The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-09-04

outside their narrow circuit, abounds in
 medieval buildings, pillars, arches,
 buttresses, escutcheons and antiquarian
 relics worth Journey around the world
 to see, Many of the curious old houses have remained entirely unchanged
 since the middle ages. A few are rich
 ly decorated and very magnificent, but
 their general arrangement is the same.
 Over the entrance is huge sculptured
 shield of arms, Weather-stained and
 lichen- covered. Above it projects
 stone balcony. always occupied by a
 number of pet quails. called "reclamos, which are such favorite pets through
 out northern Spain. They make the air resound with their strange incessant
 cries and sportsmen take them out on
 hunting expeditions because their
 voices attract other birds of the same
 breed Passing under the weather
 stained coat-of-arms, you enter vast,
 dark hall, damp and smelly as tomb,
 in which the melancholy cries of the re-
 clanios echo like the voices of lost souls. Midway, on either side of this entrance
 hall, Is an immense door, elaborately
 carved and black with age, opening into | rooms which arenever used except in the greatest events of human life-a
 birth. a marriage or a burial At the
 farther end another ponderous door 1 communicates with the body of the
 house (cuerpo de casa): and straight
 ahead of it another door leads to the patio, a spacious inner yard, surround
 ed by a gallery and containing all the
 domestic offices, including bahe-house, oven, store-rooms and hayloft. On
 either side of the cuerpo de casa are | two enormous chambers, one the dining hall of the masters, the other the kitch
 en of the servants. The most promi-
 nent object in the former is a cavernous chimney whose opening occupies the whole face of one wall. Here in win | ter, a huge fire is kept burning, in i which whole trees are consumed emit 1 ting smoke in plenty, but little heat | What chance for the yule log and the | Wassail bowl of Christmas tide! The 1 whole place is baronial. even to the blackened rafters overhead, the low wooden benches on either side the yawning fireplace, and the nitchas in the walls, called vasares, each holding a large earthen vase of water; while all around are shelves displaying colec-
 
 jug of the country, in endless variety of shapes and sizes. In the tiled kitchen opposite the work of the house is done, by an extraordinary number of servants in proportion to the size of the family according to American ideas, but in perfect keeping with the patriarchal system that yet prevails in Spain, and the eternal high-pitched jabber of these dependamnts drowns even the shrill cries of the quails outside calling to their mates in the woods, The dwelling rooms of the house, placed as remote from the street as possible, overlook garden in which Il great many medici- nal herbs flourish. amid a few flowers and vegetables. Strange to say, these inner rooms usually have glass win dows, while those facing the street are protected only by wooden shutters. In the courtyard of one or two of these houses you may see specimens of those unexplained relics of antiquity known as Toras de Guisando. carved in gran te to represent wild boars, or some oth- CT huge animal. Once they were very numerous in this part of Spain, but are now so nearly extinct that Gil de AVila | writing three hundred years ago, said that only sixty-three Toros were left in i Castile. Some authors believe them to have been the gods of the primitive in- 1 habitants, placed like the sphinxes, 1 near Asiatc temples; while others con tend that they served merely as land 1 marks. The Roman inscriptions on most of them are probably of much l later date than the original chisellne. i nI +o iIoy I,,- a,,5 man, 1t requires lively imagination to trace In them likeness to anything in 1 the animal kingdom.
 The most interesting things in Avila | are its wonderful mediaeval churches beginning with San Vicente, founded in l the year 3l3 It contains a thirteenth 1 century shrine of Saint Vincent--not | the famous deacon of Zaragoza, but an- | other of the same name, who was also | martyred under Dacian because he stamped upon an altar of Jupiter and | left thereon the marks of his feet. Ira l dition says that his body was guarded | by a serpent, which attacked rich | Jew who came to mock at It, and never | let go the Hebrew until he had vowed | to build this church If he escaped with | his life Soon as the VOW was made. l the serpent glided quietly back to the | corpse and stretched himself alongside: | and here stands the church. to this day | a living proof of the story-so the Span ish guide will tell you Near by is a singular hole in the ground out of | which the snake Is said to have come Until within the last century. this hole, like the celebrated Baecca della Verita, | at Rome, was sacred spot of adiura- tion, he who tok an oath putting his | hand into 1t, instead of a Bible so that | the immortal snake might bite him if i he swore falsely
 The great cathedral, dedicated to San Sebastian as late as the year HOT, is exceedingly curious, being more than half a fortress. Its eastern apse. pro jecting over the city wall is machicolat- ed and fortified like a castle In it's high tower stocks have nested since time out of mind. Looking up at any time of day, you see them standing si- lent and motionless on top of it's pin- nacles, their white plumage glittering against the dark blue sky; and imag- The cathedral interior is very solemn and impressive, with tall, dark gothic arches and very large windows of which the upper lights only are glazed The Restablo of the high altar (of the time of Ferdinand and Isabella), Is the
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