12 



WILD SPAIN. 



Spanish, as it is not readily translatable at once into 

 English and sense. On two occasions in the Castiles has 

 our advent to some hamlet of the sierra been hailed with 

 joy as that of a strolling company of acrobats ! " Mira 

 los Ti feres.' — Here come the mountebanks ! " sing out the 

 ragged urchins of the plaza, as our cavalcade with its tent- 

 poles, camp-gear, and, to them, foreign-looking baggage, 

 filed up the narrow street. 



It is, however, unnecessary here to recapitulate all 

 the curious incidents of travel, nor to recount the 

 difficulties and troubles by which the wayfarer in Spanish 

 wilds may find himself beset — many such incidents will be 

 found related hereinafter. Sport and the natural beauties 

 of this unknown land are ample reward, and among the 

 other attractions of Andalucian travel may be numbered 

 that of at least a spice of the spirit of adventure. 



This flavour of danger gives zest to many a distant 

 ramble : of personal molestation we have luckily had 

 but little experience, although at times associated in 

 sport with serranos of more than dubious repute, for the 

 Spaniard is loyal to his friend. At intervals the country 

 has been seething with agrarian discontent and sometimes 

 with overt rebellion. On more than one occasion the 

 bullets have been whistling pretty freely about the streets, 

 and the surrounding camjnfia was, for the time, practically 

 in the hands of an armed, lawless peasantry. In addition 

 to these exceptional but recurrent periods of turmoil and 

 anarchist frenzy, there exists a permanent element of law- 

 lessness in the contrahandistas from the coast, who per- 

 meate the sierras in all directions with their mule-loads 

 of tobacco, cottons, ribbons, threads, and a thousand odds 

 and ends, many of which have run the blockade of the 

 "lines " of Gibraltar. The propinquity — actual or imagi- 

 nary — of mala i/ente, often causes real inconvenience while 

 camping in the sierra, such as the necessity of seeking at 

 times the insectiferous refuge of some village pomda instead 

 of enjoying the freedom of the open hill ; or of having to 

 put out the fire at nightfall, which prevents the cooking of 

 dinner, preparing specimens, or writing up notes, c^-c. 



