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HARVARD COLLEGE
LIBRARY

THE BEQUEST OF
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SKETCHES AWHEEL

MODERN IBERIA

FANNY BULLOCK WORKMAN

WILLIAM HUNTER WORKMAN

Authors of " Algerian Memories "

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK LONDON

97 WEST TWBNTY-THIRD STRBBT 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND

S^t $mcheibocktr jpress
1897

HARVARD colleQI LiBHAIIV

FROM

THE BEQUEST Of

EVERT JANSEN WENDlLli

10li

So.oy'W \^ 4-^.<^6""

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Ube Unicfccrbocfccr prcBB» l^cw fiotfc

In memory of the varied experiences of our many travels
together, I affectionately dedicate my portion of this book
to my husband, without whose skill in planning the long
route, energy in following it out, and attention to details,
our journey through the length and breadth of Spain would
not have been possible.

FANNY BULLOCK WORKMAN.

To my wife, my companion on long journeys awheel in
most of the countries of Europe, in Sicily and North Africa,
and on tours afoot in the mountains of Norway, the Alps,
Apennines, Pyrenees, and Atlas, whose courage, endurance,
and enthusiasm, often under circumstances of hardship and
sometimes of danger, have never failed, I affectionately
dedicate my contribution to this volume.

WILLIAM HUNTER WORKMAN.

PREFACE.

THE following pages are based upon ob-
servations and experiences of the authors
while on a tour through Spain in the spring
and summer of 1895. The tour was made on
bicycles, not to satisfy the spirit of adventure
commonly ascribed to Americans, though
something of adventure must be expected in a
country like Spain, nor because there was any-
thing novel to us in this mode of travel — the
novelty had long since worn off — but as being
the means of conveyance best adapted to our
purpose, enabling us in entire independence of
the usual hindrances of the traveller to pass
through the country at leisure, stopping where
and when we pleased.

Riding was only a means to an end, and long
runs were not attempted. The average daily
distance on riding days for the whole trip was
about seventy-five kilometres, but a hundred
and ten to a hundred and twenty-five had often
to be made in order to reach shelter for the

VI FREFACE.

night These last distances and greater ones,
with the twelve to twenty pounds of luggage
necessarily carried in touring, are usually made
under favourable circumstances without per-
ceptible fatigue, but sometimes in Spain with
bad roads and head-winds they represented a
very considerable effort.

A good portion of the route lay among moun-
tains, the numerous passes of which necessi-
tated walking and pushing often for hours at a
time. It is not our purpose to give a weiri-
some itinerary of distances and condition of
roads travelled, nor to recount all the petty
accidents that occurred, nor to pose as martyrs
to enthusiasm by magnifying all the hardships,
of which there were plent)' ; but to give our
impressions of a part of what we saw of the
nature, people, and art of Spain on a trip of a
kind that offered some experiences not usually
met with in the ordinary mode of travel. At
the same time an intelligent bicyclist will find
considerable information that might prove use-
ful were he to make a similar journey.

The route travelled covered about forty-five
hundred kilometres and extended from Port
Bou and Figueras at the north-east corner over

PREFACE. VU

Gerona, Barcelona, Monserrat, Manresa, Mont-
blanch, Poblet, Tarragona, Tortosa, Castellon
de la Plana, Sagunto, Valencia, Jativa, Alcoy,
Alicante, Elche, Murcia, Albacete, Manzanares
Jaen, Granada, Loja, Malaga, Ronda, Gibral-
tar, Algeciras with excursion to Tangier and
Tetuan in Morocco, Tarifa, Cadiz, Xeres,
Seville, Merida, Carmona, Cordova, Toledo,
Aranjuez, Tarancon, Cuenca, Madrid, Escorial,
La Granja, Segovia, Avila, Salamanca, Zamora,
Valladolid, Burgos, Logrofio, Tudela, Zara-
goza, Pamplona, Tolosa, San Sebastian to
Irun.

Many places besides those mentioned proved
interesting, and what was seen and experienced
on the route was in its way quite as original
and instructive as what was seen in the towns.

It is impossible to crowd within the limits of
a modern book all of the material that is gath-
ered on a journey of this kind and length in
the highways and b)rways of a land as large as
Spain. Out of the mass that is available and
of interest to the writers it is difficult to select
what may prove most interesting to our read-
ers, whose diversity of taste is likely to be
almost as great as their number

via PREFACE.

A book composed entirely of personal ex-
periences and adventures may become nau-
seous ; one dealing extensively with history is
open to the charge of being unoriginal or guide-
bookish, even though the facts may have been
gathered from sources far removed from guide-
books, while one devoted largely to architect-
ural description is considered dry. All these
subjects as well as the natural scenery, antiqui-
ties, and customs of the people have a bearing
on the interest of a Spanish tour, and a writer
must cull from all if he would present an intel-
ligible picture of a portion of what may be
seen in Spain to-day.

Finally, this book makes no pretension to
being an exhaustive treatise on the subjects
touched upon.

F. B. W. W. H. W.

Munich, October 8, 1896.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION xiii

I. — PASSING THE FRONTIER .... I

II. COSAS DE ESPA5fA GREET US — DINING WITH

CABALLEROS AT THE FONDA IN GERONA —
CHURCH OF THE GREAT SPAN — A MODERN
CITY OF SPAIN 6

III. — MONSERRAT — LEGEND OF THE BLACK VIRGIN

— MANRESA THE PENANCE TOWN OF LOYOLA 21

IV. — A GOOD-FRIDAY PROCESSION — GLIMPSES OF
CATALONIA — DESECRATED TOMBS AND
SHATTERED ALTARS OF FALLEN POBLET . 34

V. — EASTER SERVICE AT THE TARRAGONA CATHE-
DRAL — THE VENTA OF PERELLO — A PLEAS-
ANT HOUR WITH THE BRITON AT TORTOSA
— SPANISH ANIMALS AND THEIR OWNERS . 43

VI. TRANSITIONAL VALENCIA — ARCADIAN JATIVA

— A MOUNTAIN-TOP PRELUDE TO AFRICAN
SPAIN — AT THE VIUDA OF JIJONA . . 55

VII. — AN ENCOUNTER WITH TEAMSTERS — MOTIVES
AMONG THE PALMS — GLORIES OF AFRICAN
SPAIN — MURCIA, THE PEARL OF THE HUERTA 7 1

VIII. — THROUGH THE GATE OF THE VANQUISHED
MOORS INTO THE FLOWER LAND OF ANDA-
LUCIA — THE RED PALACE OF GRANADA — EL

ULTIMO SUSPIRO 8 1

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGB

IX. — OVER THE MALAGA SIERRAS TO THE QUEEN
OF THE SHIMMERING SEA — RONDA — A JAUNT
TO THE CUEVA DEL GATO AND THE ZUMI-
DERO ........ 92

X. — TETUAN, A WHITE CITY OF MOROCCO, HOME
OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE EXILES OF
GRANADA I05

XI. — TARIFA — OCEAN-WASHED CADIZ — PEONES
CAMINEROS — ALCALA DE LA GUADAIRA —
FAMED SEVILLA OF THE GUADALQUIVIR . I30

XII. — ROMAN MERIDA — NECROPOLIS OF CARMONA —
DELAYS AND SPANISH DELIBERATION — DOR-
MANT CITY OF THE CALIPHS AND ITS
MOSQUE OF MANY COLUMNS . . . 149

XIII. — CORPUS CHRISTI IN HISTORIC TOLEDO — SARA-
CENIC, JEWISH, AND CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS 162

XIV. — THE FONDA OF TARANCON — AN AUTOCRAT

OF THE DINNER TABLE . . • 171

XV. — CUENCA, A PICTURESQUE CITY OF NEW CAS-
TILE — IN THE MUSEUM OF THE PR ADO . 1 82

XVI. — THE ROYAL MAUSOLEUM — OVER THE GUADAR-
RAMAS — TWO QUAINT CITIES OF OLD CAS-
TILE ........ 194

XVII. — THE UNIVERSITY TOWN OF THE TORMES —
THE PROFESSOR OF ZAMORA — MEDIiEVAL
CAPITAL OF CASTILE — STREET SCENES DUR-
ING THE FERIA AT BURGOS — CATHEDRAL —
TOMBS AT MIRAFLORES — LAST OF THE CID .211

XVIII. — NATURE, ART, AND PEOPLE OF ARAGON AND

NAVARRE — FAREWELL TO ESP A5r A .228

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PUERTA DEL CASTILLO, CUENCA

STREAM WITH STEPPING-STONES, CATALONIA

REPAIRS BY THE WAY ....

MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT .

TORRE DE LOS ESCIPIONES, NEAR TARRAGONA

CLOISTER OF TARRAGONA CATHEDRAL .

A SPANISH BORRICO ....

ONE OF THE FORTRESS HILLS OF JATIVA

PASEO DE LOS MARTIRES, ALICANTE

UNDER THE PALMS OF AFRICAN SPAIN .

GUARDIA CIVIL ON AN ANDALUCIAN PASS

IN THE COURT OF THE LIONS, ALHAMBRA

AT THE ULTIMO SUSPIRO

ENTRANCE TO THE GORGE, RONDA

FISH MARKET, TETUAN .

BASHA STREET, TETUAN .

A MARKET WOMAN OF TETUAN

RETURN FROM LA SOURCE, TETUAN

A LONE TOWER OF ANDALUCIA

ROMAN BRIDGE AT MERIDA

PAGS

Frontispiece

44
48

52
60

104

108

116

122

128

138
150

Xll

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGB

REMNANT OF ROMAN AQUEDUCT, MERIDA . . 152

ENTERING TOLEDO 162

TOLEDO CATHEDRAL WITH TAPESTRIES AT CORPUS

CHRISTI 166

ROCK-GIRT CUENCA 182

HOUSE AT CUENCA 190

EN ROUTE TO THE FERIA, AVILA .... 2o6

TORO DE GUISANDO, AVILA 2IO

PUERTA OF THE PALACE OF D05fA URRACA, ZAMORA. 214

ROMANESQUE ENTRANCE, LA MAGDALENA, ZAMORA. 232

BRIDGE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF NAVARRE . . 240

INTRODUCTION.

SPANISH ROADS.

WHILE making preparations for the
tour we attempted to obtain informa-
tion upon a subject all important to the suc-
cess of our project, viz., the condition of the
roads in Spain, but without any satisfactory
result. We neither knew nor could learn of
anyone who had made an extensive tour in
that country in the manner we proposed.
The guide-books and books of travel consulted
^contained only fragmentary statements of little
value and, judged in the light of after-experi-
ence, not any too accurate. Correspondence
with persons living in Spain only elicited the
rather dubious reply that not much could be
said for the roads, particularly in spring.
The meagre information gained was not re-
assuring, and it was not without considerable
misgiving that we determined to face the
problem and solve it for ourselves.

Xlll

Xiv INTRODUCTION.

The roads in Spain available for wheeled
vehicles are called carreteras and are divided
into two classes — the **arrecifes or caminos
reales," built and cared for by the state, and
the ** communales," under local direction.
Among the former are the eight grand routes
diverging from Madrid, which with their
branches connect it with most of the impor-
tant cities of the kingdom. Some of these
were planned and executed on a most liberal
scale with plenty of width for roadway, sub-
stantial parapets and bridges ; of others not so
much can be said.

In most countries it is usually considered
and is probably true that roads under govern-
ment control are the best, hence one might
expect the caminos reales to be better than-
the caminos communales. This is not by any
means always the case, many of the latter
being greatly superior to many of the former,
and more than once we left the government
for the communal road with the greatest sense
of relief. Ford, relying perhaps a little too
much on the general principle, says : ** When-
ever a traveller hears a road spoken of as
' arrecife, camino real,' he may be sure that it

INTRODUCTION. XV

is good." Had Ford, in 1895, ridden a bicy-
clette over some stretches of camtno real^ the
acquaintance of which we made, he might
have modified his statement. So far then as
the character of these two classes of roads is
concerned they may be treated as one and the
same.

Spain is a large country, and no one term is
descriptive of its roads as a whole. It has
some that may be called excellent and many
that are good, being macadamized and well
constructed, with a hard, fairly smooth surface.
Many more, though rideable, are rough, badly
made and poorly kept up. Still others, and
these a not inconsiderable portion in some
sections, can only be spoken of as abominable,
being now, if they ever were tolerable, thor-
oughly worn out, or merely tracks in the sand
or clay soil.

Speaking in general terms, we found the
average of roads poorest in the provinces of
Aragon, Catalonia, Castellon, Valencia, Murcia,
and in the southern half of New Castile, from
Madrid south ; better in Estremadura and
Andalucia, particularly in the southern and
western portions ; and best in New Castile

XVI INTRODUCTION.

north and east of Madrid, Old Castile, Leon,
and Navarre. In the two last named prov-
inces we did not meet with a bad road, and
many would not suffer in comparison with
those of other Continental countries, being
far superior to some soon afterwards traversed
in the south of France. The same is said to
be true of the roads of Galicia and the
Asturias, which provinces we did not visit.

In the first named set of provinces our route
lay over long reaches of road with wide, well
laid out roadway of sand or clay entirely inno-
cent of the macadamizing or other constructive
process. Through the centre of this ran a
single track formed by three ruts from six
inches to a foot deep, the side ruts made by the
narrow tyres of the high-wheeled carts used in
that section, and the centre one by the animals
harnessed one before the other. The sides of
the roadway were occupied either by heaps of
stones or by large stones placed at short in-
tervals so as to prevent the use of any part
except the centre. The only available path for
us was the central mule track, which, always
narrow and never smooth, demanded the great-
est skill and attention in riding.

INTRODUCTION. XVll

Often riding was impossible and we were
obliged to perform the arduous task of push-
ing our loaded machines over the soft and un-
even mule track, walking ourselves along the
ridge on either side. On meeting with teams,
which never moved out of their course for us,
the inconvenience of getting out of the track
and getting into it again after they had passed
can be imagined. Still worse was it when we
were obliged to pass them, as we had to hurry
by on the heavy obstructed roadside in order
to mount again ahead.

Another class of roads which caused us
much trouble and delay were those which were
being repaired. Often places existed where
for several kilometres the whole available road-
bed was covered thickly with broken stone left
to be trodden in and consolidated by travel.
Here again, nothing remained but to push
ahead on foot till the end was reached.

Others still were worn into hollows and
ridges, covered with grey or brown dust to a
depth of two inches or more, interspersed with
stones of various sizes rendering riding difficult
and somewhat hazardous. Leaving out of
account other factors, and speaking solely with

XVIU INTRODUCTION.

reference to the condition of the roads, we
should advise only skilful, experienced, and
determined bicyclists to attempt a tour through
the eastern, southern, and some of the middle
parts of Spain, while the northern part as far
as Madrid can be traversed with nearly as much
ease as other countries by those somewhat ac-
customed to touring,

SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODEFN

IBERIA

SKETCHES AWHEEL

MODERN IBERIA.

CHAPTER I.

PASSING THE FRONTIER.

WE had intended to enter Spain over the
turnpike running from Perpignan
across the Pyrenees to Figueras, but having
learned that luggage sent from France into
Spain by rail unaccompanied by the owner is
liable to detention at the frontier, which would
seriously derange our plans, we concluded to
forward our trunk containing extra clothing
and supplies hy grande vitesse to the Spanish
custom-house at Port Bou and meet it there.

In most of the countries of Europe, Spain
included, bicycles are liable to a duty on en-

2 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

trance, and the tourist is obliged to make a
deposit in money, which is returned to him if
he leaves the country with the same machine
within a specified time. To facilitate matters
at Port Bou we despatched a letter in advance
to the ** Jefe de Aduana," couched in our best
Spanish, stating we should arrive on a given
train prepared to make the required deposit,
and praying most humbly that our trunk might
be on hand for examination and all necessary
papers ready, so that we might depart without
delay by the same train. The letter ended
with the usual string of polite and flattering
abbreviations prescribed by custom in Spain.

We rode across the south of France, reach-
ing Banyuls on the coast, where the highway
ended, on Saturday evening, March 31st, and
the next day took the rail for Port Bou. When
the passengers* luggage had been transferred
to the room devoted to the customs examina-
tion, we made ourselves known to one of the
officers, who forthwith reported at a small side
office. In a few moments a man with dark,
closely trimmed hair and beard, regular features
and handsome Arab-like eyes, dressed in a
black civilian suit of unexceptionable cut, the

PASSING THE FRONTIER. 3

very picture of a gentleman, stepped put with
our letter in his hand, which he waved slightly
above his face, and nodded to us with a most
winning and friendly smile, telling us to stand
back from the struggling crowd and have
patience, and he would see that all was
arranged.

The train was advertised to leave in one
hour. Duly impressed by the kindly reception
we retired to the side of the room and waited
impatiently for half an hour, in the course of
which time the affairs of the other passengers
were all disposed of. Then seeing nothing of
our trunk and no evidence of the usual for-
malities incident to making a deposit on the
bicycles, we again sought the Jefe. With a
suavity of manner as before, admirable and
incomparable, he now displayed an utter ig-
norance of any of the procedures necessary in
the premises, as well as of the whereabouts of
our trunk, and appealed to an official of the
French railway, by whose kind assistance it
was soon learned that the trunk was in the
storehouse of the railway company, and as it
was Sunday, the storehouse shut, and the man
in charge away, it could not be obtained until

4 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

the next day. Alas for our precautions and
trust in the activity of the Spanish customs
officials ! So far 'as the trunk was concerned
they had miscarried.

The Frenchman and the Jefe promising to
despatch the trunk to Barcelona the next day,
we decided not to wait over for it and turned
our attention to the deposit question. An
unaccountable mistiness seemed to envelop
this also. The Jefe, after consulting one of
the other officers, said, ** If you wish to make
a deposit on the bicycles which shall be re-
turned, you ought to have obtained a manifest
before leaving France." This was contrary to
any experience we had ever had before, and
we said we did not see what a French manifest
had to do with a deposit in the Spanish custom-
house. He was also unable to throw any light
on this point. After a few minutes he ex-
plained that the duty on bicycles was based on
their weight, and as a favour to us he would
call that of ours considerably less than it really
was, and the duty would be a certain, by no
means excessively large, number of pesetas^
which would not be returned.

Although this was not just what had been

PASSING THE FRONTIER. 5

expected, and we should have preferred to
make the regular deposit, we thanked the
Jefe for the consideration shown, and handed
him a bank-note of a denomination larger
than the sum stated, which immediately dis-
appeared into his pocket, change being ig-
nored. A receipt without any figure was then
given us, stating that we had paid the entrance
duty. Our eyes were opened to one of the
peculiarities of Spanish official administration.
As the event proved, however, the man did
us a real favour, as we were later obliged to
dispose of these bicycles, and the larger deposit
demanded by law would in this case have been
forfeited.

With mutual expressions of admiration and
regard we took leave of the courteous official
and entered the train for Figueras.

CHAPTER 11.

COSAS DE ESPANA GREET US— DINING WITH CABAL-
LEROS AT THE FONDA IN GERONA— CHjJRCH OF
THE GREAT SPAN— A MODERN CITY OF SPAIN.

AT last we were in Hispania, and forty
minutes by rail would bring us to
Figueras, where the road to Gerona would be
joined. For us the train was all too Spanishly
slow, so anxious were we to begin our Don
Quixotian days on the turnpike. Would they
be Quixotian? We hoped some of the an-
cient customs might still persist, and with this
hope, acting on the advice of Ford, had pro-
vided our travelling satchels, among other
things, with small mirrors. Before our trip
was ended it became evident that Spain is
not so far advanced in civilisation but that
adventures may still be found without any
great amount of seeking.

One looks in vain for anything distinctive
either in the people or towns between Port

COSAS DE ESPANA. 7

Bou and Figueras. The latter make simply
the same semi-French, semi-Spanish impres-
sion that is characteristic of all the towns be-
tween here and Perpignan. On approaching
Spain a certain naivete of expectancy in regard
to the distinctive is active in the traveller s
mind, which leads him to think he will find
people, customs, and architecture typically
Spanish as soon as he crosses the frontier.
Such expectation does not at first appear to
be fulfilled, but if he works his way into the
country patiently, — for patience as well as
time is an important factor in Spanish travel,
—he is sure in the end to find Spain Spain,
and the Spaniard a Spaniard.

Arrived at Figueras, as we were strapping
the luggage on our bicycles, we noticed two
gendarmes among the quiet crowd gathered
about. Here at least something not partly
but wholly Spanish presented itself. They
were members of the famous corps of the
guardia civil, and were dressed in the dark
blue uniform and black tarpaulin hats of the
corps. The most novel thing about them was
their grass green net gloves.

We inquired of them the way to the road.

8 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

They gave us a military salute, and said they
would accompany us to it. We told them we
would not trouble them to do that, but their
idea of the etiquette involved in the case'de-
manded that they should see us on the right
path, so we said no more, but started off, each
attended by a guard with shouldered musket
marching solemnly at the side, thus beginning
our first journey in Spain under military
escort.

The walk through the town was somewhat
long and tedious. Had we followed our own
inclinations we should have mounted and
ridden on, Figueras not being an especially
intricate place, but we did not wish to offend
our kind protectors by riding away from them
before their mission was accomplished. On
reaching the turnpike they again raised their
green-gloved hands to their hats, and, as we
mounted our cycles, the musical words of old
Spanish diligence days, ** Adios vayan ustedes
con Dios," fell from their lips. These words
were destined to become a sort of ** Leitmotif "
to cheer many a long day's wandering, but
whether used by a Catalonian, a Sevillian, or
drawled out in the rich, guttural sound of the

COSAS DE ESPA5JA. 9

Castilian with the peculiar prolonged sound of
the o, they were never commonplace, but ever
rang a sweet music in our ears. Spoken for the
first time by the g-uardza they acted like a stimu-
lant as we rode off on the deserted chaussee.

The country between Figueras and Gerona
is undulating, sparsely inhabited, and uninter-
esting. In two of the towns passed through
the children were very annoying, running after
us, screaming and throwing stones.

We crossed two rivers destitute of bridges,
but provided instead with large stepping-
stones placed as far apart as one can con-
veniently step. This novel means of passing
a river, w^hile easy enough under ordinary cir-
cumstances, caused some delay, encumbered
as we were with the loaded bicycles, which
had to be carried over. As an original feat-
ure we found no fault with this, for where in
France, Germany, or Italy can a river be
crossed on stepping-stones? We afterwards
crossed a number of other small rivers in
Catalonia and along the eastern coast in the
same manner, as well as a few that had to be
forded being destitute either of bridges or
stepping-stones.

lO SKETCHES AWHEEL IX MODERN IBERIA.

About dusk we entered Gerona, and, with
iho assistance of a friendly Spaniard, found
owv way to the Fonda de los Italianos. Out-

wardly it had a forbidding aspect, which re-
lUiiulcd us of inns we had stopped at in
provincial Italy, but darkness was setting in
and a cold wind swept the narrow street, so
wc rntrrcd, prepared to make the best of what
wc^K onio mijjht be found. It proved, however,
1o 1)(* a very comfortable place, kept by an
oil] Italian, who was exceedingly proud of not
b« in^ a S|>aniard.

Vho t<>oms were large, clean, and well fur-
fii^lwMl, and ihc food, which Murray says is
«4»Mnlly at that inn, was abundant and well
I Of)Kf«l. Tho <y>fH?W^, or chief meal, as served
in ciiTDna is typical, with slight variations, of
lli;H fnim^hrd in the majority of towns of like
^,\y*' all i)\'rv Spain. Naturally the smaller the
U)s\\) tlir n<Mror the fon-d^ approaches the
/v;vr7/y with sinipl<n* food and a less number
• il • «)m^<'fii. TIk^ (icrona nicnu was as follows :
'V)Hp, \\\vw ntafi-o, which is boiled beef gurm
with potatfV^s, oahl>ago, and garbanzas. This
l.^-'t \^ w«'ll d<*s<M*ihod by Gautier as a pea
wlH«t» in it^ ainhilion to Ix^come a haricot has

12 SKETCHES AWHEEL IX MODERN IBERIA.

familiar but perfectly respectful manner, and
accepted like a favourite dog the remains of
each course as the Don passed them on to
him. All smoked cigarettes between the
courses, for good Spaniards believe in smoke
at meals, as some people believe in Cayenne
pepper. We left the table highly satisfied
with our first comida in Spain, convinced that
we had had one scene from Quixotian life, al-
though it was laid in the Gerona comedar
and not around the brasero of the Venta de
Cardenas.

The gentle old host waylaid us as we came
out, to ask what we wished for breakfast.
When we told him he nodded assent, even
agreeing to give us coffee at half-past six,
** but not butter," he said, drawing himself up
with the dignity of a fallen Italian nobleman,
** not Spanish butter, that I cannot offer my
guests. Were it butter from my native place
near Milano, I should be proud to have you
taste it." In this we acquiesced, recalling what
we had read and heard of Spanish butter.

Notwithstanding: the assurance of the at-
tentive landlord that **cafe con leche" should
be served at six-thirty in the morning, when

CHURCH OF THE GREAT SPAN. 1 3

we approached the comedor shortly before
seven, we found everything in a state of slum-
ber. Even the watch on duty awoke with
a start on seeing us. He said the coffee
would be ready directly. After waiting a
quarter of an hour, we remarked to him sar-
castically as we started to go out, **We are
leaving for the cathedral. Please have that
coffee ready on our return in an hour." '* By
all means your honours ought to see the
cathedral," was the answer. '* When you
return the coffee will surely be made."

Reflecting on the saying that a Spaniard
puts off everything until to-morrow, we started
out to find the church. It was a cold morn-
ing, and in the dark sunless streets all the
men wore large soft hats and heavy capas
drawn closely about them. Passing a shop-
window filled with various preparations of
chocolate, , we went in to get some in the place
of first breakfast. The friendly shopkeeper,
when we had selected what we wished, made
us a present of a paper of delicious biscuits,
such as Spaniards eat with chocolate. When
we asked the way to the cathedral, he took
down his capa and insisted on showing it to

14 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

US himself. He went with us through the
streets and up the hill to the entrance of the
church, where he left us, wishing us a pleasant
journey. This was only one of the marjy
occasions when the innate chivalry ofuie
Spaniard prompted him to walk a consider-
able distance to point out some place or object
we wished to find.

In another moment we were inside the
cathedral remarkable in Gothic architecture
as possessing the widest nave of any church
in Europe. It seems rather extraordinary
that little Gerona should have a church with
a nave seventy-three feet wide, wider by
twenty-nine feet than those of the Cologne
and Canterbury cathedrals, while that of the
cathedral of Toulouse, which was considered
a wonder in this respect can only show a
width of sixty-three feet.

A disagreeable impression is ^sometimes
produced upon the mind by abnormally large
things, but in this case the height is so well
proportioned to the width that the result is
impressive indeed, and as we view the nave
from the aisles around the choir, a sense of
its grandeur and harmony steals over us, recall-

CHURCH OF THE GREAT SPAN. 15

ing Street's words, '*Had this nave been larger
by one bay scarcely any interior in Europe could
have surpassed it in effect."

The flagrant fault in Spanish cathedrals of
putting the coro in the centre of the nave
is particularly emphasised in its effect here
under this splendidly proportioned expanse.
You become accustomed to this as you journey
farther into Spain, and finally, as there is so
much else to admire in these different vast
poems of stone, learn to put up with it as a
** cosa de Espana " in architecture.

The effect of the dark interior, which has
never been marred by whitewash, is enhanced
by the small openings for light throughout
the church, which in spite of several high
traceried windows retains the solemn mystery
of lighting so necessary to produce impres-
siveness in a cathedral. A few bits of good
stained glass add their significance to the
general tone.

Enjoying the freedom of Spanish cathedrals,
where all but the sacristy and special chapels
remains open, we wandered into the dreamy
eleventh century cloister. Although after
that of Tarragona this must be called the

l6 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

second best Romanesque cloister in Spain,
it has a disused, neglected charm not found
in the former, and moreover commands a
view of the noble tower of San Pedro de los
Galligans. Cloisters are often perhaps over-
praised in Spain, but when later we visited
the commonplace ones of the south and again
of the north, we looked back with pleasure
to the plain round arches supported on deli-
cately but elaborately carved caoitals of the
cloister of Gerona.

The hour we had allowed ourselves for a
glimpse of the cathedral had lengthened into
several as we returned to th^/onda ready for
something more substantial than coffee. When
the proprietor came in to speak with us at
luncheon, we noticed he looked rather crest-
fallen, and then it occurred to us that in our
haste to see the cathedral we had quite forgot-
ten his kind offer to go with us. '*You did
not see the cloister and sacristy with its relics
and tapestries, did you ?'' he said. Our answer
that we had seen all surprised him, for, accord-
ing to his notion, a half-day would not suffice
for the relics alone. It requires a Spanish im-
agination to appreciate relics, and he had re-

A MODERN CITY OF SPAIN. IJ

sided in Spain sufficiently long for his to be
cultivated to the proper standard.

Two other interesting churches are the
ruined San Pedro and San Feliu.

We rode to Barcelona over the coast route,
which has some very good scenery. The
weather was cold, breezy, and April showery,
and we were obliged to take refuge in two
towns from heavy rain squalls which came up
from the sea. The people along the route
were friendly and gave us no trouble.

Barcelona besides being a busy, wide-awake,
rapidly growing commercial and industrial cen-
tre, contrasting strongly with some other Span-
ish cities that seem still to be shrouded in the
mists of the Middle Ages, has also acquired
the reputation of being a beautiful city — beau-
tiful, of course, in the modern sense, for where
modern enterprise rules, the old-time beauty is
apt to take flight.

