MASTER NEGATIVE NO. 92-80456 ivliCROFiLMED 1992 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the Toundations of Western Civilization Pn-^/rvaiioii ProjecU N Funded bv the iAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions mav not be made without permission fron Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT ST \TEME> The copyright la^- of the United States - Title 17, United Slates Code - reuroduciions -^ ,' -N ncenii the making of pnotocopies or other op>niihtedmaieriaf . Lolumbia Unr/ersitv Librarv w5w rves me nsht to refuse to ,4 ^ ^ -^ .'■■""i 1 '<»<.> accept a copy orcer it, m its jiidgement, n.:iiinn:'--n: _o tnc oraer would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: THOMAS -.-^''^•-•y -.'\ J TITLE: A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER... PLACE: NEW YORK DA TE : [1892] COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRI:si:iun Cv lu.. .lb92i-.New lork, Dcdd, Mead cl8923 xiv p., 1 1., 302 p. tr nt , illus., plates. 21'". 1. Spain — Descr. & trav. 2. Tangier — Descr. i. Title. 1—10938 Library of Congress i30fl, DP41 T46 RL;:)lriCiions on Use: TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA T-'T J -K r r 1 1.. .V 1 REDUCTION RATIO: //Jc J i 1 SIZE:_^__J_£2r^ DAT i: i' r Al I: I ) : __^_^ -2/ 2 o/f 2^ I V I T I A I , '^ _J:t^2l^ Fii.Nua) BT. \i^}syJv^x\\ ihtm.jca rio NS, inc vvuuubridge, ct BIBLIOGRAPHIC IRREGl I ' f % > t ' i MAIN -^ ENTRY: ^ov>A<>^^, //)o\>t ^ave't- Bibtiographic Irregularitie s in the QnpiiMJ^iKL^ List volumes and pages altected, mdudo ii.hup oi Hi-mntit-" '^ ^"--'--borrowed text Pagels) r!iissing/"iK>t ai'aihUMe. \'(>lunies(si niis^iiHi riiH a\Mi!-rie: Illegible and /or damaged ixigt^^s):. !-'age(sj or \a-^iiiiiiehls) misi • t . . , . -. i «. '„t- BiHind out of siHjueiiae: I agefs) or illiistratii n(s) filmed from copy borrowed from: C>bexiiv^ Collecj ^ \t' %u^ TO MY DEAR FRIEND, I THE COMPANION OF THESE WANDERINGS, ®Sis t3oofe IS MOST FITLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. k BY WAY OF PREFACE. On the score of my friendship and regard for the author of this Scamper through Spain and Tangier, I have been asked to contribute that unnecessary exordium to a book known as an Introduction, As in ordinary social inter- course there are some pleasant and charm- ing persons who need no *' introduction," so it is in the field of letters and art ; and I, for one, feel that Miss Margaret Thomas, with her fresh and unpretentious notes and sketches made on her recent wanderings among Moors and Spaniards, needs no word of recom- mendation from anybody. These speak for themselves as plainly as pen and pencil can. But perhaps a few words concerning Miss Thomas's career and personality may be ■nil PREFACE. PREFACE. IX acceptable to those who, about to read this volume, would like to know somewhat of its author. In many of the English, Australian, and Canadian journals of late, articles have appeared dealing with the singular Anglo- Saxon " colony " of art students now in Paris. Many of these ardent young men and women were born and bred in Australia or in Canada, and it would really appear as though Paris were now joyfully recognised by our Colonial kinsmen as the art centre of the world. These clever young Cornstalks and Bluenoses are as contemptuous about "English Art" (whose very existence, indeed, they question) as is Mr. Charles Whibley, or his idol, Mr. Whistler. To them Paris is the soul and centre of their world— the veritable metropolis of art— and London nothing but a huge over-crowded agglomeration of provincialities. No one familiar with this Colonial art move- ment can for a moment gainsay the truth of i 1 this statement. Should it jar on the patriotic Briton, or even on the non-artistic Australian or Canadian (who is likewise a patriotic Briton), let him visit the Quartier Latin and inquire as to the nationality of the pupils in the studios of Signor Colarossi or of M. Julien ; this will, I imagine, remove all doubt from his mind as to the Australian and Canadian view of French and English art. Should the sceptic not feel inclined to cross the storm- tossed Channel, or care to study personally the vie boheme of Paris (so amusingly hit off by Mr. Morley Roberts in a recent book of short and amusing stories), then may he turn with profit to Miss Margaret Thomas's own account of the subject in her excellent article on " Paris Art Schools and Australian Students," to be found in Literary Opinion for August, 1 89 1. With this new Colonial art movement Miss Thomas, herself an Australian, is in entire accord. After winning whatever distinction was PRE FA CE. PREFACE. XI possible in those days as a student in the National Art Gallery of Melbourne, under her old master, the late Charles Summers, she boldly came to Europe, and studied in London, Paris, and Rome. I have heard her speak with respect of the training she received in the Royal Academy, London, but always with enthusiasm of Paris. During her now long residence in Europe, Miss Thomas, as sculptor, has executed work of no little interest to the man of letters as well as to the lover of art. Such a work is her memorial Bust of Henry Fielding, at Taunton, which has been eulogised by no less authorities than Russell Lowell and Austin Dobson. Such, too, is her Bust of Richard Jefferies, unveiled at Salisbury Cathedral by the excellent Bishop Wordsworth (with the assistance of the accomplished and cultured Dean) in the present month. But it is not my purpose to furnish a cata- logue of Miss Margaret Thomas's various ■ % I 1 achievements in paint or marble. I merely wish to tell in outline what manner of person it is who in this book will ''personally conduct" the reader through these romantic — if at times uncomfortable— Lands of Old Romance. It is characteristic that Miss Thomas should find much In the natural aspect of Spain to remind her of her own sunburnt Austral plains. Doubtless much of the interior of Australia is very similar to the arid wastes of the Peninsula ; but one can hardly wonder that an artist, even though Australian-bred, should prefer the country of Velasquez to the colony of Victoria. What though our '* brand-new" go-ahead English-speaking provinces be full of all modern improvements and fin-de'Siecle notions — excellent trams and fast trains (infi- nitely ahead of anything in poor old Spain, to say nothing of Tangier), and huge modern hotels and elevators, and the electric light— they boast no Burgos Cathedral, no quaint headdress and peasant garb, no out-worn but Xll PREFA CE, venerable superstition, no sense of all-per- vading gloom and mystery. It strikes me that many persons who have not even a bowing acquaintance with Art will glance at these sketches and peruse this uncon- ventional but not uninstructive book of travel with pleasure. Even the most prosaic have builded '* castles in Spain " ; and though it be our sorry lot to live on from year to year in some dull suburb of a prosaic Anglo-Saxon city —be it London or Liverpool, New York or Melbourne — we yet have, somewhere deep down in our nature, a touch, a feeling of romance, a ** hidden fount" of poetry. And there will surely be moments when such a book as this Scamper through Spain and Tangier will awake us out of our dull wretched mechanical existence, and set us once more a-singing, ** Over the Hills and Far Away." Arthur Patchett Martin. Reform Club, Marchy 1892. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PACE St. Jean de Luz ^ CHAPTER II. Burgos Cathedral 13 CHAPTER III. Madrid and Velasquez 25 CHAPTER IV. El Escorial 53 CHAPTER v. Toledo ^5 CHAPTER VI. Cordoba and its Mosque 92 CHAPTER VII. Seville and Murillo 127 xiv COyTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE Granada and the Alhambra 164 CHAPTER IX. MXlaga 185 CHAPTER X. Gibraltar and Galleries 203 CHAPTER XI. " Olla Podrida " 207 CHAPTER XII. Tangier 225 CHAPTER XIII. Tangier [co7itmued) 243 CHAPTER XIV. Tangier {continued) 262 CHAPTER XV. Tangier {continued) 273 CHAPTER XVI. Tangier {continued) 286 \ SPAIN. i A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. CHAPTKR T. ST. JEAN DE LUZ. Being artists, we considered it would be advantageous to studv the paintin-s ui ihe immortal Velasquez, and, for the same reason, had to do it as economically as possible. In common with m^any others, we had heard dreadful accounts of Spain, of the badness and dearness of the food there, of the bri- gands and of the cholera, and of the difficul- ties of all kinds attending travellers — reports which have prevented many otherwise adven- turous persons unprovided with a full purse from penetrating there ; but we, two lady artists, B 2 A SCAMPER THROUGH decided to risk all this, and try with our mode- rate means to accomplish what the rich only usually undertake. How we did it and how we fared may be of interest to the many situated like ourselves, viz., those with purses not too full, who desire to see what has been done by the great geniuses of that country, to enlarge their minds with the experience travelling alone can give, and lay up for themselves a fund of rrmini^- cences which may cause them ph^a^nro curing the ta:lia-- (la\-s of age ; 1 niav auiun \vh;c;i Ntudenls or' trvcry callin- can acquire <>ni\- by tiic ^tuJy of the inaslcrpiucc:. ul' tia-ir art, aiaJ the an- duubicJ ma-^ttu-pieces of Gniiiic arciuiecture and ^A paintinu' are to be seen in tliat ciue- travelled and d'Hlruit country of access, Spain. To ^iirh persons T hope these chap- ters will pruve a kind of inconsequential guide- l)'iOK. Inc plutocrat travels from hotel to hotel, and meets only his kind; we will go £9 SPAIN AND TANGIER. 3 from casa de htiespedes to casa de Jincspcdcs^ and study the Spanish people. We went from Paris to Bordeaux, as we had been for some time resident in that artistic capital, but in starting from England it would be cheaper to go to Bordeaux by steamer. The railway journey is long and tedious. The train de luxe, '* Sud Express/' costing one hundred and forty-nine francs each from Paris to St. Jean de Luz, we considered too expensive — be^uh--^, it takes tliirteon hours to pca'forni the journey — and went by tlit^ omnibus train, wdiich occupies seven hours more and costs firt\'- five Irano onlc. Piudiaiis 1 ouci'ht to explain that it i^ the classes wauch make the dinerence in j»ricc, tin.; express only carrying tirst-class pas- sengers, and lac omnibus train three classes. Hero we decid.-il to rest awhile, and gQ.t nno a Ll]nrou;^hi\- striate- state of ht-alth l,)(?fore advancing to ilic regions of rancid ^pare food, and we could not ha\e ciio o\i anil v.. J S t' I ! vi Boarding-house. B 2 1 4 A SCAMPER THROUGH more suitable spot. The rough waves of the Bay of Biscay, of evil memory to our Indian and Australian travellers, wash its stormy little haven, and the cool winds from the Pyrenees breathe down its roof-o'ershadowed streets, and agitate the many-coloured shutters of which the Basques appear so fond. St. Jean de Luz is not Spain, but it is the antechamber, a prelude, as it were, of which the theme is the lovely Andalusian airs. The women are beau- tiful and quite classical in feature, and this idea of classicality is emphasized by the absence of the fringe of hair which is so pre- posterously universal in England. They have that grand undulation of carriage which is only attained by the practice of carrying heavy weights on the head, and wearing very slight or no shoes. I think if I had a school for English girls, I would make carrying weights on the head one of the principal exercises in deportment. The men look as if Antinous, Mercury, i SPAIN AND TANGIER. 5 Apollo, et hoc genus omne^ had stepped down from their pedestals to drive donkeys, catch fish, carry water, and perform other ordinary acts of humanity. In September, during which month we were there, every kind of fruit seemed in season, from strawberries to peaches and melons ; but the came de vacca (cow-beef) and perpetual old veal leave something to be desired in the way of meat. Across the entrance to the little harbour a massive breakwater is built, and when the tide is coming in and the wind is at all fresh, a mass of snowy water, twenty and thirty feet in height, rises on the further side and falls in whitest foam over the stones on this. Speaking of the sea reminds me to add that the bathing here is very good. The church is well worthy of attention ; it dates from the thirteenth century, and has a fine massive tower. The whole of the east end is raised from the floor, ornamented with ^5 6 A SCAMPER THROUGH Statues, and elaborately gilt; the back of this is called the retahlo. Round the other three sides run three rows of narrow dark oak galleries, occupied during the services by men only, and at the west end the organ projects into the body of the building. A little figure of the Virgin, dressed in a lace dress, with a black velvet cloak, a nun's hood, a silver crown, and holding an elaborate lace handkerchief elegantly in her disproportion- ately small hands, is an object of great vene- ration. *' The Basques are said to be the descendants of the earliest inhabitants of the Peninsula, and to this day they have preserved intact the character, customs, and language of their forefathers. With all justice they can lay claim to the title of the oldest race in Spain. Physically they are a very superior race, tall, muscular, well proportioned, wiry, and swift- footed. The women are very handsome, fair complexioned, and with magnificent hair. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 7 They cover their heads in the cold and rainy months, or when they go to church, with the cloth hood worn in Navarre, the Pyrenees French and Spanish, the South of France, and Bruges in Belgium." Thus the trustworthy O'Shea; but I will add that, when it is not cold and rainy, and when they do not go to church, the women wear handkerchiefs on their heads so beautifully arranged as to make them re- semble antique statues. The long black cloaks and veils worn by them at funerals are most mysterious and romantic-looking. Traffic is carried on in St. Jean de Luz by bullock waggons — two bullocks to each waggon. These creatures are small and of a light colour, shod like those in Italy, and capable of great endurance. The yoke is extremely heavy, as much as a strong man can lift; the pole passes through the centre, and the horns of the animals are immovably bound to it on either side with interminable thongs of hide. Their heads are covered with sheep- 8 A SCAMPER THROUGH i skins to keep off the sun, and their eyes with boughs, ferns, or tassels, to drive away the flies, which are here extremely troublesome; they are also covered with linen cloths for the same reason. I regret to have to add that they are driven by a goad with an iron point, which if cruelly used must be a very dreadful implement. Let us hope the natural good-nature of the Basque peasant prevents the animals from ever feeling its full force. When Louis XIV. was married to Maria Theresa the royal couple lodged in a large house here, called **Casadela Infante," which is still preserved. But ** 'ware guide-book ! " It is more useful to mention that the Hotel de France is all one can desire in the way of a hotel, and that for those who wish to make a lengthened stay, or, like ourselves, study economy, apartments (very good) and attend- ance can be had for six francs a day. The present Russian craze has reached even here; it is a pity to see a free and noble SPAIN AND TANGIER. 9 nation like the French throwing itself at the feet of the northern despot. However, the St. Jean de Luz people play the glorious Russian hymn magnificently. We were fortunately here one Sunday, and so attended the grand Mass, a splendid function, where Basque music, which is ex- tremely forcible and original, can be heard to perfection. A sermon was also preached in the Basque language. Properly to enjoy foreign travel, the voyager should endeavour to free his mind from every prejudice and preconception he has ever been taught or has acquired, and thus leave it open for the reception of new ideas, which, nine times out of ten, will be better than the insular ones already imbibed. I return again to express my admiration of the arrangement of drapery on the women's heads : Sir Frederic Leighton himself could not add or take away a fold that would improve it. I wonder sculptors do not come lO A SCAMPER THROUGH here for subjects. Beauty is the rule, not the exception, and beauty of the most classical type; the colourless cheeks, perfect features, and draping would lend themselves most readily to reproduction in marble. It was no use — they could not help it : the moment the music commenced on the place on Sunday and Thursday evenings, the very children's limbs began to twitch and move about in their anxiety to dance. The music was not good, and a common waltz tune did not lend itself happily to the refined measures of Xhe/andaugo ; still, they did their best. At ten o'clock, however, the band struck up the appropriate air, and in a few seconds the whole of the tree-lined place seemed alive with dancers; men and women, boys and girls mingled in the w^hirl of this most graceful dance ; everyone knew it and everyone loved it, so they danced con arnore. Not one inappro- priate gesture, not one rude action or word — all was good temper and gaiety, till, when the Si 1 1 SPAIN AND TANGIER. XI music ceased, they regretfully betook them- selves home. There is a point of land here whence Fuent- arabia, in Spain, and Biarritz can be seen ; also the magnificent range of the Pyrenees rising from the sea, culminating in the huge spire of La Rhune, and the fantastic peaks of Les Trois Couronnes. Perhaps they laugh at us a good deal on the Continent, but I think, notwithstanding, there is a feeling of profound respect for, and trust in, the '* silent English " at the bottom of every Frenchman's heart. The two nations are so essentially different that when one recog- nises in the French the same or even greater love of wife, children, and home which we congratulate ourselves on alone possessing, one feels there is at least a bond of union there. I have written so much about St. Jean de Luz, because writing filled up the hot days there when to go out in the raging sun seemed 12 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 13 impossible, and the **baked cicala" even must have had a bad time of it. From here an excursion can easily be made to Biarritz, railway in three-quarters of an hour, and omnibus to the town. It is a very flourishing*, fashionable place, much patronised by French, Russians, and Spaniards at this season, and by the English a few weeks later, but to be avoided by economical artists. There are three beaches, each excellent for walking and bathing, shops which resemble those of Paris, and every amusement conceivable. It is foreign-looking but much less picturesque than this little town. 4 CHAPTER II. BURGOS CATHEDRAL. The journey from St. Jean de Luz to Burgos occupies twelve hours, and is not without interest. Fare, fifteen francs ; sixty pounds of luggage— quite enough for the economical tourist— allowed free everywhere in Spain. In passing through the Pyrenees one can observe the marvellous blue colour, changing from cobalt to deepest purple, which they as- sume at a short distance from the eye, colours which are repeated in the mountains all over Spain, and which are exactly represented in the landscapes of Velasquez. Some people seem to require wonderfully little luggage when they travel ; a Spanish lady performed this journey on an equipment of a bottle of wine, a fan, and three peaches ; and a youth on a bottle of 14 A SCAJfPER THROUGH Wine, one pocketful of cigars and another of nuts, and a pair of slippers. O si sic oinnes ! At Hendaye, the French frontier town, nume- rous pilgrims, returning from Lourdes, joined us, wearing huge rosaries round their necks — even the most reverend seniors had a great row of beads thrown proudly over their coats ; but, — It was rather hard — at Irun, the dreaded Spanish custom-house, these poor creatures were made to pay six francs a kilo duty on their pious wares, the officials being anxious, I suppose, for the suppression In Spain of all piety that was not Spanish. But the examinatlonof our baggage was con- ducted with the utmost liberality and courtesy : gentlemen just thrust their gloved hands lightly into our boxes, chalked a mark on the outside, and all was over. Rather different from the account I lately read In a French book as to how a lady threw handfuls of gold to guitar- playlng officials to bribe them to let her luggage pass ! One must not put absolute trust In all SPAIN AND TANGIER. 15 I m I travellers' tales evidently. Then we passed for hours over barren, wind-swept plains, with here and there a village coloured like the earth from which It sprang ; at last the spires of Burgos Cathedral rose upon the horizon like two shafts of interrupted light. I have headed this chapter '* Burgos Cathe- dral," because when one reads of Burgos one naturally thinks first of the cathedral In con- nection with It, as when one reads of Anthony one Immediately adds mentally Cleopatra, or of Hannibal the Alps come directly Into the mind, or of Wellington one thinks of Waterloo. But this cathedral — it is simply Indescribable. Imagine a number of shrubs, flowers, fruit, birds, animals, children, men, and women, heaved up into the bluest air ever dreamed of, and turned into stone, there to remain concrete for ever ; or, all the frost you ever saw upon your window panes hung up in the same changeless firmament, and magnified millions of times; or, lace fit for giants hung to dry across the \ A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 17 massive pillars which support the fabric — ana you may have a faint glimmering idea of it, and if you haven't after this, I can give you none. The guide-books tell you the measure- ments, but they are of no avail in forming a mental impression of the whole, because the re/as * which in Spanish cathedrals divide the altar and choir from the rest of the building, and fence in every separate chapel, prevent one from ever getting a good general view. The interior of the lantern is wonderfully carved ; no one who has seen it can describe it, and those who have not seen it cannot form an idea of it from any description, so it seems use- less to say much about it. It dates from 1567, and is a work unique of its kind. One cannot help regretting that, amid the majesty of the Gothic architecture, some Corinthian columns have been used in the screen — as if a ballet dancer were to walk in a procession of nuns. The carving of the * Railings. m choir stalls Is magnificent, rivalling that of the stone itself, which seems to have become plastic in the hands of those old sculptors. The chapel of the Condestable is the largest and most beautiful. His effigy and that of his wife, sculptured in Italy in 1540, are in a perfect state of presenilation. They are of the purest marble, the details of the dresses are elabo- rately wrought, the hands, gloves, little dog, and complex details of the armour are marvel- lously finished, but, like all sculpture in Spain, the figures are short and heads large, defects common to the otherwise lovely women I have seen here. In the sacristy is a painting of the Virgin, by Leonardo da Vinci, which I firmly believe to be an original work, and a really fine representation of the Crucifixion by Matteo Cerezo. There is also a crucifix draped in an embroidered crimson velvet petticoat. The traveller should make a point of hearing Mass in this, one of the noblest fanes in which God is worshipped. The full tones of the organ c i8 A SCAMPER THROUGH Stealing, now softly now loudly, through the aisles and arches, richly-garbed priests, light j>treaming through stained glass on many a monument of the dead and great, and veiled wom^^n ''blotties" on the pavement in the verit >i dejection of piety, make up a most impressive effect. The interior arrangement of the magnificent Spanish cathedrals differs from that of those of Italy, France, or England. The high altar is placed under the tower, or incdia naranja, and completely divided from the rest of the church by a rich screen, often the most elaborate part of the building. It is closed in front by a huge rejuy the workmanship of nearly all of which deserves minute inspection. Behind the high altar rises the refablo, magnificently carved and gilt, and before it a space for the two pulpits. In the middle of the nave, facing the altar, is the coro, or choir, with its reja ; the trascoro (back) is profusely decorated, as are also the respaldos del coroy or sides. 31 I SPAIN AND TANGIER, 19 It is a customary English saying, which, like many others, we repeat from year to year without ever troubling to examine the truth of, that none but a Spanish woman can put on a mantilla properly : I will a1 1 1 but ?i Basque woman cu ill hand Kerchief on lur head classical 1 v. The secret of both is this. The Spanish and the Basque women dress their hair after the fashion of the ancient Greeks, In a knot be- hind, about the middle of the head ; if they have not enough hair of .their own, they buy some. Over this, both mantilla and hand- kerchief—draped with a little artistic taste, of course — set well ; and If you will Imagine for yourself drapery over this shaped form, and over a round head without the knot, you will at once see what I mean, and be able to drape a mantilla for yourself if you are in the least artistic. An excursion from Burgos which ought not to be omitted Is that to La Cartuja, a Carthusian c 2 20 A SCAMPER THROUGH convent a couple of miles distant. Almost deserted now by the fast disappearing monks, it should be visited for the sake of the Gothic tombs of Juan II. and Queen Isabella of Por- tueal. These exceed in elaboration of detail, intricacy of ornament, and in delicacy of carvmg all that can be imagined of the kind, and may be ranked among the finest mausoleums in the worid. I cannot help thinking that good plaster casts of these marvellous works would be of great use to our sculptors and decorators. The statues are in -a recumbent attitude, and like those of the Condestable and his wife in the cathedral, short and thick. This monastery also has a fine statue of St. Bruno. At the entrance to the church was a pilgrim on his knees, praying most fervently. He was dressed in the long brown gown of the Franciscan monks, his cape decorated with crosses and scallop-shells, and his neck hung with numberless medals, rosaries and relics. He carried a staff, with a crucifix and little water- SPAIN AND TANGIER. 21 ^ bottle at the end, and seemed to have stepped for a few minutes out of one of Ribera's pic- tures, to give us an idea of how such things were done three centuries ago, when pilgrim- At the Cartuja. ages in a comfortable railway-train had yet to be evolved out of the coming ages. Truly when we pass into Spain we travel backwards a hundred years or more, into an 22 A SCAMPER THROUGH artist's paradise, whence the whistles of engines have not yet frightened away the spirit of the picturesque. There is another excursion, to a convent and church known as *' Las Huelgas," interesting on account of the strict clausiira of the nuns — who must be wealthy and of noble birth— and as being the place where aspirants to knightly honours used to keep the vigil {''velar las armas''). The confessional is a niche in the wall, in which the priest sits ; the nun comes to the other side and whispers her transgressions through a very slightly perforated brass grating. I caught a glimpse of one of them, wearing their extraordinary headdress, a tall black velvet pointed cap over her white one, such as may be seen in pictures of the time of Henry II. That hero of countless romances, the Cid, was born in Burgos in 1026, and his bones are still carefully preserved in a chest in the ayuntamiento or town-hall. In the cathedral SPAIN AND TANGIER, 23 is his trunk — **la doyenne des malles du monde," says a French writer — and it is sup- posed to be one of two which he left, filled with sand, as security for a loan from some Jews, assuring them that they contained all his jewels and gold, but that they were not to open them till his return. There is no proof the loan was ever repaid, an example which is not wholly without imitators in our own day. There are some fine old houses here, which stand like deposed monarchs amid the scene of their former glories. We soon left the bleak deserted city of the Cid, with its sombre wind-scathed plain, and started in brightest moonlight for Madrid. For hundreds of miles we traversed a treeless, lifeless, barren, hopeless-looking desert, cursed, it would seem, for the wickedness and pride of the past centuries. There is no agriculture, no water, no cattle — in fact, no life, nothing but a desert wherein thousands of armies might manoeuvre and not one be within hearing of 'i 24 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. n the cannon roar of the others ; and this kind of scenery continued, with little or no excep- tion, beyond the city of Valladolid, and till we reached M laiiJ. a journey of thirteen hours. The Kiie was sixteen pesetas or francs. So far i have not heard a guitar, and, contrary to all I have been told, have been .^truc'. with the gentleness, politeness, even kin Iness of the people. They will share their meagre food with you, go out of their way to give you information, and behave more like ladies and gentlemen than peasants. Only their curiosity is somewhat great ; they seem to find much satisfaction in knowing whether you are married or not, how many sisters and brothers you have, and whether your sisters and brothers are married or not. Neither are they here so dark as we are led to believe. We get our notions of Spaniards chiefly from operas, T think, and the type is about as correct as the shepherds and shepherdesses, soldiers and sailors of the lyric stage. CHAPTER III. MADRID AND VELASQUEZ. The impression produced 1} the treeless, arid, sombre plains over w^hich we travelled for such long hours could not be erased for many days. The thought of those cheerless hovels, which grow up as it were from the parched earth like fungus; of the hard, iin- sheltering sky and pitiless scorching sun ; and of the semi-savage peasants, living chiefly on bread and water, who sparsely inhabit the plains — IS most depressing. AH tlir centuries that have passed have done iiilie but j;aind them down : will the coming twentieth bring them a little freedom and hope ? One trusts so for the sake of the women who are beautiful, affectionate, and gentle, though when aroused 26 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 27 (which is not difficult), a tiger could not match them for fury. I have coupled the grand name of Velasquez with Madrid because, without his unrivalled works, there would be little worth seeing \^^.':re\ with them, no pilgrimage is too far, no fatiqiie too great to endure in coming. Ill the AIii^co Real are many most iniiH rtant wurk:^ 1)\- liiu greatest mnsters ; it i^ ^iiffiripnt to iricniion that there are fortv-six Murillos, fort\-ihree 1 itians, fifty-eight Rubens, fifty- three Teniers, ten Raphaels, twenty-two Van- dykes, thirty-four Tintorettos, and twenty-five Veroneses. The paintings here of any one of these artists would in themselves make a splendid gallery ; but when I add that the student is spared the miles of inferior pictures which make up the major part of other collections, it will be easy to estimate the importance of this, and it does the Spaniards infinite credit that, through all their poverty and struggles, they have managed to keep the masterpieces of their great artists in their own land. Of the truth, brilliance, and force of Velas- quez' painting no words can give an idea except, perhaps, to those who have studied his grand portrait of Admiral 1 Pare i a in the 'J Xciiional Gallery; but what cliiufiy impressed me about his work was it^ tremendous l^reaJih and simplicity. The \^enuses of Titian are sublime, and the Madonnas of Raphael pure and di\anc, but tin/ porsonages of X'elasquez are life itself. 1 L lb diffi CUi t t' , r»articulanse any one picture, but after *^Los Borrachos," by Velasquez, his ** Surrender of Breda '* comes next, as the two greatest pictures the world has ever seen. I place ** Los Borrachos " first simply because the figures, being life size, have a grander look than the smaller ones in the other picture ; otherwise there is nothing to choose between them. Perhaps, too, the harmony of colouring, the rich tones of yellow and brown in the former work, are more ■M \ 28 A SCAMPER THROUGH ^PAIN AND TANGIER, 29 pleasing than the sombre scheme in *' The Surrender.'