The Bible in Spain Volume I Part 30

{123b} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. vii.

{124} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. vi. = _cauring_ in English Romany. _Romano Lavo-Lil_, p. 245.

{126} "Say nothing to him, my lad; he is a hog of an _alguazil_."

{127} "At your service."

{132} "Who goes there?" Fr. _Qui vive_? The proper answer to the challenge by a Spanish sentry is _Espana_, "Spain," or _Piasano_, "a civilian."

{133a} "Shut up;" "Hold your tongue."

{133b} Stealing a donkey.

{135} See _The Zincali_, part i. ch. v.

{138a} See Introduction.

{138b} _El Serrador_, a Carlist partisan, who about this period was much talked of in Spain. Note by Borrow (see the Glossary, _s.v._).

{138c} He is a man indeed; _lit._ very much a man.

{143} On foot.

{146} Estremadura was for long years a vast winter pasturage whither the flocks from the Castiles were driven each successive autumn, to return to their own cooler mountains on the return of summer. The flocks were divided into _cabanas_ of about 10,000 sheep, in charge of fifty shepherds and fifty of their immense dogs.

{150a} "All are taken."

{150b} No doubt Oropesa, where the Duke of Frias has an ancient and somewhat dilapidated palace.

{152} Las Batuecas is a valley in the south-west corner of the modern province of Salamanca, four leagues from the city of that name, eight leagues from Ciudad Rodrigo, and about six leagues from Bejar. The princ.i.p.al town or village in the remote valley itself was Alberca. The strange inhabitants of the valley of Batuecas are entirely legendary, as is the story of their discovery by a page of the Duke of Alva in the reign of Philip II. See _Verdadera relacion de las Batuecas_, by Manuel de Gonzalez (Madrid, 1693), Ponz, _Viaje_ vii. 201; Feijoo, _Teatro Critico_, iv. 241, where the valley is compared with the equally mythical island of Atlantis.

{153} More commonly spelt ticking.

{154} See _Lavengro_, chap. 1.

{156a} The conventional diminutive of Pepa, which is itself the diminutive of Josefa, as is Pepe of Josefe.

{156b} This is, of course, a fancy name. Borrow has chosen that of a Spanish Jew, one of the great Rabbinical commentators. See _The Zincali_, part i. chap. ii.

{157a} This concession to local prejudice is delightful. But it must be remembered that _barraganeria_ or recognized concubinage was approved by Church and State in Spain for many hundred years. See Burke's _History of Spain_, vol. i., Appendix ii.

{157b} Ferdinand the Catholic and his wife Isabella. Their systematic persecution and banishment of the Jews-the edict was dated March 30, 1492-are well known.

{162} The street of the Bramble.

{163} See the Introduction, and Duncan, _The English in Spain_, _pa.s.sim_.

{164a} Juan Alvarez y Mendizabal was a more or less Christianized Jew, who began his career as a commissariat contractor to the national army on the French invasion in 1808. Born in 1790, he rendered important services to Spain, until in 1823 he was compelled, like so many of his liberal compatriots, to take refuge in England from the tyranny of Ferdinand VII. Abroad as well as at home, he displayed his great talent for finance for the benefit of Spain, and returned in 1835 as Minister of Finance in the Toreno Administration. He resigned in 1837, was again called to power in 1841, and died in 1853.

{164b} The honourable George Villiers was our Minister at Madrid from 1833 to March, 1838, when, having succeeded to the t.i.tle of his uncle as Earl of Clarendon, he returned to England, where in course of time he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Foreign Minister.

{166a} I have been so far unable to discover the name of this gentleman.

{166b} Mendizabal, as has been said, was a Jew by race.

{168} The word "cigarette" was not yet naturalized in England. The thing itself was practically unknown; even cigar was sometimes spelt _segar_.

{169} _Ojalateros_, criers of _ojala_; Arab. _Inshallah_, "if it please G.o.d," "would to G.o.d." _Pasteleros_, pastry-cooks, "wishers and dishers."

{170a} See the Glossary.

{170b} "A gypsy matron without honour spoke to her man of blood."

{170c} These are not fanciful names. Francisco Montes, who was born in 1805, was not only a celebrated _matador_, but the author of a work on Tauromachia; he appeared in the ring for the last time in 1850, and died in 1851. _Sevilla_ was the name borne by many less distinguished _toreadores_; Francisco Sevilla, the _picador_, who appeared for the last time in 1838, is perhaps the man referred to. _Poquito Pan_, or Bit of Bread, was the Tauromachian nickname of Antonio Sanchez, one of the favourite _picadores_ in the _cuadrilla_ or band of Montes.

{171} A gallows-show. Yet, as will be seen in the text, the gallows or _furca_ itself is no longer used.

{172} Peace, pity, and tranquillity.

{174a} _Manolo_ is a somewhat difficult word to translate; it is applied to the flash or fancy man and his _manola_ in Madrid only, a cla.s.s fond of pleasure, of fine clothes, of bull-fights, and of sunshine, with a code of honour of their own; men and women rather picturesque than exemplary, and eminently racy of the soil.

{174b} In 1808.

{175} At the last attack on Warsaw, when the loss of the Russians amounted to upwards of twenty thousand men, the soldiery mounted the breach, repeating, in measured chant, one of their popular songs, "Come, let us cut the cabbage," etc.-[Note by Borrow.] See the Glossary, _s.v.

Mujik_.

{176} "Another gla.s.s; come on, little Englishman, another gla.s.s."

{177a} See note on chap. x. p. 138.

{177b} _Montero_ in Spanish means "a hunter;" and a _montero_ cap, which every reader of Sterne is familiar with at least by name, is a cap, generally of leather, such as was used by hunters in the Peninsula.

{177c} Twelve ounces of bread, small pound, as given in the prison.

[Note by Borrow.]

{178} According to the late Marquis de Santa Coloma, as reported by Mr.

Wentworth Webster (_Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society_, vol. i. p. 151), "in Madrid Borrow used to ride a fine black Andalusian horse (_v. p_.

261), with a Russian skin for a saddle, and _without stirrups_." This was, however, during his second visit, and _Don Jorge_ may have changed his practice. That he could ride without stirrups, or saddle either, is certain (p. 308, and _Lavengro_, chap. xiii.).

{180a} General Cordova had been entrusted from the beginning of the war with high command in the queen's armies. He succeeded Valdez as commander-in-chief immediately after the death of Zumalacarregui, at the end of June, 1835, to the end of August, 1836, when he was succeeded by Espartero. See Duncan, _The English in Spain_, pp. 58, 72.

{180b} See Introduction, and _Revue des Deux Mondes_, 15 fevrier, 1851.

{181a} May, 1836.

{181b} Don Francisco Xavier de Isturitz was born in 1790, and after taking part in the various liberal governments from 1808 to 1823, was forced to fly to England on the absolutist counter-revolution in that year. He returned to Spain on the amnesty in 1834, and on the fall of his old friend Mendizabal in 1836, he became minister for foreign affairs, and lived to negotiate the "Spanish marriages," and to occupy many high political and diplomatic posts under Isabella II.

{181c} See Introduction, p. xxiii.