The Catalan has a national pride peculiar to him: he sees nothing above himself. He looks down on other Spaniards, he even despises a part of the nation, and his hatred of the Castilian is beyond all expression. He does not love stran. gers; the French, with whom he has most occasion to communicate, he hates the most; the cause of which is very ancient; it takes its source in the old quarrels and frequent wars between the kings of France and those of Aragon; the wars of the last century increased it; Catalonia gave itself to France, and the Catalans can never forgive the French for giving it up to its old masters. The war of the succession at the beginning of the last century completed the animosity; the French sacked Catalonia, sub dued the spirit of its inhabitants and compelled them to acknow. ledge the legitimate authority of their king. The facts are impressed on the minds of these people with indelible characters, and they retain in their hearts an invincible aversion to the nation that brought them into subjection. The mantle and round hat, com. mon in the other parts of Spain, are not worn in Catalonia; and the Mayo jacket is scarcely ever seen; a close coat, in the French fashion, is the usual dress in almost all conditions. The peasants who live in the mountains wear a doublebreasted waistcoat, and over it a kind of wide great coat, which goes no lower than the knees; they call it a gambeto. There is besides these a variety of dresses, among the common people of both sexes, the details of which would be too long for insertion here. The Catalans have a tongue pe. culiar to themselves; it is the ancient language of the provinces of the south of France, the inhabitants of which took Catalonia from the Moors, and, peopling it, introduced their laws, customs, and usages; and their patois, or dialect, called the Limousine tongue, has continued down to our days in Gascony, Languedoc, and Provence; where it has undergone al terations more or less remarkable, occasioned by the mixture of the modern French; it has remained purer in Catalonia and Roussillon, but with a mixture of Castilian in the former of these two provinces. The Catalan tongue has lost that agreeable sweetness which for merly characterized it, and which is better preserved in the kingdom of Valencia; it has taken, in the mouth of the Catalan, hard termi. nations and a rough and disagree. able pronunciation: it has likewise at present a great resemblance to the modern French tongue, in the construction and turn of expression, in the grammar rules, and in the sameness of a great many of its words, which differ from the French only in the termination. It is spoken throughout Catalonia with considerable variation, ac. cording to the different districts; with greater purity in the mountaius, and more altered in large towns. The national prejudice of the Catalan makes him prefer his language to that of the Spaniards, the Castilian is therefore little in use in Catalonia, and when it is heard there, it is disfigured and scarcely to be known in conse. quence of the mixture of Catalan phrases and turns. Character, Character, Manners, Customs, and Habits of the Estramadu rans. [From the same.] The inhabitants of Estramadura live in a country which seems to be insulated from every other, and where opportunities of communicating with the different parts of the Spanish monarchy are not frequent. Hence this province appears to be concentrated in itself, and to think only of its own exist. ence. The people of it neither know the comforts or the conveniencies of life, nor the means of procuring them. Little habituated to the world, they dread mixing with it, and avoid society. Hence they appear taciturn, and are, per. haps, the gravest of all the Spa niards. They fear to be accosted by strangers, shun their company, and take a pleasure in confining themselves, all their lives, to their own province. A certain distaste for employment, and the want of knowledge, keep them from work, and make them constantly idle. They possess, in other respects, excellent qualitics; they are frank, sincere, full of honour and probity, slow in planning enterprizes, but firm in their projects, and consist ent in their notions. They have always been excellent soldiers; they are strong, vigorous, and ro. bust, supporting, without murmur. ing, the fatigues and dangers of war; they have always displayed an as tonishing courage; they prefer the cavalry to the infantry. This province has produced se. veral great captains, who did honour to their country by brilliant exploits It gave birth to the fa. mous Garcias de Paredes, and to 1 several of the conquerors of Ame rica, Fernando Cortez, Francisco Pizarro, the Marquis del Valle de Goanaca, and some other of their companions in arms. The labourers or workmen of this province are likewise accused of an excessive sloth. The charge appears to be true; but they ought to be treated with indulgence, when it is known that they are n cessarily led into the habits of idle. ness, being, in spite of themselves, without work, without resource for two thirds of the year, and without any means of industry to support their existence. Being paid for their work a ver mode. rate price, living in a country where commodities are very dear, and out of their reach, without hope of ameliorating their condi tion or their lot, they sink inta listlessness. If they are observed when they are employed, they will be found alert, indefatigable, working without relaxation at noon. day, in a burning climate, and under a scorching sun. No kind of dissipation or plea sures are known in Estramadura; there is no variety; every thing is regular, and melancholy. Persons of high birth, and those who have fortune, or are at their ease, sel dom associate, and that but acci dentally. that It is still worse with the com. mon people; they are so poor they are constantly experiencing deprivations of every kind, and often want the necessaries of life, without looking forward to any favourable change of this pitiable condition. This excess of poverty. which spreads from family to fa mily, oppresses the soul, and ener rates vates the body. What a situation to seek for pleasure, and to be able to give oneself up to the gaiety. which attends it! We find in this province a singular example of what may be called a democratic constitution, which excludes all superiority of men over one another. The inha bitants of the little town of Casar de Caceres, two leagues from Ca. ceres, who are in number about 5000 persons, consider themselves, among each other, all equal in rank, quality, and condition; they take the greatest care to pre. vent this equality ever being altered by any exterior sign of honours or distinction. In short, they have carried