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Local Traditions.
THE COMMON people of Spain have an Oriental passion for
story-telling, and are fond of the marvellous. They will gather
round the doors of their cottages in summer evenings, or in the
great cavernous chimney-corners of the ventas in the winter, and
listen with insatiable delight to miraculous legends of saints,
perilous adventures of travellers, and daring exploits of robbers
and contrabandistas. The wild and solitary character of the country,
the imperfect diffusion of knowledge, the scarceness of general topics
of conversation, and the romantic adventurous life that every one
leads in a land where travelling is yet in its primitive state, all
contribute to cherish this love of oral narration, and to produce a
strong infusion of the extravagant and incredible. There is no
theme, however, more prevalent and popular than that of treasures
buried by the Moors; it pervades the whole country. In traversing
the wild sierras, the scenes of ancient foray and exploit, you
cannot see a Moorish atalaya, or watchtower, perched among the cliffs,
or beetling above its rock-built village, but your muleteer, on
being closely questioned, will suspend the smoking of his cigarillo to
tell some tale of Moslem gold buried beneath its foundations; nor is
there a ruined alcazar in a city but has its golden tradition,
handed down from generation to generation among the poor people of the
neighborhood.
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