Chapter IX: Introduction (2)

In almost every mediæval town there was a Jewish district, in which, says M. Depping, their historian, "Jews like troops of lepers were thrust away and huddled together into the most uncomfortable and most unhealthy quarters of the city, as miserable as it was disgusting;" or, as Paul Lacroix describes it, "a large enclosure of wretched houses, irregularly built, divided by small streets with no attempt at uniformity. The principal thoroughfare is lined with stalls, in which are sold not only old clothes, furniture, and utensils, but also new and glittering articles." Within their prescribed limits, all their necessities were supplied, and a dirt-begrimed prison-like synagogue usually occupied the center. But even in these wretched places they were often subjected to cruelties the most severe and sickening. Terrible as were the indignities heaped upon this unfortunate people it must not be supposed that they were wholly unprovoked, or that all the forbearance was on the part of the sufferers. Opinions on these questions are widely divergent, and I refer to them here only to show more clearly the condition of Europe at the time of which I write.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE CHARGE OF CRUELTY.]

The Spaniards of the sixteenth century have been called a cruel people; and so they were. Yet they were no more cruel than other nations of their day, and no more cruel relatively, according to the progress of humanity, than are we to-day. Time evolves in many respects a more refined civilization, but the nature of man changes not. Individuals may be less beastly; society may be regulated more by law and less by passion; between nations in their wars and diplomacy there may be less systematic torture, less unblushing chicanery; but the world has yet to find a weightier right than might. I fail to discover in America, by Catholic Spaniards or heathen savages, deeds more atrocious than some committed in India and China within the century by Protestant England, the world's model of piety and propriety; and yet the treatment of Indians in North America by the people of Great Britain has been far more just and humane than their treatment by the people of the United States.

Before such a charge as that of excessive cruelty can be made good against a people, there are several things to be considered. And first the motive. The surgeon who amputates a limb to save a life is not called cruel. Now the Spaniards were the spiritual surgeons of their day. Nine tenths of all their cruelties were committed under the conviction that what they did was in the line of duty, and that to refrain from so doing would have been no kindness. Though with the experience of the past and by the clearer light of the nineteenth century we conclude that these convictions were false, and though we contemplate them with horror and condemn the acts which resulted from them as barbarous, yet it is almost superfluous to say that with their teachings and surroundings we should have been the same. The inherent qualities of human nature seem to be changed but little if at all by the cultivation and development of mind. Secondly, the quality of cruelty is not pronounced, but relative. There are cruelties of the heart, of the sensibilities, no less cruel than bodily tortures. The age of savagism is always cruel. Cruelty springs from ignorance rather than from instinct. Childlike and thoughtless things, things tender by instinct, are cruel from disingenuous perversity. A clouded, unreasoning, unreasonable mind, even when hiding beneath it a tender heart, begets cruelty; while a sterner disposition, if accompanied by a clear, truth-loving intellect, delights in no injustice—and cruelty is always unjust. This is why, if it be true as has been charged, that notwithstanding boys are more cruel than girls, women are more cruel than men. Children, women, and savages are cruel from thoughtlessness; though the cruel boy may be very tender of his puppy, the cruel woman of her child, the cruel savage of his horse. Even the moralities and intellectual refinements of that day were not free from what would seem to us studied and unnecessary cruelty. I will cite a few instances of European cruelty, not confined to Spaniards, which will show not only that Spain was not more cruel than other nations, but that the savages of America were not more cruel than the Europeans of their day. Both tortured to the uttermost where they hated, even as men do now; the chief difference was, the Europeans, being the stronger, could torture the harder. Civilization changes, not the quantity of cruelty, but the quality only.

[Sidenote: THE BARBARISMS OF EUROPE.]

"Cæsar Borgia," writes Sebastiano de Branca in his diary, about the year 1500, "Cæsar Borgia was the cruelest man of any age." To serve his purposes he did not hesitate to use poison and perjury. He was treacherous, incestuous, murderous, even keeping a private executioner, Michilotto, to do his bidding. Louis XI. of France, and other princes, kept a court assassin. The fifteenth century was lurid with atrocities. Rodrigo Lenzuoli, the father, Lucretia, the daughter, and Cæsar, the son, comprised the Borgia trio, distinguished no less for their intellect, beauty, wealth, and bravery, than for their craft, lust, treachery, and cruelty. Says Lecky: "Philip II. and Isabella the Catholic inflicted more suffering in obedience to their consciences than Nero or Domitian in obedience to their lusts."

In 1415 John Huss was burned for his religion, and in 1431 Joan of Arc for her patriotism. In like manner perished thousands of others. Mahomet II., disputing with the Venetian artist Gentile Bellini as to the length of John the Baptist's neck after decollation, called a slave, and striking off his head with one blow of his cimeter, exclaimed: "There! did not I say yours is too long?"

Princes made bloodshed a pastime. Edward IV. put to death a tradesman for perpetrating a pun; caused a gentleman to be executed for speaking against a favorite; and condemned his own brother to death in a fit of petulance. In an interview between this same Edward of England and the king of France, the monarchs were brought together in huge iron cages, each distrustful of the other. Louis XII. confined Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, in an iron cage for ten years, and until his death. This was a punishment common at that time in Italy and Spain. Pedro el Cruel is charged by Hallam with having murdered his wife and mother, most of his brothers and sisters, many of the Castilian nobility, and multitudes of the commonalty.

The church tolerated the persecution of its enemies, believing it was for the glory of God. Nor was this idea confined to Spain or to the fifteenth century, for we find in England and even in America that persecutions for conscience' sake, with all the cruelties that refined civilization could devise existed at the opening of the present century; nor indeed is the world yet completely emancipated from this thraldom.

