THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



299 



reached the capital this vain hope was 

 blighted. It was not that there was the 

 slightest suspicion of a stranger, or that 

 the march over the hills was considered 

 too difficult for tender feet; but the 

 Andorrans felt they must consider the 

 state of the stranger if he were discov- 

 ered in France without a proper vise on 

 his passport. It was felt that he might 

 have the greatest trouble to explain him- 

 self, and that in the explanation an offi- 

 cial and undesirable attention might be 

 directed toward themselves ; so I was re- 

 gretfully refused. 



But the operations of the smugglers 

 were made quite clear to me. In these 

 Pyrenean hills a tobacco is raised by 

 which the rankest Connecticut second 

 growth might class as Havana. This 

 frightful stuff is labeled in accordance 

 with the tastes of the prospective victim. 

 One may have a Havana cigar, or one 

 ticketed from the Canary Islands, or 

 marked Carolina or Virginia or Gibral- 

 tar. Even the revenue stamps are coun- 

 terfeited, so that, so far as externals are 

 concerned, the elect would surely be de- 

 ceived. But an outraged palate would 

 discover the deception. 



In the tobacco factory of Andorra 

 these cigars and cigarettes are put up 

 in packages, and packed in haversacks 

 which are just a load for one man. If 

 the smugglers run a haversack through 

 to France they are paid eighty pesetas. 

 If they are forced to abandon the load 

 en route they are still paid twenty pesetas. 

 The packages of cigarettes which one 

 buys for twenty centimes in Andorra 

 sell, according to the stamp upon the 

 package, for eighty centimes outside; so 

 that the smuggling profit is not to be 

 despised. But the most profitable trade 

 is in mules. 



CHIEF TRAFFIC IS IN SPANISH MULES 



Spain has been fairly robbed of her 

 mules by the needs of the Allied armies, 

 and so the further exportation is frowned 

 upon by the government. Likewise, al- 

 though these mules are bought for the 

 French army, France still maintains an 

 import duty upon live stock. The An- 

 dorrans procure mules by hook and crook 

 from Spain, and lead them over the hills 

 at night by unfrequented paths into 

 France. The share of the gendarmes in 



this traffic, as previously stated, is ten 

 dollars a mule. There is no record that 

 an Andorran smuggler has been recently 

 injured in the practice of his vocation. 



There is a prosaic stability about the 

 business of smuggling in Andorra that 

 detracts from its interest to the visitor. 

 I turned my attention to the study of 

 history in Andorra, but here I was some- 

 what disappointed. It was possible to 

 get into the old council hall, in which the 

 horses of the councilors are stabled on 

 the ground floor, while the council hall 

 and their sleeping quarters are on the 

 floor above. There is a fine old fireplace 

 there, in which the administrative meat 

 is roasted, and a cupboard with six locks, 

 in which archives are kept that date from 

 the days of Charlemagne. 



But each canton has a key, and the 

 keepers of the keys were on the hills, 

 smuggling or watching the cattle that 

 furnish the most permanent source of 

 income here ; so that my inquiry into An- 

 dorra's past was a somewhat scanty one, 



TITLES ONCE OBTAINED ARE NEVER 

 RELINQUISHED 



The total population of the republic is 

 about 6,000, and those men that have 

 arms serve in the army. There are no 

 uniforms in the army, but this shortage 

 is made up by the surplusage of officers. 



Artemus Ward's regiment of brigadier 

 generals might well have had its inspira- 

 tion here. The man who once gets an 

 office never relinquishes the title, and as 

 offices seem to go somewhat by rotation, 

 the untitled man in Andorra must be a 

 poor stick indeed. Nor is there a finicky 

 precision in the matter of arms for the 

 army. The man who served lunch showed 

 me with pride a blunderbuss made by 

 Tower, in London, in the days of one of 

 the first Georges, and assured me that he 

 was a soldier in good standing. It was a 

 good blunderbuss, too— clean as a watch 

 and obviously up to anything. I did not 

 wonder at the pride he took in it 



"It is a hard country," said the priest 

 who shared the mule cart on the way 

 back to Seo. "The cattle begin to strag- 

 gle down from the hills when the snow 

 falls early in September. The winter is 

 long and very cold and my people are so 

 poor. But for the smuggling they would 

 suffer. What would you?" 



