Gatherings From Spain Part 7

This _Bota_, from whence the terms _b.u.t.t_ of sherry, _bouteille_, and bottle are derived, is the most ancient Oriental leathern bottle alluded to in Job x.x.xii. 19, "My belly ready to burst like new bottles;"

and in the parable, Matt. ix. 17, about the old ones, the force and point of which is entirely lost by our word _bottle_, which being made of gla.s.s, is not liable to become useless by age like one made of leather. Such a "bottle of water" was the last among the few things which Abraham gave to Hagar, when he turned out the mother of the Arabians, whose descendants brought its usage into Spain. The shape is like that of a large pear or shot-pouch, and it contains from two to five quarts. The narrow neck is mounted with a turned wooden cup, from which the contents are drunk. The way to use it is thus--grasp the neck with the left hand and bring the rim of the cup to the mouth, then gradually raise the bag with the other hand till the wine, in obedience to hydrostatic laws, rises to its level, and keeps always full in the cup without trouble to the mouth. The gravity with which this is done, the long, slow, sustained, Sancho-like devotion of the thirsty Spaniards when offered a drink out of another man's _bota_, is very edifying, and is as deep as the sigh of delight and grat.i.tude with which, when unable to imbibe more, the precious skin is returned. No drop of the divine contents is wasted, except by some newly-arrived bungler, who, by lifting up the bottom first, inundates his chin. The hole in the cup is made tight by a wooden spigot, which again is perforated and stopped with a small peg. Those who do not want to take a copious draught do not pull out the spigot, but merely the little peg of it; the wine then flows out in a thin thread. The Catalonians and Aragonese generally drink in this way; they never touch the vessel with their lips, but hold it up at a distance above, and pilot the stream into their mouths, or rather under-jaws. It is much easier for those who have had no practice to pour the wine into their necks than into their mouths, but their drinking-bottles are made with a long narrow spout, and are called "_Porrones_."

[Sidenote: THE BOTA--WINE.]

The _Bota_ must not be confounded with the _Borracha_ or _Cuero_, the wine-skin of Spain, which is the _entire_, and answers the purpose of the barrel elsewhere. The _bota_ is the retail receptacle, the _cuero_ is the wholesale one. It is the genuine pig's skin, the adoration of which disputes in the Peninsula with the cigar, the dollar, and even the wors.h.i.+p of the Virgin. The shops of the makers are to be seen in most Spanish towns; in them long lines of the unclean animal's blown out hides are strung up like sheep carcases in our butchers' shambles. The tanned and manufactured article preserves the form of the pig, feet and all, with the exception of one: the skin is turned inside out, so that the hairy coat lines the interior, which, moreover, is carefully pitched like a s.h.i.+p's bottom, to prevent leaking; hence the peculiar flavour, which partakes of resin and the hide, which is called the _borracha_, and is peculiar to most Spanish wines, sherry excepted, which being made by foreigners, is kept in foreign casks, as we shall presently show when we touch on "good sherris sack." A drunken man, who is rarer in Spain than in England, is called a _borracho_; the term is not complimentary.

These _cueros_, when filled, are suspended in _ventas_ and elsewhere, and thus economise cellarage, cooperage, and bottling; and such were the bigbellied monsters which Don Quixote attacked.

As the _bota_ is always near every Spaniard's mouth who can get at one, all cla.s.ses being ever ready, like Sancho, to give "a thousand kisses,"

not only to his own legitimate _bota_, but to that of his neighbour, which is coveted more than wife: therefore no prudent traveller will ever journey an inch in Spain without getting one, and when he has, will never keep it empty, especially when he falls in with good wine. Every man's Spanish attendant will always find out, by instinct, where the best wine is to be had; good wine neither needs bush, herald, nor crier; in these matters, our experience of them tallies with their proverb, "mas vale vino _maldito_, que no agua _bendita_," "cursed bad wine is better than holy water;" at the same time, in their various scale of comparisons, there is good wine, better wine, and best wine, but no such thing as bad wine; of good wine, the Spaniards are almost as good judges as of good water; they rarely mix them, because they say that it is spoiling two good things. Vino _Moro_, or Moorish wine, is by no means indicative of uncleanness, or other heretical imperfections implied generally by that epithet; it simply means, that it is pure from never having been baptized with water, for which the Asturians, who keep small chandlers' shops, are so infamous, that they are said, from inveterate habit, to adulterate even water; _aguan el agua_.

