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UNEXPLORED SPAIN
ABEL CHAPMAN'S WORKS
=BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS=. First Edition, 1889;
---- ----, Second Edition, 1907.
=WILD SPAIN=. (WITH W. J. B.) 1893.
=WILD NORWAY=. 1897.
=ART OF WILDFOWLING=. 1896.
=ON SAFARI= (IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA). 1908.
=UNEXPLORED SPAIN.= (WITH W. J. B.) 1910.
[Illustration: H.M. KING ALFONSO XIII SPEARING A BOAR.]
UNEXPLORED
SPAIN
BY
ABEL CHAPMAN
AUTHOR OF 'WILD SPAIN,' 'WILD NORWAY,' 'ON SAFARI,' ETC.
AND
WALTER J. BUCK
BRITISH VICE-CONSUL AT JEREZ
AUTHOR OF 'WILD SPAIN'
WITH 209 ILLUSTRATIONS BY
JOSEPH CRAWHALL, E. CALDWELL, AND ABEL CHAPMAN
AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
NEW YORK
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD
1910
INSCRIBED
BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION
TO THEIR MAJESTIES
KING ALFONSO XIII.
HIMSELF AN ACCOMPLISHED SPORTSMAN
AND
QUEEN VICTORIA EUGENIA OF SPAIN
WITH DEEP RESPECT
BY THEIR MAJESTIES' GRATEFUL AND DEVOTED SERVANTS
THE AUTHORS
Preface
The undertaking of a sequel to _Wild Spain_, we are warned, is
dangerous. The implication gratifies, but the forecast alarms not.
Admittedly, in the first instance, we occupied a virgin field, and
naturally the almost boyish enthusiasm that characterised the earlier
book--and probably assured its success--has in some degree abated. But
it's not all gone yet; and any such lack is compensated by longer
experience (an aggregate, between us, of eighty years) of a land we
love, and the sounder appreciation that arises therefrom. Our own
resources, moreover, have been supplemented and reinforced by friends in
Spain who represent the fountain-heads of special knowledge in that
country.
No foreigners could have enjoyed greater opportunity, and we have done
our best to exploit the advantage--so far, at least, as steady plodding
work will avail; for we have spent more than two years in analysing,
checking and sorting, selecting and eliminating from voluminous notes
accumulated during forty years. The concentrated result represents, we
are convinced, an accurate--though not, of course, a
complete--exposition of the wild-life of one of the wildest of European
countries.
No, for this book and its thoroughness neither doubt nor fear intrudes;
but we admit to being, in two respects, out of touch with modern
treatment of natural-history subjects. Possibly we are wrong in both;
but it has not yet been demonstrated, by Euclid or other, that a
minority even of two is necessarily so? Nature it is nowadays customary
to portray in somewhat lurid and sensational colours--presumably to
humour a "popular taste." Reflection might suggest that nothing in
Nature is, in fact, sensational, loud, or extravagant; but the lay
public possess no such technical training as would enable them to
discern the line where Nature stops and where fraud and "faking" begin.
At any rate we frequently read purring approval of what appears to us
meretricious imposture, and see writers lauded as constellations whom we
should condemn as charlatans. Beyond the Atlantic President Roosevelt
(as he then was) went bald-headed for the "Nature-fakers," and in
America the reader has been put upon his guard. If he still likes
"sensations"--well, that's what he likes. But he buys such fiction
forewarned.
In the illustration of wild-life our views are also, in some degree,
divergent from current ideas. Animal-photography has developed with such
giant strides and has taught us such valuable lessons (for which none
are more grateful than the Authors), that there is danger of coming to
regard it, not as a means to an end but as the actual end itself. While
photography promises uses the value of which it would be difficult to
exaggerate, yet it has defects and limitations which should not be
ignored. First as regards animals in motion; the camera sees too
quick--so infinitely quicker than the human eye that attitudes and
effects are portrayed which we do not, and cannot see. Witness a
photograph of the finish for the Derby. Galloping horses do not figure
so on the human retina--with all four legs jammed beneath the body like
a dead beetle. No doubt the camera exhibits an unseen phase in the
actual action and so reveals its process; but that phase is not what
mortals see. Similarly with birds in flight, the human eye only catches
the form during the instantaneous arrest of the wing at the end of each
stroke--in many cases not even so much as that. But the camera snaps the
whirling pinion at mid-stroke or at any intermediate point. The result
is altogether admirable as an exposition of the mechanical processes of
flight; but it fails as an illustration, inasmuch as it illustrates a
pose which Nature has expressly concealed from our view.
Secondly, in relation to still life. Here the camera is not only too
quick, but too faithful. A tiny ruffled plume, a feather caught up by
the breeze with the momentary shadow it casts, even an intrusive bough
or blade of grass--all are reproduced with such rigid faithfulness and
conspicuous effect that what are in fact merest minute details assume a
wholly false proportion, mislead the eye, and disguise the whole
picture. True, these things are actually there; but the human eye enjoys
a faculty (which the camera does not) of selecting its objective and
ignoring, or reducing to its correct relative value each extrinsic
detail; of looking, as it were, through obstacles and concentrating its
power upon the one main subject of study.
The portrayal of wildfowl presents a peculiar difficulty. This group
differs in two essential characters from the rest of the bird-world.
Though clad in feathers, yet those feathers are not "feathery." Rather
may they be described as a steely water-tight encasement, as distinct
from the covering, say of game-birds as mackintosh differs from satin.
Each plume possesses a compactness of web and firmness of texture that
combine to produce a rigidity, and this, it so happens, both in form and
colour. For in this group the colours, too, or patterns of colour, are
clean-cut, the contrasts strong and sharply defined. The plumage of
wild-fowl, in short, is characterised by lack of subdued tints and
half-tones. That is its beauty and its glory; but the fact presents a
stumbling-block to treatment, especially in colour.
