Spanish Life in Town and Country | Page 9

of a hardy, fighting, pushing race,
as distinguished from the Andaluces, the Valencianos, the Murcianos,
and people of Granada, in whom the languid blood of a Southern
people and the more marked trace of Arabic heritage are apparent.
The Catalans would appear, again, to be descendants of the old
Provençals, at one time settled on both sides of the Pyrenees, though
forming, at that time, part of Spain. Their language is almost pure
Provençal, and they differ, as history shows in a hundred ways, from
the inhabitants of the rest of Spain. The Castilians, occupying the
centre of the country, are what we know as "Spaniards," and may be
taken to hold a middle place among these widely differing nationalities,
modified by their contact with all. Their language is that of cultivated
Spain. No one dreams of asking if you speak Spanish; it is always:
_Habla v Castellano?_ And it is certainly a remnant of the old Roman,
which, as we know, its emperors spoke "with a difference," albeit there
are many traces of Arabic about it.
Even at the present day, when Spain is rapidly becoming homogeneous,
the people of the different provinces are almost as well known by their
trades as by their special characteristics. A Gallego--really a native of
Galicia--means, in the common parlance, a porter, a water-carrier,
almost a beast of burden, and the Galicians are as well known for this
purpose in Portugal as in Spain, great numbers finding ready
employment in the former country, where manual labour is looked
upon as impossible for a native. The men of the lowest class emigrate
to more favoured provinces, since their own is too poor to support them;
they work hard, and return with their savings to their native hills. Their
fellow-countrymen consider them boorish in manners, uneducated, and
of a low class; but they are good-natured and docile, hard-working,
temperate, and honest. "In your life," wrote the Duke of Wellington,

"you never saw anything so bad as the Galicians; and yet they are the
finest body of men and the best movers I have ever seen." There is a
greater similarity between Galicia and Portugal than between the
former and any other province of Spain.
Although they lie so close together, Asturias differs widely from its
sister province both in the character of its people and its scenery. The
Romans took two hundred years to subdue it, and the Moors never
obtained a footing there. The Asturians are a hardy, independent race,
proud of giving the title to the heir-apparent of the Spanish throne. The
people of this province, like their neighbours the Basques, are
handsome and robust in appearance; they are always to be recognised
in Madrid by their fresh appearance and excellent physique. For the
most part they are to be found engaged in the fish trade, while their
women, gorgeously dressed in their native costume by their employers,
are the nurses of the upper classes.
[Illustration: VALENCIANOS]
The ladies of Madrid do not think it "good style" to bring up their own
children, and the Asturian wet nurse is as much a part of the ordinary
household as the coachman or mayordomo. They are singularly
handsome, well-grown women, and become great favourites in the
houses of their employers; but, like their menkind, they go back to
spend their savings among their beloved hills. Many of these young
women come to Madrid on the chance of finding situations, leaving
their own babies behind to be fed by hand, or Heaven knows how; they
bring with them a young puppy to act as substitute until the nurse-child
is found, and may be seen in the registry offices waiting to be hired,
with their little canine foster-children. It is said that the Asturian
women never part from the puppies that they have fed from their own
breasts.
The Basque Provinces are, perhaps, the best known to English
travellers, since they generally enter Spain by that route, and those
staying in the south of France are fond of running across to have at
least a look at Spain, and to be able to say they have been there. The
people pride themselves on being "the oldest race in Europe," and are,

no doubt, the direct descendants of the original and unconquered
inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula. In Guipuzcoa, the Basque may still
be seen living in his flat-roofed stone house, of which he is sure to be
proprietor, using a mattock in place of plough, and leading his
oxen--for bueyes are never driven--attached to one of the heavy,
solid-wheeled carts by an elaborately carved yoke, covered with a
sheepskin. He clings tenaciously to his unintelligible language, and is
quite certain that he is superior to the whole human race.
The fueros, or special rights, already spoken of, for which