Yet the Spaniards, I say, were bad enough. The cruelties following the capitulation of Málaga, in 1487, were more befitting fiends than a man and woman who prided themselves in the title of Catholic king and queen.

Since the establishment of the Inquisition, religious persecutions had become but too gratifying to the national taste. On this occasion at Málaga, the apostate Moors were first caught and burned. Twelve apostate Christians were then fastened to stakes in an open place and made the barbarous sport of Spanish cavaliers, who, mounted on fleet horses, hurled at their naked bodies pointed reeds while rushing past at full speed. This was continued until the torn and bleeding flesh of their victims was filled with darts, and the wretched sufferers expired under the most excruciating torments. Then, of the rest of the Moorish prisoners, three divisions were made; one for the redemption of Christian captives, one to be distributed among the victors as slaves, and one to be publicly sold into slavery.

Spanish knights returned from their incursions against the Moors with strings of turbaned heads hanging from their saddle-bows, which, as they passed along, they threw to the boys in the streets, in order to inspire their youthful minds with hatred to the foes of their religion.

From making slaves of prisoners of war, a traffic in human flesh springs up. A slave-trade association was formed in Portugal in 1443. Gonzalez brought slaves to Seville; Columbus sent to Spain a cargo of Indian slaves in 1495; in 1503 the enslavement of American Indians was authorized by Ferdinand and Isabella; and in 1508 the African slave-trade unfolded in all its hideous barbarity. The slave-trade, however, was tolerated by these sovereigns from mistaken kindness, rather than from cruelty. It was to shield the Indian, who died under the infliction of labor, that Isabella permitted the importation of Africans into the colonies.

[Sidenote: CIVILIZED TORTURES.]

Cruelty was a prominent wheel in the machinery of government, as well as in religious discipline. Torture was deemed inseparable from justice, either as preparatory to trial to elicit a confession of guilt, or as part of an execution to increase the punishment. Hippolite de Marsilli, a learned jurisconsult of Bologna, mentioned fourteen ways of inflicting torture, which are given by Lacroix. Among them were compressing the limbs with instruments or cords; the injection of water, vinegar, or oil; application of hot pitch; starvation; placing hot eggs under the armpits; introducing dice under the skin; tying lighted candles to the fingers which were consumed with the wax, and dropping water from a great height upon the stomach. Josse Damhoudere mentioned thirteen modes of execution or punishment—fire, the sword, mechanical force, quartering, the wheel, the fork, the gibbet, dragging, spiking, cutting off the ears, dismembering, hogging, and the pillory. Every country had its peculiar system of torture.

In 1547 English vagrants were branded with a V and enslaved for two years. Should the unfortunate attempt escape, a hot S was burned into the flesh and he was a slave for life. A second attempted escape was death. In those days wife-whipping was a common and respectable domestic discipline; culprits in the pillory and stocks were stationed in the marketplace where all the people might strike them; prisoners were stripped of their clothes, confined in filthy dungeons half filled with stagnant water, and there not unfrequently left to starve, while slimy reptiles crawled over the naked body, or drove their poisonous fangs into the quivering flesh.

The sports of the Spaniards we now regard as cruel, as ours will be regarded four hundred years hence. Although delighting in games, in pantomimic dance, in fencing, wrestling, running, leaping, hunting, hawking, with the gentler pastime of song and guitar, the more popular amusements were cock-fights, dog and bull fights, bull and bear fights, bear and dog fights, enjoyed alike by high and low, by women, boys, and men, by laity and clergy. Sometimes fighters would enter the arena blindfolded and engage in deadly encounter. Yet how much more cruel were these sports than modern horse-racing, cock-fighting, dog-fighting, prize-fighting, rope-walking, lion-taming, steeple-chases, to say nothing of the more gentlemanly cruelty of raising foxes to be hunted, and worried, and finally torn in pieces by dogs, let posterity judge. I do not say that the sixteenth-century sports of Spain were not more cruel than the English sports of to-day. I think they were. But that Spaniards were inherently more cruel, that is to say, that their hearts were more wickedly wanton, their sympathies more inhumane, or that they enjoyed a more ardent pleasure in inflicting pain upon others than men do now, I do not believe. The Spaniards were a nation of soldiers, and soldiers are necessarily cruel. Men go to war to hurt the enemy, not to be kind to him. Unquestionably the effect of bull-fights, like the gladiatorial shows of imperial Rome, was debasing, tending to excite a love of the bloody and terrible, and to render insipid tamer and more refined amusements. This to them was a misfortune, although the repulsive sport did foster a spirit of courage and endurance.

The _corrida de toros_, bull-run, or bull-fight, the national sport of Spain, is a relic of Moorish chivalry, yet no less Spanish than Arabic; for the institution as it exists in Spain is found neither in Africa nor in Arabia. Originally, as in the ancient tournament, in the sport engaged only cavaliers, or gentlemen, in whom were combined such skill and strength that the head of a bull was sometimes stricken off by a single blow of the _montante_. Since which time the tournament has degenerated into a prize-ring, and the chivalrous bull-fight which in principle was a display of courage combined with skill in horsemanship, and in the use of the lance, has become a sort of dramatic shambles, where the actors are low-born and mercenary professionals.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: SPANISH DOMESTIC LIFE.]

The home life of the Spaniard, which pictures his softer shades of character, and shows the more delicate tracings of his mental and moral sensibilities, must not be disregarded. There alone we shall see him as he is, stripped of the paraphernalia attending his appearance before men, with the intents and purposes of heart and mind laid open before us.