The difficulty follows consequentially. Subjects of such character and
crude coloration defy accustomed methods. That is not the fault of the
artist; rather it reveals the limitations of Art. Just as in landscape
distance ever demands an "atmosphere" more or less obliterative of
distinctive detail afar (though such detail may be visible to
non-artistic eyesight miles away), so in birds of sharply contrasted
colouring the needed effect can only (it would appear) be attained by
processes of softening which are not, in fact, correct, and which ruin
the real picture as designed by Nature.
No wild bird (and wildfowl least of all) can be portrayed from captive
specimens--still less from bedraggled corpses selected in Leadenhall
market. In the latter every essential feature has disappeared. The
ruffled remains resemble the beauty of their originals only as a
dish-clout may recall some previous existence as a damask serviette.
Living captives at least give form; but that is all. The loss of
freedom, with all its contingent perils, involves the loss of character,
the pride of life, and of independence. Once remove the first essential
element--the sense of instant danger, with all that the stress and
exigencies of wild-life import--and with these there vanish vigilance,
carriage, sprightliness, dignity, sometimes even self-respect.
Not a man who has watched and studied wild beasts and wild birds in
their native haunts, glorified and ennobled by self-conscious aptitude
to prevail in the ceaseless "struggle for existence," but instantly
recognises with a pang the different demeanour of the same creatures in
captivity, albeit carefully tended in the best zoological gardens of the
world.
* * * * *
To Mr. Joseph Crawhall (cousin of one author) we and our readers are
indebted for a series of drawings that speak for themselves.
Further, we desire most heartily to thank H.R.H. the Duke of Orleans for
notes and photographs illustrative both of Baetican scenery and of the
wild camels of the marisma; also the many Spanish and Anglo-Spanish
friends whose assistance is specifically acknowledged, _passim_, in the
text.
Should some slight slip or repetition have escaped the final revision,
may we crave indulgence of critics? 'Tis not care that lacks, but sheer
mnemonics. In a work of (we are told) 150,000 words the mass of
manuscript appals, and to detect every single error may well prove
beyond our power. We have lost, moreover, that guiding eye and
pilot-like touch on the helm that helped to steer our earlier venture
through the shoals and seething whirlpools that ever beset voyages into
the unknown.
A. C.
W. J. B.
BRITISH VICE-CONSULATE, JEREZ, _December 1910_.
Contents
CHAP. PAGE
I. UNEXPLORED SPAIN: INTRODUCTORY 1
II. " " " (_Continued_) 17
III. THE COTO DOÑANA: OUR HISTORIC HUNTING-GROUND (A FOREWORD
BY SIR MAURICE DE BUNSEN, P.C., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., BRITISH
AMBASSADOR AT MADRID) 30
IV. THE COTO DOÑANA: NOTES ON ITS PHYSICAL FORMATION, FAUNA,
AND RED DEER 35
V. ANDALUCIA AND ITS BIG GAME: STILL-HUNTING 54
VI. " " " WILD-BOAR 70
VII. "OUR LADY OF THE DEW": THE PILGRIMAGE TO THE SHRINE OF
NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL ROCÍO 82
VIII. THE MARISMAS OF GUADALQUIVIR 88
IX. WILDFOWL-SHOOTING IN THE MARISMAS 105
X. WILD-GEESE IN SPAIN: THEIR SPECIES, HAUNTS,
AND HABITS 114
XI. WILD-GEESE ON THE SAND-HILLS 125
XII. SOME RECORDS IN SPANISH WILDFOWLING 133
XIII. THE SPANISH IBEX 139
XIV. SIERRA MORÉNA: IBEX 147
XV. " " RED DEER AND BOAR 158
XVI. PERNALES 174
XVII. LA MANCHA 183
XVIII. THE SPANISH BULL-FIGHT 192
XIX. THE SPANISH FIGHTING-BULL 200
XX. SIERRA DE GRÉDOS 208
XXI. " " : IBEX-HUNTING 216
XXII. AN ABANDONED PROVINCE: ESTREMADURA 225
XXIII. LAS HURDES (ESTREMADURA) AND THE SAVAGE TRIBES THAT
INHABIT THEM 234
XXIV. THE GREAT BUSTARD 242
XXV. " " (_Continued_) 256
XXVI. FLAMINGOES 265
XXVII. WILD CAMELS 275
XXVIII. AFTER CHAMOIS IN THE ASTURIAS 283
XXIX. HIGHLANDS OF ASTURIAS 294
XXX. THE SIERRA NEVÁDA 301
XXXI. " " (_Continued_) 311
XXXII. VALENCIA 321
XXXIII. SMALL-GAME SHOOTING IN SPAIN 328
XXXIV. ALIMAÑAS, OR THE MINOR BEASTS OF CHASE 337
XXXV. OUR "HOME-MOUNTAINS": THE SERRANÍA DE RONDA 347
XXXVI. " " " " (_Continued_) 360
XXXVII. A SPANISH SYSTEM OF WILDFOWLING: THE "CABRESTO" OR
STALKING-HORSE 371
XXXVIII. THE "CORROS," OR MASSING OF WILDFOWL IN SPRING FOR THEIR
NORTHERN MIGRATION 376
XXXIX. SPRING-TIME IN THE MARISMAS 381
XL. SKETCHES OF SPANISH BIRD-LIFE 392
APPENDIX 407
INDEX 413
List of Plates
H.M. KING ALFONSO XIII. SPEARING A BOAR _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
TYPICAL LANDSCAPE IN COTO DOÑANA 30
EGRET HERONRY AT SANTOLALLA, COTO DOÑANA 32
RED DEER IN DOÑANA. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall 36
THREE VIEWS IN COTO DOÑANA: (1) SAHARAN SAND-DUNES; (2) TRANSPORT;
