La Mancha | 185 
Never the glint of lake or lagoon, far less the joyous murmur of 
rippling burn, rejoice eye or ear in La Mancha. 
Alas, that to us is denied the synthetic sense! In vain we 
scan Manchegan thicket for compensating beauties, for the 
Naiads and Dryads with which Cervantes’ creative spirit peopled 
the wilderness ; no vision of lovely Dorotheas laving ivory limbs 
of exquisite mould in sylvan fountain rewards our searching (but 
too prosaic) gaze—that may perhaps be explained by the con- 
temporary absence of any such fountains. Nor have other 
lost or love-lorn maidens, Lucindas or Altisidoras from enchanted 
castle, aided us to add one element of romance to purely faunal 
studies. Castles, it is true, adorn the heights or crown a distant 
skylie; nor are Dulcineas 
of Toboso extinct or even 
infrequent. Of precisely 
her type was our handmaiden 
in the posada at Daimiel, 
while excellent specimens 
graced the twilight paséo of 
Ciudad Real or reclined 
beneath the orange-groves 
of its alameda. 
We have animadverted 
upon the absence of waterin La Mancha. Yet there is no rule 
but has its exception, and it is, in fact, to the existence of a 
series of most singular Manchegan lagoons, abounding in bird- 
life, that this venturesome literary excursion owes its genesis. 
In the midst of tawny table-lands, well-nigh 200 miles from 
the sea and upwards of 2000 feet above its level, nestle the 
sequestered Lagunas de Daimiel extending to many miles of 
mere and marsh-land. These lakes are, in fact, the birthplace of 
the great river Guadiana, the head-waters being formed by the 
junction of its nascent streams with its lesser tributary the Ciguela. 
In the confluence of the two rivers mentioned it is the 
Guadiana that chiefly lends its serpentine course to the formation 
of a vast series of lagoons, with islands and islets, cane-brakes 
and shallows overgrown by reeds, sedge, and marsh - plants, 
all traversed in every direction by open channels (called trochas), 
the whole constituting a complication so extensive that none save 
experienced boatmen can thread a way through its labyrinths. 
ee Ree 
‘yal 
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