IN SEARCH OF THE LAMMERGEYER. 



295 



bued with commercial instincts, the flock-master takes 

 care that his stock shall support themselves in order to 

 support him. The daily, hourly losses which are implied 

 in the supplementary support of hordes of huge flesh- 

 eating birds, each as heav}^ as a Spanish sheep and 

 voracious as a hyena, would simply put him out of the 

 market, and eventually land him in bankruptcy. But 

 Spain cares nothing for modern ideas, and disdains to 

 put herself about in the universal race for wealth. There 

 is dignity in her attitude, but there is at least a suspicion 



LAMMERGEYER— A FIRST IMPRESSION. 



of lassitude. Wliere Nature is prodigal, man becomes 

 proportionately apathetic. Here her gifts more than 

 suftice for simple tastes and day-to-day requirements, and 

 the rural Andaluz seeks no more. 



In agriculture, stock-raising, and other pastoral pursuits, 

 the rudiments of modern system — drainage, irrigation, 

 and the like — are ignored. In the burning heats of 

 summer, when every green thing is scorched to death, the 

 cattle die l)}- hundreds from thirst and want of pasturage ; 



