Part 17 (1/2)

One of the sights of modern Seville is the Fabrica de Tabacos, a factory where a large number of women and girls are employed. The building is a handsome one, in the baroque style, in the Calle de San Fernando. The _cigarreras_ work in overcrowded rooms. On public holidays they don their smartest dress, and are to be seen at the _romerias_ and dances.

A survival of the ancient potter's art in Seville is the factory of La Cartuja, in Triana, owned by the English firm of p.r.i.c.kman and Sons. The works supply almost the whole country with china, and examples of antique Spanish majolica may be seen here. La Cartuja was once a convent. The church should be seen; it has a fine door in the _Mudejar_ style.

Campana's paintings in the Church of Santa Ana, in Triana, may be inspected after a visit to La Cartuja. Near this church are the streets inhabited by the Gitanas. The SS. Justa and Rufina, mentioned elsewhere in these pages, made pottery in this quarter in the Roman days.

The custom of selling drinking water in the streets is common almost everywhere in Spain. Velazquez painted the familiar figure of the water-seller, who is to be seen to-day in the _calles_ of Seville, crying _agua fresca_. The water is carried on the men's shoulders, in graceful Oriental jugs of earthenware.

Sometimes one hears the sound of the drum and the _dulcinea_, a pipe played with one hand, and used to provide music for village dances in many parts of Spain. The music proceeds from a man, who is accompanied by a led bullock, and it announces that tickets may be bought for a lottery in which the prize is a horse. Piano organs enliven the streets, playing popular dance music, and these seem to have superseded the performances of guitarists.

Time can scarcely hang heavily upon the visitor to 'the diadem in Andalusia's crown.' Days may be spent in the n.o.ble Cathedral, dreamy hours pa.s.sed in the scented garden of the Alcazar, or by the Guadalquivir, where the bulbul still sings as in the Moorish days. Each time one climbs to the summit of the Giralda, a fresh beauty in the prospect of the sunny, white city and the glowing plain fascinates the vision. The picture gallery should be visited more than once; and there are so many works of art in the churches, monasteries and public buildings that one is never at a loss for pleasant recreation or serious study.

Delightful, too, are the cool evenings in the _plazas_, or the gardens, when the sinking sun sheds its beams on the stately Cathedral and the proud Giralda. The storks sail homewards far overhead in the glow of the rising moon; a chorus of birds dies away in the tangled banks of the Guadalquivir. Brief night succeeds the twilight; day dawn soon appears, and the hawks flash from their eyries in the Giralda, and the mule bells begin to jingle in the sunlit streets.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Roof Garden]

The quay, which stretches from the Triana Bridge to the Delicias, forms a pleasant promenade. By the Golden Tower there are seats under the trees, and the kiosks of the _refresco_ sellers, who dispense orange-water, lemonade and sarsaparilla to the sailors and the girls from the tobacco factory. Adjoining that part of the quay where English vessels are loaded with iron brought upon a tramway, there is a little booth for the sale of refreshments. It is kept by a young Spaniard and his wife, named Jose. The boothkeeper has made several trips to England in trading vessels, and he speaks English very fairly. Jose has a 'connection' among the British sailors, who come to his pavilion for rum, whisky and other drinks beloved of English tars. He possesses a great regard for England and the English, and among his customers Jose is often addressed as Johnson.

Near the Golden Tower there is another house of call used by seamen. In the window you will see advertis.e.m.e.nts of British beverages, and announcements in several European languages. s.h.i.+ps from Liverpool, Glasgow and Cardiff are often anch.o.r.ed in this part of the Guadalquivir, and now and then there is an English yacht in the port.

The fishermen of Seville have a curious method of taking shad. They work a cross-line under water from two boats on opposite sides of the river.

The line is armed with hooks, baited with pieces of meat. Now and then, the fishermen haul up a fish. But the Guadalquivir is heavily netted and fished, and the shad are not very plentiful in this reach. There are some very big eels in the river, which can be caught with a rod and line from the banks.

As the _pescadores_ slowly scull their boats down the river, they sing strange Andalusian melodies, with a kind of _yodel_. Their voices reach far along the stream on still days. The men are hard-working, and their catches scarcely repay them for their patience and labour in the burning sun.

Along the quay, and at every point of entrance to Seville, there are customs' officers in uniform, with swords at their sides. The _consumo_ is not a popular character in Spain. Peasants and small traders resent the tax upon the produce which they bring into the markets, and many attempts are made to evade paying the duty. At Cordova I heard a violent altercation between a peasant and a _consumo_, who demanded duty upon a live pigeon.