[Sidenote: MONEY.]

It is a great mistake to suppose, because Spaniards are seldom seen drunk, and because when on a journey they drink as much water as their beasts, that they have any Oriental dislike to wine; the rule is "_Agua como buey, y vino como Rey_," "to drink water like an ox, and wine like a king." The extent of the _given_ quant.i.ty of wine which they will always swallow, rather suggests that their habitual temperance may in some degree be connected more with their poverty than with their will.

The way to many an honest breast lies through the belly in this cla.s.sical land, where the tutelar of butlers still keeps the key of their cellars and hearts--aperit praecordia Bacchus: nor is their Oriental blessing unconnected with some "savoury food" previously administered. And independently of the very obvious reasons which good wine does and ought to afford for its own consumption, the irritating nature of Spanish cookery provides a never-failing inducement. The constant use of the savoury cla.s.s of condiments and of pepper is very heating, "_la pimienta escalienta_." A salt-fish, ham and sausage diet creates thirst; a good rasher of bacon calls loudly for a corresponding long and strong pull at the "_bota_," "_a torresno de tocino, buen golpe de vino_."

This digression on _botas_ will be pardoned by all who, having ridden in Spain, know the absolute necessity of them. The traveller will of course remember the advice given by the rogue of _Ventero_ to Don Quixote to take s.h.i.+rts and money with him. "Put money in thy purse" said also honest Iago, for an empty one is a beggarly companion in the Peninsula as elsewhere. There is no getting to Rome or to Santiago if the pilgrim's scrip be scanty, or his mule lame: _Camino de Roma, ni mula coja ni Bolsa floja_.

[Sidenote: MONEY.]

Practically it may be said, that there is no paper money in Spain. Notes may be taken in some of the larger cities, but in the provinces the value of a man in office's promise to pay on paper, is not considered by the shrewd natives to be actually equal to cash; while they will readily give these notes to foreigners, they prefer for their own use the old-fas.h.i.+oned representatives of wealth, gold and silver, towards the smallest fraction of which they have the largest possible veneration.

Accounts are usually kept in _reales de vellon_ of royal bullion; and these are subdivided into _maravedis_, the ancient coin of the Peninsula: there are minor fractions even of farthings, consisting in material of infinitesimal bits of any metals, melted church bells, old cannon, &c., with names and values unknown in our happy land, where not much is to be got for a mite; in Spain, where cheapness of earth-produce is commensurate with poverty, anything, even to an old b.u.t.ton, goes for a _maravedi_, and we have found that in changing a dollar by way of experiment into small coppers in the market at Seville, among the mult.i.tudinous specimens of Spanish mints of all periods, Moorish and even Roman coins were to be met with, and still current.

The dollar, or _Duro_, of Spain is well known all over the world, being the form under which silver has been generally exported from the Spanish colonies of South America. It is the Italian "Colonato," so called because the arms of Spain are supported between the two pillars of Hercules. The coinage is slovenly: it is the weight of the metal, not the form, which is looked to by the Spaniard, who, like the Turk, is not so clever a workman or mechanist as devout wors.h.i.+pper of bullion.

Ferdinand VII. continued for a long while to strike money with his father's head, having only had the lettering altered: thus early Trajans exhibit the head of Nero. When the Cortes entered Madrid after the Duke's victory at Salamanca, they patriotically prohibited the currency of all coins bearing the head of the intrusive Joseph; yet his dollars being chiefly made out of stolen church plate, gilt and ungilt, were, although those of an usurper, intrinsically worth more than the _legitimate_ duro: this was a too severe test for the loyalty of those whose real king and G.o.d is cash. Such a decree was worthy of senators who were busier employed in expelling French tropes from their dictionary than French troops from their country. The wiser Chinese take Ferdinand's and Joseph's dollars alike, calling them both "devil's head"

money. These bad prejudices against good coin have now given way to the march of intellect; nay, the five-franc piece with Louis-Philippe's clever head on it bids fair to oust the pillared _Duro_. The silver of the mines of Murcia is exported to France, where it is coined, and sent back in the manufactured shape. France thus gains a handsome per centage, and habituates the people to her image of power, which comes recommended to them in the most acceptable likeness of current coin.

