234 WILD SPAIN. 



vincial herds, it being still the custom to brand each 

 foal with the particular sign of the stud to which it 

 belongs. 



For temper and enduring powers the old Spanish hack 

 could never be improved upon ; but in shape and make the 

 race had sadl}' degenerated since the Spanish Gennet was 

 the favourite and fashional)le steed of the wealthy both in 

 France and England. The heavy Flemish stallions 

 introduced by Carlos Quinto — of which Velasquez' pictures 

 give us the type — account for this falling-off from the 

 earlier form of that high-bred Arab race which long ago 

 supplied the wants of a nation of horsemen — the 

 CahaUeros, whose interests in life were coloured and 

 directed by a devotion to knight-errantry unparalleled in 

 other lands, and which still leaves its impress on the 

 thought and habit of the Hidalgos of to-day. 



Now, however, the Andalucian horse bids fair to regain 

 his ancient prestige ; some of the more ambitious haras 

 boast their strings of pedigree- stock, and the stud-book 

 of Spain is an established institution, its register having 

 been zealously kept till this year, by the sportsman- 

 grandee, the late Duke of Fernan Nunez. 



In contrast to these favoured breeds, and at the other 

 extremit}' of the scale, we have the almost wild horses of 

 the marismas, which shift for themselves throughout the 

 year on the open wastes, and fly, like the deer, from the 

 unaccustomed sight of man. The heats of summer, the 

 cold and wet of winter, are faced in turn by this hardy race, 

 which, in return for their freedom, provide their owners 

 with a yearly contingent of sturdj^ offspring. These 

 youngsters are only separated from the wild herds, 

 "rounded up," and captured with great difficulty — after 

 long and fast chases on the open plains. Perfect little 

 demons of vice and fury they are, too, when caught, shagg}- 

 and unkempt little beasts, coated with dried mud, biting 

 at each other, quarrelling and screaming with savage rage 

 — a corral full of them newly-caught is indeed a singular 

 sight. On many of the old mares of the marisma the 

 hand of man has never placed a halter. 



