +been some attempt to sweep the floor of our dingy chamber, as we could +see by comparing it with stairs and corridors. Sour milk and sour +bread were served with a compensating sweetness of manner, but the +experiences of that night belong to oblivion. + +The joy of the morning! Guided by a shy little scullery lad, smooched +of face and ragged of raiment, but with all the instincts of a +cavalier, we stepped out into those stately streets, with their +haughty old houses, balconies, coats of arms, arches, and battlements, +as into an animated picture book. It was Saturday, and the town was +all astir with peasants come to market, every peasant as good as a +romance. Such brightness of figured kerchiefs, homespun petticoats, +trunk hose, jackets, sashes! The little girls were quaintest of all, +dressed precisely like their mammas, even to those brilliant skirts +edged with one color and slashed with another. Many of the women were +carrying loads of greens, others plucked fowls, and some had indignant +chickens, in full possession of chicken faculties, snuggled under the +arm. + +As the chief city in a far reach of luxuriant plain, Leon becomes the +focus, every Saturday, of flocks of sheep, droves of pigs, and herds +of cattle, together with innumerable mules and donkeys bringing in +grain, fruit, and all manner of garden produce. We chanced upon the +market itself in the arcaded _Plaza Mayor_, under shadow of the +towered court-house, with the tapering spire of the cathedral +overlooking all. The great square hummed like a beehive and sparkled +with shifting color like a field of butterflies. We found ourselves +first in the bread market. Under wide umbrellas of canvas set on poles +women were perched high on wooden benches, with their gayly shod feet +supported on stools. Beside each woman, on her rude seat, was a +brightly woven basket heaped with the horny Spanish loaves. Close by +was the fruit market, with its piles of red and purple plums, pears, +grapes, green peppers, lemons, and, beyond, patches of melons, +cucumbers, cabbages, potatoes, beans, and that staff of Spanish life, +chick pease, or _garbanzos_. + +The meat market appeared to be itinerant. A man in blue blouse, short +brown breeches, and dove-colored hose adorned with green tassels, was +leading a cow by its crumpled horn; an old woman, with giant silver +hoops in her ears, a lavender shawl knotted about her body, her +scarlet skirt well slashed so as to show the gamboge petticoat +beneath, and so short for all its purple frill as to display the +clockwork of her variegated stockings, was carrying a black lamb, +nestled like a baby in her arms; another walking rainbow bore a live +turkey; and a lad, whose rosy-hued kerchief, shawl, and sash floated +like sunrise clouds about him, balanced on his erect young head an +immense basket of eggs. There was a pottery section, too,--square rods +of cups, plates, and jars in all manner of russet tints and graceful +shapes. + +The various divisions were intermingled and blent into one great +open-air market, the cheeriest sort of neighborhood picnic, where +gossip, jest, and laughter were accompanied by the cackling of fowls, +braying of donkeys, and cooing of babies. Here fluttered a colony of +bantams cast, their legs well tied, down on the cobble-stones; there +stood carts laden with bunches of the yellowish dried heather; here +two patient oxen had laid themselves out for a snooze; there a wicked +little ass was blinking at the greens; here squatted a damsel in gold +kerchief, garnet bodice, and beryl skirt, weighing out fresh figs; +there sat a cobbler pegging away at his stall, his patrons waiting +with bare feet while he mended their shoes; stands of cheeses, coops +of chickens, children sleeping among the sacks of grain, a boy waving +a rod on which was strung a gorgeous assortment of garters; loitering +soldiers, limping beggars, bargaining ladies attended by their maids, +all gave notes to the harmony. Yet with all that trampling, small +weeds were growing green amid the slippery stones that pave the +square. + +The Leon peasantry is said to be the finest in all Spain, and surely +no concourse of people could have been more honest, courteous, and +dignified than this. The women wore ornamented wallets beneath the +skirt, and warned us gravely against carrying money in exposed +pockets; but we moved freely among the press with notebook and kodak, +always the centre of curious groups, and our purses were not touched. +Indeed we found it difficult to spend even a _peseta_, so modest were +the prices. For as large a jar as our little squire could well carry +we paid the value of three cents. The men often rebuked the children +for staring and questioning, but stood themselves at gaze, and asked +us frankly what we were about. When we replied that we had never seen +so beautiful a market, and were taking notes and photographs that we +might not forget, the peasants smilingly passed the word from one side +of the _plaza_ to the other, and all, even to the chief of police, who +was strutting about waving an unnecessary staff, were eager to offer +information and to point out picturesque subjects. + +But the morning was slipping away, and we had almost forgotten the +oracle of a Spanish gentleman in Palencia: "Leon has three sights for +the visitor, and only three--the Cathedral, San Isidoro, and San +Marcos." We proceeded to take these illustrious churches in order. The +Leon Cathedral, closely analogous to the Gothic masterpieces of +northern France, is far beyond all poor praises of mine. Now in +process of repair and stripped of the garish shrines of modern +worship, it may be enjoyed purely as architecture--a temple of high +beauty. Let artists tell of its towers and finials, flying buttresses, +gables, cornices, galleries, piers, facades. Yet one need not be an +artist to delight in the glow of its great rose windows, or to spend +fascinated hours poring over the chiselled story book of portals, +stalls, and cloisters. Such inimitable glass, burning still with the +fervors of the mediaeval faith! And such a world of divinity and +humanity, even down to childish mischief, in those multitudinous +carvings! The Passion scenes are repeated over and over, creation and +judgment are there, the life, death, and ascension of the Virgin, hero +legends, animal fables, and folk-lore. Gothic energy is abundantly +manifest. St. George smites the dragon, St. Michael tramples the +devil, Samson splits the lion's jaws, and Santiago, carved in ebony on +a door in the mellow-hued old cloisters, is riding down the Moors +with such contagious fury that the very tail of his horse is +twisted into a ferocious quirk. On angel-guarded tombs pictures of +ancient battle, murder, vengeance, are graven in the long-remembering +stone. But marble birds peck at the marble fruit, the ivory peasant +drives his pigs, the alabaster shepherd watches his flock, the lad +leads his donkey, the monk feeds the poor at the abbey gates, and +plump stone priests, stowed away in shadowy niches, make merry over +the wine. + + [Illustration: TOLEDO CATHEDRAL. DOOR OF LIONS] + +If we had revelled overmuch in the art values of the cathedral, San +Isidoro administered a prompt corrective. This Romanesque church, +dating from the beginning of the eleventh century and a forerunner of +the Escorial in that it was founded by the first Fernando of Castile +as a royal mausoleum, is excessively holy. Not merely are the bones of +the patron saint kept on the high altar, but the Host is on constant +exhibition there. Unaware of these especial sanctities, we were +quietly walking toward the choir, when an angry clamor from behind +caused us to turn, and there, stretching their heads out over the +railing of an upper gallery, was a line of furious priests. In vain +the sacristan strove to excuse us, "foreigners and ladies," who did +not know that we were expected to fall upon our knees on first +entering the door. We had been guilty of no irreverence beyond this +omission, and even under the hail of priestly wrath did our best to +withdraw correctly without turning our backs to the altar. But nothing +would appease that scandalized row of gargoyles, whose violent +rudeness seemed to us the greater desecration. Thus it was that we did +not enter the frescoed chambers of the actual Panteon, said to be +imposing yet, although the royal tombs were broken up by the French +in 1808. Very wrong in the French, but unless the manners of San +Isidoro's bodyguard have degenerated, the soldiers of Napoleon may +have had their provocation. + +It was now high noon, and the market-place had poured all its peasants +out upon the streets. Groups of them were lying at luncheon under the +trees, passing the pigskin bottle of wine from mouth to mouth. Beggars +were standing by and blessing them in return for scraps of the coarse +and scanty fare. "May God repay! May the saints prosper thy harvest!" + +A woman riding home, sitting erect on the red-striped donkey-bag, +handed a plum to her husband, who trudged beside her in gray linen +trunks and green velveteen waistcoat, with a white square of cloth +set, for ornament, into the middle of the back. He divided the fruit +with a pleading cripple, who called after them as devoutly as a man +with half a plum in his cheek well could, "May the Blessed Virgin ride +forth with you and gladden all your way!" + +We had, because of the increasing heat, conjured up a carriage, a +species of invalid stage-coach, and were therefore the envy of little +schoolboys in blue pinafores. Their straw satchels bobbed on their +backs as they gave chase to our clattering ark and clung to steps and +door. This mode of locomotion did not save us time, for our coachman +had domestic cares on his mind and drew up to bargain for a chicken, +which finally mounted with a squall to the box seat; but in due +Spanish season we stopped before the plateresque facade of San Marcos. + +This is a still unfinished convent, rich in artistic beauties and +historic memories. Here, for instance, is a marvellously human head +of St. Francis, a triumph of the polychrome sculpture, and here is the +little cell where the poet Quevedo, "colossal genius of satire," was +imprisoned for over three years by Philip IV, the patron of Velazquez. +It is not so easy to cage a mocking-bird, though the satire-pencilled +walls have been well whitewashed. + +But San Marcos was originally a hospital for pilgrims on the road to +Compostela, and conch shells are the central ornamentation of arch and +vault and frieze. We accepted the rebuke; we would loiter no more. +Early that afternoon we took train for Coruna, after which some agency +other than steam must transport us to the mediaeval city of St. James. + + + + +XXIV + +PILGRIMS OF SAINT JAMES + + "In Galice at Seint Jame, and at Coloigne, + She koude muchel of wandrynge by the weye." + --CHAUCER: _Canterbury Tales_. + + "Pilgrimes and palmers plihten hem to-gederes + For to seche Seint Jame." + --LANGLAND: _Piers Plowman_. + + "I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone." + --SHAKESPEARE: _All's Well that Ends Well_. + + +From Leon to Coruna is a journey of some eighteen hours by rail. +Degenerate pilgrims that we were, we had taken a first-class carriage +reserved for ladies, not so comfortable as the average third-class +carriage on an English road. We hoped for space, at least, and +solitude, but people who choose to pry into out-of-the-way corners of +Spain need not expect to find any slavish deference to rights of place +and property. The conductor had planned to dine and sleep in this +particular compartment, which was a shade cleaner than the rest, and +removed his kit from the rack with natural disappointment. Why should +ladies be going to Galicia? But the general first-class compartment, +next to ours, was unoccupied, and he resignedly transferred his +belongings thither. The numerous third-class carriages were crowded +with raw recruits, who had all jumped down, boy fashion, on the Leon +platforms, and came scrambling back at the starting bell in noisiest +confusion. Just as the train was puffing out, a station official threw +open our door with a smiling, "Only to the next stop, ladies!" and +precipitated upon us three belated warriors. We groaned inly with dark +foreboding, for third-class occupancy of a first-class carriage is apt +to leave lively souvenirs behind. Our three young soldiers, each with +his personal effects bundled up in an enormous red and yellow +handkerchief, were of the rudest peasant type, hardly lifted above +animal and clod. Only one was able to spell out anything of the +newspaper we offered. He labored over a large-lettered advertisement +with grimy thumb, twisting brows, and muttering lips, but soon gave it +up in sheer exhaustion. The hulking fellow beyond him was continually +on the point of spitting,--a regular Spanish pastime in travel; but, +determined that the carriage should