TWO PORTUGUESE BOYS. 



starving pompously. The Aragonese, being reserved and 

 suspicious, are accounted hard to govern, though of a less 

 revengeful nature than their Valencian neighbours. The 

 Catalonians in the north-east are enlightened and energetic, 

 and make good practical tillers of the soil. The con- 

 siderable element of Teutonic blood in their composition 

 may have made them more vigorous than some of their 

 less industrious neighbours. The inhabitants of the Balearic 

 Islands are of mixed origin, with a language like that of 

 Catalonia, Valencia, and Provence in France, being a 

 branch of the Langue d'Oc. Their literature is rich, 

 especially in poetry; but the language is being gradually 

 displaced by the Castilian dialect. They are remarkably 

 honest, courteous, and hospitable. 



It is, however, in the north-western provinces of Spain 

 that we find the most vigorous physically of the Spanish 

 race, or rather races. The Asturiau makes a good house- 

 hold servant, is accommodating and markedly honest. 

 The Galician, who has been called the helot of the 

 peninsula, is uncouth and unpolished, but always ready 

 to undertake rough work of any kind. As labourer, 

 artisan, coachman, groom, or porter he is invaluable, being 

 clean, sober, hard-working, and faithful to his employer. 

 The Basques, who have already been mentioned as a 

 probable pre-Aryan survival, are slim but wiry, and are 



a hardy mountaineering folk. In temperament they are lively and independent, but extremely 

 hospitable and courteous. They make excellent farmers, and those who have settled in America, 

 particularly in the Argentine Eepublic, have shown themselves good colonisers. The Basque 

 women are even more handsome than the men, and possess, as a rule, attractive features 

 and a graceful carriage. The language of the Basques is peculiar to themselves, and is 

 unlike that spoken by any other people. The difficulty of learning it is increased by its great 

 variety of forms. 



Allowing for the local variations, we may describe the physical type of the Spanish 

 people as consisting for the most part of a medium-sized but compactly built frame, capable 

 of more endurance than it would at first sight appear to possess. The hair is dark and the 

 complexion olive or sallow. In disposition the Spaniards are brave, gay, and quick to anger. 

 They are inclined to take life easily and generally ready to make the best of things. Their 

 manners are pleasing and gracious. Quarrelsome and ready with the knife as they often are, 

 their wrath will generally subside if they are not goaded into ungovernable passion by a needless 

 fanning of the fuel of contention. Perhaps the least attractive feature in their character is 

 the cruelty displayed in the treatment of animals. As has been suggested in the case of the 

 Italians, a narrow and bigoted view of their religious obligations may have much to do with this. 

 Fanaticism and superstition play a much larger part than intelligence in the religion of 

 the lower classes especially. All classes, however, show their indifference to animal suffering 

 in the enthusiasm evoked by the national pastime of bull-fighting, in which bulls are worried 

 to madness, horses disembowelled, and sometimes men killed, without any protest from the 

 public opinion of the country. 



Spanish ladies are kept in more seclusion than anywhere outside the Eastern countries. 

 Bright eyes and pleasant voices are generally to be numbered among their charms. Their 

 beauty, which comes early to maturity, is not so lasting as that of their northern sisters. 

 Their lives lack variety, and a natural indolence, coupled with a very superficial education and 

 much ignorance, makes prolonged pleasure in their conversation impossible. 



