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diff --git a/40528-0.txt b/40528-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..73c978a --- /dev/null +++ b/40528-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6592 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40528 *** + +[Illustration: A MANDURRA SOLO.] + + + + +SPANISH VISTAS + + +BY + +GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP + + +_ILLUSTRATED_ + +BY + +CHARLES S. REINHART + + +NEW YORK + +HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE + +1883 + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by + +HARPER & BROTHERS, + +In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + + * * * * * + +_All rights reserved._ + +TO + +FRANCES M. LATHROP + +WHOSE TASTE FOR TRAVEL AND OBSERVATION EARLY PROMPTED HIS OWN + +These Sketches are Dedicated + +BY HER SON + +THE AUTHOR + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The two great Mediterranean peninsulas which, in opposite quarters, jut +southward where--as George Eliot says, in her "Spanish Gypsy"-- + + "Europe spreads her lands + Like fretted leaflets, breathing on the deep," + +may not inaptly be likened to a brother and sister, instead of taking +their places under the usual similitude of "sister countries." They have +points of marked resemblance, in their picturesqueness, their treasures +of art, their associations of history and romance; but, just as the +physical aspect of Spain and its shape upon the map are broader, more +thick-set and rugged than the slender form and flowing curves of Italy, +so the Spanish language--with its Arabic gutturals interspersed among +melodious linguals and vowel sounds--has been called the masculine +development of that Southern speech of which the Italian presents the +feminine side. The people of both countries exhibit a similar excitable, +ardent quality in their characters; but the national temperament of the +Spaniards is, perhaps, somewhat hardier, more virile, and sturdier in +its passionateness. + +It seems to be true that, while the Greek spirit transferred itself to +Italy in the days of Augustus, renewing its influence at the period of +the Renaissance, and leaving upon people and manners an impress never +since quite effaced--an influence tending toward a certain feminine +refinement--the spirit of Rome also transferred itself to the subject +country, Hispania, and imbued that region with the strong, austere, or +wilful characteristics of purely Latin civilization, which are still +traceable there. + +But, however we may account for the phenomena, it is likely that the +mingled contrasts and resemblances of Italy and Spain will more and more +induce travellers to visit the Iberian Peninsula. Italy has now been so +thoroughly depicted in all its larger phases, from the foreigner's point +of view, that investigation must hereafter chiefly be concerned with the +study of special and local features. Spain, on the other hand, offers +itself to the general observer and to the tourist as a field scarcely +more explored than Italy was forty or fifty years ago; and the evidence +is abundant that the current of travel is setting vigorously in this +direction. With the extension of a railroad system and the incursion of +sight-seeing strangers in larger number, we must of course expect that +many of the most interesting peculiarities of the people will undergo +modification and at length disappear. This, however, cannot be helped; +and the following chapters, at the same time that they may encourage and +aid those who are destined to bring about such changes, may also serve +to arrest and preserve for future reference the actual appearance of +Spain to-day. + +Much might be written, with the certainty of an eager audience, +concerning the present political condition of the country, by any one +who had had opportunities for examining it; and Mr. John Hay, a few +years ago, gave some glimpses of it in his charming volume, "Castilian +Days." My own brief sojourn afforded no adequate opportunity for such +observation. But it may be not inadmissible to record here one of the +casual remarks which came to my notice in this connection. On a +Mediterranean steamer I met with an exceedingly bright and healthy man +of the middle class, fairly well educated--one of those specimens of +solid, temperate, active manhood fortunately very common in Spain, on +whom the future of the country really depends--and, noticing from my +lame speech that I was not a native, he asked me, guardedly, if I was an +Englishman. + +"No," I said; "I am an American of the North, of the United States." + +His manner changed at once; he thawed: more than that, his face lighted +with hope, as if he had found a powerful friend, and he gazed at me with +a certain delighted awe, attributing to my humble person a glory for +which I was in no way responsible. "You are a republican, then!" he +exclaimed. + +"Yes." + +He gave me another long, silent look, and then confessed that he, too, +was a firm believer in republicanism. + +"Are there many Spaniards now of that party?" I inquired. + +His reply showed that he appreciated the difficulties of the national +problem. "Party!" he cried. "Listen: in Spain there is a separate +political party for every man." After a slight pause he added, bitterly, +"Sometimes, _two_!" + +It may still be said with a good deal of accuracy, though not of course +with the literalness and the sweeping application that Paul de Saint +Victor gave the words, in speaking of the French Charles II.'s reign, +that "Spain no more changes than the arid zone that encircles a volcano. +Kings pass, dynasties are renewed, events succeed each other, but the +foundation remains immobile, and Philip II. still rules." + +I have not attempted to review political matters; and neither have I +tried to give an exhaustive account of the country in any other respect. +The pictures which I have given I have endeavored to make vivid and +faithful; and, if I have succeeded, they will present the essential +characteristics of Spain. What has thus been the object of the text has +certainly been attained in the drawings by Mr. Reinhart, which supply +much the greater part of the illustrations in this volume. Made after +sketches from life, which were prepared with unflagging zeal, and often +under great difficulties, they frequently tell more than language can +convey. Their graphic touch, their variety and humor, their technical +merit, give them the best of recommendations; but a word of distinct +recognition is due here to the artist for the fidelity and spirit with +which he has reproduced so many scenes peculiar to the country. + +It is hoped that the concluding chapter of "Hints to Travellers" will +prove useful, as supplying certain information not always accessible in +guide-books, and also as condensing the practical particulars of the +subject in a convenient form. + +THE WAYSIDE, _Concord_, _April 1, 1883._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + +_FROM BURGOS TO THE GATE OF THE SUN_ 1 + +_THE LOST CITY_ 34 + +_CORDOVAN PILGRIMS_ 70 + +_ANDALUSIA AND THE ALHAMBRA_ 103 + +_MEDITERRANEAN PORTS AND GARDENS_ 152 + +_HINTS TO TRAVELLERS_ 186 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + +A MANDURRA SOLO _Frontispiece_ + +INITIAL LETTER 1 + +TWO ASSASSINS IN LONG CLOAKS 2 + +THE NIGHT-WATCH 4 + +DANCING BOYS 6 + +THE ARCH OF ST. MARY 8 + +PEASANTS IN THE MARKET-PLACE 11 + +IN THE MIRADOR 13 + +LANDSCAPE BETWEEN BURGOS AND MADRID 17 + +THE PLAZA MAYOR 21 + +WATER-DEALER 23 + +OLD ARTILLERY PARK 24 + +THE ESCORIAL 25 + +ON THE ROAD TO THE BULL-FIGHT 27 + +PLAN OF THE BULL-RING 28 + +A STREET SCENE 32 + +TAIL-PIECE 33 + +INITIAL LETTER 34 + +ENTRANCE TO TOLEDO 35 + +THE NARROW WAY 36 + +SPANISH PEASANT (from a Drawing By William M. Chase) 37 + +SINGING GIRL 41 + +CLOISTER OF ST. JOHN OF THE KINGS 42 + +A BIT OF CHARACTER 43 + +SPANISH SOLDIERS PLAYING DOMINOS 44 + +A NARROW STREET 45 + +WOMAN WITH BUNDLE 46 + +THE SERENADERS 47 + +A PLENTIFUL SUPPLY OF PLATES 50 + +THE TOILET--A SUNDAY SCENE 51 + +A TOLEDO PRIEST 53 + +TOLEDO SERVITORS AT THE FOUNTAIN 55 + +A PROFESSIONAL BEGGAR 57 + +A GROUP OF MENDICANTS 58 + +A PATIO IN TOLEDO 59 + +THE HOME OF "SOLITUDE" 61 + +"MEN AND BOYS SLUMBER OUT-OF-DOORS EVEN IN THE HOT SUN"67 + +A STRANGE FUNERAL 68 + +TAIL-PIECE 69 + +INITIAL LETTER 70 + +WHETSTONE 71 + +COFFEE AT CASTILLEJO 72 + +PRIMITIVE THRASHING 74 + +WHILE THE WOMEN ARE AT MASS 75 + +WATER-STAND IN CORDOVA 77 + +THE GAY COSTER-MONGERS OF ANDALUSIA 79 + +THE MEZQUITA 80 + +RELIC PEDDLERS 81 + +THE GARDEN OF THE ALCAZAR 83 + +PRIEST AND PURVEYOR 85 + +FLOWERS FOR THE MARKET 85 + +TRAVELLERS TO CORDOVA 87 + +"ARRÉ, BURR-R-RICO!" 89 + +THE FRUIT OF THE DESIERTA 94 + +MEMENTO MORI 97 + +DIFFICULT FOR FOREIGNERS 101 + +THE JASMINE GIRL 101 + +INITIAL LETTER 103 + +MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE CATHEDRAL, SEVILLA +(from a Photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid) 105 + +THE GIRALDA TOWER +(from a Photograph By J. Laurent & Co., Madrid) 107 + +THE "UNDERGROUND" MAIL 109 + +A STREET CORNER 115 + +FIGARO 118 + +"STONE WALLS DO NOT A PRISON MAKE" 121 + +IN "THE SERPENT" 123 + +"ALL THE DAY I AM HAPPY" 127 + +GRANADA UNDERTAKER 130 + +THE MOORISH GATE, SEVILLA 131 + +A WATER-CARRIER 133 + +BIT OF ARCH IN A COURT OF THE ALHAMBRA +(from a Photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid) 137 + +THE TOILET TOWER +(from a Photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid) 139 + +BOUDOIR OF LINDARAXA 141 + +GYPSIES 150 + +INITIAL LETTER 152 + +GYPSY DANCE 154 + +A SPANISH MONK 158 + +TRANSPORTATION OF POTTERY 160 + +GARLIC VENDER 161 + +DIVING FOR COPPERS 164 + +A MODERN SANCHO PANZA 167 + +STREET BARBER 168 + +BIBLES _VERSUS_ MELONS 169 + +CUSTOMS OFFICERS 171 + +POST INN, ALICANTE 172 + +ALICANTE FRUIT-SELLER 173 + +METHOD OF IRRIGATION NEAR VALENCIA 175 + +CHURCH OF SANTA CATALINA, VALENCIA 176 + +A VALENCIA CAB 178 + +BARCELONA FISHERMEN 180 + +TAIL-PIECE 185 + +INITIAL LETTER 186 + +ST. JOHN AT BURGOS--CHERUBS IN ADORATION 210 + + + + +SPANISH VISTAS. + + +_FROM BURGOS TO THE GATE OF THE SUN._ + +I. + + +[Illustration: W] + +We took our places, for the performance was about to begin. The scene +represented a street in Burgos, the long-dead capital of old Castile. +Time: night. + +Ancient houses on either side the stage narrow back to an archway in the +centre, opening through to a pillared walk and a dimly moonlit space +beyond. Muffled figures occasionally pass the aperture. + +Suddenly enters Don Ramiro--or Alvar Nuñez, I really don't know +which--and advances toward the front. To our surprise he does not open +the play with a set speech or any explanation, but continues to advance +until he disappears somewhere under our private box, as if he were going +from this street of the play into some other adjoining street, just as +in actual life. A singular freak of realism! He is closely pursued, +however, by two assassins in long cloaks, who, like all the other +figures we have seen, move noiselessly in soft shoes or canvas sandals. +Presently a shriek resounds from the quarter toward which Don Ramiro +betook himself. Have they succeeded in catching him, and is that the +sound of his mortal agony? We have just concluded that this is the +meaning of the clamor, when, after a second or two, the shriek resolves +itself into laughter. Then we begin to recall that we didn't pay +anything on entering; and, as we glance up toward the folded curtain +above the scene, discover that its place is occupied by the starry sky. +The houses, too, have a singularly solid look, and do not appear to be +painted. While all this has been dawning upon us, we become conscious +that the mixed sound of agony or mirth just heard was merely the signal +of amusement caused to certain wandering Spaniards by some convulsingly +funny episode; and the next moment their party comes upon the scene at +about the point where the foot-lights ought to be. They exchange a +good-night; some go off, and others thunder at sundry doors with ancient +knockers, awaking mediæval echoes in the dingy thoroughfares, without +causing any great surprise to the neighborhood. + +[Illustration: TWO ASSASSINS IN LONG CLOAKS.] + +In truth, we had simply been looking from the window of an inn at which +we had just arrived; but everything had grouped itself in such a way +that it was hard to comprehend that we were not at the theatre. That day +we had been hurled over the Pyrenees, and landed in the dark at our +first Peninsular station; then, facing a crowd of fierce, uncouth faces +at the depôt door, we had somehow got conveyed to the Inn of the North +through narrow, cavernous streets, brightened only by the feeble light +of a few lost lanterns, and so found ourselves staring out upon our +first picturesque night in Spain. The street or plazuela below us, +though now deserted, went on conducting itself in a most melodramatic +manner. Big white curtains hung in front of the iron balconies, flapping +voluminously, or were drawn back to admit the cool night air. Crickets +chirped loudly from hidden crevices of masonry, and a well-contrived bat +sailed blindly over the roofs in the penumbral air, through which the +moon was slowly rising. Lights went in and out; some one was seen +cooking a late supper in one dwelling; windows were opened and shut, and +a general appearance of haunting ghosts was kept up. Now and then a +woman came to the balcony and chatted with unseen neighbors across the +way about the festival of the morrow. By-and-by one side of the street +blew its lamps out and prepared for bed; but the wakeful side insisted +on talking to the sleepy one for some time longer, until warned by the +cry of the night-watch that midnight had come. Anything more desolate +and peculiar than this cry I have never heard. It was a long-drawn, +melancholy sounding of the hour, with a final "All's well!" terminating +in a minor cadence which seemed to drop the voice back at once into the +Middle Ages. This same chant may have resounded from the days of Lain +Calvo and the old judges of Castile unaltered, and for a time it made me +fancy that the little Gothic town had returned to its musty youth. We +were walled into a sleepy feudal stronghold once more, and perhaps at +that very moment the Cid was celebrating his nuptials with Ximena, +daughter of the count he had murdered for an insult, in the old ruined +citadel up there on the hill, above the cathedral spires. But the +watchman came and went, and the present resumed its sway. He passed +with slow step, in a big cloak and queer cap, carrying a long bladed +staff, and a lantern which cast swaying squares of light around his +feet; silent as a black ghost, and seeming to have been called into life +only with the lighting of his lamp-wick. But, after he had disappeared, +the lonely quaver of his cry returned to us from farther and farther +away, penetrating into the comfortless apartment to which we now retired +for sleep. + +[Illustration: THE NIGHT-WATCH.] + +The Inn of the North was dirty and unkempt; a frightful odor from the +donkey-stable and other sources streamed up into our window between +shutters heavy as church doors; and the descant of the watch, relieved +by violent cock-crows, disturbed us all night. Nevertheless, we awoke +with a good deal of eagerness when the alert young woman with dark pink +cheeks and snapping eyes who served us came to the door with chocolate +and bread, water and _azucarillos_, betimes next morning. It was the +festival of Corpus Christi; but although every one was going to see the +procession, no one could tell us anything about it. Unless he be +extraordinarily shrewd, a foreigner can hardly help arriving in Spain on +some kind of a feast-day. When the people cannot get up a whole holiday, +they will have a fractional one. You go about the streets cheerfully, +thinking you will buy something at leisure in the afternoon; but when +you approach the shop commerce has vanished, and is out taking a walk, +or drinking barley-water in honor of some obscure saint. You engage a +guide and carriage to visit some public building, and both guide and +carriage are silent as to the religious character of the day until you +arrive and find the place shut, when full price, or at least half, is +confidently demanded. Church feasts are a matter of course, but you are +expected to know about them, and questions are considered out of place. +In this case we had kept Corpus Christi in mind, and as Burgos is a +small place, the "function" could not by any possibility escape us. + +The garrison turned out, and military music played in the procession, +but otherwise it was a quaint reproduction of the antique. The quiet +streets, innocent of traffic, were filled with peasants whose garments, +odoriferous with age and dirt, made a dazzle of color, especially the +bright yellow flannel skirts of the women, and the gay handkerchief +which men and women alike employ here. Sometimes it is worn around the +shoulders, sometimes around the head, and sometimes both: but everywhere +and always handkerchiefs are brought into play as essentials. From +almost every balcony, too, hung bedquilts, or sheets scalloped with red +and blue, in emulation of the tapestries and banners that once graced +these occasions. Amid a tumultuous tumbling of bells up amid the carven +gray stone-work of the cathedral, the candles and images and tonsured +priests, clad in resplendent copes, moved forth, attended by civil +functionaries in swallow-tailed coats or old crimson robes of the +twelfth century. But the prettiest sight, and a much more striking one +than the gilt effigies of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen and the rest, +under toy canopies and wreathed with false flowers, was that of two +little boys, nude except for the snowy lamb-skins they wore, who +personated Christ and St. John. The Christ rode on a lamb, and kept his +head very steady under a big curled wig made after the old masters. We +saw him afterward in his father's arms, still holding his hands +prayerfully, as he had been drilled, with a look of sweet, childish awe +in his face. + +[Illustration: DANCING BOYS.] + +When the procession was about to return, we were amazed, in gazing at +the small street from which it should emerge, to behold eight huge +figures, looking half as high as the houses, in long robes, and with +placidly unreal expressions on their gigantic faces, advancing with that +peculiar unconscious gait due to human leg-power when concealed under +papier-maché monsters. It took but a glance, as they filed out and +aligned themselves on the small sunny square, to recognize in them the +Kings of the Earth, come in person to do homage before the Christ. One +bore a crown and ermine as insignia of the Castilian line; others were +Moors; and even China was represented. After them danced a dozen boys, +in pink tunics and bell-crowned hats of drab felt quaintly beribboned, +throwing themselves about fantastically, with snapping fingers and +castanets. They formed in two ranks, just under the grand shadowy +entrance arch, to receive the pageant. A drummer and two _flautistas_ in +festive attire accompanied them; and whenever a monstrance or holy image +was borne past, the flutes mingled with the drum eccentric bagpipe +discords, at which the boys broke into a prancing jig and rattled their +castanets to express their devout joy. Two other men in harlequin dress, +wearing tall, pointed hats, stood on the edge of the eager crowd, and +belabored those who pressed too close with horse-hair switches attached +by a long cord to slender sticks. This part of the performance was +conducted with great energy and seriousness, and seemed to be received +with due reverence by the thick heads which got hit. A more heathenish +rite than this jig at the sanctuary gate could hardly be imagined. + +"Are these things possible, and is this the nineteenth century?" +exclaimed my friend and companion, who, however, had been guilty of an +indigestion that day. + +I confess that for myself I enjoyed the dance, and could not help being +struck by the contrast of this boyish gayety with the heavy gorgeousness +of the priests and the immobile frown of the sculptured figures on the +massive ogee arch.[1] Then when the Host was carried by in the +_custodia_, and the motley crowd kneeled and bared their heads, we sunk +to the pavement with them, our knees being assisted possibly by the +statement we had heard that, a few years since, blows or knives were the +prompt reward of non-conformity. Afterward, when secular amusements +ensued, our boys went about, stopping now and then in open places to +execute strange dances, with hoops and ribbons and wooden swords, for +the general enjoyment. A gleeful sight they made against backgrounds of +old archways, or perhaps the mighty Arch of Santa Maria, one of the +local glories, peopled with statues of ancient counts and knights and +rulers. + +[Illustration: THE ARCH OF ST. MARY.] + +No Spanish town is without its paseo--its public promenade; and in +Burgos this is supplied by The Spur--a broad esplanade skirting the +shrunken river, with borders of chubby shade trees and shrubbery. On +Corpus Christi the citizens also turned out in the arcades of the Main +Plaza. Here, and later in the dusty dusk of The Spur, they crowded and +chatted, in accordance with native ideas of enjoyment; and except that +their mantillas and shoulder-veils[2] made a difference, the señoras and +señoritas might have passed for Americans, so delicate were their +features, so trim their daintily-attired figures, though perhaps they +hadn't a coin in their pockets. The men had the universal Iberian habit +of carrying their light overcoats folded over the left shoulder; but +their quick nervous expression and spare faces would have been quite in +place on Wall Street. Spanish ladies are allowed far more liberty than +the French or English in public; but though they walked without male +escort, they showed remarkable skill in avoiding any direct look at men +from their own lustrous eyes. During the accredited hours of the paseo, +however, gallants and friends are suffered to walk close behind them--so +close that the entire procession often comes to a stand-still--and to +whisper complimentary speeches into their ears; no one, not even +relatives of the damsels, resenting this freedom. + +At Las Huelgas, a famous convent near the town, much resorted to by nuns +of aristocratic family (even the Empress Eugénie it was thought would +retire thither after her son's death), the fête was renewed next day; +and it was here that we saw beggars in perfection. A huge stork's nest +was perched high on one end of the chapel, as on many churches of Spain. +Bombs were fired above the crowd from the high square tower that rose +into the hot air not far from the inner shrine; and in the chapel below +the nuns were at their devotions, caged behind heavy iron lattices that +barely disclosed their picturesque head-dress. Meanwhile peasants and +burghers wandered aimlessly about, looking at pictures, relics, and +inscriptions in an outer arcade; after which the holiday of the people +began. Holiday here means either walking or sleeping. In a sultry, dusty +little square by the convent, covered with trees, the people went to +sleep, or sat talking, and occasionally eating or drinking with much +frugality. The first object that had greeted us by daylight in Burgos +was a marvellous mendicant clad in an immense cloak, one mass of +patches--in fact, a monument of indigence--carrying on his head a mangy +fur cap, with a wallet at his waist to contain alms. The beggars +assembled at Las Huelgas were quite as bad, except that they mostly had +the good taste to remain asleep. In any attitude, face down or up, on +stone benches or on the grass, they dozed at a moment's notice, reposing +piously. One sat for a long time torpid near us, but finally mustered +energy to come and entreat us. He received a copper, whereupon he kissed +the coin, murmured a blessing, and again retreated to his shadow. +Another, having acquired something from some other source, halted near +us to find his pocket. He searched long among his rags, and plunged +fiercely into a big cavity which exposed his dirty linen; but this +proved to be only a tear in his trousers, and he was at last obliged to +tie his treasure to a voluminous string around his waist, letting it +hang down thence into some interior vacancy of rags. + +It may not be generally known that beggars are licensed in Spain. +Veteran soldiers, instead of receiving a pension, are generously endowed +with official permission to seek charity; the Church gives doles to the +poor, and citizens consider it a virtue to relieve the miserable objects +who petition for pence at every turn. As we came from Las Huelgas we saw +the maimed and blind and certain more robust paupers creeping up to the +door of a church, where priests were giving out food. A little farther +on an emaciated crone at a bridge-head, with eyes shut fast in sleep, +lifted her hand mechanically and repeated her formula. We were convinced +that, since she could do this in her slumbers, she must have been +satisfied with merely dreaming of that charity we did not bestow. + +It was a favorable season for the beggars, and many of them sunned their +bodies, warped and scarred by hereditary disease, on the cathedral +steps. But professional enterprise with them was constantly hindered by +the tendency to nap. One old fellow I saw who, feeling a brotherhood +between himself and the broken-nosed statues, had mounted into a +beautiful niche there and coiled himself in sleep, first hauling his +wooden leg up after him like a drawbridge. + +Meanwhile the peasants kept on swarming into the town, decorating it +with their blue and red and yellow kerchiefs and kirtles, as with a mass +of small moving banners. The men wore vivid sashes, leather leggings, +and laced sandals. It was partly for enjoyment they came, and partly to +sell produce. All alike were to be met with at noon, squatting down in +any sheltered coigne of street or square, every group with a bowl in its +midst containing the common dinner. There were also little +eating-houses, in which they regaled themselves on bread and sardines, +with a special cupful of oil thrown in, or on salt meat. A lively trade +in various small articles was carried on in the Main Plaza; among them +loaves of tasteless white bread, hard as tiles, and delicious cherries, +recalling the farms of New York. Another product was offered, the +presence of which in large quantity was like a sarcasm. This was Castile +soap. It must have taken an immense effort of imagination on the part of +these people to think of manufacturing an article for which they have so +little use. I am bound to add that I did not see an ounce of it sold; +and I have my suspicions that the business is merely a traditional +one--the same big cheese-like chunks being probably brought out at every +fair and fête, as a time-honored symbol of Castilian prosperity. But, +after all, so devout a community must be convinced that it possesses +godliness; and having that, what do they need of the proximate virtue? +This is the region where the inhabitants refer to themselves as "old and +rancid Castilians;" and the expression is appropriate. + +[Illustration: PEASANTS IN THE MARKET-PLACE.] + +The most intolerable odor pervaded the whole place. It was a singular +mixture, arising from the trustful local habit of allowing every kind +of garbage and ordure to disperse itself without drainage, and +complicated with fumes of oil, garlic, general mustiness, and a whiff or +two of old incense. The potency of olive-oil, especially when somewhat +rank, none can know who have not been in Spain. That first steak--how +tempting it looked among its potatoes, but how abominably it tasted! We +never approached meat with the same courage afterward, until our senses +were subdued to the level of fried oil. Combine this with the odor of +corruption, and you have the insinuating quality which we soon noticed +even in the wine--perhaps from the custom of transporting it in badly +dressed pig-skins, which impart an animal flavor. This astonishing local +atmosphere saluted us everywhere; it was in our food and drink; we +breathed it and dreamed of it. Yet the Burgalese flourished in calm +unconsciousness thereof. The splendidly blooming peasant women showed +their perfect teeth at us; and the men, in broad-brimmed, pointed caps +and embroidered jackets, whose feet were brown and earthy as tree-roots, +laughed outright, strong in the knowledge of their traditionary soap, at +our ignorant foreign clothes and over-washed hands! Among the humbler +class were some who were prepared to sell labor--an article not much in +demand--and they were even more calmly squalid than the beggars. They +sat in ranks on the curb-stones of the plaza, a matchless array of +tatters; and if they could have been conveyed without alteration to +Paris or New York, there would have been sharp competition for them +between the artists and paper-makers. + +So my companion, the artist, assured me--whom, by-the-way, in order to +give him local color, I had rechristened Velazquez. But as he shrank +from the large implication of this name, I softened him down to +Velveteen. + +We had been twenty-four hours in Burgos before we saw a carriage, +excepting only the hotel coach, which stood most of the time without +horses in front of the door, and was used by the porter as a private +gambling den and loafing place for himself and his friends. When wheels +did roll along the pavements they awoke a roar as of musketry. Perhaps +the most important event which took place during our stay--it was +certainly regarded with a more feverish interest by the inhabitants than +the Corpus Christi ceremonies--was the bold act of our landlady, who +went out to drive in a barouche, while her less daring spouse hung out +of the window weakly staring at her. The house-fronts were filled with +well-dressed feminine heads, witnessing the departure; a grave old +gentleman opposite left his book and glared out intently. When the +wheels could no longer even be heard, he turned to gaze wistfully in the +opposite direction, dimly hoping that life might vouchsafe him a +carriage. + +[Illustration: IN THE MIRADOR.] + +Although, as I have said, women avoid meeting male glances when on the +sidewalk, they enjoy full license to stand at their high windows, which +are called _miradores_, or "lookers," and contemplate with entire +freedom all things or persons that pass; which, in view of the complete +listlessness of their lives, is a fortunate dispensation. Existence in +Burgos is essentially life from the window point of view. It proceeds +idly, and as a sort of accidental spectacle. Yet there is for strangers +a dull fascination in wandering about the narrow, silent streets, and +contemplating ancient buildings, the chiselled ornaments and armorial +bearings of which recall the wealth and nobility that once inhabited +them during the great days of the town. Where have all the dominant +families gone? Are they keeping store, or tending the railroad station? +Their descendants are sometimes only too happy if they can get some +petty government office at five hundred dollars a year. I strolled one +afternoon into the Calle de la Calera, and through a shabby archway +penetrated to a stately old ruined court, around which ran an +inscription in stone, declaring this palace to have been reared by an +abbot of aristocratic line a century or two since. It is used now as an +oil factory. A pretty girl was looking out over a flower-pot in an upper +window, and, as I strayed up the noble staircase, I met a sad-looking +gentleman coming down, who I afterward learned was a widower, formerly +resident in Paris, but now returned with his daughter to this strange +domicile in his native place. Some of the lower rooms, again, were +devoted to plebeians and donkeys. + +The humble ass, by-the-way, begins to thrust himself meekly upon you as +soon as you set foot in the Peninsula, and you must look sharp if you +wish to keep out of his way. His cheap labor has ruined and driven out +the haughtier equine stock of Arabia that once pawed this devoted soil. +Even the Cid, however, did not boast a barb of the desert in the earlier +days of his prowess; for when King Alfonso bade him quit the land, "then +the Cid clapped spurs to the mule upon which he rode, and vaulted into a +piece of ground which was his own inheritance, and answered, 'Sire, I am +not in your land, but in my own.'" This little incident occurred near +Burgos, and the drowsy city still keeps some dim memory of that great +Warrior Lord the Cid Campeador, Rodrigo de Bivar, whose quaint story, +full of hardihood, robbery, and cruelty, gallant deeds and grim pathos, +trails along the track of his adventures through half of Spain. But +there is a curious cheapness and indifference in the memorials of him +preserved. In the Town-hall, for the sum of ten cents, you are admitted +to view the modern walnut receptacle wherein all that is left of him is +economically stored. Those puissant bones, which went through so many +hard fights against the Moors, are seen lying here, dusty and loose, +with those of Ximena, under the glass cover. Among them reposes a portly +corked bottle, in which minor fragments of the warrior lord were placed +after the moving of his remains from the Convent of San Pedro in chains, +where for many years he occupied a more seemly tomb. Imagine George +Washington, partially bottled and wholly disjointed, on exhibition under +glass! The Spaniards, in no way disconcerted by the incongruity, have +graven on the brass plate of the case a high-sounding inscription; but +a tribute as genuine and not less valuable, though humbler, was the big, +spruce-looking modern wagon I saw in the market-place one day, driven by +an energetic farmer, and bearing on its side the title _El Cid_. + +One would look to see the conqueror's dust richly inurned within the +cathedral--a noble outgrowth of the thirteenth century, enriched by +accretions of later work until its whitish stone and wrought marble +connect the Early Pointed style with that of the Renaissance in its +flower. But perhaps this temple has enough without the Cid. Strangely +placed on the side of a hill, with houses attached to one corner, as if +it had sprung from the homes and hearts of the people, it seems to hold +down the swelling ground with its massive weight; yet the spires, +through the open-work of which the stars may be seen at night, rise with +such lightness you would think the heavy bells might make them tremble +and fall. I passed an hour of peace and fresh air above the fetid +streets, looking down from the citadel hill on these pinnacles, while +around and below them lay the town--an irregular mass of gray and mauve +pierced with deep shadows--in the midst of bare, rolling uplands. Before +the fair high altar hangs the victorious banner of Ferdinand VII., +recalling to the people the great battle of Tolosa Plains. And when one +sees peasants--rough spots of color in the sombre choir--studying the +dark, fruit-like wood-carvings through which the Bible story wreathes +itself in panel after panel, one feels the teaching power of these old +churches for the unlettered. In one of the corner chapels appears +another less favorable phase of such teaching, in the shape of a +miracle-working Christ, amid deep shadows and dim lantern-light, +stretched on the cross, and draped with a satin crinoline. This doubtful +reverence of putting a short skirt on the figure of the Saviour, often +practiced in Spain, may perhaps mark an influence unconsciously received +from the Moorish dislike for nudity. The cathedral bells were +continually clanging the summons to mass or vespers, and their loud +voices, though cracked and inharmonious, seemed still to assert the +supremacy of ecclesiastical power. But while a priest occasionally +darkened the sidewalks, many others, on account of the growing prejudice +against them, went about in frock-coats and ordinary tall hats. And +under all its crowning beauty the old minster, motionless in the centre +of the stagnant town--its chief entrance walled up, and a notice painted +on its Late Roman façade warning boys not to play ball against the +tempting masonry--wore the look of some neglected and half-blind thing, +once glorious, symbol of a power abruptly stayed in its prodigious +career. + +Meanwhile the daily history of Burgos went on its wonted way, sleepy but +picturesque--a sort of illuminated prose. Women chaffered in the +blue-tiled fish-market; the _bourgeoisie_ patronized the sweetmeat +shops, of which there were ten on the limited chief square; the +tambourine-maker varied this ornamental industry with the construction +of the more practical sieve; a peasant passed with a bundle of +purple-flowering vetches on his head for fodder, and another drove six +milch goats through the streets, seeking a purchaser. To this last one +the proprietor of the principal book-store came running out to see if he +could strike a bargain. One morning I met an uncouth countryman and his +stout wife on the red-tiled landing of the inn stairs (they bowed and +courtesied to me) with chickens and eggs for sale. In this simple manner +our hotel was supplied. All the bread was got, a few pieces at a time, +from a small bakery across the plazuela, in a dark cellar just under the +niche of a neglected stone saint--a new arrival causing our maid to run +hurriedly thither for a couple of rolls; and the water also came from +some neighbor's well in earthen jars. The barber even exercises his +primitive function in Burgos: he is called a "bleeder," and announces on +his shop sign that "teeth and molars" are extracted there. Democratic +and provincial the atmosphere was, and not unpleasantly so; yet during +our stay Italian opera from Madrid was performing in the theatre, and +large yellow posters promised "Bulls in Burgos" at an early date. + + +II. + +To pass from this ancient city to Madrid is to experience one of those +astonishing contrasts in which the country abounds. + +We dropped asleep in the rough, time-worn regions of Old Castile, and in +the morning found ourselves amid the glare and bustle of reconstructed +Spain, as it displays itself on the great square called the Gate of the +Sun--a spot with no hint of poetry about it other than its name. Madrid +adopts largely the Parisian style of street architecture, and has in +portions a resemblance to Boston. The sense of remoteness aroused in the +north here suddenly fades, though the traits that mark a foreign land +soon re-assemble and take shape in a new framework. Perhaps, too, our +first rather flat impression was due to an exhausting night journey and +some accompanying incidents. + +[Illustration: LANDSCAPE BETWEEN BURGOS AND MADRID.] + + +"The Spaniards are a nation of robbers!" a cheerful French gentleman of +Bordeaux had told us;[3] and he threw out warnings of certain little +coin tricks in which they were adepts. When two Civil Guards, armed with +swords and guns, inspected our train at the frontier, we recalled his +statement. These guards persistently popped up at every succeeding +station. No matter how fast the train went, there they were always +waiting; always two of them, always with the same mustached faces, and +the same white havelocks fluttering on their bunchy cocked hats of the +French Revolution, and making their swarthy cheeks and black eyes +fiercer by contrast. In fact, they were obviously the same men. Every +time they marched up and down the platform, scanning the cars in a +determined manner, and scowling at our compartment in a way that fully +persuaded us some one must be guilty. Indeed, before long we became +convinced that we ourselves were suspicious; but it would have been a +relief if they had taken us in hand at once. Why should they go on +glaring at us and swinging their guns, as if it were a good deal easier +to shoot us than not, unless it was that we were too rich a "find" to be +disposed of immediately--squandered, as it were? Perhaps the torture of +suspense suited the enormity of our case, but it was certainly cruel. +There was some satisfaction, however, in finding that when we left the +depôt they allowed us a restricted liberty, and kept out of our way. If +it had been otherwise, I don't know what they would have done to us at +Burgos, for it was there that the landlady forced upon us a gold piece +that would not pass, in exchange for a good one which we had given her. +This very simple device was one of which the French gentleman had told +us. But we were too confiding. The money to pay the bill was sent away +by a servant, and once out of sight was easily replaced with inferior +coin. Disturbed by this episode, we went to our train, which started +with the watchman's first hail at eleven, and stumbled hastily into an +empty compartment, which we soon converted into a sleeping-carriage by +making our bundles pillows, drawing curtains, and pulling the silk +screen over the lamp. Our nap was broken only by a halt at the next +station. There was a long, drowsy pause, during which the train seemed +to be pretending it hadn't been asleep. It was nearly time to go on, +when feminine voices drew near our carriage; the door was thrown open, +and two ladies quickly entered. There was no time for retreat; the usual +fish-horn and dinner-bell accompaniment announced our departure, and the +wheels moved. Then it was that one of the new-comers uttered a half +scream, and we saw that she was a nun! + +Had it been a cooler night our blood might have frozen; but as it failed +us, we did what we could by feeling greatly embarrassed. The nun and her +travelling companion had been speaking Spanish as they approached, and +we tried in that language to impress on them our harmless devotion to +their convenience. + +"But he said it was reserved for ladies," murmured the sister, in good +English. + +The terrible truth was now clear. My eye caught, at the same instant, a +card in the window which proved beyond question that we had got into the +carriage for señoras. + +The result of this adventure was that we found the nun to be an English +Catholic, employed in teaching at a religious establishment, and her +friend another Englishwoman protecting her on her journey. Pleasant +conversation ensued, and we had almost forgotten that we were criminals, +when the speed of the engine slackened again, and the thought of the +Civil Guards returned to haunt us. We did not dare remain, yet we were +sure that our military pursuers would confront us again on the platform. +There indeed they were, when we tumbled out into the obscurity, with +their white-hooded heads looming above their muskets in startling +disconnectedness. Telling Velazquez, with all the firmness I possessed, +to bare his breast to the avenging sword, I hastened to get into a +coupé, preferring to die comfortably. He, however, ignominiously +followed me. It is true, we were not molested; but the shock of that +narrow escape kept us wakeful. + +Not even our own prairies, I think, could present so dreary and +monotonous an outlook as the wide, endless, treeless Castilian plains +while morning slowly felt its way across them. Brown and cold they were, +skirted by white roads, and all shorn of their barley crops, though it +was but middle June. Now and then a village was seen huddled against +some low slope--a church lifting its tall, square campanario above the +humble roofs against the pearling sky. Interior Spain is a desolate +land, but the Church thrives there and draws its tax from the +poverty-stricken inhabitants--a crowned beggar ruling over beggars. + +If the first man were now to be created from the clay of this region, he +would doubtless turn out the very type of a lean hidalgo. The human +product of such soil must perforce be meagre and melancholy; and the +pensiveness which we see in most Spanish faces seems a reflection of the +landscape which surrounds them. + +The Madrileños offer not a flat, but rather an extremely round +contradiction to this general and accepted idea of the national +appearance. Slenderness is the exception with them. Their city is a +forced flower in the midst of mountain lands, and the men themselves +rejoice in a rotund and puffy look of success, which also partakes of +the hot-house character. They are people of leisure, and, after their +manner, of pleasure. How they swarm in the cafés in the Gate of the +Sun--where they keep up the Moorish custom of calling waiters by two +claps of the hands--or on the one great thoroughfare, Calle de Alcalá, +or in the bull-ring of a Sunday! They are never at rest, yet never +altogether active. They never sleep, or, if they do, others take their +places in the public resorts. The clamor of the streets, and even the +snarling cry of the news-venders--"_La Correspondencia_," or "_El +Demó-crata-a_"--is kept up until the small hours; and at five or six the +restless stir begins again with the silver tinkling of fleet mule-bells. +There are no night-howling watchmen in Madrid; but the custom of +street-hawking is rampant in Spain; and here, in addition to the +newsmen, we have the wail of the water-criers, ministering to an +unquenchable popular thirst, the lottery-ticket sellers, the wax-match +peddlers, and a dozen others. The favorite bird of the country is a kind +of lark called _alondra_, much hung in cages outside the windows, whence +they utter--with that monotonous recurrence which seems a fixed +principle of all things Spanish--a hard, piercing triple note impossible +to ignore. This loud, persistent "twit, twit-twit," resembling at a +distance the click of castanets, begins with daybreak, and gives a most +discouraging notion of the Spanish musical ear. + +But the watchmen are merciful. They are called, as elsewhere, +_serenos_, which may mean either "quiet," or "night-dews," but their +function in Madrid is peculiar. Early in the evening they come out by +squads, with staves of office, and at their girdles bright lanterns and +an immense bunch of keys. These are the night-keys of all the houses on +each man's beat, the residents not being allowed to have any. When a +person returns home late--and who does not, in Madrid--he is obliged to +find his sereno, and if that officer is not in sight, calls him by +name--"Frascuelo," or "Pepino." Whereupon Frascuelo, or Pepino, or +Santiago, if he hears, will come along and unlock the door. This curious +system should at least encourage good habits; for, unless a man be +sober, his watchman may have unpleasant tales to tell of him. + +The feline race being too often homeless, and having a proverbial taste +for nocturnal wanderings, the average male citizen of the capital +feelingly nicknames himself a "Madrid cat." This shows a frankness of +self-characterization, to say the least, unusual. Of course there is +home life, and there is family affection, in Madrid, but the stranger +naturally does not see a great deal of these; and then it may be doubted +whether they really exist to the same extent as in most other civilized +capitals. It becomes wearisome to make sallies upon the town, and day +after day find so much of the population trying to divert itself, or +killing time in the cafés and clubs. The feeling deepens that they +resort to these for want of a sufficiently close interest in their +homes. More than that, they do not seem really to be amused. Even their +language fails to express the amusement idea; the most that anything can +be for them, in the vernacular, is "entertaining." Still the choice of +light diversion is varied enough. Opera flourishes in winter; in spring +and summer the bull-fight; theatres are always in blast; cocking-mains +are kept up. Hitherto gambling has been another