Wild Spain Part 22

At the fairs the wealthier gypsies also trade in precious stones and jewellery; the poorer in hardware, "tinkery," and the like. The _gitanas_, gaudily arrayed in colours of startling hues, and blazing with heavy golden ornaments, deal in divinations and tell the _buena ventura_ as of old, the younger girls ever ready to engage in their lissom dances and in the wild suggestive singing characteristic of the Rommany race.

In towns and cities some of the gypsy women have a large and varied _clientele_: they are admitted to the best houses, and the proudest senoras deign to inspect the ancient lace, the bric-a-brac and jewellery that they bring for sale. Of antique lace, elaborately wrought, and of painted fans and such-like relics, the supply in Spain seems inexhaustible: and eventually the glib tongue of the gitana may probably obtain about half the price originally asked.

Despite certain changes--hereafter described--the Spanish gypsy remains exotic to Hispania, distinct in type both of form and feature; the restless, suspicious eye of the hunted animal, the lithe build, and straight supple limbs, even among the _svelte_ and graceful Andalucians, still distinguish these swarthy sons of the wilderness.[57] The true-bred gypsy remains a distinct species. Though amenable to the same laws, and recognized as a Spanish subject, he is distinguishable at a glance. The youths undergo their allotted period of army service, but remain not an hour beyond the stipulated time with the colours.

Their normal occupations to-day are chiefly those of butchers--all the shambles of Spain are in their hands--tinkers, horse-breakers, mule and donkey-dealers, and basket-makers. But, at a pinch, the gitano now condescends to engage on the lighter work of the land--hoeing, weeding, &c. Like the Jew, the gypsy has ever hitherto been conspicuous by his absence from every field of manual labour: both prefer the lighter barters of life; and that the gitano should now--even casually--take to such honest work, is perhaps a sign of the times.

One great change has, however, been wrought by the century of equal laws--a change perhaps of vital import to the villain crew. The once sacred _errate_ is contaminated. Marriages between the two races--with or without the sanction of the church--are now frequent, though the Spaniard who contracts such ill-savoured union loses caste among his or her own people, and the children of these mixed marriages never lose the taint.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xIV.

DANCERS AT GRANADA--THE BOLERO.

Page 289.]

By this means there has sprung into existence, during late years, an intermediate cla.s.s, neither pure Gitano nor Spanish, which is daily increasing, and, being free from all the traditionary observances of the gypsy, mingles more and more with the national life, carrying with it much of the ready wit and piquancy of the latter.

The result of this grafting of an element of gitanismo upon the original Castilian stock is the _Flamenco_ of to-day, and it is a curious satire on Spanish society that the style and attire, even the language, of this wanton half-caste breed have become a fashionable craze--have been by some paradoxical freak adopted by a section of even the higher Madrilenian circles who revel in copying the garb, the manners, and the jargon of the once loathed gypsy. Flamencos are found in every grade--well known among the gilded youth of Madrid or Seville--but the bull-ring appears to provide the most approved models for this school.

Nor is the mania confined to the men: the bright gala-dress of the gitana has become fashionable among high-placed senoras who appear at dance or salon sporting the gaudy Manila shawl with its flowing fringe, short frock, and with hair coiffeured _a la Flamenca_. To prefer the raciest and most highly-flavoured Spanish dishes, to quaff freely the Manzanilla, to smoke cigarettes, to prefer olives to bonbons, to know the bull-fighters by their pet names, to be loud if not witty, smart in repartee and slang--this is to be _Flamenca_.

Both s.e.xes of the Flamencos proper retain the dress and manner of the original gypsy. The brazen beauty of the young Flamencas has the same seductive charms for the _Busne_; and it is from the half-caste that the dancing girls of the cities and light-fingered gentry of many accomplishments are mostly recruited.

A considerable admixture of gypsy-blood is found among the lower strata of the bull-fighting profession, though its higher ranks are comparatively free from it. His intensely superst.i.tious nature unfits the true-bred gypsy from real success in this or any pursuit where nerve and decision are required. The only gitano _espadas_ of note are Chicorro and El Gallo. The former has latterly lost nerve and prestige through a curious practical joke played upon his superst.i.tious nature by a ventriloquial member of his _cuadrilla_. As he stood, sword and _muleta_ in hand, facing a black bull of the Duke of Veragua's breed in the Plaza of Madrid, suddenly the beast addressed him in low sepulchral tones, "_Te voy a coger!_"--I am going to catch you! Such was the effect on Chicorro's nerves that his life was only saved by his attendant _chulos_, who drew off the brute's attack, nor has Chicorro ever since dared to face a _black_ bull.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GYPSY LAD.]