[Sidenote: GOLD COINAGE.]

In Spain cash, ambrosial cash, rules the court, the camp, the grove; hence the extraordinary credit of three millions recently required for the secret service expenses of the Tuileries, and official enthusiasm and unanimity secured thereby in the Montpensier purchase. The whole decalogue is condensed at Madrid into one commandment, Love G.o.d as represented on earth not by his vicar the Pope, but by his lord-lieutenant, Don Ducat.

_"El primero es amar Don Dinero,_ _Dios es omnipotente, Don Dinero es su lugarteniente."_

Thus grandees and men in Spanish offices, both governmental and printing ones, have preferred the other day five-franc pieces to the ribbons of the Legion of _honor_; nor, considering the swindlers on whom this badge of Austerlitz has been prost.i.tuted, were these worthy Castilians much out in their calculations, if there be any truth in the catechism of Falstaff.

[Sidenote: AVARICE OF SPANIARDS.]

The _gold coinage_ is magnificent, and worthy of the country and period from which Europe was supplied with the precious metals. The largest piece, the ounce, "_onza_," is worth sixteen dollars, or about 3_l._ 6_s._; and while it puts to shame the diminutive Napoleons of France and sovereigns of England, tells the tale of Spain's former wealth, and contrasts strangely with her present poverty and scarcity of specie: these large coins have however been so _sweated_, not by the sun, but by Jews, foreign and domestic, so clipped worse than Spanish mules or French poodles, that they seldom retain their proper weight and value.

They are accordingly looked upon every where with suspicion; a shopkeeper, in a big town, brings out his scales like Shylock, while in a village shrugs, _ajos_, and negative expressions are your change; nor, even if the natives are satisfied that they are not light, can sixteen dollars be often met with, nor do those who have so much ready money by them ever wish that the fact should be generally known. Spaniards, like the Orientals, have a dread of being supposed to have money in their possession; it exposes them to be plundered by robbers of all kinds, professional or legal; by the "_alcalde_," or village authority, and the "_escribano_," the attorney, to say nothing of Senor Mon's tax-gatherer; for the quota of contributions, many of which are apportioned among the inhabitants themselves of each district, falls heaviest on those who have, or are supposed to have, the most ready money.

The lower cla.s.ses of Spaniards, like the Orientals, are generally avaricious. They see that wealth is safety and power, where everything is venal; the feeling of insecurity makes them eager to invest what they have in a small and easily concealed bulk, "_en lo que no habla_," "in that which does not tell tales." Consequently, and in self-defence, they are much addicted to h.o.a.rding. The idea of finding hidden treasures, which prevails in Spain as in the East, is based on some grounds; for in every country which has been much exposed to foreign invasions, civil wars, and domestic misrule, where there were no safe modes of investment, in moments of danger property was converted into gold or jewels and concealed with singular ingenuity. The mistrust which Spaniards entertain of each other often extends, when cash is in the case, even to the nearest relations, to wife and children. Many a treasure is thus lost from the accidental death of the hider, who, dying without a sign, carries his secret to the grave, adding thereby to the sincere grief of his widow and heir. One of the old vulgar superst.i.tions in Spain is an idea that those who were born on a Good Friday, the day of mourning, were gifted with a power of seeing into the earth and of discovering hidden treasures. One place of concealment has always been under the bodies in graves; the hiders have trusted to the dead to defend what the quick could not: this accounts for the universal desecration of tombs and churchyards during Bonaparte's invasion. The Gauls growled like gowls amid the churchyards; they despoiled the mouldering corpses of the last pledge left by weeping affection; or, as Burke observed of their domestic doings, they unplumbed the dead to make missiles of destruction against the living. These hordes, in their hurried flight before the advancing Duke, also hid much of their ill-gotten gains, which to this day are hunted after. Who has forgotten Borrow's graphic picture of the treasure-seeking Mol? At this very moment the authorities of San Sebastian are narrowly superintending the diggings of an old Frenchwoman, to whom some dying thief at home has revealed the secret of a buried kettle full of gold ounces.

