Part 22 (1/2)

For it was the Arab conquerors, the so-called Moors, who first practised this form of vicarious warfare It was, however, in no sense as a sport--far less as a popular pastime--that the fierce Arab had risked equal chances with the fiercest wild beast of the Spanish plain No, it was strictly as a substitute and a preparation for the sterner realities of war that, during the intervals of peace, the Moors ”kept their hands in” by fighting bulls

The object was to keep theht true, and les that all knewthose intervals of peace, the rival knights, Christian and Moslem, met in keen competition with lance and sword on the enclosed arena of the bull-ring The conclusion of a truce was frequently celebrated by holding a joint _fiesta de toros_

No trace, however, exists in Arab writings to show that these people possessed any innate love of bull-fighting as a sport, or ever practised it save only as an accessory to the art of war

No other people of ancient race have had exhibitions of this kind--that is, where the skill of man was invoked to incite a beast to attack in certain desired modes; while the performer escaped the onset, and finally slew his adversary, by preconceived foroverned by set rules--a spectacle wherein the asseht, esti quality of the beast That the blood of ladiator dyed the Roman arena at the horns of bulls is certain: but no artistic embellishments of attack or defence added to the joy of the Roman holiday The mere mechanical instinct of self-preservation ested to individual combatants certain combinations in the conflict that in later days have been utilised by modern ladiators saved themselves by ether with the scenes depicted on coinage, represent rather a mere massacre of men by brute force; and such cannot bear any relation to the conditions that govern the national _fiesta_ of Spain to-day

The actual origin in Spain of the _Corrida de Toros_ must thus be traced to the Spanish Arabs, who, to exercise the intererous pasti personal valour, so necessary in tier were opposed to the wild bull of the Spanish plain under conditions ue to-day

In those earlier ages it was permitted to an unhorsed cavalier to accept protection from the horns of his enemy at the hands of his personal retainers, who not infrequently sacrificed their own lives in devotion to their chief

At this period (during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) the knight who, lance in hand, had been hurled froht draw his sword and kill the bull, his vassals being allowed to assist in placing the animal (by deft display of coloured cloaks) in a position to facilitate the death-stroke Here, doubtless, originated the art of ”playing” the bull, and incidentally sprang the professional bull-fighter

For as these servants becaes, so proportionately such skill became of pecuniary value Mercenaries of this sort were, nevertheless, despised--to risk their lives in return forBut at least they had inaugurated the regi the first century after the Reconquest bull-fighting was opposed by several powerful influences, but each in turn it survived and set at naught Isabel la Catolica, horrified by the sight of bloodshed at a bull-fight which she personally attended, decided to prohibit all _corridas_; but that, she found, lay beyond even her great influence

Next, in 1567, the power of the Papacy was invoked in vain

Pope Pius V, by a _bula_ of November 20, forbade the spectacle under pain of excommunication, the denial of Christian burial, and similar ecclesiastical penalties; but he and his _bula_ had likewise to go under in face of the national sentiment of Spain

A noble bull fell to the lance of Isabel's grandson, HM the Emperor Charles V, in the Plaza Mayor of Valladolid a the festivals held to celebrate the birth of his eldest son, afterwards Phillip II

[Illustration: BULL-FIGHTING Fro first assumed a financial aspect Phillip III

conceded to one Arcania Manduno the e the term of three lives from the _corridas de toros_ in the city of Valencia

Charities and asylums benefited under this fund, but the bulk went in pay the reign of Phillip IV--that king being skilled in the use of lance and javelin (_rejon_), and frequently hi a public part--the _fiesta_ advanced enorlish readers may recall the sumptuous _corrida_ which hans of the House of Austria, to face a bull with bravery and skill and to use a dexterous lance was the pride of every Spanish noble

Phillip V, however, would have none of the spectacle, and then the nobility held aloof from the _corridas_; but their example proved no deterrent For the hold of the national pastime on the Moro-hispanic race was too fir; and when thus abandoned by the patricians, the hidalgos and grandees of Spain, the sport of bull-fighting (hitherto confined exclusively to the aristocracy) was taken up by the Spanish people A further ienerated later on under Ferdinand VII, who obtained a reversal of the anathema of the Church on condition that some of the pecuniary profits of the _corridas_ should swell the funds of the hospitals

It was, however, during the first half of the eighteenth century that bull-fighting on a popular basis, as understood and practised at the present day, took its start Then there stepped upon the enclosed arena the first professional _Torero_ a hule --with these to pit his strength and skill against the weight and ferocity of a _toro bravo_--alone and unaided to despatch him Such a man was Francisco Romero, erewhiles a shoemaker at Ronda--AD

1726--first professional _lidiador_ On his death at an advanced age, he left five sons, all craftshting guild still known as the Rondenean School--distinguished fronified attack as coer” of the Sevillano

In that generation Francisco's son, Pedro Romero, appeared in rivalry with PEPE-ILLO, the new-risen star in the Sevillian firmament It was, by the way, the master-anisation on popular lines of the national _fiesta_ after Bourbon influence had alienated the aristocracy fro exponents of the two styles co each a supreme mastery of their respective schools, and only terminated with the death of Pepe-Illo in the Plaza of Madrid, May 11, 1801 The Sevillian style has since attained pre-e ard of danger When the best features of both schools are combined--as has been exemplified in more than one brilliant exponent of the art--then the letters of his nae on the _cartels_

One other famous name of that epoch de stroke distinguished as the _suerte de volapie_ Hitherto all _lidiadors_ had received the onset of the bull standing--the _suerte de recibir_ In the _volapie_ the charging bull is th of arment of distance, since the spot peret on the bull's neck, is no bigger than an orange

The nor the blade at that exact point on a charging bull is great enough; but is vastly increased in the _volapie_, or flying stroke, and the effect produced on the spectators eree

Costillares also forhters He flourished in 1760, and died of a broken heart owing to his right ar injured, which incapacitated him from further triumphs About that period Martinho introduced the perilous pole-jump, and Jose Candido stood out prominent for skill and extraordinary resource