28 CRUISE OF THE BARRERA 



have had the only touch necessary to defraud the 

 calendar of some five hundred years and to trans- 

 port us to medieval La Mancha. What the inn may 

 lack in luxurious beds and modern conveniences is 

 amply compensated for by a quality of charm that 

 made us content the moment we entered. In the 

 early evening the young people of the town gathered 

 in the square opposite to parade up and down, 

 girls together and men together, native fashion, for 

 inspection and admiration of one another. The 

 girls' black eyes flashed sidelong glances against 

 the bolder gaze of the rustic young men. The 

 church bell in the open tower above pealed forth a 

 clanging discord to give notice of service to be 

 held within. In the street an itinerant orchestra 

 executed music of a primitive kind. All native 

 Cuban music is set to a "time" that we Anglo- 

 Saxons cannot understand nor easily imitate. It 

 combines an element of negro syncopation with 

 much monotonous repetition of one note, so char- 

 acteristic of Moorish music, but it is thoroughly 

 Spanish in scheme of harmony. The usual 

 broken accompaniment is more or less strictly 

 followed; the theme is always suggestive of some 

 Spanish song heard long ago, but vaguely recalled. 