Others may find it so, but to our minds it is
not a beautiful city. It has a good and health-
ful situation on a slope running back from the
sea to the mountains. There is nothing par-
ticularly attractive about the old town. The
Rambla, its main avenue, called by Murray the

1 8 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

'* Unter den Linden of Barcelona," can scarcely
be said to rival its celebrated namesake. Its
parks, while attractive enough, do not compare
with many that might be mentioned, while the
effect of its grand promenade, or PaseOy along
the sea front, planted with palms of rather
doubtful vitality, and bordered on the one
hand by wharfs and warehouses, and on the
other by business blocks, is depressing.

The new part is well laid out, but its streets
and boulevards though wide, regular, and well-
made, as yet present a very undeveloped ap-
pearance. Perhaps in twenty-five years Barce-
lona may be called beautiful, but it is too much*
taken up with the process of becoming so to
merit that title to-day.

Be this as it may, Barcelona is too distant to
be visited for the modern beautiful, and those
in search of that might better stop in France,
where at least this is found in a higher state of
development. But as a city of Spain it should
be seen by the traveller if only for its cathe-
dral, the sombre colouring of the interior of
which even more than in that of Gerona gives
a peculiar architectural effect not fully appre-
ciated in one visit. To those interested in

A MODERN CITY OF SPAIN. 1 9

ecclesiastical architecture, some of the other
churches cannot fail to be of interest as exam-
ples of the especial Catalan style seen nowhere
better than in this city.

Barcelona is not a pleasant place for a
woman to visit with a bicycle on account of
the great number of rough mechanics and la-
bourers at all times on the streets. Still, as for
that matter, even in regulation street gown she
cannot walk a block alone without being rudely
spoken to.

The view from the fort of Montjuich is quite
extensive, but is chiefly interesting for the idea
it gives of the size and character of the city
below with its harbour, warehouses, and manu-
factories.

Among other signs of modern progress may
be mentioned as calculated to touch a chord
of sympathy in English and American breasts,
carpets and double beds in the hotel rooms,
Smith and Wesson revolvers in the windows
of the sporting shops, and " American bars "
with advertisements of " Coktales " in large
letters placarded on the outside.

Notwithstanding the promise of our friends
at Port Bou to forward our trunk on the day

20 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

following our departure, several days passed
before it arrived. When it did appear, it had
been relieved of a new revolver, which one of
the party had left in it, perhaps with a feminine
desire to avoid carrying a weapon till really on
the road in Spain. A new one was easily pro-
cured and we set out on a lovely April morn-
ing for one of the wonders of Spain, the pride
of Catalonia, Monserrat.

CHAPTER III.

MONSERRAT — LEGEND OF THE BLACK VIRGIN —
MANRESA, THE PENANCE TOWN OF LOYOLA.

AS our wheels shook off the dust or rather
the mud — for it had rained the night be-
fore — of Barcelona, our spirits rose. That city
had been but dipzed h terre on the route to the
Saw Mountain.

We had been riding about three hours, when
a bend in the road brought into view a long
serrated outline projecting upward from a gray
vapoury base. No second glance was neces-
sary to tell us this was Monserrat throwing off
its morning mantle of mist and lifting its weird
peaks to the sun. Never was vision of a moun-
tain more entrancing, and we pedalled the
faster to reach it as soon as possible.

But our patience was destined to be sorely
tried that day. About the middle of the fore-
noon one of the chain cases required repairs
which caused a delay of an hour. Later as the

22 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

afternoon was advancing a tyre was punctured
by a thorn. Half an hour more was spent in
mending this when we again mounted. After
riding a few hundred feet a loud report was
heard and the same tyre collapsed. Examina-
tion revealed the fact that in replacing it a por-
tion of the air tube had been caught between
it and the rim, and being unsupported had
burst, an irregular piece about two inches in
length being blown out. For the third time
the repairing kit was brought into requisition,
the wounded portion of the tube excised and
the ends cemented together.

To reach the Monastery that evening was
now out of the question, but we arrived at
Monistrol at the foot of the mountain soon
after sunset and obtained accommodations for
the night at the posada, which for a country
inn we found very endurable. The rooms
though primitively furnished were clean and
the beds comfortable. By asking, flattering,
and the exercise of patience, various things
necessary to our comfort after the day's jour-
ney were secured including hot water. The
people of \}ci^ posada occupied themselves more
with the attempt to make us comfortable and

MONSERRAT. 23

less with asking questions than those farther
south. The food was simple and nutritious.
One course consisted of the large white bean
used throughout Catalonia, which has a good
flavour and makes a better standard vegetable
than th.^ garbanzo.

Another was eggs panned in oil, which are
thus cooked all over Spain and are almost in-
variably well prepared and palatable. We
found not only this but other country posadas
in Catalonia fairly good, and their hearth-stones
shine forth brightly in memory in comparison
with some afterwards met with in other parts.

At dinner the only other guest besides our-
selves was a Swiss engineer, with whom we
naturally fell into conversation. He said he
was placed there in charge of the mountain
railway leading from Monistrol to the Monas-
tery. He had no companions of his own
station, so that he found life rather lonely, and
was glad to meet with people who spoke his
language. The road was biiilt by Swiss capi-
talists who were awaiting an opportunity to
dispose of it, as it was financially not a success.
The travel, except at certain times, was light
and the government taxes were seven per cent.

24 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

on gross receipts. The experiment would not
be repeated by the Swiss in Spain.

Early the following morning we pushed up
the fine road which leads in great curves to
the Monastery. The immense mass of Mon-
serrat, about twenty-five miles in circumference
at its base, is composed of a grey conglomerate
or pudding stone of the granite type mingled
here and there with red sandstone, which ap-
pears to be the prevailing rock of the lower
hills from which it rises. For about half the
distance to the top its body remains solid, then
rent asunder in every direction it towers in
thousands of fantastic pinnacles to its highest
point some four thousand feet above the sea.
The forms of these resemble some of those
seen in the Dolomites but with the difference
that the contours here instead of being sharp
are all rounded. The grand rock scenery is
softened and toned down by a most wonderful
profusion of vegetation, consisting of box, ilex,
myrtle, ivy, heather, laurel, and other ever-
greens, which, growing in every crack and
crevice where they can possibly find a hold
and flourishing at all seasons, transform this
mountain into a marvel of grey and green.

MONSERRAT. 25

As you climb in the early morning, the air
fragrant with scented shrubs, and see the dewy
jessamine clinging to the rocks, and stepping
to the road's edge to look valleyward, feel
your hat brushed by the shining box bushes,
you wonder how out of the barren red sand-
stone Catalonian plain such a monument of
rock and verdure could arise. As you look
and worship at this lovely shrine of nature Mr.
Hare's citation of the old Spanish tradition
comes to mind, that the mountain's bewildering
variety of shrubs were ** permitted to bear their
leaves all the year round because they sheltered
the weariness of the Virgin Mother and the
Holy Child during their flight into Egypt."
Such legends, though so absurd and evidently
at variance with fact, acquire a certain poetic
charm, which takes hold of the imagination in
connection with scenes like these, among crags
which for hundreds of years have been associ-
ated with the most romantic phase of Spanish
religious feeling.

The religious history of Monserrat is inter-
woven with that of the "Santa Imagen" or
Black Virgin, whose legend is the following.
The image is said to have been made by St.

26 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

Luke and brought to Barcelona by St. Peter
in the year 50. In 717, during the Moorish
invasion, the Goths hid it in a hill. There it
remained until 880, when some shepherds at-
tracted by heavenly lights and music found it.
Under the direction of the Bishop of Vich they
attempted to carry it to Manresa, but at a cer-
tain spot, which is still marked by a cross, the
image refused to move farther, so it was de-
cided to build a chapel over it, and here it
remained a hundred and sixty years.

A nunnery was afterwards built near the
chapel, which in 976 was converted into a
Benedictine monastery, that afterwards shel-
tered nine hundred monks. In 181 1 this was
destroyed by the French under Suchet but was
rebuilt, and was finally suppressed in 1835.
Now a small number of monks live there and
attached to it is a boys' school. As a resort
for pilgrims it still holds its prestige, many
thousands visiting it annually in the late sum-
mer and fall, in such numbers that it is impos-
sible to obtain accommodations.

The Virgin rested in her first chapel seven
hundred years, when in 1592 a new chapel was
built. In 1599 she was removed to it in great

LEGEND OF THE BLACK VIRGIN. 2*J

State in the presence of that noble fanatic
Philip II. She was held in high veneration by
him and by Charles V., although her influence
does not appear to have made them more
humane. In 1811, on the appearance of the
French, the image was carefully taken away
from the mountain, but was returned when the
modern convent was built. In 1835 she once
again descended to the valley but only to re-
turn to her altar at the monastery, where she
is still the black solace of the few remaining
fathers. For hundreds of years hundreds of
lights have burned at her feet and illumined
her dark features at the times of the great pil-
grimages, and the miracle of the Santa Imagen
has filled the transparent air above Monserrat
with a trail of incense.

Monserrat has been the resort of kings, no-
bles, and pilgrims of every rank and station,
who have sought peace and forgetfulness of the
world on this lovely spot, and here many Span-
iards well known on the stage of worldly affairs
have ended their days in penance, fasting, and
prayer.

Of the ecclesiastics whose names are con-
nected with Monserrat Loyola was the most

28 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

noted. As the history of the great Jesuit tells
us, he came here from Pamplona, where, being
wounded in battle, he decided to exchange mil-
itary life for the cowl. Here he hung up his
sword at the altar of the Virgin and took the
vow of perpetual chastity. And he did other
interesting things before walking down to
Manresa for his year of penance, but the chron-
iclers of Spain in 1895 must not attempt to tell
again too much of the story others have told
so fully.

Arrived at the convent the concierge, who
was surprised to see two cyclists enter the
court, assigned us a cell. The large number
of cells formerly occupied by the monks are
now used for the accommodation of visitors
and pilgrims, who pay a small sum for their
use. Linen is furnished and, if asked, the ser-
vant in charge will make the beds and bring
water. In this respect the guide-books some-
what overestimate the simplicity of the place,
stating that ** the traveller must shift entirely
for himself." The peseta unlocks the door to
service here as elsewhere.

The monastery, vast in size and hideous in
style, has little to commend it to visitors, but

MANRESA, THE PENANCE TOWN. 29

perched upon a projecting ledge on the edge of
a vast ravine, under the perpendicular walls of
some of the most picturesque peaks of the
mountain, its situation quite puts in the shade^
those of the monasteries of Subiaco, Monte
Casino, and Monte Luco.

The walk of three hours from the monastery
to the summit is one the most remarkable to
be found in Europe, and he who planned and
carried out the path deserves as much credit
as any engineer of the famous mountain passes.
The path is narrow, but winds over a large
area, among and around the various crags and
stone seracs, gradually ascending, until at last
it ends at the highest point. Sometimes it leads
through a narrow valley, walled in on both sides
by wildest sentinels of rock, again through
creeping masses of myrtle, ivy, and jessamine,
or under bowers of ilex and box. Before you
realize you have climbed, it brings you to the
very edge of summits that from below appeared
inaccessible, and you stand on the brink of
precipices hundreds of feet in the sheer. Thus
it continues to the top, a pinnacle protected
by an iron railing just above the hermitage of
San Geronimo. Indeed, it may be called an

30 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

enchanted trail worthy of having been planned
by a gnome of the rocks it circles among.

The most striking object seen from the sum-
mit is Monserrat itself spread out beneath
like an enormous medusa, its thousands of ten-
tacles raised aloft on every side enclosing deep
abysses, whose terribleness is mitigated by a
lining of perpetual green. Beyond lies the
sunbaked flowerless plain, through which wind
silver rivers. To the north, distant but clearly
defined against their blue ceiling, a line of
snowy Pyrenees smile coolness down upon the
torrid lowlands, while to the east beyond the
hazy suggestion of Barcelona a glittering silver
rim of sea wafts inland the softest of noonday
breezes.

Wandering downward through the maze of
loveliness we returned to the convent in time
for the vesper service in the chapel. It was
dark and cold as winter, and the few worship-
pers sat shivering on the front seats. Within
the high rail about the altar all was a blaze of
light. Here priests and boys stood chanting
fugues to the accompaniment of violins, trom-
bones, and organ, but to us who had been lis-
tening all day to nature's melodies on the

MANRESA, THE PENANCE TOWN. 3 1

heights, the unmelodious music combined with
the deadly temperature of the chapel was un-
inspiring, and we were glad when the service
was over.

At the restaurant where all meals are served,
the dinner consisted wholly of fish, no meat
being obtainable on jours maigres. The basis
of two of the courses was dried codfish. Sev-
eral years previously while summering on the
coast of Norway, we had seen this fish under-
going the curing process, which consists in
exposing it to sun and weather on the rocks
for several weeks, till it becomes as hard as a
board, in which condition it is exported to the
Catholic countries. One would suppose it
would have lost all taste, and we always felt a
degree of sympathy with the Catholic brethren
for whose use it was destined. This was the
first opportunity which had been offered us to
test the truth of this supposition, when to our
surprise the flavour was found to be excellent.

Several days can be spent with pleasure at
Monserrat, so numerous and charming are the
various walks, but no traveller, who wishes to
know and appreciate it from all sides, should
fail either to approach or leave it by the car-

;^2 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

riage road to Manresa. For a number of
miles this runs along the mountain side under
the shadow of a row of magnificent peaks simi-
lar to those seen on the walk to San Geron-
imo. On this ride a more accurate idea of
the area of the gigantic mass is acquired, and
the outlines especially when seen from some
distance are far more effective than on the
other side. After leaving the mountain the
road became bad, but with so much that is
interesting to occupy the attention one does
not mind that.

Manresa is picturesque, but cannot be
classed among the pre-eminently picturesque
Spanish towns. The quaint filthy streets cut
in the yellow rock form an odd contrast with
the dainty bright gardens adjoining the houses
on either side. One would not care to live in
Manresa, but the Manresans have an advan-
tage over the inhabitants of most other towns
in the inspiration they can draw from the vision
of Monserrat obtained from the windows of
the tall narrow houses, the charming terraced
park or the esplanade in front of the Cueva
of San Ignacio.

If Loyola felt he must do penance in a cave

MANRESA, THE PENANCE TOWN. 33

for a year, he was wise in selecting one at
Manresa, where he could now and then slip
out and solace himself with a glimpse of Mon-
serrat. Were it not too late, it would be in-
teresting to ask him if it was not after all her
beautiful abode seen in ever-changing lights,
rather than the perpetual smile of the Black
Virgin, that soothed and quieted his soul.

El Seo, the collegiate church, with fine glass
windows, built with the same grand Catalonian
plan of the interior, is less impressive, particu-
larly in colouring, than the cathedrals of Bar-
celona and Gerona.

CHAPTER IV.

A GOOD-FRIDAY PROCESSION— GLIMPSES OF CATA-
LONIA—DESECRATED TOMBS AND SHATTERED
ALTARS OF FALLEN POBLET.

OUR next objective point was the monas-
tery of Poblet on the route from Tar-
ragona to Lerida. Near Villafranca, a town
about forty miles south of Barcelona, we bade
farewell to Monserrat with all its pinnacles
pointed heavenward in a flash of sunset light.
The night of Good Friday was passed at
Villafranca. The hostess of the posada put
two handsomely furnished rooms at our dis-,
posal, such as would not usually be found, or
at least offered to tourists in most small towns
of Europe or America. They seemed to be
state family rooms, and were fitted up with
divers ornamental antique pieces, evidently
heirlooms. On the walls were two large re-
ligious pictures of questionable artistic merit,
bearing the inscriptions in English, ** By the

A GOOD-FRIDAY PROCESSION. 35

sacred heart of Jesus," and ** By the sacred
heart of Mary," which made us almost forget
we were so far away from the land of their
probable origin.

After dinner we were invited to join the
family grSup on the balcony of the hostess's
private sitting-room to see the Good-Friday
procession. It was quite dark and the long
narrow street was lighted only by a few scat-
tered gas-jets. All the balconies, with which
the tall houses were liberally supplied, were
filled with spectators whose earnestness in re-
gard to their religious/?/^ afforded a commen-
tary on the power of the Church in provincial
Spain. As the sound of music announced the
approach of the procession, all talking ceased
and every head was uncovered.

The procession consisted of two bands of
local musicians, a double line of boys carrying
lighted candles, priests and prelates dressed
in embroidered robes, some bearing the sacred
symbols, then a series of wooden platforms
upon which were arranged representations of
the scenes of the Crucifixion with figures of life
size. These were borne on the shoulders of
men underneath, who being covered and not

36 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

able to see where they were going, or becoming
tired, committed certain eccentricities of move-
ment that produced a ludicrous effect upon the
representations above. After these followed
a long double line of cavalry.

When all had passed we bade our hostess
good night, praising unlimitedly the procession
and thanking her several times. We were
learning to be Spanish in the observance of
the amenities of life. She appeared greatly
pleased at our interest and assured us the
Easter fetes would be much more elaborate.
They will be ** hermosissimas'* she breathed,
her dark eyes rolling in ecstasy under her
black mantilla. Evidently the modern woman
of Villafranca still finds her highest joy in the
ceremonies of the Church.

Beyond Villafranca the scenery is attractive.
From Vendrell the road ascends, affording
beautiful backward views of the sea and broad
sloping plains. Later, after crossing a moun-
tain pass where not a shrub is seen to modify
the stony desolation, it descends into a sunny,
blooming plain to the small town of Mont-
blanch.

It is very commonly asserted in books on
Spain, and by travellers who have been there,

GLIMPSES OF CATALONIA. 37

that with the exception of a few spots the
natural scenery is dull and unattractive. It is
a rather singular fact that in the face of this
assertion the best writers, some of whom pref-
ace their books with similar remarks, devote
a good deal of space to descriptions of nature.
Without seeming to be aware of it, they find
much to admire in the scenery of the country
they pass through. Spain has a greater variety
of scenery than any other equal area in
Europe, some of which, like art, needs to be
studied to be appreciated, and the longer one
travels there the more one finds to admire.
One learns to regard with affection wide ex-
panses of sea, great sweeps of plain and barren
mountain sides. Besides having attractions of
their own they serve by contrast to enhance
one's appreciation of the oases of green, the
kuertas and vegas, that every now and then
appear. There is a charm of savage freedom
in riding through wild nature often for miles
untamed by the plough, which is better under-
stood afterwards, when after crossing the fron-
tier one emerges into the cultivated atmosphere
of the well-tilled fields and vineyarded hills of
France.

In this part of Spain the prevailing type of

38 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

dog seems to be a tall, exceedingly thin variety
of greyhound with a long sharp nose and
flattened head, in which room for the brain
appears to have been overlooked. These dogs
lack the intelligence of many other kinds.
They would spring out upon us barking fierce-
ly, but seldom came within reach of our whips.
As they pranced about they reminded us of
long-nosed mosquitoes. On the whole the
Spanish dogs troubled us much less than those
of Algeria.

Montblanch has a small unpretending/^^^^<2,
but the kindness of the proprietress makes it
possible to pass the night there more comfort-
ably than in some more pretentious places.
The entrance of \}[i^posada like that of many
others is from a sort of vestibule stable occu-
pied by carts, horses, borrtcoSy dogs, and fowls.
Upstairs we found a sightly sitting-room and
adjoining it a sleeping-room. But more im-
portant was the large black-eyed proprietress,
who attended us smiling and begging to be
allowed to help us, saying every few words she
did not speak Castillano. With her it was not
" Hay de todo," meaning she would provide
what the guest brought with him, but she

FALLEN POBLET. 39

gave us all we required, and the charge for it
including dinner, lodging, morning chocolate,
luncheon, and wine was (our pesetas each.

Five kilometres from Espluga and reached
by a rough stony cart path just wide enough
for a single cart, lie the ruins of Poblet, the
famous Cistercian monastery, which played
for seven hundred years an important part in
the religious history of Aragon.

Poblet was founded in 1149 by Berenguer
IV., who endowed it by grants of large estates.
Its endowments and privileges were increased
by succeeding Aragonian kings, who in accord-
ance with the fashion of the times used it as
a retreat for penance and fasting during life,
and as a sepulchre for their bodies after death,
the sarcophagi in which these were enclosed
being placed around the choir of the church.
The Dukes of Cardona were also buried
here.

The example thus set was followed by the
nobility and other persons of note, who made
use of the opportunities it offered as a religious
retreat, and whose bones were also granted a
resting-place within its walls, so that in time
its courts became a mausoleum of the dis-

40 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

tinguished dead, embellished with elaborate
and costly monuments.

As the monastery grew in riches and power,
new buildings were added, till they comprised
not only cathedral, chapels, dormitories, re-
fectory, chapter-house, and library, but palaces,
hospitals, warehouses, and workshops of every
kind. Its library became the largest in Spain,
and the whole the largest religious establish-
ment in Europe. It counted among its inmates
besides the monks and temporary occupants
of its cells, a small army of servants and arti-
sans. The number of the monks reached five
hundred without exhausting the accommoda-
tions, but afterwards was cut down to sixty-six,
and only persons of the highest nobility were
admitted to membership.

The monks ruled with undisputed sway not
only over the monastery, but also over the
large and productive estates tributary to it.
As was but natural, they fell into habits of in-
dolence and luxury, became arrogant in de-
meanor and tyrannical in the exercise of power
over their dependants. Some of their exac-
tions were not only unjust but immoral. Even
in the present century dark hints of the torture

FALLEN POBLET. 4 1

were not wanting. As a result the monks
were feared and hated by the peasants, who
only awaited a fitting opportunity to revenge
themselves for injuries long endured.

This came in 1835 during the Carlist agita-
tion, when the Cortes passed the edict for the
suppression of the monasteries. Then the
vials of wrath were opened and a peasant mob
invaded the sacred precincts. The monks
barely escaped with their lives, leaving their
treasure behind. With implacable fury the
mob gutted the buildings, destroying every-
thing within reach. Architectural ornaments,
windows, paintings, monuments, and statues,
including the royal effigies, were battered and
shivered into fragments, and when no more
remained that hands could demolish, the work
of destruction was completed by fire. It was
thoroughly done, and scarcely anything re-
mained of the former splendour but debris and
bare walls.

The impression made on our minds by Poblet
was similar to that made by the ruins of any
group of modern buildings destroyed by fire,
one of utter desolation unrelieved by the soft-
ening influences of time. The buildings and

42 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

walls which are left standing, denuded of the
greater part of their ornamentation, give but
little suggestion of the luxury which once ex-
isted. The desecrated tombs stripped of their
effigies and decorations do not fittingly recall
the long line of notables whose histories were
interwoven with that of this their last resting-
place. The charm which attaches to West-
minster, the Escorial, and Santa Croce is not
to be found here.

Architects may undoubtedly find profitable
material for study in the restored church and
in the fragmentary details which remain, but
not enough is left to afiford any especial attrac-
tion for the ordinary traveller. The latter
may have an interest in visiting Poblet to see
the devastation wrought by the violence of a
mob as he would visit Casamicciola to see the
destructive effects of an earthquake, but that
is about all. The place has none of that at-
mosphere of hallowed antiquity which tempts
one to linger to reflect on the associations of
the past, and when it has been seen, one is
seized with the desire to get away as soon as
possible from a spot which only casts a shadow
upon the soul.

CHAPTER V.

EASTER SERVICE AT THE TARRAGONA CATHEDRAL
—THE VENTA OF PERELLO— A PLEASANT HOUR
WITH THE BRITON AT TORTOSA— SPANISH ANI-
MALS AND THEIR OWNERS.

IN planning a trip in Spain the question of
the advisability of visiting Seville or Gra-
nada never arises, but in regard to Tarragona
it does. Those who have time to make a fairly
comprehensive journey will probably find it
will repay them to see this city. Here those
interested in Roman remains will find the
greatest number to be met with anywhere ex-
cept in Merida, though for that matter with
the exception of the fine aqueduct and portions
of the walls, partly Roman and partly Cyclo-
pean, they are neither numerous nor well-pre-
served. One of the best of these is the
** Torre de los Escipiones," poetically called
the tomb of the Scipios, four miles distant on
the sea-coast. This consists of a base and two
stories of a tower of yellow stone, one face of

44 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

which has two large figures standing on pedes-
tals much injured by time and weather. At
the feet of one of the figures a good-sized tree
grows out from the tower at a height of eight
to ten feet from the ground, the trunk being
nearly horizontal.

We spent Easter in Tarragona and attended
the impressive services in the grand mediaeval
cathedral. If one cannot pass the Santa
Semana at Seville it is well to hear the Easter
mass at one of the chief cathedrals, for added
to the striking pageant of priests and cardinals
in gold-embroidered robes marching and chant-
ing to heavenly strains from a stringed or-
chestra, is the glorious setting, according to
Wagner so indispensable, the columns, arches,
and domes of the building itself. In Italy
there is grand music at Easter, but not the
solemn hieratic splendour of the Spanish in-
terior, which when orchestra and organ-tones
roll through the Gothic vaults forms an obligato
of architectural song.

It was most interesting to watch the assem-
bled multitude. All over the floor of the great
enclosure women in black mantillas kneeled
devoutly, and men also scarcely less in num-

EASTER SERVICE. 45

ber, many of whom when not bowed in devo-
tion leaned against the fluted columns with
faces raised to the coro in rapt attention.
How sublime the effect at the end when or-
chestra, organ, and a chorus of boys* and female
voices combined in a transcendent finale. As
we walked out into the beautiful cloister it
seemed to us but one thing could be more
effective in music, and that would be the Char-
freitag Zauber of Parsifal performed on the
same spot.

Puncture of our tyres by nails and thorns, or
more often by the sharp strong needles of a
variety of thistle which bordered the roads
throughout the eastern provinces, was a matter
of almost daily occurrence ; sometimes this
happened two or three times in a day. The de-
lays thus caused often afforded opportunities of
studying the people.

On the afternoon of Easter Monday a tyre
collapsed as we were entering Perello, a village
high up among the hills twenty-five miles from
Tortosa, which was our destination that day.
Rain was falling steadily and the village was
full of people celebrating the Easter festivities.
We sought the venta or inn accompanied by a

46 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

noisy crowd whose holiday hilarity was tenfold
increased by our appearance on the scene.

The venta was a most squalid place and its
entrance was blocked with people lying about
asleep on improvised straw beds. One of us
remained in the court to protect the cycles
from the elbowing crowd which swarmed
around, while the other went in to try to find
a room for making the needed repair. With
some difficulty the landlord was differentiated
from his guests. He was a burly, red-faced,
dark-eyed, excitable Valencian in velveteen
jacket and red-tasselled cap, for the moment
rollickingly good-natured, but looking as if
slight provocation might transform his mood.
His appearance recalled the Valencian of
whom one reads, so blithe, gay, perfidious, and
devoid of all good, '' who smiles and murders
while he smiles."

He came out into the court, but amid the
deafening chatter of the crowd it was some
time before we could make him understand
what was wanted. At last comprehending
that we were in straits, to extricate ourselves
from which we needed only for a short time a
place secure from the rabble, and his mind re-

THE VENTA OF PERELLO. 47

lieved of the fear that we wished to spend the
night, followed by two villagers who shouldered
the bicycles, he conducted us up a ladder,
through a trap-door into a loft, where sacks of
grain and guano were stored. Upon these the
three men seated themselves to watch proceed-
ings. Keeping one eye on the men, who all
looked equally brigandish, and the other on the
wheel, the repair was soon made.

Meanwhile a fourth and rather better look-
ing individual found his way into the loft and
spoke to us in French, saying he heard we
were passing through the town, and he would
like to talk to us in our native tongue. We
seldom stopped in a town, however small,
where the man who spoke French, if only a
few words, did not appear anxious to assist
us by the use of this accomplishment. The
country people almost invariably took us to be
French, never dreaming that the representa-
tives of any more distant nation could be trav-
elling among them. Their idea of a foreigner
seems to be embodied in the term *' Frances."
When told on several occasions that we were
from America, they regarded us with very
much the same awe-inspired expression as

48 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

might have been called forth had we been in-
habitants of one of the heavenly bodies. Curi-
ously enough, later in the south of France we
met a number of French bicyclists, who said
they had long wished to make a tour in Spain
but were afraid to venture from fear of being
attacked by brigands.

When we were ready to go, we asked the
landlord what his charge would be. Drawing
himself up with true Spanish pride, with a
flash of the eye and a rather indignant toss of
the red tassel, he asked why he should take
payment. We answered, while thanking him
for his hospitality, as we had made use of his
fonda we were willing to pay for the accom-
modation afiforded. Flattered perhaps by the
dignifying of his wretched venta with the name
of fonda, after consultation with the French-
speaking citizen, he finally decided to accept a
small sum. We all parted good friends, and
after thanking the men for their assistance, we
rode away in the dismal rain rejoicing that we
were not obliged to trust to the hospitality of
the Perellian venta for the night

The accommodations at th^ fonda at Tor-
tosa were not so satisfactory as those hitherto

THE VENTA OF PERELLO. 49

met with. Remains of cigarettes were scat-
tered over the unswept brick floor of our room,
and the linen on the primitive beds did not
appear any too clean. Of the rest of the
scanty furniture, the less said the better. As
no one seemed to have any idea of helping us
with our luggage, we unstrapped and carried
it upstairs ourselves. From Tortosa south-
ward in the smaller places we found it did not
make much difference what a hostelry was
called, whether fonda, posada, or ventOj, para- . ,
dor or viuda inns of an inferior type, somie of
them were good but others insufferably bad.

