IBEX-SHOOTING IN SPAIN. 151 



whose quaint picturesqueness is beyond our power to 

 describe, but spend their al fresco lives in the field 

 or the vineyard, doing a modicum of work, and a 

 maximum of rest, eating, sleeping, or chatting, in happy, 

 contented groups beneath the gratefa shade of the 

 chestnuts.* 



Our road was a marvel of extravagant engineering, 

 executed and maintained regardless of expense. It is only 

 another of the many anomalies of Spain that in rich pro- 

 vinces, such as Andalucia, where there are carriages and 

 traffic, there should be no roads ; here, in the wilds of Castile, 

 where there are neither traffic nor wheeled carriages, the 

 road-system is magnificent. The explanation appears to be : 

 in the one case, the Government says "you have money, 

 and can make your own roads," — in the other, "there is 

 no money, so we will provide roads," even though they 

 are not required. 



The Kiscos de Valderejo is an isolated mountain, cut off 

 from neighbouring heights by deep gorges on all sides, 

 save where a high, but narrow "neck " connects it on the 

 west with the main range. Across this neck (5,000 

 feet) is carried the northern highway — the canetera de 

 Avila, along which is carried on at intervals a 

 frequent transit of mule-teams, droves of cattle, sheep, 

 and the like. At the time of our first visit this traffic 

 was almost continuous, for the ancient "Fair" of 

 Talavera (40 miles away) was drawing supplies from all 

 the provinces of Spain : fine young mules from far Galicia, 

 horses even from the Asturias, cattle, goats and sheep, 

 including a few merinos, from pastoral Leon. By day or 

 night the monotonous tinkle of the cencerms (cattle-bells) 

 ceased not on this and many another highway and bye- 

 way for many a weary league around Talavera. 



Such is still, in Spain, the far-reaching power of the 

 " Feria," or Fair : an institution antiquated and out of 

 date in modern lands. Yet the business and bustle, the 



* Such place-names as Mom-Beltran de Lys, the Torre de la Triste 

 Condesa, and others, seem to suggest tales of historic lore and legend, 

 probably long since forgotten. 