favorite pastime until +checked by the authorities. Not content with all this, the Madrileños +seek in lottery shops that excitement which Americans derive from +drinking-saloons. The brightly lighted lottery agency occurs as +frequently as that other indication of disease, the apothecary's window, +or the stock-market "ticker," in American cities. People of all classes +hover about them both by day and by night. Posters confront you with +announcements of the Child Jesus Lottery, the lottery to aid the Asylum +of Our Lady of the Assumption, or the National, which is drawn thrice a +month, with a chief prize of thirty-two thousand dollars, and some four +hundred other premiums. There are many small drawings besides constantly +going on: not a day passes, in fact, without your being solicited by +wandering dealers in these alluring chances at least half a dozen times. + +[Illustration: THE PLAZA MAYOR.] + +Altogether, looking from my balcony upon the characteristic crowd in the +great square, leading this life so busy yet so apathetic, as if in a +slow fever, Madrid struck me as only one more great human ant-hill, +where the ants were trying to believe themselves in Paris. The Parisian +resemblance, however, is confined to strips through the middle and on +the edges of the city, and as soon as one's steps are bent away from +those, the narrow ways and older architecture of Spain re-appear. Only a +few rods from the Puerta del Sol lies the Plaza Mayor, which once +enjoyed all the honors of bull-fights and heretic burnings--occasions on +which householders were obliged by their leases to give up all the front +rooms and balconies to be used as boxes for the audience. From the Plaza +Mayor again an arch leads into Toledo Street--old meandering mart full +of mantles and sashes, blankets and guitars, flannel dyed in the +national colors of red and yellow, basket-work and wood-work, including +the carved sticks known as _molinillos_ (little mills), with which +chocolate is mixed by a dexterous spinning motion. The donkey feels +himself at home once more in these narrow thoroughfares; the evil sewage +smell, which oozes through even the most pretentious edifices in the new +quarters, diffuses itself again in full vigor, and the cafés become +dingy and unconventional. On the Alcalá, or San Geronimo, the +carefully-dressed men sip beer and cordials, or possibly indulge in +sparkling sherry--a new and expensive wine like dry champagne; but here +the rougher element is satisfied with _aguardiente_ (the liquor +distilled from anise-seed), and quite as often confines itself to water. +The lower orders are temperate. Peasants and porters and petty traders +will sit down contentedly for a whole evening to a glass of water in +which is dissolved a long meringue (called _asucarillo_, literally +"sugarette"), or to a snow lemonade. Another esteemed cooling beverage +is the _horchata de chufas_, a kind of cream made from pounded cypress +root and then half frozen. The height of luxury is to order with this, +at an added cost of some two cents, a few tubular wafers, fancifully +named _barquillos_ (or little boats), through which the semi-liquid may +be sucked. This barquillo is considered so desirable that boys carry it +on the street in large metal cylinders, the top of which is a disk +inscribed with numbers. You pay a fee, and he revolves on the disk a +pivotal needle, the number at which it stops deciding how many wafers +fall to your lot. In this way the excruciating pleasure of barquillos to +eat is combined with the national delight in gaming. + +European costume has fallen on the Madrid people like a pall, blotting +out picturesqueness; but peasants of all provinces are still seen, and +now and then a turbaned figure from Barbary moves across the street. Nor +is the fascinating mantilla quite extinct among women, in spite of their +more than Parisian grace and splendor of modern robing. There are humble +old women squatted on the sidewalk at street corners, who sell water and +liquors and shrub from bottles kept in a singular little stand with +brass knobs like an exaggerated pair of casters; and when one sees the +varied types of peasant, soldier, citizen, or priest, with perhaps a +veiled woman of the middle class, gathered around one of these, the +Spanish quality of the town re-asserts itself distinctly. So it does, +too, when a carriage containing the princesses of the royal household +rattles down the Prado Park, drawn by mules in barbaric red-tasselled +harness, and preceded by a courier who wears a sort of gold-braided +nightcap. + +[Illustration: WATER-DEALER.] + +[Illustration: OLD ARTILLERY PARK.] + +There is no cathedral at Madrid, but the churches, smeared as usual with +gold and stucco and paint in tasteless extravagance, are numerous +enough; and on many a balcony I saw withered straw-like plumes, long as +a man, hung up in commemoration of the last Palm-Sunday. The morning +papers have a "religious bulletin" in the amusement column, giving the +saints and services of the day; besides which special masses for the +souls of departed capitalists are constantly announced, with a request +that friends shall attend. These paid rites doubtless offer a pleasant +exception to the routine of commonplace church-going. Thus, while the +men are absorbed by their cafés and politics, their countless cigarettes +and lottery tickets, with a minimum of business and a maximum of +dominoes, the women fill up their time with matins and vespers, +confessions and intrigues. It would be merely repeating the frank +assertion of the Spanish men themselves to say that feminine morals here +are in a lamentable state; but at least appearances are always carefully +guarded, and if judged by externals only, Madrid is far more virtuous +than London or Paris. As for local society, it exists so much on +appearances that the substance suffers. It is true, the ladies are +beautiful and of noble stature; and their costumes, governed by the +happiest taste, surpass in luxury those seen in public in almost any +other city. The cavaliers are, without exception, the best-dressed +gentlemen in the world; and the mass of sumptuous equipages, with +polished grooms and surpassingly fine horses, which crowds the broad +Castilian Fountain drive, or the Park road on the east of the Buen +Retiro gardens, during fashionable hours, is amazing. Great wealth is +gathered in the hands of a few nobles, who often draw heavy salaries +from government for long-obsolete services; but the most of this +costuming and grooming is attained by semi-starvation at home. By +consequence, dinners and dancing-parties are rarely given even in the +season, and royalty itself provides no more than a couple of balls, with +two or three state dinners, a year. + +[Illustration: THE ESCORIAL.] + +To be sure, no capital is better provided with sundry of the higher +means to cultivation, as its Royal Armory, its Archæological Museum, and +its glorious Picture-gallery--in some respects the noblest of +Europe--remind one. Moreover, in the neighboring Escorial, that dark +jewel in the head of Philip II., travellers find a rich monument of art, +albeit to many eyes unseen inscriptions perhaps record there more than +enough of Spain's misfortunes. In the Madrid gallery the stately, +severe, and robust royal portraits by Velazquez, or his magnificently +healthy "Drunkards," reveal in their way, as do the Virgins of Murillo, +floating divinely in translucent air, that deep and deathless power of +Spanish temperament and genius over which slumber has reigned so long. +The pictures of Ribera, hanging together, are like loose pages torn from +Spanish ecclesiastical history and legend: a collection of monks, +ascetics, martyrs--scenes of torture depicted with relentless and savage +vigor. Goya, again, scarcely known out of Spain, left at the beginning +of this century portraits of wonderful vitality and finish, fresh +glimpses of popular life, and wild figure compositions marked by the +fierce, half insane energy of a Latinized William Blake. His imagination +and manner were both original. Though falling short, like all other +Spanish painters, in ideality, he had that faculty of fertile +improvisation so refreshing in Murillo's naturalistic "Madonna of the +Birdling," or in his "St. Elizabeth," and "Roman Patrician's Dream," at +the Academy of Fine Arts. But it is not with these past splendors, still +full of hopes for new futures, that the Castilian gentlemen and ladies +of our varnished period concern themselves. The opera, the circus, and +the _Corrida de Toros_--the irrepressible bull-fight--are to them of far +more consequence. + +In every crowd and café you see the tall, shapely, dark-faced, silent +men, with a cool, professionally murderous look like that of our border +desperadoes, whose enormously wide black hats, short jackets, tight +trousers, and pigtails of braided hair proclaim them _chulos_, or +members of the noble ring. Intrepid, with muscles of steel, and finely +formed, they are very illiterate: we saw one of them gently taking his +brandy at the Café de Paris after a hard combat, while his friend read +from an evening paper a report of the games in which he had just +fought--the man's own education not enabling him to decipher print. But +the higher class of these professionals are the idols, the demi-gods, of +the people. Songs are made about them, their deeds are painted on fans, +and popular chromos illustrate their loves and woes; people crowd around +to see them in hotels or on the street as if they were heroes or star +tragedians. Pet dogs are named for the well-known ones; and it was even +rumored that one of the chief swordsmen had secured the affections of a +patrician lady, and would have married her but for the interference of +her friends. Certain it is that a whole class of young bucks of the +lower order--"'Arrys" is the British term--get themselves up in the +closest allowable imitation of bull-fighters, down to the tuft of hair +left growing in front of the ear. The _espadas_ or _matadores_ +(killers), who give the mortal blow, hire each one his _cuadrilla_--a +corps of assistants, including _picadores_, _banderilleros_, and +_punterillo_. For every fight they receive five hundred dollars, and +sometimes they lay up large fortunes. To see the sport well from a seat +in the shade, one must pay well. Tickets are monopolized by speculators, +who, no less than the fighters, have their "ring," and gore buyers as +the bull does horses. We gave two dollars apiece for places. The route +to the Place of Bulls is lined for a mile with omnibuses, tartanas, +broken-down diligences, and wheezy cabs, to convey intending spectators +to the fight on Sunday afternoons. A stream of pedestrians file in the +same direction, and the showy turnouts of the rich add dignity to what +soon becomes a wild rush for the scene of action. The mule-bells ring +like a rain of metal, whips crack, the drivers shout wildly, and at full +gallop we dash by windows full of on-lookers, by the foaming fountains +of the Prado, and up the road to the grim Colosseum of stone and brick, +in the midst of scorched and arid fields, with the faint peaks of the +snow-capped Guadarrama range seen, miles to the north, through dazzling +white sunshine. + +[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO THE BULL-FIGHT.] + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BULL-RING.] + +Within is the wide ring, sunk in a circular pit of terraced granite +crowned by galleries. The whole great round, peopled by at least ten +thousand beings, is divided exactly by the sun and the shadow--_sol y +sombra_; and from our cool place we look at the vivid orange sand of the +half arena in sunlight, and the tiers of seats beyond, where swarms of +paper fans (red, yellow, purple, and green) are wielded to shelter the +eyes of those in the cheaper section, or bring air to their lungs. No +connected account of a bull tourney can impart the vividness, the rapid +changes, the suspense, the skill, the picturesqueness, or horror of the +actual thing. All occurs in rapid glimpses, in fierce, dramatic, +brilliant, and often ghastly pictures, which fade and re-form in new +phases on the instant. The music is sounding, the fans are fluttering, +amateurs strolling between the wooden barriers of the ring and the +lowest seats, hatless men are hawking fruit and aguardiente, when +trumpets announce the grand entry. It is a superb sight: the picadores +with gorgeous jackets and long lances on horseback, in wide Mexican +hats, their armor-cased legs in buckskin trousers; the swordsmen and +others on foot, shining with gold and silver embroidery on scarlet and +blue, bright green, saffron, or puce-colored garments, carrying cloaks +of crimson, violet, and canary. At the head is the mounted _alguazil_ in +ominous black, who carries the key of the bull-gate. Everything is +punctual, orderly, ceremonious. + +Then the white handkerchief, as signal, from the president of the games +in his box; the trumpet-blare again; and the bull rushing from his lair! +There is a wild moment when, if he be of good breed, he launches himself +impetuous as the ball from a thousand-ton gun directly upon his foes, +and sweeping around half the circle, puts them to flight over the +barrier or into mid-ring, leaving a horse or two felled in his track. I +have seen one fierce Andalusian bull within ten minutes kill five horses +while making two circuits of the ring. The first onset against a horse +is horrible to witness. The poor steed, usually lean and decrepit, is +halted until the bull will charge him, when instantly the picador in the +saddle aims a well-poised blow with his lance, driving the point into +the bull's back only about an inch, as an irritant. You hear the horns +tear through the horse's hide; you _feel_ them go through _yourself_. +Ribs crack; there's a clatter of hoofs, harness, and the rider's armor; +a sudden heave and fall--disaster!--and then the bull rushes away in +pursuit of a yellow mantle flourished to distract him. + +The banderilleros come, each holding two ornamental barbed sticks, which +he waves to attract the bull. At the brute's advance he runs to meet +him, and in the moment when the huge head is lowered for a lunge, he +plants them deftly, one on each shoulder, and springs aside. Perhaps, +getting too near, he fails, and turns to fly; the bull after, within a +few inches. He flees to the barrier, drops his cloak on the sand, and +vaults over; the bull springs over too into the narrow alley; whereupon +the fighter, being close pressed, leaps back into the ring light as a +bird, but saved by a mere hair's-breadth from a tossing or a trampling +to death. The crowd follow every turn with shouts and loud comments and +cheers: "Go, bad little bull!" "Let the picadores charge!" "More horses! +more horses!" "Well done, Gallito!" "Time for the death!--the +matadores!" and so on. Humor mingles with some of their remarks, and +there is generally one volunteer buffoon who, choosing a lull in the +combat, shrieks out rude witticisms that bring the laugh from a thousand +throats. + +But if the management of the sport be not to their liking, then the +multitude grow instantly stormy: rising on the benches, they bellow +their opinions to the president, whistle, stamp, scream, gesticulate. +It is the tumult of a mob, appeasable only by speedier bloodshed. And +what bloodshed they get! A horse or two, say, lies lifeless and crumpled +on the earth; the others, with bandaged eyes, and sides hideously +pierced and red-splashed, are spurred and whacked with long sticks to +make them go. But it is time for the banderilleros, and after that for +the swordsman. He advances, glittering, with a proud, athletic step, the +traditional chignon fastened to his pigtail, and holding out his bare +sword, makes a brief speech to the president: "I go to slay this bull +for the honor of the people of Madrid and the most excellent president +of this tourney." Then throwing his hat away, he proceeds to his task of +skill and danger. It is here that the chief gallantry of the sport +begins. With a scarlet cloak in one hand he attracts the bull, waves him +to one side or the other, baffles him, re-invites him--in fine, plays +with and controls him as if he were a kitten, though always with eye +alert and often in peril. At last, having got him "in position," he +lifts the blade, aims, and with a forward spring plunges it to the hilt +at a point near the top of the spine. Perhaps the bull recoils, reels, +and dies with that thrust; but more often he is infuriated, and several +strokes are required to finish him. Always, however, the blood gushes +freely, the sand is stained with it, and the serried crowd, intoxicated +by it, roar savagely. Still, the "many-headed beast" is fastidious. If +the bull be struck in such a way as to make him spout his life out at +the nostrils, becoming a trifle _too_ sanguinary, marks of disapproval +are freely bestowed. One bull done for, the music recommences, and mules +in showy trappings are driven in. They are harnessed to the carcasses, +and the dead bulks of the victims are hauled bravely off at a gallop, +furrowing the dirt. The grooms run at topmost speed, snapping their long +whips; the dust rises in a cloud, enveloping the strange cavalcade. They +disappear through the gate flying, and you wake from a dream of ancient +Rome and her barbarous games come true again. But soon the trumpets +flourish; another bull comes; the same finished science and sure death +ensue, varied by ever-new chances and escapes, until afternoon wanes, +the sun becomes shadow, and ten thousand satisfied people--mostly men in +felt sombreros, with some women, fewer ladies, and a sprinkling of +children and babies--throng homeward. + +What impresses is the cold blood of the thing. People bring their +goat-skins of wine, called "little drunkards," and pass them around to +friends, between bulls; others pop off lemonade bottles, and nearly all +smoke. Even a combatant sometimes lights a cigar while the bull is +occupied at the other side of the ring. During the hottest encounters +grooms come in to strip the harness from dying horses or stab an +incapacitated one; to carry off baskets of entrails, and rake fresh sand +over the blood-pools, quite calmly, at the risk of sharp interruption +from the vagarious horned enemy. In the midst of a dangerous flurry, +while performers are escaping, an orange-vender in the lane outside the +barrier pitches some fruit to a buyer half-way up the _gradas_, counting +aloud, "One, two, three," to twenty-four. All are caught, and he neatly +catches his money in return. Afterward, when a bull leaps the barrier, +this intrepid merchant has to fly for life, leaving his basket on the +ground, where the bewildered animal upsets it, rolling the contents +everywhere in golden confusion. Another time we saw a horse and rider +lifted bodily on the horns, and so tossed that the horseman flew out of +his saddle, hurtled through the air directly over the bull, and landed +solidly on his back, senseless. Six grooms bore him off, white and +rigid. But the populace never heeded him; they were madly cheering the +bull's prowess. A surgeon, by-the-way, always attends in an anteroom; +prayers are said before the fight; and a priest is in readiness with the +consecrated wafer to give the last sacrament in case of any fatal +accident. The utter simple-mindedness with which Spaniards regard the +brutalities of the sport may be judged from the fact that a bull-fight +was once given to benefit the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to +Animals! + +On occasion, the drawing of a charitable lottery is held at the _Corrida +de Toros_, and then there are gala features. The Queen and various +high-born ladies present magnificent rosettes of silk or satin and gold +and silver tinsel, with long streamers, to be attached by little barbs +to the bulls before their entrance, each having his colors indicated in +this way; and these ornaments are displayed in shop windows for days +before the event. The language of the ring is another peculiarity. There +are many fine points of merit, distinguished by as many canting terms. +There is the "pair regular," the "relance," the "cuartos," and the darts +are playfully termed "shuttlecocks;" the swordsman deals in "pinches" +and "thrusts," and so on--all of which is recorded in press reports, +amusing enough in their airy and supercilious half-literary treatment. +These are among the most polished products of Spanish journalism. Fines +are imposed on the performers for any achievement not "regular;" and, on +the other hand, good strokes are rewarded by the public with cigars, or, +as the dainty reporters say, they "merit palms." The three chief +swordsmen are Lagartijo, Frascuelo, and Currito; "Broad Face," "Little +Fatty," and the like, being lesser lights. Frascuelo is so renowned for +hardihood that I once saw him receive, in obedience to popular will, the +ear of the bull he had just slain--a supreme mark of favor.[4] + +[Illustration: A STREET SCENE.] + +Madrid is now the head-quarters of the national game, as it is of +everything else. It is outwardly flourishing, it is adorned with +statues, its parks are green, and its fountains spout gayly. +Nevertheless, the impression it makes is melancholy. Beggary is +importunate on its public ways. Palaces and poverty, great wealth and +wretched penury, are huddled close together. Its assumption of splendor +is in startling contrast with the desolate and uncared-for districts +that surround it from the very edge of the city outward. The natural +result of extremes in the distribution of property, with a country +impoverished, is public bankruptcy; and public bankruptcy stares surely +enough through the city's gay mask. There is another unhappy result from +the undue concentration of resources at this artificial capital. Madrid +prides itself on being the spot at which all the avenues of the land +converge equally, the exact centre of Spain being close beyond the +city's confines, and marked--how appropriately--by a church! But Madrid +is, notwithstanding, a national centre only in name. It enjoys a false +luxury, while too many outlying provinces sustain a starveling +existence. And, seeing the alien, imitative manners adopted here, one +feels sharply the difficult contrasts that exist between the metropolis +and the provinces: no hearty bond of national unity appears. We looked +back over the ground we had traversed, and thought of the gray bones of +Burgos cathedral, lying like some stranded mammoth of another age, far +in the north. Oh, bells of Burgos, mumbling in your towers, what message +have you for these sophisticated ears? And what intelligible response +does the heart of the country send back to you? + +"Come," said I to Velveteen. "It is useless to resist longer. Let's +surrender to these two white-capped guards who have dogged us so, and be +carried away." + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE LOST CITY. + +I. + + +[Illustration: I] + +It was of Spain's past and present that we were speaking, and "What," I +asked, "have we given her in return for her discovery of our New World?" + +"The sleeping-car and the street tramway," answered Velveteen, with +justifiable pride. + +He was right; for we had seen the first on the railroad, and the second +skimming the streets of Madrid. Still, the reward did not appear great, +measured by the much that Spain's ventures in the Western hemisphere had +cost her, and by the comparative desolation of her present. The devoted +labors of Irving and Prescott, which Spaniards warmly appreciate, are +more in the nature of an adequate return. + +"It strikes me, also," I ventured to add, "that we are rendering a +service in kind. She discovered us, and now we are discovering her." + +If one reflects how some of the once great and powerful places of the +Peninsula, such as Toledo and Cordova, have sunk out of sight and +perished to the modern world, this fancy applies with some truth to +every sympathetic explorer of them. It had been all very well to +imagine ourselves conversant with the country when we were in Madrid, +and even an occasional slip in the language did not disturb that +supposition. When I accidentally asked the chamber-maid to swallow a cup +of chocolate instead of "bringing" it, owing to an unnecessary +resemblance of two distinct words, and when my comrade, in attending to +details of the laundry, was led by an imperfect dictionary to describe +one article of wear as a _pintura de noche_, or "night scene," our +confidence suffered only a momentary shock. But, after all, it was not +until we reached Toledo that we really passed into a kind of forgotten +existence, and knew what it was to be far beyond reach of any familiar +word. + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO TOLEDO.] + +With the first plunge southward from the capital the reign of ruin +begins--ruin and flies. The heat becomes intense; the air itself seems +to be cooked through and through; the flies rejoice with a malicious +joy, and the dry sandy hills, bearing nothing but tufts of blackened +weeds, resemble large mounds of pepper and salt. Here and there in the +valley is the skeleton of a stone or brick farm-house withering away, +and perhaps near by a small round defensive hut, recalling times of +disorder. Between the hills, however, are fields still prolific in rye, +though wholly destitute of trees. Verdure re-asserts itself wherever +there is the smallest water-course; and a curve of the river Tagus is +sure to infold fruit orchards and melon vines, while the parched soil +briefly revives and puts forth delightful shade-trees. But although the +river-fed lands around Toledo are rich in vegetation, the ancient city +itself, with the Tagus slung around its base like a loop, rises on a +sterile rock, and amid hills of bronze. So much are the brown and +sun-imbued houses and the old fortified walls in keeping with the massy +natural foundation that all seem reared together, the huge form of the +Alcazar, or castle--where the Spanish national military academy is +housed--towering like a second cliff in one corner of the round, +irregularly clustered city. Our omnibus scaled the height by a road +perfectly adapted for conducting to some dragon stronghold of misty +fable, and landed us in the Zocodover, the sole open space of any +magnitude in that tangle of thread-like streetlets, along which the +houses range themselves with a semblance of order purely superficial. +Most of Toledo is traversable only for pedestrians and donkeys. These +latter carry immense double baskets across their backs, in which are +transported provisions, bricks, coal, fowls, water, bread, +crockery--everything, in short, down to the dirt occasionally scraped +from the thoroughfares. I saw one peasant, rather advanced in years, +helping himself up the steep rise of a street on the hill-side by means +of a stout cane in one hand and the tail of his heavy-laden donkey +grasped in the other. To make room for these useful beasts and their +broad panniers, some of the houses are hollowed out at the corners; in +one case the side wall being actually grooved a foot deep for a number +of yards along an anxious turning. Otherwise the panniers would touch +both sides of the way, and cause a blockade as obstinate as the animal +itself. + +[Illustration: THE NARROW WAY.] + +[Illustration: SPANISH PEASANT. + +From a Drawing by William M. Chase.] + +Coming from the outer world into so strange a labyrinth, where there is +no echo of rolling wheels, no rumble of traffic or manufacture, you +find yourself in a city which may be said to be without a voice. Through +a hush like this, history and tradition speak all the more powerfully. +Toledo has been a favorite with the novelists. The Zocodover was the +haunt of that typical rogue Lazarillo de Tormes; and Cervantes, oddly as +it happens, connects the scene of _La ilustre Fregonde_ with a shattered +castle across the river, which by a coincidence has had its original +name of San Servando corrupted into San Cervantes. + +Never shall I forget our walk around the city walls that first afternoon +in Toledo. A broad thoroughfare skirts the disused defences on the south +and west, running at first along the sheer descent to the river, and a +beetling height against which houses, shops, and churches are crammed +confusedly. I noticed one smithy with a wide dark mouth revealing the +naked rock on which walls and roof abutted, and other houses into the +faces of which had been wrought large granite projections of the hill. +After this the way led through a gate of peculiar strength and +shapeliness, carrying up arches of granite and red brick to a +considerable height--a stout relic of the proud Moorish dominion so long +maintained here; and then, when we had rambled about a church of +Santiago lower down, passing through some streets irregular as +foot-paths, where over a neglected door stood a unique announcement of +the owner's name--"I am Don Sanchez. 1792"--we came to the Visagra, the +country gate. This menacing, double-towered portal is mediæval; so that +a few steps had carried us from Mohammedan Alimaymon to the Emperor +Charles V. Just outside of it again is the Alameda, the modern garden +promenade, where the beauty and idleness of Toledo congregate on Sunday +evenings to the soft compulsion of strains from the military academical +band. Thin runnels of water murmur along through the hedges and +embowered trees, explaining by their presence how this refreshing +pleasure-ground was conjured into being; for on the slope, a few feet +below the green hedges, you still see the sun-parched soil just as it +once spread over the whole area. The contrast suggests Eden blossoming +on a crater-side. + +At the open-air soirées of the Alameda may be seen excellent examples of +Spanish beauty. The national type of woman appears here in good +preservation, and not too much hampered by foreign airs. Doubtless one +finds it too in Burgos and Madrid, and in fact everywhere; and the grace +of the women in other places is rather fonder of setting itself off by a +fan used for parasol purposes in the street than in Toledo. But on the +_pasco_ and _alameda_ all Spanish ladies carry fans, and it is +something marvellous to see how they manage them. Not for a moment is +the subtle instrument at rest: it flutters, wavers idly, is opened and +shut in the space of a second, falls to the side, and again rises to +take its part in the conversation almost like a third person--all +without effort--with merely a turn of the supple fingers or wrist, and +contributing an added charm to the bearer. The type of face which beams +with more or less similarity above every fan in Spain is difficult to +describe, and at first difficult even to apprehend. One has heard so +much about its beauty that in the beginning it seems to fall short; but +gradually its spell seizes on the mind, becoming stronger and stronger. +The tint varies from tawny rose or olive to white: ladies of higher +caste, from their night life and rare exposure to the sun, acquire a +deathly pallor, which is unfortunately too often imitated with powder. +Chestnut or lighter hair is seen a good deal in the south and east, but +deep black is the prevalent hue. And the eyes!--it is impossible to more +than suggest the luminous, dreamy medium in which they swim, so large, +dark, and vivid. But, above all, there is combined with a certain +child-like frankness a freedom and force, a quick mobility in the lines +of the face, equalled only in American women. To these elements you must +add a strong arching eyebrow and a pervading richness and fire of nature +in the features, which it would be hard to parallel at all, especially +when the whole is framed in the seductive folds of the black mantilla, +like a drifting night-cloud enhancing the sparkle of a star. + +As we continued along the Camin de Marchan we looked down on one side +over the fertile plain. The pale tones of the ripe harvest and dense +green of trees contrasted with the rich brown and gray of the city, and +dashes of red clay here and there. In a long field rose detached +fragments of masonry, showing at different points the vast ground-plan +of the Roman Circus Maximus, with a burst of bright ochre sand in the +midst of the stubble, while on the left hand we had an old Arab gate +pierced with slits for arrows, and on the crest above that a +nunnery--St. Sunday the Royal--followed by a line of palaces and +convents half ruined in the Napoleonic campaign of 1812. Out in the +plain was the roof of the sword factory where "Toledo blades" are still +forged and tempered for the Spanish army; although in the finer details +of damascening and design nothing is produced beyond a small stock of +show weapons and tiny ornamental trinkets for sale to tourists. Nor was +this all; for a little farther on, at the edge of the river, close to +the Bridge of St. Martin and the Gate of Twelve Stones, the broken +remains of an old Gothic palace sprawled the steep, lying open to heaven +and vacant as the dull eye-socket in some unsepulchred skull. Our stroll +of a mile had carried us back to the second century before Christ, the +path being strewn with relics of the Roman conquest, the Visigothic +inroad, the Moorish ascendency, and the returning tide of Christian +power. But the Jews, seeking refuge after the fall of Jerusalem, +preceded all these, making a still deeper substratum in the marvellous +chronicles of Toledo; and some of their later synagogues, exquisitely +wrought in the Moorish manner, still stand in the Jewish quarter for the +wonderment of pilgrim connoisseurs. + +[Illustration: SINGING GIRL.] + +It was from a terrace of this old Gothic palace near the bridge that, +according to legend, Don Roderick, the last of the Goths in Spain, saw +Florinda, daughter of one Count Julian, bathing in the yellow Tagus +under a four-arched tower which still invades the flood, and goes by the +name of the Bath of Florinda. From his passion for her, and their mutual +error, the popular tale, with vigorous disregard of chronology, deduces +the fall of Spain before the Berber armies; and as most old stories here +receive an ecclesiastical tinge, this one relates how Florinda's sinful +ghost continued to haunt the spot where we now stood, until laid by a +good friar with cross and benediction. The sharp fall of the bank at +first glance looked to consist of ordinary earth and stones, but on +closer scrutiny turned out to contain quantities of brick bits from the +old forts and towers which one generation after another had built on the +heights, and which had slowly mouldered into nullity. Even so the firm +lines of history have fallen away and crumbled into romance, which sifts +through the crannies of the whole withered old city. As a lady of my +acquaintance graphically said, it seems as if ashes had been thrown over +this ancient capital, covering it with a film of oblivion. The rocks, +towers, churches, ruins, are just so much corporeal mythology--object, +lessons in fable. A little girl, becomingly neckerchiefed, wandered by +us while we leaned dreaming above the river; and she was singing one of +the wild little songs of the country, full of melancholy melody: + + "Fair Malaga, adios! + Ah, land where I was born, + Thou hadst mother-love for all, + But for me step-mother's scorn!" + +[Illustration: CLOISTER OF ST. JOHN OF THE KINGS.] + +All unconscious of the monuments around her, she stopped when she saw +that we had turned and were listening. Then we resumed our way, passing, +I may literally say, as if in a trance up into the town again, where we +presently found ourselves in front of St. John of the Kings, a venerable +church, formerly connected with a Franciscan monastery which the French +burnt. On the outer wall high up hangs a stern fringe of chains, placed +there as votive tokens by released Christian captives from Granada, in +1492; and there they have remained since America was discovered! + +To this church is attached a most beautiful cloister, calm with the +solitude of nearly four hundred years. Around three sides the rich +clustered columns, each with its figures of holy men supported under +pointed canopies, mark the delicate Gothic arches, through which the +sunlight slants upon the pavement, falling between the leaves of +aspiring vines that twine upward from the garden in the middle. There +the rose-laurel blooms, and a rude fountain perpetually gurgles, hidden +in thick greenery; and on the fourth side the wall is dismantled as the +French bombardment left it. Seventy years have passed, and though the +sculptured blocks for restoration have been got together, the vines grow +over them, and no work has been done. We mounted the bell-tower part way +with the custodian, and gained a gallery looking into the chapel, +strangely adorned with regal shields and huge eagles in stone. On our +way, under one part of the tower roof, we found a hen calmly strutting +with her brood. "It was meant for celibacy," said the custodian, "but +times change, and you see that family life has established itself here +after all." + +[Illustration: A BIT OF CHARACTER.] + +I don't know whether there is anything particularly sacred about the +hens of this district, but after seeing this one in the church-tower I +began to think there might be, especially as on the way home we +discovered another imprisoned fowl disconsolately looking down at us +from the topmost window of a venerable patrician residence. + +II. + +[Illustration: SPANISH SOLDIERS PLAYING DOMINOS.] + +Its antiquities are not the queerest thing about Toledo. The sights of +the day, the isolated existence of the inhabitants, are things peculiar. +The very sports of the children reflect the prevailing influences. A +favorite diversion with them is to parade in some dark hall-way with +slow step and droning chants, in imitation of church festivals; and in +the street we found boys playing at _toros_. Some took off their coats +to wave as mantles before the bull, who hid around the corner until the +proper time for his entry. The bull in this game, I noticed, had a nice +sense of fair play, and would stop to argue points with his +antagonists--something I should have been glad to see in the real arena. +Once the old rock town accommodated two hundred thousand residents. Its +contingent has now shrunk to twenty thousand, yet it swarms with +citizens, cadets, loafers, and beggars. Its tortuous wynds are full of +wine-shops, vegetables, and children, all mixed up together. Superb old +palaces, nevertheless, open off from them, frequently with spacious +courts inside, shaded by trellised vines, and with pillars at the +entrance topped by heavy stone balls, or doors studded with nails and +moulded in rectangular patterns like inlay-work. One day we wandered +through a sculptured gate-way and entered a paved opening with a carved +wood gallery running around the walls above. Orange-trees in tubs stood +about, and a brewery was established in these palatial quarters. We +ordered a bottle, but I noticed that the brewer stood regarding us +anxiously. At last he drew nearer, and asked, "Do you come from Madrid?" + +"Yes." + +"Ah, then," said he, in a disheartened tone, "you won't like our beer." + +[Illustration: A NARROW STREET.] + +We encouraged him, however, and at last he disappeared, sending us the +beverage diplomatically by another hand. He was too faint-spirited to +witness the trial himself. Though called "The Delicious," the thin, +sweet, gaseous liquid was certainly detestable; but in deference to the +brewer's delicate conscientiousness we drank as much as possible, and +then left with his wife some money and a weakly complimentary remark +about the beer, which evidently came just in time to convince her that +we were, after all, discriminating judges. + +[Illustration: WOMAN WITH BUNDLE.] + +The people generally were very simple and good-natured, and in +particular a young commercial traveller from Barcelona whom we met +exerted himself to entertain us. The chief street was lined with awnings +reaching to the curb-stone in front of the shops, and every public +door-way was screened by a striped curtain. Pushing aside one of these, +our new acquaintance introduced us to what seemed a dingy bar, but, by a +series of turnings, opened out into a spacious concealed café--that of +the Two Brothers--where we frequently repaired with him to sip chiccory +and cognac or play dominos. On these occasions he kept the tally in +pencil on the marble table, marking the side of himself and a friend +with their initials, and heading ours "The Strangers." All travellers in +Spain are described by natives as "Strangers" or "French," and the +reputation for a pure Parisian accent which we acquired under these +circumstances, though brief, was glorious. To the Two Brothers resorted +many soldiers, shop-keepers, and well-to-do housewives during fixed +hours of the afternoon and evening, but at other times it was as +forsaken as Don Roderick's palace. Another place of amusement was the +Grand Summer Theatre, lodged within the ragged walls of a large building +which had been half torn down. Here we sat under the stars, luxuriating +in the most expensive seats (at eight cents per head), surrounded by a +full audience of exceedingly good aspect, including some Toledan ladies +of great beauty, and listened to a _zarzuela_, or popular comic opera, +in which the prompter took an almost too energetic part. The ticket +collector came in among the chairs to receive everybody's coupons with +very much the air of being one of the family; for while performing +his stern duty he smoked a short brier pipe, giving to the act an +indescribable dignity which threw the whole business of the tickets into +a proper subordination. In returning to our inn about midnight we were +attracted by the free cool sound of a guitar duet issuing from a dark +street that rambled off somewhere like a worm track in old wood, and, +pursuing the sound, we discovered by the aid of a match lighted for a +cigarette two men standing in the obscure alley, and serenading a couple +of ladies in a balcony, who positively laughed with pride at the +attention. The men, it proved, had been hired by some admirer, and so +our friend engaged them to perform for us at the hotel the following +night. + +[Illustration: THE SERENADERS.] + +The skill these thrummers of the guitar display is delicious, especially +in the treble part, which is executed on a smaller species of the +instrument, called a _mandura_. Our treble-player was blind in one eye, +and with the carelessness of genius allowed his mouth to stay open, but +managed always to keep a cigarette miraculously hanging in it; while his +comrade, with a disconsolate expression, disdained to look at the +strings on which his proud Castilian fingers were condemned to play a +mere accompaniment. For two or three hours they rippled out those +peculiar native airs which go so well with the muffled vibrations and +mournful Oriental monotony of the guitar; but the bagman varied the +concert by executing operatic pieces on a hair-comb covered with thin +paper--a contrivance in which he took unfeigned delight. Some +remonstrance against this uproar being made by other inmates of the +hotel, our host silenced the complainants by cordially inviting them in. +One large black-bearded guest, the exact reproduction of a stately +ancient Roman, accepted the hospitality, and listened to that ridiculous +piping of the comb with profound gravity and unmoved muscles, expressing +neither approval nor dissatisfaction. But the white-aproned waiter, who, +though unasked, hung spellbound on the threshold, was, beyond question, +deeply impressed. The relations of servants with employers are on a very +democratic footing in Spain. We had an admirable butler at Madrid who +used to join in the conversation at table whenever it interested him, +and was always answered with good grace by the conversationists, who +admitted him to their intellectual repast at the same moment that he was +proffering them physical nutriment. These Toledan servitors of the Fonda +de Lino were still more informal. They used to take naps regularly twice +a day in the hall, and could not get through serving dinner without an +occasional cigarette between the courses. To save labor, they would +place a pile of plates in front of each person, enough to hold the +entire list of viands. That last phrase is a euphemism, however, for the +meal each day consisted of the same meat served in three separate relays +without vegetables, followed by fowl, an allowance of beans, and +dessert. Even this they were not particular to give us on the hour. +Famished beyond endurance, one evening at eight o'clock, we went +down-stairs and found that not the first movement toward dinner had been +made. The _mozos_ (waiters) were smoking and gossiping in the street, +and rather frowned upon our vulgar desire for food, but we finally +persuaded them to yield to it. After we had bought some tomatoes, and +made a salad at dinner, the management was put on its mettle, and +improved slightly. Fish in this country is always brought on somewhere +in the middle of dinner, like the German pudding, and our landlord +astonished us by following the three courses of stewed veal with +sardines, fried in oil and ambuscaded in a mass of boiled green peppers. +After that we forbore to stimulate his ambition any farther. + +[Illustration: A PLENTIFUL SUPPLY OF PLATES.] + +The hotel guest, however, is on the whole regarded as a necessary +evil--a nuisance tolerated only because some few of the finest race in +the world can make money out of him. The landlord lived with his family +on the ground-floor, and furnished little domestic tableaux as we passed +in and out; but he never paid any attention to us, and even looked +rather hurt at the intrusion of so many strangers into his hostelry. Nor +did the high-born sewing-women who sat on the public stairs, and left +only a narrow space for other people to ascend or descend by, consider +it necessary to stir in the least for our convenience. The fonda had +more of the old tavern or posada style about it than most hotels +patronized by foreigners. The entrance door led immediately into a +double court, where two or three yellow equipages stood; and from this +the kitchen, storerooms, and stable all branched off in some clandestine +way. Above, at the eaves, these courts were covered with canvas awnings +wrinkled in regular folds on iron rods--sheltering covers which remained +drawn from the first flood of the morning sun until after five in the +afternoon. Early and late I used to look down into the inner court, +observing the men and women of the household as they dressed fish and +silently wrung the necks of chickens, or sat talking a running stream of +nothingness by the hour, for love of their own glib but uncouth voices. +People of this province intone rather than talk: their sentences are set +to distinct drawling tunes, such as I never before encountered in +ordinary speech, and their thick lisping of all sibilants, combined with +the usual contralto of their voices, gives the language a sonorous burr, +for which one soon acquires a liking. Sunday is the great hair-combing +day in Toledo, if I may judge from the manner in which women carried on +that soothing operation in their door-ways and _patios_; and in this +inner court below my window one of the servants, sitting on a stone +slab, enjoyed the double profit of sewing and of letting a companion +manipulate her yard-long locks of jet, while others sat near, fanning +themselves and chattering. Another time a little girl, dark as an +Indian, came there in the morning to wash a kerchief at the stone tank, +always brimming with dirty water; after which she executed, unsuspicious +of my gaze, a singularly weird _pas seul_, a sort of shadow dance, on +the pavement, and then vanished. + +[Illustration: THE TOILET--A SUNDAY SCENE.] + +All the houses are roofed with heavy curved tiles, which fit together so +as to let the air circulate under their hollow grooves; and a species of +many-seeded grass sprouts out of these baked earth coverings, out of the +ledges of old towers and belfries, and from the crevices of the great +cathedral itself, like the downy hair on an old woman's cheek. + +The view along almost any one of the ancient streets, which are always +tilted by the hilly site, is wonderfully quaint in its irregularities. +Every window is heavily grated with iron, from the top to the bottom +story, even the openings high up in the cathedral spire being similarly +guarded, until the whole place looks like a metropolis of prisons. In +the stout doors, too, there are small openings or peep-holes, such as we +had seen still in actual use at Madrid--the relics of an epoch when even +to open to an unknown visitor might be dangerous. White, white, white +the sunshine!