When we went down to dinner the hostess,
an obese, oily-looking south Spanish woman,
met us on the landing, and as dinner would
not be ready for half an hour, invited us into
her private sitting-room, where we found her
husband and a friend. She told us an " Ingles,"
a countryman of ours, was stopping at the
fonduy and she would present him to us as soon
as he came in. She asked many questions,
the answers to which, though simple enough,
seemed to make a great impression upon her,
judging from her constant look of surprise
and frequent exclamations of ** For Dios." In

50 SKKTCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN iBERIA.

a childlike way she repeated to the others all
that we said, although they understood it as
well as she.

Ahcr a time, becoming weary of the conver-
sation, we took out our note-books and began
writing; our notes. For some minutes silence
HM^^ncd, but it was soon broken by a shout of
joy from the hostess heralding the advent of the
///^/f's, **II(ire he is," she exclaimed, seizing
his hand lovingly and drawing him towards us,
I'your countryman." It was as a brother
rather than as a countryman that we felt like
gr(*(tting the tall, manly young Englishman in
that out-of-the-way corner of Spain. He was
stopping at Tortosa for the purpose of study-
ing in th(* cathedral library for a few weeks.
W(i had a pleasant chat together, quite forget-
ting our landlady and her friends, until at a
slight pause in the conversation, we were made
aware of her existence by the sound of a sigh
of contentment and a repetition of ** Por Dios."
She sent us off like good children to dinner,
her face beaming with joy at her success in
bringing the countrymen together. During
the comida the mozOy who in country inns does
all the waiting at table d'hote, brought in a

SPANISH ANIMALS AND THEIR OWNERS. 5 1

bunch of cyclamen for the Senora with the
compliments of the friendly hostess.

Our slumber was disturbed that night not
only by the discomfort of our beds, but also
by loud, not wholly musical, singing on the
street to the accompaniment of clarinet and
tambourine.

Wc had now been over two weeks en route.
After passing the Spanish frontier we noticed
that the animals met with on the road ap-
peared more afraid of us than had been the
case in France, and the farther south we went
the more fear they showed. It was evident
that bicyclists were not a familiar sight on the
highways of that part of the country.

The horses seemed to mind'us the least and
they were generally ridden by caballeros who
easily controlled them. The little grey, shaggy,
bright-eyed asses, or borrzcos, carrying their
peasantjiwft^ or panniers loaded with various
wares on their backs, did not behave very
badly. They usually sidled ofif a little at our
approach, and pointing their huge unwieldy
ears looked askance at us with a sharp, cunning
expression, which seemed to say, I *11 jump if
you come too near, but made no other demon-

52 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

stration. Occasionally one did jump, and all
the address of the driver was required to reduce
it to obedience.

But the animals we most disliked to meet
were the mules, some large, some small, dark
brown or black brutes, with a vicious eye and
ugly disposition, without a savour of humour or
wit. These were driven or used singly in carts,
or four to six, one before the other, in waggons.
They usually made no sign till we came quite
near, when they would suddenly bolt to one
side, or head around and start in the opposite
direction. The drivers as a rule were either
intoxicated, or asleep in, or walking behind the
waggon, so that they could seldom exercise
proper control.

Where several mules were harnessed in line,
if the leader kept his senses, the shying of the
others created no great disturbance, but if he
turned or ran to one side, all the rest invari-
ably followed. Dismounting, the only thing
for us to do, was about as bad as riding on, as
this seemed to frighten them still more. The
worst feature of all for us was, the muleteers
were angry with us as the cause of the trouble,
taking the ground that we had no right on any

SPANISH ANIMALS AND THEIR OWNERS. 53

part of the highway, and we undoubtedly owed
our escape from personal attack on several oc-
casions to the fact that the mules demanded
all their attention. We found it advisable to
ride on as soon as we could get by. So com-
mon became such action on the part of the
mules that at last we met them with dread, and
often dismounted and walked by on the ex-
treme edge of the road to avoid alarming them.

One beautiful evening we were riding along
the coast route approaching Castellon de la
Plana skirting the picturesque mountain spur
called El Desierto, the bold zigzag outlines of
which were silhouetted against the western sky,
when among other vehicles we came upon a
two-wheeled cart drawn by a hybrid beast of
the mule type, in which rode two men return-
ing from their day's labour. Suddenly the
mule bolted and ran at full speed in the oppo-
site direction. One of the men jumped or was
thrown out of the cart as it turned. The other
tried in vain to check the animal which ran
with him for some distance till stopped by a
man on the road.

The man who was thrown out was not hurt,
and did not seem to take the accident amiss,

54 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

but pursued the runaway. We followed slowly,
wishing to give him a chance to assist before
trying again to pass. He soon reached the
cart and took the mule by the head. As we
approached, the other man jumped out of the
cart, and seizing a sort of mattock with heavy
handle and long iron blade, and raising it
above his head with both hands, ran towards
us in a towering passion, threatening our lives,
and swearing we should go no farther.

We told him to stand back, and let us pass,
but he paid no attention to the request, con-
tinuing to advance in the same threatening
manner. When became within about ten feet
of us, seeing that something more than words
was necessary, we drew our revolvers and cov-
ered him. Instantly his demeanor changed.
Lowering the mattock, and raising his right
arm before his face as if to shut out the sight
of the weapons that glared upon him, he
crouched down and stood for a moment very
much in the attitude of a whipped cur. Then
seeing we did not fire, he quickly retreated
towards his cart, ofifering no further obstruction
as with revolvers still drawn we walked by.

CHAPTER VI.

TRANSITIONAL VALENCIA — ARCADIAN JATIVA — A
MOUNTAIN-TOP TRELUDE TO AFRICAN SPAIN—
AT THE VIUDA OF JIJONA.

BETWEEN Castellon and Valencia, the
olive groves are remarkably fine, and
some of the trees are apparently very old, their
massive gnarled trunks giving the impression
of almost as great age as those of the Bois
Sacres of Algeria. Later comes the huerta of
Valencia, where the road runs for miles through
orange and lemon groves. Whether it was
a special year for large crops we did not
learn, but many of the trees, which were
large and luxuriant, were bent to the
ground with their burden of golden fruit.
Others looked like huge bouquets of orange
blossoms, so completely lost were the details
of the tree in the abundance of the flower, and
the heavy fragrance of the air recalled our
never-to-be-forgotten cycling days in Sicily,
among the sweet-scented gardens near Palermo.

56 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

The wonderful productiveness of the huertas
from here to Murcia is due to the admirable
system of irrigation devised by the Moors and
used ever since. Besides the extensive net-
work of canals which distribute water from the
rivers, Moorish irrigation wells are constantly
passed, where a large vertical wheel with buck-
ets attached raises the water from wells into
reservoirs.

With the exception of the teamsters the
Valencians were amiable and ready to do us
any favour in their power, and in return al-
though willing to accept cigars they would sel-
dom take money. Near Jativawherea stream
had to be forded, we found the first man who
for carrying the wheels over a river would not
accept a tip.

Valencia ought to be interesting from its con-
nection with the Cid ** Campeador," who in
1094 after a twenty years' siege entered it in
triumph, and afterwards made it the scene of
so many exploits. Its two grand gates, the
Puerta de Serranos and Puerta del Cuarte, are
worth stopping here to see, as well as the hand-
some mediaeval Casa de Lonja or Exchange,
and the half Moorish octagonal Torre de

TRANSITIONAL VALENCIA. 57

Miquelete, which is old and striking and has
not been modernised to any extent.

The two or three private houses mentioned
as deserving a visit are not of much impor-
tance, and even the famous ajimez windows
very numerous here have the reputation of
being a good deal modernised. These at-
tractive openings, made to admit the sunlight,
so Arab in style and name, become a kind of
architectural sugar-plum to the tourist, who in
the Mediterranean towns as well as in those of
Andalucia expects to come upon them in his
daily wanderings as surely as he does to eat
his salted almonds at table d'hdte.

When he has learned to admire the delicate
arches and marble shafts topped by sculptured
capitals, it is truly depressing to learn that a
noted authority while acknowledging their
charm says that, owing to their frequency and
similarity of style, he is forced to admit the
-possibility of their having been made in one
place and sent about to different towns as called
for. As he has no authority but his own sup-
position for this hypothesis, we are not bound
to believe it, but may insist on looking with
unprejudiced eyes through the ajimez^ whether

58 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

upon azure seas or the primrose-covered vega
of Granada.

Genuine African motives in architecture and
scenery appear as one advances farther into
the peninsula, but with respect to these Valencia
is barely transitional.

The fondness shown by the inhabitants of
Aragon and Navarre for destroying their an-
tiquities was exercised in Valencia in the tear-
ing down of the grand old walls of which
scarcely a vestige remains.

Some would have us believe that the old
Valencian, half Moor half Spaniard, fresh from
the huerta and the rice fields, may still be seen
if not in classic burnous, yet with the bright
coloured manta hanging from his shoulders.
This may be the case on state occasions, but
when we saw him he wore a no more pictur-
esque costume than the day labourer of Italy.
In the country about Europesa and Castellon
we saw men in the orange groves in white linen
I trousers and alpar gatas. or hempen sandals, a
♦ costume which must have been transmitted to
their forefathers by the Moors in 1600, like
the noriay or water-wheel, and other agricultural
legacies. But picturesque costumes are rare
here as elsewhere in Spain to-day.

TRANSITIONAL VALENCIA. 59

We went to the Corpus Christi chapel to see
the chef d'ceuvres of Ribalta. As we entered,
a stout black-robed sacristan motioned to us
from the other side of the nave to stand back.
Not understanding the meaning of the sign we
continued to advance, when he hastily joined
us, saying no lady was permitted to enter the
chapel without a mantilla.

** What, not a stranger wishing particularly
to see the paintings?"

** No, no one."

** But we have no mantilla.*'

** You will have to go and get one."

** We are travelling. Our trunk is now in
Murcia, and we do not care to buy a mantilla
for a half-hour s use.'*

As argument availed nothing, one of us sug-
gested the sacristan might perhaps borrow a
mantilla from some one of his lady friends and
meet us with it later. The idea seemed to
strike him favourably, and he agreed to meet
us at four o'clock in the afternoon provided
with the necessary article.

At the appointed hour we returned and
found him standing in the shadow of a column
with a large black mantilla over his arm. One
of us enveloped in its ample folds we made the

6o SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERlA.

circuit of the Ribalta, the merits of which it
is difficult to appreciate on account of the
darkness of the chapel even at midday. On
our departure the sacristan received the man-
tilla together with a propina with evident
satisfaction. Probably this custom, which we
observed nowhere else in Spain, will be strictly
adhered to in the future, at least by that
sacristan.

Poets have sung of ** Valencia del Cid "
and its huertay but they might find a more
appropriate subject or at least a more poetic
one in Jativa and its surroundings. Here one
finds the Arcadian plain of the Moor with its
miles of orange, olive, ilex, and carouba trees
surmounted not by a half-modern Spanish city
only, but by a grand castle of quaintest Moor-
ish outline.

The town of Jativa, clean and bright, lies at
the foot of a beautiful verdure-clad hill, over
which in a tangle of prickly pear, ilex, and ivy
the ancient dog-toothed wall rambles upward
in gray picturesque lines to join the Castillo.
The hill is broken into two summits, separated
by a deep ivy- and myrtle-grown ravine, and
even here where the approach is wild and

ARCADIAN JATIVA. 6 1

Steep, the shattered wall finds its uncertain way
until lost among the massive watch-towers of
the romantic crumbling ruin at the top.

As we walk in the few remaining rooms of
this ruin, carpeted now with grass and tall
honeysuckle, and look out of the battered
openings, once windows, upon the fair vega
below, we wonder with what thoughts the
Infantes de Cerda, confined here in the thir-
teenth century, looked upon the queenly realm
of Valencia, visible to the sparkling sea. With
feelings of hatred, it is to be feared, since
Sancho el Bravo was enjoying the use of their
royal prerogatives. Doubtless the wicked
Caesar Borgia, also confined in one of the
towers of Jativa, was a prey to equally unhal-
lowed thoughts, as his gaze each day fell upon
the orchards and rice fields interwoven with
bands of liquid silver, for the two rivers of
Jativa, although used to irrigate the plain, are
not represented by beds of dry stones as are
those of Valencia.

This idyl of a castle seems chiefly to have
sheltered royal personages, for again we read
of Ferdinand the Catholic imprisoning the
Duke of Calabria upon these heights. But who

62 SKETCHES AWHEEL IX MODERN IBERIA.

knows whether this languishing Italian, pining
for his own beautiful Calabria, did not appre-
ciate better than the others the huerta, the
drab town clinging to the mountain side, and
the far-removed cluster of peaks purpling in
the lemon afterglow of a Spanish sunset sky ?

In the old times the castillo evidently cov-
ered a large area and was very strong, but now
little remains standing except the outer walls
and the broken Torre de Campana, crowning
the highest crest of rock. Divinely picturesque
it is, almost without a compeer in this land of
romantic castles. The enchantment of the
view will long linger in the memory of those
who see it, for besides the semi-tropical beauty
of the huerta, bounded on one side by varied
mountains, there is Valencia, a note of modern
Spain, which lies in its own garden, facing the
broad zone of the infinite, the sea.

You have but to cross a small bed of green
and look out of another window to find such a
contrast as only Spain offers. Here the walls,
heavier than on the Valencia side, run tum-
bling down into a desolate valley, where not a
bush nor green thing relieves the picture. On
the farther side of this a barren waste rises.

ARCADIAN JATIVA. 6^

which ends in a mountain range as dust-col-
oured and monotonous as itself.

Jativa is worth a visit if only for the study
in contrasts it affords. The famed ve^-a of
Granada is not so exquisite as the Jativa
huerta, and the dreariest corner of the Al-
pujarras cannot exceed in desolate abomina-
tion the country behind the Torre de Cam-
pana. Only a Moorish castle divides ripe
summer from the barrenness of midwinter.

Jativa was once famous for the manufacture
of fine linen handkerchiefs. Now its people
devote themselves chiefly to the cultivation of
the soil. We found them good-natured, and
not averse to serving as subjects for our kodak.
Does the Spaniard show a higher degree of
civilisation than the Moor in that he is willing
to grant the desired favour, while the latter
takes himself off at the first sign of an attempt
at his likeness. Or is it only a more devel-
oped form of conceit, for of a certainty the
Spaniard thinks himself a beau gar (on.

The path which winds up. the hill from
Jativa to the Torre de Campana, edged with
grass and shaded by olives, cypress, and huge
cacti, makes a fitting avenue to the loveli-

64 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

ness above. About fifteen minutes above the
town it runs over a little plateau where a church
stands embowered in a garden of locusts and
olives. We happened to pass the church as
the vesper service was over, and the congrega-
tion, composed of the upper classes of Jativa,
came pouring out. We made some inquiries
about the path to a hermitage we were looking
for.

The ladies all in black mantillas gathered
around, asking us about our nationality and
object in coming to Spain. As we went on
they followed, and when we stopped a short
distance farther on to take some views, they set
their portable chairs, carried for church use, on
the ground near-by, sat down and gave them-
selves up to the enjoyment of steady staring.

The long, intense, unblushing, yet respect-
ful stare of the Spaniard must be another
Moorish inheritance, it is so exactly that of the
Arabs of the interior of Algeria and .Morocco.
A Spanish woman does not take a person in
with a single, quick, penetrating, sweeping
glance as does the English or American
woman. She gazes steadily and in gazing does
not seem to solve the riddle.

ARCADIAN JATIVA. 65

Owing to a number of mountain passes to
be crossed, we were not able to reach Alicante
in one day from Jativa, but had to put up for
the night at the most out-of-the-way little
place imaginable. The route lay through a
desolate mountain region. The only town of
any importance, Alcoy, was reached at noon
when it was too early to stop off. Had we
wished to stay there we could not have done
so, as no room was to be had at the posada.
The whole place was in an uproar with side
shows and merry-go-rounds in full operation,
the people being in that state of ebullition that
characterises a Spanish country/?/^. As was
usual when we arrived on the scene on such
occasions, they worked off their superfluous
spirits on us, pressing around to see us and our
wheels and accompanying us until we left the
town, which we speedily did, trusting to luck
and some mountain venta for luncheon.

We afterwards learned that the people were
celebrating the annual April y?/^ in honour of
the patron saint of the town, St. George, who
is said to have fought on the Spanish side in
the war with the Moors in 1227. Sham fights
and various other spectacles take place at this

66 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

time, but it would require superhuman endur-
ance for a stranger to live in the town during
the several days occupied by the festival.

Alcoy lies at the base of a mountain range
which, the people told us truly, it would take
three hours to climb. For the cheerless ascent
we had our reward in a very extended and
striking view. We must have been, at the
highest point, at least four thousand feet above
the sea, which could be seen beyond the land
in the dim distance. The horizon seemed
limitless, owing doubtless to the clearness of
the atmosphere.

We overlooked many lower mountain ridges
rising into sharply defined sections one behind
the other from out a grayish plain. Nature
seemed to have bewitched these with some
trickery of her own, dyeing each ridge with a
different coloured robe, and the combination of
red, pink, blue, and russet was fascinating to
behold. As we rode around the contours of
the mountain, the scene lost none of its
kaleidoscopic attractiveness, and on descending,
the lower hills, which seen from above had
appeared flat, rose into view in the form of
long cockscombs of red and blue.

AT THE VIUDA OF JIJONA. 6/

Just after sunset Jijona appeared high up
among the hills, a row of white houses sur-
mounted by a grey Moorish citadel perched in
a nest of gigantic dolomitic rocks. The place
had a savage picturesqueness that, had we not
been obliged to spend the night there, would
have inspired us with boundless enthusiasm ;
as it was it looked too savage to augur well for
comfort. Not having been able to learn
whether it had 2l posada, we inquired of a man
as we rode in. He said there was one, but
advised us to go to the viuda where the accom-
modations were better, so wondering what the
viuda of the rock-crowned village might be we
went in search of it.

The houses all looked alike and in the ab-
sence of any distinguishing mark it was not
without some trouble that we at last diagnosed
the right one. The front door opened into
a bare room in which three women sat sewing,
one of whom was the hostess. She gave us
a room on the first floor, which though not
luxurious, answered the purpose of a lodging
place for the night. Getting up a meal was
another matter and we soon realised we were
in one of those historic taverns, where the

6<S SKinClIKS AWIIKKL IN MODERN IBERIA.

' tnivcllcr is expected to go out and forage for
, liis own supplies. In an interview with the
hostess on this subject we asked :

** I lave you any meat ? '*

** No. meat is not sold in Jijona after twelve
o'clock noon."

-Fish?"

The landlady smiled a withered smile. **I
hav(; not seen fish in many a day."

** Well, then, eggs ? "

She rellected a moment. ** Yes, I think I
can get .some eggs."

** Good, give us eggs — a great many."

** How many, four ?"

** What else have you ?"

** Nothing but bread."

** Then ten eggs if you please."

With a surprised expression at the number
called for by such gourmands she left us. It
was growing dark and, not finding any candle,
we went down to the room which served as
hall, kitchen, and sitting-room for the family,
to inquire for one, when they told us they had
none. Hoping candles were sold after twelve
o'clock in the town, we went out in search of
a shop where we succeeded in securing two.

AT THE VlUt)A OF JIJONA. 69

On our return we found the woman actually
attempting a tortilla or omelet.

When she brought it to our room her in-
terest in us seemed to have awakened, perhaps
because we were long-suffering and bought our
own candles. At any rate she served besides
as roast an ancient smoked sausage, remark-
ing with almost a pleasant tone of voice that
if we remained until the next day at noon she
could cook us some fresh meat, but not fish,
that was rarely seen in Jijona.

We ate the tortilla feeling crushed and
ready to acknowledge our naivete in asking
for fish in Spain when at least fifteen miles
from the sea. It was surprising how fond the
at first indifferent hostess became of us. In
order to stop her questions and relieve the
room of her presence we had to put our heads
on the pillows and tell her we could not keep
awake a minute longer. We paid the bill that
night, as was our custom, as we were to leave
at six the next morning, several hours before
a Spaniard gets up. She held our hands and
bade us adieu tenderly, making us promise
that we would stay with her should we ever
come to Jijona again.

70 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

During the night we were dimly conscious
in our sleep of a tremendous uproar, as of a
mob, in the midst of which the word bicicletas
was repeatedly heard. We had left our
bicycles as we supposed securely locked up in
the entrance room, having been assured no one
would touch them, so the noise did not cause
anxiety enough to awaken us. When we
came to put the luggage on in the morning
one of the handle-bars was found twisted around
and the brake damaged. The cause of the
tumult was now evident. A number of the
townspeople had been admitted to view these
curiosities, the like of which had probably
never been seen in Jijona before, and in the
consequent excitement they had tried to mount
them with the result described.

There was no question of morning coffee or
chocolate either here or in many other towns,
and a piece of dry bread was the only sub-
stitute until we reached Alicante towards nine
o'clock.

CHAPTER VII.

AN ENCOUNTER WITH TEAMSTERS— MOTIVES AMONG
THE PALMS — GLORIES OF AFRICAN SPAIN —
MURCIA, THE PEARL OF THE HUERTA.

THE Fortress overhanging Alicante has
been compared in appearance to a dust
heap. This comparison does not ill apply to
the whole environment of the place, although at
times when the sun casts its shadows aslant, the
unfruitful hills are transformed into beauty
spots upon the landscape. In regard to the
architecture of the city not much can be said, as
its maritime importance, such as it is, has in-
troduced so much of the modern as to obscure
the prestige of the flat-roofed buildings.

The one really beautiful place remarkable
for its extreme contrast to the burned and
leafless surroundings is the Paseo de los
Martires, running by the sea. This is bordered
by four rows of handsome palms, and who
that has felt its magic, sitting before the

72 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

turquoise mirror of the sea in the witching
play of the shadows cast upon the broad walk
by the curling plumes, will ever think again of
the Paseo of Barcelona ?

Since leaving Valencia the animals on the
road had become more numerous and more
timid, and our progress was a good deal
impeded by the frequent necessity of dis-
mounting to avoid frightening them. At one
of the towns an official asked us politely to
ride slowly and with care when we met teams
on the road. The people from here to Murcia
have a large admixture of Moorish blood in
their veins and have the reputation of being
the most ill-disposed and revengeful of any
in Spain. The teamsters appear to be even
more addicted to the use of alcohol than those
farther north, which does not improve the
character of their otherwise none too gentle
dispositions. They carry the long Albacete
knife, which they use freely on slight pro-
vocation.

On a lonely stretch between Alicante and
Elche we espied ahead a caravan of some
twenty teams coming towards us. The front
waggon drawn by four mules was minus its

AN ENCOUNTER WITH TEAMSTERS. 73

driver, who was riding in the second waggon.
As we came abreast of it the mules made a
dash for the side, dragging the waggon over
the edge of the roadbed, which was raised
about three feet. The driver, a huge bull-
headed ruffianly fellow with a bloated sun-
burned face, jumped down, and, instead of
looking after his mules, made a spring for the
male member of our party who had dismounted,
and seized his wheel with threatening manner
and words. Involuntarily one hand was carried
to the revolver pocket but instantly withdrawn
as the uselessness of making any resistance
in the presence of a score of teamsters was
evident. Seeing this movement and thinking
probably a knife was about to be drawn, the
man let go his hold of the wheel and beside
himself with anger sprang to the back of his
waggon and excitedly sought something there.
We then started to walk on but had not
advanced many steps when, turning, we beheld
him only a few feet distant rushing upon us with
a knife twelve to eighteen inches long in his
hand, his fiendish face livid with rage. There
was no time now for drawing a revolver, the
assailant was too near for that He crouched

74 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

down and drew back his arm to strike. There
seemed to be no chance of escape. The stab
of the gleaming blade could almost be felt, the
exact spot where it would enter be judged.
It was one of those moments when one feels
absolutely defenceless in the face of almost
certain death. Fortunately one of his com-
panions, who saw what he was about, sprang
upon him and caught his arm just at the
critical moment, and two others coming up
held him, telling us to go on.

This sort of adventure was becoming a trifle
too frequent to suit our fancy. We had not
come to Spain to measure our prowess with
that of intoxicated teamsters ; we neither
aspired to the glory of shooting them nor did
we court the notoriety of falling a sacrifice to
their brutal passions. The stupid mule, the
cause of the trouble, was in use everywhere, and
up to this point his stupidity had steadily
increased. While it seemed almost foolhardy
to continue the journey with bicycles if this
state of affairs was to last, as we had now
nearly finished with the coast provinces, we
determined to push on, hoping for better things
in other parts. In this we were not mistaken.

MOTIVES AMONG THE PALMS. 75

After leaving Murcia the people were entirely
different and never gave us occasion to
complain.

At Alicante African Spain may be said to
begin. From there to Murcia the landscape,
the atmosphere, the vegetation, all have a
distinctly north African character. Elche,
situated among thousands of date palms rising
to the height of forty to sixty feet, closely
resembles an oasis in the desert. Still
although it has its palms and flat roofs and
square towers, it lacks the mud walls and
graceful burnoused figures that lend an
Oriental charm to oases like Vieille Biskra.
If the tourist has never been in any of the
countries of north Africa nor seen an oasis
in the Sahara, let him by no means omit to
visit Elche, but let him not stop here but con-
tinue on to Murcia by the carriage road, for it
is on this drive that African Spain bursts upon
him in all its enthralling beauty.

Orihuela, the largest town on the route, is
about thrity miles from Alicante and marks the
narrowest point of the province of Valencia.
For some miles beyond Elche the country
remains flat, but before Orihuela mountains

76 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

begin to appear bounding the huerta on the
right. They are not very high but add an
exceedingly effective line to the landscape,
their grey rock cones rising perpendicularly
from the luxuriant gardens lying under their
shadow.

Palm trees line the roadside for miles. The
plain is covered with plantations of orange,
lemon, pomegranate, fig, and olive, among
which scattered palms lift their broad heads
with far statelier pride than when standing
with others in an oasis. At intervals small
towns, very Oriental in appearance, with domed
azure-tiled mosques, are passed, which nestling
among the palms add to the attractiveness of
the route.

What is Elche as a picture compared with
Granja with its double-towered Moorish church,
or Coj with its old Castillo clinging to the
frowning height, its houses built into the rock
of the mountain and overgrown with aloes,
fig, and cacti ? There are Callosa de Segura
and Albatera, flat-roofed and minareted, where
modern buildings if existing are lost among
the foliage, and from these places may be
seen the M on tafia de Callosa, where amethyst

GLORIES OF AFRICAN SPAIN. "]"]

Steeps glowing in the afternoon light contrast
with the varied tints of the plain in an ensem-
ble of colour and outline nowhere surpassed in
effect.

And so one passes from one bewitching
scene to another from Elche to Murcia, a dis-
tance of forty miles. We have taken grand
rides, desolate rides, and lovely rides, but
never one so intoxicatingly beautiful as this
through African Spain. And in praising we
echo the words of a German, one of the few
writers on Spain who appear to have visited
this region, '* Why is this lovely corner of the
world so little known ? "

In this earthly paradise the people, and es-
pecially the children, of the towns were so rude
and annoying that we hurried through them
as fast as possible and were usually favoured
with a parting shower of stones. Quiet enjoy-
ment of the scenery was impossible, for when
the towns were safely passed a shadow of dan-
ger was lurking in the air whenever we met
with a team or a mule. The one riding ahead,
for the roads were often too bad to admit of
riding abreast, rang the bell several times in a
kilometre, awaiting anxiously the return ring

78 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

as a signal of safety from attack by an angry
teamster or muleteer.

Murcia is the culminating point of this gar-
den land. Semi-Eastern in its flat stone-roofed
buildings, some of which are painted in colour,
with its various towers, blue-tiled domes,
cheery squares, and well-arranged alameda, it
rises like a bright flower from the midst of its
huertay which is fifteen miles long and ten
wide. This huerta, best seen from the cathe-
dral tower, is adorned with mulberry trees, tall
canes, and golden grain, besides those staple
beautifiers the orange, lemon, and carouba.
One can see where at a corner across the valley
the liuerta ends and the tawny desert begins,
in other words, where irrigation ceases or, as
the Spaniards say, the river is *'sangrado" —
bled to death and can no longer do its work.
The district is girt about by a circle of barren
mountains.

The term '* Poblacion agricolo que poco
vale," an agricultural population of little worth,
used of provincial Valencians, applies equally
to the Murcians. "The Pagan goddess of
apathy and ignorance rules as undisturbed and
undisputed " in Murcia to-day as even North

MURCIA, THE PEARL OF THE HUERTA. 79

Spaniards smile and shrug their shoulders
when the intelligence of the Murcians is dis-
cussed. In the few days we spent in Murcia
we had occasion several times to ask about
places in regard to which no one was able to
give a satisfactory answer. One day we were
looking for the Monte Agudo, a much praised
point of view a short distance from the city.
Nobody we asked appeared to have heard of
it, so we ascended the cathedral belfry to have
the keeper point it out. It was quite useless :
he designated numerous convents and unim-
portant churches, but the Monte Agudo he
had never seen.

The Murcians resemble the Valencians in
physique and complexion but are more indiffer-
ent, and when angry are obstinate rather than
fiery. They are not early risers. In most
Sp3in\sh /ondas one can by pressing the matter
procure a cup of chocolate by eight o'clock,
but in Murcia servants and waiters remain dor-
mant until the chief breakfast hour, about
eleven. At meals the waiters throw the plates
on the table before the guests in a manner that
endangers the integrity of the china, and hurl
the knives and forks after them with a total

So SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

disregard of the place where they may land.
The food is of good quality and abundant.
Large plates of oranges stand upon the table,
to which the guests help themselves freely at
any time during the meal, picking them over
to select the best.