not suffer that offence, I kept +strict watch on this chrysalis hero, and embarrassed him into stark +paralysis with questions on the landscape whenever he was quite +prepared to fire. The third conscript was a ruddy, fair-haired boy of +seventeen, who had in rudimentary form the social instincts of a +Spaniard, and in his intervals of blue-eyed staring at the tawdry +splendors about him hammered our ears with some harsh dialect, his one +theme being the indignities and hardships of a Spanish soldier's lot. +Yet dull as they were, and ignorant of railway customs, they knew +enough to prefer broad cushions, whose variety of stains did not +trouble their enviable simplicity, to the rough and narrow benches of +the overcrowded third-class carriages, and at the "first stop" they +unanimously forgot to change. But they were not unkindly lads, and +after I had explained to them a dozen times or so that my friend was +suffering from a headache and needed to lie down, and had, +furthermore, lawlessly suggested that they could make themselves +equally comfortable in the other first-class carriage, which was not +"reserved for ladies," they promised to leave us at the second +station; but their slow peasant hands fumbled at the door so clumsily +that the train was under way again before the latch had yielded. It +was not until we had been fellow-travellers for two or three hours +that they finally stumbled into the neighboring compartment. From this +the conductor, who had been blind and deaf to past proceedings, +promptly ejected them, having no mind to let them make acquaintance +with his wine bottle, and our poor exiles cast reproachful glances at +us as they were hustled off to their own place. + +We have sometimes talked enthusiastically of democracy, but we did not +discuss such exalted subjects then. Indeed, we had enough to do in +guarding our doors, often by frank exercise of muscle, from further +intrusion, and in trying to provide ourselves with food and water. A +struggling mob of soldier boys besieged the refreshment stalls at +every station, and drained the jars of the water-venders long before +these could arrive at the car windows. At last, by a union of silver +and violence, we succeeded in gaining from an astounded little girl, +who was racing after the departing carriages, all her stock in trade, +even the great russet jar itself, with its treasure of cold spring +water. The historian possesses a special genius for cooking over an +alcohol lamp on a rocking mountain train, and having augmented our +knapsack stores with scalded milk and knobby bread from a tavern near +one of the depots, we lived like feudal barons "of our own" for the +rest of that memorable journey. + +Reminders of the pilgrims were all along our route. Overflowing as +Santiago's young knights were with martial and romantic spirit, when +the brigands did not give their steel sufficient sport they would +break lances for the love of ladies or on any other conceivable +pretext. We passed the bridge of twenty arches, where ten companions +in arms once posted themselves for ten successive days, and challenged +to the tilt every cavalier who came that way in journey to the +Compostela jubilee. + +All the afternoon we were climbing into the hill-country. The waste +slopes were starred with purple clumps of heather, and crossed by +light-footed maids, who balanced great bunches of bracken on their +heads. The patches of green valley, walled in by those barren steeps, +held each a few tumble-down old houses, while elsewhere we noticed +human dwellings that seemed scarcely more than nests of mud plastered +to the stone. Yet the soil appeared to be cultivated with the most +patient thrift,--wheat and potatoes growing wherever wheat and +potatoes might. The view became a bewildering medley of Scottish +hills, Italian skies, and Gothic castles, with occasionally a tawny +and fantastic rock from the Garden of the Gods. The city of Astorga, +whose cathedral was founded, so the pilgrims used to say, by St. James +in his missionary tour, greeted us from the midst of the flinty hills. +These are the home of a singular clan known as the Maragatos. They +wear a distinctive dress, marry only among themselves, and turn a +sullen look upon their neighbors. + +As night came on, the road grew so rough that we had to cork our +precious water-jar with a plump lemon. The historian was sleeping off +her headache, except as I woke her at the stations to aid in the +defence of our ignoble luxury. We remembered that queen of Portugal +who made the pilgrimage to Compostela on foot, begging her way. In the +close-packed third-class carriages it must have been a cramped and +weary night, and we did not wonder that young socialists occasionally +tried to raid our fortress. But we clung stoutly to the door-handles, +lustily sounding our war cry of "Ladies only" in lieu of "Santiago," +and early in the small hours had the shamefaced pleasure of seeing the +herd of drowsy conscripts, with their red and yellow bundles, driven +into another train, where they were tumbled two or three deep, the +under layer struggling and protesting. One little fellow, nearly +smothered in the hurly-burly about the steps, cried out pitifully; but +the conductor silenced him with angry sarcasm: "Dost mean to be a +soldier, thou? Or shall we put thee in a sugar-bowl and send thee back +to mamma?" + +There was less need of sentry duty after this, but the night was too +beautiful for sleep. We were crossing the wild Asturian mountains, the +Alps of Spain, and a full moon was pouring down white lustre on crag, +cascade, and gorge. By these perilous ways had streamed the +many-bannered pilgrim hosts,--men and women of all countries and all +tongues seeking the Jerusalem of the West. Each nation had its own +hymn to Santiago, and these, sung to the mingled music of bagpipes, +timbrels, bugles, flutes, and harps, must have pealed out strangely on +many a silver night. The poor went begging of the rich, and often a +mounted crusader cast his purse of broad gold pieces on the heather, +trusting Santiago and his own good sword to see him through. Up and +down these sheer ravines stumbled the blind and lame, sure of +healing if only they could reach the shrine. Deaf and dumb went in the +pilgrim ranks, the mad, the broken-hearted, the sin-oppressed; only +the troop of lepers held apart. Some of those foot-sore wayfarers, +most likely the raggedest of all, carried a secret treasure for the +saint. Some staggered under penitential weights of lead and stone, and +others bore loads of bars and fetters in token of captivity from which +St. James had set them free. + + [Illustration: ST. PAUL, THE FIRST HERMIT] + +But these pathetic shapes no longer peopled the moonlight. Since it +was the nineteenth century, a first-class passenger might as well lie +down and watch the gracious progress of the moon across the heavens,-- + + "Oft, as if her head she bowed, + Stooping through a fleecy cloud." + +But the clouds perversely made of themselves wayside crosses, urns, +cathedral towers; and just as one sky-creature, "backed like a weasel" +but with the face of Santiago, began to puff a monstrous cigarette, I +roused my dozing senses and discovered that we were entering Lugo, the +capital of Galicia, and once, under Roman rule, of all Spain. + +This city of tumultuous history, stormed by one wild race after +another, and twice sacked in our own century, first by the French and +then by the Carlists, lay very peacefully under the white dawn. While +the chivalrous Spanish sun rose unobtrusively, so as not to divert +attention from the fading graces of the moon, the historian made +sustaining coffee, and we tried to look as if we liked Galicia. This +far northwestern province is the Boeotia of Spain; its stupid, +patient peasantry are the butt of all the Peninsula, and to be called +a Gallego is to be called a fool. The country, as we saw it from the +train, was broken and hilly, but the Alpine majesty of Asturias was +gone. In the misty drizzle of rain, which soon hushed the pipings of +the birds, all the region looked wretchedly poor. It was a wooded, +watered, well-tilled land, with tufts of heather brightly fringing +every bank; but the houses were mere cabins, where great, gaunt, +dark-colored pigs pushed in and out among bedraggled hens and +half-clad children. Women were working in the fields by five o'clock +in the morning, their saffron and carmine kerchiefs twisted into horns +above the forehead. Women were serving as porters at the stations, +carrying heavy trunks and loads of valises on their heads. Women were +driving the plough, swinging the pickaxe in the quarries, mending the +railway tracks. Short, stout, vigorous brownies they were, and most of +them looked old. + +It was mid-forenoon when we reached Coruna, the seaport whence sailed +the Invincible Armada. We had meant to rest there for the afternoon +and night before undertaking the forty-mile drive to Santiago, but the +hotel was so filthy that, tired as we were, there was nothing for it +but to go on. Tarrying only for bath and breakfast, we took our places +in a carriage which, setting out at one, promised to bring us into +Santiago in time for the eight o'clock dinner. + +This conveyance was a species of narrow omnibus, which an Andalusian, +an Englishman, a son of Compostela returning home after a long sojourn +in foreign parts, his young wife of Jewish features, and our weary +selves filled to overflowing. Our Jehu had agreed to transport the six +of us, with our effects, for the sum of sixteen dollars; but deep was +our disgust when he piled our handbags, shawl straps, and all our +lesser properties in upon our wedged and helpless forms, and crammed +six rough Gallegos, with a reeling load of trunks and boxes, on the +roof. Remonstrance would be futile. The places in the regular +diligence were not only taken for the afternoon but engaged for +several days ahead, and carriages are rare birds in Galicia. The +Spanish gentlemen merely shrugged their shoulders, the Englishman had +but that morning landed in Spain and could not speak a word of the +vernacular, and feminine protest was clearly out of order. The four +puny horses took the top-heavy vehicle at a rattling pace down the +granite-paved streets of Coruna, but hardly were we under way when our +griefs began. + +On our arrival that forenoon, a fluent porter had over-persuaded us to +leave our trunk at the station, letting him retain the check in order +to have the baggage ready for us when we should pass the depot _en +route_ for Santiago. We had been absent scarcely three hours, but +meanwhile the trunk had disappeared. A dozen tatterdemalions ran +hither and thither, making as much noise as possible, all the top +fares shouted contradictory suggestions, and our porter, heaping +Ossa-Pelions of execration upon the (absent) railroad officials, +declared that they in their most reprobate stupidity had started the +trunk on that eighteen-hour journey back to Leon. They were dolts and +asses, the sons of imbecile mothers; but we had only to leave the +check with him, and in the course of an indefinite number of +"to-morrows" he would recover our property. We had grown sadder and +wiser during the last five minutes, however, and insisted on taking +that soiled inch of paper into our own keeping. At this the porter +flew into a Spanish rage, flung back his fee into my lap, and so +eloquently expressed himself that we left Coruna with stinging ears. + +It was the historian's trunk, stored with supplies for the camera, as +well as with sundry alleviations of our pilgrim lot, but she put it in +the category of spilled milk, and turned with heroic cheerfulness to +enjoy the scenery. The horses had now drooped into the snail's pace +which they consistently maintained through the rest of their long, +uphill way, for the city of the Apostle stands on a high plateau. As +we mounted more and more, Coruna, lying between bay and sea, still +shone clear across the widening reach of smiling landscape. Maize and +vines were everywhere. So were peasants, who trudged along in family +troops toward Compostela. But whether afoot or astride donkeys of +antique countenance, they could always outstrip our lumbering coach, +and we were an easy prey for the hordes of childish bandits who chase +vehicles for miles along the pilgrim road, shrieking for pennies in +the name of Santiago. + +About two leagues out of Coruna we did pass something,--a group +composed of a young Gallego and the most diminutive of donkeys. The +peasant, walking beside his beast, was trying to balance across its +back an object unwonted to those wilds. + +"Strange to see a steamer trunk here!" I remarked, turning to the +historian; but she was already leaning out from the window, inspecting +that label-speckled box with an eagle gaze. + +"It's mine!" she exclaimed, and in a twinkling had startled the driver +into pulling up his horses, had leapt