--and the walls of pink or yellow-brown, of pale green and +blue, are sown with deep shadows and broken by big archways, often +surmounted by rich knightly escutcheons. Balconies with tiled floors +turning their colors down toward the sidewalk stud the fronts, and long +curtains stream over them like cloaks fluttering in the breeze. At one +point a peak-roofed tower rises above the rest of its house with sides +open to the air and cool shadow within, where perhaps a woman sits and +works behind a row of bright flowering plants. Doves inhabited the fonda +roof unmolested by the spiritless cats that, flat as paper, slept in the +undulations of the tiles; for the Toledan cats and dogs are the most +wretched of their kind. They get even less to eat than their human +neighbors, which is saying a great deal. And beyond the territory of the +doves my view extended to a slender bell-spire at the end of the +cathedral, poised in the bright air like a flower-stalk, with one bell +seen through an interstice as if it were a blossom. At another point the +main spire rose out of what might be called a rich thicket of Gothic +work. Its tall thin shaft is encircled near the point with sharp +radiating spikes of iron, doubtless intended to recall the crown of +thorns: in this sign of the Passion, held forever aloft, three hundred +feet above the ground, there is a penetrating pathos, a solemn beauty. + + +III. + +The cathedral of Toledo, long the seat of the Spanish primate, stands in +the first rank of cathedrals, and is invested with a ponderous gloom +that has something almost savage about it. For six centuries art, +ecclesiasticism, and royal power lavished their resources upon it; and +its dusky chapels are loaded with precious gems and metals, tawdry +though the style of their ornamentation often is. The huge pillars that +divide its five naves rise with a peculiar inward curve, which gives +them an elastic look of growth. They are the giant roots from which the +rest has spread. Under the golden gratings and jasper steps of the high +altar Cardinal Mendoza lies buried, with a number of the older kings of +Spain, in a grewsome sunless vault; but at the back of the altar there +is contrived with theatrical effect a burst of white light from a window +in the arched ceiling, around the pale radiance of which are assembled +painted figures, gradually giving place to others in veritable +relief--all sprawling, flying, falling down the wall enclosing the +altar, as if one were suddenly permitted to see a swarm of saints and +angels careering in a beam of real supernatural illumination. A private +covered gallery leads above the street from the archbishop's palace into +one side of the mighty edifice; and this, with the rambling, varied +aspect of the exterior, in portions resembling a fortress, with a stone +sentry-box on the roof, recalls the days of prelates who put themselves +at the head of armies, leading in war as in everything else. A spacious +adjoining cloister, full of climbing ivy and figs, Spanish cypress, the +smooth-trunked laurel-tree, and many other growths, all bathed in +opulent sunshine, marks the site of an old Jewish market, which +Archbishop Tenorio in 1389 incited a mob to burn in order that he might +have room for this sacred garden. But the voices of children now ring +out from the upper rooms of the cloister building, where the widows and +orphans of cathedral servants are given free homes. Through this +"cloister of the great church" it was that Cervantes says he hurried +with the MS. of Cid Hamete Benengeli, containing Don Quixote's history, +after he had bought it for half a real--just two cents and a half. + +[Illustration: A TOLEDO PRIEST.] + +A temple of the barbaric and the barbarous, the cathedral dates from the +thirteenth century: but it was preceded by one which was built to the +Virgin in her lifetime, tradition says, and she came down from heaven to +visit her shrine. The identical slab on which she alighted is still +preserved in one of the chapels. A former inscription said to believers, +"Use yourselves to kiss it for your much consolation," and their +obedient lips have in time greatly worn down the stone. Later on, the +church was used as a mosque by the infidel conquerors, and when they +were driven out it was pulled down to be replaced by the present huge +and solemn structure. But, by a compromise with the subjugated Moors, a +Muzarabic mass (a seeming mixture of Mohammedan ritual with Christian +worship) was ordained to be said in a particular chapel; and there it is +recited still, every morning in the year. I attended this weird, +half-Eastern ceremony, which was conducted with an extraordinary +incessant babble of rapid prayer from the priests in the stalls, +precisely like the inarticulate hum one imagines in a mosque. On the +floor below and in front of the altar-steps was placed a richly-draped +chest, perhaps meant to represent the tomb of Mohammed in the Caaba, and +around it stood lighted candles. During the long and involved mass one +of the younger priests, in appearance almost an imbecile, had the prayer +he was to read pointed out for him by an altar-boy with what looked like +a long knife-blade, used for the purpose. Soon after an incense-bearing +acolyte nudged him energetically to let him know that his turn had now +come. This was the only evidence I could discover of any progress in +knowledge or goodness resulting from the Muzarabic mass. + +At one time Toledo had, besides the cathedral, a hundred and ten +churches. Traces of many of them are still seen in small arches rising +from the midst of house-tops, with a bell swung in the opening; but the +most have fallen into disuse, and the greatest era of the hierarchy has +passed. The great priests have also passed, and those who now dwell here +offer to the most unprejudiced eye a dreary succession of bloated bodies +and brutish faces. Sermons are never read in the gorgeous cathedral +pulpits, and the Church, as even an ardent Catholic assured me, seems, +at least locally, dead. The priests and the prosperous shop-keepers are +almost the only beings in Toledo who look portly; the rest are thin, +brown, wiry, and tall, with fine creases in their hard faces that appear +to have been drilled there by the sand-blast process. + +The women, however, even in the humbler class, preserve a fine, fresh +animal health, which makes you wonder how they ever grow old, until you +see some tottering creature who is little more than a mass of sinews and +wrinkles held together by a skirt and a neckerchief--the _pañuclo_ +universal with her sex. At noon and evening the serving-women came out +to the fountains, distributed here and there under groups of miniature +locust-trees, to fetch water for their houses. They carried huge earthen +jars, or _cantarones_, which they would lug off easily under one arm, in +attitudes of inimitable grace. + +[Illustration: TOLEDO SERVITORS AT THE FOUNTAIN.] + +[Illustration: A PROFESSIONAL BEGGAR.] + +If religious sway over temporal things has declined, Toledo still +impresses one as little more than a big church founded on the rock, with +room made for the money-changers' benches, and an unimaginable jumble of +palaces once thronged with powerful courtiers and abundant in wealth, +but at this day chiefly inhabited by persons of humble quality. Nightly +there glows in the second story of a building on the Zocodover, where +_autos-da-fé_ used to be held, a large arched shrine of the Virgin hung +with mellow lamps, so that not even with departing daylight shall +religious duty be put aside by the commonplace crowd shuffling through +the plaza beneath. Everywhere in angles and turnings and archways one +comes upon images and pictures fixed to the wall under a pointed roof +made with two short boards, to draw a passing genuflection or incidental +_ave_ from any one who may be going by on an errand of business or--as +more often occurs--laziness. Feast-days, too, are still ardently +observed. With all this, somehow, the fact connects itself that the +populace are instinctive, free-born, insatiable beggars. The +magnificently chased door-ways of the cathedral festered with revolting +specimens of human disease and degeneration, appealing for alms. Other +more prosperous mendicants were regularly on hand for business every day +at the "old stand" in some particular thoroughfare. I remember one, +especially, whose whole capital was invested in a superior article of +nervous complaint, which enabled him to balance himself between the +wall and a crutch, and there oscillate spasmodically by the hour. In +this he was entirely beyond competition, and cast into the shade those +merely routine professionals who took the common line of bad eyes or +uninterestingly motionless deformities. It used to depress them when he +came on to the ground. Bright little children, even, in perfect health, +would desist from their amusements and assail us, struck with the happy +thought that they might possibly wheedle the "strangers" into some +untimely generosity. There was one pretty girl of about ten years, who +laughed outright at the thought of her own impudence, but stopped none +the less for half an hour on her way to market (carrying a basket on her +arm) in order to pester poor Velveteen while he was sketching, and +begged him for money, first to get bread, and then shoes, and then +anything she could think of. + +[Illustration: A GROUP OF MENDICANTS.] + +A hand opened to receive money would be a highly suitable device for the +municipal coat of arms. + +[Illustration: A PATIO IN TOLEDO.] + +My friend's irrepressible pencil, by-the-way, made him the centre of a +crowd wherever he went. Grave business men came out of their shops to +see what he was drawing; loungers made long and ingenious detours in +order to obtain a good view of his labors; ragamuffins elbowed him, +undismayed by energetic remarks in several languages, until finally he +was moved to get up and display the contents of his pockets, inviting +them even to read some letters he had with him. To this gentle satire +they would sometimes yield. We fell a prey, however, to one silent youth +of whom we once unguardedly asked a question. After that he considered +himself permanently engaged to pilot us about. He would linger for hours +near the fonda dinnerless, and, what was even more terrible, sleepless, +so that he might fasten upon us the moment we should emerge. If he +discovered our destination, he would stride off mutely in advance, to +impress on us the fact that we were under obligation to him; and when we +found the place we wanted, he waited patiently until we had rewarded him +with a half-cent. If we gratified him by asking him the way, he +responded by silently stretching forth his arm and one long forefinger +with a lordly gesture, still striding on; and he had a very superior +Castilian sneering smile, which he put on when he looked around to see +if we were following. He gradually became for us a sort of symbolic +shadow of the town's vanished greatness; and from his mysterious way of +coming into sight, and haunting us in the most unexpected places, we +gave him the name of "Ghost." Nevertheless, we baffled him at last. In +the Street of the Christ of Light there is a small but exceedingly +curious mosque, now converted into a church, so ancient in origin that +some of the capitals in it are thought to show Visigothic work, so that +it must have been a Christian church even before the Moorish invasion. +Close by this we chanced upon a charming old _patio_, or court-yard, +entered through a wooden gate, and by dexterously gliding in here and +shutting the gate we exorcised "Ghost" for some time. + +The broad red tiles of this _patio_ contrasted well with its +white-washed arcade pillars, on which were embossed the royal arms of +Castile; and the jutting roof of the house was supported on elaborate +beams of old Spanish cedar cracked with age. It was sadly neglected. +Flowers bloomed in the centre, but a pile of lumber littered one side; +and the house was occupied by an old woman who was washing in the +arcade, her tub being the half of a big terra-cotta jar laid on its +side. She spread her linen out on the hot pavement to dry; and a +sprightly neighbor coming in with a basket of clothes and a "Health to +thee!" was invited to dry _her_ wash on a low tile roof adjoining. + +"Solitude" served at once as her name and to describe her surroundings. +We made friends with her, the more easily because she was much +interested in the sketch momently growing under my companion's touch. + +"And _you_ don't draw?" she inquired of me. + +I answered, apologetically, "No." + +Having seen me glancing over a book, she added, as if to console me, and +with emphasis, "But you can read!" To her mind that was a sister art and +an equal one. + +She went on to tell how her granddaughter had spent ten years in school, +and at the end of that time was able to read. "But now she is forgetting +it all. She goes out and plays too much with the _muchachas_" (young +girls). + +[Illustration: THE HOME OF "SOLITUDE."] + +This amiable grandmother also took us in to see her domicile, which +proved to be a part of the old city wall, and had a fine view from +its iron-barred window. She declared vaguely that "a count" had +formerly lived there; but it had more probably been the gate-captain's +house, for close by was one of the fortified ports of the inner +defences. A store-room, in fact, which she kept full of pigeons and +incredibly miscellaneous old iron, stood directly over the arched +entrance, and there we saw the heavy beam and windlass which in by-gone +ages had hoisted or let fall the spiked portcullis. I induced "Solitude" +to tell me a legend about one of the churches; for there is generally +some story to every square rod of ground hereabout, and indeed a little +basilica below the town sustains four different narratives all +explaining a single miracle. Serving as an appropriate foundation for +local wonder-mongering, a great cave in the rock underlies some portion +of the city, and is said to have been hollowed out by Hercules, who, in +addition to his other labors, has received the credit of founding +Toledo. I am convinced that no muscles but his could ever have stood the +strain of first climbing its site. The cave I refer to has been for the +most part of the last two hundred years closed and walled up. About +thirty years since it was timidly explored by a society formed for the +purpose, and some Roman remains were found in it; but after that, terror +fell upon the explorers, and the cavern was again closed, remaining even +yet a reservoir of mystery. There are equally mysterious things above +ground, however, as will shortly be demonstrated by the tale of the +"Christ of Compassion." Let me, before giving that, recall here a more +poetic tradition, preserved by Señor Eugenio Olavarria, a young author +of Madrid. We saw just outside the mosque-church of the Christ of Light +an old Moorish well, of a kind common in Spain, with a low thick wall +surrounding the deep sunken shaft, to rest the bucket-chain on when it +is let down and drawn up by sheer muscular force. The edges were worn +into one continuous pattern of grooves by the incessant chafing of the +chains for ages, and we conjured up a dozen romances about the people +who of old slaked their thirst there. It is about another water-source +of the same kind, on a small street still called Descent to the Bitter +Well, that the story here outlined is told: + + THE WELL OF BITTERNESS. + + "In the time of one of the Moorish kings there lived at Toledo, + under the mild toleration of that epoch, a rich Jew, strictly and + passionately devoted to the laws of his religion and to one only + other object: that one was his daughter Raquel, motherless, but + able to solace his widowed heart with her devoted affection. + Sixteen Aprils had wrought their beautiful changes into her + exquisite form and lovely mind, till at last, of all things which + they had waked to life, she appeared the fairest. + + "Reuben had gradually made her the chief end of his existence, and + she certainly merited this absolute concentration of her father's + love. But, notwithstanding that at this time Jews and Christians + dwelt together unmolested by the Mohammedan rule, the inborn + hostility between these two orders underwent no abatement. + Intercourse between them was sedulously avoided by each, and the + springing up of any shy flower of love between man and maid of such + hostile races was sure to be followed by deadly blight and ruin. + Nevertheless--and how it happened who can say?--Raquel, already + ripened by the rich sun of her native land into a perfected + womanhood, fell in love with a young Christian cavalier, who had + himself surrendered to her silent and distant beauty as it shone + upon him, while passing, from her grated window in Reuben's stately + mansion. He learned her name, and spoke it to her from the + street--'Raquel!'--at twilight. So trembling and brimming with + mutual love were they, that this one word, like the last + o'erflowing drop of precious liquid from a vase, was enough to + reveal to her what filled his heart. As she heard it she blushed as + though it had been a kiss that he had reverently impressed upon her + cheek; and this was answer enough--their secret and perilous + courtship had begun. Thereafter they met often at night in the + great garden attached to the house, making their rendezvous at the + low-walled well that stood in a thicket of fragrant greenery. At + last, through the prying of an aged friend, his daughter's passion + came to the knowledge of old Reuben, who had never till then even + conceived of such disgrace as her being enamoured of a Christian. + His course was prompt and terrible. Concealing himself one evening + behind a tree-trunk close to the well, he awaited the coming of the + daring cavalier, sprung upon him, and after a short, noiseless + struggle bore him down with a poniard in his breast! + + "The stealthy opening of a door into the garden warned him of + Raquel's approach. He hastened again into concealment. She arrived, + saw her fallen lover, dropped at his side in agonies of terror, and + sought to revive him. Then she saw and by the moonlight recognized + her father's dagger in the breathless bosom of the young man, and + knew what had happened. Moved by sudden remorse, Reuben came out + with words of consolation ready. But she knew him not, she heard + him not; from that instant madness was in her eyes and brain. Many + months she haunted the spot at night, calm but hopelessly insane, + and weeping silently at the margin of the well, into whose waters + her salt tears descended. At length there came a night when she did + not return to the house. She had thrown herself into the well and + was found there--dead! + + "Never again could any one drink its waters, which had been famous + for their quality. Raquel's tears of sorrow had turned them + bitter." + +The other legend is still more marvellous: "In the reign of Enrique IV. +of Spain there was fierce rivalry between two Toledan families, the +Silvas and the Ayalas, which in 1467 led to open warfare. The Silvas +threw themselves into the castle, and the Ayalas held the cathedral--the +blood shed in their combats staining the very feet of its altars. During +this struggle of hatred there was also a struggle of love going on +between two younger members of the embroiled families. Diego de Ayala, +setting at naught the pride of his house, had given his heart to Isabel, +the daughter of a poor hidalgo; but it so happened that his enemy, Don +Lope de Silva, had resolved to win the same maiden, though receiving no +encouragement from her. One night when the combatants were resting on +their arms, and the whole city was in disorder, Don Lope succeeded in +entering Isabel's house with several of his followers and carried her +off--trusting to the general confusion to prevent interruption. As they +were bearing her away across a little square in front of the Church of +San Justo, Don Diego, on his way to see Isabel, encountered them. + +"'Leave that woman, ye cowards, and go your way!' he commanded, with +drawn sword. And at that instant, by the light of the lamp which burned +before the pictured Christ of Compassion on the church wall, he +recognized Isabel and Don Lope. + +"Making a bold dash, he succeeded in freeing Isabel and getting her into +the shelter of an angle in the wall, just below the holy figure. But +being there hemmed in by his adversaries, he felt himself, after a sharp +fight in which he dealt numerous wounds, fainting from the severe +thrusts he had himself received. Fearing that he was mortally hurt, he +raised his eyes to the shrine and prayed: 'O God, not for me, but for +her, manifest thy pity! I am willing to die, but save her!' + +"Then a marvellous brilliance streamed out from the thorn-crowned head, +and instantly, propelled by some unseen force, Diego found himself and +Isabel pushed through the solid wall behind them, which opened to +receive them into the sanctuary, and closed again to keep out the +assassins. Don Lope rushed forward in pursuit, and in his rage hacked +the stones with his sword as if to cut his way through. The marks made +in the stone by his weapon are still to be seen there." The +compassionate face still looks down from the shrine, and little +sign-boards announce indulgences to those who pray there: "Señor Don +Luis Maria de Borbon, most Illustrious Señor Bishop of Carista, grants +forty days' indulgence to all who with grief for their sins say, 'Lord +have mercy on me!' or make the acts of Faith, Charity, and Hope before +this image, praying for the necessities of the Church." + +Altogether I computed that a good Catholic could by a half-hour's +industry secure immunity for two hundred and twenty days, or nearly +two-thirds of a year. It is to be feared that the Toledans are too lazy +to profit even by this splendid chance. + +The majority of people here who can command a daily income of ten cents +will do no work. Numbers of the inhabitants are always standing or +leaning around drowsily, like animals who have been hired to personate +men, and are getting tired of the job. Every act approaching labor must +be done with long-drawn leisure. Men and boys slumber out-of-doors even +in the hot sun, like dogs; after sitting meditatively against a wall for +a while, one of them will tumble over on his nose--as if he were a +statue undermined by time--and remain in motionless repose wherever he +happens to strike. Business with the trading class itself is an +incident, and resting is the essence of the mundane career. + +Nevertheless, the place has fits of activity. When the mid-day siesta is +over there is a sudden show of doing something. Men begin to trot about +with a springy, cat-like motion, acquired from always walking up and +down hill, which, taken with their short loose blouses, dark skins, and +roomy canvas slippers, gives them an astonishing likeness to +Chinamen.[5] The slip and scramble of mule hoofs and donkey hoofs are +heard on the steep pavements, and two or three loud-voiced, lusty men, +with bare arms, carrying a capacious tin can and a dipper, go roaring +through the torrid streets, "Hor-cha-ta!" Then the cathedral begins +wildly pounding its bells, all out of tune, for vespers. The energy +which has broken loose for a couple of hours is discovered to be a +mistake, and another interval of relaxation sets in, lasting through the +night, and until the glare of fiery daybreak, greeted by the shrill +whistling of the remorseless pet quail, sets the insect-like stir going +again for a short time in the forenoon. Because of such apathy, and of a +more than the usual Latin disregard for public decency, the streets and +houses are allowed to become pestilential, and drainage is unknown. +Enervating luxury of that sort did well enough for the Romans and Moors, +but is literally below the level of Castilian ideas. In the midst of the +most sublime emotion aroused by the associations or grim beauty of +Toledo, you are sure to be stopped short by some intolerable odor. + +[Illustration: "MEN AND BOYS SLUMBER OUT-OF-DOORS EVEN IN THE HOT SUN."] + +The primate city was endowed with enough of color and quaintness almost +to compensate for this. We never tired of the graceful women walking the +streets vestured in garments of barbaric tint and endlessly varied +ornamentation, nor of the men in short breeches split at the bottom, +who seemed to have splashed pots of vari-colored paint at hap-hazard +over their clothes, and insisted upon balancing on their heads +broad-brimmed, pointed hats, like a combination of sieve and inverted +funnel. There was a spark of excitement, again, in the random entry of a +"guard of the country," mounted on his emblazoned donkey-saddle, with a +small arsenal in his waist sash, and a couple of guns slung behind on +the beast's flanks, ready for marauders. Even now in remembrance the +blots on Toledo fade, and I see its walls and towers throned grandly +amid those hills that were mingled of white powder and fire at +noon-tide, but near evening cooled themselves down to olive and russet +citron, with burning rosy shadows resting in the depressions. + +[Illustration: A STRANGE FUNERAL.] + +One of the first spectacles that presented itself to us will remain also +one of the latest recollections. Between San Juan de los Reyes and the +palace of Roderick we met unexpectedly a crowd of boys and girls, +followed by a few men, all carrying lighted candles that glowed +spectrally, for the sun was still half an hour high in the west. A +stout priest, with white hair and a vinous complexion, had just gone +down the street, and this motley group was following the same direction. +Somewhat in advance walked a boy with a small black and white coffin, +held in place on his head by his upraised arm, as if it were a toy; and +in the midst of the candle-bearers moved a light bier like a +basket-cradle, carried by girls, and containing the small waxen form of +a dead child three or four years old, on whose impassive, colorless face +the orange glow of approaching sunset fell, producing an effect natural +yet incongruous. A scampering dog accompanied the mourners, if one may +call them such, for they gave no token of being more impressed, more +touched by emotion, than he. The cradle-bier swayed from side to side as +if with a futile rockaby motion, until the bearers noticed how +carelessly they were conveying it down the paved slope; and the members +of the procession talked to each other with a singular indifference, or +looked at anything which caught their random attention. As the little +rabble disappeared through the Puerta del Cambron, with their long +candles dimly flaming, and the solemn, childish face in their midst, +followed by the poor unconscious dog, it seemed to me that I beheld in +allegory the departure from Toledo of that spirit of youth whose absence +leaves it so old and worn. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_CORDOVAN PILGRIMS._ + +I. + + +[Illustration: T] + +The House of Purification, as the great mosque at Cordova was called, +used to be a goal of pilgrimage for the Moors in Spain, as Mecca was for +Mohammedans elsewhere. Their shoes no longer repose at its doors, but +other less devout pilgrims now come in a straggling procession from all +quarters of the globe to rest a while within its fair demesne--hallowed, +perhaps, as much by the unique flowering of a whole people's genius in +shapes of singular loveliness as by the more direct religious service to +which it has been dedicated and re-dedicated under conflicting beliefs. + +It was with peculiar eagerness, therefore, that we set out on our way. +An American who was following the same route had joined us--a man with +ruddy, bronzed cheeks and iron-gray hair, whom I at first should have +taken for the great-grandson of a Spanish Inquisitor, if such a thing +were possible. His iron persistence and the intensity of his prejudices +were in keeping with that character--the only trouble being that the +prejudices were all on the wrong side. Whetstone (as he was called) +shared our eagerness in respect of Cordova, though from different +motives. He hailed each new point in his journey with satisfaction, +because it would get him so much nearer the end; for the reason he had +come to Spain was, apparently, to get out of it again. "I don't see what +I came to Spain for," Whetstone would observe to us, dismally; and, for +that matter, we could not see either. "If there ever _was_ a +God-forsaken country--Why, look at the way a whole parcel of these men +at the dinner-table get out their cigarettes and smoke right there, +without ever asking a lady's leave! I'd like to see 'em try it on at +home! Wouldn't they be just snaked out of that room pretty quick?" He +had under his care a young lady of great sensibility, a relative by +marriage, accompanied by her maid; and the maid was a colored woman of +the most pronounced pattern. Altogether our pilgrim party embraced a +good deal of variety. The young American girl, being a Catholic, was +really a palmer faring from shrine to shrine. Rarely a convent or a +chapel escaped her; she sipped them all as if they had been flower-cups +and she a humming-bird, and managed to extract some unknown honey of +comfort from their bitterness. It was like having a novice with us. + +[Illustration: WHETSTONE.] + +The night journeys by rail, so much in vogue in Spain, have their +advantages and their drawbacks. At Castillejo, a junction on the way to +Cordova, we had to wait four hours in the evening at a distance of +twenty miles from the nearest restaurant. The country around was +absolutely desolate except for tufts of the _retamé_--a sort of broom +with slim green and silvered leaves, which grows wild, and, after +drying, is used by the peasants as a substitute for rye or wheat flour. +Only two or three houses were in sight. The tracks with cars standing on +them, and the unfinished look of the whole place, made us feel as if we +had by mistake been carried off to some insignificant railroad station +in Illinois or Missouri. The only resource available for dinner was a +_cantineria_, or drinking-room, where a few blocks of tough bread lent +respectability to a lot of loaferish wine-bottles, and some uninviting +sausages were hung in gloomy festoons, with a suspicious air of being a +permanent architectural fixture intended as a perch for flies. The +Spaniards invent little rhymed proverbs about many of their villages, +and of one insignificant Andalusian hamlet, Brenes, the saying is, + + "If to Brenes thou goest, + Take with thee thy roast." + +But Castillejo seems to be an equally good subject for this warning. We +recalled how lavishly, on the way to Toledo, we had presented bread, +meat, and strawberries to some country folk who were not in the habit of +eating, and how ardently they had thanked us. As we passed their house +in returning it was closed and lifeless, and we were convinced that they +had died of a surfeit. How willingly would we now have undone that deed! +However, after making some purchases from an extremely deaf old woman +who presided over such poor supplies as the place afforded, we asked her +if she could have coffee prepared. "If there is enough in the house," +she replied to our interrogatory shrieks. Accordingly, we carried a +table out under some trees on the gravel platform, to eat _al fresco_. + +[Illustration: COFFEE AT CASTILLEJO.] + +When we found ourselves in this way for the first time thrown back on +the Spanish sausage, we resisted that unsympathetic substance with all +the vigor of despair. But, aided by some bad wine, an interesting +conversation with the Novice, and the glow of a sunset sky that looked +as if strewn with fading peony petals, we recovered from the shock +caused in the beginning by a mingled flavor of garlic, raisins, and +pork. In truth, there was something enjoyable about this wild supper +around which our quartette gathered in the dry, dewless twilight. An +ancient female, resembling a broken-down Medea, came out and kindled a +fire of brushwood beyond the track, swung a kettle there, and cooked our +coffee, bending over the flame-light the while with her scattered gray +tresses, and wailing out doleful _peteneras_, the popular songs of +Spain. The songs, the fire, the wine, the strange scene, were so +stimulating that we were surprised to find all at once the dark vault +overhead full of stars, the comet staring at us in its flight above the +hills, and our ten-o'clock train nearly due. + +The next morning we were in a region totally unlike anything we had seen +before, excepting for the ever-present mountain ranges wild as the +Pyrenees or Guadaramas. The light of dawn on these barren Spanish +mountain-sides, drawn up into peaks as sharp as the points of a +looped-up curtain, produces effects indescribable except on canvas and +by a subtle colorist. The bare surfaces of rock or dry grass and moss, +and the newly reaped harvest fields lower down, blend the tints of air +and earth in a velvet-smooth succession of madder and faint yellow, +olive and rose and gray, fading off into a reddish-violet at greater +distances. + +These eminences are a part of the Sierra Morena, where Don Quixote +achieved some of his most noteworthy feats--the liberation of the +galley-slaves, the descent into the Cave of Montesinos, the capture of +Mambrino's helmet, and the famous penance. So weird is the aspect of +these desolate hills, enclosing silent valleys in which narrow tracts of +woods are harbored, that I suspected it would be easy to breed a few Don +Quixotes of reality there. Craziness would become a necessary diversion +to relieve the monotony of existence. + +[Illustration: PRIMITIVE THRASHING.] + +A winding river-bed near by was bordered by tufted copses of oleander in +full flower, and hedges of huge serrated aloe guarded the roads. On the +hill-sides a round corral for herds would occasionally be seen. In the +fields the time-honored method of threshing out grain by driving a sort +of heavy board sledge in a circle over the cut crop, and of winnowing by +tossing up shovelfuls of the grain-dust into the breezy air, was in +active operation. By-and-by the olive orchards began. As far as we could +see they stretched on either side their ranks of round dusty green +tree-heads. Thousands of acres of them--one grove after another: we +travelled through fifty miles of almost unbroken olive plantations, +until we fancied we could even smell the fruit on the boughs, and our +eyes were sick and weary with the sameness of the sight. Then the river, +which from time to time had shown its muddy current in curves and +sweeps, moving through the land at the bottom of what might have been an +enormous drain, turned out to be the famous Guadalquivir, which, as Ford +vividly puts it, "eats its dull way through loamy banks." At last +Cordova, seated in an ample plain--Cordova, in vanished ages the home of +Seneca, Lucan, Averroës, and the poet Juan de Mena--Cordova, white in +the dry and gritty sun-dazzled air, with square, unshadowed two-story +houses, overlooked by the bell-tower of its incomparable Mezquita +Cathedral: a cheerful Southern city, maintaining large gardens, +abounding in palms and myrtles and orange and lemon trees; possessing, +moreover, clean streets of perceptible width. + +[Illustration: WHILE THE WOMEN ARE AT MASS.] + +After the "interpreter," or hotel guide, the beggar: such is the order +in these Spanish towns, and not seldom the guide is merely a bolder kind +of beggar. Two or three of the most frantically miserable and loathsome +charity-seekers I ever saw surrounded our omnibus as we awaited our +baggage, and stuffed their hideous heads in at the windows and door, +concentrating on us their fire of appeals. Velveteen had heard that the +sovereign remedy for these pests was to treat them with consummate +politeness and piety. "Pardon me, brother, for God's sake!" was the +deprecatory formula which had been recommended, and he now proceeded to +recite this, book in hand. Unfortunately it took him about five minutes +to get it launched in good style and pure Spanish, during which time the +beggars had an opportunity entirely to miss the sense. A few grains of +tobacco dropped into the hat of one of them were more efficacious, for +they had the result of mystifying him and hopelessly paralyzing his +analytical powers. Finally the guide, coming with the baggage, +recognized his rivals, and drove them off. + +At several places on the way we had seen our twin military persecutors +waiting for us, sometimes with white havelocks, and again in glazed +hat-covers and capes. "Are they disguising themselves, so as to fall +upon us unawares?" I asked my friend. We determined not to be deceived, +however, by the subtle device. These Spanish police-soldiers go through +more metamorphoses in the linen and water-proof line than any troops I +know. It must be excessively inconvenient to run home and make the +change every time a slight shower threatens; and invariably, as soon as +they get on their storm-cover, the sun begins to shine again. On our +arrival they seemed to have made up their minds to arrest us at once; +they came striding along toward us in duplicate, one the fac-simile of +the other, and we gave ourselves up for lost. But just as they were +within a few paces, their unaccountable policy of delay caused them to +deviate suddenly, and march on as if they hadn't seen us. "One more +escape!" sighed Velveteen, fervently. + +Strangely enough, the languor which we had left in the middle of the +kingdom, at Toledo, was replaced in this more tropical latitude by great +activity. The shop streets presented a series of rooms entirely open to +the view, where men and women were busily engaged in all sorts of small +manufacture--shoes, garments, tin-work, carpentering. They were happy +and diligent, as if they had been animated writing-book maxims, and sung +or whistled at their tasks in a most exemplary manner. + +[Illustration: WATER-STAND IN CORDOVA.] + +"Cordovan leather" still holds it own, on a petty scale, and the small +cups hammered out of old silver dollars constitute, with filigree +silver-work, a characteristic local product. The faces of the people +betrayed their gypsy blood oftentimes, and there was one street chiefly +occupied by the Romany folk. Traces of blond or light chestnut hair +showed that the Moorish stock had likewise left some offshoots that do +not die out. The whole aspect of Cordova presents at once a reflex of +the refined and enlightened spirit of the ancient caliphate. Everybody, +including most of the beggars, has a fresh and cleanly appearance; the +very priests undergo a change, being frequently more refined in feature +and of a more tolerant expression than those of the North. The women set +off their rosy brown complexions and black hair with clusters of rayed +jasmine blossoms, flattened and ingeniously fixed in rosette form on +long pins. The men, discarding those hot felt hats so obstinately worn +in the central provinces, make a comfortable and festive appearance +in their curling Panamas. On the Street of the Great Captain--the chief +open-air resort, commemorating Gonsalvo of Cordova, who led so ably in +the triumphant Christian campaigns--the people laugh and chat as if they +really enjoyed life. There is a great deal of wealth in the place, and +the lingering atmosphere of its past greatness is not depressing, as +that of Toledo is, for it was never the home of bigotry and ignorance. +Its prosperous epoch under Abdur-rahman and his Ommeyad successors was +one of brilliant civilization. It was then a nursery of science and the +arts; its inhabitants numbered a million. It had mosques by the hundred, +and nearly a thousand baths--for the Spanish Moors well knew the +civilizing virtue of water, and kept life-giving streams of it running +at the roots of their institutions. The houses of the modern city are +very plain on the exterior, and their common coat of whitewash imparts +to them a democratic equality, though aristocracy is still a living +thing there, instead of having sunk into pitfalls of squalor and +idleness, as in the sombre city by the Tagus. + + "But now the Cross is sparkling on the mosque, + And bells make Catholic the trembling air." + +[Illustration: THE GAY COSTER-MONGERS OF ANDALUSIA.] + +Gloomy little churches crop out in every quarter, and a few convents of +nuns remain, where you may hear the faint, sad litany of the unseen +sisters murmured behind the grating, while a priest chants service for +them in the lonely chapel. The bells of these churches and of the +mosque-cathedral are hardly ever silent; the brazen jargon of their +tongues echoes over the roofs at all hours, and the hollow, metallic +tinkle of mule-bells from the otherwise silent streets at times strikes +one as making response to them. The beauty of the cathedral--still +called the Mezquita (mosque)--lies almost solely in the preservation of +its original Moorish architecture. + +[Illustration: THE MEZQUITA.] + +The site was first occupied as a place of worship by the Roman Temple of +Janus, and this in turn became a basilica of the Gothic Christians. +Abdur-rahman, after the Christians had long been allowed by the caliphs +to continue their worship in one half of the basilica, reared the +supremely wonderful House of Purification as it now stands; and then, +after the conquest by Ferdinand and Isabella, in the reign of Charles +V., the cumbrous high altar and choir, which choke up so much of the +interior, transformed it once more into a stronghold of Christian +ceremonial. But when you enter at the Gate of Pardon the long, wide +Court of Oranges, you find yourself transported instantly to Mohammedan +surroundings; you are under the dominion of the Ommeyades. + +[Illustration: RELIC PEDDLERS.] + +High walls hem in this open-air vestibule, where rows of orange-trees +rustle their dense foliage in the warm wind. Their trunks are corpulent +with age, for some of them date back to the last Moorish dynasty, and at +one end stands the tank where followers of the Prophet washed themselves +before entering in to pray. The Gate of Pardon, under the high-spired +bell-tower, takes its name from the custom which obtained of giving +criminals refuge by its portal. The murderer who could fly hither and +gain the central aisle of the temple, directly opposite the gate across +the court, was safe for shelter by the Mihrab, or inner shrine, at the +farther end of the aisle. All the nineteen aisles formerly opened from +the fragrant garden, though Catholic rule gives access by only three; +but inside one sees at a glance the vast consecrated space which was so +freely open to the Mussulmans--an interior covering several acres, not +very lofty, yet imposing from its exquisite proportions. A wilderness, a +cool, dark labyrinth of pillars from which light horseshoe arches rise, +broken midway for the curve of another arch surmounting each of these, +spreads itself out under the roof on every hand--grove of stone in a +cave of stone stretching so far that the eye cannot follow its intricate +regularity, its rare harmony of confusion. The rash Christian renovators +who, overruling the protest of the city, undertook to remodel so +exceptional a monument, covered the arches with whitewash; but many of +them have been restored to the natural hues of their red and white +marble. Imagine below them the pillars, smooth-shafted and with fretted +capitals. Of old there were _twelve hundred_ of them supporting the +gilded beams and incorruptible larch of the roof, and a thousand still +stand. Each is shaped from a single block, and many quarries contributed +them. Jasper and porphyry, black, white, and red, emerald and rose +marble, are all represented among them; though with their diversity they +have this in common, that from the pavement up to about the average +human height they have been worn dark, and even smoother than the +workmen left them, by the constant touching and rubbing and leaning of +generations who have loitered and worshipped in the solemn twilight that +broods around them. A large number were appropriated from the old Roman +temple which stood on the spot; others were plundered from temples at +ancient Carthage; still others were brought entire from Constantinople. +They typify the different powers that have been concerned in the making +and unmaking of Spain, and one could almost imagine that in every column +is concealed some petrified warrior of those conflicting races, waiting +for the spell that shall bring him to life again. + +[Illustration: THE GARDEN OF THE ALCAZAR.] + +On the surface of one of these marble cylinders is scratched a rude and +feeble image of Christ on the cross, hardly noticeable until pointed +out. It is said to have been traced there by the finger-nail of a +Christian captive who was chained to the pillar when it formed part of a +dungeon somewhere else. He had ten years for the work, and enjoyed the +advantage of a tool that would renew itself without expense whenever it +began to wear out. I must say that we were touched by this dim record of +the dead-and-gone prisoner's silent suffering and faith. The shock of +doubt struck us only when, in another part of the mosque, we came upon +another pillar against the wall, bearing an exact reproduction of the +finger-nail sculpture, and furthermore provided with a holy-water basin +and a lamp burning under the effigy of the captive, who appears to have +been canonized. "How is this?" I asked the guide. "Here is the same +thing over again!" He scrutinized me carefully, taking an exact measure +of my credulousness, before he replied, "Ah, but the other is the real +one!" It all seems to depend on which pillar gets the start. + +[Illustration: PRIEST AND PURVEYOR.] + +[Illustration: FLOWERS FOR THE MARKET.] + +But there is no deception whatever connected with the inner Mihrab, +where there is a marvellous alcove marking the direction of Mecca, on +the east. Its ceiling, in the shape of a quarter-globe, is cut from a +single great piece of marble, which is grooved like a shell. And when +the light from candles is thrown into this Arab chapel it glances upon +elaborate enamelling on the surface, the vitreous glaze of minute and +almost miraculous mosaic making it flash and sparkle with rays of the +ruby, the emerald, the topaz, and diamond. There in the dusk the +glittering splendor scintillates as brilliantly as it did eight hundred +years ago, and shoots its beams upon the unwary eye as if it were a +cimeter of the defeated race suddenly unsheathed for vengeance. In this +place was kept the wondrous Koran stand of Al-Hakem II., which cost a +sum equal now to about five million dollars. It disappeared a while +ago--mislaid, it should seem, by some sacristan of orderly habits who +was clearing up the rubbish, for no one appears to know where it went +to. The sacred book within it was incased in gold tissue embroidered +with pearls and rubies, and around the spot where it was enshrined the +solid white marble floor is unevenly worn into a circular hollow, where +the servants of the Prophet used to crawl seven times in succession on +their hands and knees. This homage was paid by the brother of the +Emperor of Morocco only a few years since, when he visited Spain, and +indulged the luxurious woe of weeping over the fair empire his people +had lost. The bewildering arabesques, the lines of which pursue and lose +each other so mysteriously about the shrine, managing to form pious +inscriptions in their intricate convolutions--by an exception to all +other Hispano-Arabic decoration, which employs only stucco--are wrought +in marble, frigid and stern as death, but embossed into a living grace +as of vine tendrils. + +Whetstone had been remarkably silent after entering the Mezquita. I +fancied that he did not wholly approve of it. But after we had looked +long at this epitome of the beautiful which I have just tried to sketch, +he observed, impartially, in turning away, "I tell you, those fellows +knew how to chisel some!" He had merely been trying to reduce the facts +to their lowest terms. + +Priests and boys were marching with crucifixes from the choir as we came +away: the incense rolled up against the lofty smoke-dimmed altar; and +the mild-faced celibate who played the organ sent harmonies of unusually +rich music (performed at our guide's special request) reverberating +among the thousand-columned maze of low arches. But my fancy went back +to the time when gold and silver lamps had shed from their perfumed oils +the only illumination there, and when the jewelled walls, smouldering in +the faint light, had looked down upon the prostrate forms of robed and +turbaned zealots. Then we passed out through the Court of Oranges into +the street, with those forty towers of the cathedral wall again seen +standing guard around it, and found ourselves once more in modern +Cordova. + +[Illustration: TRAVELLERS TO CORDOVA.] + +The breath of the South, the meridional aroma, welcomed us. The scent of +the air in the neighboring Alcazar garden would of itself have been +enough to tell us, in the dark, that we had entered Andalusia. That was +beyond question a most delectable spot. A sort of fortress-prison +bordered it, and immediately on the other side of the prison-wall +blossomed the garden, where lemons and oranges and bergamot clambered +rankly against the bricks, perfuming the whole atmosphere, and overblown +roses dropped from their vines on to the paths. There were hedges of +rosemary, and trees of pimento, and angular ribs of prickly cactus, +carefully trained. From a balustraded terrace higher up descended a +stone flight of steps, the massive stone guard of which on each side was +scooped out so as to make a mossy bed for two streams of water +perpetually flowing down and losing themselves in the secret courses +that ministered to little scattered fountains, or laved the roots of the +verdant tangle. Now and again a lizard darted from point to point, like +an evil thought surprised in the heart of so much sweetness and +freshness. Everywhere there was a cool gush and ripple of water, and +some wide-spreading fig-trees made a pleasant bower in a bastion of the +low garden-wall overlooking the famous river. From this post of vantage +one can see the thick brown current slowly oozing by, and the ancient +bridge which spans it, fortified at both ends, connecting the Cordova of +to-day with the opposite bank, where the ancient city extended for two +or three miles. With its great arched gate, Roman made and finely +sculptured, this mellow light brown structure forms an effective link in +the landscape, and below its piers stand several Moorish mills, disused, +but as yet unbroken by age or floods. + +We drove across the venerable viaduct afterward, and found that by an +extraordinary dispensation some very fresh and shining silver coins of +ancient Rome had lately been dug up from one of the shoals in the river +(a peculiar place, by-the-way, to bury them in), and that our guide had +some in his pocket. We forbore to deprive him of such treasures, +however, even at the very trifling price which he put upon them, and +contented ourselves with being swindled by him in a subsequent purchase +of some other articles. + + +II. + +FROM Cordova may be made, by those who are especially favored, one of +the most interesting expeditions possible to the Hermitage, or, as the +Church authorities name it, the _Desierta_ (desert) of solitary monks, +genuine anchorites, a few miles distant in the Sierra Morena. There are +obstacles more formidable than the purely physical ones in the way of +this excursion, the bishop of the diocese being averse to granting +permission for the visit to any one who is not a good Catholic. Two +Englishmen who came before us, relying on the potent gold piece, had +made the toilsome ascent only to find that their sterling sovereigns +were of no avail. I think the presence of the Novice helped our party; +but it would be unwise to reveal the stratagem by which we all gained +admittance. Let it be enough to say that we went to the bishop's palace +after the usual hours of business, and by humble apologies obtained an +audience with the secretary. While we were waiting we sat down under a +frivolously gorgeous rococo ceiling, on a great double staircase of +marble leading up from the _patio_, which was well planted with shrubs, +and had walks paved with smooth round stones of various hue, set +edgewise in extensive patterns. The vaulted ceiling resounded powerfully +with every remark we made, which had the result of subduing our +conversation to whispers, for an attendant soon came to warn us that the +bishop was asleep, and that we must not speak loud on account of the +echo. Profiting by the great man's siesta, we extracted the desired +permission from his severe-faced but courteous secretary, who marked the +document "Especial." + +[Illustration: "ARRÉ, BURR-R-RICO!"] + +Our brief cavalcade of donkeys started the next morning at five, after +we had taken a preternaturally early cup of chocolate. The donkeys +appeared to know just where we were going, and would not obey the rein: +the driver, walking behind, governed them by a system of negatives, +informing them with a casual exclamation when they showed signs of +turning where he didn't want them to. "Advance there, Baker!" he would +cry. "Don't you know better than that? What a wretched little beast! Do +as I tell you." The animal in question was named Bread-dealer, or Baker, +and the one that I rode rejoiced in the eccentric though eminently +literary appellation of "College." + +"To the right, College!" our muleteer would shout, exercising a despotic +power over my four-footed institution of learning. "Get up, little mule. +_Arré burr-r-rico!