EASTER IN SEVILLA
EASTER in Sevilla! What a gay and charming time it is! Flowers are
everywhere, blooming in beauty, and all the people seem joyous in the
thought that the long season of fasting is over.
Fernando and Juanita had arrived in the city on the Saturday before
Palm Sunday, and were wild with delight at seeing their cousins,
Mariquita, Pepita, and Angel, and in looking forward to the delights
of the week's holiday with its processions and fêtes. Beginning with
the beautiful Procession of the Palms, on Palm Sunday, all through Holy
Week are processions and celebrations, and the little folk thoroughly
enjoy them.
Their older brother and sister were there, also, and full of wonderful
tales of what they had done at school. Fernando thought Pablo was a
wonderful being, and that everything he did was perfect. He could
hardly wait until he himself would be big enough to go away to college;
and little Juanita felt quite the same way about Augustia, who had
learned many things in the convent.
"Indeed, _niña_," she said, "it is pleasant at school with the girls,
but that Mother Justina makes one work so hard, and that the play-hours
are few. I have embroidery to make, and lessons to say, and my class
learns French as well as Castilian. But the other girls are charming.
Most of all I like Paquita de Guiteras, an _Americana_, at least she
comes from the Island of Cuba, and the girls say that she is an Indian,
and that her mother was an Indian princess married to her father, a
noble Spaniard. Of this I cannot say, and she herself does not relate,
but she says that in Cuba the Spaniards have often married the Indians
and have been kind to them, and have not destroyed them as have the
_Americanos_ in the _Estados Unidos_. Well, _niña_, Paquita is the
merriest of girls! She has always some prank to play upon some one,
and, indeed, she cares not if it is the Mother Superior herself, so she
can have her joke. Her aunt, good Sister Mercedes, is always fretting
for fear lest Paquita should be in disgrace, but it worries Paquita
not at all. One night she did the funniest thing. There is one girl
who is very mean to the little ones, always teasing them, and they
dare say nothing, as she is the niece of the Mother Superior, and she
believes nothing against her. This Teresa Alcantara once found a little
girl, and teased her until Paquita could stand it no longer, and flew
at Teresa and bit her hand. Sister turned at that moment and saw the
bite, but she had not seen what had gone before, and would not listen
to what I tried to tell her, and Paquita is always too proud to try
to make excuses, and just looked at Sister so fiercely from her great
black eyes that the Sister was still more displeased.
"'Thou art but a savage wildcat,' she said, and took her to Mother
Superior for punishment. She could not have any playtime for a whole
week, and she would have to apologize to Teresa, too, and I think she
hated that the worst of anything. But she got even with her, as you
shall hear. She found out that Teresa was terribly afraid of cats,
and one night, when we were all safely tucked away in our little
beds, there came from behind Teresa's curtains a terrible scream, and
she jumped out of bed and rushed up and down the dormitory. Such a
breach of decorum was never seen before, and the nuns were shocked
to a degree. Teresa kept shrieking, 'A wild beast is in my bed! a
wild beast is in my bed!' and after calming her down they went to
investigate. What do you think they found? A feather duster! It was
tucked under the sheets, and who could have put it there? No one knew,
but every one felt that Paquita was the only one who could have thought
of such mischief. But the sisters did not try to find out, for one of
them had seen Teresa teasing the little girl, and knew why Paquita
disliked her so much; and after that the big bully let us little ones
alone."
"Oh, it must be so nice," sighed Juanita, but Pablo laughed, and said
that those were girl's stories, and that far more exciting things
happened at the naval college, especially when they all went on a
cruise.
On Easter Sunday morning the children went to the cathedral to see the
wonderful dances which take place but three times a year. Fernando and
Juanita were struck dumb with the beautiful cathedral, so unlike the
Gothic one of Granada; for this one at Sevilla is a Saracenic church,
built hundreds of years ago, begun by the Moorish Sultan, Yakub al
Mansour, in 1184.
[Illustration: "THEIR BODIES SWAYED TO AND FRO IN TIME TO THE MUSIC."]
How strange it seemed to see dancing in church! Fernando and Juanita
sat beside their mother, on their little camp-stools, for there are
no pews in Spanish churches. The whole centre of the church is empty,
and people kneel there during the mass, or if they are too tired or
too little to stand, they rent camp-stools for half a cent, and an old
woman who has them in charge hobbles along with a stool, which they may
keep while the service lasts.
The men generally stand, and it is interesting to see them settle
themselves in a comfortable position when the sermon begins, and stand
there almost without moving while the preacher speaks, sometimes a
half-hour, sometimes a whole hour. But the hearers do not seem to
mind, for these Spanish monks are very fine preachers.
As the children gazed at the beautiful altar covered with flowers,
there came the sound of music,--violins, flutes, flageolets, and
hautboys all making a quaint harmony,--and with the music was mingled
the sound of youthful voices, fresh and sweet, and a band of boys
entered the chancel, and gliding down the altar steps danced quietly,
singing as they danced. Their bodies swayed to and fro in time to
the music, at first slowly, then, as the time quickened, castanets
click-clicked with the other sounds, and the boys moved faster and
faster, still in perfect time, yet not with wild abandon, but rather
with dignified respect for the place. They were quaintly dressed in
the court costumes of the Middle Ages; on their heads were big Spanish
hats, turned up at one side with a sweeping blue feather, a mantle of
light blue was over one shoulder, their vests were of white satin,
their hose and shoes of white. The boys danced on until the great bells
of the Giralda rang out, and then they vanished, the music growing
softer and softer, until its last strains sounded far away, like a
floating wave of heavenly harmony.
"How pretty the dance was," said little Juanita, as they walked home
from the service. "Why do they dance in church?"
"The Holy Scriptures say that David danced before the Lord," her mother
answered, "so perhaps that is the reason the Sevillians think this is a
form of worship, but you must ask your cousins to tell you how it was
first done."
"Do tell me, Mariquita," said the little girl, and her cousin said, "I
do not know how it happened at first, but it has been done ever since
the Moors were here in Sevilla. Only once in hundreds of years has it
been stopped, and then an archbishop said it was not right to have
dancing in church. He made every one very angry, for the people said,
'What our fathers did is good enough for us!' So they went to the Pope,
and he said that he could not tell unless he saw the dance. So the
boys and the musicians were taken to Rome, and there danced before the
Holy Father, who said, 'I see no harm in this, any more than in the
children's hosannas before Our Lord when He entered Jerusalem. Let them
have their dance so long as the clothes which they wear may last.' Then
they came back and so determined were they to continue it for ever,
that they never let the clothes wear out to this day. If one piece of a
suit shall be worn it is so quickly mended or repaired that no suit has
ever worn out all at once, so that these are the same suits as those
worn long ago."
"I am so glad they still have it," said Fernando, "for I wouldn't have
missed seeing it to-day for anything."