We have noticed how the genius of the Mahometan clung to the soil long after he was driven away; to this day southern Spain is more Arabic than Gothic. The towns of Andalusia—of which Cádiz, with its whitewashed antiquity and its streets and walls clean as a _taza de plata_, is the key; and Seville, radiant with sunny gardens and glittering towers, is the pride—consist of narrow, tortuous streets walled by Moorish mansions enclosing cool courts. Shutterless windows, through which half-muffled lovers whisper soft nothings to bar-imprisoned _señoritas_, open without; fresh young love and musty antiquity thus mingling in harmonious contrast. Then, favored by the voluptuous air of spring, or broiling beneath the enervating heat of summer, are Granada, Córdova, and Málaga, where glory and shame, heroic virtue and unblushing vice, erudition and ignorance, Christianity and paganism were so blended that the past and present seem almost one. As if proud of their Moorish origin, these cities of southern Spain battle with time, and hold in fast embrace the shadows of departed grandeur. The better class of Moorish houses are yet preserved; and the otherwise unendurable heat of this so-called oven of Spain is rendered supportable by the narrow, crooked streets—so narrow, indeed, that in some of them vehicles can not pass each other—and by the irregular, projecting stories of the terrace-roofed houses.

Though widely separate in their religious systems much there is alike in the national characteristics of these grave and haughty sheiks and the Spaniards. To both were given conquest, wealth, and opportunity. Both struggled blindly and bravely, sinking into national decay and corruption, which closed in around them like a pestilence. But in their religion there was no doubt a difference. One was sensual, the other spiritual. In one were the seeds of progress, of intellectual culture, and of all those enlightenments and refinements which make men more fit to dominate this earth. And though the _Allah akbar_ echoes from the receding hosts who worship God and his prophet, yet its mission is fulfilled. Where now is the might of Mauritania? Where the power and pride that caused Egypt to dream again of the days of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies? Syria and Palestine are desolate, Bedouinized. To Bagdad remains but the memory of ancient splendor; her palaces are heaps. No more the good Haroun al Raschid walks her streets; no more the universities of Kufa and Bassora, Samarcand and Balkh enlighten the world. The sons of Hagar have had their day; their work is done. What Spain and her colonies now are need not here be told.

[Sidenote: DWELLINGS AND FURNITURE.]

Every Spanish town has its plaza, great square, or public market-place, which every day presents a busy scene. Thither in early morning resort the improvident—though not specially lazy—common people for their daily supply of food. Then there is the _paseo_, or public promenade, or, as it is more frequently called, the _alameda_, from _álamo_, poplar, a beautiful walk, shaded on either side by trees. There may be seen every pleasant day after the _siesta_, or midday sleep, groups of either sex, and all classes, high and low, rich and poor, walking to and fro, chatting, smoking, flirting, drinking in health and content and merriment with the cool, delicious evening air; while ladies in carriages and cavaliers on curveting steeds occupy and enliven the roadway.

Numberless kinds of dwellings obtain in various parts, conspicuous among which are the Asturian caverns, the subterranean abodes of La Mancha, the forts of Castile, and the Moorish palaces of Andalusia. Stone, hewn and unhewn, is the material employed in mountainous districts; _adobe_, or sun-dried brick, with thatched roof, upon the plains. A common class of architecture is a windowless parallelogram divided into two rooms, one for the family, and the other for the cattle, the attic being used as a barn. Houses of this kind are built in one and two stories. An out-house for stores, which is also used as a sleeping-place for the women, perched on pillars eight feet high, sometimes stands adjacent. Across one end of the family room, which, of necessity, is used for all domestic purposes, extends a fire-place, ten or fifteen feet in length and six feet in depth, over which is a large bell-shaped chimney extending out into the middle of the room. This style of building might be elaborated, wings added, or the form changed. Tiled roofs are common, and overhanging eaves. Some houses are of three or four stories; others run out long and low upon the ground. More pretentious dwellings are often in the form of a hollow square, with a _patio_ and garden within. Of such are convents with cloisters, and over them ranges of corridors and rooms.

Among the upper classes the apartments of the lady consist of an antechamber, or drawing-room, a boudoir, a bed-room, a dressing-room, and an oratory. The drawing-room is furnished with tapestry hangings on which are represented battles and biblical scenes—war and religion even here; polished oak or mahogany high-backed chairs, clumsy, and elaborately carved; in the corners of the room triangular tables on which stand heavy silver or gold candlesticks with sperm candles, the light from which is reflected by small oval Venetian mirrors, in fantastically wrought gold or silver frames; cupboards with glass doors for plate, etc. In the boudoir is a toilet-table before Venetian mirrors profusely draped in handsome lace; a book-case, work-table, arm-chairs, sacred paintings and family portraits; in the sleeping-room, a tall heavy bedstead with damask or velvet curtains, a crucifix—the image of silver or gold, and the cross of ivory—with a little basin of holy water near it, a _priedieu_ and prayer-book; in the dressing-room a wardrobe, and all necessary toilet appliances; in the oratory an altar, a crucifix, two or more priedieux, and, if mass is said, as is often the case in the houses of the great or wealthy, images of saints by the masters, with all the accompanying ornaments of devotion.

The dwellings of southern Spain, large and small, lean toward the Arabic in architecture—Arabic decorations, with second-story balconies; the rooms rich in carved ceilings, wainscoting, and arabesque; the entrance from the street in city houses being through a vestibule and an ornamented iron-grated gate. During the summer, when the sun's rays strike like poisoned darts, the family live for the most part in the patio. There upon the marble pavement, beside the cooling fountain, and amidst fragrant orange, palm, and citron trees, visitors are received, chocolate drank, and cigarettes smoked. There too they dance to the music of the guitar, play cards, and take their siesta.