_" Firing off a volley of _r_'s with a tremendous +rising and falling intonation, which invariably moved the brute to take +one or two rapid steps before dropping back into his customary slow +walk. As the heat increased, and the way grew steeper, he sighed out his +"arré"--gee up--in a long, melancholy drawl, which seemed to express +profound despair concerning the mulish race generally. Muleteers in +Spain are termed generically, from this surviving Arabic word, +_arrieros_, or, as we may translate it, "gee-uppers." + +In this manner we made our way along the dusty road among olive +orchards, and a sort of oak called _japarros_, until we began to mount +by a rough, stony path which sometimes divided itself like the branches +of a torrent, though we more than once succeeded in prodding the donkeys +into a lively canter. The white façades of villas--_quintas_ or +_carmens_ they are denominated hereabout--twinkled out from nooks of the +hills; but at that early hour everything was very still. We could almost +_see_ the silence around us. Higher up, unknown birds began to sing in +the sparse boscage that clothed the mountain flank or clustered in its +narrow dells. Midway of the ascent, furthermore, Baker, on whom +Velveteen was seated in solemn stride, with a blanket in place of +saddle, paused ominously, and then began a nasal performance which shook +our very souls. Why a donkey should bray in such a place it is hard to +determine, but _how_ he did it will forever remain impressed on our +tympana. There was something peculiarly terrible and unnerving in the +sound; and just as it ceased, our guide, Manuel, observed that this had +once been a great place for robbers. "A few years ago," said he, "no one +would have dared to come up along this road as we are doing." He added +that the marauders used to conceal themselves in the numerous caves in +the region, and pointed out one fissure in the rocks which his liberal +imagination converted into the entrance of a subterranean retreat +running for several miles into the heart of the mountains. At the same +instant, looking down across a gorge below our track, I saw a man with a +gun moving through a patch of steep olives, as if to head us off at a +point farther along; and on a jutting rock-rib above us a memorial cross +rose warningly. Crosses were formerly put up in the most impossible +places among these hills, to mark the spot where anybody fell a victim +to bandits or assassins; a fact of which the elder Dumas makes telling +use in one of his short stories.[6] Brigands were themselves punctilious +in setting up these reminders, which were held to exert an expiatory +influence. If any one would understand how hopelessly the Spanish mind +at one time perverted the relations of crime and religion, he may read +Calderon's "Devotion of the Cross," wherein the hero, Eusebio, a +terrible renegade who murders right and left, born at the foot of one of +these way-side crosses, is saved by his reverence for the holy symbol. +He is enabled, by virtue of this pious sentiment, to rise up after he is +dead, walk about, and confess his sins to a friar; after which he is +caught up into heaven! + +The whole conjunction was somewhat alarming, but Manuel explained away +our man with a gun by saying that he was merely one of the armed +watchmen usually attached to country estates to protect crops and stock +from depreciation. As for the bandits, they had now been quite +dispersed, he declared, by the Civil Guard. That name, it is true, +called up new fears for Velveteen and myself as we thought of the two +relentless men who were on our trail: but we knew that for the moment, +at least, we were beyond their reach. + +At last we gained the very summit, and drew up under a porch at the +walled gate of the Desert, while a shower began to fall in large +scattered drops, like the lingering contents of some gigantic +watering-pot, but soon spent itself. Our second pull at the +mournful-sounding bell was answered by a sad young monk, who opened a +square loop-hole in the wall, and asked our errand in a voice enfeebled +by voluntary privations. After inspecting our pass, he told us, with a +wan but friendly smile, that we must wait a little. It was Friday, and +we had to wait rather long, for the hermits were just at that time +undergoing the weekly flagellation to which they subject themselves. But +finally we were let in--donkeys, guide, _arriero_, and the colored maid +"Fan" sharing the hospitality. An avenue of tall, sombre, cypresses +opened before us, leading to the main building and offices. The Desert, +in fact, was green enough; well supplied with olives and pomegranates; +and hedges of the prickly-pear, with its thick, stiff leaves shaped like +a fire-shovel, and heavy as wax-work, cinctured the isolated huts in +which the brothers dwell each by himself. Precisely as we came to a +triangular plot in front of the entrance we were confronted by a skull +set up prominently in a sort of pyramidal monument, giving force by its +dusty grin to an inscription in Spanish, which read: + + "AS THOU LOOKEST, SO ONCE LOOKED I: + AS I LOOK NOW, SO WILT THOU APPEAR HEREAFTER. + PONDER UPON THIS, AND SIN NOT." + +Shortly beyond stood a catacomb above-ground, in which a number of +defunct hermits had been sealed up. It also bore a legend, but in Latin: + + "THE DAY OF DEATH IS BETTER THAN THAT OF BIRTH." + +In the vestibule of the house these drastic reminders of mortality were +supplemented by two allegorical pictures--hanging among some portraits +of evanished worthies who had ended their penitential days there--two +crude paintings which exhibited "The Soul Tortured by Doubt," and "The +Soul Blessed by Faith." It was not altogether in keeping with the +unworldly and ascetic atmosphere of this spiritual refuge, that a tablet +in the wall should record, with fulsome abasement of phrase, how her +most Gracious Majesty Isabella II. had, some few years ago, deigned to +visit the Desert, and how this stone had been placed there as a humble +monument of her condescension. Certainly, considering the ex-Queen's +character (if it may claim consideration), it is hard to see what honor +the anchorites should find in her visiting their abode. + +A gray-haired brother, robed in the coarse and weighty brown serge which +he is obliged to wear in winter and summer alike, received us kindly and +showed us the expensively adorned plateresque chapel. He knelt and bowed +nearly to the threshold before unlocking the door, crossed himself, and +knelt again on the pavement within; then, advancing farther, he dropped +down once more on both knees, and bent over as if he had some intention +of using his good-natured, simple old head as a mop to polish the black +and white marble squares, but ended by another cross, and moving his +lips in noiseless prayer. The national manner of making the cross is +peculiar: after the usual touching of forehead and breast, the Spanish +Catholic concludes by suddenly attempting to swallow his thumb, and then +as hastily pulling it out of his mouth again, to save it up for some +other time. This movement, I suppose, emblemizes the eating of the +consecrated wafer, but it makes a grotesque impression that is anything +but solemn. At times you will also see him execute a unique triple +cross, with strange passes and dabs in the air which might easily be +mistaken for preliminary strategy directed against some erring mosquito +engaged in guerilla warfare on his eyebrow. We were obliged, in +conformity, to do as our Catholic companions did--receiving the +holy-water and making a simple cross--an act which, without being of +their faith, one may perform with unsectarian reverence. Brother Esteban +was on the watch to see that proper devotion was shown in this +peculiarly sacred chapel, and in the midst of his adoration he turned +quickly upon Manuel, asking, "Why don't you go down on _both_ your knees +in the accustomed manner?" + +[Illustration: THE FRUIT OF THE DESIERTA.] + +Manuel, being a master of ready deception, answered, without an +instant's delay, "Ah, that is my misfortune! I lately had an accident to +that leg" (indicating the one which had not sunk far enough), "and that +is why it is not easy to get down on both knees." However, he spread his +handkerchief wider, and painfully brought the offending member into +place. + +Esteban frankly apologized, and then the praying went on again. + +When we got out into the corridor, and our monkish friend was well in +advance, black Fan's repressed heresy broke into a startling reaction. +She dipped her hand again and again into the basin of holy-water, +wastefully dropping some of it on the floor, and began outlining +unlimited crosses from her sable forehead downward--covering her breast +with an imaginary armor of them--enough to keep her supplied for a +month, and proof against every possible misfortune. Her broad grin of +delight, exposing her vermilion lips and white teeth like a slice of +unripe watermelon, added to the horror of the situation, and I protested +against such uncouth profanity. + +"Might's well keep goin' now I begun," she chuckled in reply. "I's +'fraid I'll forgit how!" She was making another plunge for the font, +when our pale, gentle-featured Novice stopped her in mid-career. + +Fortunately good Esteban had not observed this small orgy going on. He +was as pleasant as ever when we went with him into a little room to buy +rosaries and deposit some silver pieces for charity; and there he made +farther and profuse apologies to Manuel. "Of course you see it was +impossible I should know there was anything the matter with your leg," +he said, quite plaintively. And Manuel accepted his contrition with +double pleasure because he knew it to be wholly undeserved. + +The hermits, as I have said, have their separate cottages scattered +about the grounds, each with a small patch of land to be cultivated. +There they raise fruit, which their rules forbid them to eat, and so it +is carried down as a present to some wealthy Cordovan families who +support the hermitage by their largesses. Every day poor folk toil up +from the plain, some five miles, to this airy perch, and are fed by the +monks; but they themselves eat little, abstaining from meat, wine, +coffee, tea--everything, indeed, except some few ounces of daily bread, +a pint of _garbanzos_ (the tasteless, round yellow bean which is the +universal food of the poor in Spain), and a soup made of bread, water, +oil, and garlic. They live on nothing and prayer. They rise at three in +the morning, and thrice a week they fast from that hour until noon. +Their step is slow, and their voices have a strange, inert, sickly +sound; but they appeared cheerful enough, and joked with each other. I +asked Esteban the name of a tiny yellow flower growing by the path, and +he couldn't tell me; but he plucked it tenderly, and began discoursing +to Manuel on its beauty. "_Tan chiquita_," he said, in his poor soft +voice. "So _little, little_, and yet so precious and so finely made!" +Another brother was deeply absorbed in snipping off bits of coiled brass +wire with a pair of pincers. "These are for the 'Our Fathers,'" he +explained, meaning the large beads in the rosary, separated from the +smaller "Ave Maria" ones by links of wire. The cottages or huts, +surrounded by an outer wall, contain a cell, sometimes cut out of a +bowlder lying on the spot, where there is a rude cot, a shelf for holy +books and the crucifix, and a grated window, across which waves, +perhaps, the broad-leaved bough of a fig-tree. An anteroom, provided +with a few utensils and the disciplinary scourge hanging mildly against +the wall, completes the strange interior. The lives of the hermits of +the Sierra are reduced to the ghastly simplicity of a skeleton; a part +of their time is spent in contemplating skulls, and they have a habit of +digging their own graves, in order to keep more plainly before their +minds the end of all earthly careers. Mistaken as all this seems to many +of us, there was a peacefulness about the Hermitage for which many a +storm-tossed soul sighs in vain; and I am glad that some few creatures +can find here the repose they desire while waiting for death. Some of +the hermits are men of rank, who have retired hither disheartened with +the world; others are low-born--men afflicted by some form of misfortune +or misdemeanor of their own, who wish to hide from life; but all +assemble in a pure democracy of sorrow and penitential piety, apparently +contented. + +We breakfasted at ten in a room hospitably put at our disposal, the +windows of which admitted a delicious breeze and opened upon a +magnificent view of the plain far below, where the distant city rested +like a white mist--an impalpable thing. Brother José brought some +olives, to add to the refection which our sumpter-mule had carried to +this height. They had a ripe, acid, oily flavor, which made one think of +homely things and of patient housewives in remote American hills, who +lead lives as monotonous, as self-denying and unnoticed as those which +pass on this ridge of the Sierra in Andalusia. Our Novice thought the +olives had "a holy flavor;" and I could understand her feeling. Find me +a site more fitted for meditation on the volatility of mundane things +than this eyry on the mountain-head overlooking the historic valley! +There lies Cordova, a mere spot in the reach of soft citron and +straw-tinted fields; and the Guadalquivir, winding like a neglected +skein of tawny silk thrown down on the mapped landscape. The plain is +calm as oblivion. It is oblivion's self; for there the earth has +absorbed Cordova the Old, so that not a vestige remains where compressed +masses of human dwellings once stood. They are crumbled to an +indistinguishable powder. That soft autumnal soil has swallowed up the +bones of unnumbered generations, and no trace of them is left. We +imagined the glittering legions of Cæsar as they moved slowly through +the country, flashing the sun from their compact steel, at that time +when they put to the sword twenty-five thousand inhabitants of the city, +which had sided with Pompey. We saw the Moors once more envelop it with +arms and banners and the fluttering of snowy garments. But all these +vanished again like a moving cloud, or a smoke from burning stubble; and +the sun still pours its uninterrupted flood of splendor over the land, +bringing life and bringing death, with impartial ray. + +[Illustration: MEMENTO MORI.] + +The Spanish word for "crowded" or "populated" is still used to signify +"dense" in any ordinary connection, as the phrase _barba poblada_, for a +thick beard, testifies. The implication is that, when there is any +population at all, it must be crowded; a direct transmission, +apparently, from periods when inhabitants clustered in immense numbers +around the centres of civil power for safety. And the word holds good +to-day; for one finds, in the present shrunken human force of the +Peninsula, closely packed assemblages of people in the towns and cities, +with wide domains of comparatively untenanted country around. + +When night closed above us again in the city; when mellow lamps glowed, +and a tropical fragrance flowed in from the gardens; when in the long +dusky pauses of warm nocturnal silence the watchman's weary and pathetic +cry resounded, or hollow-toned church-bells rung the hour, the romance +of Cordova seemed to concentrate itself, and fell upon me, as I +listened, in chords that took this form: + + FLOWER OF SPAIN. + + Like a throb of the heart of midnight + I hear a guitar faintly humming, + And through the Alcazar garden + A wandering footstep coming. + + A shape by the orange bower's shadow-- + Whose shape? Is it mine in a dream? + For my senses are lost in the perfumes + That out of the dark thicket stream. + + 'Mid the tinkle of Moorish waters, + And the rush of the Guadalquivir, + The rosemary breathes to the jasmine, + That trembles with joyous fear. + + And their breath goes silently upward, + Far up to the white burning stars, + With a message of sweetness, half sorrow, + Unknown but to souls that bear scars. + + Here, midway between stars and flowers, + I know not which draw me the most: + Shall my years yield earthly sweetness? + Shall I shine from the sky like a ghost? + + A spirit I cannot quiet + Bids me bow to the unseen rod; + I dream of a lily transplanted, + To bloom in the garden of God. + + Yet the footsteps come nearer and nearer; + Still moans the soft-troubled strain + Of the strings in the dusk. Well I know it: + 'Twas called for me "Flower of Spain." + + Ah, yes! my lover he made it, + And called it by my pet name: + I hear it, and--I'm but a woman-- + It sweeps through my heart like a flame. + + The night's heart and mine flow together; + The music is beating for each. + The moon's gone, the nightingale silent; + Light and song are both in his speech. + + As the musky shadows that mingle, + As star-shine and flower-scent made one, + Our spirits in gladness and anguish + Have met: their waiting is done. + + But over the leaves and the waters + What echoes the strange clanging bells + Send afloat from the dim-arched Mezquita! + How mournful the cadence that swells + + From the lonely roof of the convent + Where pale nuns rest! On the hill, + Far off, the hermits in vigil + Are bowed at the crucifix still; + + And the brown plain slumbers around us.... + O land of remembrance and grief, + If I am truly the flower, + How withered are you, the leaf! + +[Illustration: DIFFICULT FOR FOREIGNERS.] + +[Illustration: THE JASMINE GIRL.] + +There was a good deal of discussion among our group of pilgrims as to +the propriety of a foundation like the Hermitage of the Sierra +continuing to exist in an age like the present one. Whetstone, who had +declined to visit it, was of opinion that men who led such idle lives +should be suppressed by law, and even went so far as to talk about +hanging them. So singular a theory, emanating from a citizen of a free +republic, met with some opposition; but this was not pushed too far, +because we understood that Whetstone kept a hotel at home, and dreaded +lest some day we should be at his mercy. As for the rest of us, it was +not easy to pronounce that we were of much more value than the hermits; +and assuredly those earnest ascetics compared favorably with our +mule-driver, who was remarkable only for an expression of incipient +humor that was never able to attain the height of actual expression. I +was sure that, as he sighed out his final "Arré" in this world, he would +pass into the next with that vacant smile on his face, and the joke +which he might have perpetrated under fortunate circumstances still +unuttered. Nor did the average life of Cordova strike us as signally +indispensable to the world's progress. It was doubtless a very pleasant, +lazy life so far as it went, and we did not decide to hang the +inhabitants! They have a charming fashion there of building houses with +pleasant interior courts, in which the _sclinda_, a vine with pale +lavender clusters of blossoms suggesting the wistaria, droops amid +matted foliage, and lends its grace alike to crumbling architecture or +modern masonry. In these courts, separated from the street by gates of +iron grating beautifully designed, you will see pleasant little domestic +groups, and possibly a whole dinner-party going on in the fresh air. It +was likewise agreeable to repair to a certain restaurant--restored in +the Moorish manner--and there, while clapping hands echoed through the +light arcades, drink iced beer and lemon--a refreshing beverage, which +might reasonably take the place of fiery punches (in America) for hot +weather. "Neither will I deny," said Velveteen, "that it is a wonderful +sensation to stray into the Plaza de Geron Paez and come up suddenly +against that glorious old Roman gate--growing up as naturally as the +trees in front of it, but so much more wonderful than they--with its +fine crumbling yellow traceries. How nicely it would tell in a sketch, +eh, with some of the royal grooms--the _remontistas_--walking through +the foreground in their quaint costumes!" + +The men to whom he referred wear, in the best sense, a thoroughly +theatrical garb of scarlet and black, finished off by boots of Cordovan +leather in the style of sixteenth-century Spain, turned down at the top, +laced, tasselled, and slashed open by a curve that runs from the side +down to the back of the heel. This shows the white stocking under short +trousers, giving to the masculine calf and ankle a grace for which they +are usually denied all credit. + +For the rest, dwellers in modern Cordova attend mass and vespers, stroll +around to the confectioners' of an afternoon to eat sweetmeats, +especially sugared _higochumbos_ (the unripe prickly-pear boiled in +syrup), or the famed and fragrant preserve of budding orange-blossoms +known as _dulces de alzahar_; and the remainder of the time they while +away pleasantly in loitering on the Street of the Great Captain, or in +peering from their windows at whatever passes beneath. Throughout the +kingdom, it should be said, a most extraordinary persistence will be +observed in dawdling, strolling, and general contemplation. The Spaniard +appears to be born with his legs in a walking position, and with loaded +eyes that compel him to look out of the window whether he wants to or +not. + +One of the more remarkable observations, finally, that I collected in +Cordova came from Manuel. It was his reflection as he gazed down from +the Desierta into the plain: "Ah, that was where John Dove (Juan Palom) +did such splendid things!" he sighed. "You don't know about John Dove? +Well, he was one of the _very greatest_ men Spain ever had; he was a +robber--and oh, what a beautiful robber!" + + + + +_ANDALUSIA AND THE ALHAMBRA._ + +I. + + +[Illustration: S] + +Seville--why should we not keep the proper and more euphonious form, +Sevilla?--the home of that Don Juan on whom Byron and Mozart have shed a +lustre more enviable than his reputation, has been made familiar to +every one by melodious Figaro as well; and more lately Mérimée's Carmen, +veiled in the music of Bizet, has brought it into the foreign +consciousness again. + +To me it is memorable as the place where I saw the jars in which the +Forty Thieves were smothered. Worried by a painfully profuse odor that +filled the whole street, one day I sought the cause, and found it in an +olive-oil merchant's _tienda_, where there were some terra-cotta jars of +the exact form given in the story-books, and afflicted with +elephantiasis to such a degree that one or two men could easily have +hidden in each. I am sure they were the same into which Morgiana poured +the boiling oil, though why it should have been heated is inexplicable: +the smell alone ought to have been fatal. + +A prouder distinction is that Sevilla is the capital of Andalusia, that +gayest and most diversified province of Spain; the native ground of the +bull-fight and breeder of the best bulls; a region abounding in racy +customs and characteristics. The sea-going Phoenicians, who bear down on +us from so many points of the historical compass, found in Andalusia an +important trading field. Its mountains are still stored with silver, +copper, gold, lead, which have yielded steady tribute for thousands of +years. In its breadths of sun-bathed plain and orange-mantled slope the +ancients placed their Elysian Fields. Goth and Roman, Moor and Spaniard, +struggled for the mastery of so rich a possession; and meanwhile +Sevilla, the favorite of Cæsar--his "little Rome"--lay at the core of +the fruitful land, herself careless in the main as to everything except +an easy life, with plenty of singing and love-making. From climate and +history, nevertheless, from art and the mingling of antipodal races, +Sevilla received those influences which have shaped her into the bizarre +and eminently Spanish creation that she is--a visible memory of the +past, and a sparkling embodiment of the present. Society, amusement, and +religious awe are the controlling aims of the people, blended with +revolutionary politics, and great liveliness in their increasing +commerce. The songs of Andalusia pervade the whole kingdom; its +dances--_cidarillos_, _manchegas_, _boleros_, the _cachuca_, and the +wildly graceful _Sevillanas_--enjoy an equal renown. + +To accept Sevilla without disappointment, however, a robust appreciation +is needed. Its squalors and splendors are impartially distributed. +Luxurious mansions are dropped down indiscriminately among mean abodes +and the homes of dirt. Poverty and showiness, supreme beauty and +grotesque ugliness, jostle each other at close quarters. It is a sort of +_olla podrida_ among cities; but the total result is exceedingly +curious, and piques the observation. + +[Illustration: MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE CATHEDRAL, SEVILLA + +From a photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid.] + +[Illustration: THE GIRALDA TOWER. + +From a photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid.] + +The first of it that met our eyes was the Giralda tower of the +cathedral, rising in unique majesty above the unseen town, and as if +inspired with a fresher grace by its own fame. If the bronze female +figure of Faith on the summit could have spoken, it might have said: "In +all the range of view from this pinnacle there is nothing so fair as +Sevilla." The very next object of notice was a woman in the street, who +began begging from below the instant we set foot on the balcony for a +general survey. She gave us our money's worth of misery, but the supply +afterward proved too great for our demand. The mendicants of Sevilla are +much more daring and pertinacious than their craft elsewhere. They +call your attention with a sharp "tst, tst," as if you were hired to go +through life casually, stopping the instant they summon you. There was +in particular one energetic man who never failed to pounce upon us from +his lair, and place some few inches in front of us the red and twisted +stump from which his hand had been severed. He had seemingly persuaded +himself that our journey of several thousand miles was undertaken +principally to inspect this anatomical specimen. The amount of execution +he did with that mutilated member was enough to shame any able-bodied, +self-supporting person. With a single wave of it he could put us to +flight. The effect would not have been more instantaneous if he had +suddenly unmasked a mitrailleuse a yard from our noses. To assume +unconsciousness was futile, for, whichever way we turned, he was always +(it would hardly be correct to say "on hand," but) on time with his +fingerless deformity--he always placed it, with the instinct of a +finished artist, in the best light and most effective pose--getting it +adroitly between us and anything we pretended to look at. + +I imagined the noble cathedral might afford a refuge from such attacks, +but every door was guarded by a squad of the decrepit army, so that +entrance there became a horror. These sanctuary beggars serve a double +purpose, however. The black-garbed Sevillan ladies, who are perpetually +stealing in and out noiselessly under cover of their archly draped lace +veils--losing themselves in the dark, incense-laden interior, or +emerging from confession into the daylight glare again--are careful to +drop some slight conscience-money into the palms that wait. +Occasionally, by pre-arrangement, one of these beggars will convey into +the hand that passes him a silver piece a tightly-folded note from some +clandestine lover. It is a convenient underground mail, and I am afraid +the venerable church innocently shelters a good many little transactions +of this kind. + +[Illustration: THE "UNDERGROUND" MAIL.] + +Nothing can surpass in grandeur, in solemn and restful beauty, the +hollow mountain of embellished stone which constitutes this cathedral. +It does not present the usual cross shape, but is based upon the oblong +form of an old mosque, originally formed somewhat like that at Cordova, +but now wholly gone, excepting for the unequalled Giralda, and a few +other minor muezzin towers. The Court of Oranges is another relic of the +mosque-builders, where clumps of polished leafage contrast their own +vivid strength with the energetic lines of flying-buttresses in the +background--a florid yet melancholy height of trellised stone. The +enclosing walls of the Orange Court, made of firmly cohering mud, or +_tapia_, are tipped with flame-pointed battlements. At their eastern end +rises the tall, square Giralda, with a serenity in its simple lines +expressing, like Greek temples, the satisfied senses controlled by an +elevated mind. The lower portion bears other impress of its Moorish +origin in variously patterned courses of sunken brick; but the whole +tower terminates in a filigree Christian spire of the sixteenth century, +with a row of queer rusty iron ornaments, imitating vases filled with +flowers, placed on the ledge above the belfry at the spire's base. Then, +as you continue the circuit on the east, you arrive opposite the apse +curve marking the chancel of the Chapel Royal; and here the wall is +moulded to the taste of Charles V.'s time, which affected Roman +simplicity and weight, adding to it a trace of feudal pomp in +high-relief coats of arms. On the third and south side a crumbling +frieze of deer's heads and flower garlands skirts the cornice above a +long plain front, the straight-ness of which our friend Whetstone, +clambering up on a low coping so as to squint along the side, and see if +the lines were perfectly true, admired more than anything else. +Afterward one reaches a corner where the work remains unfinished, and +the blackened trunks of incomplete pinnacles in graded ranks suggest the +charred fragments of a faith once all afire, now darkened and cold. +There is no all-dominating dome; but there are two or three bulbous +upheavals in the roof, some spindling turrets on the north, and a square +elevation in the middle revealing the form of the transept. The whole +top is ribbed with stone, serrated with ornate crockets, crowded with +bosses and small spires, or edged with a double balustrade mimicking in +its flame-points a thousand altar lights. Petrified rosettes and spiral +wreathings project from the sides in unchangeable efflorescence, and +great arches, furrowed around by concentric ripples of carving, and +sometimes overpeered by quaint terra-cotta heads, give entrance to the +interior of the gigantic marvel. And over all towers the Giralda to a +height of three hundred and fifty feet, surmounted by the Giraldillo +vane--a woman's form, which turns its twenty-five hundred-weight of +bronze from point to point at the slightest veering of the wind. But the +consummate wonder of this great fabric, under which prostrate ages seem +to crouch while lifting it to heaven, is the union of diverse styles and +spirits in its construction. The different schools conglomerated in such +an exterior give the cathedral a great and mysterious power of variety; +yet, decided though their contrasts are, the effect is not harsh. It +bears witness to the truth that the spirit of man when attuned to the +mood of sincere worship, however unlike its expression may be at +different epochs and through different races, will always make a certain +grand inclusive harmony with itself. + +The coolness of the lofty and umbrageous aisles within is not penetrated +by the fiercest summer heats; but their religious twilight, though +inciting to a devout and prayerful sentiment, wraps in obscurity the +crowded works of art, the emblazoned _retablos_, the paintings of +Murillo, Campaña, and Morales, and the costly ornaments bestowed upon +the high altar, as well as those of some thirty side-chapels. In the +central nave, before a shrine at the choir-back, lies the tomb of +Ferdinand, son of Christopher Columbus. The colossal form of another +Christopher, the saint, lifts itself up the wall to a height of +thirty-two feet, near the Gate of the Exchange. Whoever looks upon St. +Christopher, to him no harm shall come during that day; hence this +worthy is a common object in Spanish cathedrals, and always painted so +large that no one who diligently attends mass can possibly miss seeing +him. A curious relic on the Chapel Royal altar is the Battle Virgin, a +small ivory image which King Ferdinand the Sainted always carried in war +firmly fixed on his saddle-bow. There, too, the King himself, embalmed, +is preserved in a chiselled silver case, to be uncovered and shown three +times a year with great pomp of military music. A life-size Virgin with +movable joints and spun-gold hair watches over him, but did not prevent +his crown from being stolen a few years ago. Not far away Murillo's San +Antonio hangs, the chief figure in which was also stolen, being cut out +in 1874, as many who read this will remember, and carried to New York, +where it was recovered. Innumerable other works and wonders there are, +and the sacristies contain great value of goldsmiths' products; but, +unless it be made a subject of long artistic study, the fundamental +charm of the cathedral consists in its general aspects, its mysterious +perspectives, its proportions so simple and grandiose; the isolated +pictures formed at almost any point by jewelled and candle-lit chapels +sparkling dimly through a permanent dusk, rainbowed here and there by +the light from old stained windows. + +From the Giralda, which is mounted by inclined planes in place of +stairs, one looks down upon the glorious building as if it were +something belonging to a lower and different world. All around, beyond, +the mazy city flattens itself out in a confusion of white walls and +tiled roofs, that look like the armored backs of scaly monsters huddled +sluggishly in the powerful sunshine, with impossible streets among them +reduced to mere thin lines of shadow. The tawny river touches it; +palaces and gardens and abandoned monasteries fringe it. Quite near you +see the Tower of Gold--a surviving outwork of the Moorish +defences--which was formerly coated with orange-colored tiles on the +outside, while the inside furnished a repository for treasure brought +from the New World. A crenellated Moorish fortification rises up +dreamily at one point, but finding itself out of date, abruptly subsides +again. Farther out are the seven suburbs, including the gypsy and sailor +quarter, the Triana; and then the plains stretch into an immense area of +olive, gold, and white, reaching to mountains on the north and east. A +multitude of doves inhabit the spire, and there is almost always a hawk +sailing above it, higher than anything else under the cloudless sky. At +the base lives the bell-ringer, through whose stone-paved dining-room +and nursery, filled with his family, we had to pass in order to ascend. +Once, as we stood toward sunset in the high gallery where the bells are +hung in rectangular or arched apertures, we heard the _repique_ sounding +the Angelus. It was a furious explosion of metallic resonance. + +Twenty bells on swinging beams, that throw the echoing mouths outward +through the openings, and two fixed in place within, of which Santa +Maria--profanely called The Fat One--is the largest: such is the battery +at command. They are not all used at once, however, for the Angelus. The +ringer and his two sons were satisfied with touching up Santa Catalina +(of a tone peculiarly deep and acceptable), St. John the Baptist, San +José, and one or two others. The whole brazen family have been duly +baptized, among them being San Laureano and San Isidoro, named after the +special patrons of Sevilla. One after another their tongues rolled forth +a deafening roar, in a systematic disorder of thunderous tones, while +the chief ringer went about unconcernedly with a smouldering cigarette +in his lips. One of his sons, after uncoiling the twisted rope around +the beam of San Laureano, thus getting it into violent motion, watched +his chance, sprung on to the beam, agile as a cat, and stood there while +it rocked, the bell under him swinging out at each turn, over the open +square below. It was three hundred feet, down to the pavement, and the +least slip would have sent him down to it like a handful of dirt. His +conception of what would please us, nevertheless, led him thoroughly to +unnerve us by repeating the performance several times. + +"Why don't the high-priest, or whatever he is, go on and finish up this +church?" asked Whetstone of the guide. "Seems to me it's about time." + +"The priest? He don't want to," was Vincent's answer, given with a +movement of the fingers meant to imply the receiving of money. "It make +too good excuse." + +Our conductor, who I am sure was a sceptic, went on to declare that +within the last ten years ninety thousand dollars had been left by will +for carrying on the unfinished portion of the cathedral, but as yet no +movement to begin the work had been made. "Where all that money go?" he +asked, innocent curiosity overspreading his features, while his eye +gleamed with hidden intelligence. + +"What do the people think of the priests?" one of us asked. + +"The chimneys[7] will find out some time," he replied; adding, in the +proverbial strain common with Spaniards: "When the river comes down from +the mountains, it brings stones." + +"By the river, you mean revolution? But you've had that before." + +The conclusive answer to this was a maxim borrowed from the ring: "The +fifth bull is never a bad one" (meaning, "Success comes to those who +wait"). + +Our guide's English was put to a severe strain in the Alcazar, a palace +largely Oriental, with interiors that outshine the Alhambra in +resplendent color and gilding. There is, in particular, one round-domed +ceiling constructed with an intricacy of interdependent supports, cones, +truncations, dropping cusps, which is counterpoint made plastic; and in +its inverted cup-like cysts the burnished gold glows like clotted honey. +But, for all that, it does not equal the matchless Alhambra in +arrangement, variety, or poetic surroundings. The memory of King Pedro +the Cruel is closely connected with this Alcazar. From it he used to +make night sallies into the town, by means of what Vincent termed a +"soup-tureen passage," which brought him up through a trap-door +somewhere in the thick of his subjects. Pedro, who lived in the +fourteenth century, was a monarch of a severely playful disposition. He +used to have the heads of people that were obnoxious to him cut off, and +hung up over the lintel of his dressing-room door, where he could look +at them while he was putting in his shirt-studs, or whenever he felt +bored. In the extensive gardens, half Eastern and half mediæval, behind +the palace, among the box and myrtle planted in forms of heraldic +devices, among the palms and terraces and fountains, there run long +paths, secretly perforated in places for fine jets of water. These are +the traces of a still more ingenious amusement invented by Pedro. From a +place of concealment he would watch until the ladies of the court, when +promenading, had got directly over one of his underground--I mean +"soup-tureen"--fountains, then he would turn a faucet, and drench them +with a shower-bath from below. + +There are other palaces in Sevilla, of which the Duke of Montpensier's +San Telmo is the chief, and a model of uninteresting magnificence, aside +from the valuable collection of old Spanish masters which it contains. +These pictures were sent to Boston for a loan exhibition during the last +revolution in Spain, in 1874; and although their aggregate worth is +easily surpassed by the pictures preserved at the public gallery of +Sevilla and at the Caridad Hospital, the Duke of Montpensier's +possessions embrace a masterly portrait of Velazquez, by himself +(repeated in the Museo at Valencia), and a charming "Madonna of the +Swaddling Clothes," by Murillo. San Telmo was formerly a nautical +college, having been founded by the son of Christopher Columbus. + +[Illustration: A STREET CORNER.] + +But the long succession of apartments through which the visitor is +ushered suggests no association with the former maritime prowess of +Spain; it is haunted rather by the failures and disappointments of its +owner, who, missing the throne on which his foot had almost rested, +lived to see his daughter, Queen Mercedes, die, and another daughter +mysteriously follow Mercedes into the grave after being plighted to the +reigning King. The grounds attached to the palace are very large, and +filled with palms, orange-trees, and other less tropical growths; and +they may be inspected, under the guidance of a forester armed with an +innocuous gun, by anybody who, after getting permission, is willing to +pay