MURCIA--BRAVO TORO
Along cool colonnades of raw-coloured brick, up a staircase arched with
concrete, and out through a sort of concrete culvert which spouted
humanity, we came into the huge round amphitheatre of the bullring.
Owing to Spanish dilatoriness, we were later than we had intended, and
in consequence were unable to get seats within the coveted shadow which
lay over half the great enclosure; but, thank goodness, the sky was
mottled with clouds which tempered both the heat and the glare of the
Spanish afternoon. We were in the cheapest seats, having disdained to go
skywards into the boxes, for we had come to taste the full flavour of an
average bullfight as a popular spectacle, and we wished it as pure as
possible. So we had bought purple tickets for two pesetas and a white
one for me at half price; at the same time repelling the persistence of
a feminine hawker, who pressed upon us large flabby looking paper bags
of mysterious content which we imagined to be some form of refreshment.
The seats of the bullring were of flat stone rising tier upon tier, and
we chose our places low down to get a good view, yet as near as possible
to the slowly creeping shadow; only one row of stone seats and two rows
of chairs of iron lattice separated us from the arena itself. The chairs
were empty, so I asked Luis if they were reserved for some special
purpose. "No," he answered, "but the bull may leap out of the ring.
Those chairs would entangle him, but it is uncomfortable if you happen
to be sitting there, so they are not very popular." As the edge of the
arena was guarded by a palisade of stout planking about five feet high,
through which were cut narrow gaps--bolt-holes--for the toreadors, and
the seats were separated from this palisade by a passage some six feet
wide, the lowest seats being set some ten feet above the floor, I felt
that the risk of finding an enraged bull in one's lap was rather remote.
The culverts spouted Spanish humanity: soldiers in greenish khaki; women
in black, white or colours dominated by a very popular pink; peasants in
blue blouses and sandals; bourgeoisie in straw hats and drill; youths in
caps of exaggerated English cut. Immediately below us two small
children, mothered by a third aged about eleven, all three exceedingly
unkempt, rather dirty, and possibly verminous, took their seats, and,
recognizing that I was a stranger, advised me in hoarse whispers all
through the progress of the spectacle. In spite of her obvious poverty
the eldest girl wore a large tortoise-shell comb of elaborate pattern in
a carefully arranged _coiffure_. Numberless children seemed to have
attended the spectacle thus, as the small Londoners go to the cinema. At
this moment the ring itself was full of them, some playing football, a
game very popular--there is even a Spanish periodical called
_Free-Kick_--others giving imitation exhibitions of bullfighting, more
or less like that played by the children in the hotel. When the
imitation bull, stabbed to death, was dragged around the ring, the real
spectators cheered loudly. We wondered what the bull's mother would say
about the state of his pants.
This was no Mantilla day, nor day of fiesta. It was just an ordinary
Sunday afternoon diversion in this provincial town. We took our first
dose of bullfight in this place for a reason. Essentially a popular
sport should be judged as a sport of the people: not by its highest
exponents, but by its average. An intelligent foreigner would not get
the truest impression of what cricket means to England at Lord's or at
the Oval; but on some village green at an inter-parochial contest.
The horrors of bullfighting began with a band, the age of the bandsmen
varying between fourteen and seventy years. The band marched around the
ring playing music as out of tune as the new age is with the old. The
ring emptied of children, and two horsemen superbly mounted dashed
across the arena to demand from the President the key of the bull-pen.
This was followed by a general parade of the toreros. Alas, for romance!
Their gilt was somewhat tarnished, most of their cloaks worn and faded;
usually the only part of the costume which seemed to have retained its
original brilliance was the coloured seat of the tight trousers, which I
suppose comes in for very little wear and tear. The picadors with their
nail-headed lances seemed veritable Don Quixotes on their more than
Rosinante steeds: poor beasts doomed to the knackers anyhow. The
procession ended with two cart-horses and a yoke destined to drag the
slaughtered bulls from the ring.
There was a pause. Luis said in a low murmur:
"Doesn't your heart beat? Isn't this moment exciting?"
He spoke truly. Around the huge oval all eyes were concentrated on the
red door of the bull-pen: the very air seemed rarefied and electric. For
me, I think this was the most tense moment of the day: that moment
before anything had happened. A bugle call cut the silence. The red door
swung open and with a peculiar rolling gallop the bull dashed into the
arena.
"Now," I thought, "this terrible bullfight, about which so much has been
written, so much discussed, has indeed begun."
The bullfights of our imagination are spectacles of sun and colour--of
madness stained with cruelty; the cruelty perhaps partly condoned by the
fierceness of the bull, by a sort of wild frenzy of sport which seems in
some part to excuse the murderous instinct of man.