To oriental customs may be attributed the jealous privacy by which the women of Spain were guarded by husbands and fathers. Besides her natural weakness, woman was yet inferior, inept, characterless, not to be trusted. The fortress-like houses of the better sort, which are scattered all over the table-land of the Peninsula, with their spacious inner court and iron-barred windows, were so arranged that the part occupied by the female members of the household was separate from the more public rooms of the men. This precinct was unapproachable by any but the most intimate friend or invited guest. Their domestic policy, like every other, was suspicious and guarded.

This is further illustrated by the mode of entering a house, which also shows the effect of centuries of warfare upon manners. In outer doors, and in those of distinct floors, and apartments, was inserted a small grate and slide. On knocking, the slide moved back, and at the grating appeared the lustrous, searching eyes of the inmate. "Quien es?" Who is it? was the salutation from within. "Gente de paz." Peaceful people, was the reply.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: WOMEN AND DRESS.]

Extreme sensitiveness with regard to dress characterizes Spaniards of the better sort, and rather than appear in public unbecomingly attired, they remain hidden at home, only stealing out for necessities at nightfall, or perhaps in the early morn, and then back to their home for the day. In this we see a strong mixture of pride and _bienséance_, in which there is more sensitiveness than sense. But man can not live by reason alone. He who in this factitious world is guided only by the instincts of a sound mind, regardless of the frivolities of fashion, of _convenance_, indifferent to his neighbor's ideas of propriety, and to any taste except his own, commits a mistake. Though he alone is wise, and all the world fools, yet of necessity he must become foolish, else he is not wise.

Males, in their costume, were the birds of gay plumage at the beginning of the sixteenth century. So fantastically clad was the English nobleman in his laced doublet and open gown, that he was scarcely to be distinguished from a woman. In the time of Charles V. courtiers dressed in bright colors, but with his sombre son Philip, all was black—black velvet trimmed with jet; and stiff—stiff collars, and stiff black truncated cone hats, with brim scarcely an inch wide, in place of the soft slouchy _sombrero_.

[Sidenote: THE MANTILLA AND CAPA.]

The national and characteristic garment of both sexes in Spain for about three centuries was, for the outer covering, the _capa_, or cloak, of the cavalier, and the _mantilla_ of the lady. In the reign of Charles V. the former was a short cape, and the latter simply a head-dress; but with time both enlarged until one reached below the knee, and the other below the waist. Some writers give to these garments a remote antiquity. They point to ancient coins where Iberia is represented as a veiled woman, and ignoring sex claim that to the Iberians the Romans gave the _toga_, and that for fifteen centuries the fashion continued. Others deny such connection. It is undoubtedly true that the capa of the sixteenth century was much shorter than the cloak of to-day, being a cape rather than a cloak, and not at all resembling the Roman toga. Sebastian Franc in his _Weltbuch_, Tübingen, 1534, writes: "Their women wear a curious dress around the neck; they have an iron band to which are fastened bent prongs reaching over the head, over which, when they desire it, they draw a cloth for the protection of the head, and this they hold to be a great ornament." To the men and women of Spain this garment is as the shell to the turtle; within it, though on a crowded thoroughfare, they may at any moment retire from the world, and ensconce themselves within themselves. The cavalier with a peculiar fling, utterly unattainable by a foreigner, throws the skirt over the breast and shoulder so as to partially or completely hide the face according to his pleasure. On the way to and from church the lady's face is covered; and the gallant sighing for a glimpse of features divinely fair, is obliged to enter the sanctuary, hide behind a column near the altar; then as one female after another approaches, kneels, and unveils, he may feast his eyes on the faces before him. The mantilla serves as a bonnet, veil, and shawl; formerly it was but an oblong piece of cloth, with velvet or lace border; later a lace veil was added as part of it; and now the Spanish female face is becoming more and more visible in public.

The capa is indispensable to the Spaniard; it fits his nature like a glove, and is almost a part of him. It may be worn over a rich dress, or it may conceal rags or nakedness; it may cover a noble, generous heart, or a multitude of sins. Hidden beneath it, in secret the wearer may work out his purpose, though in the market-place. It keeps out the cold; it may hide the assassin's dagger; it serves as a disguise in love intrigues, and is a grateful protection from importunate creditors. Twisted round the left arm, it is a shield; at night, it is a bed; and with a sword, _capa y espada_, it not unfrequently constitutes the entire earthly possessions of the haughty, poverty-stricken cavalier. Whatever be the character or condition of the wearer, dignity is lent him by its ample folds, and comeliness by its graceful drapery. It is an unpardonable breach of decorum for a muffled cavalier to address a person, or for any one to speak to him while so muffled. Politeness teaches him to throw open to his friend both his garment and his heart, that it may be plain that no concealed weapon is in the one, or malice in the other. A son dare not speak to his own father when his face is covered by his cloak.

The peasantry flaunted the gayest and most picturesque attire on holiday occasions; the _majo_, a rustic beau, wore a figured velvet waistcoat with square velvet buttons, and brilliant with colored ribbons; embroidered stockings, silver-buckled shoes, and a colored capa thrown gracefully over the left shoulder. The dress of Fígaro in the play, is that of an Andalusian dandy. The costume of Valencia is more Asiatic, or Asiatic-antique it might be called, partaking somewhat, as it does, of the ancient Greek costume—wide linen drawers, linen shirt, hempen sandals, footless stockings, wide red woollen belt, gay velvet jacket with silken sash, with a colored capa over all. The long hair is bound by a silken band in the form of a turban. The female peasant dress is no less showy; a red velvet bodice, with scarlet or purple petticoat, all profusely embroidered, a gay-colored square-cut mantilla fastened by a silver brooch, with chains and jewels and colored stones according to the purse of the wearer.