(3) A CORRAL, OR PINEWOOD ENCLOSED BY SAND 40
RED DEER. From Drawings by Joseph Crawhall 46
INSPIRING MOMENTS 51
GUNNING-PUNT IN THE MARISMA 90
WILD-GOOSE SHOOTING ON THE SAND-HILLS 90
VASQUEZ APPROACHING WILDFOWL WITH CABRESTO-PONY 90
STANCHEON-GUN IN THE MARISMA--DAWN 106
WILD-GEESE IN THE MARISMA 122
SPANISH IBEX IN SIERRA DE GRÉDOS 140
HEADS OF SPANISH IBEX 152
RED-DEER HEADS, SIERRA MORÉNA 156
WOLF SHOT IN SIERRA MORÉNA, MARCH 1909 158
HUNTSMAN WITH CARACOLA, SIERRA MORÉNA 158
PACK OF PODENCOS, SIERRA MORÉNA 158
WILD-BOAR, WEIGHING 200 LBS. 162
THE RECORD HEAD (RED DEER), SIERRA MORÉNA 162
RED DEER. From Drawings by Joseph Crawhall 166
RED DEER. From Drawings by Joseph Crawhall 170
WILD-BOAR. From Drawings by Joseph Crawhall 170
RED-DEER HEADS, SIERRA MORÉNA 172
BULL-FIGHTING. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall 194
BULL-FIGHTING. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall 198
AFTER THE STROKE. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall 202
SCENES IN SIERRA DE GRÉDOS 212
"AT THE APEX OF ALL THE SPAINS" 216
TWO SPANISH IBEX SHOT IN SIERRA DE GRÉDOS, JULY 1910 220
GREAT BUSTARD 250
SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW 250
GREAT BUSTARD "SHOWING OFF" 260
FLAMINGOES ON THEIR NESTS 272
WILD CAMELS 276
CAPTURING A WILD CAMEL IN THE MARISMA 280
THE HOME OF THE CHAMOIS 286
PEAKS OF SIERRA NEVÁDA 306
NEST OF GRIFFON 306
ROYAL SHOOTING AT THE PARDO, NEAR MADRID 334
Illustrations in the Text
PAGE
Lammergeyer (_Gypaëtus barbatus_) 3
Woodchat Shrike (_Lanius pomeranus_) 7
Griffon Vulture (_Gyps fulvus_) 9
Wooden Plough-share 12
Cetti's Warbler (_Sylvia cettii_) 14
Dartford Warbler (_Sylvia undata_) 16
Fantail Warbler (_Cisticola cursitans_) 17
Rock-Thrush (_Petrocincla saxatilis_) 18
A Village _Posada_ 20
Serin (_Serinus hortulanus_) 23
Bonelli's Eagle (_Aquila bonellii_) 26
Black Vulture (_Vultur monachus_) 27
White-Faced Duck (_Erismatura leucocephala_) 28
Spanish Imperial Eagle 31
Spanish Lynx 33
Greenshank (_Totanus canescens_) 34
Sketch-Map of Delta of Guadalquivir 35
Marsh-Harrier (_Circus aeruginosus_) 38
"Silent Songsters" 39
Blackstart (_Ruticilla titys_) 39
Great Spotted Cuckoo (_Oxylophus glandarius_) 41
"Globe-Spanners" 42
"Confidence" 43
Abnormal Cast Antler 44
Egret 45
"Suspicion" 49
Altabaca (_Scrofularia_) 51
Tomillo de Arena 51
"What's This?" 52
Antlers 56
Stag "taking the Wind" 57
_Sylvia melanocephala_ 60
Reed-Climbers 61
Great Grey Shrike (_Lanius meridionalis_) 62
Spanish Green Woodpecker (_Gecinus sharpei_) 63
Tarantula 64
Stag--as he fell 67
Hoopoes at Jerez, March 19, 1910 69
"Room for Two" 71
Wild-Boar--at bay 73
Wild-Boar--"Bolted past" 79
Wild-Boar 81
Praying Mantis 87
Avocet 88
Samphire 90
Greylag Geese 92
White-Eyed Pochard (_Fuligula nyroca_) 94
"Flamingoes over" 95
Pochard (_Fuligula ferina_) 96
Flight of Flamingoes 97
Wild-Geese alighting 98
Wildfowl in the Marisma 101
Flamingoes 102
Stilt 105
Godwits 113
Root of Spear-Grass 115
System of driving Wild-Geese 117
Shelters for driving Wild-Geese 118
Godwits 124
Wild-Geese alighting on Sand-Hills 129
Wild-Geese 133
Godwits 134
Sketch-Map of the _Nucléo Central_ of Grédos 141
Grey Shrike 162
Azure-Winged Magpie 163
Sardinian Warbler 164
Griffon Vulture 166
Pair of Antlers 167
Stag--"picking his way up a Rock-Staircase" 168
"The Hart bounced, full-broadside, over the Pass" 169
Pernales 175
Sparrow-Owls (Athene noctua) and Moths 182
Hoopoes 183
Woodchat Shrike and its "Shambles" 184
Desert-loving Wheatears 185
Red-crested Pochard (_Fuligula rufila_) 186
Red-crested Pochards 190
"Minor Game" 210
Southern Grey Shrike 212
Griffon Vulture and Nest 215
"The Way of an Eagle in the Air" (_Lammergeyer_) 218
Black Vulture (_Vultur monachus_) 222
Roller (_Coracias garrula_) 226
Trujillo 227
"Scavengers" 228
Wolf-proof Dog-Collar 231
Woodlark 232
Sketch-Map of Las Hurdes 234
White Wagtail 238
Wolf-proof Sheepfold 239
The Great Bustard 243
Well on Andalucian Plain 244
Calandra Lark 246
Spanish Thistle and Stonechat 248
Bustards--"Swerve aside" 252
Bustards passing full broadside 254
Imperial Eagle--"Hurtling through Space" 258
Draw-Well with Cross-Bar 259
"_Hechando la Rueda_" 260
Tail-Feathers of Great Bustard 261
Little Bustard 263
Stilts in the Marisma 265
Flamingoes 266
Stilts disturbed at Nesting-Place 268
Flamingoes and their Nests 269
Flight of Flamingoes 270-1
Head of Flamingo 273
Little Gull and Tern 274
Flamingoes 277
"The Camels a-coming" 281
Chamois 283
A Chamois Drive--Picos de Europa 288
Hoopoe 293
Lammergeyer (_Gypaëtus barbatus_) 303
"Unemployed": Bee-eaters on a Wet Morning 311
Woodlark (_Alauda arborea_) 313
Lammergeyer 314
Soaring Vulture 315
Golden Eagle Hunting 317
Rock-Thrush 318
Spanish Sparrow 320
Imperial Eagle Passing Overhead 342
Pinsápo Pine (_Abies pinsapo_) 347