* It may interest the student in art to know that in the picture of **Las Meninas," called by Giordano "la teologia de la pintura," Velasquez has introduced his own portrait, from which several hints as to his method of paint- ing may be gathered. The great artist stands at his easel, not sits, uses a mahlstick, and has five large brushes in his hand. The palette is set with the following few and simple colours in the order mentioned, beginning near the thumb -hole: — vermilion, white, light red, yellow ochre, lake, burnt sienna, umber, black or blue. The studio is lighted by a large side-light. It is related of this picture that, when finished, the artist showed it to Philip IV., his great patron, and inquired if nothing was wanting? '*One thing only," said the king, and, taking the palette, he painted on the breast of the portrait of the artist in the picture, the cross of the Order of Santiago, one of the most distinguished in Spain. The stiff little cross, so evidently the work of an amateur, still attests the truth of this story. Others of Velasquez' great works are the ** Forge of Vulcan," in which *'the beauty of the human forms makes up for the want of divinity in the gods;*' and ''Las Hilanderas," or ''The Spinners," a triumph of art, colour, and expression. It is needless to say anything about his portraits, second to none in the world, but it may not be so generally known that he was an excellent landscape painter, to which branch of art he appears to have given some study, judging from the fine sketches made in Rome, which are in this museo, Murillo takes almost equal rank among the painters of Spain, or indeed, of rhe world, there are two " Assumptions " here, which are nearly as good as the celebrated picture of that subject in the Louvre, but not quite, though I think the French picture is deterior- 30 A SCAMPER THROUGH ated by cleaning- and varnishing. No painter's work suffers so much from over-cleaning as Murillo's; it seems to rub some of his subtle atmosphere off, like the bloom off a plum. One of the great charms of the pictures in ^ladrid is that they are fresh and but little touched by the fatal hand of the restorer ; the dry climate has preserved them, and they are even now nearly as they were when they left the easel of the painter. Let us now leave the gallery, or mtiseo as it is called (only to return as soon as possible), and look at Madrid, the casket, as it were, which contains these inestimable artistic trea- sures. The best or most fashionable parts of it greatly resemble Paris ; the buildings are fine, of beautiful stone, and all look as if they were just finished, the extreme dryness of the atmo- sphere preserving rather than blackening and injuring the material. The older portions are much more characteristic. Here are the SPAIN AND TANGIER, 3' markets, where cartloads of water-melons, peaches, and vegetables of all sorts lie in the streets waiting for purchasers, and great quan- tities of red and green capsicums, brilliant as jewels, are always to be seen. La Latina. The Calle de Toledo is the best in which to see the people, and very nice and well behaved we found them. We visited two of the churches. The cathedral church of San Isidro is in the usual gaudy Spanish style, i ^ 3» A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 33 With much gilding, exaggeration of ecclesi- astical horrors, and other things which appeal to the imagination of the ignorant— I cannot say vulgar, for no Spaniard ever appears so. I think there are some paintings here of great merit, and well worth removing, though in the sombre light it is difficult to judge. The finest church in Madrid is supposed to be San Francisco; it is built in the classical style, and not badly ornamented, with paintings and colossal statues of the Apostles. The carving of the doors is remarkably good. One cannot help remarking the wonderful little figures of the Virgin in these churches, dressed in gilded raiment, holding bouquets of artificial flowers, and wearing wigs of real hair ; and the women in black veils literally lying on the floor before them, absorbed in prayer. In San Isidro are images life size, painted the colour of nature, representing the Descent from the Cross. Of these things I can say no more ; I can only be thankful for a religion by which so many regulate their lives decently, and in whose dogmas they implicitly believe. As to the houses, they are large, and, as the Spaniard loves all things, grandiose in appearance ; the rooms are built round a /)afio, or courtyard, in which are shrubs and fountains; I have not seen a single room which contained a fireplace. Much is said about the Spaniards smoking continually; it is true they smoke a great deal, and even light their cigarettes at table during dinner, but the tobacco they use is so mild that I, at least, have never found it objectionable. The next celebrated thing about which we have all heard is the fan, and this is the inse- parable companion of every Spanish woman outdoors and in, young and old, high and low, from the child of four years old to the tottering match-seller of seventy, from the queen to the washer-woman. The fans are small, and their chief character- istic appears to be the ease with which they D 34 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 35 Hi will open and shut, with a kind of jerk. They seem to keep time to their conversations with It, like the accompaniment of a piano, and fill up th* pauses (if any!) with their rhythmical fluttering-s. The streets are cool and shady, r ) shelter is required for the eyes, but n ' th ' vi 1 . i i i 1 I V ' ' 1 ^ I ' L» ■ : )i. mine" r tu ^hade their face^., ..:. 1 they appcar ind:>pcnsable to their existence. Tn Madrid the men strike me as being ugly and commonplace ; the women are handsome enough, and their eyes and hair deserve all that can be said in praise of their beauty, but in those velvety shadowy orbits, I can perceive no glance of intellect or self-repression. In Burgos we saw a wretched troop of boy- soldiers, whose shoes were cut away on the outside — for coolness, I suppose. It was pitiful to see them, but we looked in vain for the grand Castilian air of which we have read from our youth up. The muleteer still exists, and his mules wear the most complicated head-gear with numerous pleasant-sounding bells ; but, alas for sentiment ! the muleteer liim elf greatly resembles an English mechanic. k -: '■) t, • /~i whil- ih*"^ plav'^fN on tl^p " lii^iit iimVir a gf^nrral ianid\- likeness to tno beggars \v:io hainit >nir area^ in iJa- :-Lrloa.^ ol L.onduii. But )> aa wc have not yet seen tiie South. Perhai these dreams of poetry and r iniance may yt t be realised there. The north Spanish accent is very r iiairk- able ; each speech is a kind ui song or |joem ; the stress is always the same, on the first of every two syllables, the second being very short; this is repeated without variation for seven syllables, and there is a slight pause or drop on the eighth ; the cadence then begins again, and another drop in the tone is heard when the sentence finishes. Thus : — -^^ — ^^ — N^ , — --^ — s >^ — . The very news- paper vendors and fruit-sellers in the streets offer their wares in this kind of recitative, the D 2 3^ A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 37 unendurable beggars at every corner demand a copper in the same way, every one in speak- ing seems to be reciting a poem. It is very pretty at first, especially in the mouths of the women, but I can imagine one would get tired of it after a time. But the beggars! every kind of deformity is to be seen in the streets, every form of importunity is crone through, all kinds of blessings are invoked on the head of the giver of a cuarto, all kinds of curses on him who withholds his hand. Everywhere in \\iQ plaza there is chatting, flirt- ing, bargaining— men lying asleep In the shade amid piles of water-melons and other fruit, women, in gay-coloured handkerchiefs, drawing water from the grey old fountains, changing light and shade, sleepy mules, heavy-hatted men with brilliant draperies over one shoulder a scene which it would be difficult to realise in paint. The Academia di San Fernando contains the finest specimens of Murillo I have yet seen, and he equals. If not surpasses Velas- quez in glory of colour, while his pictures possess more atmosphere than those of any other painter. His colour is radiant, his shadows transparent, his figures advance and retire into the canvas as they would do in air. The two semicircular paintings here— represent- ing the Roman patrician who, in consequence of a dream, founded the Church of Santa Maria Magglore, in Rome— are in mvhiiml^le opinion superior to tho mnro celebrateil i'lii iiarder });ctuiv^ of ^' Saint Klizabfth, Oueen of llun-ar)-, healing the Lepers." No words can convey an idea of the splendour of these paintings. There are several other good pictures, among a great deal of rubbish, in this collection. In a street called the " Rastro " a most remarkable market or fair is held once a week, which I should advise no stranger to miss seeing. For the length of about half a mile the street is crowded with booths, amid which people in the most brilliant colours, donkeys 38 A SCAMPER THROUGH laden with melons, and gaily-caparisoned mules force their way. Every imaginable article is sold there, from guns, pistols, swords, furni- ture, tapestry, and books, to pots, pans, combs, ribbons, and cold water. It is noticeable that no Spaniard ever tries to persuade you to buy, yet always asks twice the price he intends to take for any of his wares you may w^ish to purchase. The life and animation, colour and variety of this scene are wonderful. We were the only foreigners there, and were taken for Frenchwomen ; to be English in France is to be looked down upon — here we were only curiosities. Many curios are to be picked up in the Rastro still, if one only has time and patience to search. The heat in the sun during the month of September is tremendous, and the shops are shut during the middle of the day, but in the shade it is cool and pleasant. I have WTitten all these particulars because we had such great difficulty in finding out any of SPAIN AND TANGIER. 39 these minor facts about Spain before we came, and they guide one greatly as to what kind of wardrobe to bring. One of the favourite «* on aits'' in England is that the use of the mantilla is dying out. I can only say that scarcely a bonnet or hat is to be seen in the streets of Madrid at the present time. Our hats attract considerable attention, but no rudeness or remarks. We made an excursion to the Museo every Sunday, because it was free ; on all other days half a peseta each is charged for admission. The pictures by Rubens are very numerous and fine. His great works here are ** The Brazen Serpent," and **The Garden of Love." The first stands second only to his ** Descent from the Cross," in Antwerp Cathedral. The look of illness and hopelessness on the face of the sick woman whom a man is holding up to gaze at the brazen image, is inexpressibly pathetic. Rubens has many faults, notably his tortured and twisted forms and red shadows, 40 A SCAMPER THROUGH but he is a great master after all. Vandyke comes out nobly here ; some of his portraits run Velasquez very hard, especially that of Eckaert the painter. Titian is grand and sublime. As usual, his portraits appear to represent noblemen only, while his Venuses and Danaes remind one of nothing so much as the Venus of Milo, or her namesake of the Capitol ; the same grand style, the same broad modelling which the ancient Greeks admired and reproduced, characterise him also. His equestrian portrait of Charles V. is a grand historical work, very noble and broad. Ribera has some most powerful heads here, and that truly Spanish painter, Juan de Juanes, is well worth study : he recalls Giorgione in the richness of his colouring. The world-renowned ** Spasimo " of Raphael excels in expression, but alas, for the flesh tints ! they are more like the tints of ma- hogany than anything else. **La Perla'* SPAIN AND TANGIER. 41 suffers from the same defect, but '^The Virgin of the Fish" is in another and better manner. There Is a fine Rembrandt here, in his early and most finished style— "Queen Artemisia about to swallow the Ashes of her Husband," signed and dated '' 1634, Rembrandt, F." - Christ in Hades," by Sebastiano del Piombo, is a powerful and magnificent picture. Of the fifty-three Teniers what can I say ?— they are all more or less good, very Dutch of course, and excellent in colour. I must repeat emphatically that the pictures in the Museo at Madrid have suffered less at the hands of the restorer than those of any other gallery in Europe. The shocking inundations at Consuegra oc- curred while we were here. Nothing else was talked about, but, on the whole, the Madrilenos took the misfortune very quietly. The flood came down in the middle of the night, and the poor creatures who survived were for a long 42 A SCAMPER THROUGH time without clothes, food or shelter. Between fifteen hundred and two thousand human lives were lost, and countless horses, cattle, and sheep. The greatest trouble was to get rid of the dead bodies ; however, they burnt them at last. Charity was not wanting, but the chief need was a head — someone to organise and direct. I relate with disgust that I went to a bull- fight, in the Plaza de Toros. Everyone said, •* To know Spain thoroughly, you must go to a bull-fight/' Having seen one, I emphatically say, ** Don't.'' In England we avoid the butcher*s shambles ; when we go to this scene we seek it. The affair is held in an amphi- theatre, like the Colosseum in Rome, exposed to the open air ; for the seats you pay as to whether there is soly sol y sombra, or sombray the latter being most expensive. Our guide first took us to see the dra^nalis persojicE — horses, matadors or espadas, toreadors or toreros, banderilleros, and picadors. The horses SPAIN AND TANGIER. 43 (I mention them first as being the noblest animals) are used-up cab horses, blindfolded. The picadors are on horseback ; it is their busi- ness to spear the bull. The toreadors and matadors are on foot, most gorgeously equipped in garments heavy with gold and silver em- Bull-fight. broidery ; the former have the red cloaks with which to irritate the animal, and the latter kill him ; while it is the duty of the banderilleros to stick barbed darts, laden with fireworks, into the neck, to infuriate him whenever he gets slug- gish. A priest and surgeon are in waiting, lest 44 A SCAMPER THROUGH their services should be required. The pro- gramme announced that six bulls were to be sacrificed this day. The amphitheatre, holding about 15,000 persons, was crowded, but I am glad to say very few women were present. To the sound of trumpets, the police, magnificently attired in old-fashioned Spanish costumes of black velvet, came in, and rode round the course to see that all was in order ; then followed a procession of matadors, toreadors, &c., and the gaily-caparisoned mules which drag off the dead bull. The men all saluted the president profoundly, and asked for the key of the torily or place where the bulls are kept. This was thrown down to them, and the sport commenced in earnest. A bull wildly entered the arena, and the two men, mounted on those miserable blinded hacks, proceeded to drive their spears into him. He, of course, repaid the wounds given by the lances to the horses, tossing them over and SPAIN AND TANGIER. 45 causing their riders many a nasty fall. The horses were absolutely disembowelled, and the brutes of men remounted these poor beasts and continued to ride them with their bowels hanging half a yard out, and one with a huge gash in its thigh. The blinded horses were actually put in the way of the enraged bull in order to gratify the people's craving for ex- citement and blood. At the sound of a trumpet the poor animals were withdrawn, I hoped to be killed, but I have since heard they are sewn up to serve for another day's sport. Then the toreros began to tease the bull by throwing red cloaks over him ; when he attempted to chase them, they ran nimbly behind a shelter, or jumped over the barricade. Their attire was most gorgeous, and they were, without excep- tion, young and well-made men, but I think I could detect great traces of pallor in their cheeks. The banderilleros then advanced, and they certainly ran great risk in trying to stick their barbs, laden with fireworks, into the animal's 46 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER, 47 neck, the rules of the art of Tauromachia requiring that they should stand in front of him ; however, they succeeded at last, and the fireworks exploded, but the bull was not so frightened as one would expect. He retired to the edge of the arena so as to have no enemy behind him, and the matador advanced, trying to put his Toledan blade into the spinal marrow. This is the real danger, as science prescribes certain formulae according to which it must be done ; on this occasion it took half an hour and many stabs before the deed was done ; once the human brute left his sword sticking in the animal's neck without much effect. At last he lay down, and the performer stuck a dagger in his neck and released him from his torture. The mules then dragged the carcass from the scene. The second bull was immediately let out, but the audience did not think him worthy of the arena, because he fled from the picador ■I when he advanced to spear him ; the hissing, screaming, shouting, waving of handkerchiefs, some on the ends of sticks, and throwing up of Banderillero, hats, made a scene of excitement altogether in- describable. Again the same hideous perform- ance, the same disembowelling of the horses, I 48 A SCAMPER THROUGH the same teasing the doomed animal, the same delay in giving' him the coup de grace. We could bear no more, and left the disgraceful scene. I advise anyone who goes to Spain, not to repeat my experience. The scene is not fit for English eyes, and if it were not superstitious I would say. No wonder the curse of God is on these cruel people. I can see but little bravery or courage in it ; the men in fine clothes cer- tainly risk their lives slightly, and during the performance a collection is made for their possible widows ; still the animal never has a chance — the whole thing is cowardly and un- sportsman-like. If the performers were not so gorgeously apparelled, I doubt if any one would go to see a bull-fight. Certainly they are good- looking after a fashion, have agile figures, and are clothed in wonderfully rich costumes, and rich costumes, even on the Virgen Santissima, tell greatly with the Spaniards. One can judge by the terrible excitement of the crowded Plaza de Toros that the people SPAIN AND TANGIER. 49 insist on having these shows ; the only way to eradicate their cruel taste would be to substitute some less revolting but equally exciting exhibition. I could find nothing in the affair to justify its being called a *' fight; " it is simply a massacre of bulls and horses, with a bad chance for the men. In our short expe- rience we saw four horses destroyed, two bulls killed, and a man wounded. It is said that each corrida costs upwards of ^400, and that the number of bulls killed annually in this manner in Spain is nearly three thousand.* The Buen Retiro is a crowded promenade, where the stunted trees are kept alive by c 3n- tinual irrigation ; it reminds one of Paris. The royal palace is an imposing square build- * << It is intensely difiBcult, even when one tries to look at the matter from a Spanish point of view, divesting oneself of all insular prejudice and sentiment, to see what vahd defence of bull-fighting can be set up. The brutal horrors of some portions of the scene defy description, while the degrading immorality of the whole is patent throughout, and there is withal little that is brave or even clever." — Lomas's Sketches m Spain. 50 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER, 51 ing, to which we could not obtain admittance ; but we visited the stables, where are kept three hundred horses and some very splendid car- riages, and saw the usual pageantry of horse- trappings, which are said to be Moorish in style. We also went through the Campo del Jardin del IMoro to the river Mazanares, which after some trouble we discovered, it being, after the fashion of Spanish rivers, more sand than water. However, we recognised it by a bridge passing over it, the number of women washing in the muddy little stream, and the acres of clothes hanging out to dry, for the washer- women of the Mazanares are celebrated. The most interesting part of Madrid to me is the street scenes ; in the lower quarters the life and movement are wonderful. Mules with the gayest and most elaborate trappings, which, like our own fine adornments, seem more a burden than a satisfaction ; women in bright garments, riding on donkeys laden with yellow paniers * i full of fruit ; men in short jackets, with yards of stuff round their waist which they use as a pocket in front ; girls with fans held up to shade their eyes from the sun ; policemen with swords and pistols ; black-eyed scnoras wearing man- tillas, walking gravely to the numerous functions in the churches ; houses gaily painted every imaginable colour, dry dusty crowded streets, and little squares with a few stunted trees in them, which, by perpetual watering, they strive to keep alive — such is Madrid. The soldiers wear sandals on their naked feet, and the mili- tary music is decidedly Moorish. The outskirts of Madrid remind me of nothing so much as the parched plains and thick, dusty roads of Australia, to which country much of Castile bears a striking resemblance. There is but little rain here, and when it comes, the museums, places of amusement, &c., are closed ! The abstinence of the people is remarkable ; the workman goes to his work taking with E 2 52 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER, 53 him a jar of water as an accompaniment to the bread and melon which constitute his mid- day meal ; glasses of cold water are sold in the street, and even the excitement of the bull-fight has no other palliative than the natural element, which is here so delicious. Beside the trains at the station the only refreshment sold is water, and under the trees in the Prado it is the staple drink. As to food, they appear to eat everything : I have seen octopus, melon-seeds, pine-seeds, and even hips and haws among the edibles for sale. The poverty of the Spaniards is con- spicuous on every side — it almost excites com- passion ; yet they seem happy — happier than we are in our wealthy island. CHAPTER IV. EL ESCORIAL. One bright day when the stainless sky hung blue overhead like a measureless sapphire, we started for the Escorial, that wondrous mass of architecture which Philip II. seems to have hewn out of the solid rock. It is said very few persons ever return. They either die of consumption in two or three days, or, if they are Englishmen, blow out their brains. The first adventure was that the booking-clerk at the railway station could not give change for a twenty-five peseta^ note, the second that the porter could not read on the ticket the class we were travelling ! At last the train started, and we traversed once more those dreary, arid * K peseta is nearly equal in value to a franc. 54 A SCAMPER THROUGH plains, whose waterless gullies, brown hills, strangely-shaped granite boulders, and weird, grey-coloured trees remind one so strongly of the far Australian bush, and in two hours had accomplished the thirty-one miles which lead to the village of El Escorial. We lunched capitally at '' La Miranda," and then visited the huge pile, which looks more like a fortress than anything else. Of course, it is built of the splendid granite which lies in huge, ungainly masses all around ; in the backorround are the blue and ever-bluer heights of the Guadarramas. Everyone knows, I suppose, that the Esco- rial is a church, palace, monastery, mausoleum, and museum all in one ; it covers 500,000 feet, has 1,200 doors, 86 staircases, 2,673 windows (I did not count them), and every- thing about it is colossal. The church is an example of Doric architecture in perfection ; solid granite piers support a solid granite roof, the steps of the high altar are of SPAIN AND TANGIER, 55 jasper ; there are some very appropriate but not particularly fine frescoes, some good pictures by Navarete, whose masterpieces they are, a choir elevated far above the altar, containing the seat where Philip usually sat, having near a secret door where entered the messengers who told him the news — which he heard unmoved — of the defeat of the Armada, and victory of Navarino ; splendid old books, a yard across, of the same date as the church ; the tomb of the late Queen Mercedes lighted by a single lamp ; these are the chief impres- sions I bore away. The library contains some rare examples of illuminated missals, and copies of the Koran in its elegant Arabian caligraphy. The cloisters are sombre and gloomy; the palace contains fine specimens of Flemish, French, and Spanish tapestry, elegant and in good taste. The rooms where Philip himself lived are plain in the extreme ; his bedroom, like many in Spain, has not a single window, 56 A SCAMPER THROUGH and the little room In which he died, opens on to the high altar of the church, so that he might hear Mass as he expired. In the choir is the celebrated life-sized figure of the Crucifixion by Benvenuto Cellini ; wonderful in execution like most works by that master, it is too ornamental to express any serious religious feeling. Cellini himself admired this work of his exceedingly, but as he was in the habit of liking all his own pro- ductions amazingly, and did not hesitate to say so, it counts for nothing. The Pantheon, designed evidently in imitation of the Medici tombs in San Lorenzo, Florence, is magnificent in marbles. The sarcophagi of the kings on the right hand, and the mothers of kings on the left, are of gray marble, ornamented with gilt bronze, each packed away on its separate shelf, six in a row ; among them is the late King Alfonso XII. The tombs of the Infantes, called sometimes '*E1 Pudridero," are of white marble elaborately SPAIN AND TANGIER. 57 carved ; there are more receptacles prepared than there ever will be Spanish kings and queens to fill, I think. Some of the children are packed away in huge, white marble con- structions, something like exaggerated wed- ding-cakes. There are two recumbent statues which I admired : chiefly, one of a Duchess de Montpensier reading, by Aime Millet, the great French sculptor ; it is exquisitely modelled and finished. I also liked the heralds in marble, standing at the doors, bearing the escutcheons of the buried monarchs. Of course, we saw Philip's chair, inkstand, and missal. It is said there are about two hundred monks here still of the Order of the Jeronimites. Some of the rooms in the palace are hung with needlework on satin, done by hand, and in each there were numerous clocks which one of the kings had a fancy for collecting. What strikes one is the extremely new appearance of iiiiiiiiiiaaaaiaitt lifaiiiffiiMi 58 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 59 all these objects ; the Escorial is more than three hundred years old, yet everything in it looks as if it were finished yesterday ; in this light, dry atmosphere even the gold and steel locks remain untarnished. Before the high altar of the church is a bier, surmounted by a crown and covered with a pall ; this represents Philip II. 's bier, and Mass is daily said before it still for the repose of his soul. ** Draw the curtain down, And let us hence to meditation." Comine back to Madrid there were two armed gendarmes in the train to protect the passengers. I have seen them in every train I have travelled in, and at all the principal stations two march up and down the platform. This arrangement appears to be necessary, for a railway official, travelling in a first-class com- partment alone, has just been stabbed and. robbed, and the villain has escaped. The poor victim shortly died of fever caused by his wounds ; all this happened within a few miles of Madrid. The intense heat of the summer months may be gathered from these observations : — the few trees the Madrilenos can boast of are planted in holes in rows : between each hole runs a waterpipe, and so by turning on the water at the highest part, the whole plantation is irrigated ; and the public gardens are laid out in little square patches made to hold water. When the rains commence they are tropically heavy, and the whole country is cut into little gutters where the water has run down and made channels for itself. Sketching in the street is always a trial of temper. Happily the people here are not quite so bad as either French or Italians ; they come and look at your work, and pass on in a contented lazy kind of way. Of course, the boys are a nuisance, but if one is good-natured sketching is quite possible about Madrid. The police seem a respectable body of men. 6o A SCAMPER THROUGH but their services were not necessary in any sketching- expedition of ours. For six francs a day one can live very well here. The view of the Sierra Guadarrama from the city is splendid; the mountains are of that intense blue, varying to the lightest azure, which is only to be seen In this or an equally dry atmosphere. Madrid has the reputation of being unpicturesque, but some of the houses in the older parts remind one of old Rome, and are well worthy of the sketcher's pencil. As the Picture Gallery was our first object, so it was our last. In making a farewell tour we went to the Sculpture Gallery, containing, among other statues, some of Canova's best work, and two portraits of the celebrated Isabel in crinoline and flounces, one holding up a baby. For bad taste these figures exceed anything to be seen even in London. The Museo also contains a collection of modern Spanish pictures, painted in Rome, most of SPAIN AND TANGIER, 6i which came from the French Exhibition of i88g. Velasquez had lost none of his charm : his freedom and mastery of execution still seemed little short of miraculous; Murillo was as atmospheric and divine as ever, and the pictures of Juan de Juanes, though hard, still appeared fine, and reminded me of Raphael. I was glad to find the first impression correct. I have not mentioned the rich collection of valuable vases, &c., in the long room, many by Benvenuto Cellini, because no one who loves painting can spare them any attention, placed as they are, in the midst of such noble pictures. The beggars are certainly unspeakable ; every kind of deformity which ought to be sheltered and cared for, is here exposed to view as an incentive to charity. Some take up a prominent position on the pavement and there perform their family duties; others stand about, enjoying the sun, and as you approach seem 62 A SCAMPER THROUGH suddenly smitten with the idea that they might as well have a copper out of you if they can get it by importunity, so they try for it— not so much that they want the money but that they would regret it if they lost an opportunity. On the fete-day (September 24th) of the sister of the late King there was a bull-fight held for a charitable purpose ; the streets were thronged with people, and the day was kept as a general holiday. The public buildings and most of the palaces were hung with velvet and gold draperies ; the police wore their best uni- forms—white breeches, long black gaiters, and cocked hats, while one division stood at the street corners, wearing swords and carrymg canes with tassels. Over all was a brilliant blue sky, of that intense, hard, hopeless-look- ing blue never seen out of Spain, and a fiery sun. The principal traffic in Madrid is carried on by means of mules, sometimes very richly caparisoned, with a picture painted on their SPAIN AND TANGIER, 63 wooden collars. Women and donkeys do nearly all the work in Spain. The large tri- angular stirrups seen in Titian's and Velasquez* pictures are still in common use. Madrid divides its time between the church and the bull-fight ; no wonder, therefore, Spain is about three hundred years behind every other Euro- pean nation. The people seem to be up early and late: at five o'clock in the morning and two at night I hear the same noise of traffic in the streets, and constant talking in the cafes ; in the latter, by the way, ices and cakes, and the inevitable water are the chief refreshments, partaken of even by men. An American lately cut the principal figure out of a picture by Murillo in a church here, and sold it to a gentleman in America. The Spaniards found and claimed it, and it was generously given back by the purchaser, and restored to its place in the picture. There is a picture by Murillo advertised for now at the Gallery, which has been stolen. 