[Sidenote: VARIOUS COSTUMES.]

The ordinary peasant dress of Estremadura consists of wide cloth knee-breeches, closely resembling those of the Moors, a gabardine of cloth or leather, and cloth leggings. The men wear the hair long. The women have a fashion of putting on a great number of petticoats; the rustic belles of Zamarramala, a village of Estremadura, manage to carry from fourteen to seventeen. In Andalusia the men have short jackets ornamented with jet or steel beads, knee-breeches, and highly ornamented leathern leggings; the women wear short embroidered and flounced petticoats, and a Moorish sleeveless jacket embroidered with gold or silver and laced in front. Asturian peasants have wooden shoes with three large nails in the soles, which keep them from the ground; leathern shoes they frequently carry in their travels, and to and from church, under their arms, or on their heads, putting them on just before entering the village or church. The women wear ear-rings and necklaces of glass imitation of coral; a handkerchief, folded triangularly, covers the head; at funerals, a large black mantle is worn. The Castilians wear sandals, called _abarcas_, tied to the ankle by narrow strips of rawhide. The Estremadurans wear a hat, very broad-brimmed; the Catalonians, a red Phrygian cap; the Valencians, a kind of Greek cap; the Asturians, a three-cornered black or dark blue cap with velvet facings; the Biscayans, a flat red woollen cap; the Andalusians, a turban-like hat, or a silk handkerchief. In Aragon, as well as in some of the southern provinces, the broad-brimmed slouching sombrero obtains. Hats were invented by a Swiss, Pansian, in 1404, and a Spaniard first manufactured them in London in 1510. Jews in Spain were obliged to wear yellow hats; in Germany bankrupts, in like manner, were required to wear hats of green and yellow.

The general costume of a Spanish nobleman consisted of a silk gabardine, with sleeves close-fitting at the wrist but puffed and slashed between the elbow and shoulder so as to show the fine linen shirt beneath; chamois-skin doublet, thick but flexible; silk hose, and silk trowsers slashed; long bell-shaped boots with golden spur-supporters; broad, polished leathern belt, from which hung a long sword on the left side, and a long dagger in a leathern or velvet scabbard on the right; a round, soft, broad-brimmed beaver hat, with an ostrich-feather fastened by a diamond brooch on the side or in front; a cape or cloak embroidered or laced with gold or silver thread, fastened with cord and tassel, and worn hanging from the left shoulder, or thrown around the body so as to cover part of the face. Within doors, the cloak was laid aside; a velvet doublet was substituted for the leathern one; and instead of boots, shoes of leather or velvet, slashed over the toes, were worn. The dress of the lady was a heavy, flowing brocade or velvet skirt, open in front, displaying an underdress of light silk or satin; a chemisette with slashed sleeves; a stomacher with long ends hanging in front, and a velvet sleeveless jacket laced with gold or silver cord. The breast was covered with lace, and the neck and shoulders were bare, except when covered by the _toca_, a kind of head-dress, out of which by elongation grew the characteristic mantilla. Her shoes were of velvet, her stockings of silk or wool; from the waist on the right side hung a reticule, a silver or gold whistle for calling servants, and a poniard. Her _dueña_ wore a black skirt, and a large black mantle completely covering the head, face, and shoulders down to the waist. Swords formed no part of domestic dress prior to the fifteenth century.

Black was the color of the church, certain clerical orders excepted. Those of the learned professions wore black. The ladies usually attended church in black, and indeed were sometimes seen in sombre hues upon the alameda. Black robes and a canoe-shaped hat covered the Basque priest; and the friar, sackcloth and gray, bound round the waist with a twisted cord. _Alguaciles_, or constables, followed the ancient cavalier costume—broad-brimmed hat, black cloak, short knee-breeches, black stockings, silver-buckled shoes, Vandyke ruffles, and white lace collar. This in the Basque provinces only. Friars appeared in a hooded robe, extending to the ankles, over woollen breeches and jacket. A cord was tied round the waist from which hung a rosary. Hempen or leathern shoes were worn, and by some orders broad hats. The robe of the friar was of coarse wool; that of the clergyman serge, with a cloak, low leathern shoes with buckle, black stockings, knee-breeches, a white collar, and a black hat with broad brim turned up at the sides. The robes of vicars, parish curates, and other church dignitaries were of silk. The Franciscan's robe was of a yellowish gray color, the Dominican's white, the Carmelite's reddish gray, the Capuchin's silver gray, the Jesuit's black. The bishop's color was violet, the cardinal's red or purple.

* * * * *

Domestic routine in Spain, with allowances for class, season, and locality, was substantially as follows. The noble or wealthy master of a household was served before rising with chocolate, which service was called the _desayuno_. He then rose and dressed; after which, kneeling before the crucifix, he said a prayer; then he proceeded to the avocations of the day, taking _las once_, or the eleven o'clock luncheon of cake and wine, either at home or at the house of a friend, or wherever he happened to be. After a twelve or one o'clock dinner came the siesta. At five o'clock there was to be eaten the _merienda_, consisting of chocolate, preserved fruit, and ices; and between nine and eleven, supper. In the private chapel of the grandees mass was said. The middle class usually attended church about sunrise; after which breakfast, and at noon dinner.