[Illustration]
The bull, a coloured rosette nailed to its shoulder, reached the centre
of the ring, and then, for me, half the anticipated interest of the
fight vanished. We had expected a wild and furious gallop around the
arena; a bull lusting to kill or be killed; mad charges at the toreros,
who would elude it with quick baffling passes of the cloaks, wild dashes
at the unfortunate horses, the riders of which would at least make some
pretence of manoeuvering before the furious bull was allowed to fling
horse and rider into the air. But no! The bull slowed up, halted and
looked to this side and that. It was obviously perplexed. One could
almost imagine a crease of puzzlement between its eyes. What was all
this; where the sierras of its youth; into what strange place had it
come? And now began a taunting of the unwilling bull. The toreros
flapped their faded cloaks at it, but whenever the bull was tempted to
charge the man ran for safety and crammed himself through one of the
bolt-holes in the palisade--once a torero scampering for life reached an
opening at the same instant as a companion. For a moment there was a
flurry, but both men contrived to push through before the bull was able
to reach them. The first impression of the fight was of a certain power
and some magnificence on the part of the bull, and of degradation on the
part of the toreros--one thought of the shorn Sampson taunted by the
Philistines. In this contest the men seemed somehow ignoble in
comparison with the animals. The next act of the drama made this feeling
no better. The picador was led out on his blindfolded and skeleton-like
steed by a little man in a red shirt, who from behind the horse's head
held out, like a policeman regulating the traffic, a protesting hand at
the bull, as if to imply that the animal was not to charge till he was
ready to bolt. For some while the bull did not take the invitation,
though whenever he appeared likely to do so the small man dropped the
reins and ran for the paling, from which, however, he took care never to
be very far away. The picador himself is not in great danger, for his
trousers are armour plated.
By this time the audience was shouting out: "No quiere!"[9] but at last
the bull charged, the picador thrust his lance, and the bull with a
great thrust of its head overturned both horse and man. Immediately the
bull was surrounded by the toreros who with flapping cloaks distracted
its attention. Man and horse were lifted up again.
Large numbers of Spaniards do not like bullfighting, but a great many
Spaniards who do not in principle object to bullfighting do object to
the horse-slaughter. One, cutting to the roots of the truth, said it was
"not æsthetic." He was right. There should be a strong sense of the
æsthetic in sport--it is a thing more subtle than mere "fair play," and
when this sense of the æsthetic is ignored the sport becomes brutality.
This horse-slaughter more than oversteps the line of the æsthetic, so
for us did the bolt-holes provided for the toreros. For us bullfighting
would begin to be a serious sport if the men and the bull stood on the
same conditions.
[Illustration]
One picador, who by means of his lance kept the bull off from his horse,
received a round of well-earned applause. The bugle sounded once more
and the picadors were led out of the ring. There followed another rather
dull interval of cloak-flapping. One of the matadors, however, gave an
exhibition of passes which made the bull charge repeatedly within a foot
or so of the man's body, during which the torero did not move his feet.
When the bull, baffled and panting with exhaustion at his fruitless
tosses, paused, the torero went upon one knee before the animal. The
spectators shrieked applause and flung their hats into the ring. But
this exhibition was very different from the usual cloak-flapping
followed by a scamper for the bolt-hole: nor, indeed, was it shown
often.
A torero who had carried an exceedingly faded violet cloak, and who had
been perhaps most hasty in his dashes for the safety gaps, now discarded
his cloak, and waving a pair of pink banderillas stepped into the centre
of the ring. Like a foreigner at cricket we naturally missed much of the
subtlety, but it was obvious that there were certain conditions under
which the banderillero would meet the bull and others under which he
would not. When the toreador seemed to think the bull in a good
position, he waved his banderillas and stamped his feet as though about
to fence. But the bull did not want banderillas stuck into him. Again
and again he declined the invitation while the populace howled "No
quiere, no quiere!" Personally I should have sent the bull home and
ordered another with more ginger in it. At last, exasperated, the bull
charged, the banderillero ran towards it in a slightly circular path,
planted his two sticks, each some thirty inches long, into the bull's
neck, and, curving out more widely, avoided by a few inches the upward
thrust of the bull's horns. This piece of work looked dangerous, and the
pay of a banderillero amounts to between £3 and £4 an afternoon. I think
that he earns his money. What surprised us was to see the torero who had
appeared such a scamperer with the faded purple cloak performing most
pluckily with the paper-covered sticks. I suppose it is the case of a
good batsman and good bowler--the arts are not interchangeable.
The six banderillas having been placed, another interval of harrying the
unfortunate animal with minor exasperations of cloak-flapping followed:
but at last the espatero, the swordsman, and the matador prepared to
give the death stroke. Here again in first-class bullfighting probably
the whole exhibition is one of supreme skill. We expected a certain
number of showy passes with the scarlet flag, the matador keeping the
bull circling about him--"wearing the bull as a waist-belt," as the
saying is in Spain. Then a pause, a sudden thrust with the sword--and,
with a groan, the bull is dead. It was not so. The espatero walked about
flapping the cloak, at which sometimes the bull did charge, but more
often did not. Several times the espatero had to run into a bolt-hole.
The bull showed strong desires to go home: it went to the side of the
ring and looked at the door from whence it had emerged, while more
venturesome members of the audience leaned over the palisade and tried
to snatch out a banderilla as a souvenir. The toreador chivied the bull
round the ring, trying to get it face foremost. However, when he
succeeded in this he did not seem satisfied, for though the people
yelled: "Ahora! Ahora!"[10] the matador only flapped his cloak.