Rock-Bunting (_Emberiza cia_) 348
Pinsápo Pines 350
Crossbill 351
Lammergeyer Overhead 353
Golden Eagle Hunting 354
Vultures 356
Lammergeyer entering Eyrie 358
Lammergeyer 361
Griffon Vultures 368
Reed-Bunting 378
Grey Plover 381
Head of Crested Coot 384
Avocets Feeding 385
White-Faced Duck (_Erismatura leucocephala_) 387
Purple Heron (_Ardea purpurea_) 389
Grey Plovers 390
Orphean Warbler 391
Savi's Warbler (_Sylvia savii_) 393
Unknown Insect 394
Bonelli's Eagles 395
Great Spotted Cuckoo (_Oxylophus glandarius_) 400
Crossbills (_Loxia curvirostra_) 402
CHAPTER I
UNEXPLORED SPAIN
INTRODUCTORY
The Spain that we love and of which we write is not the Spain of tourist
or globe-trotter. These hold main routes, the highways from city to
city; few so much as venture upon the bye-ways. Our Spain begins where
bye-ways end. We write of her pathless solitudes, of desolate steppe and
prairie, of marsh and mountain-land--of her majestic sierras, some
well-nigh inaccessible, and, in many an instance, untrodden by British
foot save our own. Lonely scenes these, yet glorified by primeval beauty
and wealth of wild-life. As naturalists--that is, merely as born lovers
of all that is wild, and big, and pristine--we thank the guiding destiny
that early directed our steps towards a land that is probably the
wildest and certainly the least known of all in Europe--a land worthy of
better cicerones than ourselves.
Do not let us appear to disparage the other Spain. The tourist enjoys
another land overflowing with historic and artistic interest--with
memorials of mediæval romance, and of stirring times when wave after
wave of successive conquest swept the Peninsula. Such subjects, however,
fall wholly outside the province of this book: nor do they lack
historians a thousand-fold better qualified to tell their tale.
* * * * *
The first cause that differentiates Spain from other European countries
of equal area is her high general elevation. This fact must jump to the
eye of every observant traveller who books his seat by the Sûd-express
to the Mediterranean. Better still, for our purpose, let him commence
his journey, say at the Tweed. From Berwick southwards through the heart
of England to London: from London to Paris, and right across France--all
the way he traverses low-lying levels; fat pastures, fertile and tilled
to the last acre. His aneroid tells him he has seldom risen above
sea-level by more than a few hundred feet; and never once has his train
passed through mountains--hardly even through hills; he can scarce be
said to have had a real mountain within the range of his vision in all
these 1200 miles.
Now he crosses the Bidassoa ... the whole world changes! At once his
train plunges into interminable Pyrenees, and ere it clears these, he
has ascended to a permanent highland level--a tawny treeless steppe that
averages 2000-feet altitude, and sometimes approaches 3000, traversed by
range after range of rugged mountains that arise all around him to four,
five, or six thousand feet. Railways, moreover, avoid mountains (so far
as they can). Our traveller, therefore, must bear in mind that what he
actually sees is but the mildest and tamest version of Spanish sierras.
There are bits here and there that he may have thought anything but
tame--only tame by comparison with those grander scenes to which we
propose guiding him.
For the next 500 miles he never quits that austere highland altitude nor
ever quite loses sight of jagged peaks that pierce the skies--peaks of
that hoary cinder-grey that shows up almost white against an azure
background. Never does he descend till, after leaving behind him three
kingdoms--Arragon, Navarre, and Castile--his train plunges through the
Sierra Moréna, down the gorges of Despeñaperros, and at length on the
third day enters upon the smiling lowlands of Andalucia. Here the
aneroid rises once more to rational readings, and fertile _vegas_ spread
away to the horizon. But our traveller is not even now quite clear of
mountains. Whether he be booked to Malaga or to Algeciras, he will
presently find himself enveloped once more amidst some fairly stupendous
rocks--the Gaëtánes or Serranía de Ronda respectively.
Spain is, in fact, largely an elevated table-land, 400 miles square, and
traversed by four main mountain-ranges, all (like her great rivers)
running east and west. The only considerable areas of lowland are found
in Andalucia and Valencia.
Naturally such physical features result in marked variations of climate
and scene, which in turn react upon their productions and denizens,
whether human or of savage breed. We take three examples.
[Illustration: TYPES OF SPANISH BIRD-LIFE
LAMMERGEYER (_Gypaëtus barbatus_)
Whose home is in the wildest Sierras--a weird dragon-like bird-form;
expanse, 9 feet.
[Formerly reputed to carry off _babies_ to its eyrie.]]
