236 Unexplored Spain 



lliese alquenas — warrens we may translate the word — consist 

 of den-like hovels straggling without order or huddled together 

 according as the rock-formation may dictate — some half-piled one 

 on another, others separate. i\Iany are mere holes in the earth — 

 lairs, shapeless as nature left their walls, but roofed over with 

 branches and grass held in place by schistose slabs that serve 

 for slates. Hardly, in some cases, can one distinguish human 

 dwellings from surrounding bush, earth, or rock. As our 

 companion, a civil guard, remarked of one set of eyries that 

 adhered to a cliff- face, they rather resembled "the nests of crag- 

 martins" [nidos de veuccjos) than abodes of mankind. 



Within are two tiny compartments, the first occupied by 

 goats or swine, the second littered with bracken on which the 

 whole family sleep, irrespective of age or sex. There is no light 

 nor furniture of any description ; no utensils for washing, hardly 

 even for cookino-. True, there is in some of the lairs a hollowed 

 trunk which may serve as a bed, but its original design {as the 

 name batane imports) was for pressing the grapes and olives in 

 autumn. No refuse is ever thrown out ; even the filthy ferns are 

 retained for use as manure for the orchards — in a word, these 

 poor creatures habitually sleep on a manure -heap. Even wild 

 beasts, the wolves and boars, are infinitely more attentive to 

 domestic cleanliness and purity. 



Another cdqueria visited by the authors, that of Rubiaco, 

 consisted of a massed cluster of sties embedded on the slopes of 

 a low ridge bordered on either side by crystal-bright mountain 

 streams. So timid and shy are the natives that several were 

 descried actually taking to the hill on our appearance. A dis- 

 tribution of tobacco, with coloured handkerchiefs for the women, 

 restored a measure of confidence, and we succeeded in collecting 

 a group or two for the camera. The day, however, was dull and 

 overcast, and rain, unluckily, fell at that precise moment. 



These people, clad in patch-work of rags, leather and untanned 

 skins, were undersized, pallid of complexion, plain (though we 

 would scarce say repulsive) in appearance, with dull incurious 

 eyes that were instantly averted when our glances met. The 

 men, otherwise stolid and undemonstrative, affected a vacuous 

 grin or giggle, but utterly devoid of any spark of joy or gladness. 

 Many (though by no means all) displayed distinctly flattened 

 noses, somewhat of the Mongolian type ; and not even among 



