The Bible in Spain Volume I Part 32

{241a} A _haji_ is a man who has made the _haj_ or pilgrimage to Mecca.

As a t.i.tle it is prefixed to the name. The Levantine Greeks who have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem are also accustomed to use the same t.i.tle, and their "Haji Michaeli" or "Haji Yanco" is as common a mode of address as "Haji Ali." "Haji Stavros" in About's _Roi des Montagnes_ may be happily remembered.

{241b} The great city of Negroland is, I presume, Khartoum, capital of the Soudan, known to our fathers as _Nigritia_.

{242a} Philip II., eldest son of Carlos I. of Spain (the Emperor Charles V.), married Mary of England the 25th of July, 1555.

{242b} _The Mystery of Udolpho_, the once celebrated but now forgotten romance of Mrs. Radcliffe (17641823).

{243a} "Sir George of my soul," _i.e._ "My dear Sir George."

{243b} Puente. See _The Zincali_, part i. chap. ix.

{243c} See _ante_, note on p. 235.

{246} The House of the Inquisition, or Holy Office.

{247} "What do I know?"

{249a} "So pretty, so smart."

{249b} Query, the Epistle to the Romans.-[Note by Borrow.]

{250} Bad fellows, the French _mauvais sujets_.

{254a} _Real_, _i.e._ royal, the first coin of Christian Spain, as opposed to the Moorish _maravedi_. The first _real_ of which we have any certain knowledge was struck by Henry II. on May 15, 1369. The value of the _real_ is now about 2_d._ English money, but as a unit of value and computation it has been officially supplanted since 1870 by the _peseta_ or _franc_ of 9_d._ See Burke's _History of Spain_, vol. ii. pp.

281286.

{254b} Carlist leaders.

{257} There are at least three districts in Spain known as the Sagra: one in Alicante, one in Orense, and another near Toledo which includes 27 miles by 24 miles of country to the north of the city. Amongst the villages included in the district are Yuncler, Yunclillos, and Yuncos, whose names would seem to tell of some foreign origin. The origin of the word Sagra is most uncertain. It was commonly said to be _Sacra_ _Cereris_, on account of the abundant harvests of the district, and has also been derived from the Arab _?a?_ = a field.

{258} This was Don Vicente Lopez y Portana, who was born at Valencia in 1772, and died at Madrid in 1850. His pictures were as a rule allegorical in subject, and his son, Don Bernardo Lopez, was also alive at this time, and died only in 1874.

{259a} Don Andres Borrego, author of _La Historia de las Cortes de Espana durante el siglo_ XIX. (1885), and other political works.

{259b} See vol. ii. p. 242.

{261} _V._ p. 178.

{262} Not Cabrera himself, but his subordinate Zariategui, an old friend and comrade of Zumalacarregui. This was on August 11, 1837. See Duncan, _The English in Spain_, p. 152.

{263} Lord Carnarvon, of course, would not have endorsed these opinions.

See Introduction, and Duncan _ub. sup. pa.s.sim_.

{265a} Pera can hardly be said to be near Constantinople. It is the _Franc_ quarter of the city, separated no doubt from Stambul by the Golden Horn, and undoubtedly very beautiful. Buchini is hardly a Greek name, and Antonio was no doubt like so many of his kind, of Italian origin. My own faithful Spiro Varipati was a Constantinopolitan Greek of Cerigo.

{265b} More usually spelt Syra.

{266a} This was possibly the period when Admiral Duckworth attempted to force the pa.s.sage of the Dardanelles.-[Note by Borrow.]

{266b} Cean Bermudez, the celebrated art critic, traveller, and dilettante, the author of numerous works on art and architecture, more especially in the Peninsula, was born in 1749, exiled 18018, and died in 1829. _C_ and _z_ before _e_ have the same sound in Castilian.

{268} See Glossary.

{269a} Nowadays he would call himself a ?????.

{269b} "Good luck to thee, Antonio!"

{271} Mr. Southern.

{274a} Romany _chal_ = gypsy lad.

{274b} "Good horse! gypsy horse!

Let me ride thee now."

{277a} _Cead mile faille_! p.r.o.nounce _Kaydh meela faulthia_.

{277b} _Estremeno_, a native of the province of Estremadura.

{279} See note on p. 193.

{280a} The _Colegio de n.o.bles Irlandeses_, founded in 1792 by Philip II., is at present housed in a building of the earliest and best period of the Spanish _cinquecento_, founded in 1521 by Archbishop Fonseca as the _Colegio Mayor del Apostol Santiago_. It was built by Pedro de Ibarra.

{280b} As is recorded in the second chapter of _Gil Blas_.

{282} I.e. _el cura_, the parish priest; Fr. _cure_. Our "curate" is rather _el vicario_; Fr. _vicaire_.

{284} _Arapiles_ is the name by which the great English victory of Salamanca is known to French and Spanish writers. It was fought on July 22, 1812, and the news reached Napoleon on the banks of the Borodino on September 7, inducing that strange hesitation and want of alacrity which distinguished his operations next day. The village of Arapiles is about four miles from Salamanca.

{287} Savage mules.

{290} "See the crossing! see what devilish crossing!" _Santiguar_ is to make the sign of the cross, to cross one's self. _Santiguo_ is the action of crossing one's self.

{291} As late as 1521, Medina del Campo was one of the richest towns in Spain. Long one of the favourite residences of the Castilian court, it was an emporium, a granary, a storehouse, a centre of mediaeval luxury and refinement. But the town declared for the _Comuneros_ of Castile, and was so pitilessly sacked, burned, and ravaged by the Flemish Cardinal Adrian, acting for the absent Charles of Hapsburg (in 1521), that it never recovered anything of its ancient importance. The name, half Arab, half Castilian, tells of its great antiquity. To-day it is known only as a railway station!

{292} "_Carajo_, what is this?"

{293a} We have adopted in English the Portuguese form Douro, which gave the t.i.tle of Marquis to our great duke . . . of Ciudad Rodrigo, as the Spaniards prefer to call him.

{293b} Madhouse.

{293c} "May the Virgin protect you, sir:" lit. "May you go with the Virgin."

{293d} Valladolid, like so many place-names, not only in southern, but in central Spain, is Arabic, _Balad al Walid_, "the land of _Walid_," the caliph in whose reign the Peninsula was overrun by the Moslems. The more ancient name of _Pincia_ is lost.

{295} A friend and comrade of Zumalacarregui, who came into notice after the death of the greater leader in June, 1835.

{296a} The _Colegio de Ingleses_ was endowed by Sir Francis Englefield, a partisan of Mary Queen of Scots, who came to Spain after her execution.