The central table-lands, subject all summer to solar rays that burn, in
winter shelterless from biting blasts off snow-clad sierras, present
precisely that landscape of desperate desolation that always results
from a maximum of sunshine combined with a minimum of rainfall. A
desiccated downland, khaki-colour or calcareous by turn, but bare (save
for a few weeks in spring) of green thing, naked of bush or shrub,
innocent even of grass. Not a tree grows so far as eye can reach, not a
watercourse but is stone-dry and leaves the impress that it has been so
since time began. Oh, it is an unlovely landscape, that central plateau.
'Twere ungrateful, nevertheless (and unjust too), to forget that here we
are journeying in a glory of atmosphere, brilliant in aggressive
radiance that annihilates distance and revels in space. Though patches
of vine-growth be lost in the monotony of tawny expanse, mud-built
hamlet and village church indistinguishable amidst a universal khaki,
yet this is, in truth, a kingdom of the sun. The great bustard maintains
a foothold on these arid uplands, but the fauna is best exemplified by
the desert-loving sand-grouse (_Pterocles arenarius_).
Precisely the reverse of all this is Cantabria--the Basque provinces of
the north, with Galicia and the Asturias. There, bordering on the
Biscayan Sea, you find a region absolutely Scandinavian in
type--pinnacled peaks, precipitous beyond all rivals even in Spain, with
deep-rifted valleys between, rushing salmon-rivers and mountain-torrents
abounding in trout. Here the fauna is alpine, if not subarctic, and
includes the brown bear and chamois, the ptarmigan, hazel-grouse, and
capercaillie.
Cantabria is a region of rock, snow, and mist-wraith; of birch and
pine-forest--the very antithesis of the third region, that next concerns
us, the smiling plains of Andalucia and Valencia nestling on
Mediterranean shore. Here for eight months out of the twelve one lives
in a paradise; but the summer is African in its burden of heat and
discomfort. Every green thing outside the vineyard and irrigated garden
is burnt up by a fiery sun, a sun that changes not, but, day following
day, grips the land in a blistering embrace. Climatic conditions such as
these reacting on a race already infused with Arab blood naturally
conduce to Oriental modes of life. Yet even here we have examples of the
curious contradictions that characterise this _pays de l'imprévu_. Thus
within sight of one another, there flourish on the _vega_ below the
date-palm and sugar-cane, while the ice-defying edelweiss embellishes
the snows above--arctic and tropic in one.
* * * * *
Such extremes of climate react, as suggested, upon the character of the
human inhabitants of a land which includes within its boundaries nearly
all the physical conditions of Europe and North Africa. From the north,
as might be expected, comes the worker--the sturdy laborious Galician,
disdained and despised by his Andalucian brother, regarded as lacking in
dignity--the very name _Gallego_ is a term of reproach. But he is a
happy and contented hewer of wood and drawer of water, that Gallego:
throughout Spain he carries the baskets, bears the burdens, cleans the
floors; and finally returns, a rich man, to his barren hills of Galicia.
The Andalucian will condescend to tend your cattle or garden, to drive
your horses or ponies: and such offices he will perform well; but
anything menial, or what he might regard as derogatory, he
prefers--instinctively, not offensively--to leave to the Galician. From
Castile and Navarre comes a different caste, stately and aristocratic by
nature, yet with fiery temperament concealed beneath subdued
exterior--honestly, we prefer both the preceding exemplars. The Catalan
comes next, pushing and effervescent, all for his own little corner, his
factories and his trade--impregnated, every man, with a sort of
cinematograph of advanced views on social and political questions of the
day--borrowed mostly from his up-to-date neighbours beyond the Pyrenees,
yet grafted on to old-world _fueros_, or franchises, that date back to
the times of the Counts of Barcelona.[1] Perhaps the most perfect
example of contemporary natural nobility is afforded by the
peasant-proprietor of pastoral León; then there is the Basque of Biscay,
Tartar-sprung or Turanian, Finnic, or surviving aboriginal--let
philologists decide. Among Spain's manifold human types, we suggest to
ethnologists (and suggested before, twenty years ago) the study of a
surviving remnant that still clings secreted, lonely as lepers, in the
far-away mountains of Northern Estremadura--the Hurdes. These wild
tribes of unknown origin (presumed to be Gothic) live apart from Spain,
four thousand of them, a root-grubbing race of _homo sylvestris_,
squatted in a land without written history or record, where all is
traditional even to the holding of the soil. Not a title-deed or other
document exists; yet this is a region of considerable extent--say fifty
miles by thirty. A recent pilgrimage to these forgotten glens enables us
to give, in another chapter, some contemporary facts about "Las Hurdes."
Throughout Spain the people of the "lower orders"--the peasantry--strike
those who leave the beaten tracks by their independence and manly
bearing. North or south, east or west, an infinite variety of races
differing in habit and character, even in tongue, yet all agreeing in
their solid manliness, in straight-forward honesty, in what the Romans
entitled _virtus_--fine types save where contaminated by _empléomania_,
call that "officialdom" (one of the twin curses of Spain). Largely there
exists here ground-work for the rebuilding of Spanish greatness--such a
land awaits but the wand of a magician to recall its people to front
rank. Neither by despotic methods nor by the power that is only
demonstrated by violence will the change be brought about, but by the
enlightenment that has learnt to leave unimitated the follies of the
past, and unused the forces of coercion.
Such a leader, we believe, to-day wields that wand. May he be spared to
restore the destinies of his country.
It was in Spain, remember, that, more than 2000 years ago, the fate of
Carthage and, later, that of Rome was decided. To the latter Imperial
city Spain had given poets, philosophers, and emperors. It was in Spain
that there dawned the earlier glimmerings of popular liberties, as such
are now understood. Self-government with municipal rights were
recognised by the Cortes of León previous to our Magna Charta.