6+ A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER, 5; The Spaniards are rather a short race of people ; the men have good figures, which they retain late in life owing to their extreme absti- nence ; their chief defect is that their shoulders are very sloping. The women are large in the head, as a rule ; it is a great pity they wear so much powder as to make their complexions look almost blue. The peasants, both men and women, have what is commonly called an aristocratic air, and their unrestrained attitudes and freedom of gesture give them a sculptu- resque appearance. This is emphasized by a piece of drapery, a coat or cloak, generally hanging over the left shoulder. CHAPTER V. TOLEDO. At six o'clock one evening we left Madrid for Toledo, a distance of thirty-one miles, which it took four hours to accomplish ; fare, four pesetas twenty cctiiimos. Perhaps the dreadful railw^ay accident at Burgos the day before, where according to the Spanish papers — which had no news of the event till twenty-four hours after it had occurred — twenty-two people were killed and forty wounded, had something to do with the engine-driver's extreme caution. Railway travelling here is undoubtedly very risky. El Liberal, one of the leading papers, says: — "There does not pass a month, no, not even a week, without our having to lament a catastrophe on the Spanish railwa)^s, and un- fortunately the number is increasing." F 66 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 67 i( The Hotel de Lino, the only one in Toledo suited to other nationalities than Spanish, is very comfortable and very dear; evidently wealthy travellers would not find it particu- larly difficult to go through Spain. We, how- ever, retired from the hotel to a modest casa de htiespcdes, or paision, where we lived as best we might on oleaginous food at i\ve pesetas a day. The first impression made by Toledo on the western traveller is that it is a very remarkable place, even now bearing strong traces of Moorish influence. Beginning here, these traces increase as you journey south- ward ; you never lose them again. The badly-paved streets are so narrow and tortuous that vehicles seldom go through them. Every window, even those of the highest story, is covered with a reja, or railing, and— what I ought to have said first-the walls are still intact, pierced at intervals with picturesque gates. Toledo has one especial drawback, the ' i unparalleled impudence of the gaviim, who run after you everywhere, asking for a sou, or a centimito, and even insult you for no perceivable cause. They are as persistent as the mosquitos, and beg as naturally as those noxious insects sting. Of course, our first visit was to the cathedral, w^hich, though neither so large nor so hand- some as that of Burgos, is by some considered in better taste ; at any rate, it is simpler, and has the advantage of possessing magnificent stained-glass windows. The choir and high altar are separated from the aisles, as usual, spoiling the general view; the retablo^ is the finest in Spain, and, singular as it may seem to praise such things as gilt and coloured statues, is really magnificent. Toledo has been, in its day, a great centre for saints and miracles; there are still to be seen some wonderful miracle-working images in the cathedral, and their shrines are hung round with numerous * The reredos or screen rising from the high altar. F 2 > 68 A SCAMPER THROUGH viax votive offerings. For example, if a person breaks his leg, and it is healed after a prayer to our Lady of Misericordia, the happy con- valescent hangs up a little waxen leg at her shrine; if one's eyes grow dim, and the sight is restored after intercession with her, a waxen representation of the eyes is hung up to testify to her efficacy. There is shown here a miraculous stone on which the Virgin alighted when she came down to present San Ildefonso with a chasuble, which was formed of heavenly cloth; this the devout rub their fingers on before they cross themselves. The west front is a marvel of architecture, the tower inferior, and a classical doorway has lately been added on one side !— such is modern Spanish taste. The cloisters are fine, running round a J>aiio filled with flourishing plants, such as myrtles, oleanders, cypresses, and vines. We will leave the cathedral at present-only to return for a more detailed inspection, as it is the pivot on which all Toledo turns, bigotry and .^^4^ r. ^,' J :* r- - -...- - .1 \u j*ju-^ ^ ^; % . .Ii^ ' fl^ '"'^• f, m Pi* I f I 11 ■M^ sowr •■M Si*!!,' i'.€ % eAy^y t oi' the kind I have seen. 1-1 \io i.-, a -}iui--y'a'' turned into ;i church, iiKc manv utlv r luiilliiigs here, the I r-j r aiiU, restoralijn of it sr.^m^ tn h;ivp V-.--n hc-un antl carried far ennuc:Ii to ru;;i a, m* n stopped. 1. 1 The scanbklini; interrupts ainlhini; 1^'^'-^ ^ 1^00(1 \-ie\v of it ; the perforated marble windows excited my admiration, but I can see no nv-ntion of them in - O'Siira : " the Alham- braic ornamentati-n of the walls, on whieh trae^-. <>' C(dour siHl n-main, is most lieaiililub l^jth th-s.' bai!dinp-s are site. a-. 1 m tn'- J-wrv, an^! bear witness tr. tii- iniporlaiU Part, J-w^ have plav-d ;n Pi- histor) uf imperial 1 oledo. There arc curious nook-, about il;is old town, whicii \vc :nu:>i seek for if we desire to know '1 ■N^ It well. In one remote part we were shown two magnificent rooms, said to be portions of the palace of Alfonso \ b We canp up ri pu in after passing through an old patio ; the walls arc decorated wiih admirable and intricate stucco worl: ; over the round areh n IP' ' >t perfeer vine *s L[nv,vincr, but the roof is the eiiirf attraeti'"'n. lluilow, and carved of dark wood, it h'luls an air of calm to the otherwise too lipni roonu Then we visited the remains of the otYice of the Inquisition — now a posada. The magni- ficent roof of the hall of council still remains, and some low arched vaults in which the |)risoneTs were herded together. The scanty tairniturt' of tlie poor //uv7f/r/ looks strangely out of place in th<_^ grand old room ; the latter are stables lor mules and donkevs. Indeed, I have never seen roonps so devoid of furniture and comfort as ir Spain : a f^:nv i^hairs, a table, a small s-ea. two or thret! vaiueh'ss relipiotis prints, A\ \ t K\. I h.- \ iiprm- is eompli-te. To be G 2 H A SCAMPER THROUGH thoroughly Spanish, all the furniture must be draped in white. In the Church of Santo Tome may be seen a fine picture by El Greco, representing the magical burial of Count Orgaz, which was attended by Saint Augustine and Saint Stephen. As this event occurred in this very church, of course it must be true. The heads, espe- cially of the two priests holding the body, are extremely noble : the elder is grand, the younger most lovely and sympathetic; the dead body of the count, in armour, is beautifully painted. The upper part is less worthy of commendation. In the same church is also a wooden life-sized statue of Saint Elias, painted, which is a favourable example of Spanish sculpture, nearly always executed in wood, and coloured after life. This sounds rather badly, but they have managed to invest their figures with so much sincerity and force of expression that one cannot pass them by unnoticed. y \ SPAIN AND TANGIER, 85 The drawbacks to visiting Toledo are— that the food is almost uneatable, everything being cooked in bad oil ; and the irr^t^lence of the boys, who hoot and jeer at every stranger in the street. The place is full of curious — -^-i '' -L> '■J *=;«- ' .^*2.:<>-H->r!--^ «^.' •2, 5: '%>'& '*-•:. r^T«:-.-^j]- > --.-l^-^ .->^^^. i-^r>. ^_^.4^ archaeological and artistic treasures, which cannot be sketched, because the inhabitants are so barbarous as to annoy, and Hierally prevent your doing It. Yet every doorwaA\ 86 A SCAMPER THROUGH and every window is a study for an artist ; the doors, studded with huge nails, are especially remarkable. Behind the very casa de hiuspedes in which we are lodged are two beautiful :vi r;>a archways walled up, and the pillars of ir:e pafin ar- of granite, the remains of some niurc magnificent building. Toledo is at once the mu^.t beautiful and aggravating of places to .f,.- :•. -lii is -o raiitiva^'nor an^ so impossible. I examined mo-t ramfuih the coro in the cathedrril. iii-tiv ^aid to be the most beautiful jn iMir^n^a Int.; c.ir\-in,a '^'^ ^^^^' l^^wiT stalls, w" n I <: a or^ ir^: ui i w ihiui-wuud, is most elaborate, \ iauirrufihc Morcntine and M. x )rl-!i M\-^es ; n^^t L-- a-^-r r-'W -xceeds ev^a-vthin- imagin- able in beauty T'-v ar- .IhM-l bv ia^P-r p. T, ,.,,..< ov-T \vi-:. :i ap^ alabaster nirhes, adorned with fl-un^^ whir^h ^-pP•^-nl ih^ la'u- '»'f^n 1 1( irs (S^ )V-a- Liiri:.i. Thcbc aru >irongly modelled: I have seen some w rk in this cathe- drail wnich reminded me of Michel Angelo, especially in the reja of the choir. y SPAIN AND TANGIER. 87 The books are splendid specimens, a whole calf-skin being used to each leaf; the covers are so heavy that it is a task to turn them over. The Virgin over an altar in the choir, called the ^* Virgen de la Blanca," is, her name notwithstanding, very dark, almost black in the face, but not a bad figure, having a good deal of the Greek about it. The Spanish peasants prefer the Virg'n dark. " Moreno pintan a Cristo, Morena a la Magdalena, Moreno es el bien que adoro — Viva la gente morena ! " I also looked very rarefiilly at lii- various doors. What strikes one niuR r-paciaUy is the newness of it all; though the loundauon-stone was laid as lar back as 1J2;, in this wonderful chniaic evcnlhing appears as If hnlshrd hut yesterday. After this remark, the guide-book descriptions give all the other infbrniatinn possible, and no words can convev am ade- quate idea of the tremendous Gothic caUa drals 88 A SCAMPER THROUGH I SPAIN AND TANGIER. 89 of Spain. They stand far apart, long tedious journeys are necessary to get at them, but once seen they mark an epoch in life. Their tall pillars seem to cleave the skies, and the arches to blend into the warm and palpitating atmo- sphere; the delicate tracer}^ around reminds you, by its variety and lavishness, of nature itself; and you have no feeling of being indoors, but simply of being in a different scene, when you enter the overwhelming fabric. The weather is as hot as Rome in July, and it never seems to change ; we need not say, " To-morrow we will go to such-and-such a place if it is fine ; " we take it for granted that it will be fine, and so it is. Rather a contrast to our own uncertain climate ! We saw the archdeacon in the streets, a most gorgeous personage, with a broad, brilliantly-coloured band across his black vestments, and an order hanging thereto ; a star of precious stones ornamented his not very manly breast. The archbishop is still more gorgeous ; he never I goes abroad even in these narrow, rough, little streets except in his coach. It is best not to say much about the insects ; they are of many kinds, and the mosquitoes excel all others of their sort in rapacity and impudence. It is getting monotonous to be stared at and followed every time one puts one's foot out of doors, to find two or three persons occupied in steadfastly gazing on you while you eat your humble meal, and to be hooted at in the streets. Only once did anyone inter- fere to prevent our being annoyed, and that occurred when I was trying to sketch with a pencil one of the magnificent nailed doors, and was literally swarmed with children. I saw even a Spanish artist surrounded in the same way with about thirty of these little imps, though he had paid one boy to drive the others away. When I sketched the Puerta del Sol they went so far as to throw dirt and spit at us, calling us ** Frances "—French. When one sees a priest it is natural to expect he will try 3 qo A SCAMPER THROUGH to restrain the children's rudeness, but in vain ; they are perhaps worse than the rest of the people. The reason the food here is so unpalatable to English people is this — there is no pasture, therefore no cows ; no cows, therefore no butter ; no roast meat, therefore no dripping ; and in north and central Spain, no pigs, there- fore no lard. So fish, flesh, and fowl, vegetables, and the few sweets used, are all cooked in the strong oil of the country. The food is rather over-cooked, unlike that of their neighbours, the French, who prefer their meat simply warmed through. We only eat bread with our coffee in the morning ; the Spaniards soak one in the other. All I have written so far refers to north and central Spain ; we are now about to take the long leap that leads to the southern cities; for Spain is like a schoolboy's cake— the plums are few and far between, but when found are of the most luscious description. At the station we SPAIN AND TANGIER. 91 heard the train last evening from Madrid did not arrive till 1.30, that is, It took seven hours and a half to traverse thirty-one kilometres ! No capital is so badly served by railways as Madrid, and though so near it, benighted Toledo is still a place out of the world ; shut up in itself, its objects of interest are as much hidden away from Europe as if they were in China or the very centre of Morocco itself. 92 A SCAMPER THROUGH CHAPTER VI. CORDOBA AND ITS MOSQUE. We left Toledo for Cordoba one evening at seven o'clock when the stars shone like rivieres of brilliants in the sky. The stars do shine in Spain, not glimmer, as in some countries I could mention. No one seemed to know by what route the train would go, because, owing to the inundations at Consuegra, the entire traffic is disorganised. The guard said one thing, the porters another, and every passenger had a separate and individual opinion on the subject, which he duly aired. For a Spanish railway-carriage is a salon de conversation ; no sooner does a person enter, than, having said, '' Buenos dias," " Buenas tardes," or '' Buenas noches," as the case may be (and about this ^ ^ %.r^': u%fr,^'i£^^^^>;^4n 5',- '^' ■■■'4^' \yA^ <^Me^Jfj^/U^/ay , TOr.ylf/^/'€i^. To4^.n SPAIN AAW TANGIER. 93 'I they are very particular), he immediately commences a conversation with his fellow- travellers in the most confidential manner, as if they had been friends for years. They all talk and shout at the same time in very high voices, so it is difficult to get any sleep. As there are no buffets on the southern railways, it is as well to carry provision for the journey with you ; on the northern lines it is possible to purchase a little refreshment, but when once you leave Madrid for the south you can buy little but water and fruit at the stations. Four armed gens d'armes, having peram- bulated the platform as usual with the air of noblemen, got in pairs into two of the carriages, and the train at last started for Ciudad Real, to which place and no further we could obtain tickets. The train crawled there, and we were put out on the platform about midnight, to take second-class tickets if we wanted to go on ; if not, to wait till half- past one the following day. Of course, we 94 A SCAMPER THROUGH did not hesitate, and went on, and the whole journey only cost between thirty-two and thirty-three pesetas each ; or, as Spaniards count, one hundred and sixty-eight realsj^ At one o'clock the train reached Cordoba, in heat so tremendous that it was difficult to endure. The first part of the journey was over the same desolate wind-blown plains ; then we came to red earth, sprinkled thinly with a little hay-coloured grass ; what the scanty cattle supposed they were eating I could not imagine; next we saw olive plantations, with aloe hedges, in the midst of which lies Cordoba. We stopped on the way at nume- rous places where we could see no stations, and whose name no one seemed to know ; a few people got in or out at whichever side of the carriage they pleased, and those who went appeared to vanish over the interminable plain. * A real is worth 2|d., and is the standard chiefly used in business calculations. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 95 Cordoba lies in a valley, and presents no fine appearance — has not, in fact, the grand air and style which distinguishes Toledo, but, examined closely, it is full of many and varied beauties. The streets are as narrow and winding as in the latter town, like all those made by the Moors ; the windows and doors are hardly so quaint and picturesque, but the patios — nearly every one of which is surrounded by stone or marble columns, and planted with shrubs very rare in northern climates — are greatly superior. All have a huge awning, to be drawn during the heat of the day. The paving of the streets (it was the first town ever paved) is rough and uncomfortable, but along most of them runs a line of smooth flat stones for the pedestrian. Our old friend Velasquez is justified of the horses here : of the Andalu- sian breed, they are large-bodied, and have very small heads, and that peculiar hobby- horse action which we generally abuse in his equestrian portraits. They have long flowing f 96 A SCAMPER THROUGH tails and manes, silky skins, and are very handsome. I am as long a time in coming- to the chief centre of interest in C6rdoba — the Mosque, as we were in going there ; owing to its low posi- tion and the tortuous courses of the streets, it was difficult to find. Once there, we were en- chained, entranced, and I cannot hope, calmly writing, to convey an idea of the impression it made. A forest of marble columns, a skyful of round arches, a large high altar and rctab/o and nobly-carved choir— these were the first concrete objects which loomed through the chaos of bewildered ideas ; on closer examina- tion there appeared so many gems of Moorish remains, that a whole day scarcely sufficed to examine them. We shall visit this great shrine — in which one religion does not seem so much to supplant as to blend with another— again and again. The entrance is through a very narrow door SPAIN AND TANGIER. 97 beside the great Gothic tower. The Moorish bronze door and arch, called the ** Gate of Pardon," over which the tower is built, are magnificent ; but here, as everywhere, the deli- cate tender traceries of the Saracenic work are elbowed and jostled, as it were, by the rougher Gothic architecture in an endeavour to sup- plant it — not that some of the latter work is not beautiful, but it cannot bear the comparison. The vile hand of the spoiler has built up many a beautiful arch, overlaid with plaster many a wall and window covered with the most delicate arabesques, and stuck tawdry altars and images wearing wigs at the end of the superb aisles ; but enough of complaints — let us be devoutly thankful for what remains of this, the noblest specimen of Moorish architecture in Europe, not excepting even the Alhambra. There are in the Mosque over one thousand columns, all of precious marbles — pink, blue, white, black, and yellow, and nineteen aisles. Describing this building a modern French H 98 A SCAMPER THROUGH writer says: — '' Les colonnes, d'un seul mor- ceau et d'un pied et demi de diametre, ont dix ou douze pieds jusqu'au chapiteau, d'un corinthien arabe plein d'elegance; elles sont de breche verte et violette, de jaspe, de por- phyre ; elles soutlennent deux arcs en pierre superposes qui parfois s'entrecroisent. On a fait au milieu de ce quinconce mauresque une e^lise chretienne en forme de croix latine qui en tout autre endroit serait admiree." The exterior resembles a fortress. Glori- ously tinted walls and towers surround the Mosque and the magnificent patio, planted with orange-trees and palms, some said to be one thousand years old. The fountain is that once used by the Moors for their ablutions ; and here the people come to laugh and gossip, to tell and hear the news, and to repose in the heat of midday and cool shadows of evening. There is no other spot in Europe quite like this. Some kind of restoration, of course, is SPAIN AND TANGIER. 99 going forward in the Mosque, but it seems of a beneficent kind, for men are stripping off plaster, and revealing delicate tracery like that of the finest Cashmere shawls, and throwing down brickwork which fills up the beautiful proportions and colouring of the horseshoe arches. In some places the original panelled roof of arbor vitse, covered with designs, is being unveiled from the disfiguring plaster. Anything like the beauty of these marble columns, which came from Italy, Greece, and Africa, it is impossible to imagine, but the chief glory of the Mosque is the Mih-rab, or Holy of Holies, where the copy of the Koran made by the Khalif Othman was kept. It is a chapel and niche, covered with the most marvellous mosaic, which gleams like jewels in the sombre light. We will return to this wondrous edifice another time— perhaps many times ; it is to be the running theme of this chapter. Meanwhile I may add that Cordoba was a Phoenician city, H 2 100 A SCAMPER THROUGH which passed to the Romans, who, as usual, set their strong stamp on it. From the dominion of the Goths it passed to the Arabs, and be- came pre-eminently distinguished as the court of the western Khalifs. Seneca and Lucan were born here, and in later days *'el gran capitan,'* Gonzalvo de Cordoba. The Mosque was built by Abdurrahman, to be a place of pilgrimage, instead of Mecca, for all Moham- medans in Spain who did not care to make the longer journey. The much-talked-of use of the fan is indeed universal. At church this instrument plays a very conspicuous part in the devotions; it is put into a baby's hand at two years of age, and seldom leaves it afterwards. The secret of its graceful usage seems to lie in three things— first, the instrument must be supple; secondly, it must be worked from the wrist ; and thirdly and chiefly, the user must be unconscious that there is anything noticeable about the manner in which she flutters it. ^yy- ^///rfn/A/?^ - y^t/J^tf n/. 11 «* h is. I I SPAIN AND TANGIER, lOI \ It is the fashion here for girls to wear flowers in their hair, sometimes, I am very sorry to say, made of paper. One curious thing I have noticed all through Spain, and that is the familiarity (never impudent) of servants with their masters. A running conversation is carried on with the waiter at the 7nesa rodoiida ; * the servant who brings your coffee in the morning will sit down and wait and converse with you while you drink it. In truth, in every country I have yet visited there is none of the absurd slavishness in which it is supposed to be the thing to keep English servants ; no dignity is lost by it, for a Spaniard cannot lose his dignity whatever he does, and the servant is thus acknowledged to be a fellow- creature. Speaking of servants reminds me that Spaniards only take two meals a day ; we were unable to attain to similar heights of self- denial, so took coffee in the morning, always brought by a neat little maid, who was * labled'hdte. 'mem 'wmmmmm \ lOZ A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 103 glad indeed to break her fast, which she would not otherwise have done till two o'clock, with whatever remained. I think I ought to say something about the hands of the Andalusian ladies, who are nothing if not ornamental. As they never do anything worth mentioning, of course their hands are well -formed and very white; the nails are highly cultivated and cut into points like bird-claws ; I have seen even men with two or three nails on their hands above three-quarters of an inch long. These lovely hands the ladies when at dinner place conspicuously on the table, and proceed to business by ladleing their viands into their mouths with knives made broad in the blade for the purpose. I have seen them stir up their half-boiled eggs with a knife before swallowing it; and they use the toothpick freely. Talking of the women reminds me somehow or other of the melons, which they also shovel in with the knife. The flavour is indescribable, like the 4 i Mosque. They are of several kinds, from the simple water-melon to those which taste like diluted pineapple, near the middle full of sun and sugar; perhaps it is worth while endur- ing this heat for the sake of the flavour. It is October, but still too hot to go out in the middle of the day ; when we do go out we are the objects of greater staring and remarks than Queen Victoria when she goes (if ever she does go) to the East End of London. One gets used to this in time, however, like real royalty. In Spain our experience was that of the French author, who writes: — '*Tout le monde s'est mis aux fenetres a notre passage; les vieilles femmes couraient comme les jeunes pour nous voir ; les hommes meme ne resis- taient pas a la curiosite. La rue ou nous de- scendimes se remplit en un moment. Si c'eut ete de TadmiratioUj nous I'aurions supporte; mais non — les jeunes garcons me faisaient des grimaces d'un air de grand mepris. Je suis entree a I'eglise: on faisait cercle autour de 104 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 105 moi. Les femmes tataient Tetoffe de mon manteau, et les gamins se vionraicnt de me faire des cruautes; quelques-uns me taperent un peu sur la tete et le dos." Such, in so many words, was our continual experience. The word, " Mira ! mira !" * which signalised our appearance, will be for ever hateful in my ears ; and *' Frances ! Frances ! "f will always make me shudder in future. Since we left Paris we have not heard a score of words in either French or English, and I could not advise anyone entirely unacquainted with the Spanish language (except the rich, who have couriers) to make this journey. It would be almost impossible. The Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir is splendidly picturesque, one of the most wonderful performances of art in Spain ; the old water-worn stones tell the tale of many a contest with the elements through untold *'*Look! look! " t " French! French ! " 1 F 1 centuries. It consists of thirteen arches, though the guide-books say seventeen and eio-hteen. Let us return for a little time *'a la to Mosquee, ou I'oeil se perd dans les merveilles.'' The exterior remains in most places as it was in the times of the Moors ; in others the Goths (justly a term of reproach) have built up ^Z'^^^^ ■^w^ & ~^l-£i/' jsarrj^^'^'''*'' • *^''-'^--^~tJ- ' ^^...-M^/i '"i-t " • -r^-i-^^ s^^*^ <^ Cordoba Bridge and Mosque- arches, defaced battlements, erected altars, and committed numberless barbarities. The old Moorish entrances may still be found, some vilely defaced, others changed by the intro- duction of Gothic pillars and inscriptions. The original walls seem simply to have been crowned with battlements and supported by io6 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 107 buttresses ; they are in tapia, and from thirty to forty feet in height. The area enclosed is six hundred and forty-two feet long by four hundred and sixty-two feet wide. A great many priests were saying prayers sometimes when we went there, but the congregation was usually nil. As is customary in Spanish churches, there are two pulpits, one each side of the altar; one is supported by a rebellious bull in marble, the other by a contemplative youth on a lion, and both are rococo in style. The clash of bells, which I had before remarked at Burgos, was repeated here, and is very effective. The magnificent silver lamp hanging from the roof should be observed ; it weighs sixteen arrobasJ^ Cordoba is anything but a dead city ; till twelve o'clock at night it is very much alive; the cafes are open, men are eating cakes and drinking water, and people are parading under the orange-trees in the Plaza called *' El Gran * An arroba is a Spanish weight, equal to twenty-five pounds. Capitan." Until we came here we never heard a guitar in Spain, except when some dirty ragged beggar in Madrid strummed an instru- ment which, in answer to strenuous applications of his fingers, yielded forth a smothered note occasionally as an accompaniment to his importunities ; but here the guitar is played to perfection. Some singing may be heard, too, and though the people have no voices to speak of the wild intensity of the execution of the un- writable music is most interesting. I heard the Arab singers at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, and this singing more nearly resembles it than anything else I can compare it to ; it is also like the monotonous melody of the shepherds on Vesuvius. They have no notion of the intervals between the notes which cultivated musicians have formulated, and this makes their singing wild and spontaneous, like that of the birds. The streets here, and the scenes In them, r. jo8 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 109 are the despair of the painter; with every opportunity it would be difficult to render them, but with opposition of every kind it is almost impossible. The caparisons of the donkeys and mules are gorgeous, of every imaginable colour, and adorned with tassels which serve the purposes of ornament and of driving away the flies. You see them in every street, always in the very spot where, if you were a painter and the street a picture, you would introduce them. There is a representation of the Crucifixion in the Mosque which haunts one; a life- sized figure, coloured like nature, hangs on the cross in the mystic interrupted light of one of the side-aisles ; real hair as long as a woman's streams down the emaciated form, and minofles with the blood, while the feet are nailed with silver nails, from which votive offerings are suspended. The tortured expres- sion of the shadowed eyes is terrible, even the ridiculous crimson velvet petticoat cannot do ^' away with the Impression it causes. The whole thing has an awful effect, both morally and physically. There is also a miraculous image of the Virgin— votive offerings by the score surrounding It, and I once watched a priest stand reverently in prayer before It for hours. I never Imagined the heat here was so great ; it Is October, but nowhere In Europe have I felt such fire from the sun, even In July and August. Only that In the southern hemi- sphere rivals It. The shopkeepers sit drowsily In their shops, idly waving paper flappers to keep the flies off their wares. It always Interests me to hear High Mass In the greatest cathedrals, and so heard it here ; it is not so Imposing, however, as that at Toledo. The sermon was an intemperate abuse of Pro- testantism whether levelled at us or not; I do not know. I was glad the preacher was confined to the pulpit which he so vigorously thumped and kicked. The undisguised indif- ference of the priests is noticeable, and par- w -A It 110 A SCAMPER THROUGH ticularly the inattention of the little boys, who run here, there, and everywhere during the services in scarlet petticoats. The women, who bring their campstools, or sit on the naked floor clothed in black, with their heads covered with mantillas, have the monopoly of devotion. The builders of this beautiful Gothic church seem barbarously to have hewn away the elegant marble pillars of the Moors, as if they had been so many trees, to make a place for it in the very centre of the Mosque. Elsewhere it would seem a noble church ; the retablo of pink marble and bronze-gilt figures is fine ; the huge altar is of silver and silver gilt, but here every bit of Gothic irritates one. It is simply agonising to see the manner in which they have covered, defaced, and in some places destroyed the tender Moorish ornament, hiding jasper columns in plaster, placing rococo altars ruthlessly over priceless tracery, even covering up the jewel-like mosaic which has no equal in Europe. ^ SPAIN AND TANGIER. 1 1 1 In the Villaviciosa chapel, the most precious of all the remains, an attempt, atrocious, of course, has been made to restore the original colouring of the vault ; I only trust it may soon be washed off The true Moor- ish ornament which is left on the walls is like lace, or the most delicate ivory carving, resembling the delicate tints of a natural flower; while the restored portion is like the vulgar colouring of the paper foliage with which some years ago we used to fill our fireplaces. As we were always the observed of all observers, people even going out of their way to walk beside us in the streets, it is not wonderful the beggars considered us natural objects of prey. A tiny girl, with velvet eyes like the petals of a black pansy, dressed in rags of every hue, followed us one day for a mile with perseverance worthy of a better cause, chanting incessantly, '^Un centimito, por caridad de Dios ! che yo no tengo padre ! " The next day we saw her in most gorgeous I 12 SPALV AXD TANGIER. robes, holding her father by the hand, en f^te I The walls of Cordoba are supposed to remain just as they were described by Julius Czesar; they are quite insig-nificant, and, like the houses, whitewashed. How the Spaniards love whitewash ! perhaps because, like charity, it covers a multitude of sins. The fruit, except the melons, is disappointing to an Australian; people from northern climes might, perhaps, echo the ecstasies of the books on the subject. The natives say winter lasts here only two months, and that there is never any snow. Every town, every village in Spain, possesses its Plaza de Toros, and Cordoba is no excep- tion. It has also a fine promenade, planted with orange trees, where the fashionables appear and sit at little tables and drink water in the evening, for life is essentially an out- of-door performance whenever the sun does not interfere to prevent. If I were to write a chapter on the Spaniards' -^■^:>.„.:^-^ .- " Paca.'