from the coach, and was running +after the peasant, who, for his part, swerving abruptly from the main +road, urged his panting donkey up a steep lane. Nobody believed her. +Even I, her fellow-pilgrim, thought her wits were addling with our +penitential fasts and vigils, and did not attempt to join in so mad a +chase. As for the scandalized Spaniards, inside and out, they shouted +angrily that the thing was impossible and the senora was to come back. +The coachman roared loudest of all. But on she dashed, ran down her +man, and bade him, in inspired Galician, bring that trunk to the +omnibus at once. He scratched his head, smiled a child's innocent and +trustful smile, and, like a true Gallego, did as he was told. By this +time masculine curiosity had been too much for the driver and most of +the fares, and they had scrambled after, so that the few of us who +kept guard by the carriage presently beheld an imposing procession +advancing along the road, consisting of a Galician peasant with a +steamer trunk upon his head, a group of crestfallen Spaniards, and a +Yankee lady, slightly flushed, attended by an applauding Englishman. + +Beyond a doubt it was her trunk. Her name was there, a New York hotel +mark, which she had tried to obliterate with a blot of Leon ink, and +the number corresponding to the number of our check. "By Jove!" said +the Englishman. As for the peasant, he said even less, but in some way +gave us to understand that he was taking the trunk to a gentleman from +Madrid. Thinking that there might have been a confusion of checks in +the station, we gave this childlike native a _peseta_ and a card with +our Santiago address in case "the Madrid gentleman" should suspect us +of highway robbery. Our fellow-passengers took the tale to Santiago, +however; it made a graphic column in the local paper, and none of the +several Spaniards who spoke to us of the matter there doubted that the +trunk was stolen by collusion between the porter and the peasant. + +Our next adventure was more startling yet. The coachman had been +heard, at intervals, vehemently expostulating with a roof passenger +who wanted to get down. "Man alive! By the staff of Santiago! By your +mother's head! By the Virgin of the Pillar!" Whether the malcontent +had taken too much wine, whether he was under legal arrest, whether it +was merely a crossing of whims, we could not learn from any of the +impassioned actors in the drama; but, apparently, he found his +opportunity to slip unnoticed off the coach. For suddenly the driver +screamed to his horses, and, like a bolt from the blue, a handsome, +athletic fellow leapt to the ground and rushed back along the dusty +road, brandishing clenched fists and stamping his feet in frenzy. In +mid-career he paused, struck a stage attitude, tore open his pink +shirt, gasped, and shook with rage. "Irving isn't in it," quoth the +Englishman. Then appeared, lurking by the roadside, a slouchy youth, +on whom our tragic hero sprang like a tiger, threw him down, and stood +panting over him with a gesture as if to stab. An instant later he had +seized his victim by the collar, dragged him up, and was running him +back to the coach. "You hurt me," wailed the truant, "and I don't want +to go." But go he must, being bundled back in short order on the roof, +where harmony seemed to be immediately restored. While the men were +struggling, a lordly old peasant, stalking by, surveyed them with a +peasant's high disdain. We had already noted the Irish look of the +Galicians, but this magnificent patriarch, with dark green waistcoat +over a light green shirt, old gold knickerbockers and crushed +strawberry hose, had as Welsh a face, dark and clean-cut, as Snowdon +ever saw. + +Long sunset shadows lay across the hills; we had shared with our +companions our slight stores of sweet chocolate, bread, and wine, and +still we were not halfway to Santiago. It was nine o'clock before our +groaning equipage drew up at a wretched little inn, incredibly foul, +where it was necessary to bait the exhausted horses. Mine host +welcomed the party with pensive dignity, and served us, in the midst +of all that squalor, with the manners of a melancholy count. Shutting +eyes and noses as far as we could, and blessing eggs for shells and +fruit for rind, we ate and gathered strength to bear what St. James +might yet have in store for us. + +The diligence had resumed its weary jog; we were all more or less +asleep, unconsciously using, in our crowded estate, one another as +pillows, when an uproar from the box and a wild lurch of the coach +brought us promptly to our waking senses. One of the wheel horses was +down, and the others, frightened by the dragging harness, were rearing +and plunging. Out we tumbled into the misty night, wondering if we +were destined, after all, to foot it to Compostela in proper pilgrim +fashion. The poor beast was mad with terror, and his struggles soon +brought his mate to the ground beside him. The coachman, so pompous +and dictatorial at the outset, stood helplessly in the road, at a safe +distance, wringing his hands and crying like a baby: "Alas, poor me! +Poor little me! O holy Virgin! Santiago!" The top fares, who had made +good speed to _terra firma_, were wailing in unison and shrieking +senseless counsels. "Kill thou the horse! Kill thou the horse!" one of +them chanted like a Keltic dirge. The coachman supplied the antiphon: +"Kill not my horse! Kill not my horse! _Ave Maria!_ Poor little me!" +"Fools! Sit on his head," vociferated the Englishman in his vain +vernacular. The horses seemed to have as many legs as centipedes, +kicking all at once. The coach was toppling, the luggage pitching, and +catastrophe appeared inevitable, when Santiago, such an excellent +horseman himself, inspired one of the roof passengers to unbuckle a +few straps. The effect was magical. First one nag, and then the other, +struggled to its feet; the coachman sobbed anew, this time for joy; +the Spanish gentlemen, who had been watching the scene with +imperturbable passivity, crawled back into the diligence, the silent +wife followed with the heavy bag which her husband had let her carry +all the way, and the Anglo-Saxon contingent walked on ahead for half +an hour to give the spent horses what little relief we might. + +The clocks were striking two when we reached the gates of the sacred +city, where fresh hindrance met us. The customs officials were on the +alert. Who were we that would creep into Compostela de Santiago under +cover of night, in an irregular conveyance piled high with trunks and +boxes? Smugglers, beyond a doubt! But they would teach us a thing or +two. We might wait outside till morning. + + [Illustration: MAIDS OF HONOR] + +Delighted boys from a peasant camp beyond the walls ran up to jeer at +our predicament. Our coachman, reverting to his dolorous chant, +appealed to all the saints. The top fares shrilled in on the chorus; +the Spanish gentlemen lighted cigarettes, and after some twenty +minutes of dramatic altercation, a soldier sprang on our top step and +mounted guard, while the coach rattled through the gates and on to +the _aduana_. Here we were deposited, bag and baggage, on the +pavement, and a drowsy, half-clad old dignitary was brought forth to +look at us. The coachman, all his social graces restored, +imaginatively presented the three Anglo-Saxons as a French party +travelling for pleasure. "But what am I to do with them?" groaned the +dignitary, and went back to bed. An appalling group of _serenos_, in +slouch hats and long black capes, with lanterns and with staffs topped +by steel axes, escorted us into a sort of luggage room, and told us to +sit down on benches. We sat on them for half an hour, which seemed to +satisfy the ends of justice, for then the _serenos_ gave place to +porters, who said they would bring us our property, which nobody had +examined or noticed in the slightest, after daybreak, and would now +show us the way to our hotel. Our farewell to the coachman, who came +beaming up to shake hands and receive thanks, was cold. + +We had engaged rooms by letter a week in advance, but they had been +surrendered to earlier arrivals, and we were conducted to a private +house next door to the hotel. After the delays incident to waking an +entire family, we were taken into a large, untidy room, furnished with +dining table, sewing machine, and a half dozen decrepit chairs. There +was no water and no sign of toilet apparatus, but in an adjoining dark +closet were two narrow cots, from which the four daughters of the +house had just been routed. Of those beds which these sleepy children +were then, with unruffled sweetness and cheeriness, making ready for +us, the less said the better. Our indoor hours in Compostela, an +incessant battle against dirt, bad smells, and a most instructive +variety of vermin, were a penance that must have met all pilgrim +requirements. And yet these people spared no pains to make us +comfortable, so far as they understood comfort. At our slightest call, +were it only for a match, in would troop the mother, four daughters, +maid, dog, and cat, with any of the neighbors who might be visiting, +all eager to be of service. The girls were little models of sunny +courtesy, and would have been as pretty of face as they were charming +in manner, had not skin diseases and eye diseases told the tale of the +hideously unsanitary conditions in which their young lives had been +passed. + +But we had come to the festival of Santiago, and it was worth its +price. + + + + +XXV + +THE BUILDING OF A SHRINE + +(A historical chapter, which should be skipped.) + + +That most Spanish of Spaniards, Alarcon, is pleased in one of his +roguish sketches to depict the waywardness of a certain poetaster. +"Alonso Alonso was happy because he was thinking of many sad +things,--of the past centuries, vanished like smoke, ... of the little +span of life and of the absurdities with which it is filled, of the +folly of wisdom, of the nothingness of ambition, of all this comedy, +in short, which is played upon the earth." + +Alonso Alonso would be in his very element in Santiago de Compostela. +The "unsubstantial pageant faded" of the mediaeval world is more than +memory there. It is a ghost that walks at certain seasons, notably +from the twentieth to the twenty-eighth of July. The story of the +birth, growth, and passing of that once so potent shrine, the +Jerusalem of the West, is too significant for oblivion. + +The corner-stone of the strange history is priestly legend. The +Apostle James the Greater, so runs the tale, after preaching in +Damascus and along the Mediterranean coast, came in a Greek ship to +Galicia, then under Roman rule, and proclaimed the gospel in its +capital city, Iria-Flavia. Here the Virgin appeared to him, veiled, +like the mother of AEneas, in a cloud, and bade him build a church. +This he did, putting a bishop in charge, and then pursued his mission, +not only in the remote parts of Galicia, but in Aragon, Castile, and +Andalusia. At Saragossa the Virgin again flashed upon his sight. She +was poised, this time, on a marble pillar, which she left behind her +to become, what it is to-day, the most sacred object in all Spain. A +chip of this _columna immobilis_ is one of the treasures of Toledo. +The cathedral of the _Virgen del Pilar_,--affectionately known as +Pilarica,--which James then founded at Saragossa, is still a popular +goal of pilgrimage, the marble of the holy column being hollowed, at +one unshielded spot, by countless millions of kisses. The Apostle, on +his return to Jerusalem after seven years in Spain, was beheaded by +Herod. Loyal disciples recovered the body and set sail with it for the +Spanish coast. Off Portugal occurred the pointless "miracle of the +shells." A gentleman was riding on the shore, when all at once his +horse, refusing to obey the bit, leapt into the sea, walking on the +crests of the waves toward the boat. Steed and rider suddenly sank, +but promptly rose again, all crusted over with shells, which have been +ever since regarded as the emblem of St. James in particular, and of +pilgrim folk in general. + + "How should I your true love know + From another one? + By his cockle hat and staff + And his sandal shoon." + +The Santiago "cockle," which thus, as a general pilgrim symbol, +outstripped the keys of Rome and the cross of Jerusalem, is otherwise +accounted for by a story that the body of St. James was borne overseas +to Galicia in a shell of miraculous size, but this is not the version +that was told us at the shrine. + +The two disciples, Theodore and Athanasius, temporarily interred their +master in Padron, two leagues from Iria, until they should have +obtained permission from the Roman dame who governed that region to +allow St. James the choice of a resting-place. Her pagan heart was +moved to graciousness, and she lent the disciples an ox-cart, in which +they placed the body, leaving the beasts free to take the