The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-08-26
SPANISH GRANDEES.
FAMILY rEDleREEs THAT RUN BACK
TEN CENTURIES.

The National Vanity Borders on the Abb
surdiy GrotesQue, and Playing the Cen
t.eman IEas Been Called 1.-THE Endemic
Disease of Spain"
1t is related that young guard, hav-
ing neglected to pay the usual salute to
Spanish duke at the court of Madrid,
excused himself by saying that he did
not know the offended nobleman' S rank.
Ny friend" replied his grace, "the
safe rule is to assume that everybody in
the palace who looks like monkey is
grandee of the first class. -
The truth is the Spanish are thor
oughly mongrel race, and their conceit
of themselves amazes u.s. Their country
has probably been oftener overrun AID
conquered than any other territory OF
equal extent in Europe. Phnnician.
Carthaginian, Roman, vandal, Visigoth
and Moor have all successfully made it
their stamping ground and the effect
Of all this upon the pure Castilian
blood, whatever that may be- is indeli-
bly, stamped on every really Spanish
face.
= But playing the gentleman has been
called "the endemic disease of Spain,
and the national vanity is something
/ grotesque One of their historians seri-
ously advanced the theory that the first
] Inhabitants of the country CARVED
by air. :" SO impressed was he by their
superhuman qualities that nothing short
of descent from the sky could account
for them. A subsequent historian, how
ever, after {. long and grave discussion
of tho question, finally announced his
opinion that "they moro probably came
by land"
After this we need not be astonished
that the Spanish claim to possess the
oldest families i'll Europe. The surpris-
! ing circumstance is that the claim is
not wholly without foundation. Their
family names can in some cases be trac-
ed back to an incredibly remote period,
/ though it must not be assumed that the
original blood persists in any purity.
Probably the most ancient family in
Spain is the house of Pacheco, whose
estates are not far from Carteia, now
/ called Cartaya, in Andalusia. Plutarch
tells us~that when Crassus fed from
Italy he concealed himself for eight
months at Ximena, near Carteia, in
caves belonging to Spanish gentleman
named Paciccus. Cicero also mentions
this generous Spaniard, and there can
be no doubt that he was one of the an
cestors of the Pacheco family, whose
name is obviously derived from his and
i who still own the caves This carried
them back about 2, 900 years, to period
antedating the Christian era, but it is
possible to trace the line much further.
I The name is clearly of Phmnician origin,
being ultimately derived from "patai-
col, !" the word by which the Tyrians
designated the carved figurehead of
their galleys.
The Identification is made more COM
plete by the fact that the Phenicians
werethe founders of Carteia, as of Cad
IL in the same province. That adds
another !, 600 years or SO to the Pacheco
pedigree. Think of it-a landed estate
remaining in the possession of the
same family for 5000 years! This is
doubtless the most wonderful family
tree in the world and unusually we'll
authenticated. The Pachecos may we'll
be pardoned for taking pride in it,
though it roots in rather unsavory soil
at last, for the great original Pacheco
was evidently Tyrian freebooter.
Names that trace back to the Cartha-
gilman occupation in the time of Han
nibal are also found, and the title Of
Hannibal's own clan, Barca, is perpet-
l fQd 1vy{ NO lor
known families of Andalusia. There
are also several names of Roman ante
cedents, as Ponce and Cane, in Latin
Pontius and Canius. A Spanish gentle
man bearing tic latter name was per-
sonal friend of the poet Martial, all Of
which seems to bring antiquity very
near-in Spain. The fact of the matter
Is she has never emerged from antiquity
4 The Spanish, however, are inclined
to look back to the Goths as ''the purest
fountain Of nobility" This certainly
seems strange perversion of sentiment,
for Of all the barbarians that came down
from the north to lay waste Roman civ
ilization with fire and sword the Goths,
with their cousins. the Vandals, were
the most irredeemably villainous.
And these Cloths We're no extraordi-
nary heroes either, even in war; With
supine and braggart incompetency they
lost to the Moors in the eight months
campaign a supremacy which it cost
eight centuries of conflict to regain.
Yet Gothic of Spain" is the pet phrase.
10 rank outsider it would seem that
the Basque families have the most ho:.-
CRADLE lineage, and their pedigrees run
back to time immemorial, though not
easily traceablo The Basques represent
the original population of the Spanish
peninsula. Their seat is the mountains
of the northern district, and in many
ways remind US of the Welsh. They
have the same simplicity of life, and
the Same really justitiahle pride Of birth,
for their blood is the purest in Spain, if
that counts for anything Like the
Welsh also, they have to considerable
extent maintained their ancient Ian
guage, one of the strangest which sur-