Part 16 (1/2)
The women of Southern Spain are short, and they incline to stoutness.
Mr. Finck says that s.e.xual selection 'is evolving the _pet.i.te_ brunette as the ideal of womanhood,' and that 'the perfected woman of the millennium will resemble the Andalusian brunette, not only in complexion, hair, eyes, gait, and tapering plumpness of figure, but also in stature.'
Among the men of Seville one sees many slim, lissome, well-proportioned figures of medium height. Some of the _majos_ of Sierpes are of this type, and among the working cla.s.s there are many good-looking, clean-limbed men. The masculine physiognomies impress me as being much more varied in contour and more expressive than those of the women.
Faces that might be English are not uncommon among the men of Seville.
But the true Andalusian features are distinctive, and have an Arab cast.
The hair is dark, black or brown, and the skin olive or tawny. There is an unshaven look about many of the middle-cla.s.s men. A _majo_ who dresses in the height of fas.h.i.+on will often go out to parade the streets with a three days' beard on his chin. But his hands will be scrupulously washed several times a day, and the finger nails will be carefully trimmed and polished.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Golden Tower]
To see Sevillian society out of doors, go to the Parque Maria Luisa and the adjoining Paseo de las Delicias about five in the afternoon. This is the fas.h.i.+onable promenade, and here the _elite_ of the city drive in open carriages daily. The costumes of the _senoras_ are varied and stylish. Some of the ladies wear English gowns and hats, and one sees a few of the latest Paris fas.h.i.+ons in dresses. But the majority have not discarded the _mantilla_ of black or white lace, and the fan is in every hand. A 'smart turn-out' is a sort of four-wheeled dogcart, drawn by four mules, with bells, and gay worsted ear-caps and worked bridles.
The servants are dressed in London livery, the landaus are of French or English make, and many fine horses may be seen. _Caballeros_ ride upon prancing nags. Under the palms and orange trees there are seats filled with loungers, the women fanning themselves, the men smoking cigars or cigarettes. None but foreigners smoke a pipe in the streets of Seville.
A _majo_ would not be guilty of such vulgarity.
Beneath the odorous orange trees, where innumerable nightingales warble, one may watch the afternoon procession of carriages and pedestrians. A breeze blows from the wide Guadalquivir. It is cool by the ornamental water, where roses and camellias are rife. The blue uniform of an officer, the white duck trousers of a dandy, the sunshades of the ladies show amidst the greenery of the avenues. From the cavalry barracks comes the blare of bugles. In the Parque there are peac.o.c.ks and a den of wild boars.
In April, during the _feria_ week, there is horse-racing on the broad meadows beyond the Paseo de las Delicias. English horses, ridden by English jockeys, sometimes compete in the races. The grand stand is a large one, with a long enclosure. It is well filled on race days with the rank and fas.h.i.+on of Andalusia. One is struck with the gravity of the spectators as contrasted with the animation of a British crowd upon a racecourse. The people are thoroughly enjoying the spectacle; but they do not shout, and there is no ring of bellowing bookmakers. Backers of horses purchase a ticket at a little office in the enclosure. There is only one of these offices, and there are no betting men behind the ropes of the course.
An element of pageant is introduced by the company of cavalry drawn up near the grand stand. When officers of the State arrive upon the course, they are saluted with a flourish of trumpets. A number of mounted men of the Civil Guard keep the course clear of pedestrians. The resplendent dresses of the ladies, the bright uniforms of the soldiers and the costumes of the jockeys make a brilliant scene in the dazzling southern suns.h.i.+ne.
But horse-racing is not the national pastime of Spain. Bull-fighting is deemed the n.o.bler sport, and Seville has been called 'the Alma Mater of the bull-fighter.'[G] I do not here propose to describe one of these combats. Such descriptions have perhaps occupied an undue s.p.a.ce in many books about Spanish ways and customs. The most reliable accounts of bull-fighting are to be found in Mr. Williams's _The Land of the Dons_, and in _Wild Spain_, by A. Chapman and W. T. Buck.
There is a handsome Plaza de Toros at Seville, built in 1870, with seats for fourteen thousand spectators. At Easter, and during the _feria_ festivals in April, there are several fights in the arena, which are attended by immense crowds made up of all cla.s.ses from the duke to the girls from the cigarette factory. The enthusiasm which bull fights evoke is so great that large crowds collect around the hotels, where the bull-fighters reside during Holy Week and fair time, in order to watch the heroes of the ring start for the Plaza de Toros.
I was in Seville during the _feria_ of 1902, and I may now attempt to describe the scene on the Prado de San Sebastian. The city was thronged with sight-seers; every hotel and boarding-house was overcrowded, and hundreds of cattle and horse dealers, gipsies and itinerants slept on the fair ground in booths or upon the bare earth. I found the open s.p.a.ce on the Prado covered with flocks of sheep and goats, droves of bullocks, horses, mules and donkeys, tended by picturesque herdsmen and muleteers in the dress of several provinces. An English carriage and pair of handsome horses paraded the ground, and changed hands at a high price.
_Caballeros_ rode their steeds up and down, to show off their points, and gipsy 'copers' haggled and chaffered. In the long row of refreshment tents was one bearing the sign of _Los Boers_. I entered one of the booths, and ordered a _refresco_, a bitter, syrupy decoction, with a tang of turpentine. Men and women were sipping this beverage with much zest, and watching the continual procession of holiday-makers under the trees. Everyone was quiet, orderly and sober. I did not see one drunken or quarrelsome person on either of the fair days, which I think may be taken as a token of the sobriety of the Spaniards. The diversions of the _feria_ struck me as innocent, perhaps childish; but there was none of the coa.r.s.eness and the squalor of a fair in England. There were only a few shows.