Individual guarantees, freedom of person and contract, and the
inviolability of the home were granted by the Cortes of Zaragoza in
1348--more than three centuries before our Habeas Corpus was signed in
1679. A land with such traditions and achievements, with its twenty
millions of inhabitants, cannot long be held back outside the trend of
liberal expansion.
The pursuit of game, alike with other aspects of Spanish things, is not
exempt from startling surprises. A ramble through the cistus-scrub, with
no more exciting object than shooting a few redlegs, may result in
bagging a lynx; or a handful of snipe from some cane-brake be augmented
by the addition of a wild-boar. It is not that game abounds, but that
the country is wide and wild, abandoned to natural state and combining
conditions congenial to animal-life. Of the big-game that is obtained or
of its habitats, there is no approximate estimate, nor do precise
knowledge or records exist. Each village in the sierra or higher
mountain-region lives its own life apart. Communication with other
places is rare and difficult, nor is it sought. One must go oneself to
the spot to ascertain with any sort of accuracy what game has been, or
may be obtained thereat. This means finding out every fact at
first-hand, for no reliance can be placed on reports or hearsay
evidence. Nor does this remark apply to game alone: it applies
universally in wilder Spain. The Englishman straying in these lone
scenes finds himself amongst a kindly but independent people where
sympathy and a knowledge of the language carry him further than money.
Where all are _Caballeros_, neither titles nor wealth impress or subdue.
The wanderer is free to join his new-made friends in the chase, taking
equal chance with keen sportsmen and on terms of equality. He will find
his nationality a passport to their liking, and soon discover that Arab
hospitality has left an abiding impress in these wild regions; as,
indeed, Moorish domination has done on every Spanish thing.
That last sentence sums up an ever-present and essential factor. In any
description of this country, however superficial, this Oriental heritage
must always be borne in mind as an influence of first importance.
Previous to the Arab inrush, Spain had enjoyed practically no organic
national existence. The Peninsula was occupied by a cluster of separate
kingdoms, not united nor even homogeneous, and usually one or another at
war with its neighbour. Neither Roman nor Goth had fused the Spanish
races into a concrete whole during their eight centuries of
overlordship. In A.D. 711 occurred a decisive day. Then, on Guadalete's
plain, below the walls of Jerez, that impetuous Arab chieftain Tarik
overthrew the Gothic King Roderick and with him the power of Spain. Like
an overwhelming flood, the Arabs swept across the land. Within two years
(by 713) the insignia of the Crescent floated above every castle and
tower, and Moslem rule was absolute throughout the country--excepting
only in the wild northern mountains of Asturias, whence the tenacity of
the mountaineers, guided by the genius of Pelayo, flung back the tide of
war.
[Illustration: TYPES OF SPANISH BIRD-LIFE
WOODCHAT SHRIKE (_Lanius pomeranus_)]
Spanish history for the next seven centuries (711-1492) records "Moorish
domination." Now history, as such, lies outside our scope; but we become
concerned where Arab systems, and their methods of colonisation, have
altered the face of the earth and left enduring marks on wilder Spain.
And we may, beyond that, be allowed to interpolate a remark or two in
elucidation of what sometimes appear popular misconceptions on these and
subsequent events. Thus, during the period denominated "domination," the
Arab conquerors enjoyed no peaceful or undisputed possession. During all
those centuries there continued one long succession of wars--intermittent
attempts, successful and the reverse, at reconquest by the Christian
power. Here a patch of ground, a city, or a province was regained;
presently, perhaps, to be lost a second or a third time. Never for long
was there a final acceptance of the major force. But during the
interludes, the periods of rest between struggles, the two contending
races lived in more or less friendly intercourse, exchanging courtesies
and even maintaining a stout rivalry in those warlike forms of sport
which in mediæval times formed but a substitute for war. It was thence
that the custom of bull-fighting took its rise. If not fighting Arabs,
fight bulls, and so prepare for the more strenuous contest. Such
conditions could not but have tended towards greater coherence among the
various elements on the Christian side, except for the incessant
internecine rivalries between the Christians themselves. A Spanish
knight or kinglet would invoke the aid of his nation's foe to
consolidate or establish his own petty estate. Christians with Moslem
auxiliaries fought Moslems reinforced by Christian renegades.
The Moorish invader had to fight for his possession--every yard of it.
Yet despite that, this energetic race found time to colonise, to develop
and enrich the subjugated region with a thoroughness the evidence of
which faces us to-day. We do not refer to their cities or to such
monuments in stone as the Mezquita or Alhambra, but to their
introduction into rural Spain of much of what to-day constitutes chief
sources of the country's wealth, and which might have been enormously
increased had Moorish methods been followed up. The Koran expressly
ordains and directs the introduction of all available fruits or plants
suitable to soil that came, or comes, under Moslem dominion. "The man
who plants or sows the seed of anything which, with the fruit thereof,
gives sustenance to man, bird or beast does an action as commendable as
charity"--so wrote one of their philosophers. "He who builds a house and
plants trees and who oppresses no one, nor lacks justice, will receive
abundant reward from the Almighty." There you have the religion both of
the good man and the good colonist. These precepts the Moors habitually
and energetically carried out to the letter. Arboriculture was
universal: the provinces of Valencia, Cordoba, and Toledo they filled
with trees--fruit-trees and timber. In the warm valleys of the coast and
in the sheltered glens of the mountains they acclimatised exotic fruits,
plants, and vegetables hitherto restricted to the more benign climes of
the East or to Afric's scorching strand. Sugar-cane flourished in such
luxuriance as to leave available a heavy margin for export. The fig-tree
and carob, quince and date-palm, the cotton-plant and orange, with other
aromatic and medicinal herbs, together with aloes and the
anachronous-looking prickly-pear (_Cactus_), its amorphous lobes
reminiscent of the Pleistocene, were all brought over for the use and
benefit, the delight and profit of Europe. Of these, the orange to-day
forms one of Spain's most valuable exports, representing some three
millions sterling per annum.