The resident Spanish gypsies cl.u.s.ter together in some separate quarter of the town, or form an isolated mud-built _barrio_ outside its walls.

Dwelling apart, and without the slightest bond of sympathy with their Castilian neighbours, their outward signs of joy or grief--both demonstrative--pa.s.s unheard and ignored. In their religion--adopted perforce of law, as before set forth, and which savours of idolatry simple, with a dash of superst.i.tion and fanaticism--in their curious marriage and funereal customs--both occasions of noisy orgy, the latter resembling an Irish "wake" with its alternations of wailing by the hour "to order," and feasting in turn--the gypsies are left severely alone.

There is no sympathy with them. On the other hand, when civil or political disturbances prevail, and southern fervour is all ablaze, the gypsy _barrio_ remains spectacular and unmoved.

No "patriotic" dreams or soaring ambitions disturb the gypsy's squalid life--what has he to gain? What can he ever hope to be, but the despised and rejected, under any form of government? No list of misguided peasantry, beguiled and betrayed by base agitator, ever registers his name: the midnight meetings of the "Black Hand" find no gitano present at their sworn and secret conclaves. The vagabond is too shrewd uselessly to embroil himself in abortive efforts to upset existing order: though there is little doubt what his action would be should the opportunity of pillage with impunity ever present itself.

LOS BOHEMIOS.--There remain to be noticed the bands of nomad gypsies who flock to Spain during the winter months, but whose true home is said to be in Bohemia. These are not in touch with the native tribes, speaking but few words of Spanish or of its gypsy jargon. In summer they infest the roads and by-ways of Austria, travelling southwards, as winter advances, thus resembling in habit their British congeners. Their type of feature is of more Eastern caste, their faces almost black, with long tangled hair, in both s.e.xes, hanging down to the shoulders. Their home is the wigwam or rickety waggon with its load of rags and babies, and its mixed team of mules, donkeys, and ponies. The lurcher-dog and the snare a.s.sist these Zingali to fill their _puchero_. They traverse the wilds of Spain in camps of thirty to fifty, squatting near village or outside city walls, ostensibly to occupy themselves with iron and copper tinkery, kettle-making, and the like. Some of the women of these Bohemians are striking enough in their gypsy-beauty; the same faces are seen in successive years, so their journeyings are to some extent methodical.

One meets these nomad bands all over rural Spain, laboriously "trekking"

axle-deep, across dusky-brown plain or lonely waste of brushwood and palmetto--picturesque objects--indeed the only element of life and colour amidst these desolate scenes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GYPSY DANCE.]

CHAPTER XXV.

IN SEARCH OF THE LAMMERGEYER.

A WINTER RIDE IN THE SIERRAS.

To the Lammergeyer tradition has a.s.signed some romantic attributes, and a character of wondrous dash and daring. This is the bird that is credited with feats of hurling hunters from perilous positions down crag or creva.s.s, carrying off children to its eyrie, and kidnapping unguarded babes. Even Dr. Bree, in his "Birds of Europe," while doubting that it habitually a.s.sails grown-up people, gravely a.s.serts that a pair of these birds will not hesitate to attack a man whom they have caught at a disadvantage; while one will venture, single-handed, an onslaught on two hunters who are asleep. Some naturalists now seem inclined to go to the other extreme, and to regard the Lammergeyer as merely a huge Neophron.

No doubt the great size and weird, dragon-like appearance of the Gypaetus have tended to promote exaggeration, while its rarity and remote haunts have made it no easy subject to study, and few have formed its acquaintance in its own almost inaccessible domains. Our small experiences, narrated in the two following chapters, seem to show that the truth lies between the two extremes.

Towards the end of January we set out for a fortnight's exploration of the mountains beyond Tempul and Algar, a forty-mile ride to the eastward of Jerez. Bitter was the cold as we rode off in the darkness at 5 A.M., only two stars shining in the eastern firmament; truly the word _recreo_, as Blas explained to the sentry on duty at the old Moorish gateway, that we were only bound on _pleasure_, sounded almost satirical--as some one has said, life would be endurable but for its pleasures. By dawn we were crossing the hungry gravel-ridges beyond Cuartillos, and watched the sun rise from behind the stony pile of San Christobal, bathing the distant mountains, whither we were bound, in glorious golden glow.