The climate is of course mild in winter and
by April summer sets in. On the twentieth of
April we saw grain fully ripe in the fields, and
the temperature was too warm for comfort in
the sun. The air was laden with the fragrance
of orange blossoms.

CHAPTER VIIL

THROUGH THE GATE OF THE VANQUISHED MOORS
INTO THE FLOWER LAND OF ANDALUCIA— THE
RED PALACE OF GRANADA— EL ULTIMO SUSPIRO.

THE twenty-seventh of April found us
entering Andalucia through the " Pu-
erto de los Perros," a narrow gorge in the
Sierra Morena mountains. It is a wild rocky
spot, not desolate, because of the trailing green
that in Spain so often throws its softening
presence over the boldest crags. Through
this door the vanquished Moors retreated from
Castile into Andalucia, but what a commentary
on the Spanish appreciation of the great monu-
ments they left behind is the name given to
the pass, the Passage of the Dogs.

In the mountains to the left the Knight of
the Rueful Countenance accomplished his pen-
ance, and somewhat farther back on the road
stands the well known Venta de Cardenas,
which like many another historic or legendary

6 8i

82 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

monument has an unimposing exterior resem-
bling that of any other wayside venta.

Once the mountains are passed the prodigal
fields of Andalucia stretch southward, losing
themselves in a wide perspective bounded by
gold-shot, undulating hills. Again the contrasts
of Spain are felt. Four days ago we left the
palm land of Murcia, yesterday we wheeled for
hours over the unvarying, toneless plains of La
Mancha, and to-day nature spreads before us
fields of buttercups and daisies yellow as Ba-
varian mustard, long slopes of flaming poppies,
and gardens of blooming wild roses, in which
extremes of colour blend perfectly, as in the
great Nibelungen harmonies. Before reaching
Granada a night was spent at Bailen and a day
at Jaen. From the latter town three moun-
tain ranges had to be crossed before approach-
ing the snow-crowned Sierra Nevada, but the
journey was interesting, affording a varied com-
bination of the fertile and the sublime.

The route is well patrolled by the guardia
civily who very sensibly even at the beginning
of May cover their black hats with white linen.
Here as everywhere else we found them very
friendly. A thunder cloud was settling over

THE FLOWER LAND OF ANDALUCIA. 83

the snow fields of Mulahacen, as in a violent
dust and wind storm we rode into the vega of
the Moors. This unfriendly disturbance of
the elements blew us tired and dust stained
across the Plaza de Toros into the narrow
streets of Granada.

We wondered where the soft winds and fair
skies of Andalucia had vanished to, as we
ascended the Alhambra hill in disgust. We
entered the Duke of Wellington's elm grove,
the songful woods of the Alhambra, and disgust
changed to admiration.

An unkind critic of this park made the re-
mark, he had read it was shaded by orange and
cypress trees, but to his great disappointment
he found " only elms." True, but he did not
realize that in the eighty-three years since they
were planted they have reached a height and
luxuriance probably seen in few places in Eu-
rope. Perhaps his impressions were acquired
only in the day-time, when the insupportable
guides to the Alhambra are waylaying every
visitor and *'the chief of the Gypsies' model of
the immortal Fortuny"is strutting abroad pos-
ing and offering his photograph for sale. Had
he walked among those trees in the gloaming,

84 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

when their lofty tops are tipped with silver
while night has fallen about their ivied trunks,
when an enchanted sensuousness fills the air,
when all disturbers have departed and the
silence is broken by nothing save the song of
the nightingale, more thrilling and haunting
than ever an ^^olian harp, could he have
called them ** only elms " ?

If in 1829 Irving could say the Alhambra
had been so often described that little remained
to be said, how much more applicable is this
remark to-day? Hence one is not called upon
to repeat the legend in regard to the cabalistic
signs of the hand and key over the Gate of
Justice, but may content oneself with admiring
its massive form and orange-red colour, which
fancy delights to picture as the result of cen-
turies of Andalucian sunsets. Neither does
one thirst on the sweeps of La Mancha nor
cross half a dozen ranges of Sierras to resusci-
tate for the fiftieth time the doubtful tale of
the blood spilling of the Abencerrages.

After making the regulation round of the
Alhambra, when a permit to roam at will about
its courts undisturbed by guides is obtained,
one feels very much as the young Englishman

THE RED PALACE OF GRANADA. 85

felt, who, unable to restrain his joy, rushed up
to one of the lions of the fountain and began
to stroke it tenderly. Much praised, much
maligned '* Taza de los Leones." The nai-
vete of action of the Englishman is certainly
more to be commended than the criticism of
another less imaginative tourist, who upon
seeing the fountain exclaimed, ** Are those the
famous lions of the Alhambra ? I would never
glance at them twice. They do not look at
all like lions.''

Such remarks are enough to call forth a
snap of rage from the square jaws of these
quaint historic beasts, and make one wish that
the enterprise of tourist bureaus and steam-
boat companies had not made Granada so
accessible to the travelling philistine. Of
course they do not look like lions as we see
them, and those who prefer a nearer approach
to the real thing need not travel as far as
Granada to find it. If the resemblance were
exact one would not care to throw oneself
down under the moth-coloured marble columns,
and looking across the sun-glanced court re-
flect upon the verses written in praise of these
flat-footed curios, the tenor of which ran, O

86 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

thou who lookest upon these h'ons, note that
*' they want only life to make them perfect."
The association of such ideas with such lions
produces just the motives that hold one linger-
ing in this court.

Much has been said against the Alhambra of
late years. Some say they would not take the
trouble to visit a place of which so good an
idea can be obtained from photographs. Those
who have seen something of the world know
how much the opinions of such mental travel-
lers, who have perhaps never been beyond
the limits of their native town, are worth. But
are not those who have seen it a little super-
ficial in their judgment when they say, it has all
gone to pieces or is ruined by restorations, or
that it does not compare with the Alcazar of
Seville ?

For much of what went to pieces or rather
was ruthlessly destroyed, Charles V. must be
blamed, and for the ravages of fire the careless-
ness of later time Spaniards, who permitted
this great treasure to be inhabited and handled
as it was ; but when all has been said, the best
still remains in no sense a ruin. The restora-
tions nowhere obtrusive, so ably carried out

THE RED PALACE OF GRANADA. 87

under the direction of Sefior Contreras, deserve
only praise. Had wood been used in place of
stucco, and glass where it should not be, and
the mystic softness of age-tempered walls cov-
ered with a tapestry of paint and mosaic garish
as a modern rug, as in the Alcazar of Seville,
then might the traveller forbear to go to Gra-
nada.

It is said the Moors liked bright colours, and
perhaps they did, but should by any chance the
shade of Yusuf I. find itself in the Sevillian
palace to-day, it would doubtless flee at once to
the more subdued and aesthetic halls of the
Alhambra. If disappointment is felt on the
first visit to the palace, repeated ones will efface
this feeling, as we better appreciate its arches
and columns so infinitely higher as artistic cre-
ations than those of Seville, its inimitable media
naranja stalactite ceilings made in thousands
of pieces combined in fictions such as only the
cultured sultans of Granada could invent, and
its walls covered with inscriptions interwoven
with numberless intricate designs of which the
eye never tires, and dadoed with rarest ancient
azulejos which find an echo only perhaps in
those of the Mosque Verte at Brussa, in com-

88 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

binations as delicate as the illuminated pages
of the books in the Escorial library.

And the views ! Who has not felt the
charm of the Alhambra ever afterwards when
once he has looked through the windows of the
Sala de los Embajadores upon the sunny valley
of the Darro and the distant heights of Alha-
ma ? Leaving out of account the views of
Granada and the vco^ciy the finest window motif
is the Mirador de Lindaraja, overlooking the
Patio de las Naranjas. Box, cypress, and
orange-trees swaying in the breeze, surrounded
by filagree arches and the dainty columns of
the ajiinez, form a pastorale that needs only
music for its completion.

The apartments occupied by Ferdinand and
Isabella and Irving and the Mirador of the
Sultanas, afterwards boudoir of Elizabeth of
Parma, also open on this court. We do not
think so much of them as we look into it as of
the Arabian inscription describing the garden
** where the flowers of the earth vie with the
stars of Heaven."

Hegel says the intelligence, character, pas-
sions, and culture of a people are reflected in
the material and intellectual works left by
them. The truth of this observation is well

THE RED PALACE OF GRANADA. 89

shown in the Alhambra, where the afterbreath
of the spirit of the Moors hovers softly in all
its halls. With this epitome of the learning,
fancy, and fanaticism of eight centuries of cul-
tivation before us, it is not strange that we
turn away untouched even with common inter-
est from the massive unfinished renaissance
pile of Charles V., to build which artists went
to Pisa and Florence for inspiration.

That they did not find much is evident,
though architects say that its style was good so
far as it went. Charles intended it should be
one of the finest palaces in Spain, but most of
all he wished it to surpass in beauty the one left
by the vanquished Mussulmen, that in the con-
templation of the splendours of his reign, pos-
terity should forget the architectural greatness
of the Arabs. Had he really hoped to succeed
in this noble scheme he would better have
destroyed fully the important parts of the
Alhambra. Doubting, as one is often forced
to do, the good taste of the architectural re-
forms introduced by this monarch, one feels
grateful for the earthquake shocks that are
reported to have dampened his zeal and caused
him to abandon his Berruguetean chateau.

There are other interesting things in Gra-

90 SKKTCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

nada, but tlu^y are dwarfed by the presence of
the Moorish palace, and one's first thought in
the morning and last at night during a fort-
night's stay is the Alhambra, One views with
comparative indifference the effigies of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella in the Capilla Real. The
likenesses are said to be perfect If so, how
narrow must have been their royal souls, for
if a judgment can be formed from carved
images, all the cruelty and fanaticism of their
successors lay smouldering in their dark eyes
and hard cold features. One examines their
splendid sepulchres and descends into the vault
where their bones lie, and then hurries away
to the Torre de la Vela for sunset.

We had intended when we went to Granada
to ride out to Santa Fe, where the capitulation
of Granada was signed and whence Columbus
started for his first American voyage, but after
a week of the Alhambra we turned our wheels
to the ''Ultimo Suspiro del Moro" instead.
Accompanied by three Granada caballeros we
rode over meadows, forded streams, and at last
followed a bad dusty road up into the barren
hills outskirting the Alpujarras, until, just be-
fore it dipped into the valley beyond, our

*'el ultimo suspiro.*' 91

Spanish friends said " Halt.*' We turned and
faced Granada. Here was the spot where
Boabdil looked for the last time upon the vega
and the city, and sighing passed on, leaving the
field to the Catolicos. As we started on our
return a silver-toned ring from a cyclometer
told us we had ridden a thousand miles from
the Spanish border to the ** Ultimo."

The conquest of Granada may or may not
have been to the advantage of Spain, this ques-
tion historians can discuss, but the sympathy
of the art-loving visitor of the Alhambra will
ever follow Boabdil, weak though he was, into
his lonely exile in the Alpujarras.

CHAPTER IX.

OVER THE MALAGA SIERRAS TO THE QUEEN OF
THE SHIMMKRTNCi SEA— RONDA, A JAUNT TO THE
CUEVA DEL GATO AND THE ZUMIDERO.

THE approach to Granada is guarded on
every side by chains of sierras and one
must be prepared to grapple with steep grades
in passing these. Inquiry about the road to
Malaga only elicited the information that it
was " muy pendiente " (very steep). South
Spaniards are apt to call mountain grades muy
pendiente y and they are often correct. In
Spain as well as in Algeria we found it difficult
to obtain any accurate idea of the character of
a given road even from those who had been
over it.

The route from Granada to Malaga is one
of the most interesting as regards scenery in
Spain and well repays for the effort it demands.
From Loja, a picturesque town on a hill sur-
rounded by flowering meadows and possessing

OVER THE MALAGA SIERRAS. 93

almost as many singing fountains as Granada,
a good road ascends for some miles to the top
of the mountain, chain, along which it runs for
hours winding in a serpentine course from one
ridge to another, until at last it comes out on
an abrupt height over Malaga.

The views obtained from the road after it
reaches • the heights are magnificent and very
extended. One looks off upon a panorama of
sharp bald mountain peaks in various shades
of grey, brown, and red thrown together in
wildest confusion, their precipitous sides de-
scending abruptly into abysses which the eye
cannot fathom, or enclosing lower hills and
valleys some green, some barren. Here
and there villages dot the landscape, built
in rocky fastnesses seemingly inaccessible,
and one wonders how their inhabitants can
wring their subsistence from such a desert
wilderness.

As we rode on the aerial pathway along the
brink of precipices we were often obliged to
dismount---aad_scramble over tfie ramblas or
barrancas, dry beds of winter torrents, which
had swept across the road. The spu^^ "^of
the savage peaks and mountain sides around

94 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

were gashed and gullied by these in every di-
rection. They suggested the vivid descriptions
of Irving of the fierce encounters between the
Spaniards and Moors, when they met in bitter
enmity in just such places as these, which " in
after times have become the favourite haunts
of robbers to waylay the unfortunate traveller."
As we looked over the slopes " shagged with
rocks and precipices " we could better appreci-
ate what the scenes in the mountains of Mal-
aga in the absence of roads must have been,
when the good Master of Santiago on hearing
the echoes of the war-cry of El Zagal told his
knights entangled in the barrancas^ they would
make a road with their hearts since they could
not with their swords.

We came out on the brow of the mountain
as the sun was setting, when on rounding a
hillock an entirely different scene suddenly
broke upon us. Directly under us, four thou-
sand feet below, lay Malaga in a garden of
fruit-trees bordered by the sapphire sea, which,
spreading onward, bounded the horizon in
front. Back of the city the lower foot-hills
were bathed in a flood of aqua-marine light.
To the right, stretching away one behind the

OVER THE MALAGA SIERRAS. 95

Other into the dim distance, we counted ten
mountain ranges, each enveloped in a hazy
mantle of a different shade of blue.

We asked a road repairer if the road down
was good. Looking doubtfully at our wheels
he answered, " Yes, it is good, but muy pendi-
ente^ We had ten miles to ride and only an
hour of twilight as we started on the descent,
which proved to be very sharp in places. We
were obliged to ride with caution, dismounting
several times as the road wound around curves
dangerously near the edge of precipices. The
plain was reached in safety as darkness was
closing in.

Malaga is mentioned as a desirable winter
resort for invalids. While the climate is doubt-
less favourable, he must be a strong-nerved
invalid who can endure the pandemonium of
indescribable noises that renders night hideous
in this city. Among these are the peculiar
penetrating cries of the hawker and news-
boy, the loud talking of the crowds surg-
ing through the streets, the rolling of carriages,
the rattle of iron window-shutters as they are
drawn down for the night, and the frequent
shriek of shrill whistles, all of which combine

96 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

in a medley of sound that effectually banishes
sleep till well towards morning.

Of the sights of Malaga little need be said.
The Gibralfaro, a hill at the east end of the
city, affords a good prospect of the sea, the
town, and the near mountains, but the view
from it as compared with that of the pre-
vious day from the heights above was as the
view from the Rigi to that from the Matter-
horn. The crumbling battlements of this for-

, mer Hill of the Beacon scarcely give an idea
of the impregnable walls from the parapets of
which its brave defender ** Ez Zegry and his
undaunted followers poured boiling pitch and
rosin upon the assailants."

A good idea of a Spanish hacienda may be
obtained by visiting some of those around Mal-
aga, which are well worth seeing. The orange

* and lemon trees of those we saw did not im-
press us as having the luxuriant vigor and size
of those near Valencia. The gardens are large
and contain many remarkable trees and plants,
but do not compare with those of some of the
villas near Palermo in the variety of rare trees
or in artistic arrangement. However, the gar-
dens of Palermo are ne plus ultra, and those

RONDA. 97

in question, to do them justice, show a nearer
approach to tropical exuberance than aoy we
have seen in Italy. Both the black and white
bamboo grow in a profusion and attain a size
probably unsurpassed elsewhere outside the
tropics. The air at the time of our visit was
melodious with the song of the nightingale.

From Malaga to Ronda there is no direct
road, so we were obliged to climb the moun-
tains by rail to a place called Gobantes, where
no building except the station is visible. Here
a good road begins which, ascending over a
pass, runs to Ronda, fifty-four kilometres dis-
tant. Shortly before Ronda a well-preserved
section of a Roman aqueduct is passed.

As we were looking for an hotel, a man hav-
ing the appearance of a valet-de-place stepped
forward officiously and said to us in English
the best hotel was near by and he would take
us to it. Not liking to put ourselves under
the guidance of a man of this kind we hesi-
tated, but in the absence of any other suitable
person in the crowd to appeal to we accepted
his services. At the hotel he assumed the
role of proprietor, as that individual was not
to be found; and proceeded to show us rooms.

98 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

In the absence of the porter and other ser-
vants we made use of him to bring up our lug-
lage and supply the rooms with towels and
water, which he did without demur. He called
himself an interpreter and was evidently in the
service of the hotel.

We wished to spend the next day in seeing
something of the surrounding country, so after
dinner we asked the interpreter if a guide and
horses could be obtained. He replied : " Cer-
tainly, the price of a guide will be ten pese-
trasy and I will call in a stable proprietor to
talk with you about the horses." On the
arrival of the latter the interpreter said we
should have to provide horses not only for
ourselves but also for the guide. When ar-
rangements for these had been made, seeing
nothing of the guide, we asked '' Where is the
guide?" The interpreter answered, '* I will
be your guide." We felt we were being guided
a trifle too much by this fellow, but there
seemed to be nothing to do but to take him.
We were thankful that most of our wander-
ings were made in a manner that knew no
such incumbrance.

The next morning at six the horses were led

CUEVA DEL GATO. 99

up to the door of the fonda. A few minutes
later the horse owner himself appeared mounted
on a powerful black horse and expressed his in-
tention of accompanying us. He might have
been fifty-five years of age, was of good height
and rotund figure, wore leggings, a short,
rounded sack coat and broad-brimmed som-
brerOy which shaded a good-natured face. On
account of his weight he had some difficulty
at times in mounting his horse, which he rode
without saddle or stirrup, but when once
mounted he sat with equal ease whether side-
ways or astride.

He was proud of his animals, which were
all good and were real horses, with no taint
of the mule about them, and it was evident
though he did not say so, that he shared the
contempt for the mule which every Spanish
caballero, for such he considered himself, feels.

Our first objective point was the Cueva del
Gato, a cavern in the side of a mountain about
two hours and a half distant, out of which
flows a river. The trail leads down the bar-
ren hillside and follows a valley through an
uninteresting region, twice crossing the river.
No sooner had we started than our companions

lOO SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

took out their cigarettes and proceeded to sol-
ace themselves, which diversion was indulged
in at short intervals throughout the day.
When their matches were exhausted they
stopped to borrow a light of every one we met
irrespective of his social condition.

What would the Spaniard do without his
tobacco ? It is his constant solace in all the
activities of life. He uses the cigarette as a
condiment to his food at meals. At the thea-
tre he cannot enjoy what is being given on the
stage unless viewed through a film of smoke.
The chambermaid does not disdain the weed
as he puts one's room in order at the hotel.
The conductor on the street car takes the fare
cheered by its fragrant aroma. The officer on
parade issues his orders with a cigar between
his lips. Its fumes even take the place of in-
cense on occasion with the clergyman as he
performs the last rites to the departed. A
present of a cigar makes a Spaniard your
friend, and the traveller's path is often smoothed
by the timely exhibition of tobacco.

Our caballero, who after all proved to be the
real guide, also stopped frequently at houses
on the route to satisfy his thirst with a glass

CUEVA DEL GATO. lOI

of Wine or cordial, on which occasions he never
failed to invite us to participate in the refresh-
ment nor to pay the bill himself, on no account
allowing us to be responsible for the last. He
considered it incumbent on him as a gentleman
to do all the honours, and in fording streams
or passing difficult places he always held the
bridle of the Senoras horse himself. Neither
he nor the interpreter seemed to be quite
familiar with the route, stopping several times
to inquire, from which we inferred that the
Cueva was not so very often visited by trav-
ellers.

Arrived at the Gueva we found an opening
in the rock twenty to forty feet high, the en-
trance to which was blocked by large boulders,
which we could not pass on account of the
quantity of water flowing between them. No
artificial means have been employed to make
the cave accessible. On looking in nothing
worth mention could be seen. We halted to
rest the animals when the caballero took out
of his pocket some bread and a sort of
sausage, which he offered us with the assurance
that the latter was home-made and innocuous.
The composition of that sausage we would not

I02 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

attempt to surmise. Its consistency was soft,
its colour a brilliant vermilion, and one of the
principal ingredients was garlic. Out of com-
pliment to the donor and the place of its manu-
facture we each took a small piece, which was
with difficulty disposed of, but declined further
offers on the ground of not wishing to deprive
him of it.

From the Cueva we went to the Gorge of
the Zumidero, two hours farther. The path
led up a rocky spur and down on the other side
into a wild valley surrounded by limestone
mountains. The bed of this valley consisted
of an oval stretch of arable land planted with
wheat. To get out of the valley we had to
scramble up a long ascent, where the horses
were obliged to pick their way with the greatest
care. Opposite the highest part and still higher
up on the bare mountain side was a basin sur-
rounded except at its entrance by inaccessible
crags. In this was perched a village the houses
of which were built of the rock on which it
rested. Its inhabitants earned their livelihood
by cultivating the fertile land below. The
whole region from here to the Zumidero was
wild and grand. At the Zumidero, which lies

THE ZUMIDERO. IO3

in another valley between limestone peaks, the
river which flows through the valley disappears
into the rocks to reappear again at the Cueva
del Gato below on the other side of the moun-
tain.

The caballero now went ahead to find a place
for the noon meal, leaving the interpreter to
guide us, who soon showed his want of knowl-
edge of the country by leading us astray into
a stony vineyard, where the horses floundered
about among the vines to the consternation of
the owners. At luncheon the caballero partook
as freely of our viands, particularly of the wine,
as he had ofi^ered us of his.

Having spent most of the afternoon in an
excursion farther east we returned to Ronda
about five o'clock and dismounted at the Ala-
meda, where being heartily tired of riding we
dismissed the caballero and his horses, saying
we would walk through the town and return
to the hotel on foot. Judge our surprise an
hour later when near the Alcazar at the other
end of the town we came upon the horses and
their master waiting for us. The latter's idea
of politeness would not permit him to allow us
to return to the hotel on foot, however short

104 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

the distance. We had just bought a dozen
oranges, some of which were given him, but
he would not eat himself till he had prepared
one for the Scnora.

Ronda is situated on the brow of a hill,
which falls on one side perpendicularly to the
plain below and is cleft in two by a deep
gorge. The interest of the place centres in
these two features, with their concomitants the
stream, cascades, old Moorish mills and bridges.
Otherwise its situation is not especially remark-
able. The man who wrote, ** There is indeed
but one Ronda in the world," cannot have
travelled very extensively, for there are places
not so very distant similarly situated, which are
more striking than Ronda.

When we called for our bill at \}ci^fonda the
interpreter made it out and receipted it.

The road on which we came continues on
to the second railway station beyond Ronda
where it ceases, thus practically beginning and
ending nowhere. In Andalucia direct connect-
ing roads between important places are not
always to be found. From here to San Roque
the bicyclist is obliged to take the rail.

ENTRANCE TO QORQE, RONDA.

I06 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

knowledge was evidently too limited and he
was altogether too pessimistic as regards the
estimate put on human life in the empire of
the Sultan to suit our purpose.

We had had occasion before to remark the
tendency in those who had no personal knowl-
edge of certain routes of doubtful reputation
to magnify the dangers connected with them,
until if heed were given to their statements
one might imagine one's guide or escort would
turn assassins. Apart from the question of
safety, which is always dependent on the mo-
mentary condition of affairs in Morocco, that
of how best to arrange for the journey is the
chief one to be settled. If the traveller be in
no hurry it is undoubtedly better for him to
select his guide, attendants, and horses him-
self, but if his time is limited he will be obliged
to trust this matter to his hotel, in which case
the expense will be about double.

Time being an object in our case we referred
to the hotel. This particular hotel, not far
from the landing, is very Machiavellian in its
policy with strangers. The manager assured
us it was quite safe to go to Tetuan then,
though it had not been formerly.

TETUAN. 107

" Can you recommend a guide ? " we asked.

*' Oh yes, we will send a good one for you
to talk with, and if you are not satisfied with
him we will send you another."

'* What will be the charge for a guide and
animals to Tetuan ? "

"That you can arrange with the guide."

A few minutes later a suave, middle-aged
Moor draped in a most spotless burnous called
at our room. He had been parading the hotel
corridors ever since the arrival of the boat as
specimen Tangier Moor furnished by the hotel,
it was to be supposed, for the hotel in Tangier
furnishes everything from photographs to old
coins, carved furniture, and antique embroid-
eries. He was the guide and, as we had rea-
son later to think, the only one of the hotel.

He handed us a reference written by one of
our own countrymen in terms suspiciously ef-
fusive, which if true would make one wish
to visit the whole interior of Morocco under
such a guardian. He had been guide, friend,
protector, interpreter, facilitator of photograph-
ing, and cook, all in the superlative degree to
the American tourist, and in Fez had even
brought about an interview between the Amer-

TETUAN. 109

days-journey on its regal cushions was horrify-
ing and it was discarded. The one mule which
Salem provided for this occasion displayed an
activity of movement never again observed
after we started on the journey.

The next morning we were off an hour later
than had been agreed upon, for guides in Mo-
rocco as well as in Switzerland may be tardy
in starting. Headed by the mounted soldier
furnished by the Government at our expense
for protection, our caravan wound its way over
the beach and sand dunes as beautiful in the
pale light before sunrise as hillocks of driven
snow. Is it because the sand dunes are less
common and more beautiful than the Moor at
Tangier that the tourist never mentions them ?

The journey to Tetuan by the mule trail, for
a road in Morocco is as rare as a buffalo in the
United States, occupies twelve to fourteen
hours, though Salem assured us his mules could
make it in eight. The first part of the route
led over a rolling, deserted, somewhat pastoral
country, which was but little cultivated although
the soil appeared fertile. We passed beautiful
fields of pink oleanders, and the path was often
bordered by wild roses, bluebells, and honey-

no SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

suckle. Views of purple mountains were con-
stantly before us, and now and then even of
distant snow-wreathed Atlas summits. A large
number of men and women, some as far out as
twenty-five kilometres, were met with carrying
sacks of charcoal into Tangier. The women
were stunted and looked old and haggard
under their heavy burdens.

We lunched at noon under a small group of
trees. Salem and the mule driver spread rugs
and served a very good meal, for which we were
quite prepared, the former having promised us
every obtainable luxury while under his care.
Water was carried in the porous jugs used here
as well as in Spain, and was nearly as cool as if
iced.

The monotony of the journey was broken
for the first time an hour after the march had
been resumed by the carelessness of the driver
who led the mule ridden by the lady of the
party. Having become somnolent from the
smoking of hashish at luncheon, he stumbled
into a slough and drew the mule in after him.
While he was floundering knee deep in the
filth, the mule in its efforts to get out threw the
rider, whose foot caught in the stirrup from

TETUAN. 1 1 1

which it was impossible to extricate it. After
she had been dragged sufficiently far to become
covered with mud to her waist, badly shaken
up and frightened, Salem rescued her.

While she sat on a stone recovering herself
and reflecting upon the prospect of riding five
hours longer with mud and water dripping
from her skirts and oozing from her boots, an
entertaining Eastern intermezzo took place.
The mule driver after getting out of the slough
bent his head and doubled himself together
as if awaiting punishment. Salem went up to
him and poured forth a volley of words, the
harsh sound of which alone was intelligible.
He then seized him by the shoulders and shook
him with all his strength, and ended by giving
him an emphatic kick that sent him rolling ten
feet down a bank. The youth uttered no word
of remonstrance but disappeared, while Salem
leading the mules walked with us to ?ifondack^
the only building on the route, fifteen minutes
beyond.

On the way he tried to assuage our indigna-
tion by promising to obtain a new driver at the
fondacky where accommodation for animals is
scarcely to be found, much less for travellers.

112 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

Salem submerged the muddy boots in a pail of
water, which did not conduce to the owner's
comfort on the further ride to Tetuan. He
then invited us to take cafe maure which in
this case contained more than the usual quan-
tity of sediment.

When ready to start again the culprit ap-
peared leading the mule and hanging his head.
"Where is the new man ?" we inquired. Sa-
lem expressed great regret and said he had
offered the only other man he had seen at the
fondack a, large price to accompany us, but he
would not as he was on the return to Tangier.
Appreciating the fact that he had never in-
tended to dismiss the driver we took up our
march.

About an hour from the /onc/ack, at the top
of a hill before descending into a wild defile,
the first glimpse of Tetuan, still four hours dis-
tant, is obtained. This view, so graphically
described by General Prim, is said to be one of
the finest in Morocco. It is a delightful sur-
prise after the long ride in the wilderness.
Surmounted by its massive fortress the city
lies like a snowy half-wreath on a high bank
overhanging the river, which winds through

TETU AN. 1 1 3

the greenest of valleys that in its verdure
must have recalled forcibly the vega of Gra-
nada to the Andalucian exiles. To the east
rise lofty and graceful mountains covered with
trees to the line where, high up, their slopes
end in rock. Far beyond in the background,
like a strip of fallen sky, lies the Mediter-
ranean.