[Illustration: TYPES OF SPANISH BIRD-LIFE
GRIFFON VULTURE (_Gyps fulvus_)
Abounds all over Spain: sketched while drying his wings after a
thunderstorm, in the Sierra de San Cristobal, Jerez.]
Silk and its manufacture represented another immense source of wealth
and industry introduced into Spain--to-day extinct. The Moors covered
Andalucia with mulberry-groves: in Granada alone ran 5000 looms for the
weaving of the fibre, and the streets of the Zacatin and the Alcarcería
became world-markets, where every variety of costly stuffs were bought
and sold--tafetans, velvets, and richest textures that surpassed in
quality and brilliancy of tint even the far-famed products of Piza,
Florence, and the Levantine cities which since Roman days had
monopolised the silk-supply of the world. These now found their wares
displaced by Spanish silks; even the sumptuous "creations" of Persia and
China met with a dangerous rivalry.
Such was the technical skill and success of the Moors in agriculture and
acclimatisation that, on the eventual conquest and final expulsion of
their race from Spain, overtures were made with a view of inducing a
certain proportion to remain, lest Spain might lose every expert she
possessed in these essential pursuits. Six families in every hundred
were promised amnesty on condition of remaining, but none accepted the
offer. Deep as was their love for Spain--so deep that the departing
Moors are related to have knelt and kissed its strand ere embarking,
broken-hearted, for Africa--yet not a man of them but refused to remain
as vassals where, for centuries, they had lived as lords.
Such were the Moors--strong in war, yet equally strong in all the arts
and enterprises of peace, filled with energy, an industrious and a
practical race. It is safe to say that under their regime the resources
of this difficult land were being developed to their utmost capacity.[2]
Of the final expulsion of the Moors (and that of the Jews was analogous)
'tis not for us to write. Yet, for Spain, both events proved momentous,
and, along with the antecedent practices of the Moriscos, provide
side-lights on history that are worth consideration.[3]
The subjoined statistics give the state of Spanish agriculture at the
present day, the total acreage being taken as 50,451,688 hectares (2-1/2
acres each):--
Hectares.
Cultivated 21,702,880
Uncultivated:--
Pasture, scrub, and wood 24,055,547
Unproductive 4,693,261
___________
Total 28,748,808
__________
Grand Total 50,451,688
These figures demonstrate precisely the extent of the authors'
condominium in Spain--well over one-half the country! With the area
under cultivation (say 43 per cent), we have but one concern--the Great
Bustard. The remaining 57 per cent pertain absolutely to our
province--Wilder Spain. The term scrub or brushwood (in Spanish
_monte_), though by a sort of courtesy it may be ranked as
"pasture"--and parts of it do support herds of sheep and goats--implies
as a rule the wildest of rough covert and jungle, rougher far than a
Scottish deer-forest; and this _monte_ clothes well-nigh one-half of
Spain.
Such figures may appear to infer considerable apathy and lack of effort
as regards agriculture. 'Twere, nevertheless, a false assumption to
conclude that Spanish mountaineers are an idle race--quite the reverse,
as is repeatedly demonstrated in this book. In the hills every acre of
available soil is utilised, often at what appears excessive
labour--maybe it is a patch so tiny as hardly to seem worth the tilling,
or so terribly steep that none save a _serrano_ could keep a foothold,
much less plough, sow, and reap.
The main explanation of the immense percentage of waste lies in the fact
first set forth--the high general elevation of Spain; and, secondly, in
her mountainous character.
Whether these or any other extenuating circumstances apply to the
corn-lands, we are not sufficiently expert in such subjects as to
express a confident opinion. But we think not. So antiquated, wasteful,
and utterly inefficient have been Spanish methods of agriculture, that a
land which might be one of the granaries of Europe is actually to some
extent dependent on foreign grain, and that despite an import-duty! A
distinct movement is, nevertheless, perceptible in the direction of
employing modern agricultural machinery, chemical manures, and
such-like. Irrigation in a land whose head-waters can be tapped at 2000
feet and upwards could be carried out on a larger scale and at cheaper
rates than in any other European country--yet it is practically
neglected; no considerable extension has been made to the two million
acres of irrigated lands that existed when we last wrote, twenty years
ago, although the ruined aqueducts of Roman, Goth, and Moor are ever
present to suggest the silent lesson of former foresight and prosperity.
[Illustration: WOODEN PLOUGH-SHARE
(As still commonly used.)]
One incidental circumstance of rural Spain, the fatal effects of which
are all-penetrating (though it will never be altered), is absenteeism on
the part of landowners. Not even a tenant-farmer will live on his
holding. No, he must have his town-house, and employ an administrator or
agent to superintend the farm, only visiting it himself at rare
intervals. Oh! that hideous nightmare, the hireling, how his dead-weight
of apathy and dishonesty at secondhand crushes out every spark of
interest and enterprise, and breeds in their stead a rampant crop of all
the petty vices and frauds that prey on industry. But that evil can
hardly be eradicated.
What we British understand by the expression "country life" totally
fails to commend itself to the more gregarious peoples of the south.
Rich and poor alike, from grandee to day-labourer, the Spanish ignore
and disdain the joys of the country. They call it the _campo_ and the
_campo_ they detest. Each nightfall must see every man of them,
irrespective of class, assembled within the walls of their beloved town
or city, irresistibly attracted to street-girt abode--be it humblest cot
or sumptuous palace (and one stands next door to the other). Even
suburban existence is eschewed. There are no outer fringes to a Spanish
town. No straggling "villa residences," no Laburnum Lodge or River-View
"ornament" the extramural solitude. Back at dusk all hie, crowding to
the _paséo_, to club or casino, to social gathering and games of chance
or (more rarely) of skill. That ubiquitous term "_animacion_," which may
be translated gossip, chatter, light-hearted intercourse, fulfils the
ideals of life. Its more serious side--reading, study, scientific
pursuit--have little place; seldom does one see a library in any Spanish
home, urban or rural.