Apostle's +course. It is hardly miraculous that, under the circumstances, Lady +Lupa's oxen plodded straight back to Iria and came to a stop before +her summer villa. Since this was so clearly indicated as the choice of +the saint, she could do no less than put her house at his disposal. In +the villa was a chapel to the war-god Janus, but when the body of +Santiago was brought within the doors, this heathen image fell with a +crash into a hundred fragments. Here the saint abode, guarded by his +faithful disciples, until, in process of time, they slept beside him. +The villa had been transformed into a little church, so little that, +when the Imperial persecutions stormed over the Spanish provinces, the +worshippers hid it under heaps of turf and tangles of brier bushes. +Those early Christians of Iria were slain or scattered, and the burial +place of St. James was forgotten of all the world. + +In the seventh century, a rumor went abroad that the Apostle James had +preached the gospel in Spain. The legend grew until, in the year 813, +a Galician anchorite beheld from the mouth of his cavern a brilliant +star, which shone persistently above a certain bramble-wood in the +outskirts of Iria. Moving lights, as of processional tapers, twinkled +through the matted screen of shrubbery, and solemn chants arose from +the very heart of the boscage. Word of this mystery came to the +bishop, who saw with his own eyes "the glow of many candles through +the shadows of the night." After three days of fasting, he led all the +villagers in procession to the thicket which had grown up, a +protecting hedge, about the ruins of the holy house. The three graves +were found intact, and on opening the chief of these the bishop looked +upon the body of St. James, as was proven not only by severed head and +pilgrim staff, but by a Latin scroll. The swiftest horsemen of Galicia +bore the glorious tidings to the court of the king, that most +Christian monarch, Alfonso II, "very Catholic, a great almsgiver, +defender of the Faith." So loved of heaven was this pious king, that +once, when he had collected a treasure of gold and precious stones for +the making of a cross, two angels, disguised as pilgrims, undertook +the work. When, after a few hours, Alfonso came softly to the forge to +make sure of their honesty and skill, no artisans were there, but from +an exquisitely fashioned cross streamed a celestial glory. So devout a +king, on hearing the great tidings from Galicia, lost no time in +despatching couriers to his bishops and grandees, and all the pomp and +pride of Spain, headed by majesty itself, flocked to the far-off +hamlet beyond the Asturian mountains to adore the relics of Santiago. + +Now began grand doings in Iria, known henceforth as the Field of the +Star, _Campus Stellae_, or Compostela. Alfonso had a church of stone +and clay built above the sepulchre, and endowed it with an estate of +three square miles. The Pope announced the discovery to Christendom. A +community of twelve monks, with a presiding abbot, was installed at +Compostela to say masses before the shrine. For these beginnings of +homage the Apostle made a munificent return. A wild people, living in +a wild land at a wild time, these Spaniards of the Middle Ages were +shaped and swayed by two sovereign impulses, piety and patriotism. +These two were practically one, for patriotism meant the expulsion of +the Moor, and piety, Cross above Koran. It was a life-and-death +struggle. The dispossessed Christians, beaten back from Andalusia and +Castile to the fastnesses of the northern mountains, were fighting +against fearful odds. They felt sore need of a leader, for although, +when their ranks were wavering, the Virgin had sometimes appeared to +cheer them on, hers, after all, was but a woman's arm. It was in the +battle of Clavijo, 846, that Santiago first flashed into view, an +invincible champion of the cross. + +Rameiro, successor to Alfonso II, had taken the field against the +terrible Abderrahman of Cordova, who had already overrun Valencia and +Barcelona and was demanding from Galicia a yearly tribute of one +hundred maidens. This exceedingly Moorish tax, which now amuses Madrid +as a rattling farce in the summer theatre of the _Buen Retiro_, was no +jesting matter then. Not only the most famous warriors of the realm, +Bernardo del Carpio in their van, but shepherds and ploughmen, +priests, monks, even bishops, flocked to the royal standard. + + "A cry went through the mountains when the proud Moor drew near, + And trooping to Rameiro came every Christian spear; + The blessed Saint Iago, they called upon his name:-- + That day began our freedom, and wiped away our shame." + +The hosts of Cross and Crescent met in battle-shock near Logrono. Only +nightfall saved the Christians from utter rout, but in those dark +hours of their respite the apparition of Santiago bent above their +sleeping king. "Fear not, Rameiro," said the august lips. "The enemy, +master of the field, hems you in on every side, but God fights in your +ranks." At sunrise, in the very moment when the Moslem host was bowed +in prayer, the Christians, scandalized at the spectacle, charged in +orthodox fury. Their onset was led by an unknown knight, gleaming in +splendid panoply of war. Far in advance, his left hand waving a snowy +banner stamped with a crimson cross, he spurred his fierce white horse +full on the infidel army. His brandished sword "hurled lightning +against the half-moon." At his every sweeping stroke, turbaned heads +rolled off by scores to be trampled, as turbaned heads deserve, under +the hoofs of that snorting steed. The Son of Thunder had found his +function, which was nothing less than to inspirit the Reconquest. +Henceforth he could always be counted on to lead a desperate assault, +and "_Santiago y Cierra Espana!_" was the battle-cry of every +hard-fought field. So late as 1212, at the crucial contest of Las +Navas de Tolosa, the "Captain of the Spaniards" saved the day. + +Whatever may be thought of such bloody prowess on the part of Christ's +disciple, the fisherman of Galilee, he could not have taken, in that +stormy age, a surer course to make himself respected. All Europe +sprang to do honor to a saint who could fight like that. Charlemagne, +guided by the Milky Way, visited the shrine, if the famous old Codex +Calixtinus may be believed, with its convincing print of the +Apostle sitting upright in his coffin and pointing the great Karl to +the starry trail. In process of time the Gran Capitan came bustling +from Granada. The king of Jerusalem did not find the road too long, +nor did the Pope of Rome count it too arduous. England sent her first +royal Edward, and France more than one royal Louis. Counts and dukes, +lords and barons, rode hundreds of miles to Compostela, at the head of +feudal bands which sometimes clashed by the way. Saints of every clime +and temper made the glorious pilgrimage,--Gregory, Bridget, Bernard, +Francis of Assisi. To the shrine of St. James came the Cid in radiant +youth to keep the vigil of arms and receive the honors of knighthood, +and again, mounted on his peerless Bavieca, to give thanks for victory +over the five Moorish kings. It was on this second journey that he +succored the leper, inviting him, with heroic disdain of hygiene, to +be his bedfellow "in a great couch with linen very clean and costly." + + [Illustration: DANCING THE SEVILLANA] + +Even in the ninth century such multitudes visited the sepulchre that a +society of hidalgos was formed to guard the pilgrims from bandits +along that savage route, serve them as money-changers in Compostela, +and in all possible ways protect them from robbery and ill-usage. This +brotherhood gave birth to the famous Order of Santiago, whose two vows +were to defend the pilgrims and fight the Mussulmans. These red-cross +knights were as devout as they were valiant, "lambs at the sound of +the church-bells and lions at the call of the trumpet." Kings and +popes gave liberally to aid their work. Roads were cut through Spain +and France, even Italy and Germany, "to Santiago." Forests were +cleared, morasses drained, bridges built, and rest-houses instituted, +as San Marcos at Leon and the celebrated hostelry of Roncesvalles. +Compostela had become a populous city, but a city of inns, hospitals, +and all variety of conventual and religious establishments. Even +to-day it can count nearly three hundred altars. In the ninth century +the modest church of Alfonso II was replaced by an ornate edifice rich +in treasures, but in the gloomy tenth century, when Christian energies +were arrested by the dread expectation of the end of the world, the +Moors overran Galicia and laid the holy city waste. The Moslem +general, Almanzor, had meant to shatter the urn of Santiago, but when +he entered Compostela with his triumphant troops, he found only one +defender there, an aged monk sitting silent on the Apostle's tomb. The +magnanimous Moor did not molest him, nor the ashes his feebleness +guarded better than strength, but took abundant booty. When Almanzor +marched to the south again, four thousand Galician captives bore on +their shoulders the treasures of the Apostle, even the church-bells +and sculptured doors, to adorn the mosque of Cordova. The fresh +courage of the eleventh century began the great Romanesque cathedral +of Santiago. Donations poured in from all over Europe. Pilgrims came +bowed under the weight of marble and granite blocks for the fabric. +Young and old, men and women, beggars and peasants, princes and +prelates, had a hand in the building, cutting short their prayers to +mix mortar and hew stone. Artists from far-off lands, who had come on +pilgrimage, lingered for years, often for lifetimes, in Compostela, +making beautiful the dwelling of the saint. + +The great epoch of Santiago was the twelfth century, when there +succeeded to the bishopric the able and ambitious Diego Gelmirez, who +resolved that Compostela should be recognized as the religious centre +of Spain, and be joined with Jerusalem and Rome in a trinity of the +supreme shrines of Christendom. He was a man of masterly resource, +persistence, pluck. Not too scrupulous for success, he found all means +good that made toward the accomplishment of his one splendid dream. +The clergy of Santiago, who had hitherto borne but dubious repute, he +subjected to instruction and to discipline, calling learned priests +from France to tutor them, and sending his own, as they developed +promise, to sojourn in foreign monasteries. He zealously promoted the +work on the cathedral, rearing arches proud as his aspiration, and +watch-towers strong as his will. He invested the sacred ceremonies, +especially the ecclesiastical processions, with extraordinary pomp, so +that the figure of Alfonso VI, conqueror of Toledo, advancing through +the basilica in such a solemn progress, appeared less imposing than +the bishop himself, crowned with white mitre, sceptred with ivory +staff, and treading in his gold-embroidered sandals upon the broad +stones that pave the church as if on an imperial palace floor. +Gelmirez was indefatigable, too, in building up the city. Eager to +swell the flood of pilgrimage, he founded in Compostela, already a +cluster of shrines and hostelries, still more churches, inns, asylums, +hospitals, together with convents, libraries, schools, and all other +recognized citadels of culture. He fought pestilence and dirt, +introducing an excellent water supply, and promoting, so far as he +knew how, decent and sanitary living. He was even a patron of +agriculture, bringing home from his foreign journeys, which took him +as far as Rome, packets of new seed slipped in among parcels of jewels +and no less precious budgets of saintly molars and knuckle-bones. But +these missions abroad, having always for chief object the pressing of +his petition upon the Holy See, involved costly presents to +influential prelates, especially the red-capped cardinals. The revenue +for such bribes he wrung from the Galician peasantry, who gave him a +measure of hate with every measure of grain. Gelmirez had so many uses +for money that no wonder his taxes cut down to the quick. The lavish +offerings sent by sea to the shrine of Santiago, ruby-crusted +crucifixes of pure gold, silver reliquaries sparkling with emeralds +and jacinths, pontifical vestments of richest tissue and of rarest +artistry, well-chased vessels of onyx, pearl, and jasper, all that +constant influx of glistening tribute from the length and breadth of +Christendom, had drawn Moorish pirates to the Galician waters. To +guard the treasure-ships, repel the infidels, and, incidentally, +return tit for tat by plundering their galleys, the warrior bishop +equipped a formidable fleet, and kept it on patrol off the coast,--a +strange development from the little fishing-boat whence James and John +trailed nets in the lake of Galilee. + +The audacity of Gelmirez reached its height in his struggle