The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-05-06

! land and America; they only intensity the
| prevailing reddish brown with restless
| shadings of deeper hue. The ugly brown
sheep are tended by shepherd boys-or
rather by shepherd dogs. which do the act
ual work while their lazy masters loaf
| and invite their souls with the aid OF
! the siesta, the guitar, the cigarette, and
| the garlic pudding. Farther up, great
| focks of goats brows among the cliffs and
along the Drinks of ravines. where it looks
| impossible for the tiny hoofs to find a
/ foothold. They are closely followed by
ort-skrted shepherdesses, as fearless
and sure-footed as they; but the girls are
shod with hempen soles, which are not
slippery like boot leather, and cling bet
ter than bare toes A frequent sight is
that of some rascally peasant, whom one
longs 10 beat, helping himself along the
weary upward trail by holding fast to his
donkeys tail, as the poor little beast, al
ways loaded to the limit OF endurance,
scrambles up the zig-zag sleeps At liz
tervals little booths are met, built in re-
cesses of the cliffs that border the noun
tain pass, like cupboards hewn out of SOL
i'd rock. On a narrow ledge, in nets, hang
oranges, grapes, and garlic. Another sEght,
more frequent and less agreeable, is that
of wooden crosses each surrounded by a
cairn of stones. and marking the scene Of
some poor travellers murder by banditti.
The scene grows wilder and grander as
you approach the summit. The Sierra Mo-
rena divides the valley of the Guadalquivir
from that of the Guadiana. The railway
is a fine specimen of engineering English,
l believe), often climbing along shelf
of rock overhanging dizzy precipices,
winding in and out among fantastic cliffs
and caverns-an ideal lurking place for
knights of the road. At one point the
trains run through wild and savage
gorge named Despenaperros-'Pitc the
Dogs Over" Doubtless the singular title
was bestowed in memory of some desper-
ate, but now forgotten, struggle between
Moors and Christians, in days when these
mountains formed a partial barrier be-
tween the two races
Descending the other side of the Sierra
We come at last to the desolate plains
of La Mancka familiar to the reading
world as the region where Don Quixote
rode the raw boned steed. While confined
in the prison of one of its secluded viii
lagos Miguel de CervantasS aaevedra, the
greatest literary genius that Spain ever
produced wrote his immortal satire on
the foibles of a decaying age of chivalry.
Better than guide-boo to this part of
Spain is copy of Don Quixote," which
you may buy in any Spanish shop. Ger
vantes sketched from nature, with art in
tensely realistic. Except in the character
of the Don himself, which no doubt fitted
those times to perfection, every detail of
the story, written in the last quarter of
the sixteenth century, can be distinctly
traced and verified at the present day.
Such an accurate PEN artist of local scenes
was he, and so little has the country
in four hundred years, that you
fTr- F.11
Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance."
Here is Tobasio, the home of the never
to- bee enough admired Dulcinea." Yonder
is the Venta de Quesada,. where the Mad
Knight received the accolade.
The Lakes of Ruydera and the Cave o.
Montesinos are still the same; and so are
the muTeteers and the wineskins, the
focks of sheep tended by shepherds, and
the wind mills swinging their mighty
arms as they grind the corn, just as in
Cervantes' day. In changing cars at Mad
zanares you have couple of hours to
wait, in the immediate vicinity Of Quiz
otes most famous exploits. Here is the
inn where he was knighted and before its
door a swineherd, who may be a lineal
descendant of the warder of the story, |
still winds his horn. Its old, old well con-
tinues TO afford water to vagrant mule
teers, successors to the unfortunate whose
head was broken for disturbing the mad
mans vigil. Upon the edge of the well is
a deep indentation, believed to have been
made by the armor of Don Quixote |
The stone must have been softer than it is
now, or his armor wonderfully hard to
have been thrown down with such tremen-
dous violence as ~ make SO plain mark!
Skeptics may incline to the belief that the
stone has been worn away in the course
of centuries by the constant procession
of animals led up to drink. But 1t would
never do to hint such heresy here. All
Spaniards regard Cervantes' romance as
Holy Writ, TO swear by" and the more
ignorant classes believe its every detail |
to be strictly true.
We find La Mancha almost as wild and |
today as in Quixote's time The |
railway to Merida lies along a plateau two |
feet above the sea, where towns |
are few and people fewer. The native Man |
chegan wears the same sheepskin suit |
which has faithfully served his ancestors
for two or three generations. His home is |
a mud howell which respectable American |
mule would refuse to enter and from the |
cradle to the Campo Santo, his vision is |
greeted by the same dull, monotonous |
landscape, void of verdure and glaring with |
sand and nitre. Yet despite his poverty |
and unattractive surroundings, he is one |
d the merfleSJ Oh nlOrtalS- tlndlng eG- /
RENE difficulty in keeping his thin body |
and cramped soul together, one would |
hardly suppose that such a miserable be- |
ng would have much opportunity or ca |
oacity for enjoyment; but, happily, the |
good Lord has gagged to their conditions |
he ideas of races that have always been |
lcor. A Manchegan family feasts ike |
lings on a crusty loaf and handful of |
,nions; and the head thereof can imagine |
10 greater additional luxury than TO bask, |
lalf asleep, all day in the sun, smoking |
cigarettes that cost half cent the pack |
age. The women do the little work that |
IS DONE and the children, enveloped in |
thick coating of dirt that enables them to |
dispense with clothing, fraternze on chum- |
iniest terms with the long-necked pigs |
that form an important part of each do |
nestle establishment. All the inhabitants
Of La Mancha, old and young, seem to
cherish a hydrophobic aversion to water
which is indeed a fluid too precious to De
used for lavatory purposes, having to be
brought on donkeyback to the villages
from springs ana wells, often miles away.
FANNIE b. WARD.
pERpTEYTNG OITESTTON