[Sidenote: EXCESSIVE RELIGIOUS TRAINING.]

The religious training of children was excessive. At daybreak the _angelus_ was recited, then to chapel or church to mass, after which the child might breakfast; at noon angelus and dinner; after the siesta vespers at church, and rosary at home; at six o'clock angelus and chocolate; prayers at eight; supper at nine; after which more prayers and to bed. The child was expected to attend all these devotions, the night prayer perhaps excepted, the youngest children being sent to bed after the rosary. And this not alone Sunday, but every day.

A national dish, centuries old, common to Spain and all Spanish countries, called the _olla podrida_, constitutes a staple food with almost all classes. It is made of meat and vegetables boiled together, but usually served in two dishes, and its constituents depend upon the resources of the cook, for everything eatable is put into it that can be obtained. Beef, mutton, pork, and fowl; beans, peas, potatoes, onions, cabbage, and garlic; the water in which the mess is boiled is served as soup with rice or bread, and the two courses constitute the whole of every meal of the lower classes. On the tables of the wealthy, after the olla podrida, fish, roast meats, and a profuse dessert of sweetmeats, jellies, preserves, and bonbons are served. The Andalusians make a salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, green-peppers, chiccory, with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and stale bread, which with them is a staple dish, called _gazpacho_.

It was a gluttonous, sensual age, that of the century preceding our epoch; but from these vices Spain was probably more free than any other civilized nation of Europe. There the discipline of war absorbed the attention which elsewhere was given to luxurious living. We find nothing in Spain such as we are told about in England, where the households of the great were composed of brawling retainers, ill-mannered clowns, and riotous serving men and women who terminated many a feast with bloodshed; where guests snatched and scrambled for food, gorging themselves with whatever they could lay hands on; where drunken broils were of daily occurrence, and the master of the household was not unfrequently obliged to sheath his sword in the body of some contumacious servant grown dangerous by the unbridled license in which he had been indulged.

What shall we say of the monks and cardinals now grown fat from the well filled coffers of the Church? With their wealth in some instances they had grown sensuous and extravagant. Their cupboards were loaded with rich viands, in which they freely indulged; and their tables were surrounded by musicians and all the luxuries and delicacies the world could contribute. Not to the faults of the few, however, would we call too much attention, but to the virtues of the many; for during these dark years of ignorance and voluptuousness the Church was planting and watering the seeds of the sanctity of marriage and domestic life in Spain, and surrounding the family altar with so many safeguards among her people, that the long ages since have not sufficed to dispel nor destroy them. The wealthy families of Spain had their court jesters, but coarse buffoonery or indecent jests were seldom tolerated.

[Sidenote: FOOD AND FILTHINESS.]

Two persons often ate from one plate, using their fingers for forks. A sheath-knife, or dagger, which they carried upon the person, served to cut the food. Among the first books printed in Venice was a folio volume on cookery, issued in 1475. In the English metrical _Stans Puer ad Mensam_, following Wright, the guest is told to "bring no knyves unskoured to the table;" in other words, his sheath knife should be clean, and he is also informed that polite persons will not pick their teeth with it while at table. It was considered a breach of good manners to blow the nose with the same fingers used in conveying food to the mouth. Hats were worn by the men, and head-dresses by the women, on all domestic occasions. In France, the metrical _Contenances de Table_, or manual of table manners, shows but little more refinement there than elsewhere. Among other directions the reader is told first to examine his seat whether it be clean:

"Enfant, prens de regarder peine
Sur le siege où tu te fierras,
Se aucune chose y verras
Qui soit deshonneste où vilaine."

He is forbidden to spit upon the table while at dinner:

"Ne craiche par dessus la table
Car c'est chose desconvenable."

Or to spurt water from his mouth into the basin used in common by the company:

"Quant tu bouche tu laveras
Ou bacin point ne cracheras."

Or leave sops in his wine glass:

"Se tu fais souppes en ton verre
Boy le vin ou le gette à terre."

But by implication he may spurt and throw remnants on the floor, as much as he pleases.

Even in their use of tobacco, of which they are excessively fond, the Spaniards are temperate. Though they smoke it almost constantly, it is in such small quantities, and in so mild a form, that tobacco does them less injury than it inflicts on many other nations. It was the custom to carry a daily supply wrapped in a lettuce or cabbage leaf to preserve it moist. The cigarette was prepared for smoking by taking a small quantity of tobacco, finely cut, rolling it in a piece of corn-husk or paper, and lighting with flint, steel, and punk. Though the tobacco may be strong, prepared in this way the effect is less injurious than when rolled in larger quantities into a cigar, or cut from a plug and smoked from a pipe or chewed.

Noble youths of both sexes were accustomed, to serve a sort of apprenticeship for a number of years in the king's household. In like manner the sons and daughters of gentlemen served in the houses of the nobility, and common people in the houses of gentlemen, that each might be benefited by the knowledge and refinement of his superior.

Spaniards, as I have said, are called inhospitable; but this charge must be taken with allowance. Every phase of human nature has its generous quality; locked in every heart is a wealth of kindliness which opens to him who holds the key. By nature these people are reserved, suspicious. They carry no window in their breast. In their domestic affairs they are specially reticent before strangers. Their wives and daughters they hide away; their troubles they cover within the ashes that preserve them; their sensibilities shrink from cold contact with the world. If some find certain Spaniards at given periods inhospitable, others at other times and places find them very generous. In early times inns were not common in Spain, and we are told that in certain places every private house had its guest's quarters consisting of one or more rooms according to the opulence of the owner. To this apartment every stranger of whatsoever degree was welcome. There he lived as long as he pleased, fed and cared for by the host; and—you may call it pride—if through poverty provisions grew scarce, the family would undergo the greatest privation rather than the guest should suffer want, or be forced to hasten his departure. Furthermore all was free; to offer pay for entertainment was deemed an insult, though a present might be given and accepted.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: AMUSEMENTS.]