Crossing the Guadalete by the ford of Barca Florida, our route led through leagues of lovely park-like land--here straggling natural woods or ferny glades, anon opening out upon stretches of heath and palmetto.

The track, where one existed, a typical Spanish by-way, shut in between vertical banks of slippery white marl, that barely left room for the laden mule; its narrow bed was a turgid mud-hole, honeycombed with the footprints of beasts that had gone before. Where the heath was more open we could take an independent course; but the scrub, as a rule, was impenetrable, and left no alternative but to go on plunging through the clinging mud. At noon we outspanned for _almuerzo_ beneath a cork-oak, the weather and the scene alike lovely beyond words. The evergreen woods swarmed with life; over the green expanse of palmetto hovered hen-harriers: a pair of kites swept over the wooded slopes of Berlanger, grey shrikes sat perched on dead boughs; chats, larks, buntings, and goldfinches swarmed, and all the usual Spanish birds, to wit, bustards great and small, cranes, storks, peewits, red-legs, kestrels, &c., were observed during the day's ride.

Later in the afternoon we were fairly among the outspurs of the sierra, and overhead, on heavy wing, soared the vultures. What a curious commentary on the state of a country are such hordes of huge carrion-feeders, and how eloquently does their presence attest a backward and listless condition in the lands they inhabit! In Spain, it is true, vultures serve a useful office as scavengers; yet in modern Europe they surely seem an anachronism. No doubt it is due as much to the physical conditions, to the desert character and semi-tropical climate of this wild land, as to the apathy of the Spanish people, that they exist in such numbers. Among nations more keenly imbued with commercial instincts, the flock-master takes care that his stock shall support themselves in order to support him. The daily, hourly losses which are implied in the supplementary support of hordes of huge flesh-eating birds, each as heavy as a Spanish sheep and voracious as a hyena, would simply put him out of the market, and eventually land him in bankruptcy. But Spain cares nothing for modern ideas, and disdains to put herself about in the universal race for wealth. There is dignity in her att.i.tude, but there is at least a suspicion of la.s.situde. Where Nature is prodigal, man becomes proportionately apathetic. Here her gifts more than suffice for simple tastes and day-to-day requirements, and the rural Andaluz seeks no more.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAMMERGEYER--A FIRST IMPRESSION.]

In agriculture, stock-raising, and other pastoral pursuits, the rudiments of modern system--drainage, irrigation, and the like--are ignored. In the burning heats of summer, when every green thing is scorched to death, the cattle die by hundreds from thirst and want of pasturage; in winter, when plains are flooded, and valleys water-logged, the death-rate from cold, want, and disease is hardly less heavy than that of summer. Small wonder the great bare-necked scavengers of Nature increase and flourish.

Pa.s.sing beneath the twin crags of Las Dos Hermanas, we struck the course of the Majaceite, whose rushing stream, embowered amidst magnificent oleanders, looked more _like trout_ than anything we had then seen in these sierras. Among the mountain streams above Alcala de los Gazules and in the Sierra de la Jarda we have observed its darting form, and further south some large trout have more recently been captured.

It was necessary to ford the Majaceite, which, in its swollen state and opaque current, was one of those things that bring one's heart into one's mouth; the bottom, however, proved sound: we plunged through all right, and after some stiffish mountain-riding reached the _pueblocito_ of Algar just as the setting sun was bathing the wild serrania in softest purples and gold.

The posada was a typical Spanish village inn. Our horses we had ourselves to see quartered in the stable, which occupied one side of the courtyard, while our dinner was being made ready in a small whitewashed room adjoining. The sleeping-quarters above consisted of a single small attic, absolutely devoid of furniture or of contents beyond a pile of sacks containing corn, or "paja" (chaff), in one corner, and our own belongings, including saddles, mule-pack, &c., &c., which lay littered all over the floor. Three trestle-beds ("catres") were produced, and in deference to the idiosyncrasies of the _extranjero_, a tiny wash-basin was placed on the window-sill--not that there was any _window_, beyond a folding wooden shutter. Dinner consisted of an _olla_, in which small morsels of pork could be hunted up amidst the recesses of a steaming ma.s.s of _garbanzos_ (chick-pea), by no means bad, though we were too hungry to be fastidious.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DANCE AND GUITAR.]

