Ol 



vera 



trees, a striking contrast with the wilderness surrounding 

 it. We dived down a ravine which seemed most in 

 our direction, and came, after much rough winding work, 

 upon the picturesque venta of Zaframogon, where we baited. 



We rode on along this charming valley, which had now a 

 better road. Indeed, we had missed the best road in the 

 morning, and had been struggling through inconvenient but 

 very beautiful by-paths all day. On a green hill slope, we 

 saw a little boy and a bull-calf playing at matador and toro 

 to an audience of five cows and a cow-keeper. The boy had 

 a stick to represent a sword, and as the calf bobbed at him 

 he stepped aside and poked the stick at his shoulder. The 

 cowherd seemed much interested, and alternately cried, 

 " bravo spada^^ and " bravo toro^'' as the sword or bull got 

 the best of it. Oh, seeds of bloodshed sown in infancy ! 



We topped a high level of mountain road and saw Olvera, 

 a pyramidal group of spires and towers crowned with a 

 pointed castle-rock. It seemed much nearer than it was, for 

 about half a league brought us to an unforeseen deep, broad 

 valley, whose sides had to be gone down and up before we 

 could get to our resting-place. 



The flood of sunset was beginning to break in billows of 

 fire over the ragged sky-line of the mountain summits as 

 we crossed the valley, overtaking troops of peasants and 

 donkeys crowding in from the field : and when we reached 

 the foot of the long, steep ascent into Olvera, there must have 

 been a hundred and fifty men, women, and children, to climb 

 the hill with us. The road ran straight up the mountain's 

 flank, from which the stony ribs protruded. Higher and 

 higher, the stony excrescences grew larger and larger ; first 

 as big as waggons, then as haystacks, then as houses, and at 

 last churches. 



At the top of a mile of steep climbing, the straight road 



142 