[Sidenote: CONCEALMENT OF CASH.]

Having provided the "_Spanish_," those metallic sinews of war, which also make the mare go in peace, a prudent master, if he intends to be really the master, will hold the purse himself, and, moreover, will keep a sharp eye on it, for the jingle of coin dispels even a Spanish siesta, and causes many a sleepless day to every listener, from the beggar to the queen mother.

[Sidenote: SPANISH SERVANTS.]

CHAPTER X.

Spanish Servants: their Character--Travelling Groom, Cook, and Valet.

[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF SPANISH SERVANTS.]

Don Quixote's first thought, after having determined to ride forth into Spain, was to get a horse; his second was to secure a squire; and as the narrative of his journey is still an excellent guide-book for modern travellers, his example is not to be slighted. A good Sancho Panza will on the whole be found to be a more constant comfort to a knight-errant than even a Dulcinea. To secure a really good servant is of the utmost consequence to all who make out-of-the-way excursions in the Peninsula; for, as in the East, he becomes often not only cook, but interpreter and companion to his master. It is therefore of great importance to get a person with whom a man can ramble over these wild scenes. The so doing ends, on the part of the attendant, in an almost canine friends.h.i.+p; and the Spaniard, when the tour is done, is broken-hearted, and ready to leave his home, horse, a.s.s, and wife, to follow his master, like a dog, to the world's-end. Nine times out of ten it is the master's fault if he has bad servants: _tel maitre tel valet_. _Al amo imprudente, el mozo negligente._ He must begin at once, and exact the performance of their duty; the only way to get them to do anything is, as the Duke said, to "frighten them," to "take a decided line." It is very difficult to make them see the importance of detail and of doing exactly what they are told, which they will always endeavour to s.h.i.+rk when they can; their task must be clearly pointed out to them at starting, and the earliest and smallest infractions, either in commission or omission, at once and seriously noticed, the moral victory is soon gained. The example of the masters, if they be active and orderly, is the best lesson to servants; _mucho sabe el rato, pero mas el gato_; the rats are well enough, but the cats are better. Achilles, Patroclus, and the Homeric heroes, were their own cooks; and many a man who, like Lord Blayney, may not be a hero, will be none the worse for following the epical example, in a Spanish venta: at all events a good servant, who is up to his work, and will work, is indeed a jewel; and on these, as on other occasions, he deserves to be well treated. Those who make themselves honey are eaten by flies--_quien se hace miel, le comen las moscas_; while no rat ever ventures to jest with the cat's son; _con hijo de gato, no se burlan los ratones_. The great thing is to make them get up early, and learn the value of time, which the groom cannot tie with his halter, _tiempo y hora, no se ata con soga_: while a cook who oversleeps himself not only misses his ma.s.s, but his meat, _quien se levanta tarde, ni oye misa, ni compra carne_. If (which is soon found out) the servants seem not likely to answer, the sooner they are changed the better; it is loss of time and soap, and he who is good for nothing in his own village will not be worth more either in Seville or elsewhere, so says the proverb.

[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF SPANISH SERVANTS.]

The princ.i.p.al defects of Spanish servants and of the lower cla.s.ses of Spaniards are much the same, and faults of race. As a ma.s.s, they are apt to indulge in habits of procrastination, waste, improvidence, and untidiness. They are unmechanical and obstinate, easily beaten by difficulties, which their first feeling is to raise, and their next to succ.u.mb to; they give the thing up at once. They have no idea indeed of grappling with anything that requires much trouble, or of doing anything as it ought to be done, or even of doing the same thing in the same way--accident and the impulse of the moment set them going. They are very unmechanical, obstinate, and prejudiced; ignorant of their own ignorance and incurious as Orientals; partly from pride, self-opinion, and idleness, they seldom will ask questions for information from others, which implies an inferiority of knowledge, and still more seldom will take an answer, unless it be such a one as they desire; their own wishes, opinions, and wants are their guides, and self the centre of their gravity, not those of their employers. As a Spaniard's _yes_, when you beg a favour, generally means _no_, so they cannot or will not understand that your _no_ is really a negative when they come pet.i.tioning to be idle; at the same time a great change for the better comes over them when they are taken out of the city on a rambling tour.