A small crowd of idlers, as usual, hung about the open courtyard of the posada, watching for "any new thing," and speculating on our objects in coming. I overheard the word _mineral_, and remembering that I had been amusing myself in sifting some of the sands of the Majaceite, thought it best to dispel any false impressions by inviting the bystanders to share a _boracha_ of the rough wine of local growth, and the usual cigarette.

It is always best to have some definite object, so I told my guests that I had come to the sierra to shoot the _quebranta-huesos_, literally, "bone-smasher." They stared and mumbled over the name; had never heard of such a thing; the first man one meets probably never has; but there was in the village a goatherd, _muy inteligente en pajaros_, "who knew all about birds." I sent for this worthy, Francisco Garcia de Conde by name, a light-built, wiry mountaineer. Francisco's ornithological repute was easily acquired, for among the blind a one-eyed man is king; but he certainly did know the Lammergeyer, and his description of its habits and appearance pa.s.sed the evening away pleasantly enough. The _quebranta-huesos_ he described as a fierce and solitary bird--never seen more than two together, and discriminated it from the vultures as being _muy danino_--very destructive to goats, kids, and other hill-stock, which it seizes and kills on the spot, or hurls over the ledge of some precipice. He well described their habit of engaging in aerial combat--"siempre se ponen peleando en el ayre"--and their loud wild "pwing! pwing!" resounding through the mountain solitudes. Of their actual nesting-places, however (which I was most anxious to discover), he knew nothing, beyond positively stating (and in this he was corroborated by other hill-men) that they bred exclusively in the loftier sierras beyond Ronda. We had ourselves spent some time traversing those very sierras without seeing anything of this bird; but should add, were not at that time specially in search of it. Their eyries, Francisco a.s.serted, were only to be found in the region of "living rocks" (_piedras vivas_), which form the loftiest peaks. In this, however, as will appear in the next chapter, our friend Francisco was mistaken.

Our conversation was listened to--I don't imagine enjoyed--by a pair of lovers, who, with a rather pretty girl, the daughter of the house, presumably in the capacity of duena, occupied the other side of the table. The _enamorados_ scarcely ever spoke; he sat looking mutely into her face, only muttering a whisper at long intervals. She was absolutely silent, and looked stolid and stupid too.

Leaving Algar, we crossed the bleak plateaux to the eastward, brown, stony, and sterile; thence descending to a forest region, where the track followed the course of a clear mountain stream, embedded among oleander, laurestinus, and myrtle, their foliage forming an evergreen tunnel, along which we rode in grateful shade. For some distance our route and the burn ran parallel, their courses sometimes coincident; then we diverged to the left, ascending the slope of a _garganta_, amidst n.o.ble oaks, chestnuts, and ilex, all, save the oaks, in full leaf, and from the gnarled trunks hung hare's-foot ferns and ma.s.ses of ivy and parasitic plants in green festoons. Of bird-life, but little beyond a few common small birds was observable, and on a sunny slope we came suddenly on a big grey mongoose, which, however, got to ground before the gun could be unslung.

The first range explored was the series of crags terminating the Sierra de las Cabras; but it proved blank as regarded our chief object. The summit is a long, narrow, knife-edged ridge, along which vertical strata of limestone, bleached white as marble, protrude abruptly as the walls of a ruined city. Amidst these ruinous streets were a few Black Chats, and on a shoulder of the hill a solitary Blue Rock-Thrush; a small eagle was sweeping over the slopes, but not a sign of the Lammergeyer could we see. The day was bright and clear, and the view extensive and wild. On the north the granite ma.s.s of San Christobal, now lightly flecked with snow, limited our horizon; but in other directions rose an infinity of grey, stony sierras, range beyond range, some sharp, jagged, and cruelly bare of vegetation. To the south we could discern the silvery sheen of the Lagunas de Janda, with glimpses of the Straits of Gibraltar, and the misty outline of African highlands beyond.

We had a long, hard day ere we reached the cortijo of a hospitable hill-farmer among the cork-woods of the valley beyond. Here we sought a night's lodging, and the kindly mountaineer, "Francisco de Naranjo, su servidor de usted," as with a low bow and typical Andalucian courtesy he introduced himself, at once made us feel that the Spanish welcome--"aqui tiene usted su casa"--was, in his case, no empty form of words. We dined together, Francisco and I, on garbanzos, thrushes, a chicken, and black puddings! These last, and the consciousness that a newly-killed pig, whose life-blood no doubt had furnished the delicacy, hung from the rafters immediately behind my head, amidst store of algarrobas, capsic.u.ms, and heads of golden maize, were the only drawbacks to my comfort. We discussed agricultural and political subjects, and agreed in sharing conservative views, though, in Spain, I fancy I might turn rather more of a reformer; but this I did not hint at. Francisco observed that should Lord Salisbury's then existing Government in England fall, it would be a _mal rato_ (a bad time) for property-owners everywhere! My host told me that he set his watch by the sun, and in answer to a question when the sun would rise to-morrow, promptly replied, "At 7.19."[58]