* I 4 H i»4 A SCAMPER THROUGH manners at the dinner-table, it would be very short -simply that they have noyie. The table is thus set out :-it is long and very narrow, and down the centre is a row of small dishes containing fruit, decanters of wine, earthern vessels of water, and artificial flowers in little vases. On either side of these are olives, radishes, capsicum salad, and toothpicks. The guests take an olive or a radish between each dish. They put their arms On the table, especially the ladies, and as a matter of course eat with their knives. There are many dishes ; soup, or a mixture of eggs and bread, is served first, then garbanzos. a coarse kind of pea, which -aspires to be considered a haricot bean and succeeds but too well,'' cocido,* stews, skinny fowls, and afterwards salad, either of capsicums cut in small pieces, or of lettuce, swimming in oil and water, which announces the end of the repast, • This dish is composed of beef, sausage, pork, pudding, garhanzos, cabbage, lettuces, beans, &c. SPAIN AND TANGIER. "5 excepting the fruit, to which every one helps himself. Very little salt is eaten, and mustard, pepper, pickles, and sauces are conspicuous by their absence. The meals invariably re- semble each other — there is no change from year's end to year's end; and every dish reeks of the rancid oil in which it is cooked— fish, flesh, and fowl alike. One great comfort is that the bread is uniformly good from north to south. During the dinner men light their cigarettes, conversation is very animated, and fans are flirted vigorously. The greatest con- tentment appears to prevail ; a Spanish gentle- man will make his dinner on what no one in England, except the very poorest, would even taste. As to smoking, every workman smokes, and the shopkeepers serve you with a cigarette in their mouths. As in most foreign countries I have visited, the lower classes seem to lead happy and contented lives ; they have their share of the I 2 J..M p i- Wi-' ii6 A SCAMPER THROUGH good things of this life, in the beautiful atmo- sphere, in the glow of the sunshine, and in the fruit, flowers, and vegetables, which they can get for almost nothing. Nowhere is seen the sordidness and hopelessness of English poverty. The poor girl puts a flower in her hair, dances her national dance, makes love, goes to church and confession, and is happy ; the poor man may work long hours, but he beguiles them with a cigarette, eats his dinner of water-melon or olives and bread, makes love, plays his guitar, and is happy too. One is struck with the absence of birds, and misses the feathered songsters throughout the length and breadth of Spain ; the reason is that there are so few trees. A patriotic Tole- dana, anxious that no good thing should be wanting in her native land, once stoutly main- tained that there were plenty of birds there. Asked where they lodged, she placidly re- marked, '' In the air, of course." Permission to paint in the Mosque was easily SPAIN AND TANGIER. «'7 granted us by the segretario—di very fine personage in priestly robes. The behaviour of the people to us when we were sketching was little better than that of the Toledanos. Every house has a patio, In which the Inhabitants assemble In the evening for con- versation, singing, and dancing. I have mentioned the Roman bridge before — It Is certainly as magnificent a structure as any to be seen in Italy. The Roman arch adjoining Is worthy of Its nationality and looks ** all Its age." The traffic Is principally con- fined to donkeys and mules ; many streets are too narrow to admit vehicles ; those that are not, are labelled " Entrada de Carruajes " at one end, and **SaIIda de Carruajes" at the other. The baker comes round on a donkey, carrying the bread in leathern panniers. A walk through Cordoba Is full of interest. The poor remains ot the once most luxurious Alcazar, the old palace of the Gothic kings, then of the Khallf, and afterwards of the ii8 A SCAMPER THROUGH Inquisition ; the potro, or horse- market, mentioned in Don Quixote ; the Plaza Mayor, or Corredera, surrounded by houses having balconies with windows ; the Campillo, where heretics condemned by the Holy Office were burnt ; old markets, and many streets reason- ably paved and lined with tolerable shops, may thus be inspected. In the Church of San Pablo they were cele- brating the ''Giubileo" of the Forty Hours. There were numerous figures of saints m this church, dressed in magnificent robes; the transition from coloured statues to this degradation of sculpture is the ''facile descensus Averni'' The altar was a mass of lights and artificial flowers, with a gilt background ; in the midst of this, images of Jesus Christ, the Virgin, Saint Joseph, and Saint Paul appeared, magnificently robed, holding sceptres and wearing crowns. The dresses were of rich brocade; but as I saw a shop one day where ** plated articles for I / ..^^> '"'^-Z-^^' L-. a U^ '(Z. \ SPAIN AND TANGIER. 119 the use of the Church " were sold, I cannot answer for the crowns and sceptres being of real silver and gold. The reverse of this magnificence was the crowd of beggars encamped at the door, some with the most hideous deformities which defy imagination ; they ought never to be seen out of a hospital. But Andalusia is called ** la t terra di Maria Santissifna ; " so perhaps all is as it should be. At all events the people seem happy, and are certainly most good-natured. The Church of San Nicolas de la Villa is particularly rich in religious statues — more properly called figures. I cannot deny them a certain amount of expression ; having said this, all I can say in their favour, I will describe them. Some are simply of wood coloured according to nature ; the next step is to images clothed in real clothes and wearing real hair. They vary from life size to that of a medium-sized Dutch doll, and all are of a most distinctly Spanish type. There is I20 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 121 I a group of full-sized figures kept covered with a curtain : Jesus Christ appears in the centre ; on one side is the Virgin robed as a nun, hold- ing a rich lace handkerchief; on the other Saint Joseph in the richest brocaded silk. The middle figure is seated in a melancholy atti- tude, drippmg with blood, and having long woman's hair reaching to the waist. There is no connected action in the group, which is horrible to look at. Next we have the Virgin alone, the si;fe of life, dressed in royal robes and crowned ; then about eight inches high, dressed in silver brocade. Many other saints, also in costume, figure in this church. I have noted a few remarks about Spanish customs, which 1 dare say everyone knows, but which were new to me. Spanish ladies seldom leave their houses, except in the evenings to take a drive. They seldom or never walk, and all that can possibly be left to servants, the ser- vants do ; they must lead most miserable lives, forever sitting at a barred window playing with a fan. The custom of courtship being carried on through window gratings still obtains ; a suitor, or novio, occupies himself night after night in pacing to and fro the window opposite our house, waiting for his beloved one, who, by the way, very seldom gladdens his vision by her appearance; when they agree to be engaged, he will interview her parents, be received in the drawing-room if accepted, and woo her more comfortably. Spaniards certainly only eat twice a day, but their diges- tion must rival that of the ostrich ; a man will eat at the same meal two kinds of salad, water- melon, peaches, a few beans, and a very little indifferent meat, and wash these things down with some bad wine and a lot of water, and still survive. Great is the power of habit. As there are no fireplaces, so there are no bells ; when you want a servant you clap your hands in the corridor outside your room which sur- i| 122 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 123 rounds the patio, just as they used to in the Arabian Nights. The men ride extremely well, and never ap- pear to so great an advantage as on the superb Andalusian horses ; they do not lift themselves in the saddle, but move with the undulating motions of the animal. Sometimes' they use mules to their carriages. The donkeys are larger and better behaved than those of Black- heath or Greenwich, and follow their masters like dogs. Across the narrow streets awnings are sometimes stretched from house to house, forming a most complete shelter from the sun. I do not think many middle-class Spaniards can read, very few can write ; there- fore all their knowledge is obtained from observation, which accounts perhaps for their perpetual curiosity. Their redeeming quality is their intense good nature ; during our jour- neys we have always been treated with the greatest kindness by them. The horses are most beautiful to look upon ; they appear as if they had just stepped out of the Elgin marbles, or were the equestrian pictures of Velasquez revivified, or the colossal animals modelled by Donatello and Verochio down from their pede- stals ; their satin-shining skins, small heads, red dilated nostrils, and peculiar gait would stamp them anywhere, and their riders sit them just as Velasquez has represented. On everything and everywhere, from the most important to the most trivial thing, one still sees the indelible stamp of the Moor ; begin- ning at Madrid, it becomes more and more distinct every mile you travel south, till where the Mediterranean chafes in his narrow channel between the two continents, the types are almost confounded. The colour of the sky at evening resembles that of opals and amethysts ; one night near the horizon it was orange, yellow higher up, then red, last a thick rich purple. The moun- tains of the distant Sierra Morena are all tinged with these marvellous tones; at times they 124 A SCAMPER THROUGH appear a blaze of crimson, then orange ; lastly, they fade Into intense violet. A description of a place is like a painter's sketch from nature — one touch on the spot is worth all the elabora- tion afterwards. The mosquitos are a scourge all over Spain ; it makes one shiver to think of their shrieks of triumph as they hover fiend- like over their helpless human victims. The monument, ''El Triunfo," erected on the spot where the angel Rafael alighted, on some remarkable occasion, has an inscription to the effect that the inscriber asseverates by '' Jesu-Cristo crucifido " that he was an eye- witness of the event. After that who can doubt It ? Toledo was the scene of more miracles than I ever heard of before : this Is the only one I have remarked in Cordoba. A little way outside the town Is the cemetery, con- tained In white walls, and planted with cypresses. The greater number of graves are above the ground In tiers six deep ; the coffins are put on the shelves endwise ; others are SPAIN AND TANGIER. 125 like ours ; the poor are thrown nameless Into a common fosse, used over and over again. Criminals (they are garrotted here) have a separate place of interment under a wall. In the church adjoining Is an image of the Virgin which was found in a well ; the well and the Virgin are both shown, and it would be a matter worth Inquiry to know whether or not she came up In the gorgeous robes she now wears. There Is here the grave of a lady, whose nationality Is unknown, who, ac- cording to the sexton's account, was killed In a railway accident. In reality she was robbed and murdered within a few miles of Cordoba, In a first-class railway carriage, In 1884, and the assassin has never been discovered. Pious hands have placed a wreath of Immortelles over her nameless tom.b. On many a grave is simply Inscribed, ** Hijo de mi alma," * expressing more in four words than all the syllables which cover many a more pretentious headstone. Life * " Son of my soul." 126 A SCAMPER THROUGH in C6rdoba is short and full, the climate is most unhealthy, and old age seldom reached ; we, who only remained here for a fortnight, became in that time enervated and idle. Evening in C6rdoba came swiftly. O'er Each outline, standing crudely sharp and white Against the deep blue sky, the fading light Flung clinging mist. Then at the western door, Where passed the tired-out sun to rest once more, The deepest orange shone ; and still more bright. Above dark yellow met the dazzled sight Blent with rich red ; beyond deep purple wore The changing heavens, till opal, amethyst Were rivalled, and the strong dark hills afar Glowed, bathed in crimson 'neath the ev'ning star, Which like a brilliant shone. The moon took birth— A silver strip set in a purple mist. Then Night in ill her jewels came to Earth. SPA IN A ND TA NGIER. 1^7 I CHAPTER VII. SEVILLE AND MURILLO. h\ the blazing sun ui October we left Cordoba for Seville, aiul, there being no ihirJ-class carriages to the train, took secoml-Lla^s tickets, eleven /^5^/^^ and a lialf each. Once more we traveTscd wide arid plains — planted, however, hrrt: and tlaTC with olive- [proves, and in tli*,^ distance hjorned the Ion or blue hine of the Sierra Morena. Beside the railwav, for the whole distance, were long rows of aloes and cactuses. The muddy Guadalquivir sometimes put in an appearance : a few herds of swine and cattle tried to feed on the drv scant o'rass ; little huts one would hardly ask a donkey to live in, where the men who guarded them creep to sleep at nii^ht -were visible here and there ; T2? A SCAMPER TI/Rui'GII and an eagle sometimes soared Into the quiver- m^r air. At Almodovar are the tine ruins of a castle, overtopping- the whitewashed little villaw below, interestinl^^ like all this country, to the readers of Don Quixote. So sure as there is a village in Spain, it is whitewashed; so sure as there is a man, he looks like a brigand who has mistaken his vocation. In some places the husbandmen were scratching the earth with ploughs made out of tnxis drawn by l)ullucks ; the share is a part of th(^^ root. So we got saft'ly to Seville, a thing to be thankful for; 1 mean the safety, since tht^ -ival S[)anish rail- ways having only single lines, the down trains, of course, have to be shunted asidt^ at a station bi-tore the up ones (\an pass, and nee versa. We were disappointinl with the first view of Seville, the '^Marvel of Spain," the '* Ouoen o\ the Moors/' &'c., ^^c. It reminded us of the worst part of Xaples---partly, I think, because the railway-station is situated in one of the very SPA IX AM) TAX(;iPR. 129 worst quarters, as is so often the case in this part of the world. But the greatest disap- pointment was the cathedral— not the buildino- Itself, but because a large portion has fallen, and nearly all the nave and side-aisles are choked up with the scaffolding and beams necessary to support it. The height appears tremendous—it gave one the vertigo to gaze u]) mto its vast arches almost lost in the clouds; the style o\ the architecture is much severer and purer than that of either Jiurgos or Toledo. Ihe stamed-glass windows date from 1504, and are the linest in Spain; the doors, and such portions of the exterior as have escaped de- struction, are very majestic. The Puerta del Perdon was tht^ entrance to the mosque which originall}' stood on this spot, and is the twin sister to that of the mosque of Cordoba. Slowly as the S|)aniards work, it will be very many }'ears befon^ anyone will have an unin- terrupted view of the interior of the glorious cathedral of Seville, now a mass of scaftbld- K I \ f xo A SCAMPER THROUGH SPA IX A.\D 'PAXGIER. U^ ings and hoardinc^^s. This does not soem to be orenerallv known. Tht" STianiards are collectinir money in every T)0>sii)le manner to meet the yast expt-nses ol the restoration, chari^nno- admission to the Museo at Madrid, the Tobace*^ Factory, Casa de Pilatos, ascent of the Giralda, &'C., and duyr^ting the receii)ts to this object. Iloweyer, we were able to yisit the Sala Capitular, a most perk'Ct InnldinL:", <>^'i\h'. Its (^iii.'f attrac- tions t<) me were tiv pa'ntin;!^^ ])\- MiiriHo. Those who liavf^ oidx' stndi-d this c:"reat artist in the ^^all-ri'-^s of j-eie^l^nd. J-Vancr. and hah- ma\' h* \[auo;ina> ar; a\- n:^> ext iir^cd when th^}- luvv m t}pe; here the reverse i^ di^lineiiy the case. In his " Conception of the Virgin" ::i I'N Sala, the face has the liveliest, holiest expessicn ever rendered on canvas, and !s ideal in tvpr^ ; hvpercriticism might suggest that the drapery \-> a little heavy, that is all. The eight pictures of saints, by the same master, around the chapel are wonderfull}' hue, especially those of Santa Justa and Santa Ruhna. A\T' ascended the beautiful tower called the Giralda, a most easy task since it is done on an inclined plane, up which a horse might walk nearly to the too. So far as the Moors worked, which was one hundred and fifty feet, the architei^ture is lo\-ely, and the material ex(|uisite]\' tinttd bricks ; but higher up, where the Spaniards built in white marble, it ceases to interest me. It was erected in 1 196, is three liundred and iblv feet in heii/ht, and contains some hue-r^ bells. The \'iew fi'om the summit is crlorions. V rni'^^'l^' it was tht^ tower of ni')S'|iif. nn-i irern he niiit.'ddin cntel liie li« >ur lur praver. The accompan)ing sketch of the Giralda was taken from the Court of Oranges, near the Sagrario, one evening when it rose like a tall pink shaft into a sky trembling with the K 2 I n^ SPAIN AND TANGIER. purple light which Spain, and Spain only, has borrowed from Africa. The last rays of the setting- sun bathed buttress and pinnacle in golden light, and the soft perfume of the orange-trees, borne on the gentle airs, lapped one's senses in a dream of Taradise ; the eentle fall of wder into the fountain in the distance was just audible where I sat. Aj this sounds pleasant, but some boys were 'ware of the sketching, and crowded round. Vcybiini sap. The fountain was the original one used by the Moslems. In the corner is a staircase lead- ing to the famous Columbine Library, and to the left is a stone pulpit where San Francis has preached. The euide who showed us over the cathedral told us that the accident to the building took place in i8S8; some workmen, who were restoring, took a large stone out of one of the columns to replace it with a new one, but before the latter was placed, the bovcdas^ or roofs, and four columns fell, destroying the I ;*• i « ■*1. - .1-/ U-#^; The Giralda. 1 34 A SCAMPER THROUGH inu5i buaiitiiui ["1111)11. Uf the fourteen work- X rrirn tmployed, not one was killed. It is doubt- • 1 1 tiU;\- wki u\-r iM' aij.'- to reconbtruci uie portion, for thi> iui^^'t- pile secni-^ t'^^ have exceo(l^ai tlu' limit f)f size it i^ p^i^^-ible for man to l)U!io. The ^t'jnt: is a ricii, m-Tow x'rH-jw, ant] th^' e\'eninL[ sun-rcU's iciiiinL;- < -n it makf it look like a pcilaco oi L^'okL 1 ho \'auntoJ 7"(jrrc d'Oro owes its name to this circuiia^ianeej but hs not otherwise beautiful. Ihe Alcazar, castle or Moorish palace, is like a iairy scene. U}ie fuv}\' a iubjiiratio)! seized me here, and I have no words in which to describe the deHcate architecture — carved windows, which repel rather than admit the superabundant li-^ht in this hot climate, heavy carved and gilt doors rolling in their huge pivots, airy arches, ceilings of panelled wood, and painted interiors. I can only say that it is nearly a perfect specimen of the pure Moorish architecture of iiSi. The visitor passes through room after room of that exquisite SPAIN AND TANGIER, 135 > and delicate work which we are apt to associate with the Alhambra only; the Rooms of the Ambassadors, of the i^rinci-, of vaQ Sultarois, have ear]] li »*ir special anil a[)|>ro|3riaLe colouring-, 1 hi' vauited roof of the Sala de los KmbajaJuies is a thing ol beauty to be remt^nibered forever. The intdia Jiarauja half-orange, as the Moors call cupolas, is of admirable proportions and work. One begins at last to believe the proverb — *' (,)u!en no ha visto Sevilla No lia V15I0 maravilla." The most romantic gardens imaginable are the gardens of the Alcazar. Greatly improved by the Spanish kings, they are visions of love- liness, where tall palm-trees, huge magnolias, roses, myrtles, tile-encased pavilions, marble baths and fountains, blend into a perfect scene from the Arabian Nights. No one w^ould be surprised to see the dark-eyed beauties of the harem suddenly re-peopling the fairy scene. f - h. A S(\\Mn:R ri/RuCuii There are some underground 'oaths and [irisons, the latter for the benefit r»f the sultan's refrac- tor}' wi\'es ; and the |)aLi("t' onc^c extended so tar as the T^rrt.^ d'0r(3 h\' the riv'^r. The^ outside of the Aleazar, a^ is usual with Moorish buildings, is pkun ; it has no windows, is battlemented and supported here and there bv buttresses. Th* Patio de las Doncellas is a maL^niho'ut court, surrounded by fit'ty-two marble columns, and, like manv another before us, we were dumb with admira- tion when we entered its shadowy arcades. Trulv tlie Moors knew better than anv other nation how to defy the h^'at, and mak(3 lite worth livin^C,^ even in this almost troj)ical temperature. The treasures of the cathedral, which are kept in the Sagrestia .\bi\or, are very numerous and valuable ; a cnsfoaid in silver twenty-five ieet in height, numerous chalices, monstrants, crosses, &c., glittering witli jewels, are shown, together with a thorn from the crown of thorns, a CUT) mad^' fVom the first e'okl that came from SPA IX AXD TAXGIER. ^37 * \ America, and the keys of Seville given bv the ^Moorish king to Saint Ferdinand. To quote a French author : — " Vous nagez dans Tor, rarirent, les nierreries, le brocart, les ornements incomparables." The most remarkable of these treasures is the cusfodia, which is ** twelve stages high, and formed of four stages, resting on ninety-six beautifully ornamented pillarets. The allerarical statuettes — the children, vine- work, rt/itvos — all is beautiful." It weighs forty-eight arrohas, so I suppose it is the largest piece of goldsmith's work in the world. In the same vast hall is a " ]\Iadonna Dolorosa" by Murillo, most exquisite in expression ; he w^as a master of expression as well as of colour. The priests' vestments kept in presses here, are superb specimens of embroidery, dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and said to be unequalled. In the Capilla Real, behind the high altar of the cathedral, lies the body of San Ferdinand, in a coffer of massive silver, placed on a jasper k ^ n^ A SCAMPlK riiR: >(■<;!/ altar. The body is even now well px^eser\eJ, and // is saiJ tht^ swellin-- of one of Ins feet, where he had the q-^uit, mav still 1;- sec^i. Pj^'hind the tomb is an im:i^:^^e of tlie X'ir^in, "Our Lad}- or" Kin^^'-s," -iv^n ])\' Saint Louis to Sair.t Ferdinand. It is of wood, and has articu- lations, so that she can staPid or sit ; at j)resent this venerable relic is covered with jjrecious stones given by her admirers, and wears a crown of large emeralds. You descend a few steps beside the altar, and there, arranged on shelves like so many jars, are the cottin in whicn the bodv of the saint was oric'inallv placed, the coftms containinor the remains of Dofia Maria de Padilla, the celebrated mistress of Pedro the Cruel, of Dona I^eatrix, the wife of San Ferdinand, and of Alfonso the Learned. The interior of the cupola is very fine, and is decorated with statues of all the kin<^es of Spain. Let us now tear ourselves away from the cathedral for a time, and visit the picture- s^allerv. SPAiy AM) TAXGirR. 139 ■ This i\Iuseo is contained in a building which was formerly a convent and church ot the Franciscans. l^he lower floor contains some marble fragments from Italica, of no great merit ; vou pass u}) a fine marble staircase and find yourself in the presence of the greatest works of Murillo. Llere he rises to sublime heights of painting, and may be said to rival, if not surpass, \'elasquez, who, though he was born in Seville, is unrepresented here. He has the honour of a room to himself in this, the finest picture-gallery in Spain after ■Madrid. The greatest work of this superb master is, to my mind, "Santo Tomas de \allanueva giving Alms." Never have I seen finer colour, composition, chiaroscuro, expres- sion — in fine, everything that makes a master- piece. The saint's head is an epitome of charity and goodness ; the kneeling beggar is life itself. Most artists do not know their best works, but Murillo was right when he called this '"mi cuadro," and preferred it to 140 A SCAMPER THROK;// all his Other works. An amateur even, writing of this gallery, says :— '' Douze ou quinze toiles de iMurillo, qui sont reunies la, meritent a elles seules qu'on iasse cinq cents lieues.'* The " Saint Thomas'' was erreatlv admired bv Wilkie, who also calls it the finest picture by this master. Nearly as fine is ''Saint Francis embracing the Crucified Saviour ; " the heads are magnificent, but I could not get over the impossibility of the situation. *'St. Felix de Cantalicia with the Infant Jesus in his Arms " is anotlier masterpiece ; the child is the best this artist, who excelled in children, ever painted, warm flesh and blood in glow^ing sunlight. "Saints Leandro and Buena- ventura " is remarkable for the broad and simple treatment of the draperies. "Saint Joseph and the Child" is a fine work — the nestling head of the child particularlv tender. In all Murillo's works I notice his perfect masterv in the treatment of hands. '' wSaint Anton}' or Padua" bt^lungs tu the same list ol SPALX AM) PAXGIHR. 141 ' . exalted masterpieces ; the expression of the saint's face is rendered as if by a miracle; it seems as if human hands could never produce such a marvel of art. The other pictures in this collection I did not find interesting — In the presence of Murillo they wcve like lamps w^hen the sun Is shining — all seemed hard and cold beside the works of the great master of atmosphere, colour, and expression. Three specimens of sculpture, perhaps the very finest of their kind, are placed In this room. Santo Domingo and San Bruno are by the Spaniard Montaiies, while Torre- giano, the sculptor of Henry YII.'s sepulchre In Westminster Abbey, is the artist of the third — " St. Jerome striking Himself with a Stone in the Act of Penance." The expres- sion In these works is very forcible. In search after ]\IurIIlos, more eager than that of the o-old-di^-orer for his fatal ore, we visited many churches in Seville. Very celebrated are those pictures of his which are In the 14: A scaj/j'a/^ niiiuL'in Church a:i 1 1 1 jspital of La Carldad. After knockinq-, we were admitted by the kind and gentle-looking- sisters; how lucky for them that taeir founder had ariistic intuition enoueh to give co!]i:n;>Muii^ to M irillo instead of to ciii interior painter, for the pictures remain in statu quo, and form a lucrative source of revenue to the chiri'y' This institution was founded bv a voung nobleman, Don Miguel de Manara, who was relebrated for his reckless profligacy, but who reformed, and died a perfect example of piety. It is ten thousand pities that the church is so dark, and the pictures so high, that one can scarcely form an opinion about them. Yet f-v-en in the gloom, that called "^ I, '^ed," or '• Moses striking the Rock," and the * .viiracle of the Loaves and Fishes," could be distin- guished as masterpieces, though, I am inclined to think, a little inferior to the great works in the Museo here, and in San Fernando in Madrid. A head of the Saviour as a boy, and another I ^■\i of Saint John the Baptist, placed under sepa- rate altars, an" pa'ntci] b\* Mariilo, an J are wni'thy of him. I do not share Wilkie's adauration of " ::)dn jacUi de DIos with an Ancrel ; " it appear^ lu me black and spottv. Here are also two driaJiul pictures by Valdes Leal, one representing the half-decayed J body of a bishop, the other a skeleton treading over a globe. It is the right thing to senti- mentalise over these works, anil r< peat the taie of how Murillo, on seeing them, exclaimed, ' Une cannot look ai )uur picture^, Leal, without holding one's nose." Lu .king at them, notwithstanding, from an artist's point of view, they are mistaken in subject, and hard and dry in execution. More worthy of sentina iiaa re- mark is the epitaph on the founder's tomb on the threshold of the sacristla : — *' Cenizas del peor hombre que ha habido en el mundo/'* La Caridad also possesses a fine " Ecce Homo" by Alonzo Cano, and, like all the other * '' Ashes of the worst man in the world." I ! 144. A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. HS churches here, specimens of Spanish sculp- ture in wood, coloured after nature. I am far from despising these in their places, they are ^o admirable in expression and model- .ne. San Saixaai-aa cin ancient mu:-qiiL' r'jULinl, contain^ the m(j>l w.-.;nin inul }ctahlo in the wur^t imai^-inabhj taste. Gilt scr^u]> i):h''l up and hanq-iiv^'" forward, mixed witli tlxan^i^- ant^-rds and cherubs painted the coh)ur of lire: under- neath, a life-sized fii^aire of Clirist, bearing a cross eilt at the ends, wearini'- a velvet robe embroidered with gold, and having three (apparently; large gilt hairpins stuck in his head; or the same personage, sitting in a pensive attitude, streaming with blood, and crowned ; or a distresseddooking \hrgin in recal attire, carrvinir the everlastincr lace hand- kerchief; or, perhaps, a Bambino exactly like a doll, dressed in lace and wearing brooches, chains, &c. — such are the principal recollections brought from Spanish churches. San Salvador E" rejoices in the possession of a nn racle-working image of Christ, called '' Cristo de los Desam- parados," which is very popular, and the chapel in whicli it is placed glitters witli gold and h 14 111. Idle Casa de Idlatos is so called bt:-caiise the foundu.T had the not very brilliant idea of building" it in imitation of the house of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem. Tt consists of some elegant Moorish rooms, opening on to an exquisite patio of two galleries, with a fountain in the centre. The Greek statues in the angles do not, in my opinion, harmonise with it. What the visitor principally notices is the variety and beauty of the iridescent azuLjos, or tiles, with which the lower part of the walls is lined for about ten feet from the floor ; above this is the usual Alhambraic stucco ornament. The doors and shutters are old and extremely fine. One room represents the pra^torium of Pilate, and in it Is a copy of the table on which J 14^ A SCAMPKR TI/ROr';il the thirty pieces of silver were counted out. Tii the ccHd. or chapel, is a eop\' of the column to which Jesus Christ was 1)oun(h ;L;iven i)\' I'ius W t<,) the lir^t Duke of Aicahi. Curiou-lv onou'''h, it IS as diffcn/nt from the '' rr^ai " c'tienv', snown m St. Peter':?, Rome, a^ it eun \<^j^<,i\j\y be, the SuvlHlan v\\\cs bein- short, straight, aiiii iA pink marble, while the R nia i i- a rich, twisted column, \ery tall, and made of white Greek mar})Ie. Seville, lik^ nv>-t :::>pani>h cities ! have described, if we exeepi Toledo, lies on a plain ; It is all white, but the houses are relieved with balconies, rniradors, plants, different-coloured shutt Ts, &€. The streets are narrow: through but lew of ih^ni ran a carriage pass. The pr-i :ri[ei! one for business is the Sierpes, and iiu vehicle is permiiieJ to traverse ii — which makes it plea-am lur pedestrians. The shops are curious ; those of the drapers and most others are open to the streets, without doors or w'ndo\v=, and the counters r_:n alone at the ¥ L . SPMX AXD TAX(rIER. U7 I)ack, wli(/re may be seen the assistants smokim^ cii^-arettes. llie awninL^'s stretched across the streets from house to liouse ^nve a verv oleasarit effect of Hi^lit and shade, and may be drawn at pl< asure. nf cnurso, the boys are troublesome here, a- priests are as bad: what can we hope :lno for the future of b paj wii^-'i the euides lo i^ improvement and morality have so hopelessly lost their way? Party feeling runs very high, but at this moment a romantic devotion to "el rey-niiio " seems to predominate. "Pv the way, 1 always find myself describim^ tiio rathedrals and museums first, and the cily wliieh eontains them last ; this must be because the latter is nothing but the frame, as it were, to those glorious pictures. By taking a tram to Triana, one can walk thence to the celebrated porcelain factory of Messrs. Pickford c^ Companv, established in an old cartiija, ur Carthusiari monastery, Triana is a suburb of the town, across the L 2 pi 148 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 149 It 1 \. ! river, inhabited by the lower classes and by gipsies, where Miirillo is said to have selected his models. Like many other things about Seville, its characteristics are generally exag- eferated in 'books. The manufactory of porcelain is immense, ail' I splendid clay is found in the Guadal- quivir close by, but the pottery is of the usual common French and English sort, and we did not care to purchase a specimen. Hundreds of men and w^omen are employed there, and though it seemed a pity to put the poor old church to this use, the establishment does a great deal of good in giving employment to so many people. Some of the Spanish workmen appeared real/y to do a little work, though they kept their cigarettes between their teeth as usual. Walking in summer is rendered difficult by the roads being nothing but a sea of dust, and in winter nothing but mud. The strings of mules and donkeys— white, grey, brown, spotted, piebald, and of every imaginable hue, with their many-coloured trappings — are among the most picturesque sights in Seville. . The riding of the men is magnificent — they seem glued to their horses and be one with them ; hence the movement is most easy and graceful ; they must look like centaurs, or preferably, centaurs must have looked like them. The eirls of the lower classes are a brilliant sight on Sunday, wearing yellow, black, and white shawls embroidered with the most vivid colours, and having more flowers than usual in their hair; flowers appear the one luxury of their lives. Vegetation in the gardens is most luxuriant; plants which only flourish in hot- houses in England here reach the dignity of shrubs; cockscombs grow to four feet in height, gum-trees seem not to be aware they are not in their native Australian bush, dates ripen on the palm-trees, anil liuge oleanders ISO A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 151 1 1 are full of blossom. The Alameda de Her- cules, a shabby promenade, scarcely repays a visit. The friendly feeling- I have before remarked as existing between master and servant is found here also. A tale is told at the dinner table, the waiter caps it; a piece of news is related, t!iu servant gives his additional in- formation, this does not prevent h -u from handing the next dish most politely, with the r-nrirk that it is ^'un plato muy bueno." The mai Is also entertain you with remarks and No-crc^ while they are doing- up your ^^^^^-- ^^ course, these comments do not refer to the upper classes of society, of which I liaJ no opportunity of judging. The Spaniar 1- ;.:■; not at all a grasping people; they do not try to wring the uttermost cuario nut of you, and make but little effort to sell their wares. We bought two little vases in a shop one day, and afterwards decided to purchase a third, but the shopkeeper said, 161 wrapping it up in paper, it was a regalo (gift), and we accepted it. Neither are they interested in improving their position, and seem happy as they are. But it is these very things that help to make them so impossible as a nation ; moreover, you cannot depend on them, and no coercion has the least effect. In the baptistery of the cathedral may be seen one of the masterpieces of Murillo — nearly all his pictures are masterpieces,-^'^ The Infant Jesus, surrounded by Angels, appearing to Saint Anthony." I canii )t describe it better than by saying it looks as though Heaven really opened, and the lovel) Child appeared in the glorious light which issues thence. The utter devotion of the kneeling saint is expressed in the most wonderful manner, the tender glory of the Child is most touching, an 1 the com- position of light and shade is equal to anything Rembrandt ever produced. The whole scene seems literally swimming in sunlight. Above ^ ill it [I in V i 11 ' li^Z SPAIlY AND TANGIER. ihis grand work hangs **The Baptism of ^-^^^r.