The nomad life excites them into active serviceable fellows; in fact the uncertain harum-scarum nomad existence is exactly what suits these descendants of the Arab; they cannot bear the steady sustained routine of a well-managed household; they abhor confinement; hence the difficulty of getting Spaniards to garrison fortresses or to man s.h.i.+ps of war, from whence there is no escape.

As for what we call a well-appointed servants' hall, the case is hopeless in Spanish field or city, and is equally so whether the life be above or below stairs. In the house of the middle or highest cla.s.ses this is particularly shown in everything that regards gastronomics, which are the tests and touchstones of good service. In truth, the Spaniard, accustomed to his own desultory, free and easy, impromptu, scrambling style of dining, is constrained by the order and discipline, the pomp and ceremony, and serious importance of a well-regulated dinner, and their observance of forms extends only to persons, not to things: even the grandee has only a thin European polish spread over his Gotho-Bedouin dining table; he lives and eats surrounded by an humble clique, in his huge ill-furnished barrack-house, without any elegance, luxury, or even comfort, according to sound trans-pyrenean notions: few indeed are the kitchens which possess a _cordon bleu_, and fewer are the masters who really like an orthodox _entree_, one unpolluted with the heresies of garlic and red pepper: again, whenever their cookery attempts to be foreign, as in their other imitations, it ends in being a flavourless copy; but few things are ever done in Spain in _real style_, which implies forethought and expense; everything is a make-s.h.i.+ft; the n.o.ble master _reposes_ his affairs on an unjust steward, and dozes away life on this bed of roses, somnolescent over business and awake only to intrigue; his numerous ill-conditioned, ill-appointed servants have no idea of discipline or subordination; you never can calculate on their laying even the table-cloth, as they prefer idling in the church or market to doing their duty, and would rather starve, dance, and sleep out of place and independently, than feast and earn their wages by fair work; nor has the employer any redress, for if he dismisses them he will only get just such another set, or even worse.

[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF SPANISH SERVANTS.]

In our own Spanish household, the instant dinner and siesta were over, the cook with his kitchen-man, the valet with the footman invariably stripped off their working apparel--liveries are almost unheard of--donned their comical velvet embroidered hats, their sky-blue waistcoats, and scarlet sashes, and were off with a guitar to some scene of song and love-making, leaving their master alone in his glory to moralize on the uncertainty of human concerns and the faithlessness of mankind.

[Sidenote: SPANISH AND ENGLISH MANNERS.]

[Sidenote: TRAVELLING EXPENSES.]

What can't be cured must be endured. To resume, therefore, the character of these Spanish servants; they are very loquacious, and highly credulous, as often is the case with those given to romancing, which they, and especially the Andalucians, are to a large degree; and, in fact, it is the only remaining romance in Spain, as far as the natives are concerned. As they have an especial good opinion of themselves, they are touchy, sensitive, jealous, and thin-skinned, and easily affronted whenever their imperfections are pointed out; their disposition is very sanguine and inflammable; they are always hoping that what they eagerly desire will come to pa.s.s without any great exertion on their parts; they love to stand still with their arms folded, while other men put their shoulders to the wheel. Their lively imagination is very apt to carry them away into extremes for good or evil, when they act on the moment like children, and having gratified the humour of the impulse relapse into their ordinary tranquillity, which is that of a slumbering volcano.

On the other hand, they are full of excellent and redeeming good qualities; they are free from caprice, are hardy, patient, cheerful, good-humoured, sharp-witted, and intelligent: they are honest, faithful, and trustworthy; sober, and unaddicted to mean, vulgar vices; they have a bold, manly bearing, and will follow well wherever they are well led, being the raw material of as good soldiers as are in the world; they are loyal and religious at heart, and full of natural tact, mother-wit, and innate good manners. In general, a firm, quiet, courteous, and somewhat reserved manner is the most effective. Whenever duties are to be performed, let them see that you are not to be trifled with. The coolness of a determined Englishman's manner, when in earnest, is what few foreigners can withstand. Grimace and gesticulation, sound and fury, bl.u.s.ter, petulance, and impertinence fume and fret in vain against it, as the sprays and foam of the "French lake" do against the unmoved and immoveable rock of Gibraltar. An Englishman, without being over-familiar, may venture on a far greater degree of unbending in his intercourse with his Spanish dependants than he can dare to do with those he has in England. It is the custom of the country; they are used to it, and their heads are not turned by it, nor do they ever forget their relative positions. The Spaniards treat their servants very much like the ancient Romans or the modern Moors; they are more their _vernae_, their domestic slaves: it is the absolute authority of the father combined with the kindness. Servants do not often change their masters in Spain: their relation and duties are so clearly defined, that the latter runs no risk of compromising himself or his dignity by his familiarity, which can be laid down or taken up at his own pleasure; whereas the scorn, contempt, and distance with which the said courteous Don would treat a roturier who presumed to be intimate, baffle description. In England no man dares to be intimate with his footman; for supposing even such absurd fancy entered his brain, his footman is his equal in the eye of man-made law, G.o.d having created them utterly unequal in all his gifts, whether of rank, wealth, form, or intellect.