After dinner we adjourned to the large outer room, where among the miscellaneous crew gathered round the blazing logs were a wild-honey hunter, and a birdcatcher who was plying his vocation in the adjacent woods. I was surprised to find among his captures a number of redwings; of a couple of dozen thrushes which I bought for my own and men's eating, no less than eight were redwings, and on subsequent days he caught many more. This man, though he knew that the song-thrushes were migratory in Spain, saying they were _pajaros de entrada_, which left when the swallows appeared, did not see any difference between them and the redwings. He had also caught a Great Spotted Woodp.e.c.k.e.r, and while I was examining it, one of the half-wild cats of the farm, cautiously stalking beneath my chair, seized the prey and made off into outer darkness.

It was a typical Andalucian scene around the hearth, the group of bronzed leather-clad mountaineers, some already "gone to roost"

(audibly) on the low mud settee round the outer wall, while others rolled the everlasting "papelito," and one, as usual, "touched" the guitar. My host had a narrow "catre" set up for me in his own room, and next morning, after an early cup of the delicious thick Spanish chocolate and the sweet biscuits for which the neighbouring village of Alcala bears a local repute, we started on foot to ascend the range behind the house while yet the hills were wrapped in mist-wreaths.

The ascent at first lay through hanging forests, broken here and there by grey crags, the home of the chough and the eagle-owl. Here a cushat occasionally dashed away, or a jay awoke the echoes at safe distance.

Above the trees the climb became harder and the ground of the roughest, stony acclivities choked with brushwood. Beyond these came the region of rock, vast monoliths and rock walls beside which a man felt a very mite in the scale of creation.

On the conical rock-pile, the Picacho del Aljibe, which towers over the surrounding sierras not unlike a gigantic Arthur's Seat over the Salisbury Crags, we had enjoyed in a former year a sight of the Gypaetus; but now it proved blank, nor could our guides, nor a goatherd we met on the mountain, give us any information beyond the customary "hay muchos en Estremadura." Whatever one may seek, it would appear, abounds in Estremadura! The Spanish peasant, whether from an over-anxious desire to a.s.sist, or from a fear of appearing ignorant, is apt to err on the side of imagination or exaggeration. Information received from them needs careful sifting, or disappointment may ensue.

Thus, while on a fishing expedition in the north of Spain, I was sounding my companion, a Gallegan peasant, as to the bears, deer, and other game of the surrounding sierras. At first his answers seemed straight and fair, but a bear story or two took me aback, and presently he insisted that the _red_ deer in those hills _never cast their horns_, which grew to a fabulous size. Before abandoning the discussion I said casually--with a view to "fix" him--"_Y leones?_" "Lions! No, senor, here there are none; but further over yonder (this with a wave of his hand to the westward) there are many." The expression, _mas alla hay muchos_, and the gesture that accompanied it, conveyed the impression that only a few leagues across the mountains, there were swarms of lions: but on being questioned more precisely as to the locality, he replied--"In the United States!" Possibly in that lad's mind, the _Estados Unidos_ commenced somewhere just beyond the limit of his view--at any rate, further zoological discussion was suspended.

Many of the crags were tenanted by vultures, but these we expressly avoided, and directed the search to spots where these birds were not.

For some days we sought in vain: at last we espied an eyrie which appeared to give promise of success. This was a wide crevice in the face of a precipice, which from the copious whitewash below, was evidently occupied. Some broken crags on the left seemed to afford a chance of climbing within shot of the eyrie; and having reached the spot, Blas fired a shot below, when there followed a scrambling noise within the cave, and out swept--not the coveted Gypaetus, but a huge bare-necked griffon. I appeased my disappointment with both barrels, and the B.B.

taking effect on the head, the vulture collapsed and fell down--down--with a mighty thud to the slopes below.

We could find nothing but vultures here: every crag was possessed by them, and we examined several of their abodes. They were already beginning to build: the remnants of last year's structures being now (January 22nd) supplemented by fresh live branches of oak and olive, and big claws-full of gra.s.s torn up by the roots.