[Illustration]
"He is rather a nervous espatero," said Luis, "so, when he does prepare
to kill, look out. Sometimes the sword flies. Not very long ago it
landed in the audience and killed a spectator." At last, however, the
bull, tongue hanging out, foam dripping from its mouth, blood streaming
from the lance and banderilla wounds in the shoulders, faced the matador
with half lowered and sullen head. The matador, taking up the position
of a man about to throw a javelin, aimed his sword, which was curiously
curved in the blade, and with quick steps ran in, thrust, and
side-stepped. The bull, taken by surprise, could not bring its weight
into action rapidly enough, the upward tossing horns missed the man by
inches: the bull rushed forward at another torero who had taken position
in line to attract the animal's attention. The matador had made no
master stroke, the sword stood eighteen inches out of the bull's
shoulder. The bull showed no signs of death, so the matador went away to
procure another sword. Finally the bull, stabbed by four swords, was
worried to death rather than killed, after which the corpse was dragged
triumphantly around the ring at the tail of the team of horses, while
the spectators stood on the stone seats and cheered.
It may be that we English take our pleasures sadly, but at that moment
it struck me that at an ordinary bullfight the Spaniard seems to take
rather dull pleasures with ecstasy.
The second bull proved more lively, the second matador more expert, or
more lucky than his confrère; but here also the show seemed to partake
rather of the nature of what should properly be termed bull-baiting than
bullfighting. This second bull provided the thrill of the day to the
three small dirty children. With one thrust of its horn it killed a
horse. The small boy (aged six or seven) turned to me with eyes
sparkling with pleasure.
"Did you see that?" he exclaimed. "One thrust only."
After the death of this bull came the Interval.
"Look up the numbers printed on your tickets," said Luis.
Having found the papers, I raised my head and to my amazement saw, in
the centre of the arena, a donkey, two young calves and a
sewing-machine.
"Good heavens!" I exclaimed. "What are those?"
"They are the prizes of the tombola," explained Luis; "you or the Señor
may win one."
The lots were drawn out of a large hat-box, and the numbers displayed on
a blackboard. The donkey fell to a small boy, the calves to a peasant.
But for some while the sewing-machine, forlorn and incongruous, stood in
the centre of the bloodthirsty arena awaiting a claimant. Attention was
finally concentrated upon a point high up amongst the cheap seats, to
the right of the President's box. Shouting, persuasion, hand-clapping
and arm-waving ensued, and at last the crowd squeezed out a small, dark
woman, blushing and giggling behind her fan, accompanied by husband,
husband's friend and six-year-old son. The sewing-machine was escorted
out of the same door through which the dead bulls had been dragged.
Then the bullfight began again. The third bull, a lusty black, was the
most willing of all. He did charge, he leapt high in his endeavours to
kill those phantom cloaks. After all the necessary banderillas had been
placed, there followed an incident. A boy of about sixteen years leapt
the barrier and ran across the ring, hastily as he ran unwrapping
something from a covering of newspaper. There was a sudden hum of
excited voices from the spectators.
"Ei!" cried Luis. "An amateur!"
The boy reached the President's box, the unwrapped objects being a pair
of dirty banderillas. Bowing to the President he craved permission to
plant his banderillas in the bull. But, alas for youthful aspirations,
permission was not given. The boy clambered sadly over the palisade to
hide himself in the audience.
Unfortunately this bull, the bravest of the four, fell to the lot of the
nervous matador. Death was a very lengthy operation, during the progress
of which the bull knocked down the bullfighter. For a moment we wondered
if the bull were going to take its revenge, but flapping cloaks
instantly distracted it. Meanwhile, between the forelegs of the bull the
matador lay very still, shielding his head with his arms. The nervous
matador, however, went on with his task, using three swords before it
was completed.
The matador of the fourth bull made an exceedingly bad thrust. The
populace howled insults at him, flinging at the same time those paper
bags which we had seen on sale near the ticket-office. They contained no
refreshment, nor material for bombarding unsuccessful matadors, but were
stuffed with horsehair to soften the stone seats. By this time we wished
we had inquired more about them, for the stone had proved anything but
soft. The fourth bull dead, the bullfight was over.
"Come and see the toreros," said Luis.
So with the outflowing press we repassed into the culvert, down the
stairs and along the corridors of brick, till we reached a window or
grille, by staring through which we could see the "heroes of Spain"
clambering into an ordinary station bus, in which they sat, stiff,
cramped, dignified and unsmiling, conscious of their importance.
We returned with the returning crowds along the roads deep in dust, back
to the centre of the town where there were cooling drinks and seats
softer than those stone benches. While we were sitting thus, revelling
in varied positions and summing up our first impressions, a large box
cart of lattice work passed by. Within the cart were hung great joints
of meat which swung to and fro as the cart bumped over the uneven road.
"There," said Luis, "go the bulls. They will be sold to-morrow in the
market. The meat is cheap because it is rather tough."
This incident, because it seemed to contain a note of irony, because it
had in it something sardonic and something callous, seemed to us a
fitting termination to the spectacle which we had witnessed.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: "He doesn't want to fight."]
[Footnote 10: "Now! Now!"]