Climate does one half, and temperament
the rest. Give a Spaniard the shade in summer, and the sun in
winter; a little bread, garlic, oil, and garbances, an old brown cloak
and a guitar, and let the world roll on as it pleases. Talk of
poverty! with him it has no disgrace. It sits upon him with a
grandiose style, like his ragged cloak. He is a hidalgo, even when
in rags.
The "sons of the Alhambra" are an eminent illustration of this
practical philosophy. As the Moors imagined that the celestial
paradise hung over this favored spot, so I am inclined at times to
fancy, that a gleam of the golden age still lingers about this
ragged community. They possess nothing, they do nothing, they care for
nothing. Yet, though apparently idle all the week, they are as
observant of all holy days and saints' days as the most laborious
artisan. They attend all fetes and dancings in Granada and its
vicinity, light bonfires on the hills on St. John's eve, and dance
away the moonlight nights on the harvest-home of a small field
within the precincts of the fortress, which yields a few bushels of
wheat.
Before concluding these remarks, I must mention one of the
amusements of the place which has particularly struck me. I had
repeatedly observed a long lean fellow perched on the top of one of
the towers, manoeuvring two or three fishing-rods, as though he were
angling for the stars. I was for some time perplexed by the evolutions
of this aerial fisherman, and my perplexity increased on observing
others employed in like manner on different parts of the battlements
and bastions; it was not until I consulted Mateo Ximenes, that I
solved the mystery.
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