a small fee and tire himself out by an aimless ramble. + +Sevilla, where Murillo was born and spent so many years of artistic +activity in the height of his powers, is the next best place after +Madrid for a study of the sweetest among Spanish painters. His house +still stands in the Jews' Quarter, and a few of his best works are kept +in the picture-gallery; among them the one which he was wont to call "my +picture"--"St. Thomas of Villanueva Giving Alms." Like the "Saint +Elizabeth" at Madrid, it is a grand study of beggary--vagabondism as you +may see it to-day throughout Spain, but here elevated by excellent +design, charming sympathy with nature, and the resources of a delightful +colorist, into something possessing dignity and permanent +interest--qualities which the original phenomenon lacks. Murillo is +pure, sincere, simple, but never profound; though to this he perhaps +approaches more nearly in his "St. Francis Embracing the Crucified +Saviour" than in any other of his productions. Like others of his +pictures in Sevilla, however, it is painted in his latest style, called +"vaporoso," which, to my thinking, marks by its meretricious softness of +hazy atmosphere, and its too free coloring, a distinct decadence. In the +church connected with the Caridad are hung two colossal canvases, one +depicting the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the other, Moses +striking the rock. This last is better known by its popular title, "The +Thirst," which pays tribute to its masterly portrayal of that animal +desire. In the suffering revealed by the faces of the Israelites, as +well as the eager joy of the crowd (and even of their beasts of burden) +on receiving relief, there is a dramatic contention of pain and +pleasure, for the rendering of which the naturalistic genius of the +artist was eminently suited--and he has made the most of his +opportunity. The representation is terribly true; and its range of +observation culminates in the figure of the mother drinking first, +though her babe begs for water; for this is exactly what one would +expect in Spanish mothers of her class, whose faces are lined with a +sombre harshness, a want of human kindness singularly repellent. Such a +picture is hardly agreeable; and it must be owned that, excepting in his +gentle, honest "Conceptions," and a few other pieces, Murillo shares the +earthiness of his national school, the effect of which, despite much +magnificence in treatment, is on the whole depressing. + +[Illustration: FIGARO.] + +The House of Pilate, owned by the Duke of Medina Celi, is quite another +sort of thing from San Telmo; a roomy, irregular edifice, dating from +the sixteenth century, but almost wholly Saracenic. The walls are +_repoussés_ in fine arabesques, and sheathed at the base with old +color-veined tiles that throw back the light in flashes from their +surface. These also enamel the grand staircase, which makes a square +turn beneath a roof described as a _media naranja_--natural Spanish +music for our plain "half-orange"--the vault of which is fretted cedar +cased in stucco. At the top landing is posted a cock in effigy, +representing the one that crowed witness to Peter's denial. Again, a +balcony is shown which stands for that at which Pilate washed his hands +before the people; and in fine, the whole place is net-worked with +fancies of this kind, identifying it with the scene of Christ's trial. +For it was the whim of the lordly founder to make his house the +starting-point for a Via Crucis, marking the path of Jesus on his way to +crucifixion, and these devices were adopted to heighten the +verisimilitude of the scene. In Passion-week pilgrims come to pray at +the several "stations" along the route to the figurative Calvary at the +end of the Via. + +Into the Duke of Montpensier's garden stare the plebeian, +commercial--let us hope unenvious--windows of the government tobacco +factory; an enormous building, guarded like a fort to prevent the +smuggling out of tobacco. Indeed, every one of the three thousand women +employed is carefully watched for the same purpose as she passes forth +at the general evening dismissal. Mounting the broad stairs of stone, I +heard a peculiar medley of light sounds in the distance. If a lot of +steam-looms were endowed with the faculty of throwing out falsetto and +soprano notes instead of their usual inhuman click, the effect could not +be more uninterrupted than this subdued merry buzzing. It was the +chatter of the working-girls in the cigarette room. As we stepped over +the threshold these sounds continued with _crescendo_ effect, ourselves +being taken for the theme. At least one hundred girls fixed their +attention on us, delivering a volley of salutations, jokes, and general +remarks. + +"What do you seek, little señor? You will get no _papelitos_ here!" +exclaimed one, pretty enough to venture on sauciness. + +"French, French! don't you see?" another said; and her companions, in +airy tones, begged us to disburse a few _cuartos_, which are +cent-and-a-quarter pieces. + +There was one young person of a satirical turn who affected to approve a +very small beard which one of us had raised incidentally in travelling. +She stroked her own smooth cheek, and carolled out, "What a pretty +barbule!" + +They certainly were not enslaved to conventionality, though they may be +to necessity. They seemed to enjoy themselves, too. Their eyes flashed; +they broke into laughter; they bent their heads to give effect to the +regulation flat curls on their temples, and all the time their nimble +fingers never stopped filling cigarettes, rolling the papers, whisking +them into bundles, and seizing fresh pinches of tobacco. In all there +were three or four hundred of them, and some of them had a spendthrift, +common sort of beauty, which, owing to their Southern vivacity and fine +physique, had the air of being more than it really was. At first glance +there appeared to be a couple of hundred other girls hung up against the +walls and pillars; but these turned out to be only the skirts and boots +of the workers, which are kept carefully away from the smouch of the +cigarette trays, so as to maintain the proverbially neat appearance of +their wearers on the street. Some of the women, however, were scornful +and morose, and others pale and sad. It was easy to guess why, when we +saw their babies lying in improvised box-cradles or staggering about +naked, as if intoxicated with extreme youth and premature misery, or as +if blindly beginning a search for their fathers--something none of them +will ever find. We laid a few coppers in the cradles, and went on to the +cigar-room. + +It was much the same, excepting that the soberness of experience there +partially took the place of the giddiness rampant among the cigarette +girls. There were some appalling old crones among the thousand +individuals who rolled, chopped, gummed, and tied cigars at the low +tables distributed through a heavily groined stone hall choked with +thick pillars, and some six hundred or seven hundred yards in length. +Others, on the contrary, looked blooming and coquettish. Many were in +startling deshabille, resorted to on account of the intense July heat, +and hastened to draw pretty _pañuelos_ of variegated dye over their bare +shoulders when they saw us coming. Here, too, there was a large nursery +business being carried on, with a very damaged article of child, smeary, +sprawling, and crying. Nor was it altogether cheering to observe now and +then a woman who, having dissipated too late the night before, sat fast +asleep with her head in the cigar dust of the table. + +"_Ojala!_ May God do her work!" cried one of her friends. If he did not, +it was not because there was any lack of shrines in the factory. They +were erected here and there against the wall, with gilt images and +candles arrayed in front of a white sheet, and occasionally the older +women knelt at their devotions before them. I don't object to the +shrines, but it struck me that a good _crèche_ system for the children +might not come amiss. + +As to the factory-girls smoking cigarettes in public, it is an operatic +fiction: no such practice is common in Spain. And the beauty of these +Carmens has certainly been exaggerated. It may be remarked here that, as +an offset to occasional disappointment arising from such exaggerations, +all Spanish women walk with astonishing gracefulness, a natural and +elastic step; and that is their chief advantage over women of other +nations. Even the chamber-maids of Sevilla were modelled on a heroic, +ancient-history plan, with big, supple necks, and showed such easy power +in their movements that we half feared they might, in tidying the rooms, +pick us up by mistake and throw us away somewhere to perish miserably in +a dust-heap. Why there should be so much inborn ease and freedom +expressed in the manner of women who are guarded with Oriental +precautions, I don't know. Andalusian fathers have, no doubt, the utmost +confidence in their daughters, but at the same time they save them the +trouble of taking care of themselves by putting iron gratings on the +windows. The _reja_, the domestic gittern, is very common in Sevilla. +The betrothed suitor, if he is quite correct, must hold his tender +interviews with his mistress through its forbidding bars. My companion +actually saw a handsome young fellow standing on the sidewalk, and +conducting one of these peculiar _tête-à-têtes_. + +[Illustration: "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a +cage."] + +Every house is, furthermore, provided with a _patio_. The façades, as a +rule, are monotonous and unspeakably plain, but the poorest dwelling +always has its airy court set with shrubs, and perhaps provided with +water. They are tiled, as most rooms are in Spain--a good precaution +against vermin, which unluckily is not infallible as regards fleas, +which search the traveller in Spain even more rigorously than the +customs officers or the Civil Guards. The flea is still and small, like +the voice of conscience, but that is the only moral thing about him. In +the Peninsula I found him peculiarly unregenerate. As to these patios, +the well-to-do protect them from the open vestibule leading to the +street by gates of ornamental open iron, letting the air-currents play +through the unroofed court, and sometimes with movable screens behind +the gate. Chess-tables and coffee are carried out there in the evening, +and the music-room gives conveniently upon the cool central space. + +In Sevilla, if you hear a shrill little bell tinkling in the street, do +not imagine that a bicycle is coming. One day a slight tintinnabulation +announced the approach of a funeral procession, headed by two gentlemen +wearing round caps and blue gowns, on which were sewed flaming red +hearts. One bore a small alms-basket; the other rung the bell to attract +contributions. It appears that this is the manner appointed for sundry +brothers who maintain the Caridad, a hospital for indigent old men. The +members, though pursuing their ordinary mode of life, are banded for the +support of the institution. Necessarily rich and aristocrats, it matters +not: when one of them dies, he must be buried by means of offerings +collected on the way to his grave. This Caridad, let me add, was founded +by Don Miguel de Manera, a friend of Don Juan, and a reformed rake. His +epitaph reads: "Here lie the ashes of the worst man that ever was." I +suspect a lingering vanity in that assertion, but at any rate the +tombstone tries hard _not_ to lie. + +Fashionable society, after recovering from its mid-day siesta, and +before going to the theatre or ball, turns itself out for an airing on +Las Delicias--"The Delights"--an arbored road running two or three miles +along the river-side. Nowhere can you see more magnificent horses than +there. Their race was formerly crossed with the finest mettle of Barbary +studs, and their blood, carried into Kentucky through Mexico, may have +had its share in the victories of Parole, Iroquois, and Foxhall. A more +strictly popular resort is the New Plaza, where citizens attend a +concert and fireworks twice a week in summer, and keep their distressed +babies up till midnight to see the fun. They are less demonstrative than +one would expect. An American reserve hangs over them. Perfect +informality reigns; they saunter, chat, and laugh without constraint, +yet their enjoyment is taken in a languid, half-pensive way. In the +various foot-streets where carriages do not appear--the most notable of +which is the winding one called simply Sierpes, "The Serpents"--the same +quietude prevails. Lined with attractive bazar-like shops, and overhung +by "sails" drawn from roof to roof, which make them look like +telescopic booths, these streets form shady avenues down which figures +glide unobtrusively: sometimes a cigarette girl in a pale geranium +skirt, with a crimson shawl; sometimes a lady in black, with lace-draped +head; and perhaps an erroneous man in a heavy blue cloak, saving up +warmth for next winter; or a peasant re-arranging his scarlet +waist-cloth by tucking one end into his trousers, then turning round and +round till he is wound up like a watch-spring, and finally putting his +needle-pointed knife into the folds, ready for the next quarrel. + +[Illustration: IN "THE SERPENT."] + +Once we caught sight of two belted forms with carbines stealing across +the alley, far down, as if for a flank movement against us. Oh, horror! +they were the Civil Guards, who were always blighting us at the happiest +moment. As they did not succeed in capturing us, we believed they must +have lost themselves in one of the _calles_ that squirm through the +houses with no visible intention of ever coming out anywhere. Velveteen +wanted to go and look for their bones, thinking they had perished of +starvation, but I opportunely reflected that we might ourselves be lost +in the attempt. No wonder assassination has been frequent in these +narrow windings! Once astray in them, that would be the easiest way out. + +Shall we go to the Thursday-morning fair, which begins, in order to +avoid the great heats, at 6 A.M.? Come, then; and if we are up early, we +may pass on the way through the low-walled market, gay with fruits, +flowers, vegetables, where bread from Alcalá in the exact pattern of +buttercup blossoms is sold, and where, at a particularly bloody and +ferocious stall, butchers are dispensing the meat of bulls slaughtered +at the fights. The fair is held in Fair Street. A frantic miscellany of +old iron, of clothing, crockery, mat baskets, and large green pine-cones +full of plump seeds, which, when ripened, taste like butternuts, is set +forth. Full on the pavement is spread an array of second-hand shoes--the +proverbial dead men's, perhaps--temptingly blacked. Pale cinereous +earthen vessels, all becurled with raised patterns like intelligent +wax-drippings, but exceedingly well shaped, likewise monopolize the +thoroughfare, put in peril only by random dogs, which, having quarrelled +over the offal freely thrown into the street for them, sometimes race +disreputably through the brittle ware. At apt corners old women have set +up their frying-pans under Bedouin tents, and are cooking +_calentitos_--long coils of dough browned in hot olive oil--which are +much sought as a relish for the matutinal chocolate. Omnipresent, of +course, are those water stalls that, in Sevilla especially, acquire +eminent dignity by their row of stout jars, and their complicated +cordage rigged across from one house-top to another, so as to sustain +shadowing canvas canopies. There is a great crowd, but even the fair is +comparatively quiet, like the other phases of local life. + +The absence of wagon-traffic in the town creates, notwithstanding its +reposeful character, a new relative scale of noises, and there is +consequently good store of fretting attacks on the hearing in Sevilla. +With very early morning begins the deep clank of bells, under the chins +of asses that go the rounds to deliver domestic milk from their own +udders. There is no end of noise. Even in the elegant dining-room where +we ate, lottery-dealers would howl at us through the barred windows, or +a donkey outside would rasp our ears with his intolerable braying. Then +the street cries are incessant. At night the crowds chafe and jabber +till the latest hours, and after eleven the watchmen begin their drawl +of unearthly sadness, alternating with the occult and remorseless +industry of the mosquito; until, somewhere about dawn, you drop +perspiring into an oppressively tropical dream-land, with the _sereno's_ +last cry ringing in your ears: "Hail, Mary, most pure! Three o'clock has +struck." + +This is the weird tune to which he chants it: + +[Illustration: Musical notation: _A--ve Ma--ri--a pur--is--si--ma! Las +tré--es han toc--ca--do._] + + +II. + +An English lady, conversing with a Sevillan gentleman who had been +making some rather tall statements, asked him: "Are you telling me the +truth?" + +"Madam," he replied, gravely, but with a twinkle in his eye, "I am an +Andalusian!" At which the surrounding listeners, his fellow-countrymen, +broke into an appreciative laugh. + +So proverbial is the want of veracity, or, to put it more genially, the +imagination, of these Southerners. Their imagination will explain also +the vogue of their brief, sometimes pathetic, yet never more than +half-expressed, scraps of song, which are sung with so much feeling +throughout the kingdom to crude barbaric airs, and loved alike by gentle +and simple. I mean the _Peteneras_ and _Malagueñas_. There are others of +the same general kind, sung to a variety of dances; but the ruling tunes +are alike--usually pitched in a minor key, and interspersed with +passionate trills, long quavers, unexpected ups and downs, which it +requires no little skill to render. I have seen gypsy singers grow +apoplectic with the long breath and volume of sound which they threw +into these eccentric melodies amid thunders of applause. It is not a +high nor a cultivated order of music, but there lurks in it something +consonant with the broad, stimulating shine of the sun, the deep red +earth, the thick, strange-flavored wine of the Peninsula; its +constellated nights, and clear daylight gleamed with flying gold from +the winnowing-field. The quirks of the melody are not unlike those of +very old English ballads, and some native composer with originality +should be able to expand their deep, bold, primitive ululations into +richer, lasting forms. The fantastic picking of the _mandurra_ +accompaniment reminds me of Chinese music with which I have been +familiar. Endless preludes and interminable windings-up enclose the +minute kernel of actual song; but to both words and music is lent a +repressed touching power and suggestiveness by repeating, as is always +done, the opening bars and first words at the end, and then breaking off +in mid-strain. For instance: + + "All the day I am happy, + But at evening orison + Like a millstone grows my heart. + All the day I am happy." [_Limitless Guitar Solo._] + +It is like the never-ended strain of Schumann's "Warum?" The words are +always simple and few--often bald. One of the most popular pieces +amounts simply to this: + + "Both Lagartijo and Frascuelo + Swordsmen are of quality, + Since when they the bulls are slaying-- + O damsel of my heart! + They do it with serenity. + Both Lagartijo and Frascuelo + Swordsmen are of quality." + +But such evident ardor of feeling and such wealth of voice are breathed +into these fragments that they become sufficient. The people supply from +their imagination what is barely hinted in the lines. Under their +impassive exteriors they preserve memories, associations, emotions of +burning intensity, which throng to aid their enjoyment, as soon as the +muffled strings begin to vibrate and syllables of love or sorrow are +chanted. I recalled to a young and pretty Spanish lady one line, + + "Pajarito, tu que vuelas." + +She flushed, fire came to her eyes, and with clasped hands she murmured, +"Oh, what a beautiful song it is!" Yet it contains only four lines. Here +is a translation: + + "Bird, little bird that wheelest + Through God's fair worlds in the sky, + +[Illustration: "ALL THE DAY I AM HAPPY."] + + Say if thou anywhere seest + A being more sad than I. + Bird, little bird that wheelest." + +Some of these little compositions are roughly humorous, and others very +grotesque, appearing to foreigners empty and ridiculous. + +The following one has something of the odd imagery and clever +inconsequence of our negro improvisations: + + "As I was gathering pine-cones + In the sweet pine woods of love, + My heart was cracked by a splinter + That flew from the tree above. + I'm dead: pray for me, sweethearts!" + +There was one evening in Granada when we sat in a company of some two +dozen people, and one after another of the ladies took her turn in +singing to the guitar of a little girl, a musical prodigy. But they were +all outdone by Cándida, the brisk, naïve, handsome serving-girl, who was +invited in, but preferred to stand outside the grated window, near the +lemon-trees and pomegranates, looking in, with a flower in her hair, and +pouring into the room her warm contralto--that voice so common among +Spanish peasant-women--which seemed to have absorbed the clear dark of +Andalusian nights when the stars glitter like lance-points aimed at the +earth. Through the twanging of the strings we could hear the rush of +water that gurgles all about the Alhambra; and, just above the trees +that stirred in the perfumed air without, we knew the unsentinelled +walls of the ancient fortress were frowning. The most elaborate piece +was one meant to accompany a dance called the _Zapateado_, or +"kick-dance." It begins: + + "Tie me, with my fiery charger, + To your window's iron lattice. + Though _he_ break loose, my fiery charger, + Me he cannot tear away;" + +and then passes into rhyme: + + "Much I ask of San Francisco, + Much St. Thomas I implore; + But of thee, my little brown girl, + Ah, of thee I ask much more!" + +The singing went on: + + "In Triana there are rogues, + And there are stars in heaven. + Four and one rods away + There lives, there lives a woman. + Flowers there are in gardens, + And beautiful girls in Sevilla." + +Nevertheless, we had been glad to leave Sevilla, especially since during +our stay an epidemic was in progress, graphically called "the minute," +from its supposed characteristic of finishing off a victim ready for the +undertaker in exactly sixty seconds after attacking him. + +The inhabitants of Granada likewise seemed to be a good deal occupied in +burying themselves--a habit which became confirmed, no doubt, during the +wars and insurrections of their ancestors, and is aided to-day by bad +sanitary arrangements. We saw a dead man being carried in the old +Moorish way, with his forehead bared to the sky, a green wreath on his +head, his cold hands emerging from the shroud in their last +prayer-clasp, and quite indifferent to the pitiless sun that beat down +on them. But, perched as we were on the Alhambra Hill, high above the +baking city, such spectacles were transient specks in the world of +fascination that infolded us. + +[Illustration: GRANADA UNDERTAKER.] + +[Illustration: THE MOORISH GATE, SEVILLA.] + +Granada rests in what might pass for the Happy Valley of Rasselas, a +deep stretch of thirty miles, called simply the Vega, and tilled from +end to end on a system of irrigation established by the Moslem +conquerors. Rugged mountains, bastions of a more than Cyclopean +earthwork, girdle and defend it. To penetrate them you must leave the +hot rolling lands of the west, and confront steep heights niched here +and there for creamy-hued villages or deserted castles, and sentried by +small Moorish watch-towers rising like chessmen on the highest crests. +The olive-trees spread on wide slopes of tanned earth were like thick +dots of black connected in one design, and seemed to suggest the +possible origin of Spanish lace. The shapes of the mountains, too, were +extravagant. One of the most singular, the _Peñon de los Enamorados_, +near Antequera, showed us by accident at a distance the exact profile of +George Washington, with every detail after Stuart, hewn out in mountain +size and looking directly up into the heavens from a position of supine +rigidity. Our first intimation of a near approach to Granada was a long +stretch of blanched folds showing through evening mistiness in the +southern sky, like the drapings of some celestial tabernacle, so high up +that they might have been clouds but for a certain persistent, awful +immobility that controlled them. Their spectral whiteness, detached from +the earth, hung, it is true, ten thousand feet above the sea-level; but +they were not clouds. They were the summits of the Sierra Nevada, the +great Snowy Range. + +Twenty miles to the north of these frosty heights stands the Alhambra +Hill, shrouded in dark trees, and dominated by the Mountain of the Sun. +The names are significant--Snowy Range and Mountain of the Sun--for the +landscape that unrolls itself between these ridges is a mixture of +torrid glow and Alpine coldness. I stood in a hanging garden delicious +with aromatic growths, on the ramparts beside the great Lookout Tower, +the city lying like a calcareous deposit packed in the gorge of the +Darro's stream below. Across the Vega I beheld that sandy pass of the +hills through which Boabdil withdrew after his surrender--the Last Sigh +of the Moor. Fierce sunlight smote upon me, spattering the leaves like +metal in flux; but the snow-fields mantling the blue wall of the Sierra +loomed over the landscape so distinct as to seem within easy hail, and I +felt their breath in a sweet coolness that drifted by from time to time. +The other mountains were bare and golden brown. But in their midst the +mild Vega, inlaid with curves of the River Genil, receded in breadths of +alternate green orchard and mellow rye, where distant villages are +scattered "like white antelopes at pasture," says Señor Don Contreras, +the accomplished curator of the Alhambra. It was not like a dream, for +dreams are imitative; nor like reality, for that is too unstable. It was +blended of both these, with a purely ideal strand. As I looked at the +rusty red walls and abraded towers palisading the hill, the surroundings +became like some miraculous web, and these ruins, concentring the +threads, were the shattered cocoon from which it had been spun. + +The Alhambra was originally a village on the height, perhaps the first +local settlement, surrounded by a wall for defensive purposes. + +[Illustration: A WATER-CARRIER.] + +The wall, which once united a system of thirty-seven towers, fringes the +irregular edges of the hill-top plateau, describing an enclosure like a +rude crescent lying east and west. At the west end the hill contracts to +an anvil point, and on this are grouped the works of the citadel +Alcazaba, governed by the huge square Lookout Tower. On a ridge close to +the south stand the Vermilion Towers, suspected of having been mixed up +with the Phoenicians at an early epoch, but not yet fully convicted by +the antiquarians. The intervening glade receives a steep road from the +city, and is arcaded with elms and cherries of prodigious size, sent +over as saplings by the Duke of Wellington half a century ago. There the +nightingales sing in spring-time, and in summer the boughs give perch to +other songsters. Ramps lead up to the top of the hill, and on the +northern edge of its crescent, at the brink of the Darro Valley, the +Alhambra Palace proper is lodged. + +We shall go in by the Gate of Justice, through a door-way running up +two-thirds of its tower's height, and culminating in a little horseshoe +arch, whereon a rude hand is incised--a favorite Mohammedan symbol of +doctrine. We pass a poor pictured oratory of the Virgin, and some +lance-rests of Ferdinand V., to worm our way through the grim passage +that cautiously turns twice before emerging through an arch of pointed +brick with enamellings on argil, into the open gravelled Place of the +Reservoirs. This is undermined by a fettered lake, generally attributed +to the Moors, but more probably made after Isabella's conquest. On the +right side, behind hedges and low trees, is reared that gray rectangular +Græco-Roman pile which Charles V. had the audacity to begin. His palace +is deservedly unfinished, yet its intrusion is effective. It makes you +think of the terror-striking helmet of unearthly size in the Castle of +Otranto, and looks indeed like a piece of mediæval armor flung down here +to challenge vainly the wise Arabian beauty of the older edifice. To the +Place of Reservoirs come in uninterrupted course all day the tinkling +and tasselled mules that carry back to the city jars of fresh water, +kept cool in baskets filled with leaves. And hither walk toward sunset +the _majos_ and _majas_--dandies and coquettes--to stroll and gossip for +an hour, even as we saw them when we were lingering at the northern +parapet one evening and looking off through the clear air, in which a +million rose-leaves seemed to have dipped and left their faint color. + + +III. + +The veritable entrance to the Alhambra is now buried within some later +buildings added to the original. But it never, though Irving naturally +supposed the contrary, had a grand portal in the middle. Gorgeous and +showy means of ingress would not have suited the Oriental mind. The +exterior of the palace and all the towers is dull, blank, +uncommunicative. Their coating of muddy or ferruginous cement, marked +here and there by slim upright oblongs of black window spaces, was not +meant to reveal the luxury of loveliness concealed within. The Moslem +idea was to secrete the abodes of earthly bliss, nor even to hint at +them by outward signs of ostentation. + +So the petty modern door cut for convenience is not wholly out of +keeping. It ushers one with a sudden surprise into the presence of those +marvels which have been for years a distant enticing vision. You find +yourself, in fact, wandering into the Alhambra courts as if by accident. +The first one--the Court of the Pond, or of the Myrtles--arrays before +us beauty enough and to spare. But it is only the beginning. A long tank +occupies the centre, brimmed with water from a rill that gurgles, by day +and night forever, with a low, half-laughing sob. Around it level plates +of white marble are riveted to the ground, and two hedges of clipped +myrtle border the placid surface. At the nearest end a double gallery +closes the court, imposed on seven arches so evenly rounded as to +emulate the Roman, but upheld by columns of amazing slenderness; and in +the spandrels are translucent arabesques inlaced with fillets, radiating +leaf-points, and loose knots. Above these blink some square windows, +shut as with frozen gauze by minute stone lattice-work, over fifteen +hundred twisted or cubed pieces being combined in each. From there the +women of the harem used to witness pageantries and ceremonies that took +place in the court; and over the veiled windows is a roofed balcony +repeating the lower arches, which would serve for spectators not under +ban of invisibility. + +[Illustration: BIT OF ARCH IN A COURT OF THE ALHAMBRA. + +From a photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid.] + +Various low doors lead from this Court of the Pond, giving sealed +intimation of what may lie beyond, but disclosing little. One turns +naturally, however, to the Hall of Ambassadors at the other end, in the +mighty Tower of Comares. The transverse arcade at the entrance is roofed +with shining vitreous-faced tiles of blue and white that also carry +their stripes over the little cupola, to which many similar ones +doubtless formerly surrounded the court, and in the cloister underneath +the inmates reclined on divans glinting with rippled gold-thread and +embroidered with colored silks. Then comes the anteroom, the Chamber of +Benediction (usually called of the Boat, on account of its long, scooped +ceiling), which is like the hollow of a capsized boat suspended over us, +and darkened with deep lapis lazuli. There are some low doors in the +wall, meant for the humble approach of slaves when serving their +masters, or leading to lost inner corridors and stairways now fallen +into dust. But the large central arch conducts at once into the Hall of +the Ambassadors, after we have passed some niches in which of old were +set encarmined water-jars of sweet-scented clay. Beside these may have +stood the carven racks for weapons of jewelled hilt and tempered blade. + +In the Chamber of Benediction begin those multitudinous arabesques by +which the Alhambra is most widely known. In the hall beyond they flow +out with unimpeded grace and variety over the walls of an immensely high +and nobly spacious apartment, pierced on three sides at the floor level +with arched _ajimez_[8] windows halved by a thin, flower-headed column, +in the embrasures of which, enchased with cement, are mouldings that +overrun the groundwork in bands, curves, diamonds, scrolls, delicate as +the ribs of leaves or as vine tendrils. Within these soft convolved +lines, arranged to make the most florid detail tributary to the general +effect, Arabic characters twisted into the design contain outbursts of +poetry celebrating the edifice, the room itself. "As if I were the arc +of the rainbow," says one inscription in the hooped door-way, "and the +sun were Lord Abul Hachach." The windows look forth upon the sheer +northern fall of the hill; the waving tree-tops scarcely rising to the +balcony under the sills. They look upon old Granada dozing below in the +unmitigated sunlight, with here and there the sculptured columns of a +_patio_ visible among the houses on the opposite slope; and farther away +the Sesame doors of gypsy habitations cut into the solid mountain above +the Darro. One of the most beautiful of glimpses about the Alhambra is +that through the east window, looking along the parapet gallery to the +Toilet Tower. Precipitous masonry plunges down among trees that shoot +incredibly high, as if incited by the lines of the building; and on the +Mountain of the Sun the irregular lint-white buildings of the +Generalife--an old retreat of Moorish sovereigns and nobles--are lodged +among cypresses and orange thickets. Within the hall itself all is cool, +subdued, and breezy, and the smooth vault of the larch-wood ceiling, +still dimly rich with azure and gold, spans the area high overhead like +a solemn twilight sky at night. + +It was in this Tower of Comares that the last King of Granada, Boabdil, +was imprisoned with his mother, Ayeshah, by his stormy and fatuous +father, Muley Abul Hassan, owing to the rival influence of the Morning +Star, Zoraya, Hassan's favorite wife. Boabdil escaped, being let down to +the ground by the scarfs of his mother and her female attendants. Years +after, when he had succeeded to the throne for a brief and hapless +reign, _El Rey Chico_ (The Little King), as the Spaniards called him, +was led by his mother into the Hall of Ambassadors after he had +capitulated to Ferdinand and Isabella. Silently she made its circuit +with him, and then, overcome with the bitterness of loss, she cried: +"Behold what thou art giving up, and remember that all thy forefathers +died kings of Granada, but in thee the kingdom dies!" + +[Illustration: THE TOILET TOWER. + +From a photograph by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid.] + +The Hall of Ambassadors is assigned to the epoch of the caliphate. +Certainly the Court of Lions is invested with a somewhat different +character. Its arches are more pointed, more nearly Gothic, and are +hung upon a maze of exquisitely slight columns, presenting, as you look +in, an opulent confusion of crinkled curves and wavering ellipses, +bordered with dropping points and brief undulations that look like +festoons of heavy petrified lace: as lace, heavy; but as architecture, +light. There is incalculable diversity in the proportions, unevenness in +the grouping of the pillars, irregularity in the cupolas; yet through +all persists an unsurpassable harmony, a sensitive equilibrium. The Hall +of Justice, which opens from it, and contains--contrary to Mohammedan +principles--some mysterious early Italian frescoes depicting Moorish and +Christian combats, is a grotto of stalactites. All this part of the +palace, one would say, might have sprung from the spray of those hidden +canals which brought the snow-water hither, spouting up, then falling +and crystallizing in shapes of arrested motion; so perfect is the +geometrical balance, so suave are the flowing lines. The un-Moorish +lions sustaining the central basin are meagre and crude, and the size of +the court is disappointing; but it is a miniature labyrinth of beauty. +From one side you may pass into the Hall of the Abencerages, under the +fine star-shaped roof of which a number of those purely Arab-blooded +knights are said to have been, at the instigation of their +half-Christian rivals, the Zegris, assembled at a banquet and then +murdered. An invitation to dinner in those days was a doubtful +compliment, which a gentleman had to think twice about before accepting. + +On the other side lies the access to the Chamber of the Two Sisters, a +lovely apartment, having a grooved bed in the marble floor for a current +of water to course through and run out under the zigzag-carven cedar +door. Everything is exactly as you would have it, and you seem to be +straying through embodied reveries of Bagdad and Damascus. But it would +be futile to describe the myriad traceries of these rooms; the bevelled +entablatures, the elastic ceilings, displaying an order and multiplicity +of tiny relief as systematic as the cells and tissues in a cut +pomegranate; or the dadoes of colored tiles, still dimly glistening with +glaze, and chameleonizing the base of the partitions. The culmination of +microscopic refinement comes, with a sigh of relief from such an +overplus of sensuous delight, in the boudoir of Lindaraxa, which +overlooks from a superb embayed window a little oasis of fountained +court, blooming with citrons and lemons, and bedded with violets. That +small garden, green and laughing, and interspersed with dark +flower-mould, lies clasped in the branching wings of masonry, as simple +and refreshing as a dew-drop. It is shut in on the other side by some +mediæval rooms fitted up in heavy oak panelling for Philip V. and his +second bride, Elisabetta, when with rare judgment they chose this +Islamitic spot for their honey-moon--a crescent, I suppose. It was in +one of these rooms--the Room of the Fruits--that, to quote Señor +Contreras again, "the celebrated poet Washington Irving harbored, +composing there his best works." From which it will be inferred that the +gallant Spaniard has not probed deeply the "Knickerbocker History of New +York," the "Sketch-book," and the "Life of Washington."[9] + +[Illustration: BOUDOIR OF LINDARAXA] + +One may prolong one's explorations to the Queen's Toilet Tower--who "the +queen" was remains decidedly vague--poised like a lofty palm on the +verge commanding the Darro gorge. In one corner of its engirdling +colonnade are some round punctures, through which perfume was wafted to +saturate the queen's garments while she was dressing. Or one may descend +to the Baths, vaulted in below the general level. Their antechamber is +the only portion which has been completely restored to its pristine +magnificence of blue and gold, vermilion-flecked and overspreading the +polygonal facets of stucco-work. I could imagine the Sultan coming there +with stately step to be robed for the bath by female slaves, then +passing on wooden clogs into the inner chamber of heated marble, and at +a due interval emerging to take his place on one of the inclined slabs +in an outer alcove, enveloped in a _tcherchef_--his head bound with a +soft silk muffler--there to devote himself to rest, sweetmeats, and lazy +conversation. + +The Alhambra Palace is remarkable as being more Persian than Turkish, +and reproducing many features that crop up in the architecture of India, +Syria, Arabia, and Turkey, yet incorporating them in an independent +total. The horseshoe arch is not the prevailing one, though it occurs +often enough to renew and deepen the impression of its unique effect. +What makes this arch so adroitly significant of the East? Possibly the +fact that it suggests a bow bent to the extremest convexity. It is easy +to imagine stretched between the opposite sides a bow-string--that handy +implement of conjugal strangulation which no Sultan's family should be +without. + +Part of the populous ancient settlement on the hill still exists in a +single street outside of the palace, now inhabited by a more respectable +population than that riffraff of silk-weavers, vagabonds, potters, +smugglers, and broken-down soldiers who flourished there half a century +since. A church stands among the dwellings. Strolling up the street one +moonlit night, we bought some blue and white wine-pitchers of +Granada-ware at a little drinking-shop, and saw farther on a big circle +of some twenty people sitting together in the open air--one of those +informal social clubs called _tertulias_, common among neighbors and +intimate friends in all ranks of Spanish society. At another spot a man +was sleeping in the moonlight on a cot beside the parapet, with his two +little Indian-looking boys dreaming on a sheet laid over the ground. +Mateo Ximenes, the son of Irving's "Son of the Alhambra," lives in this +quarter, officiating as a guide. Thanks to "Geoffrey Crayon" he is +prosperous, and has accordingly built a new square house which is the +acme of commonplace. Beyond the street, across some open ground where +figs and prickly-pears are growing, stands the Tower of the Captive, +where Isabella de Solis, a Christian princess, being captured, was +imprisoned, and became the wife of Abul Hassan. She was, in fact, the +Zoraya who became Ayeshah's rival. Dense ivy mats the wall between this +and the Tower of the Princesses--a structure utilized by Irving in one +of his prettiest tales. Both towers are incrusted interiorly with a +perfection rivalling the palace chambers, and perhaps even more +enchanting, but no vestige of coloring is left in them. To me this wan +aspect of the walls is more poetic than any restoration of the original +emblazonments. The pale white-brown surface seems compounded of historic +ashes, and is imbued with a pathos, + + "Like a picture when the pride + Of its coloring hath died," + +which one would be loath to lose. + +The sunlit and vine-clad decrepitude that sits so lightly on this magic +stronghold--this "fortress and mansion of joy," as one of the mural +mottoes calls it--is among its main charms. The most bitter opponent of +any Moorish return to power in Granada would, I think, be the modern +æsthetic tourist. I rambled frequently close under the old +rufous-mottled walls, from which young trees sprout up lustily, and +enjoyed their decay almost as much as I did the palace. At one point +near the Tower of Seven Stories (which has never quite recovered from +being blown up by the French) there was a long stretch of garden where +phlox and larkspur and chrysanthemums, that would not wait for autumn, +grew rank among the fruit-trees. A Moorish water-pipe near the top of +the wall had broken, and, bursting through the brick-work, its current +had formed a narrow cascade that tumbled into the garden through +wavering loops of maiden-hair, and over mosses or water-plants which it +had brought into life on the escarpment. Grapes and figs rose +luxuriantly about rings of box enclosing fountains, and at sunset some +shaft of fire would level itself into the greenery, striking the +gorgeous pomegranate blossoms into prominence, like scarlet-tufted +birds' heads. All day there was a loud chir of cicadas, and a rain of +white-hot light sifted through the leaves. But at night everything died +away except the rush of water, which grew louder and louder till it +filled the whole air like a ghostly warning. I used to wake long after +midnight, and hear nothing but this chilling whisper, unless by chance +some gypsies squatted on the road were singing _Malagueñas_, or the +strange, piercing note of the tree-toad that haunts the hill rung out in +elfin and inhuman pipings of woe. For the builders who laid them here +these running streams make a fit memorial--unstable as their power that +has slipped away, yet surviving them, and remaining here as an echo of +their voices, a reminder of the absent race which not for an hour can +one forget in Granada. + +But the supreme spell of the Alhambra reserves itself for moonlight. +When the Madonna's lamp shone bright amid the ingulfing shadows of the +Tower of Justice, while its upper half was cased in steely radiance, we +passed in by Charles's Palace, where the moon, shining through the +roofless top, made a row of smaller moons in the circular upper windows +of the dark gray wall. In the Court of the Pond a low gourd-like +umbellation at the north end sparkled in diamond lustre beneath the +quivering rays; while the whole Tower of Comares behind it repeated +itself in the gray-green water at our feet, with a twinkle of stars +around its reversed summit. This image, dropped into the liquid depth, +has dwelt there ever since its original was reared, and it somehow +idealized itself into a picture of the tower's primitive perfection. The +coldness of the moonlight on the soft cream-colored plaster, in this +warm, stilly air, is peculiarly impressive. As for sound, absolutely +none is heard but that of dripping water; nor did I ever walk through a +profounder, more ghost-like silence than that which eddied in +Lindaraxa's garden around the fountain, as it mourned in silvery +monotones of neglected grief. The moon-glare, coming through the lonely +arches, shaped gleaming cuirasses on the ground, or struck the +out-thrust branches of citron-trees, and seemed to drip from them again +in a dazzle of snowy fire; and when I discovered my two companions +looking out unexpectedly from a pointed window, they were so pale in the +brilliance which played over them that for a moment I easily fancied +them white-stoled apparitions from the past. As we glanced from the +Queen's Peinador, where the black trees of the shaggy ascent sprung +toward us in swift lines or serpentine coilings as if to grasp at us, we +saw long shadows from the towers thrown out over the sleeping city, +which, far below, caked together its squares of hammered silver, dusked +over by the dead gray of roofs that did not reflect the light. But +within the Hall of Ambassadors reigned a gloom like that of the grave. +Gleams of sharp radiance lay in the deep embrasures without penetrating; +and, at one, the intricacies of open-work above the arch were mapped in +clear figures of light on a space of jet-black floor. Another was filled +nearly to the top by the blue, weirdly luminous image of a mountain +across the valley. Through all these openings, I thought, the spirits of +the departed could find entrance as easily as the footless night breeze. +I wonder if the people who lived in this labyrinth of art ever smiled? +In the palpitating dusk, robed men and veiled women seemed to steal by +with a rustle no louder than that of their actual movement in life; silk +hangings hung floating from the walls; scented lamps shed their beams at +moments through the obscurity, and I saw the gleam of enamelled swords, +the shine of bronze candlesticks, the blur of colored vases in the +corners; the _kasidas_ of which poetry-loving monarchs turned the pages. +But in such a place I could not imagine laughter. I felt inclined to +prostrate myself in the darkness before I know not what power of by-gone +yet ever-present things--a half tangible essence that expressed only the +solemnity of life and the presentiment of change. + + + + +IV. + + +It is not surprising that Isabella the Catholic, who had so completely +thrown her heart into the conquest of Granada, should have wished to be +buried in that city, though dying far away. Her marble semblance rests +beside that of Ferdinand in the Royal Chapel, which serves as vestibule +to the ugly Renaissance cathedral. The statues are peculiarly +impressive, and sleep on high sepulchres of alabaster, beautifully +chased. Both of them are placed with their heads where, if sentient, +they might contemplate the astonishing reredos of the altar--a wooden +mass piled to the roof, and containing many niches filled by figures +carved, gilded, and painted with flesh-color. Among them is John the +Baptist standing upright, with blood gushing from his severed neck, +while the head which has just quitted it is being presented on a charger +to Herodias's daughter. There are other hideous things in this strange +and brutal church ornament, which is a museum of monstrosities; but +parts of it depict the triumphs of the royal pair, and it was no doubt +accordant with their taste. Their bodies lie in a black vault under the +floor, which we visited by the light of a single candle. Two long bulks +of lead, with a simple letter F. on one and an I. on the other; that was +all that marked the presence of two great monarchs' earthly part. Juana +the Mad, Charles V.'s mother, rests in another leaden casket--the poor +Queen, whom her famous son probably reported crazy for his own political +purposes, but whose supposed mania of watching her dead husband's body, +in jealous fear that he could still be loved by other women, has been +effectively treated in Padilla's picture. Her husband, Philip the Fair, +lies on the opposite side. Hardly could there be a more impressive +contrast than that between this tomb under the soft, musty shadows of +the chapel--all that is left of the conqueror--and that glorious +sun-imbued ruin on the hill--all that is left of the conquered. Two +mighty forces met and clashed around Granada in 1492; and, when the +victory was won, both receded like spent waves, leaving the Alhambra to +slow burial in rubbish and oblivion, under which Washington Irving +literally rediscovered it. How fine a coincidence that the very spot +from which Isabella finally despatched Columbus on his great quest +should owe so much to a son of the new continent which Columbus +discovered! + +Another edifice of no small interest, although seldom heard of at a +distance, is La Cartuja, the Carthusian church and monastery, lying upon +a hill-slope called Hinadamar, across the city and on its outskirts, due +west from the Alhambra. The monks who formerly occupied it have, in +common with those of other orders, been driven out of Spain; so that we +approached the church-steps through an old arched gate-way, no longer +guarded, and by way of a grass-grown enclosure that bore the appearance +of complete neglect. The interior, however, is very well preserved. It +was curious to walk through it, under the guidance of a pursy old woman, +and, afterward, of the lame sacristan, who did his best with chattering +gossip to rob the place of whatever sanctity remained to it. The +refectory (fitly inhabited by an echo) stands bare and empty, save for +the reading-desk, from which the monks used to be refreshed with +Scripture while at their meals; and on the wall at one end of this long, +high hall hangs apparently a wooden cross, which at first it is +impossible to believe is only painted there. The barren, round-arched +cloisters are frescoed with an interminable series of scenes by Cotan, +the same artist who painted the cross; and in this case he was given a +free commission, of which he availed himself to the utmost in depicting +the most distressing incidents of Carthusian martyrology. Especially +does he seem to have delighted in the persecutions inflicted by English +Protestants under Henry VIII. on San Bruno, the founder of this order. +How strange the conception of a holy and exalted life which led men in +religious retirement to keep before their eyes, in these corridors meant +for mild exercise and recreation, representations so full of blood and +horror! In fact, one cannot escape the impression, stamped more vividly +on the mind here in Granada than anywhere else, except perhaps in +Toledo, that Christianity in Spain meant barbarism. But where it was +released from the immediate purposes of ecclesiastic dogma, Christian +art showed a taste not so much barbarous as barbaric, and the results of +its activity were often beautiful. In this same monastery is a splendid +example of that tendency. The church is not remarkably fine or +impressive; but the sacristy is a marvel of sumptuous decoration, and +decoration very peculiar in kind. Its walls are wholly incased in a most +effective species of green and white marble, cut in smooth, polished +slabs, the natural veinings of which present grotesque resemblances to +human and other forms, which are somewhat trivially insisted upon by the +custodian and guide, and should be allowed to lose themselves in the +general richness of aspect. The great doors of this sacristy are inlaid +with ebony, silver, mother-of-pearl, and tortoise-shell, in designs of +much intricacy and richness; and all around the room (which is provided +with an altar, so that it becomes a sort of sub-church or chapel, +adjoining the main church) are low closets fitted into the wall. These +were originally used for holding the vestments of the brotherhood. Made +of sweet-scented cedar, they are adorned on the outside with the same +inlaid work that appears on the doors. The dim, veiled shimmer of the +mother-of-pearl, the delicate, translucent browns of the tortoise-shell, +and the wandering threads of silver, form a decorative surface wonderful +in its refinement, its perfection of elegance. I scarcely know how to +give an idea of its appearance, unless I say that it was somewhat as if +layers of spider-webs had been spread, with all their mystery of exact +curves and angles, over the wood-work, and then had had their fibres +changed by some magic into precious and enduring materials. The frail +but well-adjusted fabric has outlasted the dominion of those for whose +selfish and secluded pride of worship it was made; and, seeing it, one +may pardon them some of their mistakes. It is pleasant also to find that +the art of making this inlay, after having long fallen out of use, has +been revived in Granada; for in these days of enlightened adaptation and +artistic education there seems to be no reason why such a handicraft +should be lost or even confined to Spain. + +The gypsies of Granada are disappointing, apart from their peculiar +quivering dance, performed by _gitanas_ in all Spanish cities under the +name of _flamenco_.