with the +Queen Regent, Urraca of unlovely memory, for the control of the child +king, Alfonso VII. This boy was the grandson of Alfonso VI, "Emperor +of Spain," who survived all his legitimate children except Urraca. The +father of the little Alfonso, Count Raymond of Burgundy, was dead, and +Urraca had taken a second husband, Alfonso the Battle-maker. The +situation was complicated. The Battle-maker wore the crowns of Aragon +and Navarre, Urraca was queen of Leon and Castile, while the child, by +his grandfather's will, inherited the lordship of Galicia. The Bishop +of Santiago, who baptized the baby, had strenuously opposed Urraca's +second marriage. As that lady had, nevertheless, gone her own wilful +way, setting at naught the bishop's remonstrance and inciting Galicia +to revolt against his tyranny, Gelmirez had kidnapped the royal child, +a puzzled little majesty of four summers, and solemnly crowned and +anointed him before the High Altar of St. James, declaring himself the +protector of the young sovereign. Urraca soon wearied of her Aragonese +bridegroom, and, casting him off, took up arms to defend her +territories against his invasion. The powerful bishop came to her aid +with men and money, but exacted in exchange an oath of faithful +friendship, which Urraca gave and broke and gave again. Meanwhile the +popular hatred swelled so high against Gelmirez that an open +insurrection, in which many of his own clergy took part, drove him and +the Queen to seek refuge in one of the cathedral towers, while the +rebels burned and pillaged in the church below. The bishop barely +escaped with his life, fleeing in disguise from Compostela; but soon +the baffled conspirators saw him at his post again, punishing, +pardoning, rebuilding--as indomitable as St. James himself. The +election of Diego's friend, Calixtus II, to the papacy, gave him his +supreme opportunity. Money was the prime requisite, and Gelmirez, not +for the first nor second time, borrowed of the Apostle, selling +treasures from the sacristy. The sums so raised were carried to the +Pope, across the bandit-peopled mountains, by a canon of Santiago +masquerading as a beggar, and by a trusty group of particularly ragged +pilgrims. This proof of ecclesiastical ripeness overcame all papal +scruples, and Calixtus, despite the clamor of enemies and rivals, +raised Santiago to the coveted archbishopric. + +The first half of his great purpose effected, Gelmirez strove with +renewed energy to wrest from Toledo the primacy of Spain. He fortified +Galicia, hurled his fleet against Moorish and English pirates, built +himself an archiepiscopal palace worthy of his hard-won dignities, +stole from Portugal the skeletons of four saints to enhance the +potency of Santiago, and made much of the skull of the Apostle James +the Less, which Urraca had presented in one of her fits of amity. But +this time the reverend robber was not destined to success. The +Archbishop of Toledo formed a powerful party against him, Calixtus +died, even the king, whom Gelmirez had armed knight in the cathedral +of Santiago and had crowned a second time at Leon, grew restive under +the dictation of his old tutor. The smouldering hatred of Galicia +again flamed out. The aged archbishop once more had to see his church +polluted, its treasures plundered, its marvels of carved work, stained +glass, and gold-threaded vestments spoiled and wasted by that +senseless rabble which had twisted out from under his heavy foot. +Faint and bleeding from a wound in his head, too white a head, for all +its pride, to be battered with stones, Gelmirez had almost fallen a +victim to the mob, when two of his canons snatched him back to the +refuge of the High Altar, barring the iron-latticed doors of the +_Capilla Major_ against those savage sheep of his pasture. The outrage +was so flagrant that, for very shame, pope and king, though both had +accepted the bribes of his enemies, responded to his appeal, and +assisted him to resume that rigorous sway which lasted, all told, for +something like forty years. + +Such was the man and such the process that made the shrine of Santiago +the third in rank of mediaeval Christendom. Under the rule of Gelmirez +Compostela had become one of the principal cities of the Peninsula, a +seat of arts and sciences where Spanish nobles were proud to build +them palaces and to educate their sons. The mighty influx of pilgrims, +which went on without abatement century after century, nearly +twenty-five hundred licenses being granted, in the single year 1434, +to cockle-hatted visitors from England alone, filled the place with +business. Inn-keepers, physicians, money-changers, merchants were in +flourishing estate, and a number of special industries developed. One +street was taken up by booths for the sale of polished shells. Another +bears still the name of the jet-workers, whose rosaries, crucifixes, +stars, gourds, staffs, and amulets were in high demand. Souvenirs of +Santiago, little crosses delicately cut and chased, mimic churches, +towers, shrines gave employ to scores of artists in silver and +mother-of-pearl. The enormous revenue from the sale of phials of +healing oil and from the consecrated candles must needs go to the +Apostle, but the cunning craftsmen who loaded their stalls with +love-charms had a well-nigh equal patronage. + +The finished cathedral was consecrated in 1211, and in 1236 the royal +saint, Fernando III, sent to Compostela a train of Mohammedan +captives, bringing back on their shoulders the bells Almanzor had +taken. These had been hung, inverted, in the beautiful mosque of +Cordova to serve as lamps for the infidel worship, but at last St. +James had his own again. Thus Santiago trampled on the Moors, and his +ashes, or what had passed for his ashes, slept in peace, with nothing +to do but work miracles on blind and crippled pilgrims, until, in +1589, an army of English heretics, led by the horrible Drake, landed +in Galicia. These Lutheran dogs were not worthy of a miracle. The +archbishop and his canons, with the enemy hammering on the gates of +Compostela, hastily took up and reburied the three coffins of the +original shrine, so secretly that they could not be found again. In +1879, however, a miscellany of brittle bits of bone was brought to +light by a party of determined seekers, and these repulsive fragments, +after scientific analysis conducted in an ecclesiastical spirit, were +declared to be portions of three skeletons which might be ages old. +Leo XIII clenched the matter by "authenticating" one of them, +apparently chosen at random, as the body of Santiago. But although for +us of the perverse sects, the contents of that magnificent silver +casket, the centre of the Santiago faith, could arouse no thrill of +worship, the Pilgrim City itself and its storied, strange cathedral +were the most impressive sights of Spain. + + [Illustration: WITHIN THE CLOISTER] + + + + +XXVI + +THE SON OF THUNDER + + "Thou shield of that faith which in Spain we revere, + Thou scourge of each foeman who dares to draw near, + Whom the Son of that God who the elements tames + Called child of the thunder, immortal Saint James." + --_Hymn to Santiago_, in George Borrow's translation. + + +Fatigues of the journey and discomforts of our lodging melted from +memory like shadows of the night when we found ourselves, on the +morning of July twenty-fourth, before that rich, dark mass of fretted +granite, a majestic church standing solitary in the midst of spreading +_plazas_. These are surrounded by stately buildings, the +archiepiscopal palace with its memories of Gelmirez, the royal +hospital founded by Ferdinand and Isabella for the succor of weary +pilgrims, ancient colleges with sculptured facades, marvellous old +convents whose holy fathers were long since driven out by royal decree +into hungry, homesick exile, and the columned city hall with its +frontal relief of the battle of Clavijo and its crowning statue of St. +James. The great, paved squares, the magnificent stairways and deeply +recessed portals were aglow with all Galicia. Peasants in gala dress, +bright as tropic birds, stood in deferential groups about the +pilgrims, for there were actual pilgrims on the scene, men and women +whose broad hats and round capes were sewn over with scallop-shells, +and whose long staffs showed little gourds fastened to the upper end. +They wore rosaries and crucifixes in profusion, and their habit was +spangled with all manner of charms and amulets, especially the tinsel +medals with their favorite device of St. James riding down the Moors. +We bought at one of the stalls set up before the doors for sale of +holy wares a memento of the famous old jet-work, a tiny black hand, +warranted, if hung about the neck, to cure disorders of the eyes. We +fell to chatting with a pilgrim who was shod in genuine sandal shoon. +A large gourd was tied to his belt, the rim of his hat was turned up +at one side and caught there with a rosy-tinted shell, and his long, +black ringlets fell loose upon his shoulders, framing a romantic Duerer +face. He talked with us in German, saying that he was of Wittemberg, +and once a Lutheran, but had been converted to the true faith on a +previous visit to Spain. Since then he had footed his penitential way +to Jerusalem and other distant shrines. As his simple speech ran on, +we seemed to see the mountains round about Santiago crossed by those +converging streams of mediaeval pilgrims, all dropping on their knees +at the first glimpse of the cathedral towers. With that sight the +fainting were refreshed, the lame ran, and jubilant songs of praise to +Santiago rolled out in many languages upon the air. + + "Primus ex apostolis, + Martir Jerusolinus, + Jacobus egregio, + Sacer est martirio." + +In those Ages of Faith all the gates of the city were choked with the +incoming tide, the hostels and cure-houses overflowed, and the broad +_plazas_ about the cathedral were filled with dense throngs of +pilgrims, massed nation by nation, flying their national colors, +singing their national hymns to the strangely blended music of their +national instruments, and watching for the acolyte who summoned them, +company by company, into the august presence-chamber of St. James. His +shrine they approached only in posture of lowliest reverence. Even +now, at the end of the nineteenth century, our first glance, as we +entered the lofty, dim, and incense-perfumed nave, fell on a +woman-pilgrim dragging herself painfully on her knees up the aisle +toward the High Altar, and often falling prostrate to kiss the +pavement with groans and tears. + +Mediaeval pilgrims, when they had thus won their way to the entrance of +the _Capilla Mayor_, and there received three light blows from a +priestly rod in token of chastisement, were granted the due +indulgences and, in turn, laid their offerings before the great white +altar. Still there sits, in a niche above, the thirteenth-century +image of St. James, a colossal figure wrought of red granite, with +stiffly flowing vestments of elaborately figured gilt. His left hand +grasps a silver staff, with gilded gourd atop, and his right, whose +index finger points downward to the burial vault, holds a scroll +inscribed, "Hic est corpus divi Jacobi Apostoli ac Hispaniarum +Patroni." Once he wore a broad-brimmed hat all of pure gold, but this +was melted down by Marshal Ney in the French invasion. At that time +the sacred vessels were heaped like market produce into great +ox-carts, until the cathedral had been plundered of ten hundredweight +of treasure. It was "the end of the pilgrimage" to climb the steps +behind this statue and kiss its resplendent silver cape, studded with +cockle-shells and besprinkled with gems. But the pilgrims of the past +had much more to see and worship,--the jewelled crown of the Apostle +set upon the altar, his very hat and staff, the very axe that beheaded +him, and other relics to which the attention of the modern tourist, at +least, is not invited. Yet even we were conducted to the Romanesque +crypt beneath the High Altar, where stands another altar of red +marble, decorated by a relief of two peacocks drinking from a cup. +This altar is surmounted by a bronze pedestal, which bears the +sumptuous ark-shaped casket with its enshrined handfuls of dubious +dust. + +Our latter-day pilgrims seemed well content with the measure of wealth +and sanctity which Moorish sack and English piracy, French invasion +and Carlist wars, had spared to the cathedral. In the matter of +general relics, nevertheless, Santiago suffers by comparison with the +neighbor cathedral of Oviedo, which proudly shows a silver-plated old +reliquary, believed by the devout to have been brought in the earliest +Christian times from Rome. This chest contains, in addition to the +usual pieces of the true cross and thorns from the crown, such +remarkable mementos as St. Peter's leathern wallet, crumbs left over +from the Feeding of the Five