Most
of the suits have been brought against gossiping neighbors for
questioning the purity of their blood, and denying their being
Cristianos viejos, i. e. old Christians, without Jewish or Moorish
taint. In fact, I doubt whether this jealousy about their blood has
not kept them so poor in purse: spending all their earnings on
escribanos and alguazils. The pride of the hovel is an escutcheon
suspended against the wall, in which are emblazoned quarterings of the
arms of the Marquis of Caiesedo, and of various other noble houses,
with which this poverty-stricken brood claim affinity.
As to Mateo himself, who is now about thirty-five years of age, he
has done his utmost to perpetuate his line and continue the poverty of
the family, having a wife and a numerous progeny, who inhabit an
almost dismantled hovel in the hamlet. How they manage to subsist,
he only who sees into all mysteries can tell; the subsistence of a
Spanish family of the kind, is always a riddle to me; yet they do
subsist, and what is more, appear to enjoy their existence. The wife
takes her holiday stroll on the Paseo of Granada, with a child in
her arms and half a dozen at her heels; and the eldest daughter, now
verging into womanhood, dresses her hair with flowers, and dances
gayly to the castanets.
There are two classes of people to whom life seems one long holiday,
the very rich, and the very poor; one because they need do nothing,
the other because they have nothing to do; but there are none who
understand the art of doing nothing and living upon nothing, better
than the poor classes of Spain.
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