[10] Their hill-caves, so operative with one's +curiosity when regarded from across the valley, gape open in such dingy, +sour, degraded foulness on a nearer view, that I found no amount of +theory would avail to restore their interest. Yet some of the +fortune-telling women are spirited enough, and the inextinguishable +Romany spark smoulders in their black eyes. Perhaps it was an +interloping drop of Celtic blood that made one of them say to me, +"Señorito, listen. I will tell you your fortune. But I speak French--_I +come from Africa!_" And to clinch the matter she added, "You needn't pay +me if every word of the prediction isn't true!" Much as I had heard of +the Spanish bull, I never knew until then how closely it resembled the +Irish breed. + +Fortuny's model, Marinero, who lives in a burrow on the Alhambra side, +occasionally starts up out of the earth in a superb and expensive +costume, due to the dignity of his having been painted by Fortuny. Dark +as a negro, with a degree of luminous brown in his skin, and very +handsome, he plants himself immovably in one spot to sell photographs of +himself. His nostrils visibly dilate with pride, but he makes no other +bid for custom. He expands his haughty nose, and you immediately buy a +picture. Velveteen chanced upon Marinero's daughter, and got her to +pose. When he engaged her she was so delighted that she took a rose from +her hair and presented it to him, with a charming, unaffected air of +gratitude, came an hour before the time, and waited impatiently. She +wore a wine-colored skirt, if I remember, a violet jacket braided with +black, and a silk neckerchief of dull purple-pink silk. But that was not +enough: a blue silk kerchief also was wound about her waist, and in +among her smooth jet locks she had tucked a vivid scarlet flower. The +result was perfect, for the rich pale-brown of her complexion could +harmonize anything; and in Spain, moreover, combinations of color that +appear too harsh elsewhere are paled and softened by the overpowering +light. + +[Illustration: GYPSIES.] + +Episodes like these tinged our dreams of the Alhambra with novel dashes +of living reality. Even the tedious bustle of a Spanish town, too, has +its attractions. The moving figures on the steep Albaycin streets, that +perpetually break into flights of steps; the blocks of pressed snow +brought in mule panniers every night from the Sierra to cool sugar-water +and risadas of orange at the cafés; peasants coming in to the beautiful +old grain market with gaudy mantles over their shoulders, stuffing into +their sashes a variety of purchases, and becoming corpulent with a day's +transactions; the patient efforts of shop-keepers to water the main +street, Zacatin, with a pailful at a time--all this was amusing to +watch. The Generalife was another source of pleasure, for in its topmost +loggia one may sit like a bird, with the Alhambra spread out below in +all the distinctness of a raised map. In the saloons of the Generalife +hang the portraits of the Moorish and the Christian ancestors of the +present owner. Their direct descendant is a woman; therefore she has +married an Italian count, and flitted from this ideal, quite +unparalleled eyry, returning to her ancestral home only at rare +intervals. + +There came an hour when we too flitted. To oblige an eccentric +time-table we had to get up at dawn; but the last glimpse of the +Alhambra at that early hour was a compensation. The dim red towers +already began to soften into a reminiscence under this tender blending +of moonlight and morning; but a small constellation in the east sparkled +on the blue like a necklace of diamonds, and Saturn still flamed above +the mountains, growing momently larger, as if it were a huge topaz in +the turban of some giant Moor advancing in the early stillness to +reclaim the Alhambra throne. + + + + +_MEDITERRANEAN PORTS AND GARDENS._ + +I. + +[Illustration: A] + +A gypsy dance! What does one naturally imagine it to be like? For my +part, I had expected something wild, free, and fantastic; something in +harmony with moonlight, the ragged shadows of trees, and the flicker of +a rude camp-fire. Nothing could have been wider of the mark. The +_flamenco_--that dance of the gypsies, in its way as peculiarly Spanish +as the church and the bull-ring, and hardly less important--is of +Oriental origin, and preserves the impassive quality, the suppressed, +tantalized sensuousness belonging to Eastern performances in the +saltatory line. It forms a popular entertainment in cafés of the lower +order throughout the southern provinces, from Madrid all the way around +to Valencia, in Sevilla and Malaga, and is gotten up as a select and +expensive treat for travellers at Granada. But we saw it at its best in +Malaga. + +We were conducted, about eleven o'clock in the evening, to a roomy, +rambling, dingy apartment in the crook of an obscure and dirty street, +where we found a large number of sailors, peasants, and _chulos_ seated +drinking at small tables, with a very occasional well-dressed citizen +or two here and there. In one corner was a stage rising to the level of +our chins when we were seated, which had two fronts, like the +Shakspearian stage in pictures, so that spectators on the side might +have a fair chance, and be danced to from time to time. On this sat +about a dozen men and women, the latter quite as much Spanish as gypsy, +and some of them dressed partially in tights, with an affectation of +sailors' or pages' costume in addition. At Madrid and Sevilla their +sisters in the craft wore ordinary feminine dresses, and looked the +possessors of more genuine Romany blood. + +But here, too, the star _danseuse_, the chief mistress of the art +_flamenco_, was habited in the voluminous calico skirt which Peninsular +propriety prescribes for this particular exhibition, thereby doing all +it can to conceal and detract from the amazing skill of muscular +movement involved. A variety of songs and dances with guitar +accompaniments, some effective and others tedious, preceded the gypsy +performance. I think we listened nearly half an hour to certain +disconsolate barytone wailings, which were supposed to interpret the +loves, anxieties, and other emotions of a _contrabandista_, or smuggler, +hiding from pursuit in the mountains. Judging from the time at his +disposal for this lament, the smuggling business must indeed be sadly on +the decline. The whole entertainment was supervised by a man precisely +like all the chiefs of these troupes in Spain. Their similarity is +astounding; even their features are almost identical: when you have seen +one, you have seen all his fellows, and know exactly what they will do. +He may be a little older or younger, a little more gross or less so, but +he is always clean-shaven like the other two sacred types--the +bull-fighter and the priest--and his face is in every case weakly but +good-humoredly sensual. But what does he _do_? Well, nothing. He is the +most important personage on the platform, but he does not pretend to +contribute to the programme beyond an exclamation of encouragement to +the performers at intervals. He is a Turveydrop in deportment at +moments, and always a Crummles in self-esteem. A few highly favored +individuals as they come into the café salute him, and receive a +condescending nod in return. Then some friend in the audience sends up +to him a glass of chamomile wine, or comes close and offers it with his +own hand. The leader invariably makes excuses, and without exception +ends by taking the wine, swallowing a portion, and gracefully spitting +out the rest at the side of the platform. He smokes the cigars of +admiring acquaintances, and throws the stumps on the stage. All the +while he carries in his hand a smooth, plain walking-stick, with which +he thumps time to the music when inclined. + +[Illustration: GYPSY DANCE.] + +At last the moment for the _flamenco_ arrives. The leader begins to beat +monotonously on the boards, just as our Indians do with their tomahawks, +to set the rhythm; the guitars strike into their rising and falling +melancholy strain. Two or three women chant a weird song, and all clap +their hands in a peculiar measure, now louder, now fainter, and with +pauses of varying length between the emphatic reports. The dancer has +not yet risen from her seat; she seems to demand encouragement. The +others call out, "Ollé!"--a gypsy word for "bravo!"--and smile and nod +their heads at her to draw her on. All this excites in you a livelier +curiosity, a sort of suspense. "What can be coming now?" you ask. +Finally she gets up, smiling half scornfully; a light comes into her +eyes; she throws her head back, and her face is suffused with an +expression of daring, of energy, and strange pride. Perhaps it is only +my fancy, but there seems to creep over the woman at that instant a +reminiscence of far-off and mysterious things; her face, partially +lifted, seems to catch the light of old traditions, and to be imbued +with the spirit of something belonging to the past, which she is about +to revive. Her arms are thrown upward, she snaps her fingers, and draws +them down slowly close before her face as far as the waist, when, with +an easy waving sideward, the "pass" is ended, and the arms go up again +to repeat the movement. Her body too is in motion now, only slightly, +with a kind of vibration; and her feet, unseen beneath the flowing +skirt, have begun an easy, quiet, repressed rhythmical figure. So she +advances, her face always forward, and goes swiftly around a circle, +coming back to the point where she began, without appearing to step. The +music goes on steadily, the cries of her companions become more +animated, and she continues to execute that queer, aimless, yet dimly +beckoning gesture with both arms--never remitting it nor the snapping of +her fingers, in fact, until she has finished the whole affair. Her feet +go a little faster; you can hear them tapping the floor as they weave +upon it some more complicated measure; but there is not the slightest +approach to a springing tendency. Her progress is sinuous; she glides +and shuffles, her soles quitting the boards as little as +possible--something between a clog dance and a walk, perfect in time, +with a complexity in the exercise of the feet demanding much skill. She +treats the performance with great dignity; the intensity of her +absorption invests it with a something almost solemn. + +Forward again! She gazes intently in front as she proceeds, and again as +she floats backward, looking triumphant, perhaps with a spark of latent +mischief in her eyes. She stamps harder upon the floor; the sounds +follow like pistol reports. The regular _clack_, _clack-clack_ of the +smitten hands goes on about her, and the cries of the rest increase in +zest and loudness. + +"Ollé! ollé!" + +"Bravo, my gracious one!" + +"Muy bien! muy bien!" + +"Hurrah! Live the queen of the ants!" shouts the leader. And the +audience roars at his eccentric phrase. + +The dancer becomes more impassioned, but in no way more violent. Her +body does not move above the hips. It is only the legs that twist and +turn and bend and stamp, as if one electric shock after another were +being sent downward through them. Every few minutes her activity passes +by some scarcely noted gradation into a subtly new phase, but all these +phases are bound together by a certain uniformity of restraint and fixed +law. Now she almost comes to a stand-still, and then we notice a +quivering, snaky, shuddering motion, beginning at the shoulders and +_flowing_ down through her whole body, wave upon wave, the dress drawn +tighter with one hand showing that this continues downward to her feet. +Is she a Lamia in the act of undergoing metamorphosis, a serpent, or a +woman? The next moment she is dancing, receding--this time with smiles, +and with an indescribable air of invitation in the tossing of her arms. +But the crowning achievement is when the hips begin to sway too, and, +while she is going back and forward, execute a rotary movement like that +of the bent part of an auger. In fact, you expect her to bore herself +into the floor and disappear. Then all at once the stamping and clapping +and the twanging strings are stopped, as she ceases her formal +gyrations: she walks back to her seat like one liberated from a spell, +and the whole thing is over. + +Velveteen and I came to Malaga direct from the Alhambra. The transition +was one from the land of the olive to that of the palm. When we left +Granada, an hour after daybreak, the slopes of the Sierra Nevada below +the snow-line were softly overspread with rose and gold upon the blue, +and the unmatchably pale bright yellow-white of the grain fields along +the valley was spotted with the dark clumps of olive-trees, at a +distance no bigger than cabbages. The last thing we saw was a sturdy +peasant in knee-breeches and laced legs, with a tattered cloak flung +around his chest and brought over the left shoulder in stately folds, +that gave him the mien of a Roman senator, and put to shame our vulgar +railroad plans. As the day grew, the hills in shadow melted into a warm +citron hue, and those lifting their faces to the light were white as +chalk, with faint blue shadows down in the clefts. + +It was in this same neighborhood that we saw peasant women in trousers +doing harvest-work. To the enormity of donning the male garb they added +the hardihood of choosing for the color of their trousers a bright +sulphur-yellow. My friend the artist, I believe, secretly envied them +this splendor denied to men; and in truth they would make spirited and +effective material for a painter. Their yellow legs descended from a +very short skirt of blue or vermilion, a mere concession to prejudice, +for it was mostly caught up and pinned in folds to keep it out of the +way. Above that the dress and figure were feminine; the colored kerchief +around the throat, and the gay bandanna twisted around the dark loose +hair under a big straw hat, finishing off the whole person as something +dashing, free, novel, and yet quite natural and not unwomanly. + +An old man at Bobadilla offered us some _palmitos_--pieces of pith from +the palm-trees, tufted with a few feathery young leaves, and considered +a delicacy when fresh. It had a bitter-sweet, rather vapid taste, but I +hailed it as a friendly token from the semi-tropical region we were +approaching. So I bought one, and my companion presented the old man +with some of the lunch we had brought; whereupon the shrivelled +merchant, with a courtesy often met with in Spain, insisted upon his +taking a _palmito_ as a present. Thus, bearing our victorious palm +leaves, we moved forward to meet the palms themselves. The train rumbled +swiftly through twelve successive tunnels, giving, between them, +magnificent glimpses of deep wild gorges; fantastic rocks piled up in +all conceivable shapes, like a collection of giant crystals arranged by +a mad-man, amid mounds of gray and slate-colored clay pulverized by the +heat, and reduced absolutely to ashes. The last barrier of the +Alpujarras was passed, and we rushed out upon lower levels, immense and +fertile vales, dense with plantations of orange and lemon, interspersed +with high-necked, musing palms and brilliant thickets of pomegranate. +Through the hot earth in which these plantations were placed ran the +narrow canals, not more than two feet wide, containing those streams of +milky water from the snow-fields on which all the vegetation of the +region depends. + +It is of this and the neighboring portions of Spain that Castelar, in +one of his recent writings, says: "The wildest coasts of our +peninsula--those coasts of Almeria, Alicante, Murcia, where the fruits +of various zones are yielded--compensate for their great plenty by years +of desolation comparable only to those described in the chronicles of +the Middle Ages, and suffered in the crowded lands of the Orient.... The +mountains of those districts, which breathe the incense of thyme and +lavender, are carpeted with silky grasses, and full of mines, and +intersected by quarries. The _honduras_, or valleys, present the palm +beside the pomegranate, the vine next to the olive, barley and +sugar-cane in abundance, orange orchards and fields of maize; in fine, +all the fruits of the best zones, incomparable both as to quantity and +quality. The azure waves of their sea, resembling Venetian crystals, +contain store of savory fish; and the equality of the temperature, the +purity of the air, the splendor of the days, and the freshness, the +soothing calm of the nights, impart such enchantment that, once +habituated to them, in whatever other part of the world you may be, you +feel yourself, alas! overcome by irremediable nostalgia." The eloquent +statesman has something to say, likewise, of the people. "Nowhere does +there exist in such vitality," he declares, "the love of family and the +love of labor.... Property is very much divided; the customs are +exceedingly democratic; there exist few proprietors who are not workers, +and few workers who are not proprietors." Democratic the country is, no +doubt; too much so, perhaps, for peace under monarchical rule. These +fervid, fertile coast lands, containing the gardens of Spain, are also +the home of revolution. + +[Illustration: A SPANISH MONK.] + +The north was the Carlist stronghold; the south furnished in every city +a little Republican volcano. Nor is the simple, patriarchal state of +society which Castelar indicates quite universal. Here, as in other +provinces, we found luxurious wealth flourishing in the heart of +pitiable poverty. The Governor of Malaga was on our train, and a +delightfully honest and amiable old gentleman in our compartment, seeing +him on the platform surrounded by a ring of dapper sycophants, who +laughed unreasonably at his mild jokes, began to exclaim, in great +wrath, "So many cabals! so many cabals! Unfortunate nation! there is +nothing but cabal and intrigue all the time. Those men have got some +sugar they want to dispose of to advantage, and so they fawn on the +Governor. It is dirty; it is foul," etc. + +At Malaga there was a coast-guard steamer lying in the harbor, and, as +we were looking at it, I asked our companion, a resident, whether they +caught many smugglers. + +"Oh, sometimes," was the answer. "Just enough to cover it." + +"Cover what?" + +"Oh, the fraud. Out of twenty smuggling vessels they will take perhaps +one, to keep up appearances." And he made the usual significant movement +of the fingers denoting the acceptance of bribes. + +The heat at Malaga surpassed anything we had encountered before. The +horses of the cabs had gay-colored awnings stretched over them on little +poles fixed to the shafts, so that when they moved along the street they +looked like holiday boats on four legs. The river that runs through the +city was completely dry, and, as if to complete the boat similitude, the +cabs drove wantonly across its bed instead of using the bridges. These +equipages, however, are commonplace compared with the wagons used for +the transportation of oil and water jars (_tinajas_) in the adjoining +province of Murcia. A delightful coolness was diffused from the sea at +evening, when the fashionable drive--the half-moon mole stretching out +to the light-house--was crowded with stylish vehicles, and the sea-wall +all along the street was lined with citizens, soldiers, priests, and +pretty women, who dangled their feet from the low parapet in blissful +indolence. Then, too, the lamps were lighted in the floating bath-houses +moored in the harbor, and one of them close to the mouth of a city drain +seemed to be particularly well patronized. The streets, almost forsaken +by day, were crowded after nightfall. The shops were open late. By eight +or nine o'clock life began. + +The Café de la Loba (the Wolf)--an immense building, where there is a +court entirely roofed over by a single grape-vine, spreading from a stem +fifteen inches in diameter, and rivalling the famous vines of Hampton +Court and Windsor--was well filled, and in many small _tiendas de vino_ +heavy drinking seemed to be going on. But the Malaguenese do not imbibe +the rich sweet wines manufactured in their vicinity. These are too +heating to be taken in such a climate, as we were able to convince +ourselves on tasting some fine vintages at one of the _bodegas_ the next +day. Nevertheless, the lower class of the inhabitants find no difficulty +in attaining to a maximum of drunkenness on milder beverages. Even the +respectable idlers in the café under our hotel drank a great deal too +much beer, if I may judge from their prolonging their obstreperous +discussion of politics into the small hours, while we lay feverish in a +room above listening to their voices, blended with the whistle of a +boatswain on some ship at the neighboring quay; ourselves meanwhile +enduring with Anglo-Saxon reserve the too effusive attentions offered by +mosquitoes of the Latin race. + +[Illustration: TRANSPORTATION OF POTTERY.] + +In justice to the Spaniards it should be said that excessive drinking +is a rare fault among them. As a nation they surpass all other civilized +peoples in setting an example of temperance as to potations (excepting +water), and of remarkable frugality in eating. The Mediterranean ports, +through their commerce with the outside world, are tinged by foreign +elements; license creeps in with notions of liberty; the sailors, and +that whilom powerful fraternity the smugglers, have likewise assisted in +fostering turbulent characteristics. + +[Illustration: GARLIC VENDER.] + +To me the best part of Malaga was the view of it from the deck of a +Segovia steamer, on the eve of a cruise along the coast. Behind the +plain sandy-colored houses rose a background of mountains fantastic in +outline as flames; the cathedral, in no way striking, towered up above +the roofs, and was in turn overshadowed by an ancient fortress on the +eastern height, which was one of the last to fall before the returning +tide of Spanish arms, and still claws the precipitous ridge with +innumerable towers and bastions, as if to keep from slipping off its +honorable eminence in the drowsy lapses of old age. Below this, close to +the water, stood the inevitable Plaza de Toros--an immense cheese-shaped +structure of stone, where a friend of mine, Spanish by birth, tells me +he was once watching the game of bulls, when part of the crowd were +struck by the happy thought of starting a revolution. They acted at once +on this bright idea; they "pronounced" in favor of something, and +attacked the military guard. In an instant a battle had begun; the place +resounded with musketry, and the populace tore away pieces of the +masonry to hurl at the troops below. But that was in the good old days, +and such things do not happen now, though there is always a strong +detachment of soldiers on hand at the arena, ready for any sudden +revival of these freaks. The water around us shone with a lustre like +satin; and, fluttering over the bright green surface, played incredibly +vivid reflections of blue and red from the steamers; while the pure +white light, striking back from the edges of the undulations, quivered +and shimmered along the black hulk of a vessel, and looked like steam or +mist in constant motion. + +Highly effective, too, was the carbineer (all custom-house officers in +Spain, whether armed or not, are called _carabineros_) who stood on deck +with a musket at rest, a living monument to the majesty of the revenue +laws. We had been solemnly warned beforehand of the risk we ran in +carrying a basket of ale on board in the face of this functionary, and +the importance of giving him a _peseta_ (twenty cents) had been urged +upon us; but we at first looked for him in vain, and when we found him +he appeared so harmless that we kept the _peseta_. I noticed that he +laid his gun aside as much as possible. Part of the time he smoked a +short pipe under cover of his huge mustache, and eyed people sternly, as +if suspecting that they might take advantage of this temporary relaxing +of vigilance; but he studiously avoided seeing any merchandise of any +description. + +The steamer was to start at four in the afternoon, and we made great +haste to get on board in time; but there had evidently never been the +smallest intention of despatching her until an hour and a half later. +This was in accord with the national trait of distrust. No one was +expected to believe the announcement as to the time, and if the real +hour had been named, no one _would_ have believed it. Aware of this, the +more experienced natives did not even begin to come aboard until toward +five o'clock. Spanish clocks are the most accommodating kind of +mechanism I have ever had the fortune to encounter. They appear to exist +rather as an ornamental feature than as articles of use. You order a +carriage, and it is promised at a certain time; you are told that +something is to be accomplished at a fixed hour; but this is only done +out of deference to your outlandish prejudices. The hour strikes, and +the thing is not done. You begin to doubt whether the hour itself has +arrived. Is it not a vulgar illusion to suppose so? Your Spaniard +certainly thinks it is. He knows that time is an arbitrary distinction, +and prefers to adopt the scale of eternity. The one exception is the +bull-fight. That is recognized as a purely mundane and temporal +institution; it must not be delayed a moment; and to make sure of +punctuality, it is begun almost before the time announced. But anything +like a sea-voyage, though it be only along the shore, comes under a +different heading, and must be undertaken with as much mystery and +caution as if it were a conspiracy to erect a new government. + +To tell the truth, we were glad to get away from the tyranny of the +minute-hand, and were not displeased at the lazy freedom of the steamer. +The stewards came up and shut the skylights, spread a table-cloth over +them, laid plates, and formed a hollow square of fruits and olives in +the centre. Those of the passengers that listed took their places at +this improvised banqueting board, and by the time the _puchero_ was +served--a savory stew composed of chopped meat, beans, carrots, spices, +and any little thing the cook's fancy may suggest--we were moving out of +the basin, past the curved mole and the light-house, and toy battery at +its end. The sunset had thrown its glow over sky and mountains, as if it +were an after-thought, to make the surroundings perfect. We glided +smoothly over a floor of blue--deep, solid-looking, and veined with +white--a pale golden dome above us, and a delicious wind playing round +us, like the exhalation of some balmy sub-tropical dream. On these coast +steamers one buys a ticket for the transport, and then pays for what he +eats. This rule reduced the company at our deck table to a choice and +pleasant circle, the head of which was Señor Segovia, one of the owners +of the line, a benignant, comfortable Spaniard--"an Andalusian to the +core," as he proudly said. We had, as usual, early chocolate at six or +seven; breakfast not so near eleven as to admit any suspicion of +subserviency to the base time-keeping clock; and dinner--a second but +ampler breakfast--between five and six. Some of the first-cabin +passengers brought their own provision, or purchased it at the towns +where we touched every day, and fed secretly in out-of-the-way places. +As for the second-class, consisting mainly of peasants swathed in +strange garments edged and spotted with fantastic color, they were never +seen to eat; but I think that privately they gnawed the pride of ancient +race in their hearts, and found it sufficient provender. We would come +upon them, when we went forward in our night patrol, lying on the deck +in magnificent unconcern, enveloped by stately rags wound round and +round their bodies, and lifting toward us a stern, reproachful gaze at +our interruption of their tranquillity. + +The Mediterranean was calm as a pond, and we roused ourselves to a +serene morning, under which the hills gleamed pale and clear along the +margin of the waves, the huge sides seamed with dry water-courses, like +the creases in a human palm. Beyond the first line of peaks we could +descry for a while the soft ghostly whiteness of an inland snow range +glimmering above the faded green, the violet shadows, the hard streaks +of white and powderings of red earth in the lower series. No sign of +life was seen upon the puckered, savage coast. It was the bulwark of +that Tarshish to which Solomon sent his ships for gold; new to us as it +was new to him, yet now unutterably old; silent, yet speaking; +uncommunicative, yet vaguely predicting a future vast and unknown as the +vanished ages. It would be hard to tell how awful in its unchanged +grandeur was the face of those mighty hills, so unexpectedly eloquent. + +[Illustration: DIVING FOR COPPERS.] + +It was a relief to find that we were approaching Almeria. A road cut in +the rock; a stout arched bridge carrying it over an indentation of the +sea; a small square edifice on a rock to guard the road; then the +distant jumble of low houses along a sheltered bay, and an empty +fortress on the sharp hillcrest over it--these were the tokens of our +progress toward another inhabited spot. We had on board a two-legged +enigma in a white helmet-hat, who wrote with ostentatious industry in a +note-book, played fluently on the cabin piano, and now emerged upon the +quarterdeck in a pair of bulging canary leather slippers which gave his +feet the appearance of overgrown lemons. He afterward proved to be an +English colporteur. We also had a handsome, gay, talkative, and witty +Frenchman, who, with a morbid conscientiousness as to what was fitting, +insisted on being sea-sick, although the sea was hardly ruffled; and him +we succeeded in resuscitating, after the boat had come quietly to anchor +in the harbor, so far that he began to long audibly for Paris and the +café on the boulevard, "_et mon absinthe_." We watched with these +companions the naked boys who surrounded the vessel in a flotilla of +row-boats, offering to dive for coppers thrown into the water, precisely +as I have seen young Mexican Indians do at Acapulco. Near by lay another +steamer just in from Africa, disembarking a mass of returned Spanish +settlers, fugitives from the atrocities of the Arabs at Oran: a pathetic +sight as they dropped silently into the barges that bore them to +shore--some utterly destitute, with only the clothes in which they had +fled before the fanatic murderers, and others accompanied by a few +meagre household goods. Did they feel that "irremediable nostalgia," I +wonder, of which Señor Castelar speaks? The sun was as hot as that which +had shone upon them just across the strait, on the edge of the Dark +Continent; and the low-roofed glaring houses huddled at the feet of the +Moorish stronghold, the Alcasaba, were so Oriental that I should think +they must have found it hard to believe they had left Africa at all. + +Almeria, like other towns of this southern shore-line, is more Eastern +than Spanish in appearance--only the long winding or zigzag covered +ways, traced on the steep hills like swollen veins, indicated the +presence of the lead-mines which give it an existence in commerce. These +conduct the poisonous smoke to a point above the air inhaled by the +townsfolk, and it is seen puffing from tall chimneys at the crest of the +steep, as if the mountain were alive and gasping for breath. The town, +faintly relieved against its pale, dusty background as we first saw it, +almost disappeared in the blinding blaze of light that swept it when we +got closer. We landed, and attempted to walk, but the dry, burning heat +made us shrink for shelter into any narrow thread of shadow that the +houses presented. Even the shadows looked whitish. It was impossible to +get as far as the weed-grown cathedral, which, as we could see from the +water, had been provided in former times with fortified turrets for +defence against piratical incursions. So we sunk gratefully into a +restaurant kiosk at the head of the _alameda_, where we could look down +the hot, yellow street to a square of cerulean sea; and there we sipped +lemonade while tattered, crimson-sashed peasants moved about us, some of +them occasionally dashing the road with water dipped from a +gutter-rivulet at the side. We had barely become reconciled to the +Granadan women in trousers, when we were obliged to notice that the men +in this vicinity wore short white skirts in place of the usual nether +garment. How is Spain ever to be unified on such a basis as this? The +local patriots had seemingly wrestled with the problem and been +defeated, for a dreary memorial column in front of the kiosk recorded +how they had fallen in some futile revolutionary struggle. + +On a promontory, passed as we sailed away, the drought and dust of the +town yielded suddenly to luxurious greenness of sugar-cane and other +growths. Almeria was once surrounded by similar fertility, but the land +has been so wastefully denuded of forest that all through this +region--the old kingdoms of Murcia and Valencia--only certain favorable +spots retain their earlier plenty by means of constant care and +assiduous watering. Cartagena, one of the chief naval stations of the +country, cannot exhibit even such an oasis. It is unmitigated desert. +Not a tree or shrub shows itself amid the baked and calcined stone-work +and blistering pavements of the city; and the landscape without looks +almost as arid. The place is considered impregnable to a foreign foe, +and I can't imagine that foe wanting it to be otherwise, if conquest +involves residence. Entered by a narrow gap commanded by batteries, the +harbor is a round and spacious one, scooped out of frowning highlands +that bear on the apex of their cones unattainable forts, thrown up like +the rim around volcanic craters. There is but one level access to the +city on the land side, and that is blockaded by a stout wall with a +single gate. Such was our next goal, reached after a quiet night, which +Velveteen and I spent in the open air, having carried our rugs and +pillows up from the state-room on its invasion by new passengers. At two +o'clock in the morning our vessel stole into the port. There was one +pale amber streak in the east, over the gloomy, indistinct heights +studded with embrasured walls and mine chimneys. By-and-by a brightness +grew out of it. Then the amber was reflected in the glassy harbor. An +arch of rose cloud sprung up after this, and was also reflected, the +hills lightening to a faded gray and brown. All this time the stars +continued sparkling, and one of them threw rings of dancing diamond on +the broken wave. Suddenly the diamond flash and the rose tint vanished, +and it was broad golden-white day, with calorific beams beating strongly +upon us, instead of the crepuscular chill of dawn that had just been +searching our veins. + +Cartagena has its war history, of course. A Commune was established +there by Roque Barcia in 1873, which declined allegiance to the +republican government at Madrid, and the city was accordingly besieged. +Barcia had been living on forced loans from the inhabitants, and was +loath to go; but the army of the republic made a few dents in the stone +wall with twenty-pounders, and that decided him. He got on board the +Spanish navy in the harbor, and ran away with it to Africa. Perhaps +that accounts for the slimness of the naval contingent now. There is an +academy for cadets in the place, but only two small ships-of-war were +anchored in the noble bay. The town of Cartagena is remarkable for big +men and very minute donkeys. The men ride on the donkeys with incredible +hardihood. You see a burly Sancho Panza flying along the main street at +a rapid pace, with his sandalled feet some three inches from the ground, +and wonder what new kind of motor he has discovered, until you perceive +beneath his ponderous body a nervous, vaguely ecstatic quivering of four +black legs, attached to a small spot of head from which two mulish ears +project. + +[Illustration: A MODERN SANCHO PANZA.] + +There is not much to see in Cartagena. Blind people seem to be numerous +there--a fact which may be owing to the excessive dazzle of the sunlight +and absence of verdure. But I couldn't help thinking some of them must +have gone blind from sheer _ennui_, because there was nothing around +them worth looking at. Our visit, however, was in one respect a success: +we found a broad strip of shade there. It was caused by the high city +wall intercepting the forenoon light. Out of the shadow some +enterprising men had constructed, with the aid of two or three chairs +and several pairs of shears, a barber's shop _al fresco_; and asses and +peasants, as they travelled in and out through the city gate, stopped at +this establishment to be shaved. For it is an important item in the care +of Spanish donkeys that they should be sheared as to the back, in order +to make a smoother resting-place for man or pannier. So while the master +held his animal one of the barbers plied some enormous clacking shears, +and littered the ground with mouse-colored hair, leaving the beast's +belly fur-covered below a fixed line, and for a small additional price +executing a raised pattern of starpoints around the neck. The tonsorial +profession is an indispensable one in a country where shaving the whole +face is so generally practised among all the humbler orders, not to +mention _toreros_ and ecclesiastics; but the discomfort to which the +barber's customers submit is astonishing. Instead of being pampered, +soothed, labored at with confidential respectfulness, and lulled into +luxurious harmony with himself, as happens in America, a man who courts +the razor in Spain has to sit upright in a stiff chair, and meekly hold +under his chin a brass basin full of suds, and fitting his throat by +means of a curved nick at one side. One individual we saw seated by the +dusty road at the gate, with a towel around his shoulders and another in +his hands to catch his own falling locks. He looked submissive and +miserable, as if assisting at his own degradation, while the barber was +magnified into a tyrant exercising sovereign pleasure, and might have +been expected, should the whim cross him, to strike off his victim's +head instead of his hair. + +[Illustration: STREET BARBER.] + +[Illustration: BIBLES _VERSUS_ MELONS.] + +The voyage continued as charmingly as it began. Quiet transitions from +the deep blue outside to the pronounced green within the harbors were +its most startling incidents. The colporteur gave tracts to the sailors, +or traded Bibles for melons with the fruit boys; the Frenchman, who was +making a commercial tour through the provinces, bestowed a liberal and +cheerful disparagement on the nation which afforded him a business. We +continued to eat meals in holiday fashion on the skylight hatches, and +slept there through the balmy night, occasionally seeing the sailors +clambering on the taffrail or in the rigging, always with cigarettes, +the glowing points of which shone in the darkness like fire-flies. The +gravity with which they stuck to these _papelitos_ while knotting ropes +or lowering a boat was fascinating in its inappropriateness. The +headlands grew less bold before we tied to the dock at Alicante in the +hush of a sultry night. We could see nothing of the town except a bright +twinkle of lamps along the quay, contrasting gayly with the blood-red +light on a felucca in the harbor, its long vivid stain trickling away +through the water like the current from a wound; and the rules of the +customs would not admit of our landing till morning. + + +II. + +Our trunks had been on the dock two or three hours when we debarked in a +small boat, and some fifteen men had gathered around them, waiting for +the owners, like sharks attracted by floating fragments from a ship and +wondering what manner of prey is coming to them. They all touched their +caps to us as we bumped the shore. These cap-touches are worth in the +abstract about one real--five cents. The grand total of speculative +politeness laid out upon us was therefore more than half a dollar; but, +on our selecting two porters, values rapidly declined, and the market +"closed in a depressed condition." The customs officers wore a wild, +freebooters' sort of uniform--blue trousers with a red stripe, blue +jeans blouses with a belt and long sword, and straw hats. They were also +very lazy; and while we were awaiting their attentions we had time to +observe the manner of unloading merchandise in these latitudes. Every +box, barrel, or bale hoisted out of a lighter was swung by a rope to +which twenty men lent their strength; there were three more men in the +lighter, and three others arranged the hoisting tackle; in all, +twenty-six persons were occupied with a task for which two or three +ought to suffice. Each time, the crowd