Thousand, bits of roast fish and +honeycomb from Emmaus, bread from the Last Supper, manna from the +wilderness, a portion of Moses' rod and the mantle of Elijah. Oviedo +possesses, too, that famous cross which the angels made for Alfonso +II, and one of the six water-jars of Cana. But the relic chapel of +Santiago makes up in quantity whatever it may lack in quality, holding +bones, garments, hair-tresses, and like memorials of a veritable army +of martyrs, even to what Ford disrespectfully calls "sundry parcels +of the eleven thousand Virgins." Special stress is laid on a Calvary +thorn which turns blood-red every Good Friday, and a drop, forever +fresh, of the Madonna's milk. If pilgrims are not satisfied with +these, they can walk out to Los Angeles, an adjacent village, whose +church was built by the angels. Eccentric architects they were in +choosing to connect their edifice with the cathedral of Santiago by an +underground beam of pure gold, formerly one of the rafters in God's +own house. + +We had speech of several pilgrims that first morning. One was a +middle-aged, sun-browned, stubby little man, whom during the ensuing +week we saw again and again in the cathedral, but never begging, with +the most of the pilgrims, at the portals, nor taking his ease in the +cloisters,--a social promenade where the laity came to gossip and the +clergy to puff their cigarettes. This humble worshipper seemed to pass +all the days of the festival in enraptured adoration, on his knees now +before one shrine, now before another. We found him first facing the +supreme architectural feature of the cathedral, that sublime and yet +most lovely _Portico de la Gloria_. He was gazing up at its paradise +of sculptured saints and angels, whose plumes and flowing robes still +show traces of azure, rose, and gold, with an expression of naive +ecstasy. He told us that he came from Astorga, and had been nine days +on the way. He spent most of his time upon the road, he added, +visiting especially the shrines of the Virgin. "Greatly it pleases me +to worship God," he said, with sparkling eyes, and ran on eagerly, as +long as we would listen, about the riches and splendors of different +cathedrals, and especially the robes and jewels of the _Virgen del +Pilar_. He seemed in his devout affection to make her wealth his own. +One of the most touching effects of the scene was the childlike +simplicity with which the poor of Galicia, coming from such vile +hovels, felt themselves at home in the dwelling of their saint. Not +even their sins marred their sense of welcome. In the cloisters we +encountered an old woman in the pilgrim dress, her staff wound with +gay ribbons, limping from her long jaunt. She told us frankly that she +was "only a beggar" in her own village, and had come for the outing as +well as to please the priest, who, objecting to certain misdemeanors +which she had the discretion not to specify, had prescribed this +excursion as penance. She was a lively old soul, and was amusing +herself mightily with the Goya tapestries, and others, that adorned +the cloisters in honor of the time. "You have a book and can read," +she said, "and you will understand it all, but what can I understand? +I can see that this is a queen, and she is very fine, and that those +are butchers who are killing a fat pig. But we who are poor may +understand little in this world except the love of God." Others of the +pilgrims were village folk of Portugal, and, taken all together, these +modern wearers of the shell were but a sorry handful as representing +those noble multitudes who came, in ages past, to bow before the +shrine. The fourteen doors of the cathedral then stood open night and +day, and the grotesque lions leaning out over the lintels could boast +that there was no tongue of Europe which their stone ears had not +heard. Three open doors suffice in the feast days now, but with the +new flood of faith that has set toward Lourdes, pilgrimages to +Santiago, as to other Latin shrines, are beginning to revive. + +Mass was over at the late hour of our arrival, but nave and aisles, +transepts and cloisters, hummed with greetings of friends, laughter of +children, who sported unrebuked about those stately columns, and the +admiring exclamations of strangers. We were often accosted in Spanish +and in French and asked from what country we came, and if we "loved +the beautiful church of the Apostle." When we were occasionally +cornered, and driven in truthfulness to say that we were Yankees, our +more intelligent interlocutors looked us over with roguish scrutiny, +but increased rather than abated their courtesies. As for the +peasants, their geography is safely limited. Noticing that our Spanish +differed from theirs, they said we must be from Castile, or, at the +most, from Portugal. At all events we were strangers to Santiago, and +they merrily vied with one another in showing us about and giving us +much graphic information not to be found in guide-books. + +Much of their lore appears to be of their own invention. The superb +_Puerta de la Gloria_, wrought by a then famous architect sent from +the king of Leon, but known to us to-day only as Master Mateo, was the +fruit of twenty years' labor. This triple porch, which runs across the +west end of the nave, being finally completed, Master Mateo seems to +have symbolized the dedication of his service to the Apostle in a +kneeling statue of himself, facing the east, with back to the richly +sculptured pillar of the chief portal. The head of this figure is worn +almost as round and expressionless as a stone ball by the caresses of +generations of childish hands. The little girls whom we watched that +morning as they patted and smoothed the much-enduring pate told us, +kissing the marble eyes, that this was a statue of St. Lucia, which it +certainly is not. In another moment these restless midgets were +assaulting, with fluent phrases of insult, the carven faces of certain +fantastic images which form the bases of the clustered columns. The +children derisively thrust their feet down the yawning throats, kicked +the grotesque ears and noses, and in general so maltreated their +Gothic victims that we were moved to remonstrate. + +"But why should you abuse them? What are these creatures, to be +punished so?" + +"_They are Jews_," hissed our little Christians with an emphasis that +threw new light on the Dreyfus _affaire_. But an instant more, and +these vivacious, capricious bits of Spanish womanhood were all +absorbed in aiding a blind old peasant who had groped her way to the +sacred Portico for its especial privilege of prayer. The central +shaft, dividing into two the chief of the three doorways, represents +the Tree of Jesse, the patriarchal figures half-enveloped in +exquisitely sculptured foliage. The chiselled capital shows the +Trinity, Dove and Son and Father, with adoring angels. Above sits a +benignant St. James, whose throne is guarded by lions, and over all, +in the central tympanum of the sublime doorway, is a colossal figure +of our Lord, uplifting His wounded hands. About Him are grouped the +four Evangelists, radiant with eternal youth, and eight angels bearing +the instruments of the Passion, the pillar of the scourging, whips, +the crown of thorns, the nails, the scroll, the sponge, the spear, the +cross. Other angels burn incense before Him, and the archivolt above +is wrought with an ecstatic multitude of elders, martyrs, and saints, +so vivid after all these centuries that one can almost hear the blithe +music of their harps. It is the Christ of Paradise, enthroned amid the +blest, to whom His presence gives fulness of joy forevermore. Above +the lesser doors on either side are figured Purgatory and Hell. The +fresh and glowing beauty, so piquant and yet so spiritual, the truly +celestial charm of this marvellous Portico which Street did not fear +to call "one of the greatest glories of Christian art," was never, +during this festal week, without its throng of reverent beholders, the +most waiting their turn, like our old blind peasant, to fit thumb and +finger into certain curious little hollows on the central shaft, and +thus offer prayer which was sure of answer. Minute after minute for +unbroken hours, the hands succeeded one another there,--old, knotted, +toilworn hands, the small, brown hands of children, jewelled hands of +delicate ladies, and often, as now, the groping hand of blindness, +with childish fingers helping it to find those mystical depressions in +the agate. Some of the bystanders told us that St. James had descended +from his seat above the capital, and laid his hand against the column, +leaving these traces, but more would have it that the Christ Himself +had come down by night from the great tympanum to place His wounded +hand upon the shaft. Street records that he observed several such +petitioners, after removing the hand, spit into the mouths of the +winged dragons that serve as base to the pillar; but that literally +dare-devil form of amen must now have gone out of fashion, for we did +not see it once. + + [Illustration: THE TRAMPLER OF THE MOORS] + +Toward noon we strolled out into the grand _plaza_ before the west +facade and found it a multitudinous jam of expectant merrymakers. Even +nuns were peeping down from a leaf-veiled balcony. We seemed to have +been precipitated out of the Middle Ages into an exaggerated Fourth of +July. All the city bells were pealing, rockets and Roman candles were +sputtering, and grotesque fire-balloons, let off from a parapet of +the cathedral, flourished bandy legs and "Sagasta noses" in the +resigned old faces of the carven images. And then, amid the +acclamations of all the small boys in the square, sallied forth the +Santiago giants. These wickerwork monsters, eight all told, are +supposed to represent worshippers from foreign lands. They go by +couples, two being conventional pilgrims with "cockle-shell and sandal +shoon"; two apparently Moors, with black complexions, feather crowns, +and much barbaric finery; two nondescripts, possibly the French of +feudal date; and two, the leaders and prime favorites, regular Punch +caricatures of modern English tourists. John Bull is a stout old +gentleman with gray side-whiskers, a vast expanse of broadcloth back, +and a single eye-glass secured by a lavender ribbon. The British +Matron, in a smart Dolly Varden frock, glares with a shocked +expression from under flaxen puffs and an ostrich-feathered hat. The +popular attitude of mind toward these absurdities is past all finding +out. Not the children alone, but the entire assemblage greeted them +with affectionate hilarity. The giants, propelled by men who walked +inside them and grinned out on the world from a slit in the enormous +waistbands, trundled about the square, followed by the antics of a +rival group of dwarfs from the city hall, and then made the round of +the principal streets, executing clumsy gambols before the public +buildings. + +On the morning after, July twenty-fifth, the great day of the feast, +anniversary of the Apostle's martyrdom, these same overgrown dolls +played a prominent part in the solemn cathedral service. The Chapter +passed in stately progress to the archbishop's palace to fetch his +Eminence, and later to the ancient portals where the silver-workers +once displayed their wares, to greet the Royal Delegate. At their head +strutted this absurd array of giants. The High Mass was superb with +orchestral music and the most sumptuous robes of the vestiary. The +"King of Censers," the splendid _botafumeiro_ of fourteenth-century +date, made so large, six feet high, with the view of purifying the +cathedral air vitiated by the hordes of pilgrims who were wont to pass +the night sleeping and praying on the holy pavements, flashed its +majestic curves, a mighty fire bird, from roof to floor and from +transept to transept. It is swung from the ceiling by an ingenious +iron mechanism, and the leaping, roaring flames, as the huge censer +sweeps with ever augmenting speed from vault to vault, tracing its +path by a chain of perfumed wreaths, make the spectacle uniquely +beautiful. Knights of Santiago, their white raiment marked by crimson +sword and dagger, received from the Royal Delegate "a thousand crowns +of gold," the annual state donation, instituted by Rameiro, to the +patron saint. The Delegate, kneeling before the image of Santiago, +prayed fervently that the Apostle would accept this offering of the +regent, a queen no less devout than the famous mother of San Fernando, +and would raise up Alfonso XIII to be another Fernando, winning back +for Spain her ocean isles which the heretics had wrested away, even as +Fernando restored to Compostela the cathedral doors and bell which the +infidel Moors had stolen. His Eminence, who is said to have +accumulated a fortune during his previous archbishopric in Cuba, in +turn besought St. James to protect Catholic Spain against "those who +invoke no right save brute