<, uy the same great master, equally glorious in colour. Murillo has deservedly his two statues, one in Madrid, and another here ; but nowhere have I seen one erected to Velas- quez, who shar^N with him the honour of being the g-reatesi ]';unt-r ui" worja has seen. Ui course, \\c went to the tobacco manu- factor}', an extensive building, with twenty-eight patios, and numberless rooms, galleries, &c. Art fl\e thousand girls are there, seated at low tables, making cigars and cigarettes, chatt ring and laughing the whole time, and urc^^bcJ, or railicr undressed in the gayest colour:^. Tiic) take off their dresses, boots, ^L., un Liitrniig, and hang them round the room ; some keep flowers in their hair, others put them in wat-r to keep fresh till they leave their work. Mo^t -e of the boasted type of Sevillana beauty, that is, with lustrous deep eyes set in dark orbits, j a e complexions, and piles of T k r--. Una Cigarrera. I? t! If I i: f 154 A SCAMPER THROUGH y deftly. They are hair, and every one has beautiful hands. They range in ?.^(^ from twelve to sixty; the older ones seem to make cigars, the younger ciga- rettes, and they w-ri. w. l^ild ci peseta a day, and, of course, cannot live o: I'.at alone. '* The cigarreras oi Seville f* rm n special class, like the grisettes of Bor- deaux an! Ikiyonne," and do not seem averse to a cigarette themselves. Some had brought their babies, who were lying in cradles at their feet while the) wuiKed. The food sold them in ihc building seemed to consist mainly of frie u tlie odour of the whole place was almost insupportable. Mnivofthe girls begged, and pulled our dresses a^ w^ passed. I was rather reminded of a menagerie of wild animals, and indeed, the services of the two persons, a man and n woman, wiiu aLLuiiipanied us closely through- uut u.ci' \;:^:i, were not unnecessary. The effect ui c olou r m looking down the long rooms, full of brilliant sunii-:.t, where so C::> ii^'^USS^^^-- SPAIN AND TANGIER. 155 . many gaily dressed girls were bending over their work, was almost dazzling. The drive to Italica, the remains of the city where Trajan, Adrian, and Theodosius first saw the light, occupied an hour over a road which was literally a bed of dust. The amphi- theatre is the only thing to see there now ; it was built to contain twenty thousand persons, and the remains are Titanic. Tt was over- thrown by an earthquake, and the liuge piles of masonry lying round rem ndcd me of Capri, where masses of brickwork may be seen, hurled from great heights, and yet unbroken. The [1 at form where the magistrates sat, seats for the people, doors, lions' dens, and sudarii where the gladiators prepared themselves for the fight, are shown, but at present there are no excavations going on. 1 l^c notice which meets your gaze as you desemd ir nn vonr carriage, *'No se permite rentrada;' simply means, being interpreted, that yuu muhi fee the guardian. The views there were very 156 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 157 wild and savage in the fading light of the L^rtober evening. il 1:5 ^a id t:;at iKiiira wa^ tViunurd u} ::)cipio Aincanui a^ a rc:5liii^ jMacu lur lur^ cuHX'alccj- ceiit and wounded ^uidicfb alirr the caiii|icii^ii against thtj CarthaL^'inians ; it iiiu^t, at an\' rate, have been an impertant i)laee to have possessed so large and handsome an amphi- theatre. Lvini-'- in the folds of the hills, it has been Ijut partially excavated; beneath them may be buried many other Roman remains, but the Spanish Exchequer does not permit the luxury of much antiquarian research. The guardian of these ruins is a typical Spaniard ; he took us to his cabin in the circus, dark and small, and sold us a few coins he had found. He lives there alone all the year ; what would not an artist give for such a residence for a few months of sketching weather? Near Italica is the church and monastery of Santo Ponce, founded in 1301, very extensive and ancient in appearance, but we did not enter it. It would not be possible for a more in unduiaii*)'!^ of tht/ bodv and wax'iiig ni uir- ,irnis and hand-, than m niovcnir-nt ul liir ict-t. i iii;^ >he con- tinued fjr -onv: tiin-'. diul, animated h\' t:ie rvt-'t- ()? V'-^ company )!! >, she ' i ' i gradiialh' lit-gan to ninv^ fa^t^^r and la^t^T. 11]^' t'X(ht^'nv'^t iiKr-^i^cd, thf man w:ln the stick broke l*jrth intv* a wild tniant at inbTx-ais best known to himr^eil. At ki^t, wimn thn girl was tired of her graceful movonitaits and wild gestures, during wiiich she also clapped he-r I I. I SPAIN AND TANGIER. JS9 hands and snapped her fingers so as to re- semble the noise made by castanets, she sat 4-:lA Spanish Gipsy. down, and another and then another went through the same performance. i 00 ..I SCAMP/:/, I 11 Ru Lull SPAIN AND TANGJ//R. i6i At one time two (kinct'd to^cthrr : at an.jtiv-r, a 2'irL co(juettishlv clrrs>rd as a Spanish \'f)iith, danced a different and quicker measure. TIk^ dances in no wav resemble wliat \v(^ are accus- tomed to consider dancing;-; they are more Hke Javanese dances, or the dancing of KL^-i)ytian ^/;;/cc\s"— posturinys, in which the feet have less to do than the hands and arms. Perhaps a sentimental person mii^-ht call it the poetry of motion. A man afterwards danced extremely well, the difference between his performance and that of Encflish and French staq-e dancers being that he danced to his partner, with whom he appeared absorbed, rather than to the spectators. Then these untamabledooking beings sang. When a girl sang a solo she began by calling for a sojjib'ov, and one was immediately handed or thrown to her from amoni]^ the audience ; with this on her head, she poured forth a wild ditty, tuneful and expressive, in a true uncul- tured voice. They all sang In chorus some- I vk *¥ times, laughing and dnnringr, and mak'ng manv gestiips as they did so, almost acting the song; iiir\- siMMned so full of animal spirits that tlie man who tried to conduct the music had rather an anxious time of it. Between the songs, the hat was thrown back amid the audience, and the performers walked about the room and gallery interviewn'ng their friends : I should not like to say that many a flirtation did not take place in quiet corners. Be that as it may, this gipsy concert was a curious spectacle, well worthy of study from an artistic point of view ; there were no spider waists, but I am sorry to add every gitajia had spoiled her complexion by the immoderate use of powder. I am told these girls earn a very good liveli- hood in this wav, receivinqr as much as five and six /('.sY-Ar; a night. Seville is so far in advance as to possess a fine free library, due to the munificence of a son of the immortal Columbus, and called after him the ^' Biblioteca Colombina." It M ! 62 J- \ SCAMPER THROUGH contains an interestin^i; collection of books on Spanish history and literature, and some ^-ood portraits. On October 21st we left Seville— " una cosa preciosa," as its proud inhabitants delit^dit to call it— which has not c[uite realised all we had heard said and suni,^ about it. \\ e asked our obliging landlady to put ui) some provi- sion for us during- the journey to Granada, as IS always necessary, and she urged us to take a good quantity, "in case," she remarked, '^the train should be 'f^aralys:' as it was yester- day." Tickets to Granada, second class, cost thirtv-four pcsdas forty coiUjiios. The worst cheats in Spain are the so-called omnibus- drivers, who are in league with the lodging- house keepers, and do not drive omnibuses at all, but two-horse vehicles resembling them, for which every passenger has to pay as much as if he hired it for his own special convenience. It IS better to take a cab. The author of the M"hni O'lx^^cy well k SPAIN AND TANGIER. '('i i observes: — ''Extravagant laudation has im- paired the reputation of many admirable thing^s, and the pleasure of gazing at a beautiful scene is often discounted by highly coloured descriptions of it." '^ I. >f ? lu .i .V(\!J//V;A' IIIRiirs and a half, and setMiicd partic^u- larl}' irksome — first, hf'caiiNt; Span'^h lixin,^- had WA :^Upp!icd tile rc',juircments Puerta Judiciaria. ^f Q^J \ iyorOUS con:.t:tLitioii:. ; next, because you change car- naj'j^ iwu:*' with all your luggage ; lastly, because the line is most uneven — in soiv.r places % \ 'tay. SPA/y AA'f) TAXir/ER. i() 'i dcinq-rToiislv so — and the train rocks to and iro like a drunken man. At Marchena some fme ruins are passed, dilapidated and neglected, like Spain itself. Before getting to Bobadilla the traveller goes through vast plains and olive-gardens; the stations consist of a single building, where a few persons, coming from apparently nowhere get in, and others get out and disappear over the wastes as usual. At Bobadilla, an important junction, the scenery is wild and picturesque. Numerous omnibuses met the train at Granada, and great was the confusion of tongues and (paarrelling, indicating our arrival at a show place. The cath(xlral at Granada seems to me in bad taste ; it is large, but though I sincerely tried, I could not admire it. It has a few fine pictures. There is a /^n/J, well carved in marble ; the X'irgin wears a crown as large as her whole bodv. and is further graced bv a tin mantilla. A crucifix in a veritable crinoline trimmed with lace is among the curiosities to *-'ii«p»»®***-sssaftS'*^'*'^*' ' '■'■" 1 66 A scAMPKR TirnorGjf be seen here. The one [)art of the cathfnh'al worthy of more than a passinLr ehanee is the Capilla Real, where, in the scene of their victories, Ferdinand and Isabella la Catolica sleep their last slee]). The exterior is of fine Gothic architecture ; their tombs, with those of Philip I. and Crazy Jane, his wife, are before the high altar, and are miracles of elaborate carving-. The alabaster recumbent statues seemed in the dim light very fine ; a vexatious railing prevents one iroincr near enough to examine them in detail. The entrance to the vault is behind, and there you are shown the old leaden coffins in which the bodies repose, each simply marked with an initial. That of Philip is the identical coftm which his wife used always to have carried about with her, and passionately embrace. The rttablo of this chapel (which is separate from the cathedral, and has an especial chapter and chaplains of its own) is of carved wood, SPMX AN!) TAXdlER 167 painted and gilt, and magnificent of itb kind, as is also the Vija, The coloured figures of Ferdinand and Isabella kneeling on either side of the altar are supposed to be exact portraits of these enterprising monarchs ; and the pictures representing the taking of Granada are invaluable as records of costume. Here may be seen her crown and sceptre, and his sword, &c. Beeears abound here, and we are still followed in public by the curious population. I am rather w^eary of it, and shall not be sorry to retire into a little more obscurity. I am a long time coming to the Alhambra, simply because I do not know how to WTite about it, and so put it off. Was it not Wash- ino-ton Irvine who discovered it, and also has almost the monopoly of describing it ? So I decide simply to write down my impressions on the spot, and eke out the meagre descrip- tions wdth a sonnet ; also an inspiration of the place. 1 ■.•^^^i^^i^^^^^ . i68 A S(\\MP/:r Til Ron; If * \ It is better to be prosaic than fail in a sen- timental description, and I will first remark that the " Alhambra" is the name <'-iven to a height fortified by the Moors, of which two- thirds are inaccessible and surrounded l)y rivers; the other third slopes 14-ently down to the city oi Granada, and on it is situated the modern entrance. From it on every side are the most exquisite views— the Sierra Nevada with its hood of snow, the (leneraliffe, the Gipsy Caves, and the whole of Granada white as whitewash, untarnished by fo^;- or smoke, can make it, and the lu\uriant vc-a which sur- rounds it can be seen from this elevation. Tht.^ entrance is up the steep Calle de los Gomeles, through a gate in vile taste built_by Charles V., who is responsible for ruining a great deal of the delicate Moorish work here, even pullin^- down the principal f^ntrance to make room for the palace which he never finished. This Puerta de las Granadas leads to groves of trees which remind you of an English park, in whose SPA IX AND TANGIER. l6g branches once again you hear the sw^et birds sing ; passing through these shady avenues the visitor comes to a tower and gate of magnificent Moorish architecture, the Puerta Judiciaria. I cannot discuss the mystery of the hand and key, which are carved on two stones over this famous gate, but I imagine the hand is simplv a talisman arainst the evil eve, as we find it so constantly used in Moorish ornament. The narrow^ path inside this gate leads to the spacious Plaza de los Algibes (Place of the Cisterns), where Charles V.'s ungainly palace annoys the sight ; thence a little side door admits one to the world-famed Alhambra. Then what can I say? the mind is bew^ildered amid patios surrounded with marble columns (one has so many as one hundred and fort}-), rooms covered with delicate tracery like lace, window^s of alabaster whence are lovely views of mountain, river, and i^den ; marble baths, halls lined with ! '0 ■I SCAMPER THROUGH S-leamino- a-iilcjos, roofs like the stalactites in an ice cavern, a secret room from each corner ot which you may hear a whisper in the others, splashing fountains, gardens of myrtles, oleanders, roses, chrysanthemums, &:c., and other fairy scenes, which make you rub \our eyes to fmd out wliether vou are dreamin-- or not. In some pkices are alcoves where sentries used to stand; at other doors niches for the slippers always taken off on entering a room by the Moors. The mosque is a i)erfect little ""em of Moorish architecture, but Charles \\ has been here also before us, and made a church of it by erecting a tasteless altar and eallerv • Christian devices alternate with verses from the Koran, and two statues, resembling satyrs but called *'\'ice," occupy a conspicuous position. The colouring is not rich, like that of the Alcazar, at Se\ille; the triicery is much more delicate, and the prevailing tone is a creamv white, which I like better. The Moorish SPAIX AND TANGIER. 171 i palace of the Alhambra is not large, neither is it in ruins, but rather over-preserved and restored for the poet and painter's taste. The traveller can no longer wander over its poetic scenery at his own sweet will by day and night, neither can he wrap himself in his cloak and sleep in its trellised chambers as of yore ; he is followed durin or- his visit by a custodian whom he is expected to fee in the most unromantic manner, just as if he w^ere visiting our own cleaned and repaired ruins — the only difference being that the fee once paid, his future visits may be made gratis. We visited the Torre de las Infantas, once the residence of the Moorish princesses : and the Torre de la Cautiva (Tower of the Captive), the abode of the beauiiful Chris- tian irirl who became the favourite sultana of Abu Hasen and famous in song and story under the name of *'Zoraya" ("the Morning Star"). The interiors of both these towers, nearly equal in workmanship to the rooms in 1-2 A scampi:r through the Alhambra, are built round a central /^///'% on which the little apartments open with ail kinds of quaint windows. They must have been ideal residences ; l)oth command extensive views of the valley, of the i^^old-bearini^- river Darro which flows beneath them, of meadows and forests, of mountain slopes covered with cornfields, vineyards, olive, orange, citron, and mulberry' trees in rich al)undance. We asked and easily obtained permission from the courteous director to |)aint and make studies in the interior of the Alhambra ; thus we became closely ac(|uainted with this wonderful relic of a romantic past. The towers, battlemented and turreted, are ex- teriorly of a beautiful orange pink, with par- donable exaQ-^eration called iHirnujiis. or red. The walls slope down to the river, and blend with the rock on which the building is tounded. Words fail me to convey an idea of the delicacv of the ornamentation with which whole walls are covered : the beautiful Arabic SPAIX AXD lAXGIER. , 3 I .i i I \ ^. character on them is in itself an ornament. Some of the ceilings and arches, covered as it were with stalactites delicately tinted, re- mind one of an ice grotto — a grateful idea on a Spanish summer's day. The celebrated Patio de los Leones is not quite the best ot the Alhambra, but it has the greatest repu- tation. Modern Spaniards use this court as a place to be photographed in. We saw three men dressed, we thought, as cooks, but afterwards discovered were meant for Moors, with three .dasses and a botde of wine on a table in front of them, photographed at the fountain. Could the subject of countless poems, of such romantic reminiscences, suffer greater degra- dation :^ Into the magnificent alabaster basin the heads of the murdered Abencerrages were tlirown ; the stains of blood may still be seen bv those who have faith enough. The animals which support it are not much like lions, but they are like strength and eternity, and will ■T^jiginfll'Yjf-^-*''™'-"' '■"'' ! Ii :\ 17+ A SCAMPER THROUGH last when Moors and Spaniards, and the halls of the Alhambra itself, perhaps, will be no more. The celebrated vase is placed amon- other relics in a small museum here; is of a most delicate blue tint, covered with ex(|uisite workmanship, and stands more than four feet m height. As one considers its a^^e it dates from 1320— one is struck with the small advance made durin- th(- a-es in that most ancient art, the potter's. W'hen found it was full of g-old pieces. Though neither quite so rich in colour as the Alcazar in Seville, nor so elaborate and lavish in decorative efhTt as the marvellous \'illaviciosa Chape! in the nio>(|ue at Corduba, }-et the Alhambra is purer in design and the ou.jjihlc finer than either. The hall called - de la> Dos I-Iermanas." na- no better reason than that two hu-e slah^ <.[" marble in th<' pavement. aro exactly aiik^', is remarkable {^jy the ele-ant ■ A. stalactitt' work nt tiie media nar^uni.ov dome. and of the doorways. The whM;,. place, wiij] I jj^ f^ SPAIN AND TANGIIlR. ns Its delicate ornament, small balconies, slender pillars, and tow^ers scarred and seamed by many an earthquake, give an idea of great fragility. I feel I have given a poor and inadequate idea of this renowned palace. I can only plead in favour of my description that it is true, was done ''on the spot," and that I have avoided measurements and statistics wherever I could. On coming out of the Alhambra one day, a picturesque vagabond, representing himself as chief or prince of all the gipsies, offered to sell his photograph or pose as a model. When we rejected these advantages, he begged for five aiitiijios with a trulv roval air. At a little distance, in a private garden, stands an ex(|uisite little mosque, perfectly preserved, whence there is. as usual, a ma'nii- ficent view. In the garden are two marble lions, resemk^ling exactly those of the fountain in the Patio de k^s f.eones, all well worth seeing. dl ^^^R^ 176 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AXlJ TANGIER. ni I The Generaliffe is a summer palace, built 1.-, the Moors, on a hill a little higher, and opposite to, that on which the Alhambia ^nuvls ; alv,ve!t!< a small nnn kimwii as the '' Silla (Jul M'^'ro," wlionc'- iVa- ill-fat' '1 iMuiiunl ib su[)i)OSt(l t«.) ha\>:^ wataii^'d ih^' cliaiii^in;^;" i^-^r- iLinr^ uf hi:, army. Oi' roonl^ and -allerit- tiiere are nut many to be seen in th*' ( ifncralnte ; thoM' that n-main are so coated ovr wiin conturif'S of \v]iitt'\va>h that ail th^' dt-iicacy of the traC(T\' is lost; in uomponsation, irom ever\- ]ooi)ho!<- and window, and e>p(H;icdly from the ;;iiraav,', tho vii'W> arc unrqualh-d. The whole of til- I'Avr^ and waH> ot the Alhambra, ..lyed n-d a- it were, with tlv i^irn- in"- ravs of t^-n t'lousand Spani->h ^umm<-r with their wreaths of cterrial snow V-* i. ^ Nilvr imr ot I )a!T^ ) ! U'aW! \' i ' n < J" suns, the tinv at its feet, the white houses ui urariada scattered anud the olive-clad slopes of the valley:, and iiid^, the romantic entrances to the gipsies' caves, and in the distance the majestic summits of the Sierra Nevada, crowned panorama =4 which it is dihuailt to realise the prof^3und bea.itv, and ininossible to convey an idea to those who have not seen it. d her(.? are a lew such scenes in the world, where the charm of the le^fends and histor\' ol the past, blending with the beauties of nature and the works of man, render the spectator mute with admiration and dumb with ecstasy. The Roman Forum is one example, and Pompeii another, among those I have seen. The gardens are the principal attractions of the Generalirfe ; the old cypresses were planted, they tell us, by the Moors, and the par- terres at the time of our visit were full of roses, chrysanthemums, oleanders, and laurtds, blowing Side by side witli the kibt luseiuus Iruits of the vine. Here is al^o a very patriarclial c}-|*re^s indeed, under which the romantic traveller loves to imagine the en- chanun- Zc»rava kept her appointments with f 178 A SCAMPER THROUGH i I f her : Aci. and at last met her death. All this historical domain is the property of the Avila famev, fruiii whose agent an order is required to vi^itli; however, a mIv.t key opened the gates-^not h^r the first tune, 1 h -H-ve, nor vet the last. Spanish women of the middle classes seem to be quite useless beings. In the drapers' shops, offices, &c., none but men are seen. In the lower classes they work harder than the men, which is not saying much, as most of the work here is done by donkeys and mules; in the upper classes they are purely ornamental creatures, never to be met with in the streets except at certain fixed hours and at certain fixed places; indeed, they rarely leave their houses. *' Hombres son mujeres, y mujeres, nada.'' In Granada few houses have patios, a sure sicrn of a much colder climate, and. Indeed, it is already wet and very cold. I regret this the less that it gives me an opportunity of n 9- •■■1 '^;m^' ? A- c*^.?/ i^ SPAIN AND TANGIER. '79 :>i seeing the far-famed drapery of the Spanish cloak. Every gentleman wears his cloak, and every peasant his blanket. It is said there are at least seventeen different ways of wearing a cloak, and foreigners are advised to abstain from appearing in it for fear of putting it on ridicu- lously. But notwithstanding all that has been written and said about it, there is no fashion in the casting of these draperies that an artist who has studied the subject could not imitate, given the material. People talk about the Spaniards wearing their cloaks with such unapproachable elegance: rather it is the cloak that lends distinction to the Spaniard. The mules, cows, and horses have their covering, but, though the climate necessitates this, there are no means provided for making a fire for the comfort of Christians in any Spanish room. The Cartuja, which all the guides persecute you to see, is about a mile and a half distant, and is not worth the journey. I have always remarked that if you except any object in the N 2 i8o A SCAMPER THROUGH usual programme for seeing a place, that is the very one your friends will always tell you you ought to have seen, even if you omitted all the rest. ''If you have not seen the Carttija, you have lost the best thing in Granada!" we knew they would exclaim ; so we went. There are no monks there, the monastery having been suppressed in 1835 J the internal decorations are in the vilest taste, except the inlaid work done by the frailes. The doors, cabinets, crosses, and other objects, most elaborately inlaid with tortoiseshell, pearl, ebony, silver, and ivory, must have cost years of patient labour to produce, and are very rich in effect. The marbles from the Sierra Nevada are remarkable, but had better be seen in a museum of geology. There are some curious pictures representing monks martyred by the Protestants in the most fearful manner — cut open, torn asunder, and the rest of the favourite tortures ; but however interesting they may be from a religious point of view, they are worth- SPAIN AND TANGIER. 181 less as works of art. The best thing there, is the view from the terrace in front of the church, which embraces a tremendous extent of moun- tain scenery. One of the first hospitals for lunatics ever founded is in Granada, and is due to the munificence of Ferdinand and Isabella, whose effigies may still be seen over the entrance gate. There is the same custom here as at Toledo and Seville — watchmen, armed with spears, go round all the streets at night, and call out the hours and the weather in a long monotonous drawl. Apropos of the weather, at the end of October the rainy season set in, and we could not get many sketches; the rain came down as if the clouds were so many water- bags suddenly pricked. It is a saying here that Granada is only fit to live in for three months of the year. Consequently the vege- tation is entirely different from that of other parts of southern Spain : there are no palms, aloes, or cactuses, but plenty of corn and pas- l82 A SCAMPER THROUGH turage, and the woods round the Alhambra remind one of nothing so much as of a well- wooded glade in England. On the whole, the Alhambra, beautiful as it is, slightly disappoints the idealist; it is too well swept, and too carefully restored to be extremely picturesque, and the exquisite patterns on the walls, which are its chief cha- racteristic, do not lend themselves happily to pictorial representations ; neither is the height on which it is situated so precipitous as we are led to believe. But the world contains only one Alhambra, and the charm of its graceful arcades, and slender marble columns, its silver-voiced fountains, romantic gardens, and nightingale-haunted groves, shrouded as they are in the halo of poetry, legend, and song, will continue to exercise a potent en- chantment over the soul of the visitor, so long as they continue to outlast the insidious in- fluences of time and tempest, and the more destructive shock of the pitiless earthquake. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 183 A fire occurred in the Alhambra a year ago, and every inhabitant of Granada turned out to save his beloved possession from ruin ; even ladies of title rushed precipitously from their dinner-tables, and, in evening costume, tried to help in passing buckets of water. The cause of this conflagration was never officially known ; but it is an open secret that it was the work of a discharged employe. The lovely palace of the Moors has survived many dangers from war, fire and earthquake, but a time will come when, delicate as it is, unless continually cared for and restored, it will crumble to the dust : even now the Sala de los Embajadores is undergoing restoration from the effects of this fire, and the sides of the Torres Bermujas are seamed and scarred by earthquake shocks. Unlike the massive grandeur of classic ruins, which be- token eternal stability, it is fragile and small, and the spectator foresees with sorrow its approaching dissolution. As in other show places in all countries, the 1 84 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER, 1 8s inhabitants try to extort as much money as they can from visitors. *' English " is the synonym for ''wealth " throughout Spain, and it is well to bargain before buying anything, or making any arrangement ; we have thus sometimes purchased curiosities for less than half the original sum asked. The Alhambra mourns upon her tree-clad height, The widow of the Moor ! Her traceried walls, And roofs of stalactite, and painted halls. Her marble columns, where the ceaseless light Of stainless Spanish skies pours warm and bright, Are desolate ! no Moorish footstep falls ! At the Cartiijay too, are vacant stalls Of monks long dead and abbots wrapped in night, And ghostly cloisters, where the ever-green And serried ivy clasps the falling stone, — No monk is left in the deserted scene. The power of Moor and monk from Spain is gone. Past with the past as they had never been. Save the poor record — ruined walls— alone. M. T. CHAPTER IX. MALAGA. The fare from Granada to Malaga is fourteen pesetas sixty-five centimos. That portion of the railway route which is traversed after leaving Bobadilla, to which junction we were obliged to return— a tract called the hoyo—\^ wild and desolate in the extreme; the train passes between huge granite rocks which rise preci- pitously out of profound gorges ; at their feet roar streams of turbid water ; above them bald- headed eagles soar and scream. Salvator Rosa would have liked nothing so well as this district in a storm. At Alora the scene suddenly changes, and you pursue the journey through groves of oranges, pomegranates, myrtles, aloes and cactuses, and our old friend the Australian r i86 A SCAMPER THROUGH eucalyptus, which seems to thrive wonderfully, growing tall and stately like the graceful Australian-born girls. At the Malaga station the usual scrimmage took place. At Granada ihe omnibus-driver fairly refused to drive us to the casa de Iiiies- pedes we had elected to go to ; at Malaga, a man snatched our luggage ticket out of our hands, and tried his best to force us into the omnibus of the hotel to which he was attached. There is not much to describe in Malaga, or much to see ; its great attractions are the tem- perate climate, balmy sea, and beautiful fruit and flowers. It is one of the most characteris- tically Spanish places we have seen, and, speak- in e ^nore Hibeniue, reminded us forcibly of Naples. History tells us it w^as originally a Phoenician settlement; in 710 it was taken by the Moors, and became their impregnable, inaccessible fortress, where the Spaniards suffered many a defeat. All this the huge ruin of the Gibralfaro, so conspicuous an object SPAIN AND TANGIER. 187 in the landscape here, has witnessed ; so has the Alcazaba, which I hear it is proposed to pull down to give employment to the starving w^orkmen of Malaga. Beneath the ruins is the Protestant cemetery, a place so lovely that it might almost make one "in love with death." It overlooks the sea, and is shaded by the graceful pepper-trees which mingle their foliage with the palm, the orange, and the Australian gum. The Malaguenos are passionate and revenge- ful, but good-natured ; the women are remark- ably handsome, but, like other Spaniards, short in stature. A man unbidden perched himself on the cab which brought us and our luggage from the station, and demanded money for his trouble on our arrival at the casa de hucsp.dcs. We refused : he folded his arms and declined to leave the apartment if we did not satisfy his demands ; finally he threatened to throw our boxes into the street, and, to save our belong- ings, we had to give him money, though the i88 A SCAMPER THROUGH people of the house, Spaniards like himself, confessed the whole thing was unjust. In England one could have called a policeman ; here the policeman is completely under the tyranny of the 7iavaja, or long knife. On the other hand, when I was sketching a street, a woman in the lowest part of the town kindlv allowed me to sit within her doorway, and valiantly defended me against the numerous intruders, yet absolutely refused to accept any money in return. Gaiety, which is not habitual to the Spaniards, is the rule here ; the people and some of the streets are most picturesque. The market, which is held in the dry bed of the river, reminds one of that held in the Rastro in Madrid — a scene imprinted on our memories forever. Vegetation is tropical, and the vega on which the town is built is as luxuriant as the famed Campagna Felice of southern Italy. , The cathedral is large but uninteresting, and I should class it with that of Granada as bad style ; the religious ceremonies are numer- SPAIN AND TANGIER. 