of haulers fastened on the cable, +ran off frantically with it, and then, in a simultaneous fit of +paralysis, dropped it as the burden was landed. + +These laborers wore huge straw hats, on the crown of which was fitted a +_birreta_, the small ordinary blue cap of the country. They had a queer +air of carrying this superfluous cap around on top of the head as a sort +of solemn ceremony. The wharf was alive, too, with small wagons, roofed +over by a cover of heavy matting made of _esparto_ grass, and furnished +with a long, rough-barked pole at the side, to be used as a brake. Above +this busy scene towered a luminous sienna-tinted cliff, sustaining the +castle of Santa Barbara poised in the white air like a dream-edifice; +though a rift high up in the hill marks the spot where the French +exploded a mine during the Peninsular war. All these Mediterranean towns +are guarded by some such eagle's eyry overlooking the sea, and the old +monarchs showed a fine poetic sense in granting them for municipal arms +their local castle resting on a wave. Close to the lapping waters lay +the serried houses, bordered by an esplanade planted with rows of short +palms. When the carbineers had looked vaguely into our trunks, and shut +them again, the porters tossed them into a little cart, and plunged into +the town at a pace with which we could compete only so far as to keep +them in sight while they twisted first around one corner and then +another, and then up a long chalky street to the Fonda Bossio, which has +the name of being the best hotel in Spain. It has excellent cookery, and +some furlongs of tile-floored corridor, which the servants apparently +believe to be streets, for they water them every day, just as the +thoroughfares are watered, out of tin basins. We were overwhelmed with +courtesy. For instance, I would call the waiter. + +[Illustration: CUSTOMS OFFICERS.] + +"Command me, your grace," was his reply. + +"Can you bring me some fresh water?" ("Fresh" always means cold.) + +[Illustration: POST INN, ALICANTE.] + +"With all the will in the world." + +When he came with it I tried to rise to his standard by saying, +"Thanks--a thousand thanks." + +"They do not merit themselves, señor," said he, not to be outdone. + +I asked if I could have a _garspacho_ for breakfast. The _garspacho_ is +an Andalusian soup-salad, very cooling, made of stewed and strained +tomato, water, vinegar, sliced cucumber, boiled green peppers, a dash of +garlic, and some bits of bread; the whole served frost-cold. + +"I don't know--it is not in the list. I feel it, señor. It weighs upon +my soul. But I will see, and will return in an Ave Maria to let you +know." + +He never left me without asking, "Is there anything wanting still?" + +[Illustration: ALICANTE FRUIT-SELLER.] + +The waiters and chamber-maids ate their meals at little tables in the +hall, and whenever I passed them, if they were eating, they made a +gracious gesture toward their _pillau_ of rice. "Would your grace like +to eat?" + +This offer to share their food with any one who goes by is a simple and +kindly inheritance from the East; but it becomes a little embarrassing, +and I longed for a pair of back stairs to slink away by, without having +to decline their hospitality every time I went out. + +To go out in the middle of the day was like looking into the sun itself. +Everybody stayed in-doors behind thick curtains of matting, and dozed or +dripped away the time in idle perspiration; but hearing unaccountable +blasts of orchestral music during this forced retirement, I inquired, +and found them to proceed from the rehearsal of a Madrid opera company +then in Alicante. Our attendant at table proved to be a duplex +character--a serving-man by day and a fourteenth lord in the chorus by +night, with black and yellow stockings, and a number of gestures +indicating astonishment, indignation, or, in fact, anything that the +emergency required. We had the pleasure of seeing him on the stage that +very evening, and of listening to an extravagant performance of "La +Favorita," between two acts of which an usher came in and collected the +tickets of the whole audience. The theatre was remarkably spacious for a +town of thirty thousand inhabitants; but Alicante is a favorite winter +resort, and even maintains a "Gallistic Circus;" that is, a place for +cock-fights. + +The Garden of Alicante is a luscious spot, hidden away some two or three +miles from the town, and owned by the Marques de Venalua, a young man of +large wealth, who spends all his time at Alicante, and is a public +benefactor, having introduced water in pipes at his own expense. The +carriage and consumption of water, indeed, seemed to be the chief +business of the population. They have a system of fountains for +distributing sea-water from which the salt has been extracted, and women +and children are kept going to these with huge jars, to satisfy the +local thirst. To be born thirsty, live thirsty, and die so, is a +privilege enjoyable only in countries like Southern Spain. One can form +there, too, a vivid idea of the desert, from the delight with which he +hails the green _Huerta_, or garden. The road and fields on the way +thither were like a waste of cinders and ashes. The almond and fig +trees, the pomegranates and algarrobas beside the way, were coated with +dust that lay upon them like thin snow; and the almond-nuts, where they +hung in sight, resembled plaster casts, so pervasive was the white +deposit. But all at once we mounted a low rise, and the wide stretch of +verdant plantations lay before us, thick-foliaged, cool, sweet, and +refreshing, with villas embowered among the oranges and palms, a screen +of dim mountains beyond, and the silent blue sea brimming the horizon on +the right. It was a spectacle delicious as sleep to tired eyes; it +brought a cry of pleasure to my lips and grateful life to the heart. + +But this spot, lovely as it is, becomes insignificant beside the +glorious Huerta of Valencia, stretching for more than thirty miles from +the olive-clad hills around Jativa to that city, which is the +pleasantest in Mediterranean Spain, and the most characteristic of all, +after Toledo, Granada, and Sevilla. There one travels through an +unbroken tract of superb cultivation--a garden in exact literalness, yet +a territory in size. + +[Illustration: METHOD OF IRRIGATION NEAR VALENCIA.] + +[Illustration: CHURCH OF SANTA CATALINA, VALENCIA.] + +We took the rail from Alicante in the evening; but a mass of Oran +fugitives, escorted by a company of soldiers (for the most part drunk), +encumbered our train, and delayed its starting for an hour or two. Then +followed a slow, wearisome ride through the black night, with a change +at the junction of La Encina about twelve o'clock, involving much +tribulation in the re-weighing and renewed registering of baggage; +after which we were stowed into a totally dark compartment of the other +train, and made to wait three hours longer. With the first rays of dawn +our locomotive began to creep, and we fell into a doze, from which I was +awakened after a while by the loud irruption of somebody into our +carriage, accompanied by a jangle like that of sleigh-bells. It turned +out to be a peasant, who, in consequence of the general over-crowding, +had been ushered into the first-class carriage, bringing with him a +couple of children and some mule-harness provided with bells. I was +inclined to be indignant with him for his disturbing intrusion; but, as +it was now broad daylight, I began to look out of the window, and soon +had cause to consider the peasant a benefactor; for we were just leaving +Jativa, a most picturesque old town, with a castle famous even in Roman +times; the native place, also, of the Borgias (Pope Calixtus III., and +Rodrigro, the father of Cæsar Borgia). Immediately afterward we entered +the garden region. Miles of carefully-tended growth, thousands of +orchards linked together in one series, acres upon acres of fields where +every square inch is made to yield abundantly--such is the Huerta of +Valencia. We passed endless orange-groves, each single tree in which had +its circle of banked earth to hold the water when let on from the canals +of tile that coursed everywhere like veins of silver, carrying life to +the harvests. Then came vast fields dotted with the yellow blossom of +the pea-nut, on low vine-like plants. Again, breadths of citron and +lemon, followed by extensive rice farms, where the cultivators stood +dressing the unripe plantations, up to their ankles in the water of a +feathery green swamp. Not a rood of earth is unimproved, excepting where +some thriving red-roofed village is hemmed in by the fragrant paradise. +In one place you will see, perhaps, a mouldering red tower like those of +the Alhambra, or a church spire lifted amid the trees, and, high above +the other greenery, clusters of date-palms leaning together, as if +they whispered among themselves of other days. Near by is the Lake +of Albufera, close to the sea and twenty-seven miles in +circumference--nourished both from the sea and from the river Turia, so +that it becomes an immense reservoir of fish and game. Its marshy edges +once offered shelter to numerous smugglers, and it is said that General +Prim, who was on good terms with them, found a hiding-place there while +in danger and before he came to power. No wonder that the Cid fought +gallantly to win this land from the infidel, and when he had gained it +sent for his wife and daughter from distant Burgos to come and see the +prize! Its fertility to-day, however, is due to the irrigation +introduced by the Moors, and since maintained. The same thing could be +done with the Tagus and Ebro rivers, but the Spaniard having had the +example before him for only about six centuries, has not yet found time +to follow it. The water supply is so precious that proprietors are +allowed to use it for their own crops only on fixed days, and for so +many hours at a time. Disputes of course arise, but they are settled by +the Water Court--a tribunal without appeal, consisting of twelve peasant +proprietors, who meet once a week in Valencia; and I saw them there +holding their session in very primitive style, on a long pink sofa set +in an arched door-way of the cathedral. + +[Illustration: A VALENCIA CAB.] + +Valencia was in the midst of its annual festival when we arrived; a +bright, gay, spirited, and busy town, more cheerful than ever just then. +There were to be three days of bull-fighting--"bulls to the +death!"--with eight taurian victims each day; the best swordsmen in +Spain; and horses and mules displaying gilded and silvered hoofs. The +theatres were perfumed. There were match games of _pelota_--rackets--the +national substitute for cricket or base-ball; and a week's fair was in +progress on the other side of the river Turia, with bannered pavilions, +thousands of painted lanterns; lotteries, concerts, and booth shows, to +which the admission was "half price for children and soldiers." Trade +was brisk also in the city; brisk in the Mercado, that quaint business +street crowded with little stalls, and with peasants in blue, red, +yellow, mantled and cothurned, their heads topped with pointed hats or +wrapped with variegated handkerchiefs deftly knotted into a high crown; +brisk, likewise, in those peculiar shops behind the antique Silk +Exchange, which are named from the signs they hang out, representing the +Blessed Virgin, Christ, John the Baptist, or the Bleeding Heart. One had +for its device a rose, and another, distinguished by two large toy lambs +placed at its door, was known without other distinction as the Lamb of +God. But in the more modern quarter the shop-keepers ventured on a +Parisian brilliancy which we did not encounter anywhere else. Their +arrangement of wares was prettily effective, and the fashion prevailed +of having curtains for the show-windows painted with figures in modern +dress, done in exceedingly clever, artistic style, well drawn, full of +humor and fine realistic characterization. + +Altogether, Valencia is the cheeriest of Spanish cities, unless one +excepts Barcelona, which is half French, and in its present estate +wholly modern. Moreover, Valencia abounds in racy and local traits, both +of architecture and humanity. The Street of the Cavaliers is lined with +sombre, strange, shabbily elegant old mansions of the nobility, with +Gothic windows and open arcades in the top story; the new houses are +gayly tinted in blue and rose and cream-color; and the gourd-like domes +of the cathedral and other large buildings glisten with blue tiles and +white, set in stripes. You find yourself continually, as you come from +various quarters, bringing up in sight of the octagonal tower of Santa +Catalina, strangely suggestive of a pagoda, without in the least being +one. The Silk Exchange, from which the shining web that wealth is woven +out of has long since vanished, contains one of the most beautiful of +existing Gothic halls under a roof sustained by fluted and twisted +pillars, themselves light as knotted skeins; while from the outer +cornice grotesque shapes peer out over the life of to-day; a grinning +monk, an imp playing a guitar, a crumbling buzzard, serving as +gargoyles. Just opposite is the market, where you may buy enormous +bunches of luscious white grapes for a penny, or pry into second-hand +shops rich in those brilliant mantles with the "cat" fringe of balls, +for which the town is as noted as for its export of oranges. The old +battlemented walls of the city, it is true, have been torn down: it was +done simply to give employment to the poor a few years since. But there +are some fine old gates remaining--those of Serranos and Del Cuarte. We +drove out of one and came in by the other, about half a mile away--a +diversion that brought us under a rigid examination from the customs +guard, which levies a tax on every basket of produce brought in from the +country, and was inclined to regard us as a dutiable importation. + +[Illustration: BARCELONA FISHERMEN.] + +One may go quite freely to the port, however--the Grao--which is two +miles distant. A broad boulevard hedged with sycamores leads thither, +which in summer is crowded by _tartanas_--bouncing little covered wagons +lined with crimson curtains, and usually carrying a load of pretty +señoritas--and by more imposing equipages adorned with footmen in the +English style. Everybody goes to the shore to bathe toward evening, for +Valencia is the Brighton of the Madrileños. The little bathing +establishments extend for a long distance on the sands, and are very +neat. Each has its fanciful name, as "The Pearl," or "The Madrid Girl," +and the proprietors stand in front vociferously soliciting your custom. +Between these and the water are refreshment sheds with tables, and every +one eats or drinks on coming out of the sea. Farther down the shore the +women have their own houses, and a fence of reeds protects them from +intrusion while they are running to or from the surf; but it is my duty +to record that the men formed a line at this fence, and systematically +gazed through the breaks in it, which was the more embarrassing, +perhaps, because the fair Valencians bathe in very plain, baggy, and +ugly gowns. On the streets or in the Glorieta Garden, and in their +proper habiliments, they are the noblest looking and most beautiful of +Spanish women, often possessing flaxen hair and dark-blue eyes which +recall a Gothic ancestry, together with something simple and regular +about the features that is perhaps due to the ancient Greek +colonization. At still another part of the beach horses were allowed to +go into the waves; and this was a sight also eminently Greek in its +suggestion. Naked boys bestrode the animals, and urged them forward into +the spray-fringed tide. The arched necks, the prancing movement of the +horses, the sportive shock of foam against their broad chests, and the +pressing knees of the nude riders in full play of muscle to keep their +seats, were like a breathing and stirring relief on some temple frieze, +clear-cut in the pure and sparkling sunlight. There was once a Valencian +school of painters, but we saw nothing of this in their work. The museum +offers what our newspapers would call a "carnival" of rubbish, but it +also contains some striking, shadowy, startlingly lighted canvases of +Ribalta--saints and martyrs and ascetics vividly but not joyously +portrayed; a few wonderful portraits by Goya, fresh as if only just +completed; and one of Velasquez's three portraits of himself. + +From Valencia to Barcelona the valleys along the coast are fertile. +Vineyards, spreading their long files of green over a warm red soil that +seems tinged with the blood of the grape, vie with the olive in that +picturesque, productive belt between the hills and the blue, swelling +sweep of the Mediterranean. Here is Murviedro, the old Saguntum, once +the scene of a fierce siege and horrible sufferings, now basking quietly +in the hot light--a time-worn, sun-tanned, beggared old city, which is +not ashamed to make a show of its decayed Roman theatre; and farther on +Tarragona, which professes to have had at one time a million +inhabitants, and is now a little wine-producing town. Churches and +castles, rich in delicate workmanship and all manner of historic +association, crop up everywhere. The very shards in the fields, you +fancy, may suddenly unfold something of that full and varied past which +was once as real as to-day's meridian glow. Yet at any moment you may +lose sight of all this in the brilliant, stimulating, yet softly +modified beauty of the landscape's colors, and your whole mind is +absorbed by the vague neutral hues of a treeless hill-side, or the rich, +positive blue of the sea, in which the white sail of a _chalupa_ seems +to be inlaid like a bit of ivory. + +All the while, as you go northward, Spain--the real Spain--is slipping +from you. The palms disappear as if a noiseless earthquake had swallowed +them up; even the olive becomes less frequent, and by-and-by you are in +piny Catalonia. You reach Barcelona, the greatest commercial city of the +kingdom, and you find it the boast of the citizens that they are not +Spaniards. They are Spanish mainly in their love of revolt. So prompt +are they to join in every uprising, that the garrison quartered there +has to be kept as high as ten thousand men; but for the most part it is +rather a French maritime dépot than a thing of ancient or peculiar +Spain. There is a large and artificial park on one side, and the fort +of Monjuich on the other, and a lot of shipping in the harbor; and a +glorious embowered avenue, called the Rambla, where pale-faced, +long-lashed, coquettishly smiling women walk in great numbers, carrying +out the usual national custom of a peripatetic reception and +conversation party. It was the feast of Santiago when we came--it is +always a feast of something everywhere in that pious country--and the +theatres were doing a great business with trifling plays and charming +ballets. Barcelona is not only the industrious city, it is also the +cultivated one of the Peninsula. The opera there is one of the best in +the world, and was once carried off bodily to Madrid by an ardent +manager, who for his pains received the scorn of the envious Madrid +people: they would not come to his performances, and he was almost +ruined in consequence. + +The old cathedral of the city is a temple singularly impressive by +simple means--a sober Spanish-Gothic structure bathed in a perpetual +gloom, through which the stained windows show with a jewelled splendor +almost supernatural. The weirdness of the interior effect is farther +intensified by the dark pit of Santa Eulalia's shrine opening under the +altar, and set with a row of burning lamps, on which the darkness seems +to hang like a cloak depending from a chain of gold. The invariable rule +in Spanish cathedrals is that the choir should be placed in the central +nave, like that at Westminster Abbey, and elaborated into a complete +enclosure by itself--which, although it interferes with the total effect +of the interior, is frequently very striking in its lavish agglomeration +of carved wood and stone, metal railings, gilding, and similar details. +It was in the peculiarly picturesque choir of this cathedral of Santa +Eulalia that the order of the Golden Fleece was once convened by Charles +V., and the panels over the stalls are blazoned with the bearings of the +various nations and nobles represented in that body. Being discovered +only after one has grown accustomed to the dark, these fading glories of +heraldry steal gradually upon the eye, as if through the obscuring night +of time. I found the ancient cloister, without, on the south-west side, +a delightful, shadowy, suggestive place: there, too, may be seen a +fountain surmounted by a small equestrian statue of St. George, which +reminds one of a fabulous story in Münchausen; for the tail of the horse +is formed by a jet of water flowing out of the body at the rear. Inside +the church again hangs, under the organ-loft, an enormous wooden and +painted Saracen's head--a species of relic not uncommon, I believe, in +Catalonian temples. It may be added here that the custom of the +"historical giants" at Corpus Christi is maintained in Barcelona as we +had seen it at Burgos, and those effigies are stowed away somewhere in +the sacred precincts. There is a curious mingling of the naïve and the +sophisticated in the fact that some of the giants, wearing female +attire, have new dresses for each year, and thereby set the fashions for +the ensuing twelvemonth for all the womankind of the city. And however +advanced the urban society may be, with its trade, its opera, its books, +gilded cafés and superb clubs, the spirit of progress does not spread +very far into the country. When a piece of railroad was built, not very +long ago, opening up a new rural section in the neighborhood, the +peasants watched the advance of the locomotive along the rails with +profound interest. Finally, one old man asked, "But where is the _mule_ +kept?--inside?" + +He was willing to admit that the engine worked finely, but no power +could convince him that it was possible for it to go by other impulsion +than that of a mule's legs. + +Another relic of by-gone times is the cap universally worn in this +region by the longshoremen, the fishers, and the male portion of the +lower orders generally; for it is nothing less than the old Phrygian +liberty cap, imported hither by the Paul Pry Phoenicians ages ago. Woven +in a single piece, it appears at first sight to be a long, soft, +commodious bag, tinted with vermilion or violet or brown as the case may +be. Into the aperture the native inserts his head and then pulls the +rest of the flapping contrivance down as far as he pleases, letting the +end float loose in the wind, or more commonly bringing it round to the +front, curling it over and tucking it in upon itself in such a way as to +make an overhanging protection for the eyes, and to give the whole a +look that recalls the top of an Oxford student's cap. With this +head-gear, and wearing sandals made of fine hempen cord tied by long +black tapes, the men presented a free, half barbarous and sufficiently +picturesque appearance. I don't know how long we might have continued to +roam the streets of Barcelona, listening to the uncouth _patois_ of the +locality, in which French and Spanish words are so outlandishly mingled, +nor how long we should have clung to the remnants of architecture and +history that jutted seductively above the surface of the modern here and +there, if it had not been that cold necessity limited our time and +propelled us relentlessly northward. Even now I find that my pen is +reluctant to leave the tracing of those vanished scenes, and hesitates +to write the last word as much as if it were an enchanter's wand, +instead of a plain, business-like little instrument. + +With its usual fatuity the railroad obliged us to start so early that +at the first dusky gray streak of dawn we were dismally taking our +coffee in the _patio_ of the hotel. The _dueño_ was sleeping by sections +on two hard chairs, considerately screened from us by a clump of orange +shrubs, and murmuring now and then some direction to the half-invisible +waiter floating about in a dark arcade; but he roused himself, and woke +up wholly for a minute or two while perpetrating a final extortion. +Otherwise the silence was profound. It was the silence of the past, the +unseen current of oblivion that sets in and begins to eddy round the +facts of to-day, in such a country, the moment human activity is +suspended or the reality of the present is at all dimmed. Silence here +leads at once to retrospection; differing in this from the mute solitude +of American places, which somehow always tingles with anticipation. And +the _dueño_, in overcharging us, became only the type of a long line of +historic plunderers that have infested the Peninsula from the date of +the Roman rule down to the incursion of Napoleon and the most recent +period. His little game was invested with all the dignity of history and +tradition. The sickly light of day above the court struggled feebly and +dividedly with the waning yellow of the candle-flame on our table. + +"After all," said Velveteen, "I'm glad to be going, for this is no +longer Spain." + +And yet, at the instant of leaving, we discovered that it was indeed +Spain, and a pang of regret followed those words. + +As we issued from the hotel we saw, crossing the street in the increased +dawn-light, and striding toward the dépot, the two Civil Guards. It +looked as if we should be captured on the very threshold of liberty. The +thought lent wings to our haste.... Some hours afterward, when we were +passing through the tunnels of the Pyrenees, we congratulated ourselves +on our escape; and, indeed, as we looked back to the mountain-wall from +France, we could fancy we saw two specks on the summit which might have +been our pursuers. They were too late! Their own excess of mystery had +baffled them. They had dogged us every league of the way, and yet we had +traversed Spain without being detected as--what? I really don't know, +but I'm sure those Civil Guards must. If not, their military glare, +their guns, and their secrecy are the merest mockeries. + +How softly the waves broke along the Mediterranean sands that morning, +close to the rails over which we were flying! Green and white, or +violet, and shimmered over by the crimson splendor of the illumined +East, they surged one after another upon the golden shore and spent +themselves like wasted treasure. There was something mournful in their +movement--something very sad in the presence of this beauty which I was +never to see again. Did I not hear mingled with the sparkling flash and +murmur of those waves a long-drawn "_A-a-ay!_"--the most pathetic of +Spanish syllables, which had thrown its shadow across the fervid little +songs heard so often by the way? + + "Bird, little bird that wheelest + Through God's fair worlds in the sky"-- + +the strain came back again, with the memory of a low-tuned guitar; and +the waves went on, arriving and departing; and the land of our +pilgrimage steadily receded. The waves are breaking yet on that windless +coast; but, for us, Spain--brilliant, tawny, bright-vestured Spain, with +all its ruins and poetry, its desolation and beauty and gaudy +semi-barbarism--has been rapt away once more into the atmosphere of +distance and of dreams! + +[Illustration] + + + + +HINTS TO TRAVELLERS. + + +Spain is by no means so difficult a country to reach, nor so +inconvenient to travel in after one has got there, as is generally +supposed. Doubtless the obstacles which it presented to the tourist +until within a few years were great; and much that is disagreeable still +remains to vex those who are accustomed to the smoother ways, and +carefully-oiled machinery for travel, of regions more civilized. But the +establishment of a system of railroads, describing an outline that +passes through nearly all the places which it is desirable to visit, has +supplied a means of transit sufficient, safe, and passably comfortable. +The other disadvantages formerly opposed to the inquiring stranger are +likewise in process of diminution. In order to make clear the exact +state of things likely to be encountered by those who, having followed +the present writer in his account of a rapid journey, may determine to +take a similar direction themselves, this chapter of suggestion is +added, which it is hoped will have value in the way of a practical +equipment for the voyage. + +_Patience_.--The first requisite, it should be said, in one about to +visit Spain, is a reasonable amount of good-humored patience, with +which to meet discomforts and provoking delays. The customs of that +country are not to be reversed by fuming at them; anger will not aid the +digestion which finds itself annoyed by a peculiar cookery; and no +amount of irritation will suffice to make Spanish officials and keepers +of hostelries one whit more obliging than they are at present--their +regard for the convenience of the public being just about equal to that +of the average American hotel clerk or railroad employé. + +_Passports_.--Next to patience may be placed a passport; though it +differs from the former article in being of no particular use. I observe +that guide-books lay stress upon the passport as something very +important; and, no doubt, it is gratifying to possess one. There is a +subtle flattery in the personal relation, approaching familiarity, which +an instrument of this kind seems to set up on the part of government +toward the individual; there is a charming unreality, moreover, in the +description it gives of your personal appearance and the color of your +eyes, making you feel, when you read it, as if you were a character in +fiction. Following the rules, I procured a passport and put it into a +stout envelope, ready for much use and constant wear; but all that it +accomplished for me was to add a few ounces of weight to my +_impedimenta_. No one ever asked for it, and I doubt whether the +military police would have understood what it was, had they seen it. My +experience on first crossing the frontier taught me never to volunteer +useless information. Our trunks had been passed after a mere opening of +the lids and lifting of the trays, and an officer was listlessly +examining the contents of my shoulder-bag. Thinking that he was troubled +by the enigmatic nature of a few harmless opened letters which it +contained, I said, re-assuringly, as he was dropping them back into +their place, "They are only letters." + +"Letters!" he repeated, with rekindled vigilance. And, taking up the +sheets again, of which he could not understand a word, he squandered +several minutes in gazing at them in an absurd pretence of profundity. + +If I had insisted on unfurling my country's passport, I should probably +have been taken into custody at once, as a person innocent enough to +deserve thorough investigation. Nevertheless, a passport may be a good +thing to hold in reserve for possible contingencies. It is said also to +be of use, now and then, in securing admission to galleries and museums +on days or at hours when they are generally closed to the public; but of +this I cannot speak from experience. + +_Custom-house_.--We had no great difficulty with examinations by +custom-house officers, except at Barcelona, where we arrived about one +o'clock in the morning and had to undergo a scene excessively annoying +at the time, but comical enough in the retrospect. Being desirous to +embark on the hotel omnibus in search of quarters, we hastened to the +baggage-room to claim our trunks by the registry receipt given us at +Valencia; but the "carbineer" explained that we could not have them just +then. After waiting a little, we took out keys and politely proposed to +open them for examination. This, also, he declined. I then offered him a +cigar, which he accepted in a very gracious way, giving it a slight +flourish and shake in his hand (after the usual manner), to indicate his +appreciation of the courtesy; but still he made no motion to accommodate +us in the matter we had most at heart. Some agreeable young Scotchmen, +who had joined our party, urged me to make farther demonstrations, and I +conferred with the omnibus-driver, who explained that we must wait for +some other parcels to be collected from the train before anything could +be done; accordingly, we waited. The other parcels arrived; the policy +of inaction continued. Meanwhile, several French commercial travellers, +who had journeyed hither by the same train in all the splendor of a +spurious parlor-car, chartered for their sole use, had proceeded around +the station, and now attacked the bolted doors at the front of the +baggage-room with furious poundings and loud bi-lingual ejaculations. +But even this had no effect. I therefore concluded that the object of +the "carbineer's" strategy was a bribe; and, for the first and only time +in our journey, I administered one. Getting him aside, I told him +confidentially, with all the animation proper to an entirely new idea, +that we were anxious to get our belongings examined and passed promptly, +so as to secure a resting-place some time before day, and that we should +be greatly obliged if he would assist us. At the same time I slipped two +or three _pesetas_ into his hand, which he took with the same +magnanimous tolerance he had shown on receiving the cigar. This done, he +once more relapsed into apathy. All known resources had now been +exhausted, and there was nothing to do but wait. With dismay I stood by +and saw my silver follow the cigar, swallowed up in the abyss of +official indifference that yawned before us; and to my companions, who +had just been envying me my slight knowledge of Spanish, and admiring my +tact, I became all at once a perfectly useless object, a specimen of +misguided imbecility--all owing to the dense unresponsiveness of the +inspector, whose incapacity to act assumed, by contrast with my own +fruitless energy, a resemblance to genius. The oaths and poundings of +the French battalion at the door went on gallantly all the time, but +were quite as ineffectual as my movement on the rear. + +Finally, just when we were reduced to despair, the guard roused himself +from his meditations, rushed to the door, unbolted it to the impatient +assailants, and passed everything in the room without the slightest +examination. + +The whole affair remains to this day an enigma; and, as such, one is +forced to accept every trouble of this kind in the Peninsula. But, as I +have said, matters went smoothly enough in other places. Every important +town, I believe, collects its imposts even on articles brought into +market from the surrounding country; and at Seville we paid the hotel +interpreter twenty cents as the nominal duty on our personal belongings. +I have not the slightest doubt that this sum went to swell his own +private revenue; at all events, no such tariff was insisted upon, or +even suggested, elsewhere. The only rule that can be given is to await +the action of customs officials without heat, and, while avoiding undue +eagerness to show that you carry nothing dutiable, hold yourself in +readiness to unlock and exhibit whatever you have. In case a fine should +be exacted, ask for a receipt for the amount; and, if it seems to be +excessive, the American or British consul or commercial agent may +afterward be appealed to. + +_Extra Baggage_.--One point of importance in this connection is +generally overlooked. Only about sixty pounds' weight of luggage is +allowed to each traveller; all trunks are carefully weighed at every +station of departure, and every pound over the above amount is charged +for. Hence, unless a light trunk is selected, and the quantity of +personal effects carefully reduced to the least that is practicable, the +expense of a tour in Spain will be appreciably increased by the item of +extra baggage alone. Baggage of all kinds is registered, and a receipt +given by which it may be identified at the point of destination. It is +important, however, to get to the station at least half an hour before +the time for leaving, since this process of weighing and registering, +like that of selling or stamping tickets, is conducted with extreme +deliberation, and cannot be hastened in any way. On diligence routes the +allowance for baggage is only forty-four pounds (twenty kilograms). A +good precaution, in order to guard against unfair weighing, is to get +one's trunk or trunks properly weighed before starting, and keep a +memorandum of the result. + +_Tickets, etc_.--It is unadvisable to travel in any but first-class +carriages on the Spanish railroads; and the fare for these is somewhat +high. But a very great saving may be made, if the journey be begun from +Paris, by purchasing _billets circulaires_ (circular or round-trip +tickets), which--with a limitation of two months, as to time--enable the +tourist to go from Paris either to San Sebastian, on the Bay of Biscay, +or Barcelona, on the Mediterranean, and from either of those points to +take in succession all the cities and towns which it is worth while to +visit. A ticket of this kind costs only about ninety dollars, whereas +the usual fare from Paris to Madrid alone is nearly or quite forty +dollars. The _billets circulaires_ may be obtained at a certain central +ticket-office in the Rue St. Honoré, at Paris, to which the inquirer at +either of the great Southern railroads--that is, the Paris-Lyons and the +Orleans lines--will be directed. The list of places at which one is +permitted to stop, on this round-trip system, is very extensive, and a +coupon for each part of the route is provided. It must be observed, +however, that when once the trip is begun the holder cannot return upon +his traces, unless a coupon for that purpose be included, without paying +the regular fare. He must continue in the general direction taken at the +start--entering Spain at one of its northern corners, and coming out at +the opposite northern corner, after having described a sort of +elliptical course through the various points to be visited. And this is, +in fact, the most convenient course to take. It is also prescribed that +at the first frontier station, and at every station from which the +holder afterward starts, he shall show the ticket and have it stamped. +Occasionally, conductors on the trains displayed a tendency to make us +pay something additional; but this was merely an attempt at imposition, +and we always refused to comply. Should the holder of one of these +tickets have a similar experience, and be unable to make the conductor +comprehend, the best thing to do is quietly to persist in not paying, +and, if necessary, have the proper explanation made at the end of the +day's trip. + +Journeys by steamer are not included in this arrangement; but we got our +steamer tickets at Malaga remarkably cheap, and in the following manner: +Two boats of rival lines were to start in the same direction on the same +day, and the interpreter, or _valet de place_, attached to our _fonda_, +volunteered to take advantage of this circumstance by playing one +company off against the other, and thus beating them down from the +regular price. So he summoned a dim-eyed and dilapidated man, whilom of +the mariners' calling, to act as an intermediary. This personage was to +go to the office of the boat on which we wanted to embark, and tell them +that we thought of sailing by the other line (which had, in fact, been +the case), but that if we could obtain passage at a price that he named, +we would take their steamer; in short, that here was a fine chance of +capturing two passengers from the opposition. The sum which we handed to +our dim-eyed emissary was seventy-five francs; but, while he was absent +upon his errand of diplomacy, the interpreter figured out that we ought +to have given him eighteen more, and we quite commiserated the poor +negotiator for having gone off with an insufficient supply of cash. +Imagine our astonishment when he returned and, instead of asking for the +additional amount which we had counted out all ready for him, laid +before us a shining gold piece of twenty-five francs which he had not +expended! Deciding to improve upon his instructions, he had paid only +fifty francs for the two passages. We certainly were amazed, but the +interpreter was still more so; for he had evidently expected his +colleague to say nothing about having saved the twenty-five francs, but +to pocket that and eighteen besides for their joint credit (or +_dis_credit) account. He controlled his emotions by a heroic effort; but +the complicated play of stupefaction at his agent's honesty, of bitter +chagrin at the loss involved, and of pretended delight at our remarkable +success, was highly interesting to witness. I have always regretted that +some old Italian medallist could not have been at hand to mould the +exquisite conflict of expression which his face presented at that +moment, and render it permanent in a bronze bass-relief. As it was, we +gave each man a bonus of five francs, and then had paid for our tickets +only about half the established rate. + +_Personal Safety_.--Risk of bodily peril from the attacks of bandits, on +the accustomed lines of travel in Spain, need no longer be feared. The +formidable pillagers who once gathered toll along all the highways and +by-ways have been suppressed by the Civil Guards, or military police, a +very trustworthy and thorough organization, which really seems to be the +most (and is, perhaps, the sole) efficient thing about the government of +the kingdom. Of these Guards there are now twenty thousand foot and five +thousand horse distributed throughout the country, keeping it constantly +under patrol, in companies, squads and pairs, never appearing singly; +and where there are only two of them, they walk twelve paces apart on +lonely roads, to avoid simultaneous surprise. They are armed with +rifles, swords, and revolvers, and are drawn from the pick of the royal +army. Some time since there occurred a case in which two of these men +murdered a traveller in a solitary place for the sake of a few thousand +francs he was known to have with him; but the crime was witnessed by a +shepherd lad in concealment, and they were swiftly brought to trial and +executed. This instance is so exceptional as to make it almost an +injustice even to mention it; for, as a rule, perfect dependence may be +placed on the Guards, who are governed by military law and possess a +great _esprit de corps_. A strong group of them is posted in every city; +at every railroad station, no matter how small, there are two members of +the force on duty, and two more usually accompany each train. The result +of all these precautions is that one may take his seat in a Spanish +railroad-carriage absolutely with less fear of robbery or violence than +he might reasonably feel in England or America. The only instance of +banditti pillaging a railroad-train that is known to have occurred while +I was in Spain, was that of the James brothers in Missouri, whose +outrages upon travellers, in our peaceful and fortunate Republic, were +reported to us by cable, while we were struggling through the imaginary +perils of a perfect police system in a country that knows not the +subtleties of American institutions. And, while we were thus proceeding +upon our way, an atrocious murder was committed in a carriage of the +London and Brighton Railway, which was not the first of its kind to set +the English public shivering with dread and horror. + +Even the diligence now appears to be as safe as the rail-carriage. But +it should be clearly understood that, when one goes off the beaten track +and attempts horseback journeys, he exposes himself to quite other +conditions, which it is absurd to expect the police to control. An +acquaintance tells me that he has made excursions of some length in the +saddle, in Spain, meeting nothing but courtesy and good-will; but he +took care to have his pistol-holsters well filled and in plain sight. To +travel on horseback without an armed and trusty native guide (who should +be well paid, and treated with tact and cordiality) is certainly not the +most prudent thing that can be done; but solitary pedestrianism is mere +foolhardiness. A young French journalist of promise, known to be of good +habits, had been loitering alone about Pamplona a short time before the +date of my trip, and was one morning found murdered outside of the +walls. While I was in the South, too, as I afterward learned, an +Englishman, who was concluding a brief foot-tour in the North, attempted +to make his way in the evening from San Sebastian to Irun, on the +frontier: he was captured by bandits, kept imprisoned for a week in a +lonely hut, and doubtless narrowly missed coming to his death. His own +account of his escape gives a vivid idea of the treatment that may be +expected from the rural population by anybody who gets into a similar +predicament. + +"I resolved," he says, "to strive for liberty. Having worked out a +stone, which I found rather loose in the wall near me, and having taken +advantage of the darkness of my corner, I gnawed asunder the cord that +bound me. I made for the door, which opened into the other apartment, +and there being but one guard left over me--the others being off on some +expedition--I watched for an opportunity. Presently it was afforded me. +As the fellow sat with his back toward me, resting his head upon his +hands, I stole forward, holding my stone in readiness, and with one blow +laid him on the floor. Then, snatching up a knife from the table, I ran +out, and after wandering among the mountains most of the night found +myself at daybreak on the high-way, my feet cut with the stones and my +strength gone. I fainted. On coming round I attempted in vain to rise, +when, two men coming along with a bullock-cart, I asked for help. All +they did was to prod me with their goads and march on. The laborers were +now returning to their work in the fields, and seeing my attempt to +regain my feet, several of them pelted me with clods. I had little +strength left, but at last I managed to get on my feet, and having +rested a while to regain my strength, I staggered along to the town and +waited upon the English vice-consul, who kindly provided me with food +and clothes, after which I accompanied him before the governor of the +province, to make my statement." The Spanish Government do not +acknowledge responsibility for proceedings of this kind on the part of +their people; hence it is doubtful whether in such a case the victim, +after all his peril and suffering, can even recover the value of what +has been stolen from him. But it is perfectly, easy to keep out of the +way of such adventures. + +In the Hotel de los Siete Suelos, at Granada, it is true that the +night-porter used to strap around his meagre waist, when he went on +duty, a great swashbuckler's sword, as if some bloody nocturnal +incursion were impending. But whatever the danger was that threatened, +it never befell: the door of the hotel always remained wide open, and +our bellicose porter regularly went to sleep soundly on a bench beside +it, with his weapon dangling ingloriously over his legs. No one ever +seemed to think of using keys for their hotel rooms except in Madrid; +and so far as any likelihood of theft was concerned, this confidence +seemed to be well justified. Many articles that might have roused the +cupidity of unambitious thieves, and could easily have been taken, were +left by my companion and myself lying about our unlocked apartments, but +we sustained no loss. + +_Language_.