force, and adore no deity except the golden +calf." In most magnificent procession the silver casket was borne +around the nave among the kneeling multitudes. And then, to crown +these august ceremonies, forth trotted our friends, the giants, into +the open space before the _Capilla Mayor_. Here the six subordinate +boobies paused, grouping themselves in a ludicrous semicircle, while +pompous John Bull and his ever scandalized British Matron went up into +the Holy of Holies and danced, to the music of guitars and +tambourines, in front of the High Altar. + +Every day of that festal week the cathedral services were attended by +devout throngs, yet there was something blithe and social, well-nigh +domestic, in the atmosphere of the scene even at the most impressive +moments. Kneeling groups of peasant women caught the sunshine on their +orange kerchiefs and scarlet-broidered shawls. Here a praying father +would gather his little boy, sobbing with weariness, up against his +breast; there a tired pilgrim woman slumbered in a corner, her broad +hat with its cockle-shells lying on her knees. Rows of kneeling +figures waited at the wooden confessionals which were thick set along +both aisles and ambulatory. Several times we saw a priest asleep in +the confessional, those who would pour out their hearts to him +kneeling on in humble patience, not venturing to arouse the holy +father. Young officers, leaning against the pillars, smiled upon a +school of Spanish girls, who, guarded by veiled nuns, knelt far along +the transept. Pilgrims, standing outside the door to gather alms, vied +with one another in stories of their travels and the marvels they had +seen. + +But at night, walking in the illuminated _alameda_, where thousands of +Japanese lanterns and colored cups of flame made a fantastic +fairyland, or dancing their country dances, singing their country +songs, practising their country sports, and gazing with tireless +delight at the fireworks in the spacious _Plaza de Alfonso Doce_, the +worshippers gave themselves up to frankest merriment. Through the +days, indeed, there was never any lack of noisy jollity. From dawn to +dawn again cannon were booming, drums beating, bagpipes skirling, +tambourines clattering, songs and cries resounding through the +streets. Four patients in the hospital died the year before, we were +told, from the direct effects of this continuous uproar. But the +thunder height of the _fiesta_ is attained toward midnight on the +twenty-fourth, the "Eve of Santiago," when rockets and fire-balloons +are supplemented by such elaborate devices as the burning of +"capricious trees" and the destruction of a Moorish facade built for +the occasion out from the west front of the cathedral. At the first +ignition of the powder there come such terrific crashes and +reverberating detonations, such leaps and bursts of flame, that the +peasant host sways back and the children scream. An Arabic doorway +with ornate columns, flanked on either side by a wall of many arches +and surmounted by a blood-red cross, dazzles out into overwhelming +brilliancy, all in greens and purples, a glowing, scintillating, ever +changing vision. Soon it is lustrous white and then, in perishing, +sends up a swift succession of giant rockets. The facade itself is a +very Alhambra of fret and arabesque. This, too, with thunder bursts +reveals itself as a flame-colored, sky-colored, sea-colored miracle, +which pales to gleaming silver and, while we read above it the +resplendent words "The Patron of Spain," is blown to atoms as a symbol +of Santiago's victory over the Moors. This makes an ideal Spanish +holiday, but the cost, borne by the city, is heavy, there is distinct +and increasing injury to the cathedral fabric, and all this jubilee +for archaic victories over the Moslem seems to be mocked by the hard +facts of to-day. + +The Santiago festivities, of which the half has not been told, closed +on Thursday afternoon, July twenty-seventh, with a procession through +the streets. We waited a weary while for it before the doors where the +old jet-workers used to set their booths, amusing ourselves meantime +by watching the house maids drawing water from the fountain in the +square below. These sturdy Galicians were armed with long tin tubes +which they dextrously applied to the spouting mouths of the fountain +griffins, so directing the stream into the straight, iron-bound pails. +Not far away the market women covered the flags with red and golden +fruit. A saucy beggar-wench, with the blackest eyes in Spain, demanded +alms, and when we had yielded up the usual toll of coppers, loudly +prayed to Santiago to pardon us for not having given her more on this +his holy festival. At last out sallied the band, followed by those +inevitable giants, and amid mad ringing of bells and fizzing of +invisible rockets, forth from the venerable portals issued standards, +crosses, tapers, priests in white and gold, and platformed effigies of +pilgrims, saints, and deities. Then came bishops, cardinals, and +archbishop, ranks of military bearing tapers, the alcalde and his +associates in the city government with antique escort of bedizened +mace-bearers, a sparkling statue of St. James on horseback busily +beheading his legions of Moors, a bodyguard of all the pilgrims in +attendance on his saintship, and finally the _Virgen del Pilar_, at +whose passing all the concourse fell upon their knees. Churches in the +line of march had their own images decked and ready, waiting in the +colonnaded porches to fall into the procession. The market women and +the maids at the fountain threw kisses to the Christ Child, leaning in +blue silk frock and white lace tucker against a cross of roses, but +the boys waved their caps for St. Michael, debonair that he was with +blowing crimson robe, real feather wings fluttering in the breeze, and +his gold foot set on the greenest of dragons. + +The procession came home by way of the great west doors, opened only +this once in the round year. The setting sun, bringing out all the +carven beauty of that dark gray facade, glittered on the golden balls +and crosses that tip the noble towers, and on the golden staff of St. +James and the golden quill of St. John, where the two sons of thunder +stand colossal in their lofty niches. A baby, in yellow kerchief and +cherry skirt, toddling alone across the centre of the square, pointed +with adoring little hand at the mounted image of Santiago, which +halted at the foot of the grand stairway, his lifted sword a line of +golden light, while the deep-voiced choir chanted his old triumphal +hymn. John Bull and the British Matron, stationing themselves on +either side as a guard of honor, stared at him with insular contempt. +As the chant ceased, St. James chivalrously made way for the _Virgen +del Pilar_, a slender figure of pure gold poised on an azure +tabernacle, to mount the steps before him. The bells pealed out to +welcome her as she neared the portals, and an ear-splitting explosion +of a monster rocket, with a tempest-rain of sparks, announced the +instant of her entrance beneath the chiselled arch. Behind her went +the penitents, arduously climbing the long stone flights of that +quadruple stairway upon their knees. These, too, were but shadows of +those mediaeval penitents who of old staggered after this procession, +bowed under the weight of crosses, or scourging themselves until they +fainted in their own trail of blood. Yet it is still strange and +touching to see, long after the inner spaces of the cathedral are dim +with evening, those kneeling figures making their painful progress +about aisles and ambulatory, sobbing as they go, and falling forward +on their faces to kiss the pavement that is bruising them. + + [Illustration: SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL] + + + + +XXVII + +VIGO AND AWAY + + Hasta la Vista! + + +Our plan for the summer included a return trip across Spain, _via_ +Valladolid, Salamanca, and Saragossa to Barcelona and the Balearic +Isles; but the bad food and worse lodging of Galicia, the blazing heat +and the incessant, exhausting warfare against vermin, had begun to +tell. That Spanish fever with which so many foreigners make too +intimate acquaintance was at our doors, and we found ourselves forced +at last to sacrifice enthusiasm to hygiene. The most eccentric train +which it was ever my fortune to encounter shunted and switched us +across country to Vigo in about the time it would have taken to make +the journey donkeyback. Here we tarried for a week or so, gathering +strength from the Atlantic breezes, and when, one sunny August day, a +stately steamboat called for an hour at Vigo harbor on her way from +Buenos Ayres to Southampton, we went up over the side. Our shock of +astonishment at the cleanliness around us could not, however, divert +our attention long from the receding shores of Spain, toward which one +of us, at least, still felt a stubborn longing. + +They lay bright in the midday sunshine, those green uplands of +Galicia, mysterious with that patient peasant life of which we had +caught fleeting, baffling glimpses. Still we seemed to see the +brown-legged women washing in the brook and spreading their +coarse-spun, gay-bordered garments on the heather; children, with the +faces of little Pats and little Biddies, tugging a bleating sheep +across the stepping-stones, or boosting an indignant goat over the +wall; lean pigs poking their noses out of the low, stone doorways, +where babies slept on wisps of hay; girls in cream-colored kerchiefs, +starred with gold, bearing loads of fragrant brush or corded fagots on +their heads. As the evening should come on, and the sea-breeze stir +the tassels of the maize, we knew how the fields would be dotted with +impromptu groups of dancers, leaping higher and higher and waving +their arms in ever wilder merriment,--a scene pastoral down to the +pigs, and poetic up to those gushes of song that delight the listener. + + "I went to the meadow + Day after day, + To gather the blossoms + Of April and May, + And there was Mercedes, + Always there, + Sweetest white lily + That breathes the air." + + "North-wind, North-wind, + Strong as wine! + Blow thou, North-wind, + Comrade mine!" + + "The Virgin is spreading handkerchiefs + On the rosemary to dry. + The little birds are singing, + And the brook is running by. + + "The Virgin washes handkerchiefs, + And spreads them in the sun, + But St. Joseph, out of mischief, + Has stolen every one." + +It was only now and then that we had realized a touch of genuine +fellowship with these Galician peasants. I remember a little +thirteenth-century church, gray crosses topping its low gray towers, +one of which was broken off as if a giant hand had snapped it. In the +porch a white-headed woman, in a gold-edged blue kerchief and +poppy-red skirt, was holding a dame-school. It took her all the +morning session, she told us, to get the fifty faces washed, but in +the afternoon the children learned to read and knit and play the +choral games. She had ten cents a month for every child, when the +parents were able to pay. From a convenient hollow in a pillar of +Arabic tradition she proudly drew her library,--a shabby primer and a +few loose leaves of a book of devotion. As we talked, the midgets grew +so restless and inquisitive that she shook her long rod at them with a +mighty show of fierceness, and shooed them out of the porch like so +many chickens. Then she went on eagerly with the story of her life, +telling how she was married at fifteen, how her husband went "to serve +the king" in the second Carlist war, and never came back, and how her +only daughter had borne nine children, of whom eight died in babyhood, +"_angelitos al cielo_," having known on earth "only the day and the +night." The last and youngest had been very ill with the fever, and +the afflicted grandmother had promised that noble Roman maiden, the +martyr saint of the little gray church, to go around the edifice seven +times upon her knees, if only the child might live. The vow had been +heard, as the presence of a thin-faced, wistful tot by the old woman's +side attested, but so far only three of the seven circuits had been +made. "It tires the knees much." But even with the words she knelt +again, kissing the sacred threshold, and began the painful, heavy, +shuffling journey around the church, while the baby, with wondering +gray eyes, trotted beside her, clinging to the wrinkled hand. When at +last, with puffs and groanings, the old dame had reached the carven +doorway again, she rose wearily, rubbing her knees. + +"A sweet saint!" she said, "but _ay de mi!