ROMANTIC SPAIN 



205 



reformed ; but the same 

 can be said of our pres- 

 ent form of football, and 

 the one is as likely to 

 disappear as the other. 

 The same arguments are 

 heard in Spain in favor 

 of bull-fighting which 

 are used here for foot- 

 ball — it makes the par- 

 ticipants brave, alert, 

 quick to act and to help 

 out a fellow-fighter ; but 

 at least the bull-fighters 

 maul only animals, not 

 their fellow - men. A 

 Spaniard considers the 

 latter brutal. 



Not far from ]\Iadrid 

 lies Toledo, the ancient 

 Visigothic capital. The 

 Tagus flows about it in 

 a deep gorge on almost 

 every side. High above 

 the old mills looms the 

 Alcazar, the one - time 

 castle, now a military 

 school. Toledo is a fas- 

 cinating city, with nar- 

 row, winding streets. 

 and shops where one can 

 still buy Toledo blades, 

 tempered in the Tagus, 

 and inlaid with gold. 

 Down its widest street, 

 in which two carts can 

 rises the great Gothic 

 cathedral, which replaces the ^Moorish 

 mosque. The main square, the Zoco- 

 dover, keeps the Arabic word ^ng (mar- 

 ket) in its first syllable: one of the 

 Moorish gates, the Puerta del Sol, of 

 iioo, is still intact; and in the Casa de 

 Mesa are beautiful Aloorish arabesques 

 and tiles, nearly 500 years old. 



Beside the city shepherds drive their 

 parti-colored flocks along the highway ; 

 above rises what is only too truly a type 

 of "castles in Spain" — the dismantled 

 fortress of San Servando. 



A day's journey to the southwest lies 

 Merida, once a Roman metropolis. It 

 still possesses Roman bridges and its 

 ancient theater, and outside the city' are 



THE ALCAZAR OF TOLEDO, ONCE A FAMOUS CASTLE, NOW 

 USED AS A MILITARY SCHOOL 



actually pass, 

 spire of the 



still standing several arches of the old 

 Roman aqueduct — "Los ]\Iilagros" (the 

 miracles) they are called by the peasants, 

 and it is a miracle that this arcade re- 

 mains, after so many centuries of earth- 

 quakes and invasions. On top of the 

 aqueduct storks, sparrow-hawks, and 

 black-birds nest together in apparent 

 amity. 



At Cordova one enters southern Spain, 

 with its highways bordered with aloes 

 and prickly pear (both American impor- 

 tations, like tobacco, maize, and pota- 

 toes), and its groves^ of olive trees. 

 Spain leads the world in the production 

 of olive oil ; but it is mostly refined for 

 export in France and Italy : Spanish 

 wines are also largely altered abroad for 

 the consumer's palate. One of Spain's 