Spain is the land of officials in uniform. Down the Guadalquivir you will see armed men who protect the wooden breakwaters. Then there are four grades of police, the _consumos_, and the watchmen, all of them provided with weapons.

The quaint, irregular thoroughfares of Seville, its palm trees and olive gardens, its Morisco remains, its _hidalgos_ and _donas_, its brightness and gaiety, and its blue skies will not soon be forgotten by those who pa.s.s a short time within its ancient walls. Lord Byron praises the city as the most beautiful in Spain. It is certainly charming, but there are towns in the Peninsula more antiquated in aspect, and more picturesque in their surroundings. Still, the Andalusian capital possesses a strong fascination, and few persons will dispute, in the main, the truth of Byron's lines in the first canto of _Don Juan_:--

'In Seville was he born, a pleasant city, Famous for oranges and women--he Who has not seen it will be much to pity, So says the proverb--and I quite agree; Of all the Spanish towns is none more pretty, Cadiz, perhaps--but that you soon may see;-- Don Juan's parents lived beside the river.

A n.o.ble stream, and call'd the Guadalquivir.'

Since the days of Cervantes, the aspect of the city and the manners and customs of its inhabitants have not undergone any profound change. The monumental buildings remain, and the cry of the watchman and the notes of the guitar are still heard by night in the tortuous alleys, and under the palm trees of the _plazas_. The careless, merry Sevillanos continue to love the dance, the song, the bull fight and the theatre more than science and literature. We may see the types sketched by the great satirist in _The Jealous Estremaduran_, if we will but enter one of the fas.h.i.+onable _cafes_ during the evening. It would be unfair to say that Sevillian society is composed entirely of adventurers, but they are a distinctive cla.s.s in the pleasure-loving capital. 'In the city of Seville,' writes Cervantes, 'is a cla.s.s of idling, lazy people who locally go by the common name of ”the children of the ward”; they are considered as foragers on the public; they are the sons of rich parents, not of the n.o.bility; always well-dressed, fond of pleasure, extravagant and expensive, plunging themselves and their parents in debt; always feasting and revelling; every way bringing discredit on society, defrauding and injuring their creditors.'

The stranger will not be in the city many hours before he notices a curious device on public buildings, official uniforms and elsewhere.

This is the node, or knot (_el nodo_), which forms a part of the coat-of-arms of Seville. The knot is in the centre of an ornamental circle, and on one side of it are the letters NO and on the other DO.

This legend in full is _No madeja do_, or, _No me ha dejado_, which means: 'It has not deserted me.' The symbol of the _nodo_ was adopted after the fealty of the _muy leal_ city to Alfonzo X.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Arms of Seville]

CHAPTER XIV

_The Alma Mater of Bull-fighters_

'The Arabs were much given to bull-fighting, and highly skilled in the _lidia_, whether mounted or on foot.'--SANCHEZ DE NIEVA, _El Toreo_.

Seville is so renowned in the annals of the great Spanish sport of bull-fighting, that I propose to devote a chapter to a brief history and description of the 'science of tauromachia,' or the recreation of the _lidia_. Mr. Leonard Williams, in _The Land of the Dons_, is somewhat apologetic to his readers for introducing three chapters upon the bullfight and its history; but such is the enthusiasm exhibited for the pastime, that Mr. Williams states that thirty chapters, instead of three, would scarcely be disproportionate to the importance in which the _corrida_ is esteemed by the Spanish nation. While making personal confession that I am not an _aficionado_, or enthusiast, of the art of bull-fighting, I will endeavour to convey to the reader a conception of the influence of the sport upon the Andalusian public, from which the moralist and sociologist may draw their conclusions.

There is an odour of Pharisaism in the British fox-hunter's denunciation of the bull fight on the score of cruelty to animals. But in defence of the hunter, it may be pointed out that he rarely sacrifices the life of his steed in order to be in at the death of a fox, and that he would certainly scorn to torture a worn-out and decrepit horse by riding it till it dropped with a ruptured heart. In bull-fighting there is no pity shown for horses. The emaciated beasts, upon which the _picadores_, or spearmen, are mounted, are urged at the bull, and serve as a target for its terrible horns until they are no longer able to stand upon their legs. Even when ripped open, or otherwise wounded, the bleeding, terrified creatures are sewn up, or have their wounds plugged with tow, and are again lashed and spurred to the attack.