Salem's fine mules did not prove so fast as
he had stated. One in particular required the
constant application of a stout stick to induce
it to move at even a fair gait. It had also an
unpleasant habit of shying suddenly at the
Arabs who passed us and then running, when
the rider was at its mercy not daring to draw
hard on the bridle, which was rotten and had
already been broken in two places, the broken
ends being tied together with a single turn
of string. On one of these occasions one of
the mended places parted, nearly unseating
the rider. The last three hours the mules
were especially slow, and it required fourteen
hours instead of eight to reach Tetuan, where
we arrived two hours after sunset, when ac-
cording to Eastern custom the gates are
closed,

114 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

After considerable parleying between the
guard at the gate and our soldier we were
admitted, and went clattering through the
cobble-paved deserted streets to a small inn
on the edge of the city kept by a Spaniard
and his wife, who took good care of us. The
outlook from our windows the next morning
was a revelation, for instead of facing on a
dirty Oriental street, they overlooked the
valley, in May a perfect orange garden, and
the beautiful mountain range the highest peak
of which is Beni Hosmar.

Salem presented himself at what we thought
a late hour, bringing a boquet of jessamine and
honeysuckle. He apologised, saying he had
been arranging for an interview with the Span-
ish consul at eleven o'clock, as it was through
him our invitations to the houses of the de-
scendants of the Granada refugees were to
come.

We made the circuit of the town, which is
completely Moroccan, the few Spanish resi-
dents being lost among the natives. The
scene in the great square and in the grain and
fish markets is very animated in the morning
when they are thronged with people, the

TETUAN. I I 5

negroes contrasting effectively with the Hghter-
coloured Moors. In the grain market the
Moorish women sat cross-legged selling grain,
enveloped in coarse burnouses with enor-
mous straw hats, which completely hid their
faces.

Rare arches surmounted with dentated cop-
ings often in double rows marked the entrance
of streets into the squares or into one another.
Striking bits abound everywhere and so does
dirt, and one is never sure of not having to
stop near a large garbage heap to admire some
beautiful architectural effect. The Basha
street is particularly remarkable for its double
tiered azulejos minaret and its rubbish heaps
extending from the middle of the street to the
top of the doorways of the houses. As we
contemplated these monuments of filth, inhal-
ing the while the perfume of the strings of
jessamine provided by Salem, we inquired if
there had been many epidemics of cholera at
Tetuan. *' Never, cholera never was known
at Tetuan, it is the healthest city in Morocco,"
he replied in French, having exhausted his
English at our first interview in Tangier.
With a feeling of pity for the people we read

TETUAN. 1 1 7

and handsome intelligent faces, dressed in
spotless robes of the finest linen and sheen-
iest silk. They had the commanding presence
and high-bred manner we had noticed in the
Arab chiefs of Algeria.

Salem said, *' Here are the rich citizens of
Tetuan, among them two or three whose
houses you will probably visit in the after-
noon." They seemed to be acquainted with
him and greeted him in a friendly manner.
As he presented us, their dark eyes lighted
up and they received us with warm grasps
of hands that were softer than velvet, and a
cordiality that made us feel at home even in
Morocco.

We had seen in the Grande Kabylie the
descendants of the race that had founded
Granada, we had walked in the empty courts
of the Alhambra, and here we found the last
remnant of the brave but unfortunate people
whose inheritance of that great treasure ended
with the weak and vacillating Boabdil. In ap-
pearance they were fitting representatives of
their ancestors, who had conquered and main-
tained themselves in Andalucia against all as-
saults for eight hundred years, and developed a

Il8 SKETCHES AWHEEL IS MODERN IBERIA.

culture which, as shown in the few monuments
spared by their more barbarous conquerors,
has been the admiration of succeeding gener-
ations.

Some of them were in relations with the
court at Fez and as we learned afterwards had
been intrusted by the Sultan with missions
to the governments of Europe. One or two
spoke French, but these were exceptions. We
next called upon the Spanish consul, who said
he expected invitations for us by two o'clock.
A visit to the walls and the picturesque ceme-
tery followed. The latter occupies the side of
a hill without the walls, and its tombs and
monuments are larger and more elaborate
than those of any cemetery we have seen in
other Mohammedan countries. It seems to
be a favourite resort of the inhabitants, many
of whom sat around in groups eating luncheon
or engaged in conversation. We then re-
turned for dejeuner and Salem went to take
his siesta.

About four o'clock he reappeared with the
invitations accompanied by a Moor in blue
zouave trousers, red sash, and fez. He said
he had brought the consul's servant or kawass,

TETUAN. 119

as etiquette required that we be announced by
a servant at the different houses. We visited
several, at all of which the owners received us
in the patios, showed us about and were very
cordial. The only women visible anywhere
were slaves.

One house, the largest and handsomest in
Tetuan, has a history connected with it, which
recalls the tales of charmed treasure found in
the Alhambra. The owner, a handsome man
of fifty-five, with a courtly demeanour, who
has been in Europe more than once in the ser-
vice of the Sultan, is the one who while on a
diplomatic mission to Madrid received a blow
in the face, for which insult the Spanish Gov-
ernment apologised. We had read of the
matter at the time it occurred, and were of
course interested in meeting the ambassador at
Tetuan.

Some twenty years ago on breaking ground
for the cellar of the present palatial residence,
a buried treasure was unearthed consisting of
a large amount of gold. Not daring to keep
it the owner of the property sent it at once to
the Sultan, who considering the sender a good
and faithful servant took only half for himself

I20 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

and returned the rest. The story is well known
at Tetuan and is said to be true.

At the entrance the kawass went ahead to
announce us. Shortly he returned and the
door was thrown wide open by a handsome jet
black slave girl of about sixteen. The kawass
entered before us, fell on his knees and kissed
the hand of the host, who now came forward
from the large patio to meet us. We all went
into the patio, in the middle of which was a
fountain surrounded by plants. This large
peristyle had the Tetuan sky for its ceiling,
being covered only by a wire netting to keep
out the birds. The floor and columns of the
arches were inlaid in different designs with
blue, mauve, and yellow azulejos made after
the manner of those of the Alhambra. The
Granada refugees brought with them the art
of making azulejos, a manufactory for which
may be seen outside the wall of Tetuan, sev-
eral large chambers formed by overhanging
rocks being utilised in place of buildings. The
colours are the same as those formerly used.
Owing to the amount of tile and other orna-
mental work in the house, eighteen years were
required for its completion.

TETUAN. 121

A large dining hall ran the length of the
patio on one side, and on the others either
salons or sleeping rooms opened, thus produc-
ing the effect of great size combined with vis-
tas of columns and arches. The rooms had
painted or inlaid wooden ceilings and were
furnished with divans, mirrors, and a piano,
and the walls were decorated with old Arab
guns and sabres. Rugs were thrown about
everywhere and in the sleeping rooms the beds
were arranged with three to five mattresses.
In front of each bedstead was one mattress on
the marble floor for a slave. The under sur-
face of the arches around the patio and the
wall above were plain white, which produced a
much less agreeable effect than the soft toned
stucco work of the Alhambra. Apart from
this discord in the beautiful interior one could
almost imagine oneself in a palace of the
Moors of other days.

There was a second floor with a gallery, a
part of which was enclosed, and through some
small windows looking down on the patio we
caught a glimpse once or twice of a woman's
receding figure which quickly vanished.

The owner showed us his household treas-

122 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

ures with evident pleasure, but more than the
rare tapestries, mosaics, and old weapons, we
admired the bright pretty slaves, who made ex-
quisite pictures as in white and pink muslins
with bright sashes over their shoulders and
bare arms decked with bangles they silently
passed cafe maure and sweets. We asked
Salem if the negro slaves in Tetuan were
usually so attractive, when he shook his head

saying " B is a connoisseur and buys only

the handsomest." He also said the slave
girls are treated with great kindness, being
cared for like members of the family, which
statement corresponded with the impression
made upon us by their appearance and
bearing.

Feeling as if we had lived through a scene
in the Arabian Nights we bade our host fare-
well. He accompanied us to the threshold
and took leave of us h la maure. Our servant,
who had remained outside after announcing us,
prostrated himself again as we left.

While at Tetuan we spent the sunset hour
at the old Castillo, the massive walls of which
overtop the city on the west. After the sun
had withdrawn its last golden glance from the

TETUAN. 123

mountains and the city lay cold and silent in
the valley, the interesting moment of the day
began, the ladies' hour. Gradually the flat
white roofs became peopled with women com-
ing out for their evening airing and gossip.
Negresses also appeared gaily clad in red and
yellow, their black faces uncovered, and were
most amusing to watch. Active as cats they
climbed over the parapets from roof to roof
and romped and played together like children.

Another day we made an excursion to the
*' Source of the Zakkah," a trip which Salem
regarded as his special privilege to make.
He said he was the only guide from Tangier
who knew of it, and although he had been
there several times himself, we were the first
travellers, with the exception of one English-
man, whom he had taken to visit it. The
sensation of being a pioneer in these days
when every corner of the world is sought out
by the tourist is certainly exhilarating. One
is, however, far from feeling certain • of the
fact, when one has only the statement of a
ruse Tangier guide to rely upon. Still the
jaunt proved a very delightful one.

Custom seemed to demand that we should

124 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MQDERN IBERIA.

be under the charge of a soldier from Tetuan,
so the place of our Tangier guard was taken
by a bright young fellow who spoke a little
French and made a good companion. The
mule track led past the old walls overgrown
with cacti and flowering bushes into the val-
ley, and thence through orange, fig, and lemon
orchards to the mountains. Hedges of grow-
ing cane held together by wattles bordered
the path, over which luxuriant trees towered
and swayed. After fording several rivers we
reached the mountains in about two hours.

As we passed through a village on the
mountain side, the mayor or chief riding a fine
Arab horse came out to meet us. His saddle-
bags were well supplied with oranges, of which
he gave us all we could carry. He then joined
us, taking the lead and acting as guide up the
mountain. The soldier next followed, then we,
and lastly Salem and the servant. However
we may have looked, we felt quite adventurous,
wending our way up the wild mountain with
our four Moorish attendants. The grandeur
increased as we ascended under the frowning
summit of Beni Hosmar. From a high plateau
we looked back upon Tetuan banded by walls,

TETUAN. 125

throned in green, and crowned with minarets
and mosques.

An hour and a half from the village, at the
entrance of a wild ravine, we came to a large
deep pool of eddying and bubbling water sur-
rounded by mossy rocks and spreading trees,
which was fed by a beautiful cascade of purest
water, that came gambolling down from the
mountain above. This was Salem's *' Source
of the Zakkah," which furnished water power
for the two or three hundred Moorish mills in
the valley below, and a more sylvan spot it
would be hard to find.

The path ceased here. The Arabs spread
rugs on the rocks for us, served us with oranges
and then with two more who joined them sat
apart in a picturesque group eating bread and
drinking buttermilk, which was brought in a
stone jug. Shortly some wild-looking shep-
herds clothed in skins came up, and three shy
Arab women in short red and white striped
skirts confined at the waist with red sashes
scrambled over the rocks to do washing in the
stream. They were startled at first at seeing
their laundry invaded by strangers, but soon
recovered themselves and went to work mak-

126 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

ing their brown feet do the duty of hands,
every now and then throwing timid glances at
us.

While Salem and the others enjoyed a Mos-
lem siesta, the soldier took u^ for a climb up
the mountain, during which we looked into
the thatch houses of the shepherds, which did
not detain us long, for unlike those of the
Tetuan grandees, they contained besides the
women and children only a dog or kid and a
few cooking pans. Boughs of trees served for
beds and chairs. The soldier obtained for us
one of the rude reed flutes used by the shep-
herds.

When we returned to the pool, Salem and
the chief had a luncheon of boiled eggs and
bread ready. The chief produced more of
the large juicy oranges from the depths of his
saddle-bags, and his black eyes snapped with
delight as we returned his favours with praise
and cigarettes. During luncheon we heard a
splash, and looking down into the water met
the gaze of the merry soldier enjoying a bath
after his exertions on the mountain. Later he
appeared in a fresh white burnous, and as we
rode down the mountain hung his cast-off

tetuan. 127

clothing in a delightfully unreserved manner
over his shoulders to dry. He laughed, sang,
peeled our oranges, lifted the overhanging
branches out of the way, was in all respects
our willing slave, and rode into Tetuan hold-
ing his gun upright and sitting his horse as
only an Arab soldier can.

The chief fully appreciated the dignity of
his position, escorted us to the door of the
Tetuan inn, where upon dismounting he pre-
sented us with branchlets of golden oranges
as a parting remembrance. The capacity of
his saddle-bags seemed inexhaustible. The
disinterested and open-handed hospitality of
these rude natives of Morocco would do credit
to many a more cultured people.

Up to this time Salem had done his duty
fairly well, and although he had disgusted us
by his constant praise of himself, had shown
us the main sights of Tetuan and given us the
interesting trip to the Source. Beyond this
his sense of obligation did not appear to ex-
tend, and when sought for further services was
not to be found, and we were left to our own
resources. On the morning of our departure
the mules were brought to the door in a filthy

128 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

condition, unfit for use, and after we had left
the city an Arab overtook us, between whom
and Salem an emphatic discussion ensued,
from which we inferred, though we could not
understand the language, that the latter had
neglected to render proper satisfaction for the
accommodation afforded himself or the mules.

On this day his indifference became still more
pronounced, and instead of keeping with us and
urging on the mules, as he had done on the
way out, he fell behind often nearly out of
sight, leaving us to the mercy of the stupid
youth, who had no power over the beasts.
Finally, as the afternoon advanced, they came
to a standstill a long distance from Tangier,
when we waited till he came up and insisted
that he urge them forward.

At the noon meal many things were want-
ing, particularly the relishes, even the sub-
stantial were scanty and of poor quality, and
wine had altogether disappeared from the
menu. Before reaching Tangier we had had
enough of Salem, and were glad he was not
to be our guide, provider, and friend on a
six weeks' journey in the interior. The trip
to Tetuan, barring the chance of sophistical

TETUAN. 129

guides, obstinate or shying mules, and rotten
bridles, well repays the time and exertion it
demands. Within a week of our return to
Spain the foreign consuls were informed that
owing to the disturbed condition of affairs in
the interior of Morocco the Sultan would not
guarantee further the safety of travellers.

CHAPTER XI.

TARIFA— OCEAN-WASHED CADIZ— PEONES GAMINE-
ROS— ALCALA DE LA GUADAIRA— FAMED SEVILLA
OF THE GUADALQUIVIR.

FROM Algeciras we rode over the hills
to Tarifa, which, like a white sea-gull,
clings to the rocks of the southernmost point
of Europe, and looks as if the next gale might
sweep it into the boiling straits that half en-
circle it. It is a romantic old town with its
well-preserved walls and alcazavy one of the
towers of which marks the place where the
son of Guzman el Bueno was murdered, — el
Bueno, dear to Spanish hearts because he pre-
ferred the sacrifice of his son to opening the
gates to the Moorish enemy.

According to history Tarifa on its rock-
bound peninsula has withstood gallantly many
an attack, but to-day in its indolent southern
apathy it is but a picturesque shadow of the
substance of the past. From the short reach

130

TARIFA. 131

of beach below the ramparts of the alcazar
Spanish Ceuta and Moorish Tangier appear
like white-crested breakers on the shore of the
Sultan's land.

From Tarifa to San Fernando the road is
good and runs level nearly the whole distance
through a well cultivated farming country
dotted with farm houses of stone and thatch
and well-to-do villages, the gardens of which
were brilliant with red geraniums and lilies.
Here as at the entrance to Andalucia the fields
were carpeted with many-coloured wild flowers
and fringed with flowering bushes. Scarlet
poppies, deep yellow daisies and light yellow
ones with deep yellow centres, red clover with
long glistening heads, pink oleanders, and pur-
ple rhododendrons grew in profusion. In
place of fences and stone walls the land bound-
aries were marked by strong hedges of vigor-
ous century plant, the blossom stalks of which
shot up twenty to twenty-five feet in the air
like lines of telegraph poles.

The broad chaussee leading over the narrow
strip of land from San Fernando to Cadiz was
once undoubtedly an excellent road, but had
been allowed to fall into such an execrable

132 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

condition of hillocks and hollows that the
people could stand it no longer, and for some
distance before Cadiz it was undergoing total
reconstruction, so that it was impassable. Our
only resource was to wade through a consider-
able stretch of soft sand to the beach, on which
we rode the last five kilometres into Cadiz to
the music of the foaming surf.

Cadiz has been inaptly compared in situation
with Venice, the only point common to the two
being that they are practically surrounded by
water. Cadiz is not built upon a mud flat, it
is not approached by lagunes, and the wild At-
lantic storms, that beat upon the rock-bound
peninsula on which it stands, would soon sweep
Venice from its foundations into the Adriatic.

Perhaps the most noticeable feature of Cadiz
is the extreme neatness and cleanliness every-
where seen. It is decidedly the best kept city
we saw in Spain, and the same remark would
not be untrue of regions beyond the Pyrenees.
The impression is heightened by the ever
ready brush of the whitewasher, which keeps
the houses and walls in the most immaculate
condition. Such care is the more remarkable,
because the city is evidently in a state of deca-

CADIZ. 133

dence, and no activity either of commerce,
trade, or manufacture is apparent, which is
adequate to the support of the sixty-five thou-
sand inhabitants.

If the spirit of modern enterprise could be
infused into the people so as to induce them to
construct suitable docks, the city might take
the commercial rank to which its situation en-
titles it. To the traveller, however, this city of
Murillo's last work would not on that account
become more interesting, for its chief charm
for him consists in the sleepy quiet, which en-
ables him to reflect undisturbed upon its long
history during the almost three thousand years
which have elapsed since it came into being as
a Phoenician colony.

As one looks over the city from the Torre
de Tavira and sees the deserted miradores
standing up from the house-tops, from which
the merchants watched for the arrival of their
ships, one can picture the time when Cadiz
was a busy mart of trade and her fleets were
seen on every sea. These miradores suggest
structures similar in purpose though not in
form still to be seen on the roofs of the weather-
beaten houses of a small island in the Western

134 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

world well known seventy-five years ago in both
hemispheres for its whaling industry, but now
more dead than Cadiz. With its good hotels
and charming gardens on the edge of its sea-
beaten ramparts, Cadiz makes a delightful
resting-place.

The main roads of Spain are kept in order
by labourers called **peones camineros," each
of whom has charge of a section of five kilo-
metres. They live with their families in small
but substantial stone houses with gable roofs,
which stand by the roadside at an average dis-
tance of five kilometres from one another.
On the front of each is a painted incription,
*' Casa de Peones Camineros." The occupants
usually cultivate a small garden adjoining the
house and keep a few domestic animals.

The peones like the guardia civil are found
in all parts of Spain, and we came to regard
them with a very friendly feeling, being often
obliged in the absence of towns to apply to
them for information, shelter, or other assist-
ance, and in no case was our application in
vain. The most frequent favour asked of them
was water either to drink or to fill into our
canteens. Water except in the mountain re-

PEONES CAMINEROS. 1 35

gions was never to be found on the road, and
they were obliged often to bring their drink-
ing water from some distance, but they never
hesitated to give us abundantly of their store,
bringing it cool and fresh from the porous
earthen jars in which it was kept.

They almost always invited us to come in
out of the sun and rest, placing chairs for us,
and though poor often brought out azucari/los,
a white spongy substance made of lemon,
sugar, and white of eggs, which dissolved in
water makes a palatable and refreshing drink.
Payment for their hospitality they would have
scorned with true Spanish pride, but cigars
and cigarettes when properly offered they
would take, though never more than one, so we
always carried a good supply of these and of
bonbons for the children, which did not come
amiss, and delight sparkled from the eyes of
many a child, who had never tasted anything
sweeter than a garbanzo before.

Between Xeres and Alcala we stopped one
noon to lunch by the roadside a few hundred
feet from a casa de peones camineros. As we
were eating, the matron of the house came up
and greeted us and asked why we had not

136 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

made use of her house as a noon resting-place,
which we were perfectly at liberty to <Sb. We
thanked her and said we would drop in for
water when we had finished. Presently a
small boy came running up to us from the
house, who told us excitedly that his mother
sent him to call us to the house at once, as a
herd of dangerous bulls was coming on the
road above. We accordingly sought the shel-
ter so kindly offered.

Soon the bulls passed, some fifty or sixty in
number, filling the whole road and driven by
four well mounted horsemen armed with stout
batons. These were the black, rather small
but very active Andalucian bulls with quick,
cunning eyes and horns sharp as needles, such
as we had seen at the corridas in Granada,
and had we met them on the road we should
not have stood much chance of escape.

We had several opportunities of observing
the awe with which the people of Spain regard
the bull. They do not in their fear always
distinguish the sex of the bovine animals they
are trying to avoid, but sometimes give as
wide a berth to a gentle cow entirely innocent
of malicious intent as to the terrible toro.

ALCALA DE LA GUADAIRA. 1 37

Alcala de la Guadaira should be visited for
its ruined alcazar, its flour mills, for it is the
bakery of Seville, its interesting cave houses,
and more than all perhaps for 'the lovely first
view of the Giralda it reveals to one approach-
ing Seville from this side. The Moorish castle
with its tapia walls, subterranean granaries,
and large square towers is one of the most
picturesque in Spain. But this fragment left
by the dusky race is crumbling, and who can
tell how soon the blind custodian of the Giral-
da may cease to point out with unerring hand
the dark outline of its keywork walls, for an
earthquake or the destructive spirit of the
Spanish may at any time level it to the earth.
Nothinor could be lovelier than the sunset
scene from the Torre de Mocha. Over the
hilltop on which they stand ramble the crannied
walls overgrown with grass and flowers ; below,
supplying power to a legion of Moorish mills,
the bottle-green Guadaira circles through a
valley of verdure, and ten miles away, out of a
soft haze which hides the city, towers the
guardian of Seville, the Giralda.

*' Se villa is also there but the mist covers
it," said our cicerone, who we had forgotten

138 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

was With US. Yes, we knew the Giralda indi-
cated the presence of Seville, even as years
before, when from the hills on the Via Fla-
minia twenty miles away we saw the gilded
dome of St. Peter's looming up alone between
earth and sky, we knew that Rome lay be-
neath.

What a prognostic was the Giralda to the
Moors who, after guarding it with superstitious
fervour for over five hundred years, wished to
tear down and obliterate it completely before
delivering up the city to the Christians. Love
of the Giralda passed from the hearts of the
departing Mussulmen to those of the Span-
iards, who in turn regarded this mueddin bel-
fry as a sign of the prosperity of Seville. As
the veil of mist floated higher we almost
seemed to see, as did certain devout Spaniards
during the thunder-storm of 1504, the tutelars
Justa and Rufina rising in Murillo-like vapo-
roso to support its swaying form and bulging
sides. It is to be hoped that the Sevillians
will continue to treasure their Giralda, which
like a forgotten pennon of the Moorish host
floats over the Andalucian city of romance.

There is no need of an almshouse in Alcala.

ALCALA DE LA GUADAIRA. 1 39

One side of the hill above the town is honey-
combed with caves which are used by the poor
as dwellings free of rent and taxes. These
caves run in tiers with paths between, and be-
fore each is a garden, in which grow the
prickly pear, fig, vines, maize, and vegetables.
The combination of rock and foliage gives the
whole hillside that singular appearance of pe-
trous fertility seen only in southern lands and
particularly in the presence of cactus growth.
The people seemed quite as comfortably situ-
ated as many who lived in houses, and in gen-
eral appearance this almshouse hill of Alcala
was far more attractive than the Gypsy quar-
ter of Granada. Doubtless these caves have
the same advantage over ordinary houses as
those of Granada, of being warmer in winter
and cooler in summer.

At the fonda the chambermaid brought us
some beautiful carnation pinks, and the mozo
placed roses on our plates at dinner, which
was served in a comedor opening on a marble-
floored patio with singing fountain. The din-
ner was unusually good and included well
made soup, delicate fish, birds, candied bata-
tas or sweet potatoes, bischoches, and oranges ;

140 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

and yet a recent writer says, ** Had it not been
for oranges we should have starved in Spain."

But best of all was the sauce of good-will
that garnished all that was set before us. We
found the Andalucians of all classes more
courteous and hospitable than those of the
eastern coast or of the north, and while in
every part we received much kindness, the
Andalucians appeared to possess to a special
degree a spirit of cordiality and friendliness.

On a cool day the last of May we entered
Seville, and as we were unacquainted with the
intricate streets, the escort of two policemen,
who kindly offered to take us to our hotel, was
accepted. From the moment one enters Se-
ville a different impression is made on the
mind from that made by any other Spanish
city. The narrow streets are covered with
awnings, the squares and market-places are
alive with bustling and characteristic Andalu-
cian groups, the ear is assailed by a combina-
tion of uncanny sounds emanating from an
orchestra of hand-organs, strolling minstrels,
water-carriers, and braying donkeys, the eye
is seized by sudden glimpses of old arches,
exquisite doorways, towers and roofs adorned

SEVILLE. 141

with coloured tiles, lovely patios with cool
fountains and green plants suggestive of Se-
villian beauties and summer night tertulias.

One does not soon forget the June evenings
when passing the golden tower of the Almo-
hades and following the bank of the Guadal-
quivir one continues on through the Alameda
to the Botanical Garden and the promenade
Las Delicias, a beautiful garden of roses, in-
terlaced with palms and medlars. The Span-
ish, better perhaps than others, understand the
art of arranging parks and promenades so as
to produce a pleasing harmony of trees, shrubs,
and flowers. Not possessed of the English
fondness for country rambling^ they do not
care how dusty the roads or calcined the hills
outside their cities may be, so long as they
have their leafy fountained gardens and loafing
places. And the names of these cool retreats
in a language as beautiful as Spanish are
songs in themselves, alamedaSy.glorzeias, and
delicias.

As to the impression one takes away of the
Alcazar, this quite depends on whether it is
seen before or after the Alhambra. If before,
one leaves dazzled and overpowered by its

142 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

kaleidoscopic magnificence, and arrived at
Granada feels inclined to criticise the Alham-
bra unfavourably. When visiting the Alcazar
we recalled with some amusement the disap-
pointment of a German in the Alhambra which
he declared wanting in colour. And he was
right. In this respect the Alhambra is but a
shadow of the Alcazar. But in the matter of
taste compare the degenerate shell designs and
often inverted inscriptions on the walls of the
Alcazar with the classic patterns and kufic in-
scriptions of the Alhambra, the modernised
ajimez windows with those of the towers of
the Cautiva and Comares, the arches inclining
to the pointed with the pure sweep of those of
the Granada palace.

In the coarse glass windows and the mosaics,
gorgeous but not always proportionately cut,
and in the unrefined wooden additions the in-
artistic hand of the modern restorer is traced.
Even from the time when the restorations be-
gan to be made, about 1350, their general de-
sign has been more Byzantine and less classic
than that of the Alhambra, and when one
considers the alterations and embellishments
made during six centuries by Don Pedro, Don

SEVILLE. 143

John II., the Catolicos, Charles V., and Philip
III. to suit their individual caprices, it is sur-
prising that this monument of the Decadence
has any trace of the Moorish remaining.

What a blessing to posterity that this list of
monarchs preferred the attractions of the gay
Andalucian capital, and never remained long
enough under the shadow of the snowy Sierras
to incorporate their semi-Moorish, semi-Span-
ish fancies into the nightingale palace of Gra-
nada. It is fortunate for Seville that Don Pedro
the Castilian had enough Moorish blood in his
veins to induce him to employ Moors in the
work on the exquisite Arab entrance fa9ade of
the Alcazar, which, in spite of the staging put
up for present repair, is in its pure Moorish
lines ever a delight to the eye, an oasis amid
the surrounding degeneracy. As a treasure-
house filled with mosaics, marbles, coloured
glass and azulejos one looks with admiration
but not with unmixed pleasure on the Alcazar,
for the purity and unity of the Alhambra and
the temples at Paestum and Segesta, which
satisfy fully the artistic sense, are here wanting.

We have spoken of the Giralda as seen from
a distance, but now viewed from the Cathedral

144 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

square it loses none of its attraction. Despite
the hideous weather-vane from which the tower
takes its name and the last hundred feet of
modernisations condemned by architects, the
lower part is so harmonious, with its sunken
patterns of roses and stories of delicate ajimez
surmounted by the graceful bell gallery, that
one is disposed to overlook the faults of the
highest part, which are rendered less apparent
by their distance from the eye of the observer
three hundred and fifty feet below.

Besides the Giralda perhaps the most satis-
factory sight of Seville is the Museo, where
the masterpiece of Murillo and a number of
other fine works from his brush maybe studied
undisturbed by the presence of Velasquez and
a long line of Italian rivals. An annoying
feature of the gallery is the attention given to
the visitor by the attendants, who in expecta-
tion of ^ propina follow him around boring him
with worthless information. It would be better
to charge a small admission fee, as in Madrid.

A/ter seeing Murillo in Spain one is not
surprised that Spaniards so revere the name of
the genial master, whose brush whether in its
calido or vaporoso style produced such poetic

SEVILLE. 145

results. The beggars and melon-eaters seen
in other European galleries with all their
grand realism affect one quite differently from
the more ethereal creations in Spain. His
large Conception is one of his grandest works.
The face with eyes not turned heavenward is
stronger than the usual one of his other Con-
ceptions. The Virgin and her draperies do
not seem to float in but rather to sweep
through the air with infinite grace, suggesting
in power and perfection of finish the red
wonder of Titian at Venice.

