240 Unexplored Spain 



their necks, girt at waist and round the knees with straps ; the women 

 merely an apron from the waist downward. 



Men and women alike are dwarfed in stature and repugnant in 

 appearance, augmented by their pallor and starveling look. On the 

 other hand, they are active and expert in climbing their native mountains. 

 There is no outward difference in the sexes as regards their lives and 

 means of subsistence. 



All their environment tends to make them untractable and savage 

 {sylvaticos), shunning contact with their kind, even fleeing at sight and 

 refusing to speak. They have no doctors nor surgeons, relying on certain 

 herbs for medicines ; yet they live long lives. They only recognise the 

 passing seasons by the state of vegetation and of the atmosphere. They 

 sow and reap according to the phases of the moon, of which they preserve 

 an accurate observation, lieligion and schools alike are unknown. They 

 glory in their freedom from all moral suasion, and rejoice in the most 

 brutal immorality and crime — including parricide and polygamy. There 

 are olqucrlas wherein no priest has set foot, nor do they possess the 

 faintest sense of Christian duties. 



It seems incredible that in the midst of two provinces both wealthy 

 and well reputed there should exist a plague-spot such as we have 

 painted, unknown as the remotest kraals of Central Africa. 



Thus Pascual Madoz in 1845, and but little external change 

 has become apparent in sixty-five subsequent years. ^ Churches, 

 it is true, have been erected, priests and schoolmasters appointed. 

 Amelioration, however, by such means can only come very slowly 

 — if at all. The physical and domestic status of these poor 

 savages must first be raised before they are mentally capable of 

 assimilating the mysteries of religion. Spain, however, owes them 

 something. They are heavily taxed — beyond their power to pay 

 in cash. Thus they are cast into the power of usurers. In each 

 alquerla, we were told, is usually found one man more astute 

 than the rest, and he, in combination with some sordid scoundrel 

 outside, exploits the misery of his fellows. A species of semi- 

 slavery is thus established — in some ways analogous to the 

 baneful system of Caciquismo outside. 



The Hurdanos are also subject to the conscription and furnish 

 forty to fifty recruits yearly to the Spanish army. Curiously, 

 time-expired men all elect to return to their wretched lot in the 



1 A later Spanish work, the Diccionario encidopcdico his-pano-amcricano (Barcelona, 

 1892), regards some of Pascual Madoz's descriptions as over-coloured and exaggerated. Our 

 own observation, however, rather tended to confirm his views and to show that subsequent 

 amelioration exists rather in name than in fact. 



