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SECTION II.

ANDALUCIA.

CONTENTS.-INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION.

Kingdom of Andalucia; its History and Geography; Character of the People; Language and Country; Skeleton Tours.

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ROUTE 6. SAN LUCAR TO PORTUGAL 162 ROUTE 12.-SEVILLE TO BADAJOZ 249 Moguer; Lepe; Normans in Spain.

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ANDALUCIA.

THE kingdom or province of Andalucia, in facility of access and objects of interest, must take precedence over all others in Spain. It is the Tarshish of the Bible, the "uttermost parts of the earth," to which Jonah wished to flee. This "ultima terræ was called Tartessus in the uncertain geography of the ancients, who were purposely kept mystified by the jealous Phoenician merchant princes, who had no notions of free trade. This vague general name, Tarshish, like our Indies, was applied sometimes to a town, to a river, to a locality; but when the Romans, after the fall of Carthage, obtained an undisputed possession of the Peninsula, the S. of Spain was called Bætica, from the river Bætis, the Guadalquivir, which intersects its fairest portions. At the Gothic invasion this province, and part of Barbary, was overrun by the Vandals, whence some assert that both sides of the straits were called by the Moors Vandalucia, or Beládal-Andalosh, the territory of the Vandal; but in the word Andalosh, the land of the West (Hesperia), a sounder etymology may be found. Here, at all

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events, at the fall of the Gothic rule, as in a congenial soil, the Oriental took once more the deepest root, and left the noblest traces of power, taste, and intelligence, which centuries of apathy and neglect have not entirely effacedhere he made his last desperate struggle.

The Moorish divisions into Los Cuatro Reinos, the "Four Kingdoms," viz. Seville, Cordova, Jaen, and Granada, still designate territorial divisions, which occupy the S. extremity of Spain; they are defended from the cold N. table-lands by the barrier mountains of the Sierra Morena—a corruption of the Montes Marianos of the Romans, and not referring to the tawny-brown colour of its summer hortus siccus garb. The four kingdoms contain about 3283 square 1., composed of mountain and valley; the grand productive locality is the basin of the Guadalquivir, which flows under the Sierra Morena. To the S.E. rise the mountains of Ronda and Granada, which sweep down to the sea. As their summits are covered with eternal snow, while the sugar-cane ripens at their bases, the botanical range is inexhaustible: these sierras also are absolutely marble and metal-pregnant. The cities are of the highest order in Spain, in respect to the fine arts and objects of general interest, while Gibraltar is a portion of England herself. Andalucia is admirably suited to our invalids; here winter, in our catch-cold acceptation of the term, is unknown. The genial climate forms, indeed, one of the multitudinous boasts of the natives, who pride themselves on this "happy accident " thus lavished on them by ture, as if the bright skies were a making and merit of their own. Justly ough did the ancients place their Elysian fields amid these golden orange grov; these were alike the seats of "the blessed, the happy, and long-lived" of A acreon, as the homes of the rich and powerful of Holy Writ. These favou d regions, the sweetest morsel of the Peninsula, have always been the prize 1 prey of the strong man, no less than the theme of poets; and the ians, from the remotest periods of history, have been more celebrated 1 d intellectual qualities than for the practical and industrial. They a dered by their countrymen to be the Gascons, the boasters and braggarts ain; and certainly, from the time of Livy (xxxiv. 17) to the present, th are the most 'imbelles," unwarlike, and unmilitary. It is in peace and its gay, good-humoured, light-hearted children of a genial atmospl.ere excel; thus their authors revived literature. when the Augustan age died at Rome, as during the darkest periods of European barbarism, Cordov was the Athens of the west, the seat of arts and science. Again, when the su of Raphael set in Italy, painting here arose in a new form in the Velazque Murillo, and Cano school of Seville, the finest of the Peninsula.

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The Oriental imagination of the Andalucians colours everything up to their bright sun. Their exaggeration, ponderacion, or giving weight to nothings, converts their molehills into mountains; all their geese are swans; invincible at the game of brag, their credulity is commensurate, and they end in even believing their own lies. Everything with them is either in the superlative or diminutive. Nowhere will the stranger hear more frequently those talismanic words which mark the national ignoramus character-No se sabe, no se puede, conforme, the "I don't know ;" "I can't do it ;" "That depends;" the Mañana, pasado mañana, the "To-morrow and day after to-morrow;' e Boukra, balboukra, of the procrastinating Oriental. Their Sabe Dios, the "God knows," is the "Salem Allah" of the Moors. Here remain the Bakalum or Veremos, "We will see about it;" the Pek-éyi or muy bien, "Very well;" and the Inshallah, si Dios quiere, the "If the Lord will;" the Ojala, or wishing that God would do their work for them, the Moslem's Inxo-Allah, the old appeal to Hercules. In a word, here are to be found the besetting sins of the Oriental; his indifference, procrastination, tempered by a religious resignatio

to Providence. The natives are superstitious and great worshippers of the Virgin. Their province is her chosen land, La tierra de la Santisima, and practically the female worship of Astarte still exists in the universal absolute Mariolatry of the masses, however differently the Roman Catholic religion may be understood theoretically by the esoteric and enlightened. Seville was the head-quarters of the dispute on the Immaculate Conception, by which Spain was convulsed. The Andalucians are also remarkable for a reliance on supernatural aid, and in all circumstances of difficulty call upon their tutelar patrons, with which every town, church, and parish is provided. Yet, if proverbs are to be trusted, little moral benefit has been the result of their religious tendencies. Al Andaluz cata la Cruz (catar is the old Spanish for mirar)- "Observe how the semi-Moor Andalucian makes his cross." Del Andaluz guarda tu capa y capuz; keep a look-out after your cloak and other chattels. In no province have smugglers and robbers (convertible terms) been longer the weed of the soil. In compensation, however, nowhere in Spain is el trato, or friendly and social intercourse, more agreeable than in this pleasure-loving, work-abhorring province. The native is the gracioso of the Peninsula, a term given in the playbills to the cleverest comic actor. Both the gracia, wit, and elegance, and the sal Andaluza are proverbial. This salt, it is true, cannot be precisely called Attic, having a tendency to gitanesque and tauromachian slang, but it is almost the national language of the smuggler, bandit, bull-fighter, dancer, and Majo, and who has not heard of these worthies of Bætica ?-the fame of Contrabandista, Ladron, Torero, Bailarin, and Majo, has long scaled the Pyrenees, while in the Peninsula itself, such persons and pursuits are the rage and dear delight of the young and daring, of all indeed who aspire to be sporting characters. Andalucia the head-quarters of the "fancy," or aficion, is the cradle of the most eminent professors, who in the other provinces become stars, patterns, models, and the envy and admiration of their applauding countrymen. The provincial dress, extremely picturesque, is that of Figaro in our theatres; and whatever the merits of tailors and milliners, Nature has lent her hand in the good work: the male is cast in her happiest mould, tall, well-grown, strong, and sinewy; the female, worthy of her mate, often presents a form of matchless symmetry, to which is added a peculiar and most fascinating air and action. The Majo is the dandy of Spain. The etymology of this word is the Arabic Majar, brilliancy, splendour, jauntiness in walk, qualities which are exactly expressed in the costume and bearing of the character. He glitters in velvets, filigree buttons, tags, and tassels; his dress is as gay as his sun; external appearance is indeed all and everything with him. This love of show, boato, is by some derived from the Arabic "shouting; as his favourite epithet, bizarro, distinguished," is from the Arabic bessarâ, "elegance of form." The word majo again, means an out-and-out swell, somewhat of the "tiger," muy fanfaron; fanfaronade in word and thing is also Moorish, as fanfar and hinchar both signify to "distend," and are applied in the Arabic and in the Spanish to las narices, the inflation of the barb's nostrils, and, in a secondary meaning, to pretencion, puffed out pretention. The Majo, especially if crudo, or boisterous and raw, is fond of practical jokes; his outbreaks and "larks are still termed in Spanish by their Arabic names, jarana, jaleo, i. e. khala-a, 'waggishness."

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The lively and sparkling semi-Moro Andalucian is the antithesis of the grave and decorous old Gotho-Castilian, who looks down upon him as an amusing but undignified personage. He smiles at his harlequin costume and tricks as he does at his peculiar dialect, and with reason, as nowhere is the Spanish language more corrupted in words and pronunciation; in fact, it is scarcely intelligible to a true Toledan. The ceceo, or pronouncing the c before certain vowels as an

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