48 



Unexplored Spain 



liainlet of Benamalioma, whence, housed in friendly (quarters, we 

 have oft explored tliis hill. The route to the summit (which 

 may almost be reached on donkey-back) is by the southern face ; 

 for summits, however, merely as such, we have no sort of 

 affection, and never expend one ounce of energy in gaining 

 them, unless they chance to aid a main objective. As to 

 " views," we are sure to enjoy these from other points quite as 

 elFective. 



New-fallen snow powdered the ground and mantled the 

 surrounding peaks as we rode out of Benamahoma on March 20. 

 But the sun shone bright, and from a poplar softly warbled a 

 rock-bunting — witli pearl-grey head, triple banded. Serins and 



kitty-wrens sang from the wooded slopes, 

 and we observed long-tailed tits, with ciil- 

 buntings and woodlarks. A grey wagtail 

 by the burnside was already acquiring the 

 l)lack throat of sj^ring. 



The tortuous track writhes upwards 

 through sporadic cultivation — tlie angles at 

 which these hill-men caii work a plough 

 amaze, beans and garhanzos grow on slopes 

 where no ordinary biped could maintain a 

 foothold. The industry of mountaineers 

 (here as elsewhere in Spain) is remarkable. 

 Each tillable patch, however small or abrupt, 

 is reduced to service, its million stones 

 removed and utilised to form the foundation for a tiny era, or 

 threshing-floor (like a shelf on the hillside), whereon the hard-won 

 crop is threshed with flails. Higher out on the hills rude stone 

 sheilings are erected to serve as shelters during seed-time and 

 harvest. Not even the hardy Norseman puts up a tougher tussle 

 with nature to wrest her fruits from the earth. 



Presently one enters forests of oak and ilex with strange 

 misshapen trunks, stunted and hollow, but decorated with 

 prehensile convolvulus and mistletoe — many three-fourths dead, 

 mere shells with cavernous interior, sheltering tufts of ferns. 

 Here, instead of destroying the whole tree, charcoal-burners 

 pollard and lop ; huge lateral limbs are amputated as they grow, 

 and the result, during centuries, produces these montrosities, 

 rarely exceeding twenty feet in height and surmounted by a 



ROCK-BUNTING 



{ Ember r.a via) 



