Burladores and Bandarilleros 



Then come in the bandarilleros. Each man has a pair of 

 barbed javelins, wreathed and resetted with gay-coloured 

 strips of paper. The first performer places himself in front 

 of the bull, standing with his heels together, and leaning 

 slightly forward ; he waves his rustling wands, something 

 in the manner of lagrace sticks, or as if he were fortifying 

 his challenge by some magnetic spell, for he points his 

 weapons toward the forehead of his antagonist, and traces 

 mysterious diagrams in the air. 



The bull, as if some superstitious element in his character 

 were awakened by these exorcisms, usually pauses some 

 moments to contemplate this double-wanded wizard, the 

 first man who has faced him yet, without the aid of that 

 bewildering volubility of cloak. At length the bull starts 

 like an express-train, and the bandarillero runs lightly 

 forward to meet him, like a dancing-master in pumps 

 caught in a shower. As they meet, he skips nimbly aside 

 on light fantastic toe, planting in the same instant his pair 

 of bandarillas on either side of the poor beast's neck. The 

 rest do likewise, till he has a great stiff mane of javelins 

 tossing up and down as he plunges about, bellowing in great 

 agony, with the barbs working in his flesh at a great 

 leverage. 



Then another flourish of trumpets, and in come the 

 picadores on their blindfold steeds, wearing a broad-brimmed 

 stiffish wide-awake with many-coloured plumes, their legs 

 cased in buff-leather and wood, entrenched in a tall but- 

 tressed fortification of saddle, and armed with a stout lance. 

 One of them challenges the bull, poising his heavy weapon 

 under his arm. The bull butts at him, and receives the 

 lance's point between the neck and shoulder. The point is 

 guarded so as not to pierce more than an inch or two ; 

 there is then a desperate pushing bout, the man and bull 



"3 