While called a melancholy people, amusement appeared at times to be the life of the nation. Royalty and religion at rest, peace here and hereafter secured, there was nothing more of life than to enjoy it. To labor when one might repose; to sigh when one might sing; to undergo the pains of culture when sweet pleasure temptingly proposed a holiday—ah no! Fools attempt to better their condition and make it worse. Let those who need improving scour themselves; we know enough.

So lazily lapped in stupidity, beside their feast-days and bull-fights, their passions and passion-plays, they lolled upon the greensward and danced to tambourine and castanets, and wrestled, and ran races; they fenced, fought, played cards, shook dice, and enlivened home monotony by all sorts of games and gymnastic exercises. Dancing was carried to such excess as to lead to dissoluteness and occasional death, even as it does to-day. The dances of the peasantry in many instances bear a striking resemblance to those of the native races of America. In Asturias, men, and sometimes men and women, form a circle joining hands by the little finger. A leader sings in plaintive monotone a description of some Spanish feat of arms prior to the eleventh century, or of a tournament of later days, or of some unhappy love adventure, or of a thrilling incident in the conquest of America. At the end of every strophe, all sing in chorus the refrain which sometimes terminates in an invocation, as for example, May Saint Peter be with me! May the Magdalen protect us! The dance is a long step forward, and two short steps backward and laterally to the right, so that the circle keeps constantly moving in that direction, meanwhile keeping time to the music with arms as well as feet. These dances take place on Sunday afternoons, and on feast-days, and when the priest is present men and women are separated in the dance. The _fandango_, danced by two persons with castanets to the music of the guitar, is peculiar to the south of Spain.

Between the eras proper of tournaments and bull-fights, a species of tilting called _correr la sortija_ was greatly in vogue. A gold finger-ring was suspended by a thread from the top of a pole, and at it charged the cavalier with lance in rest and horse at full speed. The smallness of the object, its constant motion, and its proximity to the pole rendered it an exceedingly difficult feat to accomplish.

Cards and dice were at this time in the height of their fascination. Every class, age, profession, and sex were filled with a passion for gambling—a most levelling vice, at this juncture, bringing in contact noble and commoner, knight and squire, women, servants, and trades-people. An English poet about the year 1500 thus laments the degeneracy of the nobles:

"Before thys tyme they lovyd for to juste,
And in shotynge chefely they sett ther mynde;
And ther landys and possessyons now sett they moste,
And at cardes and dyce ye may them ffynde."

From her low estate of mediæval drudge or plaything, woman was lifted by the exaltation of the Virgin,—lifted too high by chivalry; then fell too low with the sensual reaction. Finally, after many waverings, she rises again, and in the more favored spheres takes her rightful place beside her lord, his confidant and equal. At the time of which I write, however, she was less respected than now, and hence less respectable; less trusted, and consequently less trustworthy. Her virtue, fortified by bolts and bars at home, was watched by servants abroad. Falling into the customs of the invaders during Moslem domination, Castilian ladies became more and more retired, until the dwelling was little better than a nunnery. The days of tournaments, and jousts, and troubadours were over, and indifference succeeded chivalric sentimentality.

[Sidenote: FEMALE CHASTITY.]

Seldom has Spanish society been conspicuous for its high moral tone. Female chastity was an abstract quality, the property of the father or husband, rather than an inherent virtue for the safe-keeping of which the female possessor was responsible. The master of a household exercised sovereign authority therein, claiming even the power of life and death over the members of his family. He was addressed in the third person as 'your worship;' sons dare not cover their head, cross their legs, or even sit in his presence unless so directed; daughters were betrothed without their knowledge, and to men whom they had never seen; the selection of a husband rested entirely with the father, and the daughter had only to acquiesce. Female decorum and purity were placed under espionage. A dueña kept guard over the wife and daughter at home, and closely followed at their heels whenever they stepped into the street. Ladies, closely veiled, marched solemnly to church, preceded by a _rodrigon_, or squire, with cushion and prayer-book, and followed by a dueña. At service, her place was in front, and men took up their station behind her. Teach woman first that she is inferior, next that she is impotent; add to this intellectual inanity and implied moral unaccountability, and you have a creature ripe for wickedness.

This excess of caution defeated its own purpose. Women, left much alone within their cloister-like homes, waited not in vain for opportunity. The gay mistress could often too easily win over her attendant, and make of her dueña a go-between; yet if we may believe the record, infidelity was rare, and for two reasons. First, woman in her seclusion escaped many temptations; and secondly, a wholesome fear, the certainty that vengeance, swift and sure, would follow the offence, resulting in the death of one or both offenders, placed a curb on passion. Females of the lower classes, left alone to take care of their virtue as best they might, with faces open and actions free, were less given to transgression than their wealthier sisters.

Lewd women could not testify in criminal cases. Respectable women were permitted to testify, but the judge was obliged to wait on them at their homes, as they were not allowed to attend court. Learning to write was discouraged in females, as they could then have it in their power to scribble love-letters to their gallants. Queen Isabella did much to elevate and purify both religion and morals. The court of Enrique IV., her predecessor, has been described as but little better than a brothel, where "the queen, a daughter of Portugal, lived openly with her parasites and gallants, as the king did with his minions and mistresses." Maids of honor were trained courtesans, and the noblemen of the court occupied their time in illicit amours and love intrigues. From the king on his throne to his lowest subject, all who could afford it kept a mistress.

Ware states that within a century the widows of Madrid were "compelled to pass the whole first year of their mourning in a chamber entirely hung with black, where not a single ray of the sun could penetrate, seated on a little mattress with their legs always crossed. When this year was over, they retired to pass the second year in a chamber hung with grey." This savagism is paralleled by the Thlinkeets of Alaska, who at certain times confine women in a little kennel for six months, giving them one a size larger for the second six months; likewise by the Tacullies of New Caledonia, who make the widow carry the deceased husband's ashes upon her back in a bag for one or two years.

[Sidenote: EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN GENERAL.]

A glance at English and French society shows us, however, that the character of the Spanish women of this epoch compared favorably with that of their northern sisters. Though perhaps no chaster than the French, they were not street-brawlers like the English women. These latter, we are told, from whom the men would separate themselves in their debauches, would likewise assemble at the public house, drink their ale, talk loudly and lewdly, and gossip, swear, and fight. In a religious play of the period, representing the deluge, Noah, when ready to enter the ark, seeks his wife, and finds her carousing with her gossips at the public drink-house.

"Young ladies, even of great families," says Wright, "were brought up not only strictly but even tyrannically by their mothers, who kept them constantly at work, exacted from them almost slavish deference and respect, and even counted upon their earnings." A mother in those days was accounted a little severe who beat her daughter "once in the week, or twice, and sometimes twice a day," and "broke her head in two or three places," or still worse, permitted her to "speak with no man, whosoever come."

Witness the wooing of Matilda of Flanders by William the Conqueror. Having had the audacity to refuse him, the noble suitor entered her home, seized her long tresses, dragged her about the floor, struck her; then flinging her from him, he spurned her with his foot. Matilda at once accepted him, saying: "He must be a man of courage who dare beat me in my father's palace."

Pedro el Cruel, king of Castile and Leon, about the middle of the fourteenth century held good, and commanded, under heavy penalties, that no one of the laboring classes, man or woman, who was able to work, should be found begging. He fixed the day's wage of every class with the most punctilious exactitude. Shoemakers, tailors, armorers, and others who worked by the job, had a definite price attached to the making of every article. A shoe of such and such leather, made after such a fashion, with a double or single sole; a cloak, lined or unlined; a weapon of an ordinary, or of a superior temper and finish—each article in its fabrication was to cost just so much and no more.

It was an age of interference in the affairs of men, the strong against the weak. It was in these trade regulations, and in sumptuary laws, the superstition of political economy and social statics, that the science of ignorance culminated. It was then that learned men threw dust into the air, cast a cloud about their own intellect, and labored hard to inculcate the principles of nescience into the minds of men. In England the number of servants a nobleman might have was fixed by law, as was also costume, and the number of courses at dinner. Soup and two dishes legally constituted a Frenchman's dinner in 1340.

Ferdinand and Isabella were, perhaps, the most parentally inclined of all. No affair, religious, moral, political, judicial, economical, literary, industrial, mechanical, or mercantile could escape their attention. From the regulation and organization of the high councils, and of the civil and ecclesiastical tribunals, to the ordinances for the leather-dressers and cloth-shearers; from the decrees concerning the universities and the literary and scientific bodies, to the orders that prescribed the weight of horseshoes; from the general laws on commerce and navigation, to those which fixed the expenditure at weddings and baptisms, and the amount of wax to be burned at funerals; from the highest interests and rights of religion and of the throne, down to the most humble and mechanical industries—all were considered, legislated upon, and seen to by their Catholic Majesties, with infinite pains and vigilance. In 1510, thinking the colonists of Española too fond of ostentation and extravagance, Ferdinand issued a proclamation, forbidding them to wear rich silks, brocades, or gold or silver lace. Owners of vessels, in times of peace, were forced to engage at fixed prices in perilous voyages of discovery or commerce.

[Sidenote: SUMPTUARY LAWS.]

In England it appears that the dress of the men commanded the special attention of their rulers. Spaniards made men and women alike to feel the iron heel of sumptuary legislation; while the English, in laws of nearly coincident date, for the most part omitted the sex. By distinctive qualities, Edward IV., 1461-1483, regulated the dress of his people—from the royal cloth-of-gold down to the two-shillings-a-yard, and under, cloth of the laboring classes; but, if we may believe Sanford, he took care to exempt his women subjects from the provisions of this act, save only the wives of the two-shillings-a-yard boor, who might be expected to have other things to attend to.

The continental ladies, it appears, could flaunt it bravely upon occasion, at least in France and Flanders. For through these countries crusaded, in 1428, Thomas Conecte, a Carmelite friar, preaching against the evils of the age, or what he considered as such. Among these, dress held a place, and many other things not generally condemned at present. His manner of going to work was peculiar, and is pretty well described by Monstrelet.

In his audiences he always separated the men from the women by a cord, "for he had observed some sly doings between them while he was preaching." Having taken these wise precautions, he was accustomed earnestly to admonish his hearers "on the damnation of their souls and on pain of excommunication, to bring to him whatever backgammon-boards, chessboards, nine-pins, or other instruments for games of amusement they might possess." Right bitterly would he then attack the luxurious apparel of ladies of rank; especially the monstrous head-gear which was in fashion at that time; all of which bred trouble, as may readily be imagined, and produced no good results.