CHArTEll XXIII 



LAS HURDES (ESTEEMADURA) AND THE SAVAGE 

 TRIBES THAT INHABIT THEM 



Isolated amidst the congeries of mountain-ranores that converge 

 upon Leon, Castile, and Estremadura, lies a lost region that bears 

 this name. The Hurdes occupy no small space ; they represent 

 no insignificant nook, but a fair-sized province — say fifty miles 

 long by thirty broad — severed from the outer world; cut off 



LEON 



SKETCH-MAP OF LAS HUKDES 



from Portugal on the one side, from Spain on the other ; while 

 its miserable inhabitants are ignored and despised by both its 

 neiohbours. 



Who and what are these wild tribes (numbering 4000 souls) 

 that, in a squalor and savngery incredible in modern Europe, 

 cling, in solitary tenacity, to these inhospitable fastnesses ? 



Possibly they are the remnants of Gothish fugitives who, 

 1200 years ago, sought shelter in these hills from Arab scimitars ; 

 other theories trace their orioin back to an earlier era. But 

 whether Goths or Visigoths, Vandals or other, these pale-faced 

 Hurdanos are surely none of swarthy Arab or Saracenic blood ; 



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