_ such gravel!" + +We ought, of course, to have been impressed in Galicia with its +debasing ignorance and superstition, and so, to a certain extent, we +were. We went to see a _romeria_, a pilgrimage to a hilltop shrine, on +one of our last afternoons in Vigo, and found a double line of dirty, +impudent beggars, stripped half naked, and displaying every sort of +hideous deformity,--a line that reached all the way from the +carriage-road up the rugged ascent to the crest. We had to run the +gantlet, and it was like traversing a demoniac sculpture-gallery made +up of human mockeries. We had to push our way, moreover, through scene +after scene of vulgar barter in things divine, and when at last the +summit was achieved, the shrine of the Virgin seemed robbed of its +glory by the ugliness, vice, and misery it overlooked. Spain is +mediaeval, and the modern age can teach her much. But with all her +physical foulness and mental folly, there still dwells in her that +mediaeval grace for which happier countries may be searched in vain. + +Yet Spain is far from unhappy. It is beautiful to see out of what +scant allowance of that which we call well-being, may be evolved +wisdom and joy, poetry and religion. Wearied as we two bookish +travellers were with lectures and libraries, we rejoiced in this wild +Galician lore that lives on the lips of the people. The written +Spanish literature, like other Spanish arts, is of the richest, nor +are its laurels limited to the dates of Cervantes and Calderon. The +modern Spanish novel, for instance, as Mr. Howells so generously +insists, all but leads the line. But Spain herself is poetry. What +does one want of books in presence of her storied, haunted +vistas,--warrior-trod Asturian crags, opalescent reaches of Castilian +plain, orange-scented gardens of Andalusia? A circle of cultivated +Spaniards is one of the most charming groups on earth, but Spaniards +altogether innocent of formal education may be walking anthologies of +old ballads, spicy quatrains, riddles, proverbs, fables, epigrams. The +peasant quotes "Don Quixote" without knowing it; the donkey-boy is as +lyric as Romeo; the devout shepherd tells a legend of the Madonna that +is half the dream of his own lonely days among the hills. Where +Spanish life is most stripped of material prosperity, it seems most to +abound in suggestions of romance. This despised Galicia, the province +of simpletons, is literary in its own way. The hovel has no bookshelf, +but the children's ears drink in the grandmother's croon:-- + + "On a morning of St. John + Fell a sailor into the sea. + 'What wilt thou give me, sailor, sailor, + If I rescue thee?' + + "'I will give thee all my ships, + All my silver, every gem, + All my gold,--yea, wife and daughters, + I will give thee them.' + + "'What care I for masted ships, + What care I for gold or gem? + Keep thy wife and keep thy daughters, + What care I for them? + + "'On the morning of St. John + Thou art drowning in the sea. + Promise me thy soul at dying, + And I'll rescue thee.' + + "'I commend the sea to God, + And my body to the sea, + And my soul, Sweet Mother Mary, + I commit to thee.'" + +And well it was for this bold mariner that he did not take up the +Devil's offer, for everybody knows that those who have signed away +their souls to the Devil turn black in the moment of dying, and are +borne, black and horrible, to the sepulchre. + +In this northwestern corner of Spain are many mountain-songs as well +as sea-songs. One of the sweetest tells how the blue-robed Virgin met +a young shepherdess upon the hills and was so pleased with the +maiden's courtesy that she straightway bore her thence to Paradise, +not forgetting, this tender Mary of Bethlehem, to lead the flock +safely back to the sheepfold. The love of the Galician peasantry for +"Our Lady" blends childlike familiarity with impassioned devotion. + + "As I was telling my beads, + While the dawn was red, + The Virgin came to greet me + With her arms outspread." + +Her rank in their affections is well suggested by another of the +popular _coplas_. + + "In the porch of Bethlehem, + Sun, Moon, and Star, + The Virgin, St. Joseph, + And the Christ Child are." + +With their saints these Spanish peasants seem almost on a household +footing, not afraid of a jest because so sure of the love that +underlies it. + + "St. John and Mary Magdalen + Played hide and seek, the pair, + Till St. John threw a shoe at her, + Because she didn't play fair." + +Yet there is no lack of fear in this rustic religion. There is many a +"shalt not" in the Galician decalogue. One must not try to count the +stars, lest he come to have as many wrinkles as the number of stars he +has counted. Never rock an empty cradle, for the next baby who sleeps +in it will die. So often as you name the Devil in life, so often will +he appear to you in the hour of death. If you hear another name him, +call quickly, before the Devil has time to arrive, "Jesus is here." It +is ill to dance alone, casting your shadow on the wall, because that +is dancing with the Devil. But the Prince of Darkness is not the only +supernatural being whom Galicians dread. There is a bleating demon who +makes fun of them, cloudy giants who stir up thunderstorms, and are +afraid only of St. Barbara, witches who cast the evil eye, but most of +all the "souls in pain." For oftentimes the dead come back to earth +for their purgatorial penance. You must never slam a door, nor close a +window roughly, nor kick the smallest pebble from your path, because +in door or stone or window may be a suffering soul. To see one is to +die within the year. If you would not be haunted by your dead, kiss +the shoes which the body wears to the burial. + +It is well to go early to bed, for at midnight all manner of evil +beings prowl up and down the streets. Who has not heard of that +unlucky woman, who, after spinning late and long, stepped to the +window for a breath of air exactly at twelve o'clock? Far off across +the open country she saw a strange procession of shining candles +drawing nearer and nearer, although there were no hands to hold them +and no sound of holy song. Straight toward her house came those +uncanny lights, moving silently through the meadow mists, and halted +beneath her window. Then the foremost one of all begged her to take it +in and keep it carefully until the midnight following. Scarcely +knowing what she did, she closed her fingers on the cold wax and, +blowing out the flame, laid away the taper in a trunk, but when, at +daybreak, after a sleepless night, she raised the lid, before her lay +a corpse. Aghast, she fled to the priest, who lent her all the relics +of the sacristy; but their united power only just availed to save her +from the fury of the spirits when they returned at midnight to claim +the taper, expecting, moreover, to seize upon the woman and "turn her +to fire and ashes." + +Sometimes a poor soul is permitted to condense the slow ages of +Purgatory into one hour of uttermost torment. Galicians tell how a +young priest brought his serving-maid to sorrow and how, to escape the +latter burning, she shut herself, one day when the priest was engaged +in the ceremonial of High Mass, into the red-hot oven. On his return, +he called her name and sought her high and low, and when, at last, he +opened the oven door, out flew a white dove that soared, a purified +and pardoned soul, into the blue of heaven. The science of this simple +folk is not divorced from poetry and religion. The rainbow drinks, +they say, in the sea and in the rivers. The Milky Way, the Road to +Santiago, is trodden every night by pale, dim multitudes who failed to +make that blessed pilgrimage, from which no one of us will be excused, +in time of life. When the dust stirs in an empty house, good St. Ana +is sweeping there. When babies look upward and laugh, they see the +cherubs at play. Tuesday is the unlucky day in Spain, whereas children +born on Friday receive the gift of second-sight, and those who enter +the world on Good Friday are marked by a cross in the roof of the +mouth and have the holy touch that cures diseases. It is a fortunate +house beneath whose eaves the swallow builds, + + "For swallows on Mount Calvary + Plucked tenderly away + From the brows of Christ two thousand thorns, + Such gracious birds are they." + + [Illustration: ST. JAMES] + +The Galicians, butt of all Spain for their dulness, are shrewd enough +in fact. It is said that those arrant knaves, the gypsies, dare not +pass through Galicia for fear of being cheated. Like other unlettered +peasants, Gallegos whet their wits on rhyming riddles. + + "Who is the little pigeon, + Black and white together, + That speaks so well without a tongue + And flies without a feather?" + + "A tree with twelve boughs and four nests on a bough, + In each nest seven birdlings,--unriddle me now." + +In many of their proverbial sayings one gets the Spanish tang at its +best. "A well-filled stomach praises God." + + "Why to Castile + For your fortune go? + A man's Castile + Is under his hoe." + +And I fear if my comrade were to speak, in Spanish phrase, of our +return to Galicia, she would bid St. James expect us "on Judgment Day +in the afternoon." + + + + + Works by Alice Morse Earle + + CHILD LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS + + _Profusely Illustrated_ + + Crown 8vo. Cloth. Gilt top. $2.50 + + +Commercial Advertiser: + +"Once more Mrs. Earle has drawn on her apparently inexhaustible store +of colonial lore, and has produced another interesting book of the +olden days.... Mrs. Earle's interesting style, the accuracy of her +statements, and the attractive illustrations she always supplies for +her books make the volume one to be highly prized." + +Buffalo Express: + +"Mrs. Alice Morse Earle performs a real historical service, and writes +an interesting book. It is not a compilation from, or condensation of, +previous books, but the fruit of personal and original investigation +into the conditions of life in the American colonies." + + + HOME LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS + +Education: + +"Mrs. Earle has made a very careful study of the details of domestic +life from the earliest days of the settlement of the country. The book +is sumptuously illustrated, and every famed article, such as the +spinning-wheel, the foot-stone, the brass knocker on the door, and the +old-time cider mill, is here presented to the eye, and faithfully +pictured in words. The volume is a fascinating one, and the vast army +of admirers and students of the olden days will be grateful to the +author for gathering together and putting into permanent form so much +accurate information concerning the homes of our ancestors." + +Literature: + +"Mrs. Earle's fidelity in study and her patient research are evident +on every page of this charming book, and her pleasantly colloquial +style is frequently assisted by very beautiful illustrations, both of +the houses of the colonists, from the primitive cave dug out of the +hillside and made to answer for warmth and shelter, to the more +comfortable log cabin, the farmstead with its adjacent buildings, and +the stately mansion abiding to our own day." + + + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 66 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK + + + + + AMONG ENGLISH HEDGEROWS + + By CLIFTON JOHNSON + + _With an Introduction by HAMILTON W. MABIE_ + + Illustrated. Cr. 8vo. Cloth extra. Gilt top. $2.25 + + +"'Among English Hedgerows' is one of the most beautiful of illustrated +books, containing, as it does, a great number of half-tone +reproductions of Mr. Johnson's admirable photographs. + +"The author, as far as possible, lived the life of the people who +figure in these pages, and we have delightful accounts of village +characters, and glimpses of quaint old English homes. + +"Hamilton W. Mabie, who furnishes the introduction, well summarizes +Mr. Johnson's merits as 'a friendly eye, a hearty sympathy, and a very +intelligent camera, and that love of his field and of his subject +which is the prime characteristic of the successful painter of rural +life and country folk.'"--_Illustrated Buffalo Express._ + + + + + ALONG FRENCH BYWAYS + + By CLIFTON JOHNSON + + Illustrated. Cr. 8vo. Cloth extra. Gilt top. $2.25 + +"A book of leisurely strolling through one of the most picturesque +countries of Europe, enlivened with description and anecdote, and +profusely illustrated.... Mr. Johnson is not only a delightful writer, +but is one of the best landscape photographers of whom we have +knowledge."--_Boston Transcript._ + +"This book shares the merits of Mr. Johnson's 'Among English +Hedgerows': simplicity of theme and treatment, sympathy and love of +nature."--_The Mail and Express._ + +"A book of strolling, a book of nature, a book of humble peasant life +intermingled with the chance experiences of the narrator."--_The +Worcester Spy._ + + + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Spanish Highways and Byways, by Katharine Lee Bates + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPANISH HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 38767.txt or 38767.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/6/38767/ + +Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |