The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-21 00:00:00

SPANISH SOUP ♦ND SPANISH CUSTOM.

" Many and various were the dishes handed round,
and though, on the whole, we contrived to make a sub-
stantial meal, there were not a few preparations that
would have driven a Ude or a Soyer frantic. One still
comes across my memory like a nightmare—it was the
sopa. In a huge copper cauldron, which occupied the
place of a tureen at the bottom of the table, I descried a
thick pasty substance, which, on inquiry, I was told was
the soup ; it was brought to table in this fashion—the
cauldron being the vessel in which it was boiled—in
order to be eaten in all its perfection. As far as I could
ascertain, bread sodden in hot oil formed the foundation
of the mess, to which garlic, moreover, lent its odours ;
the surface was garnished with poached eggs resting
upon a stratum of wild asparagus, a vegetable which
those who have once tasted will not speedily forget, the
apples of the Dead Sea being scarcely so bitter. C--
and I were the first to be supplied with the uninviting com-
pound. As the fumes of it ascended to our nostrils, we
cast rueful looks upon our plates, and at each other,
which could hardly have escaped the notice of our en-
tertainers, had they not been too busily engaged in dis-
patching their own shares. Long before ours disappeared
the majority had been helped twine or thrice to this
dainty, and, in fact, the cauldron was not dismissed
until it was completely emptied. For ourselves, after the
first dose, we escaped pretty well, by alleging, for want
of a better reason, that it was not the 'costumbre' in
England to be helped twice to soup. There is a won-
derful power in the phrase ' es costumbre,' as the tra-
veller in Spain quickly learns. He finds it, in his way,
sometimes a stumbling-block, sometimes a valuable ally.
Inquire the origin of some popular superstition or usage
of society, and lo es costumbre appears as a satisfac-
tory explanation; or point out how things may be im-
proved,
and how they are managed better or differently
in your own cr other countries, and you have for answer
a quiet shake of the head, with the words No es cos-
tumbre aqui.' . . . This clinging to the past is un-
questionably a national characteristic, and to it we owe the
tact that Spain is at this day, perhaps, the most interest-
ing country in Europe. Her daily life is, as near as can
be, the same that is painted in the pages of Cervantes
or Lesage: in all that we see or hear we are constantly
reminded of their descriptions; and though at first it is
difficult to conceive such a thing, we are brought to
confess that we behold a state of society such as it ex-
isted 200 years ago; the roads, the ruins, the robbers,
the salons, serenades, piccaroons, compliments, are in
fact altered so little after the lapse of this long period."

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP.

Tothreetudrnitutolyt-hlieghgtreadtedstwri:ed:yoofn these
win dwnoeltlinggos
—hould you have occasion after nightfall to tra-
versefar without passing a figure muffled in an
ample clo,k, and with the sombrero slouched
over the eyes, ',ening against the iron bars. As you
pass your ears convince you that it is conversing in a
low voice with some one within, whom the darkness
shi ouds from observation. In all probability you will
take no further note of the whispering pair ; but if you
be more curious than wise, and bestow on them more
than a passing look, another becloaked figure will proba-
bly step out from some corner, and politely request you to
refrain from interfering with other people's business. If
this hint be not sufficient, he will prepare to enforce it
by other means, and by displaying his navaja, threaten
to appeal to arms. He is engaged in one of the most
sacred duties of Spanish friendship. To guard from
danger or discovery—or, as it is termed, gusrdar les
espalades'—' to guard the back' of a friend who may be
playing the lover—is an affair to be undertaken only by
a tried comrade, whose devotion and courage may be
proof against the rude trials to which such a position
subjects him.