Conventional barriers accordingly must be erected in self-defence: and social barriers are more difficult to be pa.s.sed than walls of bra.s.s, more impossible to be repealed than the whole statutes at large. No master in Spain, and still less a foreigner, should ever descend to personal abuse, sneers, or violence. A blow is never to be washed out except in blood, and Spanish revenge descends to the third and fourth generation; and whatever these backward Spaniards have to learn from foreigners, it is not the duty of revenge, nor how to perform it. There should be no threatenings in vain, but whenever the opportunity occurs for punishment, let it be done quietly and effectively, and the fault once punished should not be needlessly ripped up again; Spaniards are sufficiently unforgiving, and h.o.a.rders-up of unrevenged grievances require to be reminded. A kind and uniform behaviour, a showing consideration to them, in a manner which implies that you are accustomed to it, and expect it to be shown to you, keeps most things in their right places. Temper and patience are the great requisites in the master, especially when he speaks the language imperfectly. He must not think Spaniards stupid because they cannot guess the meaning of his unknown tongue. Nothing again is gained by fidgeting and overdoing, and however early you may get up, daybreak will not take place the sooner: no por _mucho madrugar_, _amanece mas temprano_. Let well alone: be not zealous overmuch: be occasionally both blind and deaf: shut the door, and the devil pa.s.ses by: keep honey in mouth and an eye to your cash: _miel en boca y guarda la bolsa_. Still how much less expenditure is necessary in Spain than in performing the commonest excursion in England!--and yet many who submit to their own countrymen's extortions are furious at what they imagine is an especial cheating of them, _quasi_ Englishmen, abroad: this outrageous economy, with which some are afflicted, is penny wise and pound foolish: pay, pay therefore with both hands. The traveller must remember that he gains caste, gets brevet rank in Spain--that he is taken for a grandee incog., and ranks with their n.o.bility; he must pay for these luxuries: how small after all will be the additional per centage on his general expenditure, and how well bestowed is the excess, in keeping the temper good, and the capability of enjoying unruffled a tour, which only is performed once in a life! No wise man who goes into Spain for amus.e.m.e.nt will plunge into this guerrilla, this constant petty warfare, about sixpences. Let the traveller be true to himself; hold his tongue; avoid bad company, _quien hace su cama con perros, se levanta con pulgas_, those who sleep with dogs get up with fleas; and make room for bulls and fools, _al loco y toro da le corro_, and he may see Spain agreeably, and, as Catullus said to Veranius, who made the tour many centuries ago, may on his return amuse his friends and "old mother:"--

"Visam te incolumem, audiamque Iberum Narrantem loca, facta, nationes, Sicut tuus est mos."

which may be thus Englished:--

May you come back safe, and tell Of Spanish men, their things and places, Of Spanish ladies' eyes and faces, In your own way, and so well.

[Sidenote: TRAVELLING SERVANTS.]

