300 WILD SPAIN. 



his case, no empty form of words. We dined together, 

 Francisco and I, on garbanzos, thrushes, a chicken, and 

 black puddings ! These last, and the consciousness 

 that a newly-killed pig, whose life-blood no doubt had 

 furnished the delicacy, hung from the rafters immediately 

 behind my head, amidst store of algarrobas, capsicums, 

 and heads of golden maize, were the only drawbacks 

 to my comfort. We discussed agricultural and political 

 subjects, and agreed in sharing conservative views, though, 

 in Spain, I fancy I might turn rather more of a reformer ; 

 but this I did not hint at. Francisco observed that 

 should Lord Salisbury's then existing Government in 

 England fall, it would be a mal rato (a bad time) for 

 property-owners everywhere ! My host told me that he 

 set his watch by the sun, and in answer to a question 

 when the sun would rise to-morrow, promptly replied, 

 " At 7.19."* 



After dinner we adjourned to the large outer room, 

 where among the miscellaneous crew gathered round the 

 blazing logs were a wild-honey hunter, and a birdcatcher 

 who was plying his vocation in the adjacent woods. I was 

 surprised to find among his captures a number of red- 

 wings ; of a couple of dozen thrushes which I bought for 

 my own and men's eating, no less than eight were red- 

 wings, and on subsequent days he caught many more. 

 This man, though he knew that the song-thrushes were 

 migratory in Spain, saying they were pajaros cle entrada, 

 which left when the swallows appeared, did not see any 

 difference between them and the redwings. He had also 

 caught a Great Spotted Woodpecker, and while I was 

 examining it, one of the half-wild cats of the farm, 

 cautiously stalking beneath my chair, seized the prey 

 and made off into outer darkness. 



It was a typical Andalucian scene around the hearth, 

 the group of bronzed leather-clad mountaineers, some 

 already " gone to roost " (audibly) on the low mud settee 

 round the outer wall, while others rolled the everlasting 



* These particulars are, however, given in nearly all Spanish 

 diaries and almanacs. 