189 ous and imposing. Taxes in Spain are hea\'y ; a place called a hotel is so highly rated that, to avoid paying, their proprietors call them fondas^ or posadas^ or casus de huespedes^ which are charged less. Even in the house in which we stayed, though called by the last designation, a tax had to be paid within an hour of our arrival. The Malaguenos have the reputation of being the handsomest women in Spain, and it is not undeserved. " La terra molle e lieta, e dilettosa Simili a se gli abitator produce." There is no art here ; neither painting nor music flourishes, and but few public amuse- ments ; two theatres and a plaza de toros complete the list. The only study is the people, and they are both picturesque and interesting; so primitive that they never restrain their curiosity, and ask every question that comes into their heads as to whence you came, where you are going, what you are 190 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 191 doing in Spain, and so on. The fish for which this part of the Mediterranean is famous, called bocquerones, resemble sardines; the natives fry them, and eat them with their fingers ; sweet potatoes are also very fine here. Newspapers in Spain are very badly printed, contain little information, and news from Eng- land is conspicuously absent. The people have a bad habit, which is prob- ably due to the great heat in summer, of turning day into night; the principal shops are closed from midday to five o'clock, when they reopen, and the population, waking up, pours into the streets, to remain there till twelve and even two o'clock in the morning. They are great talkers ; they will sit and converse for hours, apparently with the very greatest interest, on the most trivial subjects. All the good that is in them they owe to nature and not to edu- cation, and, not being educated, their passions are utterly uncontrolled ; the quarrels one sees in the streets are sometimes fearful. < Quite the most picturesque figures in Malaga are the men who sell fish in the streets, which they carry in flat baskets suspended by long strings from their elbows, their hands being Malaga Fishennan. Stuck in their sides. All the men have free movements, and a strong graceful walk, which may be attributed to their light loose clothing, and the soft canvas shoes and sandals which 192 A SCAMPER THROUGH they wear. When they are old they look like old boys: time, which ploughs numberless wrinkles in their faces, spares their figures. The women too walk freely and gracefully when they are not, as is too usual, enveloped in the larcre hard corset, and do not wear the tight hic^h-heeled shoes to which they are so much attached. The usual headdress is a black mantilla for the upper classes, and a gay- coloured handkerchief, or merely a few flowers, for the lower; the latter invariably wear shawls. The watchmen announce their presence In the streets by a high shrill whistle repeated at short intervals ; if anyone desires their services at night to fetch a doctor or do anything else, they are always on the spot, armed with a spear and a revolver ; and if you do not intend returning home till late, it is the rule to give them the key of your apartment ; they will then supply you with a little piece of candle to light you up the stairs, and unlock the door for you when you return. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 193 But I am reminded here of Count Smorltork • — I am writing this from hearsay. Oh, immortal race of Pickwick, who seem to me really to have lived your gay lives and have passed away, you are neither more shadowy nor unreal than the dead friends of our youth, but more intimately known and loved than many we have met in our passage through life ! On All Saints' Day, High Mass in the cathedral was an imposing function, and the music very good, but I have never seen even a mode- rately large congregation in Spain. The red silk train of the Bishop of Malaga, who officiated, was not less than twelve feet long, and, of course, he had an attendant to carry it. One evening we went to the Teatro Cervantes, which was crowded to overflowing, so we left without seeing all the play ; but the behaviour of the excited crowd was a thing to remember — shouting, standing, and cheering ; very few of the actors' words could reach anyone's ears People continually go in and out, as tickets o J 94 A SCAMPER THROUGH can be taken for one, two, or three acts, as you like. As another specimen of Spanish fare, I will give the menu of the evening's dinner pre- pared in honour of the fete of All Saints. First, a mixture of rice, meat, fish, and those bitter pi7nientos, or capsicums, well stirred up with rancid oil, was handed round in its native saucepan ; then followed the cocido, a mixture of garbanzos, potatoes, cabbage, and boiled meat, stirred up also with oil ; next, meat which had served for the previous day's soup, baked without any gravy ; then cold boiled fish in vinegar, covered with raw chopped onions ; and to finish, boiled and roast chest- nuts and grapes. This is almost an average Spanish dinner; the fete was specially honoured only in the first dish, which supplanted the usual soup. The almiurzo or breakfast, the only other meal, taken about one o'clock, con- sists invariably of a tortilla or omelet, and fried came de vacca (cow beef). The only SPAIN AND TANGIER. 195 sketches worth anything are those done direct from nature ; my sketch of an Andalusian dinner has at least the merit of being a sketch direct from life, done on the spot. El Palo is a village on the seashore, two miles from Malaga, and we drove there in a native vehicle called a tantara, or diavola. The scenery is fine ; in the distance is a view of Malaga nestling in its embracing valley, backed by deep blue hills ; in front lies the rugged sierra on which still tower the gigantic frag- ments of the old Moorish walls ; the beautiful sweep of the bay recalled Naples very forcibly to our minds. Very foreign to English eyes is the vegeta- tion at El Palo, and very primitive are the people, but also good-natured and kind-hearted. It is in this direction that Malaga is spreading, and when physicians have finally made up their minds to save or prolong the lives of a few consumptive patients by recommending them to try this adorable climate, here will be found o 2 196 A SCAMPER THROUGH the comfortable villas most suited to their re- quirements. We had an opportunity of going over the stores of one of the greatest wine exporters here, and tasted the best wines produced in a country for which it is renowned. I do not rely on my own opinion which is worth nothing, but I give the dying Moor's, a very good judge though, as far as the commandment of the Prophet went, a teetotaller — *' O Lord," he prayed, **ofall thou hast in Paradise I only ask to drink this Malaga ! " This firm exports quantities of vino sacro to Ireland, containing alcohol certainly, as all exported wine must, but the alcohol also is made of wine, and so the ecclesiastical conscience is satisfied. Vegetables and fruit abound in Malaga, but the grapes and peaches are not to be compared in flavour and size to those of Australia. Deli- cious melons, big quinces and apples, pome- granates which melt in the mouth like frozen nectar, dates fresh from the palm, pimientos of SPAIN AND TANGIER. 197 blazing red or richest green, huge sweet pota- toes, radishes the size of large carrots, &c., leave little to be desired in this way. Fish also is plentiful and cheap, meat scarcely to be had and then of very inferior quality, and decent butter and cow's milk unobtainable. We have had no butter fit to eat since coming into Spain— practically there is none; for milk, goats are driven into the streets every morning, and milked before the door. The visitor should not omit to take the walk which leads to the Cahario, a small chapel on the top of a hill, the path to which is marked by crosses. Hence is the best view of the town, the ruins of the Moorish fortifications surround- ing it, and the mountains. A funeral passed us on our way, which may be recommended to the consideration of the Funeral Reform Society. The car was white with light-blue silk curtains, and drawn by two gray ponies, the driver in his ordinary dress ; the coffin i98 SPAIN AND TANGIER. was white, and on it lay a wreath of roses ; from each corner came pink ribbons, which were held by the mourners in their usual habiliments, wearing hatbands, and consoling their grief with cigarettes. The followers made their way along the pavements instead of along the road. A tremendous storm of thunder, lightning, and rain occurred while we were here — a most exceptional experience. Damage was done to several houses, and in a few minutes the streets became torrents of muddy water. A branch of the Humane Society, or stringent laws for the suppression of cruelty to animals are greatly needed throughout the whole of Spain. Like their prototypes the Moors, Spaniards are naturally cruel, and there is nothing to restrain this propensity. Among other acts of cruelty, the favourite pastime of the boys may be mentioned. They tie a string round a bird's body, and the string to a stick ; the The Alcazaba. 200 A SCAMPER THROUGH bird which is wild, flies till it is tired, then has to come back to the stick to rest, or the boy pulls it back continually. This is always going- on, and the birds die under the treatment; hundreds of them are to be sold in the streets for the smallest copper coin each — so every boy can buy them. On Sundays the picturesqueness of the streets is increased by a number of Moors arriving from Tangier or Ceuta, and walking about with a dignified step that has nothing of England or France in it. Their draperies (I use the word advisedly) are of a low yellow- greyish tone; they have bare legs and yellow slippers. In taking leave of Spain, which we did at Malaga, one who has lived among the people, in contradistinction to the aristocracy (like that of every European nation, at the dead level of French polish), may perhaps be permitted to expiess an opinion as to their character. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 201 The people, then, are ignorant, passionate, and partly savage— above all, indomitably idle, but warm-hearted, affectionate, and disinterested to the last degree, especially the women. Many a time they have refused money from us, yet the beeears in the streets, with rude impor- tunity, will pull your dress and lay their hands on your arms to implore five centimos (rather less than a halfpenny) ; they will go a long distance out of their way to point out to a stranger the place he is seeking, yet the boys will hoot and even throw stones at you. They will call down the blessing of Heaven and all the Saints on your head for the smallest gift, yet insist on doing something you do not want done and enforce payment for it. They have no idea of business, and time is to them an unknown quantity. Most of our hotel bills were rendered verbally only, and invariably correctly. In the course of our journey we received from them most unexpected 202 J SCAMPER THROUGH kindness, and we leave them with regret. The best we can wish them is that the all-civilis- ing steam-engine may soon penetrate to the remotest wilds of Spain, bearing with it culture and prosperity. SPAIN AND TANGIER, 203 CHAPTER X. GIBRALTAR AND GALLERIES. ** Montis insignia Calpe." The fine steamship of the French Compagnie Generate Transatlantique, Villc de 5n^5/, brought us to Gibraltar in about seven hours, for the small sum of fourteen francs, second class. The vessels on this line are good, the accom- modation excellent, and as there are also third and fourth classes, the second is quite good enough for ordinary travellers. They advertise the boat to depart at eight o'clock in the evening, advise you to be on board at seven, and do not leave till nearly midnight ; however, we arrived in Gibraltar just after sunrise. Landing was a troublesome affair, and we 204 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 20$ found lodgino-s dear ; but were agreeably surprised at the beauty of the situation of the town and variety of character and costume in the streets. Every country is represented there, and the Arab has sent his full contingent, which gives a very foreign appearance to the place. Stalking gravely and grandly beside the viva- cious Spaniard, or ''Rock scorpion," and the terribly trim British soldier, his presence greatly helps you to keep up the idea that vou are still abroad. Lured by the lovely tints of the old Moorish castle on the height, we at once made for it with our paint-boxes in our hands, but our hopes of a sketch were rudely dashed to pieces by an observant sergeant, who informed us we were not permitted to paint even the distant mountains or sky here, much less the castle. *'Do you see that man up there?" said he, pointing to a red blotch somewhere on the summit of the rock. "Well, he spots you already!" So we walked away, conscious of •J 1*1 being under surveillance, and grievously dis- appointed. However, the view from the rock somewhat consoled us for the loss of a sketch. The distant Spanish hills on one side, and the far-off Ape's Hill and mountains of Africa on the other, bound the horizon ; the grand old rock itself rises majestically into the air ; below snugly lies the little town and splendid bay covered with the shipping of every nation ; Algeciras, where the new railway — which, when the ignorant Spanish opposition is overcome, will do so much to connect the Interior of the Peninsula with the seaboard — commences, and San Roque are easily distinguished; beyond is the blue line of the Sierra Nevada. We went through the galleries tunnelled in the rock for which Gibraltar is cele- brated ; they reminded me of the borings certain insects make through their favourite cheese. The monkeys are not a myth— there are about forty of them; they change their 206 A SCAMPER THROUGH place of residence as the wind changes, live on the wild fruits which grow on the fertile rock, and are mischievous enough in throwino- stones at the soldiers. The sergeant who accompanied us very gravely related that the chief of the monkeys had lately been found dead, and that the others were looking about for a new king — an electoral monarchy evi- dently ! The perpendicular rock is sublime at its northern aspect ; below it lie the Jewish cemetery with the men and women buried on separate sides under flat stones, the Christian cemeter}% and near it other Christian neces- saries — the racecourse, exercise-grounds, and dog-kennels. But Gibraltar is so well known that it seems absurd to describe it again. I will only add that the Alameda is one of tlie love- liest of gardens, the vegetation almost tropical, and that it contains two decent monuments, one to Eliott, the other to Wellington. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 207 CHAPTER XL (( OLLA PODRIDA. ) > The writer lingers lovingly over so fascinating a subject, and must be excused if she turns again to wander in memory a little while longer in the sunny paths of Spain. In other words, this chapter will consist of a few additional remarks on topics already touched on. Mr. Ford, writing some forty or fifty years ago, remarked that *' Spain was almost un- described and unvisited. Though a land of adventure, of romance, full of historic and poetic and legendary association, yet it is withal a kind of terra incognita — a mysterious realm, untravelled by the crowd, and where the all- wandering foot of the all-pervading English- man but seldom rambles. The beefsteak and the tea-kettle which infallibly mark the 208 A SCAMPER THROUGH progress of John Bull, and have been intro- duced even into Greece and the Holy Land, are as yet unknown in the venias and posadas of the Peninsula." Though less true at this time than when these lines were penned, yet a cloud of mystery still surrounds the countr>^ of which the French say, *' Africa begins at the Pyrenees." To this day the charm of being less known and less visited than many a town in America, and even Australia, lingers around the castellated ruins and sun-scorched plains of Spain. The charm, too, of being somewhat risky, always an incitement to the British mind, is not wanting among the attractions of this journey. Theophile Gautier, in his witty book. Voyage en Espagne, says : — '* A journey in Spain is still a perilous and romantic affair. You must risk your life, and possess courage, patience and strength. Privations of all kinds, the absence of the most indispensable articles, are the most trifling inconveniences. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 20Q Peril encircles you, follows you, goes before you, is all around you." And this, like all he wrote, remains true to the present hour ; only the danger he refers to is that of encountering brigands, who are now few and far between, on his long journeys by road. This risk is to-day amply replaced by the perils attending travelling on the Spanish railways. It may perhaps be useful to explain that our plan of going third class was not entirely dictated by considerations of economy — it is undoubtedly the safest class, because in it the traveller is never without company. All the murders I heard or read of on Spanish rail- ways were committed in first-class carriages when the occupant was alone. The slow pace at which the train travels, and the long low step running along every carriage, afford excellent opportunities for the murderer to escape into the trackless country with his booty. The second class offers no advantage over third, the travellers by it being about equal in social grade 210 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER, 21 I to those in the third. Kind, indeed, are the simple Spanish peasants we thus had so many occasions of becoming acquainted with— ever ready to salute you when you come into the train, treat you as friends while you are there, and never let you depart without the beautiful benediction, *' Vaya usted con Dios." That ''the Spanish attach hardly any impor- tance to material life, a,nd are totally indifferent about comfort," is a statement which anyone who knows them would not hesitate to confirm. If in this ag-e of inordinate luxury, the Englishman who travels in Spain would bring back with him a few ideas of economy gathered there,--if he would learn to temper the extra- vagance of his own life with the cheerful simplicity of the Spaniard's,— the cost of his journey would be well repaid. The word ''English" is unfortunately a by- word for wealth in many countries. A Frenchman exclaims : " How many objects do our insular neighbours require in order to live ; how much trouble do they give themselves to feel at their ease ! and how much do I prefer, to all this complicated array, Spanish abstemiousness and privation ! " It must also be confessed that the Spaniards' reputation for pride is greatly exag- gerated ; they are exceedingly simple-minded and good-natured. " Spain is the true country of equality — if not in words at least in deeds." The reward of the traveller, however, who will face the privations and discomforts I have described, is rich indeed. Let us pause to consider awhile the lives of Velasquez and Murillo — those painter-princes whose works cannot be said to be known by him who has not traversed the sterile plateau on which Madrid is situated, and the arid plains which surround the walls of Seville — " Los quales con colores mutizadas, Y claras luces de las sombras vanas, Mostraban a los ojos relevadas, Las cosas y figuras que eran lianas Tanto, che a paracer el cuerpo vano Pudiera ser tornado con la mano." {Garcilaso de la Vega.) I P 2 212 A SCAJIP£J^ THROUGH With the lives of the great Italian masters nearly everyone is acquainted — thanks partly to Vasari's popular book ; those of the Spanish masters are far less universally known. Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez* was born at Seville in 1599. His father a lawyer, gave his son the best scholastic education his native town could afford. He studied his art first under Herrera the Elder, then under Francisco Pacheco, but appears soon to have discovered that Nature herself is the artist's best teacher, and industry his surest guide to * ** The idea usually afloat about him is that he was a man who painted a few stiff gloomy figures, dressed in stiff and gloomy costumes, in a stiff and gloomy style. But here, (Madrid) he comes before us as a perfect artist, facile princeps in nearly every walk — not only in portrait-painting, but in character and animal studies, in landscapes, in histo- rical subjects — trying all, and doing all well." — LOMAS. Gautier-rwhich is remarkable in a Frenchman, nearly all of whom are born critics— passes lightly over the works of Velasquez to descant at greater length on those of Goya, the last of the great old masters of Spain ; his sketches of Spanish life and character are extremely good. For the principal details of the lives of these painters I am indebted to Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell's A?nials of the A r fists of SpaiJi. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 213 perfection. To acquire that facility for which he was afterwards so remarkable, he studied still life assiduously. At the age of twenty-three he married the daughter of Pacheco, and in 1622 went to Madrid to continue his studies. There he was brought under the notice of the minister Oiivarez by Fonsaca, who caused him to paint his portrait, which when finished, was carried to the palace by a son of the Count of Peua- randa, Chamberlain to the Cardinal-Infante. Within an hour It was seen and admired by the King and Court, and the fortune of Velas- quez was made. He was appointed palnter-In-ordlnary to the King, and In 1629 carried out his long- cherished project of visiting Italy. When In Rome he obtained permission to reside In the Villa Medici, whence however he was driven by malarial fever. He remained on this occa- sion for two years In Italy, and afterwards revisited It, In order to collect works of art 214 A SCAMPER THROUGH for Philip IV. He died in 1660, in the sixty- first year of his age, in iMadrid. ** His character," says Sir W. Stirling- Maxwell, **was of that rare and happy kind in which high intellectual power is combined v/ith indomitable strength of will and a win- ning sweetness of temper, and which seldom fails to raise the possessor above his fellows, making his life a ** laurelled victory, and smooth success Be strewed before his feet." {Atito7iy and Cleojbatra.) He was buried in the Church of San Juan, Madrid, which was afterwards destroyed by the French under Soult, and razed to the ground. Bartolome Esteban Murillo was born at Seville in 1617. He studied painting under Castillo, and, as a means of earning his bread, painted rapid sketches in the /77V/, or in the streets, which he sold for a small sum to the passers by. He, like Velasquez, became SPAIN AND TANGIER, 2T5 anxious to see what had been achieved in art in the great capital, Madrid ; to raise money for this purpose, he painted a series of the more popular saints, landscapes, and fruit- pieces on canvas prepared by himself, and disposed of them to some American traders. There he waited on Velasquez to beg for introductions to his friends in Rome, whither he intended to go ; this intention, however, was never carried out, and Murillo' s works are entirely Spanish and of the soil, uninfluenced by study of the antique. The great artist received him kindly, gave him lodgings in his own house, and procured for him admission to the palace, Escorial, and all the royal gal- leries. On his return to Seville, Murillo painted some pictures for the Franciscan monks, and stepped at once into popular favour. He succeeded in founding an academy of art, of which he was the first president, in his native town; after a most glorious career, his life unfortunately terminated tragically in 2l6 A SCAMPER THROUGH 1682. He commenced to paint a picture of Saint Catherine, and had nearly finished the figures of the Virgin, the Infant Saviour, and the mystical Bride. (This work, to which such sad interest attaches, is in the Church of Los Capuchinos at Cadiz.) Mounting the scaffolding to proceed with the upper part, he stumbled so violently as to cause a severe internal injury from which he died the evenino- of the same day. By his own desire he was buried in the Church of Santa Cruz, under a famous picture of the "Descent from the Cross," which he had always greatly admired. His grave was covered with a stone slab, on which was carved his name, a skeleton, and these two words — " Vive moriturus." When the French, under Soult, pillaged Seville, they razed this church to the ground, as they had previously done that of San Juan at Madrid, which covered the ashes of SPAIN AND TANGIER. 2>7 Velasquez. Its site is now occupied by a weed-covered mound of rubbish. In considering the lives of these great men, one is struck at once with the vivid resem- blance of some portions of their careers, and the equally strong absence of likeness in others. Both were born at Seville within eighteen years of each other, both wandered in early life to Madrid, and both attained splendid success. This resemblance pursued them even after death, for the last resting- place of each was destroyed by the French, and their graves are now either unknown or little more than ruined wastes. Here the like- ness ceases. Velasquez was born of honourable and well- to-do parents ; those of Murillo were obscure and poor, unable to bestow on their son the educational advantages lavished on the former. Velasquez journeyed to Madrid followed by his servant ; Murillo took the same path on foot, paying for his humble fare with the hardly- 228 A SCAMPER THROUGH earned proceeds of his hasty toil. Velasquez became the friend and intimate of kings, while we do not hear that Murillo owed anything to royal patronage. Velasquez too studied art in Italy and from the antique; Murillo never had these advantages. But " all roads lead to Rome" — the result in both cases was alike : both rose to the very highest eminence in their profession it has ever been the lot of man to attain. The deduction is that neither birth nor education, wealth nor poverty, method nor w^ant of method, can destroy, as they are powerless to bestow, the godlike gift of genius. Another remark also occurs to the student of the careers of these artists. Velasquez lived to the age of sixty-one. Forty years may thus fairly be taken as the period of production during which the large historical works, and numberless unmatched portraits and sketches which bear his name, must have come from his easel. Murillo's fecundity was still more SPAIN AND TANGIER. 2IQ remarkable ; dying at the age of forty-three, twenty-three years only served him to produce the chefs d'ceuvrev^\th which whole churches and o-alleries are filled. Is it not therefore evident that— far from labouring for three years on a single head, as Da Vinci is said to have done, '^ or spending three weeks on a broom-handle, as we are told in a go-thou-and-do-likewise kind of manner Gerard Dow did— these works must have been produced au premier coup with perfect knowledo-e, in the method advocated by the modern French school ? Is it not to this these masters' pictures owe that purity of colour and freedom of handling which we so greatly admire in them ? It may be as well to tell the intending traveller in Spain that there are few or no curiosities or souvenirs de voyage to be picked up there ; even the proverbial Englishman, who is supposed to be ready to give thirty thousand francs for the first sham Murillo he is offered, would seek for it in vain. Gautier relates that he endeavoured 220 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 221 to buy one of the Toledan blades, which for centuries have been so renowned, but could not get one, and adds: ''There are no more swords at Toledo than leather at Cordoba, lace at Mechlin, oysters at Ostend, or pdtcs de foie gras at Strasburg. All curiosities are now confined to Paris" (and London), '' and if you chance to meet a few abroad, they came from these cities." The numerous friends and admirers of the *' Knight of the rueful countenance" will be glad to know his reputation is still as great in La Mancha, and indeed all over Spain, as though he had really existed ; and his fame ranks with that of the Gran Capitan, the Cid, Boabdil, Ferdinand and Isabella, and indeed of any other famous hero renowned in the romantic history of the Iberian Peninsula. We found Madrid much better than its reputation, and Seville, which contained no viaravillas except the cathedral and Alcazar, we considered overrated. It is the fashion to quote Gautler's words about the English - mees" so far as to where he brings his sarcastic sentence to the trium- phant conclusion that she is the -spectre de la civilisation, mon ennemie mortelle." It is to be regretted the quotation Is not continued further, and what speaks volumes for the good influence of the poor satirised lady added, viz. that in her presence the flippant Frenchman '* felt ashamed of the extravagant embroidery of his sky-blue mantle, and for the first time during six months that he was not presentable and did not look like a gentleman." Like us, Gautler also took sorrowful leave of sunny Spain, and he did so in graceful words, the spirit of which we heartily echo: ''Must I own it?— on setting foot on the soil of my country I felt my eyes fill with tears, not of joy, however, but of regret. The vermilion towers, the silvery tops of the Sierra Nevada, the rose-bays of the Generaliff'e, the long, soft, limpid looks, the little feet, and the little 222 SPA IX AXI) TAXG/ER. hands of the daughters of Spain— all came back to my mind so vividly that it appeared to me that France, where, however, I was about to see my mother again, was a land of exile for me. »» TANGIER. CHAPTER Xir. TANGIER. For fifteen pesetas you can get a return ticket from Gibraltar to Tangier. Our journey was rough and long, the Gihel- Tarik having lost one of her propellers, and a head wind blowing a hurricane; she should have reached port at three o'clock, but in- stead, we were at the mercy of the terrible waves till six. Thepraiique master took his own time to come out to our vessel, but at last we Q Moor. 226 A SCAMPER THROUGH were allowed to get into a boat, which already seemed full of Moors and negroes roaring like wild animals, and go on shore. Perhaps travel- lers who are acquainted with Tangier may be interested to know that its reputation as the worst landing-place in Europe is fully maintained. We landed at a little wooden pier, crowded like the boat with vociferating Moors, who, in the flickering light of the kerosene lamps, looked more like fiends than men. The custom-house officers, who sat in a little divan, have the look of philosophers ; after a calm and cursory inspection of our baggage they plunged once more into those profound medi- tations which seemed habitual to them, and which our advent had disturbed. As there are no such things as wheeled vehicles possible where the streets are rougher than the lava beds of Vesuvius, we walked to our hotel ; beginning to realise how abrupt our transition was from Europe to Africa, from civilisation to barbarism, when we saw camels, Arabs, I 9^ c^^^^^^'--^^^^"^- SPAIN AND TANGIER. 227 and tents mingled on the Soko like an en- campment in the desert. The town of Tangier is built on a hill ; at a distance its white walls and battlements, with the Kasbah crowning the summit, have an enchanting effect. Below the sea, almost always calm and of the deepest blue, washes the rich yellow beach. The houses are low% white, and flat-roofed, the only variety being in the minarets of the mosques, which are made of green tiles or pink brick. The streets, except the principal one which leads from the sea to the market-place, are so narrow as to resemble pathways ; in many places they are arched over. The shops, open on the street, are about six feet square; the shopkeepers sit gravely in the midst of their twenty francs' worth of merchandise with the air of princes. The variety of costume is surprising. The Moors wear long loose upper garments of every imaginable colour called djelabcs in the street, yellow slippers, and have the legs bare ; the g 2 228 A SCAJFPER THROUGir married men wear white turbans round their red {^z caps. The fez is forbidden to be used by the Jews, who have instead little black skull-caps ; they wear long garments confined at the waist by a belt or sash. The Moorish women are scarcely distinguishable from the men by the unpractised visitor, except that the better class cover their faces so far as the eyes with haiks ; if they have not a haik they draw their drapery across their faces the moment they find they are observed. The Jew^ish women wear on fete-days very rich costumes, handed down from mother to daughter. The petticoat is made of one piece of silk or velvet always of the most striking hue, such as emerald green, scarlet, bright blue, or purple, crossed in front to show the corner richly embroidered w^ith gold ; the body is a mass of gold embroidery, and the women are loaded with ornaments of all kinds. Those who are married wear a brilliantly coloured silk handkerchief entirely concealing the hair. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 229 I think a little beauty would go a long way in Tangier from what I could see of the women ; however carefully they conceal their faces, they are extremely prodigal In the dis- play of legs and fat feet and ankles. It is rather sad to see them squatting in the mud in rows, selling bread, eggs, a few oranges, or coos-coos ; it seems such utter degradation, and they are so unconscious of it. They are insignificantly small; however the men, like the peacock, make up for it in size and fine appearance. The Kasbah is a conglomeration of low white buildings, intersected by narrow lanes, and consists of the Sultan's palace, several prisons, the court of justice, dwellings for the Basha's numerous retainers, and stables. The Basha distributes justice, or injustice, under a Moorish gate with arcades ; his guards are grouped around him, and he himself is seated on a carpet. Punishment is administered on the spot ; this I always avoided looking at, but I have seen the bleeding victims removed 230 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 231 to the prison. The Basha's sleeping-room would rival that of an anchorite ; a few hand- some carpets and cushions contrasted with a Dutch clock and a kerosene lamp, are all the furniture; there is a fine view from the window overlooking the sea. All this was shown by a soldier, who spoke a litde English, and wore a cloak of a blue tint so tender that any 2esthete might envy it; he carried no arms, and was only distinguishable from his brother Moors by the pointed form of his iez. Women only, as every one knows, are admitted to see the harem. He and our guide left us at the door, and we were con- signed to a black, who led us across number- less intricate passages and courtyards to a patio surrounded with marble columns, on to which three alcoves opened. The Basha, being an exalted personage, has the right to eight wives ; four however are his present com- plement. These poor women were seated cross-legged on carpets and cushions, very I u gaily dressed, wearing blue turbans, neck- laces, earrings as big as bracelets-in fact, all the ornaments there was room for on their persons. The chief beauty had her eyes painted dark all round, and her eyebrows were plastered together with some kind of black grease. Her face was a combination of white and red paint distributed in equal pro- portions. Poor creatures ; they looked happy, but perfectly vacant-minded, and laughed merrily with and at us. Their beds were in the same room, arranged like the berths in a ship. Of course they never go out, but, as our guide remarked, they have instead "plenty money," which he seemed to think more than adequate compensation. They appeared, to use a French traveller's words, " des enfants legerement hebetes." One day, meeting the soldier carrying a small parcel, we asked him, "What have you there, Mahomet ? "-every second Moor is named Mahomet. "For the ladies de 232 A SCAMPER THROUGH harem," he replied, unfolding a pair of the commonest possible cotton stockings. Is not this Eastern as opposed to Western civilisa- tion with a vengeance ? The Soko is an unpaved square surrounded with booths, outside the walls, where on Thursdays and Sundays, as in Spain, the market is held ; when the tribes and caravans come into the town to dispose of their merchan- dise it is a most animated spectacle, quite the scene of Tangier. So many as fifty camels may be seen there at once, grumbling and biting as is their wont, for the camel holds himself in high estimation, and resents any encroach- ment on his supposed dignity. There is a world of suppressed suffering in his heavily- fringed eyes. It rained most furiously at times while we were here, and the Arab tents — made of rags and banked up with mud, pitched on ground piled high with the accumulated refuse of the markets of centuries — did not seem " desirable residences " ; yet the inhabi- SPAIN AND TANGIER. 233 tants never once dreamed of seeking shelter elsewhere. The dirt is indescribable. *' If seven maids with seven brooms swept it for half a year, I don't believe that they could get 'a corner even ' of it clear." It fell to our lot while here to witness one of the most extraordinary sights in Morocco. The Mohammedan religion, like our own, is split up into sects, and the tenets of one of these called the Hawadji, require that believers should make a pilgrimage to Wazan, the tomb of a greatly revered saint their founder, once every year. About a month before they had left Tangier with the same fanatical cere- monies as those we witnessed. So soon as they entered the town, thirty or forty men commenced to dance in a ring holding each other by the hand, as children do in their old-fashioned games. They danced, jumping up and down without ceasing, to the weird sound of pipes made of cane, and the curious Moorish drums v/hich consist of a cylinder of 234 A SCAMPER THROUGH baked earth covered at one end with a piece of parchment and beaten with the fingers, the noise from which resembles nothing so much as that made by frogs in a marsh. Banners of various vivid colours were borne before and behind them ; they continued to dance to the sound of the monotonous never-ceasing music till they foamed at the mouth, and appeared as if they were about to drop; their heads moved up and down automatically, their faces were pallid and haggard, while their eyeballs were ready to start from their sockets. At length their frenzy rose to an uncontrollable pitch, and each in turn broke from the rine, seized two axes which one of them was bran- dishing furiously, and continuing to dance, struck his shaven head heavily with the sharpened edges two or three times, till the blood streamed over his face blinding him, and poured down his back. Another and then another snatched the axes, which were double-bladed, and followed this example. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 235 while those who had already per- formed the rite resumed their places in the circle and con- tinued jumping. I saw many of them, during the four or five hours this lasted, seize the axes, dance vigorously for a while, brandishing " ' "^^^ them above their heads, then let the sharp edges fall on their bare skulls. The expression of their eyes was strangely wild, and foam ran from their mouths ; yet I thought I detected a kind of smile on their faces as they struck themselves. Even boys joined in the barbarous ceremony; a performer persuaded a child of about thirteen years of age 236 A SCAMPER THROUGH to strike his head with the g-ory weapon also. It was a horrid sight not unattended by danger, for sometimes these fanatics in their madness, rushed in amid the crowd around and seized a spectator; the marks of their red hands might be seen on several persons' garments. The playing on the instruments never ceased for an instant, the men continued to dance wildly, and sometimes the spirit moved others to join the circle, till between exhaustion and loss of blood it seemed as if they must fall down ; however, the mad orgie was continued till they reached the mosque, the distance of a mile. The city of Wazan, the shrine of their pil- grimage, cannot be visited by Europeans ; it is the seat of the Shereef, the religious chief of Morocco, and a hotbed of fanaticism. A Mohammedan's religion teaches him it is a meritorious action to kill a Christian ; so it is best not to risk exploring Wazan. Ever}^thing here is extraordinary to the tra- veller from the A\^est; all is entirely Oriental, SPAIN AND TANGIER. 237 and civilisation is ignored. Yet one can see the Rock of Gibraltar and the coast of Spain : there, the latest invention in machine-guns for the defence of life and property ; here, fanatics split- ting their own heads open in religious frenzy. Another sect, called the Assowa, hold their festival on the Soko on the anniversary of the birthday of the Prophet. Their religious belief requires that live sheep should be thrown among them, which they tear piece from piece and devour reeking ; in this devotional practice women join, but they are wisely absent from the head-splitting ceremony. I could not help wondering how they all felt afterwards when the fever of frenzy had spent itself and they were '' clothed and in their right minds." There are three Sundays in the week in Tangier— Friday is the Mohammedan, Saturday the Jewish, and Sunday proper; also three New Year's Days. The government of Morocco is an absolute monarchy in the widest acceptation of the term. The Sultan can dispose as he pleases of the lives and possessions of his subjects. It is his 238 A SCAMPER THROUGH motto that to keep the people quiet they must be kept poor, for when rich their money is always employed in the purchase of guns and gunpowder. Therefore when they possess money they are careful to hide it by burying it under their houses ; even before a Moor who has the reputation of being wealthy is quite dead, a search for gold is commenced about his premises, sometimes only ending with the demo- lition of his dwelling. The Jews, who form about half the population, are of course parti- cularly suspected of hoarding wealth; they are held everywhere in great subjection, and reside in a separate quarter in all the towns in Morocco except Tangier. There are many Moorish families who speak Spanish, and are the descendants of those who were expelled from Granada ; they still preserve the keys of their houses there, to which they never lose the hope of returning. The complete relapse of the Moors to barbarism from the high pitch of culture to which they attained in Spain, is one of the most curious studies in history. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 239 Tangier at one time belonged to England, having come into the possession of the Crown in the dowry of Catharine of Braganza, who married Charles II. It was given up in 1684 and the mole and breakwater destroyed ; the ruins are still visible at low water. It is the chief seaport of Morocco, and carries on a small trade, chiefly in cattle, with Gibraltar ; hence it is the emporium to which the hill tribes bring their goods for disposal. These tribes inhabit the mountain range of the Atlas, and we have but little information respecting them ; in Algiers they are known as Kabyles, in the southern valleys below the city of Morocco as Shellooks, and in Morocco as Berbers and Reefians. Between the tribes inter- minable feuds exist, which it is the policy of the Sultan to fan, in order if possible to secure a slight tribute. They are a very robust, active, temperate race ; many as fair as the inhabitants of northern Europe, some swarthy as the natives of the hottest parts of Spain, and others nearly black. The most dangerous place for the 240 A SCAMPER THROUGH Christians in the whole of northern Africa is, doubtless, that region which lies at the foot of Ape's Hill or Mount Abyla, one of the pillars of Hercules.* De Amicis, no mean authority, describes the Reefians as the most savage race in Morocco. ** Acknowledging no authority but that of force, they are audacious pirates, sanguinary bandits, and eternal rebels. They inhabit the mountains between Tetuan and the Algerian frontier, and neither the cannons of the Euro- pean vessels nor the armies of the Sultan have succeeded in subduing them ; the inhabi- tants, in fact, of that famous Rif, where no stranger may put his foot except under the safeguard of marabouts and sheiks, about * *" The ferocious bigotry of Mohammedanism and the jealous cruelty of an ij^norant despotism have, year by year and day by day, exerted an increasing energy in demoralising and barbarising the Moors. Except in the artificial landmarks of the country ; the greater infusion of the Arabic element into the language of the lowlands ; the substitution of the prayers of El Islam for the rites of the pagan ; the adoption of firearms in place of bows and slings ; and the use of saddles — the old Numidians, with Bocchus, and Jugurtha, and Masinissa, and Syphax at their head, would now see, could they start up from theii graves, nothing to excite surprise." —Dr. Mavo. •^ i f 1 Jk-* '"*»»* i. %U I 'fcr- •ISi 1 SPAIN AND TANGIER. 241 whom so many terrifying legends are current, and of whom their neighbours speak as of a distant and inaccessible country." Reefians are often seen in Tangier—tall, robust men, carrying guns, and wearing their scarlet guncases bound round their heads like turbans. It is singular how quickly human beings accommodate themselves to their surround- ings. A few weeks ago we were walking among these savage people, so accustomed to see them that we scarcely remarked their presence ; now another impression has suc- ceeded this — that of commonplace English life — and one actually pauses to consider if one IS really writing the truth in describing what has really been experienced. The great con- trast between European and African life is much sharpened by the short time it takes to pass from one continent to the other. In three hours and a half you pass from civilised Gibraltar to wild Tangier — from stiff Tommy Atkins in his subterranean galleries, to supple R 242 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 243 Reefians toying with their long guns in the brilliant sunshine ; from ladies and gentle- men sauntering on their thoroughbred horses through the Alameda, to caravans of tired camels coming from the desert — in a word, from the Englishman's chimney-pot hat to the snowy turban of the Moor. Though abstention from alcoholic liquors IS enjoined in the Koran, means are continually found to evade the law. Every year a larger quantity of wines and spirits find their way into Morocco. The Arabs are also addicted to another forbidden indulgence, that of smok- ing kccf, a preparation from the hemp plant (ca7inabis indicd)^ of which the effects are more deleterious, and the habit of taking more ineradicable, than that of smoking opium. A young Englishman who, for an experiment, drew a few whiffs of it from a pipe on retiring to his room in the evening, fell on the floor in the effort to get into bed, and did not recover the slightest consciousness till two o'clock in the morning, so powerful arc its effects. WP CHAPTER XIII. TANGIER [continued). A WALK through the principal street of the *• city preserved by the Lord" is a thing to remember. It runs from the Bab-el-Merzu, or Custom-House Gate, to the Bab-el-Sok, or Gate of the Market-place, a distance of three- quarters of a mile. The paving is execrable beyond the imagination of man to conceive. On both sides are little shops like great boxes, some even so small as large dog-kennels, in which squat or sit the placid shopkeepers, with their goods around them. The principal mosque is about half way up, and is distin- guished by a fine doorway and tall green min- aret; it is more than a Christian's life is worth to attempt to enter it. In Fez neither Jews R 2 24 + SPA/X AXD TANGIER, nor Christians are allowed to walk past the mosque. Tangier has the reputation of being the most tolerant city in all Morocco. Up and down the road I am endeavouring- to describe moves a motley crowd of Moors and blacks in grand classical draperies, looking as if the marble population of the Vatican had walked out for an airing ; women shrouded in white, and sometimes wearing hats more than a yard across ; donkeys and mules, laden so that their burdens stretch across the road, and it is difficult to avoid coming roughly in contact with them, notwithstanding the driver's con- tinual cry of, '* Balak ! balak ! "* boys dressed in the brightest yellow and orange dresses ; watercarriers with bare legs and boar-skins full of the natural element, which they retail in brass cups, calling attention to themselves by ringing a little bell ; bearers of burdens, two abreast, with heavy packages slung from a pole borne on the shoulders; Arabs riding * it Take care." Tourer in Kashah, 246 A SCAMPER THROUGH ladywise, and urg-ing on their beasts by perpetually drumming with their heels on their necks and sides; — all this, and more, the traveller may meet every day if he will only walk through the principal street in Tangier. In the wild and hilly region around the city are many delightful walks, perfectly safe if you do not go too far. John Bull has established his indispensable dog-kennels here, the fox is hunted in the real English, and pigs are stuck in some other, fashion. In December the hills look naked, but little vegetation is to be seen ; on closer inspection however, one detects innumerable bulbs and other roots just burstino- into leaf, giving promise of the profusion of flowers which cover them in January. At the foot of these brown hills run in winter streams of muddy v/ater, impassable on foot; and as you get further out from town you come across fertile gardens, orange-groves, bananas, palms, and olives, and in the distance glimpses of SPAIN AND TANGIER, 247 the sea and the noble range of the Atlas, the backbone of Morocco. In summer the scene changes and becomes more characteristic. In place of the streams are channels of loose sand ; aloes, cactuses, thistles, and plants which can defy the drought, become white with dust ; the small patches of stunted grass are the colour of hay ; the brown earth seems to palpitate beneath the fierce o-aze of the sun, like a coward beneath the look of courage; and over all is that pitiless cloudless sky which those who have travelled during the hot months in Spain know only too well. Buying is a great diversion in Tangier. When it became known from our purchasing various trifles in the shops, that we were likely to fall victims to the craze for bargains, every morning, on leaving our room, a Moor would be discovered sitting on the stairs where he had probably remained since early dawn, with a stock of curiosities ; he was sup- 248 A SCAMPER THROUGH posed to have come in from Fez, Soos, Tetuan, or some other such place for the day only. No sooner did we put one foot out of doors than other swarthy sons of Ham would run to us with choice treasures, supposed to have been brought from some mosque or palace with an unpronounceable name, and follow us for hours trying to persuade us to buy them. In reality, these worthy people were simply agents of the shopkeepers, who tried to turn an honest penny by giving them a huge percentage on all they sold. Two or three Moors in succes- sion would sometimes offer the same article for sale. As an example, a Moorish curio would be dangled before our eyes, and offered perhaps, for four dollars, and we would turn indignantly from the outrageous demand. If we really wanted it, the plan would be to offer about a third the sum asked, at which the indignation of the possessor would be equally aroused. " It cost him three dollars and a half," he would SPAIN AND TANGIER. ^49 asseverate. After an hour or so of vocifera- tion and the intervention of everyone within hearing, speaking either Arabic, Spanish, English, or a happy combination of the three, a medium price would be hit upon, say nine fcsdas, at which he would consent to part with it "to you." "I sellsheap; I not ask him too mush," he would say, departing with enough money in his bag to keep him for a month. If you try to get rid of a Moor's importunity by telling him you really do not want the article he wishes to sell, he pretends not to understand, and to think that it is the price you object to, repeating, " Too mush ! " " Too mush ! " gradually abating a peseta or two till you take refuge at last within the doors of your hotel. A friend really did get a bargain of a splendid silver knife, one of those worn under the left arm and made to catch round the body. the more easily to draw the blade from the sheath ; but she became thereby most certainly 250 A SCAMPER THROUGH the receiver of stolen goods, and the man who sold it to her afterwards spent a kvi days in the cool retirement of the Kasbah. The Soko was once part of the Mohammedan cemetery ; adjoining it is the present burying- ground which looks over the town, the market- place, and the roads which lead to the interior of Morocco. There you see strings of donkeys, herds of cattle, caravans of camels and travellers arriving in true Eastern style. The graves are nameless, surrounded by a few whitewashed stones, and a small piece of wood driven in the earth marks the head. The cemetery is overgrown with aloes, juniper, and wild figs. In the midst are the white- washed dome and red flag on a pole which denote the burying-place of a saint. I sketched this tomb, thanks to a small offering made to a Moor who was guarding the door ; an artist who made the same attempt during Ramadan, when the faithful are savage with long fasting, was driven away with knives SPAIN AND TANGIER. 25' which would only too surely have been used had he persisted in his attempt. On Fridays the women come and wander among the graves, placing flowers and branches of myrtle upon them; the imagination of a poet is not needed to fancy these white-robed figures ^^% ~ - ^*?- ^ ■ ' -. ?%<^v^;|^^'s^iy tiff ;^ ta „ |-^pfe| %J^^- ^.^/^;-=A<'' r^'..:r>- ■^-iV <^^'.-^-»- /^\,,^t,n.-, Sainfs Tomb, are the restless spirits of the buried Moham- medans, the difficulty is to realise they really are not something weird and uncanny. The view from this height is most charming— white houses running down to meet the sea, here and there a minaret and palm-tree, the useless 252 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 253 but picturesque walls, in the distance the Andjera, or mountainous region around, capped by the soaring- peak of one of the Atlas Mountains, and Gibraltar lying like a faint blue cloud on the horizon. Ed. de Amicis, who accompanied an Italian mission to the Sultan, and afterwards wrote a book on Morocco, vividly describes the weird impression caused by a walk through Tangier at night. He remarks that there is no licrht from either lamp or window, nor a chink through which penetrates the slightest gleam ; the town seemed to him uninhabited; occa- sionally he trod on a mass of bones and feathers which to his imagination appeared to be dead bodies. A few Arabs shrouded in their hoods passed him like spectres, grazing the walls. He heard no sound but that of his own foot- steps when he walked; when he paused he heard only his own breathing. The rays of the moon on the wall had the effect of electric li^>-hf and on his return to his hotel to his own I excited feelings he seemed like a man trans- ported from the earth to another planet. One exceptionally brilliant moonlight night we visited two or three Moorish caJ6s-chantanh. Our hotel being a little way distant from the town, we had to go through the gate closed, as is the custom in every city in Morocco, at sunset ; on knocking, the sentinel came out of a little recess like a dog-kennel, in which he was calmly reposing and smoking, and admitted us. It gave me the impression of wandering in a city of the dead, and the few Moors glid- ing about in the weird white light seemed like ghosts of the inhabitants revisiting the scenes of their former life ; while those who slept on the doorsteps, as is the wont of some of them winter and summer, might have passed for the corpses of men who had died in defence of their hearths and homes. At the first cafe we entered, a few men sitting cross-legged on a divan in the courtyard, were playing a Spanish guitar, a tambourine, and a 2 54 A SCAMPER THROUGH violin held upside down. The overture per- formed, they commenced to sing what was evidently a narrative, to a tune greatly re- sembling that of the well-known Christmas carol, - Good King Wenceslas." Visitors do not pay for entrance but are expected to order coffee or tea ; we had coffee served in little cups half full of sediment but not unpleasant in flavour, made in a tiny cooking-place in the corner of the room. Business was evidently rather slack here as the evening had been wet, so we soon left. The next cafe was entered by means of a staircase which opened on the street, and w^as of a very superior description, prettily deco- rated in true Oriental fashion, with matting round the wall, brackets, vases, and plates. On the carpets stretched round the floor were a number of Arabs drinking coffee, and a few smoking kee/ and drowsy therefrom. All their shoes were left at the door, and one could not but marvel how each man would recognise his SPAIN AND TANGIER. 255 own again among so many. A few kerosene lamps illuminated this truly Eastern scene. The musicians sat in a corner, and enacted what seemed to our unenlightened English ears a repetition of the performance we had previously heard ; one could only detect the slightest possible diff'erence in the monotonous airs, delivered, however, with great animation and con intenzione. The whirring noise of the accompaniment performed on a two-stringed guitar, a fiddle, and two drums, became irritating at last ; five or six performers sang occasionally, emphasizing the expression by clapping their hands, but when each one began or ceased to sing his part seemed according to his own good will and pleasure. There was no variety in the performance so long as we stayed, and we were informed it usually went on exactly the same till two or three o'clock in the morning. Here we tasted Moorish tea; a glass is filled half full of sugar, a strong infusion of 256 A SCAMPER THROUGH green tea poured on it, and a leaf or two of mint put in; it might taste worse, and the Moors are intensely fond of drinking this beverage. The behaviour of the people at these cafes was perfect. When we reached the Soko gate on our return, we aroused the sleepy sentinel, who, on opening it for us, discovered two Moors waiting outside for admittance, at which, for some reason best known to himself, he broke into a towering passion. He threw up his arms and shouted vigorously ; two Moors (the guard) ran quickly to his help, while the others as quickly ran away. The guard, after a plucky chase, captured the offenders, and brought them back to the dignitary at the gate ; backed by the authority of the soldiers, he began to demand money of them, threaten- ing in case of refusal to send them to prison. A few dollars obtained their release, and they went meekly away from the gate of Tano-ier sadder and perhaps wiser men ; they were SPAIN AND TANGIER. 257 -■^ probably thieves whose appearance the sentinel was acquainted with. This is a fair example of Moorish justice— a thing which is bought and sold and has its price like any other marketable commodity. Another specimen is the case of a neighbouring kaid, or chief— one of the leading incidents in the late rebellion, which has been so happily quieted down for a time. This kaid— a great favourite with the people, but no better a ruler than the late unpopular Basha in reality- made himself objectionable in some way to the Government, and fled for refuge among the hills. It being found impossible to capture him by fair means, he was invited to breakfast with a member of the Government, under promise of being pardoned and given the governorship of a province. It is curious that even this bait made him run the risk of poisoned tea at least. A tall, powerful man, he came armed with his long Moorish gun and the inevitable knife. As he was drinking 2>8 A SCAMPER THROUGH his glass of tea some one asked to look at the gun, and while it was being examined the kaid was seized from behind. He drew his knife and wounded one of his assailants, but his right arm was quickly struck down by a blow from the butt-end of a gun, and he was conveyed to prison. It was to release this man that the Berbers threatened to enter Tangier and assault the Kasbah in January of this year ; and one of the causes which led to the summoning to Fez of the ever unpopular Basha. For weeks the tribes refused to bring their produce to the market, and provisions were few and dear in consequence. The appointment of a new Basha is, at present, the cause of great rejoicing and much waste of powder ; but one cannot help sympathising with the deposed official, who had paid so much for his office that he had not time to exact a return from the people over whom he ruled. He will probably have a " mauvais quart d'heure " at the court of Mouley Hassan, SPAIN AND TANGIER. 259 and the warships of the five European nations, which crowded the little bay of Tangier for a week or two, may cruise for a short time in other waters. It is worthy of remark that the English gunboat Thunderer was first on the spot. The powers interested in the question of Morocco are Spain, which has never renounced her dreams of annexation ; England, which could not afford to let another power occupy Tangier ; Germany, which has acquired a protectorate over a neighbouring state; and France, which, pushing forward from Algiers southward, is about to add Touat to her African possessions. The danger to the Christians inhabiting Tangier was doubtless real at this time, when we take into considera- tion that Mouley Hassan is a barbarian and the Moors savages. The Arabs are proverbially cruel, and hold human life very cheaply. An Englishman a short time ago, was looking at the usual s 2 26o A SCAMPER THROUGH devotions and prostrations In front of the saint's tomb on the Soko ; a Moor behind him took a knife and was about to draw it across his throat, but was prevented by an Arab with whom the Englishman was acquainted. The favourite method of - happy despatch" is by cutting off the head. Their cruelty is also shown in their manner of punishing crime. A thief is punished with the loss of an eye for the first offence, and for the second and third with the hacking off his hands and burning out the remaining oro-an of vision. It is therefore not surprising that one sees so many wretched beings whose sightless eye-sockets, and arms without hands, proclaim their criminality. For some offences men are buried alive with their heads above the ground till they die ; and within the last three years a traveller saw on the walls of Fez the heads of about thirty tribesmen who had been beheaded for not paying tribute. Yet the present Sultan is considered to be /» ^ ■-;!« ^ 3 t« ''**«g^ '•Ai ■■^f ■*& ^^^ ■ .m,.f:. ^-t^ T-V c^n 7 :^m^l '- ^^ SPAIN AND TANGIER. 