Two masters should take two servants, and both should be Spaniards: all others, unless they speak the language perfectly, are nuisances. A Gallegan or Asturian makes the best groom, an _Andaluz_ the best cook and personal attendant. Sometimes a person may be picked up who has some knowledge of languages, and who is accustomed to accompany strangers through Spain as a sort of courier. These accomplishments are very rare, and the moral qualities of the possessor often diminish in proportion as his intellect has marched; he has learnt more foreign tricks than words, and sea-port towns are not the best schools for honesty. Of these nondescripts the Hispano-Anglo, who generally has deserted from Gibraltar, is the best, because he will work, hold his tongue, and fight; a monkey would be a less inconvenience than a chattering Ibero-Gallo; one who has forgotten his national accomplishments--cooking and hairdressing, and learnt very few Spanish things, such as good temper and endurance. Whichever of the two is the sharpest should lead the way, and leave the other to bring up the rear. They should be mounted on good mules, and be provided with large panniers. One should act as the cook and valet, the other as the groom of the party; and the utensils peculiar to each department should be carried by each professor. Where only one servant is employed, one side of the pannier should be dedicated to the commissariat, and the other to the luggage; in that case the master should have a flying portmanteau, which should be sent by means of _cosarios_, and precede him from great town to great town, as a magazine, wardrobe, or general supply to fall back on. The servants should each have their own saddle-bag and leathern bottle, which, since the days of Sancho Panza, are part and parcel of a faithful squire, and when all are carried on an a.s.s are quite patriarchal. "_Iba Sancho Panza sobre su jumento, como un patriarca con sus alforjas y bota._"

[Sidenote: WHAT TO TAKE ON A JOURNEY.]

The servants will each in their line look after their own affairs; the groom will take with him the things of the stable, and a small provision of corn, in order that a feed may never be wanting, on an unexpected emergency; he will always ascertain beforehand through what sort of a country each day's journey is to be made, and make preparations accordingly. The valet will view his masters in the same light as the groom does his beasts; and he will purvey and keep in readiness all that appertains to their comfort, always remembering a moskito net--we shall presently say a word on the fly-plague of the Peninsula--with nails to knock into the walls to hang it up by, not forgetting a hammer and gimlet; common articles enough, but which are never to be got at the moment and place where they are the most wanted. He will also carry a small canteen, the smaller and more ordinary the better, as anything out of the common way attracts attention, and suggests, first, the coveting other men's goods, and so on to a.s.saults, batteries, robberies, and other inconveniences, which have been exploded on our roads; although F.

Moryson took care to caution our ancestors "to be warie on this head, since theeves have their spies commonly in all innes, to enquire into the condition of travellers." The manufactures of Spain are so rude and valueless that what appears to us to be the most ordinary appears to them to be the most excellent, as they have never seen anything so good.

The lower orders, who eat with their fingers, think everything is gold which glitters, _todo es oro lo que reluce_; as, after all, it is what is _on_ the plate that is the rub, let no wise man have such smart forks and knives as to tempt cut-throats to turn them to unnatural purposes.

However, avoid all superfluous luggage, especially prejudices and foregone conclusions, for "_en largo camino paja pesa_," a straw is heavy on a long journey, and the last feather breaks the horse's back. A store of cigars, however, must always be excepted; take plenty and give them freely; it always opens a conversation well with a Spaniard, to offer him one of these little delicate marks of attention. Good snuff is acceptable to the curates and to monks (though there are none just now).

English needles, thread, and pairs of scissars take no room, and are all keys to the good graces of the fair s.e.x. There is a charm about a present, _bachs.h.i.+sh_, in most European as well as Oriental countries, and still more if it is given with tact, and at the proper time; Spaniards, if unable to make any equivalent return, will always try to repay by civilities and attentions.

[Sidenote: COOKING UTENSILS.]

Every one must determine for himself whether he prefers the a.s.sistance of this servant in the kitchen or at the toilet; since it is not easy for mortal man to dress a master _and_ a dinner, and both well at the same time, let alone two masters. A cook who runs after two hares at once catches neither. No prudent traveller on these, or on any occasions, should let another do for him what he can do for himself, and a man who waits upon himself is sure to be well waited on. If, however, a valet be absolutely necessary, the groom clearly is best left in his own chamber, the stable; he will have enough to do to curry and valet his four animals, which he knows to be good for their health, though he never sc.r.a.pes off the cutaneous stucco by which his own illote carca.s.s is Roman cemented. From long experience we have found that if the rider will get into the habit of carrying all the things requisite for his own dressing in a small separate bag, and employ the hour while the cook is getting the supper under weigh, it is wonderful how comfortably he will proceed to his puchero.