None can accuse the authors of desiring to use a comparison
(proverbially odious) to the detriment of our Spanish friends. The above
is merely a record of patent facts that must quickly become obvious to
the least observant. It is but a definition of divergent idiosyncrasies
as between different human genera. And remember that we in England have
recently been told that our rural system is fraught with unseen and
unsuspected evil. Into those wider questions we have no intention of
entering. But at least our impressions are based upon personal
experience of both lines of life, while much of the vituperation
recently poured upon rural England is derived from a view of but one,
and not a very clear view at that.
Where the owner--big or little, but the more of them the better--lives
on the land, that land and the country at large benefit to a degree that
is demonstrated with singular clearness by seeing the converse system as
it is practised in Spain to-day. Here no one, owner or tenant--still
less the hireling--takes any living interest (to say nothing of pride)
in his possession or occupation beyond that very short-sighted
"interest" of squeezing the utmost out of it from day to day. Ancient
forests are cut down and burnt into charcoal, and rarely a tree
replanted or a thought given to the resulting effects on rainfall or
climate. As to beauty of landscape--what matter such æsthetic notions
when the owner lives a hundred miles away? The collateral fact that, to
a great extent, nature's beauty and nature's gifts are analogous and
interdependent is ignored. Such simple issues are too insignificant,
and too little understood, for frothy rhetoricians to reflect upon: the
latter, moreover, like Gallio (and Pontius Pilate) care for none of
these things.
A characteristic that differentiates the Spaniard, north or south, from
other (more modern) nationalities, is a comparative indifference in
money matters. Now a Spaniard requires money for his daily needs as much
as the others; yet he never sinks to the level of total absorption in
his pursuit of the dollar. Put that down to apathy, if you will--or to
pride; at least there is dignity in the attribute. The leading Spanish
newspapers quote the various market fluctuations and changes in value
from day to day. Sometimes, possibly, the report may read _sin
operaciones_, but never will you see conspicuously protruded, as a main
item in the morning's news, the headline "Wall Street." There is (or
was) dignity in commerce, and there may yet be readers in England who
silently wish that such matters were relegated to their proper
position--the monetary columns.
[Illustration: TYPES OF SPANISH BIRD-LIFE
CETTI'S WARBLER (_Sylvia cettii_)
A winter songster, abundant but rarely seen, skulking in densest
brakes.]
The chief financial flutter that interests is the Government lottery
which is held every fortnight, and at which all classes lose their
money; but the National Treasury profits to the tune of three millions
sterling yearly. Spain is the home of "chance": that element appeals to
Spanish character. Thus in bull-fighting (the one popular pastime) the
name applied to each of its formulated exploits is _suerte_--chance.
* * * * *
SPAIN is frequently accused of being a land of _mañana_. Hardly can we
call to mind a book on the country in which some play on that word does
not figure. But procrastination is not confined to any one country, and
in this case the accusers are quite as likely to be guilty as the
accused. A characteristic that strikes us as more applicable is rather
the reverse--that of taking no thought for the morrow. Let us take an
example or two. It is not the custom to repair roads. When, from long
use, a road has gradually passed from bad to worse, till at length it
has virtually ceased to exist, then it is "reconstruction" that is the
remedy. Annual repairs, one may presume, would cost, say half the
amount, would preserve continuous utility, and avoid that slowly
aggravated destruction that ends finally in a hiatus. But that is not
the Spanish way. "Reconstruction" is preferred. The ruthless cutting
down of her forests without replanting a single tree has already been
quoted. Next take an example or two of the things that lie most directly
under the authors' special view, such as game. The ibex--a unique asset,
restricted to Spain, and of which any other country would be proud--has
been callously shot down without thought for to-morrow, extirpated for
ever in a dozen of its former habitats. The redleg--under the murderous
system of shooting, year in and year out, over decoy-birds--would be
exterminated within three or four years in any other country save this.
It is merely the incredible fecundity of the bird and the vast area of
waste lands that preserves the breed. Partridge in Spain are like
rabbits in Australia--indestructible. The trout affords another example.
Everywhere else on earth the trout is prized as one of nature's valued
gifts--hard to over-appreciate. Fully one-half of Spain is expressly
adapted to its requirements. Trout were intended by nature to abound
over the northern half of Spain--say down to the latitude of Madrid, and
even in the extreme south where conditions are favourable, as in the
Sierra Neváda. Trout might abound in Spain to the full as they abound in
Scotland or Norway, adding value to every river and a grace to country
life. But what is the treatment meted out to the trout in Spain? No
sooner is its presence detected than the whole stock--big and little
alike, even the spawn--is blown out of existence with dynamite, poisoned
by quicklime, or captured wholesale (regardless of season or condition)
in nets, cruives, funnel-traps, and every other abomination. Kill and
eat, big or little, breeding female or immature--it matters not; kill
all you can to-day and leave the morrow to itself. True, there are
game-laws and close-seasons, but none observe them.[4]
[Illustration: TYPES OF SPANISH BIRD-LIFE
DARTFORD WARBLER (_Sylvia undata_)
Resident. Frequents deep furze-coverts, seldom seen (as we are
constrained to represent it) in separate outline.]
We have selected these examples because we know and can speak with
absolute authority. Presumption and analogy will naturally suggest that
the same intelligence, the same blind improvidence will apply equally in
other and far more important matters. Not one of our Spanish friends
with whom we have discussed these subjects time and again but agrees to
the letter with the above conclusions and most bitterly regrets them.