The Spanish muleteer has an inexhaustible stock of songs and
ballads, with which to beguile his incessant wayfaring. The airs are
rude and simple, consisting of but few inflections. These he chants
forth with a loud voice, and long, drawling cadence, seated sideways
on his mule, who seems to listen with infinite gravity, and to keep
time, with his paces, to the tune. The couplets thus chanted, are
often old traditional romances about the Moors, or some legend of a
saint, or some love-ditty; or, what is still more frequent, some
ballad about a bold contrabandista, or hardy bandolero, for the
smuggler and the robber are poetical heroes among the common people of
Spain. Often, the song of the muleteer is composed at the instant, and
relates to some local scene, or some incident of the journey. This
talent of singing and improvising is frequent in Spain, and is said to
have been inherited from the Moors. There is something wildly pleasing
in listening to these ditties among the rude and lonely scenes they
illustrate; accompanied, as they are, by the occasional jingle of
the mule-bell.
It has a most picturesque effect also to meet a train of muleteers
in some mountain-pass. First you hear the bells of the leading
mules, breaking with their simple melody the stillness of the airy
height; or, perhaps, the voice of the muleteer admonishing some
tardy or wandering animal, or chanting, at the full stretch of his
lungs, some traditionary ballad.
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