261 merciful beyond all his predecessors. This despotic ruler rejoices in the possession of six hundred wives, who are sent on before him with the rest of his impedimaita when he travels ; of the number of his children he has made no note. His palace in Fez is full of toys, such as models of guns, steam-engines, &c., presented to him by various monarchs at a loss for more suitable offerings to one who possesses so many of the good things of this world. He also owns a yacht in order to be a little up with the times, but it is not yet recorded that he has run the risk of sea- sickness by taking a trip in her. His usual retinue consists of about sixty thousand soldiers, and on the occasion of his visit to Tangier, the victualling them was a source of intense anxiety to the Basha, whose duty it was to provide for so numerous a horde. W 262 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 263 CHAPTER XIV. TANGIER {C07ltinucdy 'Tis winter, but the young hours joyous wake, And glow and strengthen into perfect day ; The blue bay shimmers like a sun-kissed lake Where gold-flecked hills of Spain lie far away. Above the shifting rim of yellow beach Arise the white-roofed dwellings of the Moor, Crowned by the Kasbah. Far as eye can reach, Old Atlas, snow-crowned, pierces Heaven's floor. The soft breeze rustles through the sapless canes, Bending their yellow plumes ; the palm-tree waves Its heavy pennons, and the low refrains Creep sadly round the Moslems' nameless graves. Alone by the mueddin's long-drawn cry To pray'r and praise soft nature is disturbed, Till, as the sun mid aloes sinks to die. The wild-dogs' melancholy howls are heard. Day dies ! but see, o'er Heaven a flush of light, Crimson and orange blending with the blue, Than ev'n the sun's broad disc more rich and bright, More tender than the opal's changing hue. Amid, like jewels, many stars are set ; But where the mountains tower, more deep intense The splendour, as if day and night had met In mingled glory and magnificence. M. T. A MODERN writer thus truthfully describes the aspect of nature in Morocco, and I give his words in preference to my own: -"It is peculiar and striking. There are com- paratively but few signs of cultivation, and yet the country has an old look that gives it a very different appearance from any of the thinly-peopled districts of the New World. The towns— which are mainly inhabited by the Moors, many of them descendants of the ex- patriated Saracens of Andalusia, mingled with Jews, negro slaves, and Christian renegados, who, in the present day, mostly consist of escaped convicts and deserters from the Spanish garrison of Ceuta— are few and wide apart. There are no villages, but in their place are donahs, or groups of low brown tents, inhabited by the Arabs, or rather a mixed race 264 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER, 26 of Arabs and Africans. In the northern part of the empire, from Fez and Mequinez to the Straits of Gibraltar, the aspect of the country is still more desolate." He adds:—'' It may be questioned whether the whole empire contains live millions of people. The great plain of Morocco alone could, if properly cultivated, easily support twice that number." This description exactly represents the countr}' round Tangier, and I have been told by every traveller I have met, that he who sees this part of Morocco has practically seen it all — there is so very little variety. The Arabs are forbidden by their religion to pose for a painter; they have an idea that a part of themselves or their soul is taken away in the picture. All attempts at getting them to sit are therefore difficult, and if they pose once even, it is probable they will not come a second time. The studio must be out of the way of observation, and the sitter must be well paid -then their religious scruples may perhaps be overcome. The women, being supposed to have no souls, might for that reason be expected to sit willingly, but their lords and masters here interfere. A lady missionary once began to talk to a Moorish woman about her soul ; the latter thereupon laughed glee- fully, and told the good lady she might just as well ** preach to the cow, which, like her, did not possess one." Human life having no value for the Arab, death has but little terror. They carry their dead to the grave with a triumphant march, chanting all the way a joyous air. The bodies are buried without coffins, wrapped in linen; it is said the linen even is sometimes omitted, but It is difficult to know exactly what they do at the grave-side, as they gather closely round it, and resent angrily the near approach of a Christian. The corpses of women are covered with a bright green pall ; neither In life nor death may a woman be seen by any man but her husband. The Jews act very differently 266 A SCAMPER THROUGH when they bury their dead; they cry and lament, and the women go to the cemetery for seven days after to weep at the grave, as I suppose they do in Jerusalem. They com- mence their lamentations early in the mornincr when the air resounds for several hours with their sharp shrill cries. Jewish costumes and ceremonies may be well observed in Tangier. A walk down the road that leads to Fez seemed like a walk into Africa ; many of the characteristics that in childhood we have read about the " dark continent " are realised there. Unmade roads like valleys of sand, aloes, huge cactuses, low hills covered with stunted bushes, and strange beautiful wild flowers are there ; in the midst are the rough huts of the natives, who appear and disappear among them noiselessly, like ghosts in weird raiment. The long white garments of the women lend themselves happily to this idea, strongly contrasted as they are with the deep orange and purple tints of the sky, and the golden mist in which the moun- .a3h ':^^ «*'*. ut^'i SPAIN AND TANGIER. 267 tains seem to swim. Even camels are there, ready with long noiseless strides to plunge into the desert, and their young, **si peles, si bossus, sigauches dans leurgaite d' enfant." The Kasbah, the fortified enclosure of which I have before spoken (the fortifications contain . ,A>uJ. 4^ H.P'Mi^4JU. Gate of Kasbah. about thirty old-fashioned cannon and one re- volving gun), is a splendid place for sketching. One of the most striking features is the gor- geous dresses of the numerous soldiery who are always lingering about the courtyard. Camels, magnificent Arab steeds from the 268 A SCAMPER THROUGH desert, and a tame gazelle form part of the scene, of which the appropriate background are wallsofintensest white. Regnault the lamented French painter, was a great admirer of Tan- gier, and he built a studio here, going thence to the barricades in Paris where he died ; Benjamin Constant has paid it more than one visit and intends to come again ; and Fortuny also worked in sunny Morocco. One of the gloomiest sights in Tangier is the prison in the Kasbah. The visitor is told to look through a hole in the wall, and in a dirty courtyard surrounded by an arcade, sees a number of men and women in chains, who are sentenced to remain there for periods varying from a few days to six years. A traveller has thus described the objects that there met his view : — '* A few heaps of foul straw by way of furniture, a group of emaciated human beings, ragged and un- kempt to the last degree, and with about as much expression in their faces as cowed wild SPAIN AND TANGIER, 269 beasts. It must not for a moment be supposed that these are criminals. The real evil-doer is usually strong enough and rich enough to defy justice."* The Government does not supply its prisoners with food, so they are dependent on what their friends bring them, or they can purchase with money obtained from the sale to visitors or merchants of the little baskets they make. Our old friend the soldier remarked that there were about '' one hundred shentlemans" in there at the time of our visit. In the busy streets of European cities the mueddin's frequent call to prayer would be in vain for several reasons, not the least among them being because his cry could not be heard above the din of traffic ; here the sound is always distinct, and reaches a long distance from the city walls ; it falls on the ears of the busy labourers in the fields, who lay aside their tools and bend their foreheads to * Sl'ctches in Spain, by John Lomas. 270 A SCAMPER THROUGH the earth in supplication to Allah, the All- Merciful. The cry is precisely like that of the Spanish scrcnos, who must have learned it, as they did so many things, from the Moors— a long chant on one note, sometimes shortened, sometimes prolonged. Beinp- trans- lated, the words are something like these: ''Come to prayers! Come to prayers! Come to the temple ! Come to the temple ! Prayer is better than sleep ! Prayer is better than sleep ! La ilahah ila Allah ! There is no other God than God!" A missionary who has been for six years working among the Moors, described their immorality as something impossible to con- ceive. Men will sell their own children as slaves ; if a wife does not suit her husband, or for the most trifling cause, such, for example, as a dinner improperly cooked, he can divorce her by word of mouth, and that within a month of her marriage; she then marries another man, and thus wives are practically SPAIN AND TANGIER, 271 interchangeable. Many Moors do not know who is their father. They have no Idea of what truth Is ; though lying Is forbidden by the Koran, they have no scruple In doing it and confessing it. Murder Is scarcely considered a crime; a man In Tangier Is known to have committed three, but he has paid for them all, and the luxury is not costly. A Moor who had an enemy asked a Jew (they generally get Jews to do their dirty work) to kill him, giving him one hundred dollars In payment. The assassin went to Tetouan, took lodgings In the house of the doomed man, and lived with him on the most friendly terms for a year ; then one evening at supper he Informed his host that he was commissioned to kill him, and saying so, shot him dead. Like most murderers In Morocco, he was never punished. Travelling In the interior is still a litde risky, and it Is best to take a soldier. The country 272 A SCAMPER THROUGH between Tetouan and Oran cannot be tra- versed by Christians ; the inhabitants are the most fanatical in Morocco. Jews have a very bad time in most towns, and are not allowed to walk past a mosque without taking- off their shoes, or enter a street in which a saint lives. Luckily the saints herd together. Circumcision is made the occasion of a cere- mony, gladly seized upon by a people who have no occupation, and whose life is so primitive and wants so small that a few hours' labour a day supplies them. The boy, gorgeously dressed, is mounted on his father's horse, and led round and round the house with flags flying and drums beating, followed by a crowd of spectators. SPAIN AND TANGIER. 273 CHAPTER XV. TANGIER {continued). Many times in the course of my '^ sketching scamper" I have paused to consider how best to convey to the reader's mind the impressions which afforded me such intense pleasure, and have come to the conclusion that it is better simply to describe, and trust to the simple description only, than attempt any sentimental or romantic comments. When an artist exchanges the brush or chisel for the pen, he cannot expect to produce polished sentences, nicely turned phrases, or particularly apt epithets ; he can only, like Anthony, *' speak right on." This must be an excuse for my ''bald disjointed chat." The Soko is the centre of Tangerine life, and 274 A SCAMPER THROUGH many and charming were the scenes we saw there ; but why, oh why have the English been permitted to destroy the picturesqueness of the spot by erecting- a vile tin church' in the very midst ? Would their prayers be of no avail offered up in another place ? is ugliness a neces- sary ingredient of goodness ? is it meritorious to spoil a view which Nature and the Moors had concurred to render so beautiful ? And the English Consulate, so square, so uncompromis- ing, so redolent of Pimlico and Kensington, was it necessary for the better displaying of the Union Jack to place this edifice near the Soko, to the destruction of one of the loveliest views in Tangier? The Americans, with taste which does them credit, have not desecrated the place with their Consulate, but have retired a short distance to the Monte, and there erected a suitable buildino- in true Moorish style. Alas! our country- men abroad are not distinguished for their good taste, and generally manage to de- SPAIN AND TANGIER. 275 stroy the element of beauty in whatever they touch. The camels which bring merchandise from the interior are to be seen on the Soko numbering at times so many as fifty and sixty. They are driven one by one to a certain spot, made to kneel down, unloaded, and the piled- up bales of goods covered with a tent till market-day. A good deal of recrimination takes place between themselves and their drivers, perhaps on account of their pack-saddles, which are hardly ever removed. A friend who chanced to see one taken off, described the back of the poor animal as absolutely raw. The amount of grumbling a camel will go through while he is being loaded or unloaded, is equalled only by the Englishman's whose privilege he usurps ; very lofty is his expres- sion, as if from his superior height he looked down upon human beings with intense con- tempt. For their meals, a cloth is spread on the floor, sacks of corn and chopped hay are 2T6 SPAhX AiXn TAXGIER. emptied on to it, and the camels are brought up and made to kneel in rows on both sides as if they were at table ; a good deal of quarrelling and biting at each other succeeds, and an impu- dent donkey will sometimes thrust his presence among the company, like the unwelcome guest we have all seen at times. It is sino-ular that camels will tolerate donkeys, but they hate horses, which they will kick and bite. It is said camels cannot travel over muddy roads ; their long limbs slide apart and their soft feet have no hold, so the legs literally split off. All the specimens we saw had but one hump, and varied in colour from nearly white to the deepest brown. The Soko is also the scene of all the popular amusements. On fine days snake-charming is generally to be witnessed there, and never fails to attract a crowd of Arabs as well as strangers. A circle is cleared on the cleanest available spot ; a man beating a drum, and another playing a pipe, seat themselves at one 278 A SCAMPER THROUGH part of the circumference. The performer, when we saw it, was the lean small man almost black, who figures on the cover of this book ; his head is shaven except at the back, where a long- waving lock is left according to Mohammedan custom, by which he is to be drawn up into Paradise, and his features are refined and nearly European. He began by bowing to the ground, which he touched repeatedly with his forehead, and vociferating a prayer to his special saint to protect him from the poisonous effects of the snake bites. Two men who were sitting withm the circle rose at his bidding, and the place on which they had been sitting was seen to be covered with writhing snakes. These he captured and put into a leathern bag; then selecting a very beautiful specimen, about five feet in length, whose striped skin changed in the sunlight from brightest pink to vivid green, raised it in his hands and carried it round the circle, collecting money as he did so. He repeated SPAIN AND TANGIER. 2/9 his incantations, irritated the snake which was a little torpid at first, and finally put the head of the reptile in his mouth and allowed it to bite him many times on the tongue and lips. Blood flowed from his mouth, and mingled with foam which ran down his beard till he was a frightful spectacle, almost as bad as the Hawadji. The charmer danced round and round again, and allowed the snake to fasten on his wrists and bite vigorously; he rather seemed to enjoy being bitten than not. There was no mistake about the biting ; I saw the fangs enter the flesh, and sometimes the snake held so firmly that it was difficult to pull off. Immediately after being bitten on the tongue he scraped the blood from it with a straw picked up on the spot, and I also noticed that, before he allowed the snake to touch him, he had been eating some green herb. The whole spectacle makes one shudder, and is dreadful- even admitting, as of course we must, that the poison gland had been extracted. 28o SPAIN AND TANGIER. His next performance (I forgot to say a small fire of straw was lighted near what we will call the orchestral portion of the ring) was to blow into flame a handful of crrass. He held this tightly over his mouth and blew and blew till at last a flame appeared. No one seemed to know how this trick was done, but on a subsequent occasion two Englishmen offered him a couple of dollars if he would do it without the fire in the ring being already kindled. He undertook to do the trick, but under pretence of not having enough straw, sent a confederate to procure more. This man must have managed to convey a small coal in the centre of the handful he so speedily brought. However, the snake-charmer soon blew it into flame, and got the two dollars. I afterwards succeeded in engaging this man to pose for his picture— a savage from the remotest depths of Morocco, by religion of the sect of the Assowa, who tear living sheep to pieces, and snatching from each other the Snake-chiinnet ZS2 A SCAMPER THRU UGH quiverin- fragments, devour them, even to the wool and entrails. Yet his behaviour indoors was always refined, even perfectly gentlemanly. It was difficult to reco-nise in our quiet, self-contained guest the apparently wild demoniac whom we had seen on the Soko wind wreathing serpents about his neck, and foaming and covered with blood, put one and sometimes two of their heads into his mouth, exciting them to bite him. He used to come surreptitiously to our hotel, fearing the notice of his co-religionists, pose well, and at intervals smoke a cigarette and drink the glass of green tea with which we supplied him, with an air of dignity and com- posure that would have done credit to a prince. We gave him a certain sum every day, and promised a gratuity, or favor, at the conclusion of the sittings to keep him to his appointment, and he was punctual and per- fectly honourable in his dealings. He always asserted that " Sidi Mahomet," the patron- SPAIN AND TANGIER. 283 saint of the Assowa, granted him immunity from danger when the snakes bit him. For an Arab he earned a great deal of money by his profession, and beguiled his lengthened hours of leisure by extracting such music as was possible out of a sort of gamba with two strings, made of a piece of bamboo, over the split end of which a bladder stretched forms the sounding-board. Among the most interesting sights on the Soko are the Story-tellers of the Desert, who are many and various. For hours at a time they relate their tales to an audience never weary of listening. Their voices are so per- fectly modulated and gestures so eloquent that we could quite enter into their recitations. They stand In the midst of the serious Moors, who are seated on the ground, having faces Indicative of the most profound interest. The story-tellers declaim their narrative with much gesticulation and facial expression, mterruptin it occasionally, one to play a few chords with 284. A SCAMPER THROUGH a straw on his primitive guitar, another to strike together three little cymbals worn on his fingers, or a third to tap on the little painted drum placed in the hollow^ of his arm. These men are splendidly draped, recalling the car- toons of Raphael, or some of the noblesi of the antique statues ; their free, untu- tored actions are a perfect lesson in elocution. No dress in the world is so artistic as the ]\Ioorish. The climate is one of the most perfect in the world. It is never cold, and the heat of summer is tempered by the sea-breezes. The heavy rains begin to fall in October, and last till March. February and March are the coldest months, but the thermometer seldom or never falls below 49 degrees. The Christmas Day of 1 89 1 was wet but mild ; the day before it I was able to sketch out of doors ; and the following days were beautifully warm and fine. We never had fires, and wore our usual summer clothing throughout December and SPAIN AND TANGIER, 285 January. December ihe 13th the glass was 70 degrees in the sun. It seems incredible that roses, acacias, and geraniums should be blooming in the open at this time of year, and ferns growing plentifully beneath the aloe and cactus hedges. The almond-tree was in blossom, peas and beans were a foot high, and the only sign of winter was that it grew dark about five o'clock. One trains vears of daylight to work in in a climate like this. If our fog-cursed, cold island could be loosed from its moorings in the north Atlantic Ocean, towed south, and anchored again three decrrees nearer the equator, what an improve- ment it would be ! But there is no accounting for taste. On the other hand, an English writer once said of Tangier:— " One constantly thinks how pleasant it would be to be out of it all, and even registers a silent vow never again to be tempted into the regions of romance." But he was not an artist. 286 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER, 287 •i CHAPTER XVr. TANGIER {coutuiiud). "^ - We were never tired of walking* about Tangier. Every day was like turning over the pages of some superbly illustrated book. From one of the heights round it called the Mar- shan, mavbe seen that bay immor- talised by Nelson's great victory, where on a certain day he as well as others did the duty Douahs. expected of them by England. The roads leading out of the town not being made, are in sum.mer nothing but dust, and in winter nothing but mud. However, they are always very beautiful, lined with aloes, cactus, and bamboo-canes. The streets are squalid and have no names, and the houses no numbers, so It is difficult to find your way to any particular abode.* English, French, and Spaniards have estab- lished separate post-offices, and if you expect a letter it is best to try them all before you are quite sure it has not arrived. In Tangier people of every African and many European nationalities meet ; Arabs, Moors, Reefians, Soudanese, Egyptians, &c., from the purest pink complexion to the oiliest black, may be seen there. Women with long white robes, hiding their faces, glide about like spectres ; some, sitting in the street, display * -Onjcttc tout, on fait tout dans les rues, except^ de relever les murs ecroules et de nettoyer." 288 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 2^9 their wares, as well as a considerable amount of leg-, but neither mouth nor nose. Savage- looking negroes, whose very appearance recalls all one has ever read of African horrors ; water- bearers, naked from the feet to half way above the knees, carrying pigskins empty or full ; grave merchants in many-hued djelahes and snowy turbans ; wild-looking Arabs from the desert in all the dignity of ragged draperies which remind one of Greek and Roman heroes, as do also their features, mingle with the jaunty little Spaniard with sloping shoulders in broad sombrero, the Englishman who thinks the most ridiculous dress he can adopt the proper thing abroad, and the Frenchman as iresh and smart as if he were sauntering down his beloved boulevard — all these can be seen in the streets of Tangier, with quaint white houses and arches, piles of fruit, strange little shops full of rich stuffs, embroideries, curious knives, guns six feet long, and other Moorish specialities for a background. Suddenly a flag is run up at the flagstaff on the minaret, the voice of the mueddin is heard, and the religious Mohammedans prostrate themselves in prayer. Then the night closes in, and the sky becomes radiant with the glorious afterglow, which lengthens out the day while clothing the distant hills and sea with purple more splendid than that of the robes of Eastern emperors ; the hum of traffic, the eternal strife of bargaining, cease for a time ; instead, the m.onotonous tones of the ^amba fill the air, and the wild-dogs bay con- tinuously in the distance. Soon these pictures will only be reminis- cences of the past, for even now parts of Tangier are lighted with electric light, and ii is proposed to make an electric tramway from the Soko to the sea. I am glad to have seen it before the destructive hand of civilisation has seized this quaint little Moorish city entirely in its grasp. Distasteful as it always is, we must pause u zgo A SCAMPER THROUGH for a moment to consider the subject of the indispensable fioos, as the Moors call money. The Spanish coinage is mostly in circulation, though English and French coins pass. In Spain we never saw a gold coin, neither did the bankers possess them. The exchange on English notes and cheques reached while we were here 14 and 16 per cent. Dollars, Spanish diiros, or French five-franc pieces are the coins of highest value used, and a moderately large sum of these is so cumbersome that an extra big purse or bag is needful. The Moorish floos are worth about five a penny; their silver coins, shillings, and half-crowns, minted for them in Paris, are beautiful pieces of really artistic design. Some energetic missionaries have established a hospital on the Marshan, and hope to get at the Moors' souls through healing their bodies. The greatest trouble they have is to keep the men and women apart, which problem they once solved by eliminating the feminine SPAIN AND TANGIER. 291 element. When we visited the hospital most of the cases were skin diseases, from which the Moors suffer frightfully. The attempts to convert them seemed hopeless ; they come when they are ill, profess to become Christians, take the medicine and get cured, but thank Allah and the Prophet for their restoration to health. The dexterity of the Moors in the use of the gun is proverbial. On the occasion of a wedding, the sending of presents from one chief to another, or other festivities, they come in procession accompanied by a band and per- form the " powder- play." Their guns are very long, have most of them flintlocks, and the barrels are either bound with brass or silver, or inlaid. It is to be deplored that they are ex- changing these picturesque weapons for the more useful but inartistic English rifle when- ever possible. Twirling these guns round their heads so rapidly that they look like wheels, they suddenly u 2 292 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 293 bring- them down with the butts resting- on their breasts, and discharge them simulta- neously over the heads of their horses. They toss their pieces high above their heads, catch them atrain, and fire — sometimes in the air, sometimes on the ground, while they are executing the wildest gyrations. We had many opportunities of seeing this performance. One occasion was when the Shereef of Wazan, a personage who can only be fitly compared to the Archbishop of Canter- bury in rank and dignity, came to Tangier. His exalted position may be estimated by the fact of his having sixty wives, among them (one relates it with regret) an English lady. The Moors performed the powder-play before him as he was carried through the streets in a gaily-painted box open at one side, while the crowd rushed frantically to kiss his hands and feet. It is also executed at weddings. A bride is borne to her husband's home in a kind of box 1 or tent on the back of a horse, accompanied by the same savage signals of rejoicing. Poor creature ; if she manages to get a peep at the world through the chinks of her box then, it is probably her last ! It is as well to remember that Christians are rigorously interdicted from entering the mosques in Tangier, unlike the custom in Alo-iers. De Amicis relates that when, unaware of this fact, he attempted to follow a procession into one, an old Arab rushed towards him, utter- ing a savage exclamation, and pushed him back with a gesture one would use in snatching a child from the brink of a precipice. I looked in as far as possible ; there is only to be seen a courtyard with white arcades, and fountains on either side, in which true believers are continually performing their ablutions, which seem to consist of washing their feet, legs, and faces with their hands. In the country roads the same fountain serves for drinking-water for camels, donkeys, and people, for ablution, 2 94 A SCAMPER THROUGH and for washing fish — the only thing- they seem to wash except their clothes. The insane are regarded as saints in Morocco, and very troublesome personages they are. They persecute the visitor with demands for charity on which they live, parade the streets most gorgeously attired (one rejoices in an orange-coloured djclabe and red tunic), and wear numberless chains, rings, and amulets. They may be distinguished by the spear which they carry, occasionally with a cork on the point to prevent mischief. In Fez they inhabit a special street near the mosque, through which no Christian is permitted to pass. The native donahs (huts) are very rude, simply made of interlaced bushes and thatched; as there is no wood in the country, every con- trivance is resorted to for a substitute. They have no windows or chimneys, and the doors are so low the inhabitants have to creep in and out ; the only furniture, if they can be SPAIN AND TANGIER. 295 dignified with the name, are a few mats and rude earthenware pots, which latter the women make. These huts are built in groups, sur- rounded with thick hedges of cactus and aloe. The natives keep a number of wild-dogs, wretched looking animals, partly dog, partly jackal, and partly wolf, about their dwellings, which attack the stranger who approaches too closely. In daylight one can frighten them off as they are great cowards, by pretending to throw stones at them ; at night and in packs they are dangerous, and will assault a man on horseback. The carcasses of dead horses and mules are deposited on a certain part of the beach ; thither these wild beasts repair, and o-orcre and quarrel among themselves till the remains are finished. The Moors' manner of playing at ball is curious; they throw the ball up in such a manner that it falls near one foot, with which they kick it into the air again. There are few places in the Old World 2Q6 A scampi:/^ through SPAIN AND TANGIER. 297 where the ubiquitous Roman has not set his mark, strong and massive as the rock on which his mighty capitol was founded. So, as was to be expected in his favourite province of Mauritania, there are the ruins of two Roman bridges near Tangier ; and old Tangier, on the opposite side of the bay, contains numerous remains ; probably it is the site of the ancient Tingis. The saying is that the Moors began to build Tangier on that spot, but every night the stones were carried away by supernatural agency and placed on the site of the present town, which they took as an indication it was the proper place on which to erect it. What views there are over the Mediterranean to the Spanish hills, or far away to the spur of the snow-crowned Atlas and the Monkey Mountains ! I cannot recall them without a thrill of pleasure. The little white villas nest- ling in the nearest hills must be charming residences, but how about getting furniture and provisions there in a country entirely £ dependent on donkeys for conveyances ? There are only two wheeled vehicles in Tangier— one is a dust-cart, the other a cab, whose excur- sions are confined to the beach, as the roads are so rough. It was long before a horse could be found that could be put in harness. The most repulsive features in the Moorish character are cruelty and an utter disregard of truth. I should be sorry to relate all the instances of the former I have seen; it is quite enough for them to see a dog to throw a stone at it immediately, break Its leg, or put out its eye; animals are miade to work when they are only fit to spend their few remaining days in peace, or to be shot. There is not a mule or working horse whose withers are not raw. A mule came under my observation one day, down whose legs blood was streaming freely from the friction of the harness which it still wore. I endeavoured to remonstrate with the sturdy Moor who was 2q8 A SCAMPER THROUGH SPAIN AND TANGIER. 299 calmly seated on its back, but he only looked at me with that apathetic and bland expression of countenance which their religion teaches them to cultivate. The Moors are insensible to remonstrances ; they do not value human life ; how can they be expected to consider that of animals? I should be happy, indeed, if, by calling- attention to these facts, any remedy might be attempted ; what or how I am at a loss to imagine. De Amicis minutely describes the women, walking with long steps slowly, covering their faces with the corner of a sort of mantle, under which they wear nothing but a chemise with large sleeves, having a cord round the waist like the robe of a nun. One can only see their eyes, the hand which covers the face, the nails tinted red with henna, and the naked feet thrust into large slippers of red or yellow leather. He omits to notice that they are tattooed on the chin, with a mark reaching from its base to the lower lip. i When no longer young they become simply beasts of burden. They walk long distances in from the country on market-days, bent double with the weight of bundles of faggots as large as themselves, huge baskets of char- coal or fruit, and often a child bound on their backs as well, whose solemn little head sticks out of its mother's garments. Supportmg themselves with canes, barefooted, and some- times carrying iheir slippers in their hands, they trudge the long distances, always good- humoured and apparently happy. The Moors have only the most rudimentary ideas of medical science, and many die for want of ordinary assistance in their ailments. How those survive who live in the miserable tents on the Soko, in the midst of mud and manure heaps during the soaking tropical rains of winter, it is impossible to conceive. Naturally abstemious, the principal meal of the Arab is taken at sunset ; their usual food is the national dish of cooscooscoo—^iour rolled 300 A SCAMPER THROUGH into fine grains, cooked in a steamer, and mixed with that rancid compound of peculiar flavour which is their only substitute for butter. I did not find it disagreeable, and it is said that no one who has once acquired the taste for it ever loses it'again. When irritated by the long fast of Ramadan the Moors are particularly dangerous; night and day violent altercations take place in the streets, and four or five murders a week occur; at tbrit une it is best not to go near a mosque or enter a cemetery. For a period of fort\ i:a\s the Moh.ininicdan nui-L r:'^^)xo\x-^.x abstain from fooJ an*! even drink uurin;L^ lla' (iaw '"Hj- instant, Ivavover, the da\' closev, tin hiinQrx' [»fHt,'\'er liastt-ns to in'ieinnii}' himself for his jiri\"ations ].\' an induli^ence in f-xjil liniite«l (.)nl\' h\' his pecu- niary means and the (^apacit)- (jf his ^lenKU li. 1 he slight.- si return (jf appetite i.^ closely watched, and eagerly taken advantage uf, and f'Air or Hve tini'S in the ni^dit ^\^d t!i»' wealtliier disciples of the Prophet fortify the inner man SPAIN AND TANGIER. 101 against the attacks of hunger during the coming day. That there may be no excuse for breaking fast in the daytime, trumpets are sounded by the mueddins at intervals during the night, to waken people to their meals, and, just before the first call to prayers, messengers from the mosques rush wildly through the streets uttering loud cries, and beating on the doors with heavy clubs. To the higher classes — those who can afford to sleep all day and eat all night— the Ramadan is n^t a ver\- trying time, but to those wlio have to lab o ! !\ ' hn li^iit the fast is one of considc able severity." Livin:^" as n' uch tu (utisft as max be, it Wiil still cost \'(AU , LONUON. i >i 1 I J ^0^ 'i i COLUMBIA UNIVERSITV LIBRARIES 0021061009 [OOKSELLERS, iS.-aiHBM»IMiTii