The Gitanas had their tents, where they danced to _gorgio_ audiences, exacting exorbitant fees for each performance. Importunate gipsy dames stood at the doors of their tents, inviting the visitors to enter, and to taste their curious liquors, or to have their fortunes told. It was not easy to escape from these syrens, for they seized one's coat sleeve, and almost dragged one into their shows and booths. Some of the Gitana girls are remarkably handsome, and the gay colours of their clothing lend animation to this part of the _feria_.
One of the most interesting streets of the fair is that of the _casetas_, or pavilions of the influential Sevillians, who spend the day in receiving guests, dancing, guitar playing and singing. The doors of the _casetas_ are open. You can look within at the merry company. The old folk sit around on chairs; someone clicks a pair of castanets, and a graceful girl begins to dance. Fans are fluttering everywhere; there is a soft tinkling of guitars. Dark eyes flash upon you, and red lips part in smiles as the hats of _majos_ are raised. Some of the children are dressed in old Andalusian costume, with black lace over yellow silk, and _mantillas_ upon their dark hair. They dance to the castanets, and win handclaps from grandfathers and grandmothers, who recall their own dancing days of forty or fifty years ago.
There is an iron tower in the centre of the fair ground. I ascended it, and gained a view of the bright crowd, the flocks, the prancing horses and the waving bunting everywhere displayed. At night the avenues of booths are illuminated with thousands of fairy lights, electric lamps and Chinese lanterns. The fair is then thronged in every part, and everyone submits to a good-humoured jostling. At this festive time you must be prepared for disturbed nights. The streets are never quiet by day or night, and there is a constant tramping up and down the stairs of the hotels. Long after midnight one hears the revellers in the _plazas_, singing and dancing to the clapping of hands or the strumming of guitars.
This 'fantastic pandemonium,' as it is called by a Sevillian rhymer, lasts for about eight to ten days. During the three days of the _feria_, the hotel charges are doubled, and in some cases trebled. The city profits considerably through the influx of visitors at this time, and also during _Semana Santa_, or Holy Week, when Seville is very crowded.
Nothing can prove so instructive concerning the Spanish devotion to ritual and religious pageant as a visit to Seville at Easter. The processions and celebrations of _Semana Santa_ are exceedingly interesting from the artistic and the antiquarian point of view. All the costly vestments, the rare ecclesiastic treasures of the Cathedral, the works of artists and sculptors, and the sacred images of Christ and the Virgin are then displayed, in the midst of high pomp, to the adoring eyes of the vast crowds lining the streets and filling the windows. It is during these ceremonies that one may catch the spirit of mediaevalism still surviving in Spain. Even the religious dances of antiquity are performed in the Cathedral before the high altar on Corpus Christi day.
The dancers are boys, sixteen in number, and they are called the _Seises_. They dress in the costume of the reign of Felipe III.
The _pasos_ or processions of _Semana Santa_ pa.s.s through Sierpes to the Plaza de la Const.i.tucion, where the mayor of the city is seated on a das before the Ayuntamiento. Here there are stands for spectators. The processions are headed by men of the Guardia Civil; mummers dressed as Romans follow, then come masked monks, girls in white raiment, bands of music, and city officials. On Palm Sunday there is a blessing of the palms in the Cathedral by the Cardinal Archbishop, who is clothed in purple canonicals. The procession leaves the edifice by the Puerta San Miguel. At Vespers the sacred banner is elevated, and at six in the evening four _pasos_ parade the streets, in honour of San Jacinto, Santisimo Cristo, San Juan Bautista and San Gregorio.
Figures by Montanez, the celebrated ecclesiastical sculptor, are borne in these processions. One of the most imposing objects of veneration is the immense crucifix, carried on a stand by thirty concealed bearers. It is followed by musicians playing the solemn funeral music of Eslava.
Miguel Hilarion Eslava, the composer, was born in 1807, near Pampeluna, in the north of Spain. He sang in the cathedral choir of that city, and afterwards played the violin in services. First a priest, he became chapel-master at Seville, in 1832, where he composed a great number of pieces of church music and ma.s.ses. His chief work is _Lira Sacro Hispana_, a collection of sacred music from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with brief biographies of the composers. This _magnum opus_ is in ten volumes.
Eslava also wrote secular music, and his operas of _Il Solitario_, _La Tregura di Ptolemaide_ and _Pedro el Cruel_ were first produced at Cadiz. The eighth volume of the _Lira_ contains only Eslava's music, and the _Museo Organico Espanol_ embodies some of his own organ compositions. This famous composer spent many years of his life in Seville. He lived in a house in the Calle del Gran Capitan, now used as the Colegio de San Miguel, a school for boys. Over the gateway is an inscription announcing that Eslava lived in this house. The courtyard is extremely quaint, and should be seen.
The solemn strains of Eslava's _Miserere_ may be heard in the Capilla Mayor of the Cathedral during Holy Week, upon the day of 'rending the Veil of the Temple.' This ceremony is accompanied by peals of artificial thunder. On the Sat.u.r.day after Good Friday, the _Velo Negro_ (black curtain) is torn amidst the clanging of bells and claps of thunder. On the same day a candle, twenty-five feet in height, is consecrated.
There is a similarity in the processions of Semana Santa, and they are less sumptuous than in bygone times. But they are still popular, and the visitor should endeavour to obtain a favourable point of view for watching the ceremonials in the streets and in the Cathedral. The figure of the Virgin is always the same in Spain; an image clad in black velvet, trimmed with lace, and adorned with diamonds, while the _tableaux_ of the Saviour upon the Cross are often very realistic and ghastly. On Good Friday the large image of the Virgin is carried by thirty-five men, and there is a representation of Christ in the throes of death upon a splendid cross of tortoisesh.e.l.l and silver.