Seville has so many objects of interest that
a month would not be unprofitably spent in
studying them. The cathedral, the Caridad
with its grand paintings under the guardian-
ship of a modest little sister of charity, the
Casa de Pilatos with its rich paizo, halls and
walls adorned with magnificent azulejos, the
various churches with fine retablos, archways,
or towers, together with the suburban attrac-
tions, combine to make this city a fascinating
museum of art and history.

It is not our intention to describe the tau-
romachic revels of Spain, which have been
dealt with so graphically by Gautier and other

146 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

writers. A recent Italian writer says Spanish
civilisation is certain before long to put an
end to them. After witnessing corridas at
various places including Seville and Madrid,
we should judge from the attendance and the
intense enthusiasm of the audiences that this
cruel sport still has a very strong hold upon
the public. One corrida at Seville reached its
acme of excitement when by demand of the
people bafiderillas loaded with detonating fire-
works were thrust into the last bull. These
discharged their fiery streams upon the shoul-
ders of the poor beast, which, tortured by the
explosions, tore about the arena in a frenzy of
pain and terror, much to the delight of the
audience.

At a corrida given at Madrid under the
patronage of the Queen Regent for the fami-
lies of those who went down with the war ves-
sel Reina Regenie, ten bulls and over twenty
horses were sacrificed. Tickets were sold by
speculators at high prices and from noon on
nothing but the corrida was of any account in
Madrid. For three hours before the perform-
ance the broad streets and avenues leading to
the Plaza de Toros were thronged with people,

SEVILLE. 147

and those who were not bound for the corrida
were out to see those who were.

An hour before the beginning carriages be-
gan to roll out to the ring. The brilliantly
dressed ladies, when they wore mantillas at
all, wore white ones, but French hats predom-
inated. It was like a gala race day in England
or America, the only difference being in the
appearance among the crowd of the gorgeously
dressed espadores driving, and the picturesque
picador es on horseback. In this corrida the
noted espadores Mazantini and Reverte took
part, four bulls falling to the share of each.

Reverte, who is of slender build, transfixed
his second bull most dexterously at the first
thrust, driving the espada into its body be-
tween the shoulders up to the hilt. In doing
this he lost his balance and was unable to
escape the bull, which charged upon him strik-
ing him with its horn in the back and throw-
ing him down, and then fell dead a few feet
distant. Reverte though evidently injured
insisted on walking out of the ring unassisted,
when he became unconscious and remained so
for ten hours. His injuries did not prove
serious and in a month he had recovered.

148 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

Mazantini, whom we also saw at Seville, is
a tall, powerful man, not of rising but of estab-
lished reputation, and a very king of the ring
he feels and shows himself to be. On this
occasion when only after the third attempt he
succeeded in killing one of his bulls, and hisses
as well as applause sounded in the air, he
gracefully touched his hat to the royal box and
shrugged his shoulders and tossed his head to
the audience as much as to say. Oh it might
happen even to Mazantini.

A little later he was struck from behind on
the shoulder by an animal, the charge of
' w^hich one of the banderillei^os had failed to
turn aside. He walked up to the latter, gave
him a blow and addressed him in forcible lan-
guage, to which no reply was made. One of
the most interesting features of a corftda in
which he takes part, is to witness his perfect
mastery of all the details of his art, and the
matchless skill with which he plays with the
fiercest animals, over which he seems to exert
a serpent-like charm.

CHAPTER XII.

ROMAN MERIDA— NECROPOLIS OF CARMONA— DE-
LAYS AND SPANISH DELIBERATION— DORMANT
CITY OF THE CALIPHS AND ITS MOSQUE OF
MANY COLUMNS.

A GOOD road runs from Seville some two
hundred kilometres through a sparsely
inhabited, not particularly attractive country
to Merida, interesting on account of its Roman
remains, of which it has a greater number
than any other place in Spain. The Roman
remains of Spain, so far as we saw them, with
the exception of some of the bridges and aque-
ducts, are not as well preserved as those of
France, Italy, and Algeria. Many are in such
a ruinous condition that from them no very
accurate idea can be formed of the completed
structure, and are scarcely worth going out of
one's way to see.

Merida first came into notice as a Roman
city about 23 B.C., when Augustus settled
some of his veteran soldiers there. Like

149

150 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

some Other provincial cities it grew rapidly
in population and wealth, and soon became
an important place and the capital of the prov-
ince, possessing a forum, circus maximus, am-
phitheatre, palaces, and several aqueducts.
It fell into the hands of the Goths in the
fifth century, and into those of the Moors in
715, neither of whom injured it, and it re-
tained its prosperity and Roman appearance
till captured by Alonzo el Sabio in 1229. Its
decline began with the Christian dominion.
What the Goths and Moors appreciated and
spared, at the hands of the Christians was
plundered, destroyed, and allowed to go to
decay, and the once populous and flourishing
city has dwindled to a dull country village of
six thousand souls, and of its proud Roman
monuments only ruined fragments remain.
Here, as elsewhere in Spain, the French, dur-
ing the Napoleonic wars, were responsible for
not a small part of the demolition.

The best-preserved Roman relic, and the
only one in any sense complete, is the stone
bridge two thousand five hundred and seventy-
five feet long, which crosses the Guadiana.
This was built under Trajan. It has been sev-

ROMAN MERIDA. I5I

eral times repaired at different points, but in
the main is essentially Roman. It stands low,
being only thirty-three feet above the river,
and its great length gives it the appearance
of being narrower than it really is. Its upper
lines are wavy, some parts being higher than
others, suggesting that the foundations may
have settled, but the buttresses appear as
solid as if recently made, and one can scarcely
realize that it has been in constant use for
nineteen hundred years.

Next comes the arch of Santiago, also built
by Trajan, which, with a single circular arch
forty-four feet high, spans the street and joins
the buildings on either side. Like most other
Roman remains, it has been stripped of its
covering. Whether it had other parts or
formed a portion of some larger structure
does not now appear. It is peculiar in that
it is constructed of a single tier of huge gran-
ite blocks fitted closely together, entirely de-
void of ornamental projections, and in its
massive simplicity forms an impressive ob-
ject.

Rising up in a meadow from a bed of grass
and shrubbery, the foundations bathed by a

152 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

Stream which flows between the piers, are the
ruins of an aqueduct, of which now only a
few arches are left. At this point, besides
the top arches, two lower tiers were thrown
across between the buttresses, but the lower
arches are now broken away. The ruin has
been taken possession of by a colony of
storks, whose nests crown every available spot
along its top and form a bushy capital to
every isolated pier. The clatter of their bills
as they stand solemnly on one leg or come
flying back with frogs from the swamp below
for the young, whose mouths are eagerly
opened to receive the dainty morsels, are the
only sounds which enliven this skeleton of
the past. The graceful outlines, the contrast-
ing colours of the brick and granite used in
its construction, and the verdant setting make
this remnant of Roman skill even more pic-
turesque than the five-arched one near Con-
stantine.

Of the theatre '* Las Siete Sillas " enough
remains to well show the arrangement of the
auditorium, though the proscenium has mostly
disappeared. The semicircular mass is com-
posed of seven divisions, which run upward

ROMAN MERIDA. 1 53

and backward nearly, if not quite, to the orig-
inal height, and the entrances to these are
almost perfectly preserved. The lower en-
trances slant upward to the surface of the hill,
on the side of which the theatre stands.

A depression in a grain field strewn with
broken masses of masonry represents the am-
phitheatre, and the area of the circus maximus
has been so often turned over by the plough
that its boundaries are not everywhere immedi-
ately apparent though with care they can be
traced. Its present condition certainly does
not very vividly suggest the festivities that
took place within its limits, nor such seats as
can be seen the vast multitudes that applauded
the victors of the races and gladiatorial con-
tests. Aside from the massive walls of the
Roman-Moorish castle, later the convent El
Conventual, which as seen from the bridge are
imposing, the other traces of Roman Merida
scattered about the town and suburbs are
scarcely worth mention.

Carmona occupies a commanding situation
on a hill, and with its Moorish castle crowning
the summit, its two fine gates, the tower of
San Pedro modelled with provincial boldness

154 SKETCIIKS AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

after the Giralda, and the Roman Necropolis
situated on a hill twenty minutes' walk from
the city, is a place in which a day can be prof-
itably spent.

Every lover of nature must enjoy the view
from the castle over the wide plain which
stretches away to the Sierra de Ronda.

The necropolis is an underground city of
no small size excavated in the soft rock and
containing chambers not only for the deposit
of the ashes of the dead, but also for the ac-
commodation of the living in the performance
of the last rites to the departed. The ban-
queting tables with triclinia, the places for
statues and for incinerating the dead are well
preserved. The ashes were enclosed in rec-
tangular stone boxes about eighteen inches
long. Here and there evidences of mural
decoration can be seen, but in general the
damp walls are covered with green mould or
low vegetable growths. The museum above
contains the iris glass lachrymal vessels, urns,
and other objects usually found in Latin tombs.
While this necropolis is most interesting and
in many ways complete, none of its chambers
can compare in finish and decoration with the

NECROPOLIS OF CARMONA. 1 55

subterranean tombs at Corneto, which are said
to be three to four thousand years old, nor
with the remarkably pr^erved rock tombs
which form so important a part of the ancient
remains at Sakkara, Thebes, and other places
in the Nile valley. Taken in connection with
these as well as with the rock tombs of Greece,
Syria, and Palestine, the necropolis of Car-
mona shows how extensively the custom of
rock burial pervaded the ancient world.

The road from Carmona to Cordova is very
hilly, ascending grades largely predominating
till it comes out high over Cordova at a point
fifteen kilometres from the city. It was sandy
and soft and in many places rendered still
harder to ride on by broken stone which had
been spread upon it. We left Carmona at five
o^clock in the morning. As we entered Ecija
at noon, one of the rear tyres was punctured.
No other refuge being at hand, we drew up
at the side of a house on the street and pro-
ceeded with repairs, surrounded by the usual
garrulous crowd, which quickly gathered and
jostled one another in their eagerness to see
what was going on. They did not disturb us
except by the dust they stirred up, and in a

156 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

few moments the tyre was made tight and in-
flated and we started on.

One of the cycles, which was fitted with the
Boudard gear, had already caused much trouble
by the interference of the narrow Carter case
with the parts it covered. After leaving Ecija
this machine began to give utterance to a
chorus of grating and squeaking sounds, which
would not be quieted by any amount of oiling
and pushing on the case. Added to this it
began to run hard. After several delays for
oiling we finally stopped under a tree, took off
both cases without finding any trouble with
the chain or cogs, cleaned everything and re-
placed the cases, which operation consumed
an hour and a half. Still the machine did not
run well.

We had often when pressed for time on stop-
ping for water or information been annoyed
by the curiosity of the people, which led them,
never appreciating the value of time them-
selves, to ask us all sorts of questions before
giving the desired aid or answer.

On no occasion was the exhibition of such
curiosity more vexing than on this day of de-
lays. At six o'clock in the evening after thir-

DELAYS AND SPANISH DELIBERATION. 1 57

teen hours of hard work, in passing through a
town we saw on the side of the street a Httle
shop, where *' Varias Bebidas " or drinks were
advertised. We were still twenty-eight kilo-
metres from Cordova with some long sharp
hills to climb, but we thought we would spare
a few minutes to assauge the thirst from which
we were sufifering.

We stepped in and asked for sarza, sidra,
and other beverages, which, notwithstanding
the comprehensive list outside the door, were
not to be had, and we were obliged to content
ourselves with the only one, except the never-
failing aguadiente, represented at this bar —
viz.ygaseosuy an effervescing concoction of limes.
After considerable fumbling under the counter,
during which his attention was chiefly occupied
in satisfying his curiosity in regard to us, the
proprietor produced two bottles stopped with
glass balls, which he proceeded leisurely to
wash in a tub of water, rubbing them vigorously
in every part and resting between the rubs to
ply us with questions.

After washing them till it seemed as if he
would never stop, he dried them carefully and
handed them to us. We asked him where the

158 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

wooden opener was. He replied he had none,
so in the absence of any more convenient im-
plement we hammered away with a small
pocket shoe-buttoner and at last succeeded in
dislodging one of the glass balls, but the other
resisted all efforts. He then brought forth
two more bottles, which he washed in the same
thorough manner with ever unsatisfied curi-
osity, after which we tried our hand upon them
with the shoe-buttoner with the result of open-
ing one more bottle.

We now told him our time was limited and
suggested that he give us some glasses, Ac-
cordingly, still asking questions, he took down'
two glasses with great deliberation from a shelf
and subjected them to the same cleansing
process. After the loss of some ten minutes
we obtained the gaseosa minus the gas. In
the face of this experience who will venture to
affirm that the Spanish are not a cleanly as
well as a deliberate people? In what other
land would the outside of a soda-water bottle
be so carefully washed ?

The hours passed, and at 8 : 30 p.m.
we entered Cordova on foot, the rear wheels
of both machines having been pierced a short

MOSQUE OF MANY COLUMNS. 1 59

distance outside the city. It had taken fifteen
and a half hours to make a hundred and six
kilometres.

In retrospect we are grateful to that day
of misfortunes for bringing us into Cordova
when a full moon hung over the city, colouring
with silver its jumble of buildings surmounted
by the mosque, and transfornimg into ideal
beauty the grand round-arched bridge span-
ning the serene sheet of the Guadalquivir.
We leaned over the bridge's stone parapet
fringed with ashen grasses and satisfied our
aesthetic sense, which in Spain was ever kept ac-
tive, by a long look at the moon-enchanted river.

Only a few Cordovan night dreamers idled
about as through the magnificent Ionic arch
which flanks the bridge we went into the cobble-
paved city. With its tortuous streets and
general dulness felt even in |:he daytime Cor-
dova is more than any other in Andalucia a
souvenir city of the Moors. The pulsing of
modern life and enterprise fills the air of Seville,
but one feels as if quiet Cordova were taking a
nap after the departure of the caliphs before
awakening to the presence of the ebullient
Spaniard

l6o SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

The guide-books tell what the mosque of
Abd-el-Rhaman is and is not to-day, and they
hint at what it was in other days. Perhaps
that is all that can be expected, but the mind
tries to picture it as it was when sixteen doors no
longer existing opened on \}[i^ patio, revealing
endless lines of pillars within and correspond-
ing rows of orange trees without. The many
vistas of arches and marble columns have with
reason been compared to a forest of palms, and
with the thousand bronze and silver lamps of
other days burning amid its arches, it may be
imagined as having resembled an illumined
pillared oasis.

The memory of the caliph who planned this
wonderful mesquita and who daily assisted the
workmen at their task is more to be cherished
than that of the Christians who, when they took
Cordova in 1146, used the columns of the
mosque as hitching-posts for their horses.
When one's walkamong the columned aisles is
interrupted by the corOy here more odious if
possible than in any other church of Spain, the
fact that Charles V. regretted the sacrifice of
hundreds of columns to the erection of this
Christian altar in no way assuages one's grief

MOSQUE OF MANY COLUMNS. l6l

at this act of vandalism, for regret could never
reproduce the idea of infinitude which had been
destroyed. But such as it is with its columns,
mihraby and mosaic archways, we must accept
it, thankful to Abd-el-Rhaman for planning
and to his successors for carrying out this
prayer without words of the Moors.

CHAPTER XIII.

CORPUS CIIRISTI IN HISTORIC TOLEDO— SARACENIC,
JEWISH, AND CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS.

THE bicyclette with the Boudard gear ran
SO hard that it could no longer be de-
pended on, and as no help could be obtained
in Cordova, we took the train to Madrid where
it was delivered to the agent of the maker to
be thoroughly examined. He reported that
after taking all the bearings apart nothing
out of the way could be found. Nevertheless
its running was not improved, so taking the
bull by the horns it was exchanged forthwith
for a new machine of the standard type, and
on the third day we started for Toledo.

Well powdered with dust from the yellow,
lifeless Castilian plains which stretch between
Madrid and Toledo we arrived at the latter
place, which, were it not for its picturesque-
ness, might be called the culminating point
of dreariness of dreary New Castile. At the

162

164 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

this most interesting old place at their leisure
without the sacrifice of bodily comfort.

The day after our arrival, June 13th, was
Corpus Christi, a church festival of more im-
portance if possible with the Toledans than
Easter. On the afternoon of the 12th, the
people in the very expectant mood which
precedes church and other f^tes in Spain,
assembled in the plaza before the cathedral
to see the dance of the Gigantes, which took
place behind the iron railing at the entrance.
These are figures some fifteen to twenty feet
high dressed in long gayly coloured print
gowns, with large inexpressive painted faces,
which are manipulated in their performances
by men inside them. After a stately dance
they take a promenade through the streets
followed by the youth of the town in a state
of great excitement.

The Gigantes, which are a favourite Spanish
institution, are said to represent Moorish and
Gothic kings, and among them are usually
one or more negro faces, but they bear the
names of male and female saints, are kept
in the cathedral, and play an important r6le
in church f^tes. San Antonio was the par-
ticular favourite at Toledo and performed his

CORPUS CHRISTI IN TOLEDO. 1 65

minuet with a saintly giantess to the delight
of groups of children and idlers before and
at the f6te of Corpus. At the provincial fStes
of Pamplona and other towns, the Gigantes
are promenaded on the first day.

The evening of this day was celebrated by
the illumination of the cathedral tower, which
was a sight of no little interest. Early in the
morning of Corpus Christi sand was thickly
strewn over the cobble pavement of the streets
through which the church procession was to
pass. The high houses were profusely dec-
orated with evergreen, and from their balconies
and grated windows hung large heavy silk
draperies, bright red and yellow being the
predominating colours. Above some of the
streets, on a level with the house-tops, the
patched awnings were so tightly stretched that
barely a chink remained at the edges for the
rays of the June sun to penetrate.

Toledo had become a city of fancy in its
gaudy gala dress, and as we walked on the
sanded cobbles and looked at the ribboned
houses, we felt like shadows of the past. This
feeling was intensified when on coming out on
the sunny square we found the exterior of the
loadstar of Spanish sentiment and aestheti-

CORPUS CHRISTI IN TOLEDO. 167

music feast as the German goes to the con-
cert-hall for his.

After mass the whole population turned out,
lining the streets and filling the windows and
balconies to await the procession. All shops
were closed and business was suspended.
Mounted policemen rode about keeping the
multitude back to make room for the proces-
sion, but treating every one with a gentleness
and politeness seldom shown by the police of
most countries on such occasion. The same
thing was noticeable in Madrid and other
places, as well as the courtesy of all classes
of the people towards one another, which is the
more surprising when one considers the bloody
spectacles of the arena, in which they delight.

In the procession the military made a fair
showing, and the clergy in magnificent white
and gold vestments, carrying the custodia and
rich silken banners, a great one. In the after-
noon all Toledo and its concourse of visitors
repaired to the bull-ring outside the city for
the corrida. The evening was celebrated by
theatrical performance and fireworks, which
mark the conclusion of a church f6te.

To judge of the real picturesqueness of the

l68 SKETCIIICS AWIIEKL IN MODERN IBERIA.

city, the walk on the south side of the Tagus
must be taken. This involves a long ramble
over sandy hill-tops, and through baked and
riven ravines, which seem to have no outlet,
and in their grimness suggest the dark deeds
of bygone days which history associates with
this bank of the river, when Moor, Jew, and
Christian occupied at one time the tawny rock-
girt city. All along the road the eye is greeted
by striking views of Toledo guarded by its
Moorish sentinel towers.

The picturesque is found as much within as
without Toledo. Its many brick towers par-
ticularly exemplify the effective manner in
which brick has been used in Spain as a
building material, and those who dislike mod-
ern brickwork can here learn to admire it as
employed by the architects of earlier times.
Whether the effect be due to the rough man-
ner in which the bricks are put together or
to the influence of the bright clear atmosphere
of Spain, it is certain that these structures pos-
sess a rich shading and tone, which is wanting
in modern brickwork.

After four centuries of rule the Moors left
a larger number of monuments of their skill

CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS. 1 69

in Toledo than in many of the Andalucian
cities, where the general style of building is
more Arab. The gates are particularly inter-
esting, built either by the Moors or by Moor-
ish workmen employed by the Christians, the
finest specimen being the Puerta del Sol,
which with its embattled turrets and double
rows of interlaced arches confronts one mag-
nificently when ascending the hill to the city.

Nowhere in Spain can the artist find motives
more completely carried out than in the double
line of walls, half Visigothic half Moorish, con-
necting the bridge of Alcantara at one end
with that of San Martin at the other. Of this
last bridge, built in the thirteenth century, one
of the five arches of which is a hundred and
forty feet wide and ninety-five high, an inter-
esting story is told by Street. When it was
being rebuilt by the Archbishop Tenorio, the
architect perceiving that when the centres sup-
porting the arches should be removed the
arches would fall, in his chagrin made a con-
fidante of his wife. To save him from disgrace
she set fire to the centring, and when the
bridge fell its destruction was attributed to
the fire. After it was rebuilt she confessed

170 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

her fault. The Archbishop instead of making
the architect defray the cost of the second
rebuilding complimented him on the possession
of such a clever wife.

Moorish houses with now and then an arte-
sinado ceiling are still numerous in Toledo,
but owing to the frail manner of their con-
struction and the small care received from the
owners they are fast disappearing. After the
cathedral the Jewish synagogues built much
in the style of mosques claim attention, al-
though their octagonal columns and horseshoe
arches are so completely plastered with white-
wash that even the harmonious eflTect of out-
line is diminished.

Out of the mass of architectural gems that
are whitewashed in Spain one desires most to
rescue quaint and richly carved capitals. Col-
umns and arches in this white garb are often
presentable, but it is fruitless to attempt to
decipher delicate carvings after the brush of
the dauber has been at work. Cristo de Luz,
where Alonzo VI. hung up his shield on enter-
ing the city, is the one completely Moorish
church remaining, and its tiny interior in nine
compartments is very effective.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FONDA OF TARANCON— AN AUTOCRAT OF THE

DINNER TABLE.

THE road from Toledo to Aranjuez was
merely a track in the soft sand, entirely
unfit for any wheeled vehicle. As it ran near
the railway we decided to put into execution
if possible a plan we had once or twice previ-
ously thought of, viz., riding on the side of the
roadbed of the latter. Such an idea would
not have been entertained for a moment in
any Continental country except Spain, but
here where individual freedom, or perhaps one
might say licence, more nearly approaches that
in the United States, it seemed worth while to
make the attempt.

Accordingly at the first station we asked the
officials if such riding was permitted. They
replied it was contrary to the regulations, but
that it had been done. Far from peremptorily
forbidding us as German officials would have

171

172 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

done, by the indifference with which they
treated the matter, they rather encouraged us
to go. Knowing the liberal construction
which Spaniards of every class put upon laws,
we started, the officials walking down to the
track to see us off. This path proved much
better than the road, although we were obliged
to dismount many times on account of culverts
and sleepers lying on it. Twice we were re-
minded by flagmen that we were transgressing
the rules, but we kept on and arrived at Aran-
juez without accident.

Since poets like Calderon and Schiller have
sung of Aranjuez and what it was, we will pass
it by and not attempt to say what it is not.

With decided misgivings we alighted be-
fore the primitive /onda of Tarancon, the only
town of even slight importance between Aran-
juez and Cuenca. We asked for the patron^
who with his wife came into the court to
meet us. They expressed their regret at not
being able to accommodate us as the house
was full, and then proceeded to ask where we
were from, how far we had come, where we
were going, and above all how many kilometres
we could make an hour. As nothing is gained

THE FONDA OF TARANCON. I 73

by abruptness in Spain, we satisfied their curi-
osity and then appealed to the man.

'* Can you not get us a room somewhere in
the town ? "

** Yes," he replied vaguely, his eyes riveted
on the cyclometer of the woman's machine, ** I
think so." Then with a look of delight at the
bright thought that occurred to him, **That
measures the distance does it not ? '*

We nodded and asked again, *' Will you get
us a room ? "

** Oh yes, I will see about it soon. How
many kilometres did you say an hour ?"

*' Fifteen to eighteen as the road is," we
answered, inwardly enraged, ** but your honour
will get us a room soon, we are tired."

** Yes, yes." And then he added, his esti-
mate of our powers being evidently influenced
by the enormous stories circulated among the
people since the introduction of the bicycle,
** Eighteen kilometres is nothing; we have a
man in Tarancon who rides fifty an hour."

We came near telling him the man was a
liar, but refrained, only remarking, he must be
exceptionally strong and carry no luggage.
Unlucky word luggage, that struck him, and

174 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

he was aflame to know how many pounds
**equipaje** we each carried. We promptly
told him and looking at the time found we had
been twenty minutes before the door of the
fonda.

His wife who had disappeared now returned
with her list of questions. '* Is the Senora
tired ? "

" Yes, dead tired," hoping to expedite mat-
ters in regard to the room.

** Does the Senora always wear thin blouses
on the road ? "

** Yes, when it is warm.*'

We were preparing to leave in despair, when
a tall, slender man with a beard, wearing a
threadbare, shiny black frock coat, joined the
group. He spoke to us in French, asking if
he could be of service to us. We replied, we
feared not, as the patron knew very well what
we wanted, but either could not or would not
accommodate us. He discussed the matter
with the woman aside and then asked —

** For how long do Monsieur and Madame
wish a room ? "

** Only one night," we replied, reassuringly.

At that moment another man between fifty

THE FONDA OF TARANCON. 1 75

and sixty years of age, with stout figure and
florid face, better dressed than the first, came
up and shook hands with us saying, ** Cer-
tainly Monsieur and Madame may spend the
night if they will content themselves with a
room occupied by a guest, who is absent for
two days in Madrid, and will not disturb his
effects."

We asked to see the room, whereupon he
assuming the role of host led us up stairs fol-
lowed by the slender man, the patron and his
wife, none of whom had anything to say in the
presence of the jovial grey-headed French-
man, for such he was, who was clearly com-
mander in \\v'dXfonda.

The rooms of th^fonda available for guests
were three in number, one good-sized room
and a small one in front, and a small inner
room without windows opening out of the
first. As we entered the large room a glance
revealed the calling of the occupant. The
walls and tables were adorned with a motley
collection of objects employed in one of the
learned professions, including rubber tubing of
various kinds, ear trumpets, syringes, tunnels,
atomizers, test-tubes, glass retort, stethoscope,

176 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

electric battery, surgical knives and forceps,
plasters and gallipots.

On entering the dark inner room which was
destined for our use, our olfactories were as-
sailed by an overpowering combination of
nauseating odours, among which could be dis-
tinguished the fumes of ipecacuanha, valerian,
and iodoform. As soon as our eyes became
accustomed to the dim light, we saw the furni-
ture consisted of two iron beds, one rush-bot-
tomed chair, a small wash-stand and two low
tables completely covered with bottles of medi-
cine packed closely together, which last con-
stituted the only visible effects of the absent
guest whose quarters we were to occupy, and
some of which contained the odoriferous sub-
stances mentioned. On the dusty cement floor
no sign of a rug was to be seen.

The prospect of spending the night in that
room was not alluring, but as there seemed to
be no other alternative we accepted the situa-
tion, deposited our traps upon two medicine
boxes in the corner — the bottles remained on
the tables undisturbed — and proceeded to or-
der in what it was possible to procure for our
comfort.

THE FONDA OF TARANCON. I77

The patron when asked about dinner re-
plied, *'You will dine with the amigos about
nine o'clock." As we had to leave at half-past
five in the morning, we suggested that he pre-
vail upon the amigos to dine somewhat earlier.
He said he would try. When we were dressed
we went into the sitting-room, where the
Frenchman sat reading a Madrid paper, and
the man in the threadbare coat was poring
over an antiquated, ponderous vellum-covered
medical folio. The latter, who was evidently
an assistant or student, obsequiously placed
chairs for us on motion of the former who
begged us to make ourselves quite at home,
at the same time presenting the lady of the
party with a bouquet of arbol de Paraiso, the
fragrant blossom of which he said was thought
much of in that part of Spain, all good Castil-
ians expecting to be presented with a branch
on entering Paradise.

The Paradise tree is a kind of acacia of
graceful form with silvery leaves and small
pale yellow flowers, the odour of which resem-
bles that of the Balm of Gilead tree, and is
very penetrating, perfuming the air for a great
distance. To us it was very unpleasant, espe-

178 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

cially when combined with the smells emanat-
ing from every corner of the room, and we
were in no way inclined to envy the Spaniard
his entry into Paradise.

At half-past seven a young girl came in and
prepared the table for dinner. To our surprise
the meal was excellent, far better than could
be expected in such a primitive place, though
the china was coarse, the forks steel and two-
tined, and there was a want of similarity in the
drinking glasses. When we complimented the
ragoftt with pease and the deliciously cooked
l)artridge, M, le doctcur remarked graciously,
**C'est moi, madame, c*est moi qui dirige la
cuisine ici. A month ago, before I came, they
could not cook in this house. Had you
stopped here before that you could have eaten
nothing. They cook, but I tell them how to
prepare the cttisine fraufaise, and when they do
not suit us I show them by taking hold myself."

Upon this he tossed off with one quaflf a
goblet of red wine, with which the assistant
kept him supplied from a large pitcher. As
the dinner advanced he became very genial
and displayed a capacity for both eating and
drinking. With a flourish of French polite-

AN AUTOCRAT OF THE DINNER TABLE. I 79

ness he urged us to help ourselves a second
time, after which he proceeded to eat every
remaining scrap himself. Unlike some medi-
cal men higher in the social scale, he did not
talk shop, but showed a knowledge of and ex-
pressed decided opinions upon Spanish ques-
tions social and political.

He did not deny the advance of republican
principles and commented freely on the power
of the Jesuits in Madrid, which he affirmed
was great.