--One cannot travel to the best advantage in Spain without +having at least a moderate knowledge of French; or, still better, of +Spanish. Railroad employés, customs officers, guards, and inn-keepers +there, as a rule, understand only their native tongue. Now and then one +will be found who has command of a very few French words; but this is +quite the exception, and even when it occurs, is not of much use. At the +hotels in all places frequented by foreigners there are interpreters, +who conduct transactions between traveller and landlord, and act as +guides to places of public interest. For services of this kind they must +be paid seven or eight francs a day, certainly not more, and in the +smaller towns less will suffice. These interpreters always speak a +little French; but their English is a decidedly variable quantity. Of +course, people constantly make their way through the kingdom on the +resources of English alone; but it is obvious that in so doing they must +miss a great many opportunities for curious or instructive observation; +and even in viewing the regulation sights the want of an easy medium of +communication will often cause interesting details to be omitted. The +possibility of employing a courier for the whole journey remains open; +but that is a very expensive expedient, and greatly hampers one's +freedom. Enough Spanish for the ordinary needs of the way can be learned +in a month's study, by any one who has an aptitude for languages. +Italian will by no means take the place of it, although some +acquaintance with that language may facilitate the study of Spanish; the +fact being kept in mind, however, that the guttural character of Spanish +is quite alien to the genius of Italian speech, and comes more naturally +to one who knows German. If the tourist have time enough at his +disposal, it is well to take quarters somewhere in a _casa de +huespedes_, or boarding-house, for two or three weeks, in order to +become familiar with the vernacular. + +_Manners_.--There is a superstition that, if you will only keep taking +off your hat and presenting complimentary cigars, you will meet with +marvels of courteous response, and accomplish nearly everything you want +to, in Spain. But the voyager who relies implicitly on this attractive +theory will often suffer disappointment. It will do no harm for him to +cool his brow by a free indulgence in cap-doffing; and to make presents +of the wretched government cigars commonly in use will be found a +pleasanter task than smoking them. In fact, a failure to observe these +solemn ceremonies places him in the position of a churlish and +disfavored person. But, on the other hand, polite attentions of this +kind are often enough met by a lethargic dignity and inertia that are +far from gratifying. Under such circumstances, let the tourist remember +and apply that prerequisite which I began with mentioning--good-humored +patience. I found my companions by the rail or at _tables d'hóte_ +sometimes considerate and agreeable, at others quite the reverse, and +disposed to ignore the existence of foreigners as something beneath +notice. I remember once, when Velveteen and I, obliged to change cars, +had barely time, before the train was to move again, to spring into a +compartment pointed out by the conductor, we found there a well-dressed +but gross Spaniard, of the wealthy or noble class, who had had the +section marked _reservado_, and the curtains carefully drawn. He sprang +up from his nap with a snort, and glared angrily at the intruders, then +burst into a storm of rage and expostulation, most of which he +discharged out of window at the conductor: but, finding that he could +get no satisfaction in that way, he subsided into sullen disdain, paying +no attention to my "_Buenas dias_" ("Good-day"), and making his +dissatisfaction prominent by impatient gestures and mutterings from time +to time. Owing to the cost of baggage transport, too, the natives +generally carry a large number of bundles, bags, and miniature trunks in +the first-class as well as other carriages--thus avoiding any fee--so +that it is often difficult to find a place for packages, or to pass in +and out; and those who thus usurp the room are apt to look with cynical +indifference at the perplexities of the latest comer, whom they leave to +shift for himself as well as he can. Nevertheless, it is an almost +universal custom that any one who produces a lunch during the ride, +offers it to all the chance company in the compartment before partaking +of it himself. It is a point of politeness not to accept such an +invitation, but it must be extended just the same as if this were not +the case. In one respect the Spaniards are extremely polite--that is, in +showing strangers the way from point to point. Frequently, the first man +of whom you inquire how to get back to your hotel, or elsewhere, will +insist upon accompanying you the whole distance, in order to make sure +that you do not go wrong; and this although it may lie entirely out of +his own direction. Such a favor becomes a very important and desirable +one in the tortuous streets of most Spanish towns. + +Among themselves the rule is that all ranks and classes should treat +each other with respect, meeting on terms of a grave but not familiar +equality: hence they expect a similar mode of address from strangers. +When all the conditions are fulfilled, their courtesy is of the +magnificent order--it is serious, composed, and dignified. Each +individual seems to be living on a pedestal; he bows, or makes a +flowing gesture, and you get an exact idea what it would be like to have +the Apollo Belvedere receive you as a host, or a Jupiter Tonans give you +an amicable salutation. + +As in America, however, it is usually not easy to get information from +those who are especially hired or appointed to give it. The personal +service of the railroads, with rare exceptions, is ungracious and +careless. One must be sure to ask about all the details he wants to +know, for these are seldom volunteered. There is a main office (called +Despacho Central) in each city, where you may buy tickets, order an +omnibus for the station, make inquiries, etc. At the one in Toledo I +presented our circular tickets for stamping, on departure, and asked +several questions about the train, which showed the agent plainly what +line we were going to take. When we reached Castillejo, I found that, in +spite of all this, he had allowed us to take a road on which the tickets +he had stamped were not valid, and we were forced to pay the whole fare. +Neither will conductors be at the pains to shut the doors on the sides +of the cars; passengers must do this for themselves. I had travelled all +night in a compartment, and in the morning, wishing to look out, I +leaned against the door, and it instantly flew open. As it was on the +off-side when I got in, it was at that time already closed; but I now +discovered that the handle had not even been turned to secure it. The +superficial way in which people do things over there is seen in the +curious little fact that, from the time of leaving France until that of +our return, we could nowhere get the backs of our boots blacked, though +repeatedly insisting on it; the national belief being that trousers +conceal that part of the shoe, and labor given to improving its +appearance would therefore be thrown away. + +The demand for fees is in general not so systematic or impudent as in +England; but when one intends to stay more than a day in a place, better +attendance will be obtained by bestowing a present of a franc or two, +although service is included in the regular daily rate of the hotel. +Finally, the Spaniard with whom one comes most in contact as a tourist +is peculiarly averse to being scolded; so that, whatever the +provocation, it is better to deal with him softly. + +_Hotels, Diet, etc_.--The Spanish hotels are conducted on the American +plan; so much a day being paid for room, fare, light, heat, and service. +This sum ranges commonly from $1 50 to $2 00 a head, except where the +very best rooms are supplied. The foreigner, of course, pays a good deal +more than the native, but it is impossible for him to avoid that. +Sometimes coffee after dinner is included in this price, but coffee +after the mid-day breakfast is charged as an extra; and so are all wines +except the ordinary red or white Val de Peñas, which are supplied with +both meals. Nothing is furnished before the breakfast hour excepting a +cup of chocolate, some bread, and, possibly, butter. One should always +see his rooms before engaging them, and also be particular to ask +whether the price named includes everything, otherwise additional items +will be foisted upon him when the bill is settled. Confusion in the +account may be avoided by paying for all extras at the moment of +obtaining them. + +Those who are unaccustomed to the light provend furnished for the +morning will do well to carry a stock of beef-extract, or something of +the kind. Cow's milk is difficult to get, and such a thing as a boiled +egg with the chocolate is well-nigh unheard of. The national beverage is +the safest: warm chocolate, not very sweet, and so thick that it will +almost hold the spoon upright. Coffee in the morning does not have the +same nutritive force; indeed, quite otherwise than in France and +Germany, it appears to exert in this climate an injurious effect if +drunk early in the day--at least, a comparison of notes shows it to be +so in summer. Rather more attention should be given to diet in Spain +than in the countries above named, or in England and Italy, owing to +peculiarities of the climate and the cookery. Whoever has not a hardy +digestion runs some danger of disturbance from the all but universal use +of olive-oil in cooking; but, with this exception, the tendency is more +and more toward the adoption of a French _cuisine_ in the best hotels of +the larger cities, and various good, palatable dishes are to be had in +them. The native wines are unadulterated, but strong and heavy. Owing to +something in their composition, or to the unpleasant taste imparted by +the pig-skins, they are to some persons almost poisonous; so that a +degree of caution is necessary in using them. Water has the reputation +of being especially pure in all parts of the kingdom, and of exercising +a beneficial influence on some forms of malady. It certainly is +delicious to drink. + +There is much greater cleanliness in the hotels, taking them all in all, +than I had expected; but the want of proper sanitary provision, omitting +the solitary case of the Fonda Suizo at Cordova, where everything was +perfect in this respect, leads to a state of things which may be +described in a word as Oriental--that is, barbarous in the extreme, and +scarcely endurable. On this point professional guide-writers are +strangely silent. A wise precaution is to carry disinfectants. A small +medicine-case, by-the-way, might with advantage be included in the +equipment proper for travel in the Peninsula. + +We touched the nadir of dirt and unsavoriness, as you may say, in our +first night at the Fonda del Norte, in Burgos; and there the maid who +ushered me to my room warned me, as she retreated, to be careful about +keeping the doors of the anteroom closed because, as she said, "There +are many rats, and if the doors are open they run in here." But luckily +the rest of our experience was an agreeable decline from this early +climax. There is another hotel at Burgos, the Raffaele, which, as we +learned too late, is--in complete contradiction of the guide-books--clean +and pleasant. On the practical side, that voyager will achieve success +who plans his route in Spain so as to evade the Fonda del Norte at +Burgos, which is the stronghold of dirt, and the Hotel de Paris at +Madrid, which takes the palm for extortion. Naturally, in exploring +minor towns or villages, one must be prepared to face a good deal of +discomfort, since he must seek shelter at a _posada_ or _venta_, where +donkeys and other domestic beasts are kept under one roof with the +wayfarer, and perhaps in close proximity to his bed and board. But among +the inns of modern type he will get on fairly well without having to +call out any very great fortitude. + +_Expense of Travel_.--From what has been said about circular tickets and +hotel prices, some notion can be formed as to the general cost of a +Spanish expedition. Housing and transportation should not be reckoned at +less than six dollars a day; and allowance must next be made for guides, +carriages, admission fees, and so on. Altogether, ten dollars a day may +be considered sufficient to cover the strictly necessary outlay, if the +journey be conducted in a comfortable manner; but it is safer to assume +one hundred dollars a week as the probable expense for one person, and +this will leave a margin for the purchase of characteristic articles +here and there--a piece of lace, a little pottery, knives, cheap fans, +and so on. This estimate is made on the basis of first-class places _en +route_, and of stops at the best hotels. It could be materially reduced +by choosing second-class hotels, which is by no means advisable when +ladies are of the party; and, even with the better accommodation, if +small rooms be selected and a careful economy exercised in other +directions, sixty dollars a week might be made to do. To dispense with +the aid of the local guides is no saving, if the design be to move +rapidly; because, without such assistance, more time has to be spent in +getting at a given number of objects. + +_Mail-service, Telegrams, Books, etc_.--The mails are conveyed with +promptness and safety, it appears; although at Malaga I observed a large +padlocked and green-painted chest with a narrow aperture in it, lying on +the sidewalk in no particular custody, and learned that it was a +convenient movable post-office. Furthermore, it is bewildering to find, +after painfully travelling to the genuine post-office (the _Corréo_), +that you cannot buy any stamps there. These are kept on sale only at the +shops of tobacconists, whose trade likewise makes them agents of the +governmental monopoly in cigars, cigarettes, etc. The tobacconists' +stores bear the sign _Estanco_ (stamp-shop); and, after one is +accustomed to the plan, it becomes really more convenient to obtain +one's postage from them. To weigh large envelopes or packages, however, +the sender must resort to the _Corréo_. International postal cards may +be had, which are good between Spain and France, and other rates are not +high. Those who intend to pass rapidly from point to point will do well +to have all correspondence directed to the care of the American consul +or vice-consul--or, if in Madrid, to the legation there. There is no +difficulty about letters addressed in English, provided the writing be +plain. At the first city which he touches the tourist should ascertain +from the representative of his nationality the names of all +representatives in the other places he expects to go to, so that he can +forward the precise address for each place, and himself be informed just +where to apply for letters or counsel. In cases where there is no time +to take these measures, the plan may be followed of having letters +addressed _poste restante_ at the various points; but they must then be +called for at the post-office, and at each town orders should be left +with the postmaster to forward to some farther objective point any +mail-matter expected at that town, but not received there. In requesting +any service of this kind from consuls, do not forget to leave with them +a proper amount of postage. + +Telegrams may be sent from all large places, in English, at rates about +the same as those which prevail elsewhere; but if it is intended to send +many messages by wire, a simple code ought to be arranged with +correspondents beforehand, to save expense. Telegrams have to be written +very carefully, too; I attempted to send one from Granada, but made a +slight correction in one word--a fact which caused it to be brought all +the way back from the city to my hotel on the Alhambra hill, with an +imperative request that it should be rewritten and returned free from +the least scratch or blot. + +Whatever books you may wish to consult on the journey should be provided +at the very start, in America, London, or Paris: ten to one you will +not find them in Spain. It is pleasant, for example, to refer on the +spot to an English version of "Don Quixote," or the French "Gil Blas;" +or Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," and the "Columbus," the +"Conquest of Granada," and "Tales of the Alhambra," by Irving. Théophile +Gautier's "Voyage en Espagne" is another very delightful hand-mirror in +which to see your own observations reflected. But none of these are +obtainable except, possibly, in Madrid and Barcelona; and even there it +is not certain that they will be found. These two cities are the +head-quarters, however, for such Spanish books as may be required. + +_Bankers and Money_.--Little need be said on this point, beyond +suggesting the usual circular letter of credit, except to forewarn all +persons concerned that they will be charged and must submit to very +heavy commissions and exchange at the houses where their letters entitle +them to draw. Another particular which it is essential to note is the +uncertain currency of certain silver coinage in Spain, and the +prevalence of counterfeit pieces. Strangers must fight shy of any kind +of _peseta_ (equivalent to a franc) except the recent and regulation +ones, though there are many dating from earlier reigns than Alfonso's, +which will pass anywhere. The small money of one province frequently +will not be received in another; and it happened to me to preserve with +great care a Barcelona _peseta_, which I found unavailable everywhere +else, and had accepted by an oversight in Sevilla, in the confident hope +that I could get rid of it at Barcelona itself; but I discovered that +that was exactly the place where they treated it with the most contempt. +Hence it is best, before leaving one province for another, to convert +your change into gold pieces of twenty-five _pesetas_ worth, or into +silver dollars (which are called _duros_), worth five _pesetas_ each. + +Here, however, let it be noted that the one infallible course to prevent +deception is to ring on some solid surface of wood or stone every gold +or silver coin you receive at the hotel, the banker's, or anywhere else. +If it give a flat sound, no matter what its real value may be, great +trouble will be had in passing it; hence, you must in that case refuse +to take it. For example, a five-dollar piece was given me which failed +to yield the true sound; and though it was perfectly good, having merely +become cracked, I could do nothing with it, even at the Madrid banker's; +finally getting its value in silver, by a mere chance, from a +professional money-changer of more than common enlightenment. + +Never give a gold piece to a waiter or any one else to be changed, +unless the transaction is effected under your own eye; for, if he +carries the coin away out of your sight, a substitution will very likely +be made, and you cannot then get rid of the uncurrent money which will +be forced upon you. The precaution of ringing or sounding money, on +receipt, is so general that no one need feel any hesitation at +practising it, however it may seem to reflect upon the person who has +proffered the coin. Spanish gold pieces in small quantity may with +advantage be bought in Paris. On the other hand, it is well to carry +more or less Napoleons with you, because French gold is trusted, and +passes with slight discount. The traveller should be provided with both +kinds. Always and persistently refuse Spanish paper. + +_Buying Bric-à-brac, Lace, etc_.--Those who wish to purchase +characteristic products of the country, ancient or modern, need not fear +that opportunity will be wanting; but the most obvious means are not +always the best. The interpreters or guides attached to hotels are in +most places only too anxious to aid in this sort of enterprise; but it +is because they wish to dispose of some private stock of their own, for +which they will surely demand double price. By courteous but decided +treatment they may be led to make most astonishing reductions from their +first demand; and this channel is accordingly, if properly handled, +often as good as any other. Guides in Cordova will offer an assortment +of old hand-made lace, and introduce you to the silversmiths who there +manufacture a peculiarly effective sort of filigree in ear-rings, +shawl-pins, brooches, and other forms. Cordova is the best place in +which to get this kind of ware; but if lace be the object sought, +Sevilla or Barcelona is a much more advantageous market. Machine-made +lace, which is now the favorite kind among Spanish ladies, and has been +brought to a high degree of delicacy, can be obtained in the greatest +variety and on the best terms at Barcelona, where it is made. Many +foreigners, however, prefer the hand-made kind; and these should explore +Sevilla in search of what they wish, for they can there get it at +reasonable prices. In this connection it is to be premised that the +assistance of some personal acquaintance among the Spaniards themselves, +if it can be had, will always effect a considerable saving; and, when +time can be allowed, the best way always is to make inquiry and prowl +around among the stores for one's self. There are few professed +antiquarian and bric-à-brac salesrooms out of Madrid; but one can often +pick up what he wants in out-of-the-way places. Perhaps the best towns +in which to buy the peculiar gay-colored and ball-fringed _mantas_, or +mantles of the country, and the equally curious _alforjas_ used by the +peasantry, are Granada and Valencia. In Toledo there is a very peculiar +and effective sort of black-and-gray felt blanket, with brilliant +embroideries; that city, like the two just mentioned, being a centre of +textile industry. The purchase of costumes in actual use, from the +peasants themselves, which is something that artists may find useful, +can be accomplished after due bargaining, and by the intervention of the +professional interpreter. + +The pottery and porcelain of Spain exhibit a great variety of beautiful +shapes, many of them doubtless Moorish in their origin; and some kinds +are invested with a bold, peculiar coloring, dashed on somewhat in the +Limoges style, but very characteristic of the climate and landscape in +which they are produced. The abundance of unusual and graceful forms +constantly suggests the idea of making a collection. I shall not attempt +to specify the localities most favorable for the carrying out of this +idea; because, so far as my own observation went, there seemed to be +material worth investigating almost everywhere. The common unglazed +bottles and jars made and used by the peasantry in the South, however, +are especially attractive, and are met with only in that part of the +country. They are likewise nearly as cheap as the substance from which +they are made. At Granada, too, there is manufactured a heavy +blue-and-white glazed ware, turned with refined and simple contours, of +honest elegance. Formerly barbers' basins moulded on the Spanish +plan--that is, with a curved piece cut out at one side--were made of +porcelain; and these may still sometimes be picked up in Madrid +junk-shops or antiquarian lairs. They are not always good specimens of +decorative art, but they are curious and effective. Part of an extensive +collection I saw, which had recently been made by an American gentleman; +and I could imagine that, when hung upon the wall by his distant +fireside across the Atlantic, they would form an interesting series of +trophies--a row of ceramic scalps, one might say, marking the fate of so +many vanquished dealers. + +Old furniture, heavy with carving or marvellously inlaid according to +traditions of the Moors--monumental pieces, such as were to be seen in +the loan collection of Spanish Art at the South Kensington in 1881, and +are sparsely imported into the United States--offers larger prizes to +those who search and pay. Many relics of ancient costume, dating from +the period of courtly splendor; rich fabrics; embroideries; sacerdotal +robes and disused altar-cloths; and occasional precious metal-work, may +farther be unearthed in the bric-à-brac shops. With due care such +objects will often be obtained at moderate cost. But it is to be +remembered that the price paid on the spot forms only one item. +Transportation to the final shipping-point and the ocean freightage are +very high; amounting in the case of cheap articles to far more than the +original outlay for their purchase. + +_Seasons for Travel_.--A question of very great moment is, what time of +year should be chosen for a sojourn in Spain? The answer to it depends +entirely upon the organization of the person asking, and his object in +going. For a simple trip in search of novelty, the voyager being of good +constitution, it makes little difference. From the first of June until +the first of October the heat, in almost any spot south of the Pyrenees, +will be found severe. From the first of October until the first of June, +severe, cold, treacherous changing winds, snow, and ice will be +encountered, save in a few favored localities hereinafter to be named, +under the head of "Climate for Health." Of the two extremes, summer is +perhaps to be preferred; because the voyager at that time knows +precisely what he has got to prepare for and can meet it, whereas winter +is a more variable emergency. A person of good constitution, +understanding how to take care of himself in either case, and with an +eye to local habits as adapted to the season, may go at any time. Autumn +and spring, however, are obviously the ideal seasons for a visit. From a +comparison of authorities, and from my own observation of a part of the +summer, I should advise going during the period from October 1 to +December 1, or from April 1 to June 1. A tour involving more than two +months' time, of course, must pass these limits. For hardy and judicious +travellers there is no objection to a sojourn including June and July; +although it must be said that sight-seeing at the South during these +months is more in the nature of endurance than of recreation. I +encountered no serious local fever or other ailment due to hot weather, +excepting a kind of cholera referred to in one of the preceding +chapters, called _el minuto_ (the minute), at Sevilla. By beginning a +trip at the southern end of the Peninsula and gradually working along +northward toward France, four months from March 1 or April 1 could be +utilized without any unusual discomfort. + +_Routes_.--The topic just discussed necessarily has a good deal to do +with the selection of a route, which, from the position of the country, +must be made to begin from the North or from the South. + +Let us notice, first, the general lines of approach from different +quarters. + +From New York direct, for example, one may sail for Cadiz in steamers of +the Anchor and Guion lines, or in the Florio (Spanish) steamers, which +last I have heard spoken of in favorable terms by authority presumably +good. From London there are two lines of steamers: one, Messrs. Hall's, +leaving weekly for Lisbon, Gibraltar, Malaga, and Cadiz; the other, +Messrs. MacAndrew's, leaving London three times a week for Bilbao and +the principal ports on the Mediterranean. For any one wishing to visit +Spain alone, these form the cheapest and nearest means of reaching the +country. To go by steamer from London is, however, very obviously a +slower way than to take the rail from the English capital to Paris and +thence to the frontier, either at Irun and San Sebastian, or at +Barcelona by way of Marseilles and Perpignan. So that, where speed alone +is the object, one may take a fast steamer from New York to Liverpool, +use the rail thence to London, and arrive in Burgos, for instance, about +fifty hours after leaving London. The through train from Paris for Spain +leaves in the evening. Voyagers from the East and Italy, designing to +pass through Spain on their return westward, can embark on the +Peninsular and Oriental steamers, or those of the Messageries +Imperiales. + +When one passes through France, on the way, it is possible to buy a +Continental railroad guide, which gives all the trains in Spain and +France, and the connection of one system with the other across the +boundary. This is to be recommended as an exceedingly useful document. + +It may as well be remarked here that the information ordinarily given in +books about the coasting steamers from one port to another along the +Mediterranean coast of Spain is as untrustworthy as it is vague. The +precise date of departure from any given town on the coast for the other +ports to the north-east or south-west is not very easy to ascertain, +except in the town itself. One or another steamer, however, is pretty +sure to sail from Cadiz, Malaga, Valencia, and Barcelona two or three +times a week; so that one can scarcely fail of what the Germans call an +"opportunity." There is undoubtedly a difference in the various lines, +as regards comfort and swiftness of progress; but it is not true, as the +guide-books assert, that the French steamers alone are good, and that +the Spanish are dirty and comfortless. We personally inspected two boats +in the harbor of Malaga before making choice; one was French and the +other Spanish, and we found the latter much the more commodious and +cleanly. But, then, it is possible that some other Spanish line than +the one we selected may be inferior to some still other French line +which we did not see. Everybody can satisfy himself, by simply viewing +whatever steamers happen to be on hand for the trip, before engaging +passage. The accommodations on all of them seem to be of a kind that +would not be tolerated for a day in America; but they compare well with +those of the best boats on the English Channel, being fairly on a level +with the incomplete civilization of Europe in respect of convenience, +privacy, and hygiene. The cabins become close and unwholesome at night, +and few staterooms are provided. These last are built to receive from +four to six persons, who may be total strangers to each other; hence, +any one who wishes to be independent of chance comers must betake +himself to the deck at night, or else make special arrangements to +secure an entire room before starting. + +Again, on the railroads, many journeys have to be made at night; and it +is seldom that one can secure a sleeping-coach. On much-travelled lines +these are usually bespoken a week in advance. Failing to get the +_wagon-lit_, as the sleeping-car is called, after the French fashion, +one may sometimes engage a _berlina_, which is simply the _coupé_ or end +compartment of a car. This, being made to seat three persons instead of +six, is allowed to be reserved. It costs about two dollars for a +distance of one hundred miles. + +The route to be followed in any particular case has, in the nature of +things, to be determined by the purpose and circumstances of the +tourist. One may make a geological and mineralogical tour, inspecting +the mountains and the mines of Spain, and find his hands tolerably full +at that; or, one may wend his way to the Peninsula solely to study the +achievements of the former national schools of painting there, in which +case Sevilla and the picture-gallery at Madrid will be his only +objective points--the latter chief and almost inexhaustible. The +architectural treasures of Spain constitute another source of interest +sufficient in itself for a whole journey and months of study. But those +who go with aims of this sort will find all the advice they need in +guides and special works. What will more probably be sought here is +merely an outline for the wanderer who sets out to obtain general views +and impressions in a brief space of time. Him, then, I advise, if the +season be propitious, to enter Spain from the north, pursue in the main +a straight line to the southern extremity; and then, having made the +excursion to Granada--which in the present state of the railways must be +a digression from the general circuit--proceed along the shores of the +Mediterranean toward France again. In this case his trip will arrange +itself in the following order: + + DAYS + +Paris to San Sebastian 2 + + +Thence to Pamplona. Back to main line. + Burgos 3 + +Valladolid 1 + +Thence to Salamanca 2 + +Back to main line. Avila 1 + +Escorial, and drive to Segovia 2 + +Madrid 8 + Or, from Avila go direct to Madrid, and + then to Escorial, Segovia, and return. + +Alcalá de Henáres (birthplace of Cervantes) + may be reached by a short railtrip from + Madrid eastward 1 + +Aranjuez 1 + +Toledo 2 + +Cordova 2 + +Sevilla 5 + +Cadiz 2 + +Gibraltar (by steamer) 2 + +Malaga 1 + +Ronda (by rail and diligence) 2 + +Granada 4 + +Return to Malaga 1 + +Cartagena (steamer) 2 + +Murcia (rail) 1 + +Elche palmgroves (diligence) 1 + +Alicante (diligence) 1 + +Or, diligence and rail direct to Valencia 1 + +Valencia (drive in the Huerta) 2 + +Zaragoza 2 + +Manresa, and monastery of Monserrat 3 + +Barcelona 3 + +Gerona 1 + +To Marseilles 1 + -- + 60 + +The preceding estimate includes the time to be allowed for going from +place to place; but, as will be seen, the total includes some extra days +occurring in the count where an option is suggested. To accomplish all +that is laid down here in two months, however, would be very close and +hard work; in order to go over the ground comfortably, an extra week or +two should be allowed. The great advantage of entering the kingdom by +way of San Sebastian is that the first impression of the Pyrenees is +much finer there than by way of Perpignan to Gerona and Barcelona. One +also plunges immediately into the heart of ancient Spain on touching +Pamplona and Burgos; and these lead in the most natural and direct way +to Valladolid (the old capital and the place where "Don Quixote" was +written), to Salamanca, Avila, Segovia, and the Escorial. Furthermore, +after Madrid has intervened between North and South with its mingling of +past and present, the succession of interest follows an ascending scale +through Toledo, Cordova, and Sevilla, culminating at Granada. Next, the +Mediterranean route presents itself as something having a special unity +of its own, with a recurrence to special phases of antiquity again in +Zaragoza, Monserrat, and Gerona. If, on the other hand, we begin with +Barcelona and go southward before coming up to Madrid, we receive a +first impression less striking and characteristic, and also pluck the +most ideal flowers--Granada, Sevilla, Cordova--before coming to Madrid. +Taken in the light of such a contrast, Toledo, Avila, Burgos, and the +rest of the northern places will seem less attractive than when grouped +together in an introductory glimpse, as a prelude to the more poetic +South. + +Supposing, however, that the traveller lands at once in Cadiz, from the +deck of a steamer, he must put all this fine theory aside, and make the +best of the case. His programme will then depend on whether he proposes +to end by going into France, or to return without crossing the Pyrenees. +In the latter event, he might do well to follow the rail to Sevilla, +Cordova, Toledo, and Madrid; then visit the Escorial, Avila, Segovia, +and afterward strike off abruptly to the north-east, through Zaragoza +and Monserrat to Barcelona, coming down the coast again either by rail +or steamer to Valencia, and reserving Granada until near the end. After +Granada, a return to Malaga and a touch at Gibraltar would deposit him +exactly where he started from, at Cadiz. + +Should he wish to wind up in France, the situation is more complicated. +He must then take Gibraltar first, come back to Sevilla, go to Granada, +thence to Cordova and Toledo--omitting Valencia wholly, unless he be +willing to double interminably on his tracks--pass from Toledo to +Madrid, and then decide whether he will go north-westward through Avila +and Burgos, north-eastward through Zaragoza and Barcelona, or attempt to +embrace both routes by zigzagging across the widest part of the kingdom. + +There remains, finally, the alternative of starting from Cadiz, visiting +Sevilla and Granada, and then, by way of Cordova, Toledo and Madrid, +continuing north to Valladolid, Burgos, and the French frontier, without +troubling the eastern half of the country at all. This route, after all, +includes the most that is best worth seeing, if we leave out Zaragoza +and Monserrat. + +Let me add only that nobody should be deterred, by the schedule given on +the preceding page, from making a shorter visit to the Peninsula, if it +come within his range, when circumstances grant him less time than is +there allotted. Even in _three_ weeks a general tour could be +accomplished, allowing several days at Madrid and very brief pauses at +Avila, the Escorial, Toledo, Cordova, Sevilla, Granada, and Barcelona. +So rapid a flight, nevertheless, the voyager must be prepared to find, +will induce a harassing sense that at every point much that it would be +desirable to see has been passed over. But even an outline of actual +experience is sometimes more prized than a complete set of second-hand +impressions. + +Furthermore, a _single week_ would suffice the traveller who found +himself on the borders of Spain, to make an excursion which he could +hardly regret. Thus from Biarritz one can, in that space of time, cross +the border and run down to Madrid, glance rapidly at the gallery there, +and take the Escorial, Avila, or Burgos--or possibly two of these--on +the return. From Marseilles he can visit Gerona, Barcelona, and +Monserrat. Similarly, touching at Cadiz, he can go to Sevilla, Cordova, +and Granada, get a general survey of those places, including the +Alhambra and two of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world, and +return to Cadiz or Malaga, all in seven or eight days. Indeed, one who +has it in his power to reach Granada and spend a day or two there, +without attempting to see anything else, ought not to forego the +opportunity. The sight of the Alhambra alone, and of the enchanting +landscape that surrounds it, may well repay the loss incurred by an +inability to make farther explorations. + +All these details in regard to flying trips I submit with due knowledge +that whoever profits by them, at the same time that he admits himself +under obligation for the counsel, will perhaps never forgive himself for +seeing thus much and no more, and may even include in this unrelenting +mood his benevolent adviser. + +Enough, I think, has now been said to furnish a basis for all manner of +individual modification. The large anatomical lines, as it were, have +been indicated; and on these each tourist may construct his own ideal, +with any desired curtailment or extension of time to be consumed. + +_Climate for Health_--The resources of Spain as a health resort are, in +general, hardly suspected, much less widely known; and a great deal has +doubtless yet to be done before they can be rendered available. Still, +the existing conditions and favorable circumstances are worth +summarizing in this place. In a singularly careful work on the winter +and spring climates of the Mediterranean shores, Dr. J. H. Bennett, of +England, arrives at some important conclusions respecting the localities +of the Spanish coast. To begin with, the vital distinction has to be +noted that the Peninsula (leaving out the corner abutting on the +Atlantic) possesses two distinct climates: _first_, that of the central +raised plains stretching from range to range of its several +mountain-ribs; and, _second_, that of the sea-level and the latitude in +which the country lies. The former is perforce much the colder, and is +subject to raw winds; the latter is mild and uncommonly dry. The health +regions of Spain are confined to the east and south-east coasts, where +the land subsides nearly to the sea-level, and is open to the balmy +influences natural to the latitude. Dr. Bennett observes that the north +and north-west winds precipitate their moisture in the mountains of the +central regions of Spain, and that the north-east winds are drawn down +to Algeria by the Desert of Sahara, which creates a sort of vacuum +compelling them southward. As a matter of fact, they do not molest the +eastern coast. Hence, in the words of this physician, "the eastern coast +of Spain is probably the driest region of Europe, drier even than the +Genoese Riviera." Accordingly, Murcia, Alicante, Valencia, Tarragona, +and even Barcelona--far north though the last-mentioned is--all offer +extraordinary advantages of climate to the average run of patients +afflicted with chronic chest disease, pulmonary consumption, chronic +bronchitis, bronchitic asthma, chronic diseases of the kidney, debility +and anæmia from any cause, and the failing vitality of old age. Cadiz, +too, possesses a most equable temperature. It is noted, however, by the +writer whom I follow, that the dry air of these places is injurious in +those exceptional cases of chest disease, of nervous asthma and +neuralgia, which are found to be aggravated by a stimulating atmosphere. +Dr. Bennett's theory is that the towns just referred to lie under a +qualifying disadvantage, inasmuch as they stand at some distance from +the mountains, thus permitting the cold winds from the latter to fall +into the plain and sweep the towns to a certain extent. But in this +connection he seems not to remember that in Nice, at least, the invalid +population are now and then scourged by the cold northern bise rushing +down the Rhone to the sea. The most serious objection to these Spanish +towns is the want of comfortable and airy quarters for invalids. Again, +at Malaga, which has been so highly recommended, the sanitary conditions +are such that any benefit from the climate is likely to be nullified by +the evil influences of a want of drainage, and of latent pestilence. + +Here it may be mentioned that the Alhambra hill, at Granada, is much +resorted to by Spaniards in summer as a cool, airy, and healthful spot; +and truly there is none more lovely in its surroundings on the globe, so +far as it is usually permitted man to see. In and about the Alhambra, +too, small cottages may be hired, where the sick and weary may rest +after their own fashion, and keep house for themselves, with docile +native servants. But, whosoever fares to Spain in search of bettered +health, let him not mount the Alhambra hill save in spring, nor enter +the Mediterranean towns until after September. And, above all, let him +avoid the fatal error of supposing that the high regions of the interior +will offer any influences more soothing than those of harsh-tempered New +England. + +This consideration remains, that whatever obstacles to complete comfort +may exist, the perfection of the coast climate, the stimulus of scenery +and surroundings so unique and picturesque, and the resources of +observation or of historic association opened to the sojourner in Spain +are likely to have a good effect, both mental and spiritual. + +[Illustration] + + + + +IMPORTANT ART BOOKS. + + * * * * * + +Herrick's Poems. +Selections from the Poetry of Robert Herrick. With Drawings by +EDWIN A. ABBEY. 4to, Illuminated Cloth, Gilt Edges, $7 50. (_In +a Box_.) + +Highways and Byways; +Or, Saunterings in New England. By W. HAMILTON GIBSON, Author +of "Pastoral Days." Superbly Illustrated by the Author. 4to, +Illuminated Cloth, Gilt Edges, $7 50. (_In a Box_.) + +Pastoral Days. +By W. HAMILTON GIBSON. Superbly Illustrated by the Author. 4to, +Illuminated Cloth, Gilt Edges, $7 50. (_In a Box_.) + +Travels in South Kensington. +With Notes on Decorative Art and Architecture in England. By +MONCURE D. CONWAY. With many Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. + +History of Ancient Art. +By Dr. FRANZ VON REBER. Revised by the Author. Translated +and Augmented by JOSEPH THACHER CLARKE. With 310 Illustrations +and a Glossary of Technical Terms. 8vo, Cloth, $3 50. + +Heart of the White Mountains. +By SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE. Illustrated by W. HAMILTON GIBSON. +4to, Illuminated Cloth. Gilt Edges, $7 50. (_In a Box_.) + +Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples, +By LOUIS PALMA DI CESNOLA. With Portraits, Maps, and 400 Illustrations. +8vo, Cloth, Extra, Gilt Tops and Uncut Edges, $7 50. + +Ilios, the City and Country of the Trojans. +By Dr. HENRY SCHLIEMANN. Maps, Plans, and Illustrations. Imperial +8vo, Illuminated Cloth, $12 00. + +History of Wood-Engraving. +A History of Wood-Engraving. 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With 203 +Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, Gilt Tops and Uncut Edges, $5 00. + +Songs from the Published Writings of Alfred Tennyson. +Set to Music by various Composers. Edited by W. G. CUSINS. With +Portrait and Illustrations. Royal 4to, Cloth, Gilt Edges, $5 00. + +The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. +By SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. Illustrated by GUSTAVE DORÉ. +Folio, Cloth, Gilt Edges, $10 00. (_In a Box_.) + + * * * * * + +PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + +[Illustration: pointing hand] HARPER & BROTHERS _will send any of the +above works by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, +on receipt of the price_. + + * * * * * + +Boudoir of Lindarana=> Boudoir of Lindaraxa {pg 12} + +azucarilios=> azucarillos {pg 5} + +encouragment=> encouragement {pg 65} + +intrepreter=> interpreter {pg 190} + +in in the South=> in the South {pg 202} + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The dancing boys still officiate at Seville, also, in Holy-week, +where they leap merrily before the high altar, and do not even take off +their hats to the Host. The story runs that, years ago, a visiting +bishop from Rome found fault with this as being unorthodox, and +threatened to put a stop to it. He complained to the Pope, and a lenient +order issued from the Vatican that the observance should be discontinued +when the boys' clothes should be worn out. Up to the present day, +curiously enough, the clothes have not been worn out. + +[2] These last are called _tocas_, and are rapidly superseding the long +mantilla. + +[3] This characterization, our own experience led us to conclude, was +exceedingly unjust. + +[4] Some time before this he had, by too adventurous play, received a +tossing which laid him up for eight months, and his death in the ring +has since been reported. + +[5] In this connection it is curious to observe that the Toledan +peasants, like the Chinese, confound the letters _r_ and _l_--as when +they say _flol_ for _flor_, "flower." + +[6] Contained in the series called "The Man with Five Wives." + +[7] A nickname alluding to the sooty black of the clerical costume. + +[8] Literally, "sun-trap." + +[9] Irving's name heads the ponderous register in which visitors, +embracing some of the most distinguished of the earth, have recorded +themselves for fifty years past; and though it is not generally known, +his signature may also be found pencilled on the inner wall of the +little mosque near the Comares Tower, just under the interpolated +Spanish choir gallery. Yet there seems to be a degree of mistiness in +the Granadian mind respecting the author of "Tales of the Alhambra." I +think the people sometimes confounded him with the Father of his +Country. At all events, the Hotel Washington Irving is labelled, at one +of its entrances, "Hotel Washington," as if that were the same thing. + +[10] "Fleming," a name commonly applied to Spanish gypsies; whence it +has been inferred that the first of them came from the Netherlands. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Spanish Vistas, by George Parsons Lathrop + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40528 *** |