** How about the position of woman?" we
inquired. *' Priest ridden," was his emphatic
answer as he emptied another goblet. '* My
friend here," pointing to the meek man oppo-
site, whom although called amigo he treated
like a menial, ** my friend here has been trying
for fifteen years to elevate women in Spain,
and show them they are under the power of
the clergy. He writes constantly upon this
theme but without result. Is it not so, amigo,
without result ? " he inquired, smiling blandly
on the timid assistant, who again filling the
glass of his master, bowed assent but said
nothing.

** You see, Madame," he said, for like a gal-

l8o SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

lant Frenchman he addressed his remarks
chiefly to the lady, **my amigo is a Spaniard
but I am not, though I have lived in this
country twelve years, and have learned to put
up with Spanish peculiarities. I am a French-
man and a doctor and I understand women.
I tell you the priests rule the women and
through them the family, and therefore they
have the upper hand in Spain."

Having delivered himself of these pithy re-
marks he changed the subject and asked how
we liked the Spaniards. When we replied,
"In general very much," he assented, and
looking at his assistant said, ** A fair sort of
people, not clever like the French but good-
natured and worthy, is it not so, amigo f "
Looking a trifle more crestfallen, if possible,
than before, amigo replied that it was.

'* But," he added, raising his glass to drink
to the success of our further journey, ** the
Valencians and the Murcians are a bad lot."
This having been in a measure our experi-
ence, we were amused at hearing him expa-
tiate upon their failings, which he depicted
graphically, evidently having knocked about
among the people enough in the capacity of

AN AUTOCRAT OF THE DINNER TABLE. l8l

travelling quack to make his opinion of them
of some value.

After dinner he invited us to go to a cafe,
where he said a cup of coffee could be had
fit for a Frenchman, but we declined. Before
going himself he graciously asked at what
hour we were to leave, saying he would give
the order for our morning chocolate, in which
case it would certainly be ready at the desired
time. We said we should be leaving at half-
past five, and could go without breakfast if
necessary, as we had often done in Spain. #

" No need of that at all ; they may as well
prepare your chocolate as to be wasting their
time in sleeping," he said as he instructed
\}ci^ patron, who had answered his call. Thanks
to our medical protector, chocolate was ready
for us in the morning, but an almost sleepless
night among the odoriferous medicaments
without ventilation had so vitiated our appe-
tites that we were unable to avail ourselves of
that refreshment, and coveted only immediate
release into the fresh air.

Monsieur le Quack was on hand himself to
bid us a courteous adieu, and stepped out
upon the balcony to see us start.

CHAPTER XV.

CUEN'CA, A PICTURESQUE CITY OF NEW CASTILE—
IN THE MUSEUM OF THE PRADO.

THE ride to Cuenca afforded one of many
opportunities of studying the peculiari-
ties of the climate of North Spain in June.
It was so cold in the morning until nine
o'clock that outside garments and woollen
gloves furnished none too much protection.
The shepherds wore their sheepskin mantles,
and the few people met with on the road were
muffled in heavy capas. From nine until
twelve it was pleasantly warm, and from one
to five insufferably hot, the sun in the cloud-
less sky burning upon us so fiercely that on
the long ascents we were obliged to push up
we feared sunstroke. The down runs, how-
ever, cooled us off so that we were able to
keep on. After five o'clock the air cooled
rapidly.

We became accustomed to these extremes

182

CUENCA. 183

of temperature, and were able to ride all day
in the sun in white linen caps and light flannel
shirts without injury. It is desirable, if one
can do so, to follow the Spanish custom of
taking a siesta under a tree or in the shade
of some building during the hottest hours, but
this is difficult to do on a bicycle tour, where
distances are often great and time an object
so that lying-off hours cannot be spared.

Although little is left to denote it, Cuenca
is of Moorish origin. Ford relates the follow-
ing story of the capture of the city by Alonzo
VIII., .who was encamped around its walls
with a starving army. A Christian slave led
out his Moorish masters sheep as if to pas-
ture. Outside the gates he delivered them
to his starving countrymen, who having killed
and eaten the sheep dressed themselves in the
skins and were led back into Cuenca on all
fours by a side gate. Once inside they opened
the orates to their comrades. From this flock
of human sheep the hidalgo families are said
to have descended.

Later the city was noted for its arts and
manufactures, but the French, who treated it
no better than they treated other towns of

184 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

Spain, put an end to its prosperity. In 1875
the Carlists, on entering it, plundered the
bank, taking away a large sum of money,
burned the archives and generally damaged
the city, which has little to show in architec-
ture except its beautiful cathedral.

Cuenca is more picturesquely situated than
either Ronda or Toledo. It is built on a
rocky height, the base of which is girdled by
two graceful rivers one on each side, the
Huecar and the Jucar, meaning sweet waters,
that run their green course through the most
luxuriant of valleys filled with paths and groves
of handsome trees. On one side the city is
approached by terraced fruit gardens rising
like a grand staircase of verdure, above which
stand perpendicular rock columns ; on the other
it is guarded by abrupt wild rocks that fringe
it in a hundred weird forms, their nakedness
being modified like the points of Monserrat by
lichens, ivy, and other trailing vines.

Across the river valley and running back

into the mountains rises a line of bold cliffs,

which make the view from the city on this side

grander than that from Toledo. As compared

vith the latter place Cuenca combines more

CUENCA. 185

grandeur with more loveliness, and with its
rock precipices and fertile garden slope im-
pressed us as being the queen of the pictu-
resque cities of Spain.

The old part of the city, climbing the hill in
narrow winding streets to the cathedral, makes
a dull, toneless mediaeval picture. The cathe-
dral has a wonderful combination of Moorish
and Gothic in its arches, while much of the
other work and decorations are Renaissance.
But it is all harmonious and delightful to the
eye, and were it not for the polar cold reigning
within even in June, would detain one several
hours at a time. We found a number of ca-
thedrals cold in North Spain, but recall none
where the temperature seemed so many degrees
below freezing.

The walks about Cuenca are numerous and
picturesque in the extreme. One comes upon
old water-wheels and ruined bridges bowered
in vegetation that would be a mine to an
artist. We spent some time seeking the cele-
brated Puente de San Pablo, said to rival in
solidity and height the aqueduct of Merida.
We did not find it, but we found where it had
stood. It had fallen five weeks before our

1 86 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

visit to Cucnca. Fragments of the end arches
clung to the rocks on either side of the gorge
it spanned, and the bed of the Huecar was
choked by a mass of stone and debris. The
people saw it decay and did nothing to save
it, saw it fall and did not care. Thus perish
the monuments of Spain.

'Wi^fonda was one of the worst we had met
with. On the ground floor was a large cafi
handsomely upholstered in red plush, where
the men of the town spent their time playing
cards or dominoes. Aside from this the other
appointments were of the most meagre descrip-
tion, especially those of the guest rooms. As
for service, it did not exist. When we re-
turned from our excursions towards night we
hunted up the maid in the kitchen or the cellar
and insisted on her setting the rooms to rights.

Getting a foot bath was only equalled in
difficulty by the attempt to find out about an
excursion we wished to make to a place in the
mountains called the Ciudad Encantada or
Enchanted City, similar to El Torcal near
Antequera. When we asked \\\^ patron about
it he was unable to give us any definite infor-
mation. He said the excursion could be made

CUENCA. 187

but would require time, perhaps several days,
as mules could not be readily obtained in
Cuenca.

After three meals in the dining-room of
th^/onda we gave up all thought of visiting
the enchanted city. '* Every meal in itself an
achievement " might be said of the Cuenca
hotel, not precisely in Irving's sense but in re-
spect to one's endurance of cold. We usually
came in from our walks uncomfortably warm,
but before going down to dinner put on all the
extra blouses and underclothing our satchels
contained as well as leggings. Why the at-
mosphere was so deadly in that co^nedor we
never discovered. Possibly because it was on
the ground floor and the windows were never
opened. It was always kept locked until ten
minutes before meals when the mozo appeared
with a huge key such as Alonzo VIII. might
have received from the Moors, opened the door
and lighted the lamps. After the meals the
room was immediately locked again.

The only good things we remember about
\\\^ fonda were the excellent milk-ices spiced
with cinnamon, which we enjoyed after walks
in the sun, and the hot soups served at dinner

l8S SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

where internal was expected to take the place
of external warmth, which seemed to be ap-
preciated as much by the few Spanish guests
as by ourselves. This inn was not situated in
the dull mediaeval part of the town but in a
wide street in the modern suburb which was
lij^hted by electricity, but electricity in Spain Is
not synonymous with comfort.

On the afternoon of our arrival we received
a visit from a not infrequent disturber of our
peace, an interviewer. As was our custom
with these gentlemen we gave him scanty in-
formation, revealing nothing of our future
plans, and not permitting him to see that our
knowledge of *'la hermosa lengua espaftola**
was as extensive as it really was. Pleadino-
ignorance of a language is an excellent means
of ridding oneself of an interviewer. The
following result appeared in the daily paper the
next morning:

'* The Englishman Senor Workman and his
sposa distivgiiida, who are making the tour of
Spain, arrived in Cuenca from Tarancon yes-
terday afternoon. They rode two bicicletas
77iagmjicas which they understand perfectly
how to manage. It cannot be stated posi-

CUKNCA. 189

lively, but they will probably appear on the
track at the velodrome to-morrow before the
races. Owing to their limited command of
our language, the reporter was unable to learn
anything of their future movements." He had
not mentioned the velodrome at the interview,
and it is needless to say we did not appear
there.

While at Cuenca we mailed a letter to a
hotel in Madrid to secure rooms. Two days
later on our arrival at the hotel nothing had
been seen of it, although Cuenca has direct
rail communication with the capital, and is only
seven or eight hours distant by the slow Span-
ish trains. The manager did not appear at all
surprised, and said the letter would probably
arrive in a day or two, which it did.

Postal affairs like other things in Spain are
deliberately managed and mail matter is for-
warded at the pleasure or convenience of the
officials, sometimes lying two or more days in
a post-office before being despatched. Indeed
one may be thankful if one's mail is received at
all. Quite a number of letters deposited by us
at the post-offices failed to reach their destina-
tion, and as many more known to have been ad-

igO SKETCIiKS AWIIKEL IX MODERN IBERIA.

dressed to us were never received. It is quite
useless sendin<j small articles other than letters
unless forwarded by parcel post with every
precaution. We mailed from Granada seven
small articles, such as are constantly intrusted
to the post in other countries, of which only
one was afterwards heard from.

At our second visit to Madrid, which was one
of some length, we came to the conclusion
presumably reached by other tourists, that be-
sides the interesting Armoury the Museum
of the Prado is the great attraction of this
lively but colourless capital. In a half-hearted
way one rides in the Prado and the Retiro,
walks in the broad boulevards, and stands in
the Puerta del Sol hoping to see Mazantini in
vestido de fiesta pass into a cafe; as he does
not, one moves on, suppressing a yawn thinking
how much better gvande ville allurements are
understood in Paris.

But the Museum of the Prado is a constant
delight to the visitor, and is the one thing in
Madrid that makes him desirous to return after
leaving Spain. Having steeped one's art senses
for years in the atmosphere of Italian painting,
one enters the gallery in spite of all that has

MUSEUM OF THE PRADO. igt

been said in its praise just a little prepared for
disappointment as regards Spanish art. Of
course this feeling is unjust and rather an
indication of one's own ignorance. It is doubt-
less the outcome of the impression gained in
Italy that art later than the sixteenth century
belongs to the period of decadence.

If we dispossess our minds of this idea and
reflect that until the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury Spanish was but a reflection of Italian
painting, and that only from the seventeenth
century on did Spain possess a national char-
acteristic school, we are in a better position
to enjoy Zurbaran, Ribera, the local inimitable
Goya, and the immortals Velasquez and Murillo.

The last is only appreciated when after a
certain length of time in Spain we have be-
come accustomed to the every-day style of his
faces. Some disposed to be hypercritical com-
pare his madonnas unfavourably with those of
Raphael. One should not attempt to compare
the realist with the idealist, for it cannot be
expected that the inspired expression of the
Sistine Madonna should be found in the sim-
ple Andalucian features of the Spanish model,
and we must look for something quite different

192 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

in Murillo before we can fathom his greatness.
Comparison in any case could only be made
with Raphael's masterpieces elsewhere, for
those in the Madrid gallery, however interest-
ing artists may consider them and however
great their technical value, owing to the dark
colour of their restorations do not possess the
charm of tone and feeling of those in Rome
and Florence.

What European gallery does not envy the
Museum of the Prado its Velasquez ? Before
this god of art even artists stand dumb and
cease to compare. He is so unlike Titian,
Vandyck, or Rembrandt, so entirely original
yet typically Spanish. Taking up the work
begun by Titian in Charles V., and Philip II.,
he makes us acquainted with various other
members of the royal line down to Prince
Balthazar. In the portraits of Philip IV. and
his dwarfs, besides feeling the genius of Ve-
lasquez as a portraitist we read the social his-
tory of the weak king and the vanities and
foibles of his court.

It has been said Velasquez would have been
a greater painter had he had a wider field for
the exercise of his genius and not been so com-

MUSEUM OF THE PRADO. I93

pletely at the command of a tyrannical court.
Possibly, but the genius of many great artists
has been limited in its scope by the narrowness
of their time, and nowhere is this more observ-
able than in the work of the Italian school.
His historical subjects and portraits are his
grandest conceptions, his religious paintings,
with the exception of the Crucifixion, being
handled with less comprehension and a weaker
hand. In the Crucifixion in spite of its im-
pressiveness, the world that is conquered
through death remains unseen, while around
the form and features of the dead Christ hovers
the despairing spirit that ruled in Spain during
the reign of Philip II., when hope fled and
fear took the place of faith.

Whatever sins may be heaped on the heads
of the Spanish rulers of the Austrian line,
they cannot be accused of not having been
art patrons, when one considers the character
of the artists represented on the walls of the
Museum of the Prado. It is owing to their
patronage that Madrid is to-day almost as much
the home of Titian, Tintoretto, Rubens, and
Vandyck as any city in the lands that gave

them birth.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE ROYAL MAUSOLEUM— OVER THE GUADARRAMAS
—TWO QUAINT CITIES OF OLD CASTILE.

FROM Madrid we rode to the realised
dream of Philip the Second's latter years,
the Escorial. A few miles from the great
" flat iron," under the shade of an ivy-grown
wall, we spent the high noon, lunching on ham
sandwiches such as only a Madrid confisseur
can make, like the banditti described by the
graphic Gautier, who also took their nooning
near the Escorial feasting on ** jambon cuit en
Sucre." Theirs was La Mancha, ours Galician
ham, but the flavour given it by sugar was
doubtless as delicate as in the days before the
guardia civil cleared Castile of the knights of
the highway.

In no other country would one think of hav-
ing ham roasted with sugar, but in Spain where
the unexpected is often the best its taste is
much improved by this saccharine addition.

194

THE ROYAL MAUSOLEUM. 1 95

Whether the dash of sugar is a gustatory in-
heritance from the Moors, Spanish chroniclers
do not say, for no good Castilian allows that
the Moors ever entered Castile. For the bene-
fit of travellers and epicures long may Madrid
confectioners continue to sell '* jamon dulce"
at their lunch counters.

After being about six weeks in Spain we
acquired the taste of the inhabitants for Span-
ish sweets. At first they seemed a little coarse.
Compared with those of France some of them
are, but they are well made and when eaten
sparingly very palatable. The Spanish com-
bine cocoanut with sponge cake in a way that
might rouse the envy of the chef of a Paris
p&tisserie. Sugared dates with cocoanut are a
Sevillian specialty. All the sugared fruits are
particularly well prepared and superior to any
we have seen except those of Sicily.

Just as we were finishing our dessert of
Madrid dainties a country boy ran up with
the Spanish cry of terror, " toros," upon his
lips, at the same time pointing to some large
animals approaching behind the bushes. We
gathered up our chattels and prepared to seek
refuge behind the wall if necessary, while he

196 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

speedily climbed up to a position of safety.
Shortly five innocent-looking cows emerged
from the bush and passed by into an adjoin-
ing field without deigning to give us a glance.
The boy would not come down till they were
well by, insisting that being unaccompanied
they were ** muy dafioso."

We did not find the atmosphere of the
** leviathan of architecture" so charged with
the spirit of ennui as writers had led us to
believe, although the amount of art found
within its walls is in no way commensurate
with the space it occupies, and this triumph
of the building skill of Philip the Second's
artisans did not prove half so much of a bore
or so depressing to us as the monk's shell at
Poblet.

The temperature of the Pantheon late in
June is glacial, more penetrating even than
that of the Cuenca cathedral or of the sum-
mit of Mont Blanc in September, but higher
up in the other parts of the building it was
more endurable. One hundred and forty
Augustine monks still live in the Escorial.
They are met with about the corridors and
in the library, but the head father, before

THE ROYAL MAUSOLEUM. 1 97

whom all bow and cringe as before a cardinal,
is rarely seen outside his own apartment or
private orange garden.

On this occasion, hearing that the ** mat-
rimonio ingles en viaje con bicicletas" were
at the Escorial he came down to the church
to meet us. We had with us one of the
ordinary guides who introduced us to him,
when he took charge of us and was our agree-
able cicerone during the remainder of our
visit. Attendants were ordered to open spe-
cial cabinets, to let in light on relics usually
shown only on certain saints* days, and to
uncover mural paintings seen by the public
but once a year. Although all these were
not worth one hour with Velasquez in the
Prado, we fully appreciated the kindness and
courtesy of the padre and tried to show this
by expressing admiration on the production
of each treasure.

We especially enjoyed the hour spent in
the large library. Besides those ordinarily
seen he showed us other wonderfully painted
and illuminated books and manuscripts. The
guide father was a handsome man about fifty-
five years old, of imposing stature, who looked

198 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

as if the good cuisine of the Escorial and
highland air of the Guadarramas agreed with
him. His manner betrayed what he after-
wards told us, that his villeggiatura existence
was varied by frequent visits to Madrid.
Twice a week he drove in state to the royal
palace to confess the Queen Regent.

Curiously he showed an interest in bicy-
cling matters, and said with a sly chuckle that
he had read about a race that had recently
taken place in Madrid between a Sevillian
horseman and a cyclist. When we told him
we had witnessed it he confessed he would
like to have been present himself. We said
we had seen a priest awheel in a small town
of Catalonia and asked him if cycling was
being introduced among the clergy as well as
into the army of Spain.

On this point he could give no information,
but his admiration for the great Castilian
mortuary was unbounded and most of all he
worshipped its dimensions and massiveness.
As he pointed out the size of the granite
blocks in certain places he quoted with much
satisfaction the words of Philip II. as he
handed back the plans of the Escorial to the

THE ROYAL MAUSOLEUM. 1 99

architect — ** Build me something that will
stand." ** It has stood and it will stand,"
added ^^ padre with emphasis.

He called our attention to the width and
solidity of the grand staircase, though not to
the frescoes, also to the fact that the Escorial
has eleven hundred and ten windows, which
with the best intention on our part failed to
command our admiration, and as a final proof
of the building's all-enduring strength he
pointed out the flat stone arch supporting
the corOy which vibrates when one jumps on
its middle point, although it has borne the
great weight above for so many years.

Presenting us with a souvenir bouquet of
the Escorial, he took leave of us in the orange-
garden, into which he invited us, where, be-
sides his holiness, only the gardener is usually
permitted to enter.

From the Escorial our route lay over the
Guadarrama mountains, the highest peak of
which, la Peftalara, is about eight thousand feet.
The road is rideable for sixteen kilometres,
then becomes stieep, and pushing one's ma-
chine is in order for four good hours, till the
Puerto de Navacerrada, the top of the pass,

200 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

6065 feet, is reached. The scenery is wild
and alpine. The mountain sides are clothed
with a handsome growth of pine, a rather un-
usual tree in the southern half of Spain, inter-
spersed with slopes of fragrant yellow gorse,
which grows so luxuriantly in southern Eu-
rope, and here covers areas such as we have
seen nowhere else, with its yellow mantle.
Above tower the dark grey and black rock
masses, frequently columnated, which form the
summits of the range.

From the top of the pass the view is far
inferior to that from many of the passes of
the south, though this is the second highest
in Spain, the highest being in the Asturias.
The first part of the descent to La Granja
is steep, and owing to a soft road-bed cov-
ered with stones was unrideable for several
kilometres. Then the grade becomes easier
and the road runs through a superb pine for-
est, ** Pinar Grande del Rey," through the
openings of which charming glimpses of the
Guadarrama peaks are obtained

At a village at the beginning of the ascent,
a man seeing us headed for the pass had re-
marked, ** You will not find many people on

OVER THE GUADARRAMAS. 20I

that route." He was right. In a distance of
thirty kilometres, twenty of which we had to
walk, we met only three human beings — a
road repairer and a man and a boy driving
mules.

It was the last week in June, but La Granja
was as dead as in winter. Th^ patron of the
hotel, who was in bed when we arrived at two
in the afternoon, told us at dinner they were
only beginning to put the hotel in order for
guests, the season not opening till the fifteenth
of July. The palace of San Ildefonso is occu-
pied for two months in summer by the infantas
and a part of the court, but the Queen Regent
seldom goes there, preferring the sea and her
palace at San Sebastian. The Rambouillet
palace, filled with comfortable, cheerful rooms,
is without interest, as would be the gardens
with fountains laid out in French style were
it not for the peculiar contrast they form with
the wild barren mountains overhanging them.

It is worth while to walk through the gar-
den, three quarters of an hour to the *' Ultimo
Pino," the last pine at the upper part of the
grounds, in which a wooden balcony is built
that serves as a lookout. Near it runs the

202 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

wall separating the royal estate from the path-
less slopes of the Guadarrama. Looking over
the oasis of La Granja the eye sweeps a dreary
plain until it rests upon Segovia, a confused
mass of buildings blurring the western horizon.

Segovia, rising from the wavy upland of the
red Castilian moor, is an interesting pile of
old convents, churches, and houses surmounted
by the handsome flamboyant cathedral. Its
aqueduct of the time of Trajan, restored in
1483, and again later, is the grandest as well
as the best preserved in Spain. It spans the
valley just outside the city in two tiers of
arches, and forms a most impressive gate of
entrance, as seen from the road which passes
through it. This aqueduct and the situation
of the city facing the chain of the Guadar-
ramas, make Segovia attractive to the lover
of the picturesque.

Cycling has become popular among the bet-
ter classes in Spain, who interest themselves
in the clubs, and personally encourage all mat-
ters pertaining to it as a sport. At one of
two races in the velodromes which we at-
tended, we were surprised at the number and
character of the spectators. In various parts

TWO QUAINT CITIES OF OLD CASTILE. 203

of Spain, but especially in Andalucia, Castile,
and Leon, we received, from cyclists who were
entire strangers to us, courtesies and atten-
tions which added to the pleasure and interest
of our trip. These were offered unsolicited,
with a simple and natural cordiality that
showed they were dictated by the high ideal
of hospitality and regard for the welfare of
strangers that forms such an admirable trait
of Spanish character.

We were called on by officers of clubs and
others, who offered us any assistance that might
be needed and invited us to their houses,
were met on the road and escorted into cities
or out of them on our departure, shown about
them and taken to clubs or cafes, on no ac-
count being permitted to settle any bills.
Had circumstances favoured we might have
seen considerably more of Spanish life, but we
had much ground to cover in a limited time,
and accepted no hospitalities that would inter-
fere with our freedom or detain us.

Had we so desired, by making known our
plans and route at the bicycle club of the first
city we reached in Spain, we could doubtless
have had an escort from one city to another

204 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

entirely through the country ; but we preferred
freedom with the experience it might bring to
a trip under escort with its attendant disad-
vantages, hence we never disclosed our plans
for the future nor route even to those who
showed themselves friendly.

About ten kilometres from Avila, as we
came to the end of a long coast on the excel-
lent road running from Segovia to Avila, we
were met and accosted by name by a bicyclist
who handed us his card bearing the name
Don A. de la P. He seemed pleased to meet
us and said he had been out on the road daily
for a week watching for us, as he hoped we
would visit Avila, and that he had followed
our journey as announced in the papers with
great interest. He was the representative of
a Castilian family long resident in Avila, was
dark, handsome, and about thirty years old.
He spoke Spanish, French, and a little Eng-
lish, was clever, well informed, and possessed
of all the charm of manner ascribed to the old-
time hidalgo, with a sufficient suggestion of
the modern man of the world to make him an
agreeable companion.

He had lived for some time in Barcelona,

TWO QUAINT CITIES OF OLD CASTILE. 20$

had been in Madrid, but not long enough to
become ** Anglicised," and now he had re-
turned to Avila to be a companion to his
father, as he was an only son. Although he
had a high opinion of the antiquities of Avila,
which he hoped to show us the following day,
he rather disliked the idea of making his per-
manent home *' en una ciudad tan pequefia y
tan pobre."

We were bearing down on the city at a fine
pace, the keywork castellated walls already
forming a diadem against a sapphire skyline,
when Don A. called '* Senora " in a warning
tone, and at the same time putting his English
racer to its utmost speed overtook the Senora
who was riding ahead and advised her to dis-
mount. ** Toros ? " we inquired, scarcely able
to restrain our amusement. ** Yes, toros," he
replied, all the cheerfulness of the last half-hour
disappearing from his face. '* Let us wait till
they pass." Running across the road a short
distance ahead pursued by two men, was a
bovine family consisting of a bull, cow, and
calf, which persisted in going in every direc-
tion except the one desired by the pursuers,
from whom they seemed only intent on escap-

2o6 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

ing. As soon as they had reached the open
ground on the other side we rode on.

The /erz'a was being held at Avila, and the
roads and hillsides immediately around the
city were covered with animals of all kinds
brought in from the country. The city was
crowded also, and it was only with the assist-
ance of our caballero, that we succeeded in
obtaining quarters at the hotel.

Avila is perhaps the best specimen of a
mediceval walled city in Spain. The walls
were begun in 1090, during which year eight
hundred men are said to have been employed
on them, and finished in nine years. Rising
in places to a height of over forty feet, and
their eighty-six towers to that of sixty, both be-
ing well preserved, the city itself as seen from
without is almost lost within them. They are
very impressive and are seen to the best ad-
vantage from the outside as one walks around
them, which we did although it was no agree-
able task forcing our way through the num-
berless horses, asses, cows, goats, and sheep,
that were gathered under their protecting
shadow.

Among the peasants attending the fair were

TWO QUAINT CITIES OF OLD CASTILE. 207

a few picturesquely dressed, about the first we
had seen in Spain. Here the picturesqueness
was confined to the men, tall, dark Castilians,
with large sombreros and jackets short, full,
and striped, or of velveteen, close-fitting and
often embroidered with spangles.

Without the walls stand the beautiful
churches of San Pedro and San Vicente strong
rivals of the cathedral, and one wonders that
so much of art should have been placed with-
out the walls at a time these were necessary
for its protection. The entrances of several of
the churches are very striking. The finest of
these is the western portal of San Vicente,
which is a marvel of elaborate yet tasteful
transitional work quite surpassing any of the
entrances of the beautiful cathedral.

Like Burgos, Avila is rich in splendid tombs.
The cathedral has a number mostly by un-
known artists of the thirteenth century, which
are finely wrought. One of the best is that of
the Bishop of Segundo in a small church out-
side the city. The intellectual refinement of
the old bishop's face is expressed with admira-
ble skill by the sculptor said to be Berruguete,
who obviously showed more aptitude for this

2o8 SKKTCIIi:S AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

kind of work than for some others he
attempted.

The pride of Avila is the sepulchre of Don
Juan, only son of Ferdinand and Isabella, who
died at Salamanca at the age of nineteen. As
we look at the peaceful features of the sleeping
youth, we forget the cruelty and treachery of
the Catolicos to Moor and Jew, and our heart-
strings are drawn backward through the inter-
vening centuries to the year 1497, when they
stood by the lifeless body of their idol with no
solace on this earth save the society of cour-
tiers and of their insane daughter. Through
the exit from this world of the studious, care-
fully brought up Juan the kings of Austria
succeeded to the crown of Spain.

At Don A.'s suorcrestion we were to take a
spin in the afternoon with him and a few of his
friends to see the suburbs, but shortly after
luncheon our caballero appeared without his
cycle and said that, much as they wished to
ride with us, they thought it unsafe to venture
outside the walls on account of the toros, which
might be met with coming to or going from
the fcria. By this time fully understanding
the Spanish view of the bull question, we did

TWO QUAINT CITIES OF OLD CASTILE. 209

not urge the matter but accepted Don A/s
invitation to go to his club for coffee and ices.

Later we went in search of the curious
*' Toros de Guisando," which although fast
disappearing from Spain are still to be found
in a few places in the north. Avila was said
to possess three of these, but as usual the peo-
ple we asked were not able to direct us to them.
Don A. among the rest knew of the Convento
de las Madres and of everything connected
with Avila's sainted Teresa, but in regard to the
toi'os he could not enlighten us. At last we
found two of them, quaint figures roughly
hewn out of granite really resembling boars.
Why they are called toros does not appear.

One stood in a neglected corner of the
courtyard of an old house belonging to an
Avila *' duque," the other in a small square op-
posite some barracks. Nothing is certainly
known in regard to them, though the general
belief is they were idols or landmarks of the
primitive inhabitants. Like other mementoes
of antiquity they ought to be carefully preserved
in museums, instead of being left exposed to
injury and weather, or broken up for building

purposes. Some have Roman inscriptions,

2IO SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

nearly effaced by time and neglect, but their
appearance does not suggest a Roman origin,
and the inscriptions were probably made in
later times.

The fear of the toros was still uppermost in
the minds of Don A. and his friends when we
said we must leave Avila, and they advised us to
wait till the fair was over. We smiled at their
fears, bade them adieu, and passing the barrier
of animals outside the walls in safety, set out
for Salamanca.

212 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

myriad mills, is satisfied with making a pictur-
esque washpool for the merry washerwomen
who line its banks. This sedate home of uni-
versities contains in its new cathedral portals,
university fa9ade, and entrances and fa9ades of
numerous buildings, an odd medley of plater-
esque and renaissance architecture, which, with
due regard to the special artistic merits of each,
jars the senses with its bizarre splendour.

In chaste contrast with all this the eye revels
in the quiet beauty and noble lines of the
small twelfth century cathedral, which with its
wonderfully simple and perfect dome rose like
a rare exotic four centuries before the efflo-
rescence of its great florid rival.

Salamanca has almost as many interesting
old houses as Avila has tombs, the most original
one, containing a beautiful patio, being covered
on the outside with stone shells. Several have
handsome romanesque/^/^i?^, others noticeable
features in their fa9ades and arcaded or reja
windows.

In Salamanca we had the same experience
as elsewhere in Castile. When we went into
a caft for coffee or ices, some one was sure to
instruct the waiter to receive no payment from

THE PROFESSOR OF ZAMORA. 213

US, as if we were guests of the town. While
taking ices late in the afternoon the president
of the velo club and a friend introduced them-
selves and offered to show us the university
and other places of interest the following day.
And so it was constantly, perfect strangers
seemed ever anxious to do us favours.

In Zamora, after a scorching ride from Sala-
manca, we were sitting in the caft near the
fonday when the president of the university
came and sat with us. He said he had heard
of our arrival and had taken his first leisure
moment to pay his respects. He had recently
learned to ride himself and was already an
enthusiast in the sport. After it was arranged
that he should accompany us about the city the
next day, we invited him to take coffee or beer
which is becoming quite a popular beverage in
Spain. He readily assented, but when we
called the waiter to settle the account, he
would not permit us to pay, but drew himself
up proudly, saying he would be ashamed of
Zamora if it treated its guests in that manner.

The next day he devoted his time to visiting
the places of interest with us in the intense
heat. Sightseeing in June and July in Span-

214 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

ish cities, which then are veritable ovens, de-
mands considerable power of endurance. One
is far more comfortable cycling on the road
where there is generally some air even if it be
hot. We admired the endurance of Don T.
as in the broiling noonday sun he delivered a
long commentary under one of the gates on
the history of Dona Urracg,'s interview with
the Cid from the window in the wall above its
arch. We, in light clothing, tried to find a
spot where the sun burned less intensely, but
the ardent Professor in the absorption of his
narrative was entirely unmindful of its fierce
glare upon his tall hat and black suit.

Owing to the heat and the long ride before
us on the day we left Zamora, our start was
an early one. The Seilor, Prof. T., on account
of an accident to his cycle was not able to
escort us some miles on the road as he would
otherwise have done, but he would not allow
us to pass his door without a farewell greet-
ing, and we found him in front of his villa
at the end of the town waiting to bid us God-
speed at five o'clock in the morning.

From being the capital of Philip II., the
scene of historic events and exciting pageants,

MEDIEVAL CAPITAL OF CASTILE. 215

Valladolid has degenerated into one of the
most uninteresting cities of Spain. To be sure
its cathedral is the chef d'oeuvre of Herrera, but
those who have visited the Escorial are not
likely to have much enthusiasm left to spend
on this uncompleted abomination of the six-
teenth century. No place in Spain offers a
larger collection of painted sculpture than this
city, though it might be questioned whether
the examples seen elsewhere are not more
pleasing. Those who, perhaps out of defer-
ence to the artistic sense of the Greeks; affirm
that a coloured statue bears the relation to an
uncoloured one that a painting does to an en-
graving, will linger in the museum over the
works of Juan de Juni and Hernandez.

With the exception of a certain number of
finely executed effigies scattered over the
country the Spanish artists seem in following
the classic idea of colour to have failed in in-
spiration in the carrying out of their concep-
tions.

One of the great events of the year in the
provincial Spanish cities is x}[i^feria or annual
market fair. This institution has come down
from the Middle Ages and probably from

2l6 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

earlier times, and corresponds to the annual
markets held in most parts of Europe, which
give the rural population an opportunity to
dispose of the products of their industry. In
Spain pleasure is combined with business, and
\}[i^feria is made an occasion of especial festiv-
ity. Ferias are held at different times in dif-
ferent places, beginning in spring in the south
and ending with the autumn in the north, and
last from three to five days.

Those of the larger places are widely adver-
tised and special trains are run from distant
points, even the people of Madrid being repre-
sented at the fetes of Ronda, Granada, and
Pamplona. These occasions are celebrated by
processions in which the Gigantes take part,
concerts by military bands, church services,
illuminations, much burning of gunpowder in
the shape of fireworks, theatrical performances,
and the inevitable bull fight.

The equilibrium of the cities is for the time
being upset by the great influx of people from
the country, with the consequent overcrowding
and excitement.

We met with these fairs unavoidably at
various points on the route, in spite of our

STREET SCENES AT BURGOS. 21 7

efforts to avoid them, and always to our dis-
comfort, though they afforded excellent oppor-
tunities for studying the people.

We arrived at Burgos the day before diferza
began and remained during the four days it
lasted. On applying for quarters at the hotel,
they said their rooms were mostly engaged for
the fair, and showed us two small scantily fur-
nished rooms under the roof unfit for any one
except perhaps an ostler. After considerable
parleying they finally consented to give us at
a high charge a single front room on the second
floor, which when arranged for two contained
barely space to stand in. This, the best hotel
in Burgos, is opposite a large cavalry barrack,
the windows of the lower story of which open
directly from the stalls on the dusty street, and
the lower story of the hotel serves as a dwell-
ing-place for half a dozen horses. The fumes
from the abodes of these noble animals per-
vaded all parts of the house, including the
comcdoVy to a degree not agreeable to persons
of fairly educated olfactory sense.

All the avenues in the immediate vicinity
of the city served as herding-places for horned
cattle, goats, and sheep, and were also occupied

2l8 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

by long lines of hay and grain waggons, to say
nothing of the crowd of peasants who attended
the animals and thronged the city. The streets
and squares were encumbered with booths and
collections of miscellaneous articles spread by
the various hawkers on the pavements.

Here were sold wares of all kinds from house
furnishing goods, boots and shoes, hats, cheap
ornaments, and dress stuffs for the women, to
second-hand clothing, penny whistles, and gim-
cracks for the children, scrap iron, old brass,
and rags. The Plaza Mayor besides being the
headquarters of the vendors of fruits, primitive
cakes and confections, was the site of a collec-
tion of gymnastic arrangements for the enter-
tainment of the youth, among which were a
large horizontal log mounted on an axle sup-
ported on two upright stakes, which two parties
of boys, one on each side, tried to turn towards
themselves by the friction of their hands, the
axle ends being covered with sand, and a sort
of "Ferris wheel" about eight feet high with
four seats rotated by a hand crank, the fac-
simile of which may also be seen in Lower
Egypt.

In one of the squares the " tooth-puller " was

STREET SCENES AT BURGOS. 219

plying his trade, addressing the crowd from a
platform waggon on which were mounted his
operating chair and four musicians, who struck
up a refrain from three brass instruments and
a drum as each victim seated himself in the
chair, opened his mouth, fixed the muscles of
his jaws spasmodically and gazed intently at
the sky with an expression of desperate but
heroic determination.

In another place a young woman with pale
face, blue eyes, abundant auburn hair, incisive
voice, and impassive expression entertained
an admiring audience from morning till night
by her eloquent eulogies of the virtues of a
chiropodic remedy, which she had for sale in
small packages convenient for pocket use.
One could not help admiring the calm perse-
verance with which she pursued her calling in
spite of the fact that towards evening her voice
became husky.

Among the different side-shows was a
merry-go-round, placed inconveniently near
the hotel, provided with a powerful hand-
organ, from the front of which projected six
huge brass trumpets. This organ might be
called a monorgan, as it played only one tune,

2 20 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

which was unceasingly repeated from ten in
the morning till midnight, in strident, unmusi-
cal tones mingled with the loud blare of the
trumpets, until we wished our sense of hearing
might be temporarily abolished.

The knicrhts of the arena made their head-
quarters at our hotel. Reverte, who, having
recovered from the injurj' received two months
before, had come from Madrid as the chief
cspador of the occasion, had a front room to
himself, the others, banderillcros and pica-
dores, occupied some dark court-rooms, three
or four in each. The latter, while quiet and
orderly, were coarse in appearance and habits.
Dressed and looking like common labourers,
they spent the forenoon lounging around or
mending their torn clothing, which the cham-
bermaids, here women, were kept busy in
cleaning for use at the corrida in the after-
noon.

After lunch they donned their silk stock-
ings, ruffled shirts, and laced jackets, and rode
in two omnibuses to the ring, a large crowd
collecting outside the door to see them off.
The costumes of the espadores are wonder-
fully elaborate, being made of silk and other

STREET SCENES AT BURGOS. 221

materials of the finest quality, richly orna-
mented with gold and silver lace. Besides
red, green, pink, and blue, purple is a favourite
colour for the groundwork, and is said to be
as irritating to the bull as red.

They all eat at one table, at the head of
which sat Reverte, who was frequently greeted
by his friends among the hotel guests. They
minded their own business, made no disturb-
ance, and in no way interfered with the com-
fort of the other visitors. In what other
country could twelve or fifteen professional
butchers or cattle-drivers mingle for several
days with the other guests of a reputable hotel
without in some way making themselves ob-
noxious ?

After careful observation of men of this
class both at the corridas and elsewhere, and
comparison of them with the ordinary Span-
iard, we cannot divest our minds of the im-
pression that their profession exercises a
decided influence on the expression of their
faces, which acquire a certain tinge of brutal-
ity such as one associates with gladiators and
prize-fighters. This is more noticeable in the
older members of the craft. This influence

222 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA,

may easily be traced if a picture of Mazantini
taken several years ago be compared with his
present appearance.

The head padre of the Escorial clasped his
hands and gazed heavenward when inquiring
if we had seen the " marvel of Burgos," and
the attitude of the rest of the world is very
much the same towards this cathedral. Be-
sides bringing our tribute of admiration let us
stop a moment to find out, if possible, why we
admire. It is easy to account for the interest
of the architect, the sculptor, the painter, and
perhaps the dilettante, in this museum of art,
for if it be impossible to admire the whole,
each will find his particular hobby well handled,
either in the framework or the decorations.

But it is more difficult for the tourist with
a smattering of architectural knowledge backed
by a cultivated sense of the beautiful to know
why he is charmed. The first visit, no matter
how long it may be, does not quite solve the
problem. The mind is overpowered by the
effect of columns, capitals, groined arches, and
pinnacles loaded with an intricate mass of
carvings, the details of which at first sight are
scarcely distinguished and certainly not appre-

CATHEDRAL. 223

ciated. It may be only after several visits
that he discovers why his artistic sense and
imagination are so powerfully affected by this
wonderful structure, and finds the reason in
the symmetrical lines of the grand thirteenth
century model embellished by the profusion
of harmonious fifteenth and sixteenth century
ornamentation designed and executed in the
most tasteful and careful manner.

Had the original framework been a produc-
tion of Herrera and the decorations from the
hands of the lesser sixteenth and seventeenth
century artists, the marvel of Burgos would
probably have been only a blot on the archi-
tectural landscape instead of standing forth as
a shining object in the panorama of Spanish
art. With a few exceptions only the best
work of the best artists of the four centuries
that contributed to its completion was allowed
to grace its walls. The mass of sculpture,
were it not carried out in such perfection,
would certainly confirm the first transient im-
pression of an overloaded interior. The later
sixteenth century artists, many of whom are
said to have been of French or German origin,
were amply endowed with originality and good

224 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

taste. The whole building within and without
is eminently picturesque, and herein doubtless
lies another ground for its appeal to modern
taste. Taken with its chapels, each in itself a
temple of decoration with its treasures in paint-
ings, carvings, and tombs, the cathedral merits
several days of study even from a superficial
observer.

Spaniards are still filled with so-called reli-
gious sentiment, but the fanaticism of the fif-
teenth century has resolved itself into the
mysticism of the nineteenth. Spain is more
aesthetic than believing, more mystical than
religious. The atmosphere of the temple of
Burgos, however, is aesthetic, not mystical.
When the shadows lengthen and modulated
organ cadences echo through the grey twilight
of the interior, the aesthetic sense is held cap-
tive, but the mystic charm of the vesper hour
at the Barcelona cathedral is wanting, where in
the more subdued light verging on darkness
columns seemingly without base or capital lose
themselves in the arches above. Perhaps the
best view of the exterior is obtained from the old
Castillo on the hill over Burgos. Details that
seen below are somewhat coarse are here soft-

TOMBS AT MIRAFLORES. 225

ened, and the group of richly carved perforated
spires forms a striking picture.

The superb tombs to be seen in nearly all
the cities of the north reach their culminating
splendour in the fifteenth century alabaster
sepulchres at Miraflores, built by Isabella in
memory of her parents. The recumbent fig-
ures with the elaborate lacework of their
robes astound the eye, but Gil de Siloe not
satisfied with his success here surrounded their
majesties with Biblical subjects and finally en-
closed the whole with a fringe of foliage so
exquisitely carried out, that we forget the cen-
tral figures in contemplating the execution of
the setting. The sculptor was unable to re-
strain his hand, but although he may be charged
with overloading, his art is carried to such per-
fection as to silence criticism.

What remained of the bones of the Cid and
his devoted Ximena were placed under govern-
ment protection in the town hall of Burgos in
1842. The breast-bone of the Campeador and
thigh-bone of his wife made a trip to Germany
after the Peninsular War, but on being restored
to Spain in 1883 joined their mouldering com-
panions. Our first attempt to see them was
15

226 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

not successful. After knocking and ringing
bells a girl opened a sort of office and said the
concierge was out but she would call him.
We waited some time — one usually waits in
Spain and more often goes twice to lesser
sights before seeing them. Finally a rusty-
looking boy came in with a bunch of keys, and
taking us across a hallway flung open a door
with a bang. He led the way with lightning
speed through a narrow room decorated with
flags, heraldic insignia, and ancient half-worn
chairs into another arranged as a chapel, in
the centre of which stoo^ upon a pedestal a
plain brown casket. The boy went about the
room as if looking for something, but shortly
seeing us standing by the casket approached
it and with a sudden gleam of intelligence
cried, ** Here they are," roughly trying to
open the lid of the last resting-place of the
Campeador.

He shook the casket in his vain attempt,
then finding the keyhole proceeded to try the
various keys of the bunch, and lastly an old
one he had in his pocket but without success,
so we were forced to leave having seen of the
Cid only what we had seen of Ferdinand and

LAST OF THE CID. 227

Isabella and many another historical person-
age. The frowsy girl met us at the door say-
ing the boy was not the concierge, and if we
would come another day the latter would show
us everything.

As we had been following in the track of
the noble Cid's exploits for some months it
seemed well, as they were conveniently near,
to make another attempt to see his bones.
This time we found a man with a key that at
once opened the casket, revealing what re-
mains of the bones and ashes of the Cid and
Ximena neatly packed away in two shallow
compartments side by side. From such a cosy
collection it seemed a pity that, as the guard-
ian pathetically told us, the skull of Ximena
should have been found missing when the
bones were brought to Burgos.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NATURE, ART, AND PEOPLE OF ARAGOX AND NA-
VARRE—FAREWELL TO ESPA!^A.

FROM Burgos we turned eastward and
rode through Navarre and Aragon to
Zaragoza. The route on the first day lay over
the high tablelands separating Burgos from
the valley of the Ebro. From the top of the
watershed, which was reached about noon, an
extended view opened over the river basin,
which is here very wide, and is bounded on
the north by the receding Pyrenees, on the
west by the Burgos mountains, and to the east
loses itself in the distance.

It is cut up by short ranges of low mount-
ains. As we began the descent our attention
was attracted by one range lying far below
composed entirely of red sandstone with per-
haps a dozen beautiful pointed peaks, which
in comparison with the other features of the
vast landscape looked as if it had been carved

223

ARAGON AND NAVARRE. 229

out to embellish a child's pleasure grounds.
An hour later, after descending two or three
thousand feet, the road wound around its base,
and we were surprised to find that what from
above had appeared like molehills were really
mountains of rather imposing height.

The road on this day was bordered on both
sides by extensive fields of golden grain, which,
untouched by the sickle, bent in long waving
crests before the summer wind. At evening
we reached Logroilo on the banks of the
Ebro.

Some hours after leaving Logroflo the
country became as desolate and desert-like as
anything to be found in Spain. The hills
looked as if they had been riven by convuls-
ions of nature and scorched by fire. Their
red -clay and sandy sides scarred and gullied
by the winter floods and washed clear of every
living plant were now baked to a stony hard-
ness by the burning summer sun, the heat of
which radiated from the parched surface as
from an oven, as we toiled up the ascents of
this barren waste.

Crowning the top of a hill in this region is
the town of Alfaro, like many similar Spanish

230 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

towns built of the red rock of and having the
same parched appearance as the hill on which
it stands. We reached Alfaro about two
o'clock, and as our canteens were empty looked
for water with which to fill them. No run-
ning water was to be seen, so we tried to find
a posada or restaurant but without success.
At last in the deserted cathedral square we
discovered the sign *' Bebidas " over a cur-
tained doorway under an arcade, and went in.

The usual midnight darkness which is pre-
served in Spanish interiors during the after-
noon hours in summer reigned. We ordered
gaseosa, which the sleepy proprietor sent a boy
to the cellar to fetch. Meanwhile we asked
him to fill our canteens with water. He said
he had none and would not receive a new sup-
ply till after three o'clock. He also said no
drinking water was to be had in the town and
all that was used had to be brought from a
distance in barrels, from which it was distri-
buted to the inhabitants. This was done every
afternoon.

Even the houses of the peones camineros
failed in this desert region, so we were obliged
to travel the twenty kilometres over the hills

ARAGON AND NAVARRE. 23 1

to the next town without anything to assuage
our thirst, which after fifteen minutes in the
broiling sun was as great as ever. Not a tree
was met with in the whole distance, nor any
object on the road that could cast a shade ex-
cept portions of the ruined walls of a house
that had been destroyed in the Carlist war, like
many ruins of posadas and farm-houses scat-
tered about Castile, Leon, Navarre, and Ara-
gon, burned during this time and never
rebuilt.

On arrival at Tudeli about four o'clock, be-
fore seeking th^fonda we stopped at a modest
restaurant in the square where ices were ad-
vertised. The woman who served them hardly
knew which to be more surprised at, our bicy-
cles or our capacity for disposing of " helados
de leche."

The fonda of Tudela resembled most others
of Aragon, which are not up to the standard
of those of many parts of Spain. When the
tourist enters his room he finds it scantily fur-
nished and in the same condition in which it
was left by the previous occupant, the bed un-
made, the table encumbered with dishes upon
which are the remnants of the last meal, the

2^2 SKETCIiES AWHEEL IX MODERN IBERIA.

unsvvept floor garnished with stubs of cigars
and cigarettes. Thus it remains during the day,
no attempt being made to put it in order, and
it is impossible for the new occupant to make
himself comfortable. At evening during the
comida the bed linen and towels are changed
and fresh water brought. All else is left as
it was before. And yet the dining-room is
lighted by electricity.

When the unimportance and primitiveness
of Tudela and the backwardness of its people
are considered, it is surprising that this town
of nine thousand inhabitants should have such
an impressive colegiata, which may rightly be
called one of the grand Spanish churches.
Although built somewhat earlier, it resembles
the cathedral of Tarragona, and while its style
is generally plain many of the capitals show
excellent thirteenth century carving. Of its
three striking doorways, the west one with
eight rows of quaint carved figures is extremely
beautiful and merits its reputation of being
one of the rare doorways of the world. The
effect is marred by its unfortunate position,
and it seems out of place facing the narrow
dingy streets of Tudela.

ARAGON AND NAVARRE. 233

Looking up at the tall bare houses that line the
unpicturesque streets of many Spanish towns,
the question ever arises, how could such meagre
environments produce the authors of the price-
less churches and doorways found amid the
general architectural poverty. History is often
silent as to the origin of these geniuses, though
we gather that some were Spanish, others
French or Italian. In the latter case, what in-
duced them to exercise their creative art in the
towns of the plains and sierras is all the more
a matter of conjecture.

Between Tudela and Zaragoza the plains of
Aragon swept before us in all their barren
nakedness. The day was lowery and the
journey which at best was lonely was made
doubly so by thunder showers, which darkened
the horizon in front and played about the tops
of the mountains bordering the river terrace,
and which we feared might cross our path at
any time. The towns were few and far apart
and the houses of our iriends the peones cam-
ineros exceptionally infrequent, only four being
passed in half a day's ride.

Towards noon some rain-clouds that had
been gathering on the right seemed about to

234 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

sweep over us. A sharp clap of thunder and
large drops of rain falling on our faces warned
us we were likely to get a wetting, when arriv-
ing at the top of a hill we saw a small white
house at the bottom of the descent We flew
downward pursued by the growling tempest
behind, and just in time to escape its fury drew
up at the house, where a woman with four
frightened children clinging to her skirts stood
outside watching our approach. We never
welcomed shelter more than at that moment,
and when half an hour later we stepped out on
the drenched red plain, over which hung an
opalescent rainbow, we were glad the bonbons
had not failed and that we could fill all the
small uplifted hands.

Looking back as we rode off we saw the
woman gazing after us with the children at
her side enjoying their sugar-plums, and as we
whirled onward towards Zaragoza, her parting
words, ** Vayan ustedes con Dios," were borne
on the breeze to our ears. We treasured the
words now each time we heard them, for the
days when the sweet Spanish wayside greeting
would charm our ears were fast being num-
bered.

ARAGON AND NAVARRE. 235

In this region grain which is harvested the
last of June is threshed in a novel manner.
It is first collected in great ricks outside the
towns. Then the surface of the clay soil is
smoothed over a greater or less area, wet down,
and allowed to dry hard in the sun. The
grain is spread upon this and mules driven up
and down over it. The straw is afterwards
removed and the broken chaff and grain tossed
up in the wind, which blows the chaff away
leaving the grain clean, advantage being taken
of the strong north winds which blow at this
season. We passed large quantities of straw,
chaff, and grain which had been separated from
one another in this manner.

The backwardness of the people of Aragon
as compared with those of Leon, Castile, and
Andalucia is very noticeable. Not only have
they little idea of cleanliness, modern comfort,
and mode of life, but they seem stupid, and evi-
dently come less in contact with the outside
world than the inhabitants of the provinces men-
tioned. They resemble the people of Catalonia
and the eastern coast in many respects, but in
none more than in their curiosity and meddle-
someness, which were displayed to an especial

^36 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

degree in Zaragoza, where they, notably the
women, stared like cattle. The men and boys
could not keep their hands off our bicycles,
ringing the bells, feeling the tyres, and pressing
the saddles as if these vehicles were on exhibi-
tion for their particular entertainment and
instruction.

The Zaragozans seem wanting in apprecia-
tion of the care that is due to their art inherit-
ances. On visiting the Casa Zaporta with its
beautiful sixteenth century patzOy the lower
story is found occupied by a waggon factory
and the upper parts given over to other busi-
ness enterprises, and to poor families who run
up and down the once palatial stairway and
use its carved pillars and ornamented reliefs
for purposes of their own, entirely oblivious to
any damage resulting from such use.

The same indifference as to decorative value
and the iconoclastic spirit more or less prevalent
in Spain caused them to tear down the lean-
ing tower, also built in the sixteenth century in
Moorish style, which while lacking the fineness
of real Moorish work was, if one may form an
opinion from photographs, interesting on ac-
count of its form and of its leaning ten feet

ARAGOl^ AND NAVARRE. ^37

from the perpendicular. In speaking with a
photographer about it we asked, ** Was it
taken down because of its insecurity?" He
laughed and said, ** No, it had been repaired and
was in perfectly safe condition." ** Why then
was it done ?" ** Oh, because the people were
tired of seeing it stand there," he answered.

The population of Zaragoza appear to be as
much given to Mariolatry as the Sevillians,
judging from the throng of worshippers seen
daily at the church of the Pilar. This hideous
cathedral is built around the brocatello pillar
on which the Virgin is supposed to have de-
scended from Heaven. An architectural mon-
ster in the way of a chapel, in which services are
held at all hours, surrounds the column which
stands in its rear wall. The Pilar itself is
hidden from view by its coverings except at
one point on the outside of the chapel, where
an oval aperture a few inches in diameter
admits of the worshipper kissing its marble
surface.

This has been a sort of Mecca for centuries
to the Aragonese, and on the anniversary of
the Virgin's descent thousands pay homage at
the shrine, but one is scarcely prepared to see

238 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

the constant stream of men as well as women,
who on ordinary week days stand awaiting their
turn to perform the osculatory act of devotion.
We returned in the afternoon to watch the
procession which if possible was larger than in
the morning. The kisses of the rich followed
those of the poor, and the men pressed their
lips as devoutly as the women through the
opening in the wall. One fairly intelligent
looking man after kissing the Pilar approached
the altar of the Virgin near by, knelt and after
praying briefly, brushed off the dusty step with
his handkerchief, bowed his head and kissed
that also.

The cathedral of La Seo, the most important
church of Zaragoza architecturally, has interest-
ing features. The interior is nearly square,
has double aisles, and the coro is less obtrusive
than in most Spanish cathedrals. In spite of
badly ornamented capitals, the tall massive
columns speading into half-lighted vaults and
producing the effect of clusters of tall lilies are
extremely impressive.

It is often the case in Spain that the gro-
tesque stands under the same roof with the
glorious in art. So here, an absurdly deco-

FAREWELL TO ESPA5JA. 239

rated Churrigueresque chapel makes one wish
that China rather than Salamanca had been
the birthplace of Churriguera, while admiration
is called forth by other chapels filled with ar-
tistic work and richly carved alabaster tombs.

With the exception of San Pablo, which has
an imposing Moorish octagonal brick tower,
few buildings of interest are left in Zaragoza.
The old houses have disappeared, and the
modern ones are built in such a tasteless, un-
substantial manner as to give the city a monoto-
nous, unprogressive appearance.

In leaving Zaragoza the street being badly
paved and filled with waggons, we rode on the
promenade, as we had often done in Spain
without interference from the police. But on
this occasion we had hardly started, when we
heard whistling and calls, to which at first we
paid no attention, but as they continued we
dismounted. A gendarme at once accosted us
demanding our names and a fine of ^v^ pesetas
each. We remonstrated, saying we had ridden
on the promenades all over Spain, particularly
in the morning when few people were out, and
being strangers did not know that this was
prohibited in Zaragoza. He persisted in his

240 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

demand, when several gentlemen interfered
taking our part and telling him this was no
way to treat strangers. For some time they
made no impression on him and we were
about to pay the fine when he yielded and per-
mitted us to depart. The unusual zeal dis-
played in the administration of civil affairs in
Zaragoza in many respects so behind the times
was amusing, but the incident afforded another
proof of the friendly disposition of the Spanish
caballerosy who from the beginning to the end
of our journey were always on hand when
needed, ready to do us a favour.

We rode over Pamplona through the Pyre-
nees of the Basque provinces to San Sebas-
tian and Irun, where our Spanish pilgrimage
of three and a half months ended. At Pam-
plona the feria was beginning, the day after
our arrival being the ** Fiesta de los Gigantes,"
when they dance before the cathedral, march in
the procession, and pay their respects to the
tutelar at San Lorenzo. Although the ffites
of Pamplona are among the most renowned of
Spain, as we had already seen to our satisfac-
tion all that was offered on the programme,
including the sacrificial performances of the

FAREWELL TO ESPA5JA. 24 1

heroes of the arena, Reverte and Guerrita, we
pushed on without waiting for the other fes-
tivities, having a run of twelve hundrec^ kilo-
metres across France on our hands after leaving
Spain.

Shortly after leaving Pamplona we met with
a last instance of disinterested Spanish courtesy.
A peasant was driving a mule laden with flasks
of wine up a long hill which we were also
obliged to ascend. He seemed impressed by
our having to push our bicycles, and said he
was better off than we as the mule did his
work for him. Adding we must be thirsty he
offered us wine from the flasks, and upon our
declining the offer, urged the matter until we
told him we never drank wine en route.

Another incident shows a bright side even
to Spanish beggar life. A traveller stopping
in Madrid had been in the habit of giving a
few centimos daily to a little girl on the street.
One morning as he passed the corner where
she stood he gave her as he supposed the
usual sum. Presently he heard some one call-
ing him, and looking around saw her running
after him. On overtaking him she held up a

two peseta piece and said, " Your honour has

242 SKETCHES AWHEEL IN MODERN IBERIA.

always given me centimes, but to-day by mis-
take this was among them."

Similar episodes help to fill the note-book of
the traveller who lingers a few months in
Spain. If he pursues his researches beyond
the lines drawn by couriers, tourist bureaus,
and hotel attendants, he will meet everywhere
both among the educated and the poorer classes
in^n de szicle Spain the hidalgo spirit of the
days of Calderon. Sharper contrasts exist in
its nature, art, and people than in many lands,
but it is just these contrasts and the peculiar-
ities of custom, the cosas de Espana that ren-
der the Iberian peninsula so attractive and
inspire those who have been there with a long-
ing to cross its boundaries again..

THE END.

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