their vigilance in this respect so far, that, some years ago, they had an inscription, which had been placed over the grave of one of their fellow-citizens, removed, though he was generally esteemed and regretted. Manners, Habits, Customs, Dress, and Language of the Andalu. sians. [From the same.] The Andalusians are the Gascons of Spain; they have neither the reserve of the Castilians, nor the cold haughtiness of the Ara. gonese, nor the petulance of the Biscayans, nor the roughness of the Catalonians, nor the nullity of the Valencians; they speak a great deal, and particularly of them. selves, of their merit, their wealth, or of the valuable or pleasing things which they possess. They have a natural propensity to boasting; their conversation is full of it, the turn of their phrases, their VOL. LI. air, their gestures, their customs, carry the stamp of it. But these qualities are not equally conspicuous in every part of Andalusia; they are carried to the highest pitch in the kingdom of Seville; and higher nearer the sea than in the interior of the country. They are stronger, though less evident, in the kingdom of Grenada, and become consider. ably weaker as we go farther into the kingdoms of Cordova and Jaen. Their country is a country of boasters, who distinguish themselves from others by their dress; who speak in a high and menacing tone; who bully when they are feared; who fawn when they fail to inspire terror; who are always dangerous when they can strike without risk: in a word, of that kind of coxcombs, known by the appellation of mujos. Is is likewise the country of majas, or of women, who ought not, from the name, to be confounded with those beings that have been just mentioned; and who are as engaging as the majʊs. are repulsive. A free air, an easy turn, a noble mien, a lively, attracting, animated eye, an arch and pleasing smile, a slender shape, neatness about the feet, a light and elegant dress, various graces, an harmonious voice, a natural soft-ness, and expressive gestures, are the attributes of these women, as dangerous as they are lovely. Skilled in the art of seducing, they are acquainted with all the means of gaining their aim; they use it with address, and in general successfully; free in their expressions, and freer still in their behaviour, they allure, they attack, they in vite, and it is very difficult to resist them. Andalusia was formerly the refuge of the Gitanos, that dangerous and perfidious race, irreligious and dishonest vagabonds, without either faith or law, who were the curse of Spain, the disgrace of the nation which suffered them, the terror of the roads and of the country, and whom the government of Spain have at last proscribed by severe laws. They were countenanced by the Andalusian nobility, who were in their turn protected by ́ them; these noblemen furnished them with asylums, where they could secret themselves with their booty from the pursuit of justice; but, in turn, they spared in their incursions their estates, property, persons, servants, and farmers; they were the agents of their vengeance, and afforded them.as many satellites as there were Gi tanos. The Andalusians were formerly celebrated among the Romans for their dexterity; they have often shone upon the theatres of Rome; the young female Andalusians have very frequently attracted there the applause of the multitude by their wanton dances, have captivated the hearts of consuls, tribunes, prætors, senators, over whom they exercised the most absolute dominion. The modern Andalusian women are not degenerated; they are now the most agreeable and attractive dancers in Spain. They are in general well made, their complexion is delicate, their figuro slender, their turn of countenance arch, their eyes black, lively, and full of fire; they are affected but grace. ful. Those of the kingdom of Granada are the best made; and of those, the women of Malaga have the superiority. They smoke more in Andalusia than in any country in Spain; the men have a strong passion for it, and many of the women indulge in it sometimes. In the kingdom of Granada the men think little of their excellent wines, they prefer the mistela and the rosolis, of which they drink to excess; yet it does not appear that they ever suffer any inconve nience from it. In Andalusia there are three maestranzas, or associations of the nobility, the principal end of which appears to be, that of keeping up the ancient spirit of chival ry, but the true motive of which is a combination of pride and the love of pleasure. There is one of them at Granada, one at Seville, and one at Ronda, in the kingdon of Seville. Andalusia has no language pe. culiar to itself. The people speak Castilian, but it is altered, cor. rupted, and very much disfigured by a prodigious mixture of Arabian words; it is still more so by a vicious pronunciation, which renders the language difficult to be understood; it is more gutteral than in the other parts of Spain. It is also more full and thick; a Castilian often finds it difficult to understand an Andalusian, though he speaks the same language as himself. Character, Manners, Customs, &c. of the Murcians. From the sume.] The Murcian scarcely ever goes out of the town which gave him birth; he is not to be seen at courts or in camps, in courts of ustice, universities, or commercial towns; he lives with apathy, a ife of sloth and indifference. He >ats, drinks, sleeps, counts his beads, and drags his cloak to a place where he sits himself down to think of nothing. He does not ven suspect that there is a more greeable life than that which he how leads; that there is a greater extent of knowledge than that which he possesses; that there are bodes happier than that which he Inhabits; nay, he does not think that there exist men more useful than himself. We may conse quently read the history of Spain From one end to the other, without inding any names of Murcians who have distinguished themselves in arms, or in the arts and sciences. The common people participate this indolence; a countryman or a porter employed to carry ever so light a load, if it even weighed no more than twenty-five pounds, would lay it on an ass, and refuse to carry it himself. Ignorance and sloth render the manners of this town disagreeable: prejudices are carried to the greatest height, and the inhabitants are extremely litigious. Each pries into the actions of his neighbour, in order to censure his conduct, whence arises a general distrust; they fear and avoid one another; every one lives by himself and to himself, away from his relations, withont friends or connections: this detached life, foments suspicion, sours the temper, and produces savage habits: dissention makes its way into families, who seldom if ever assemble together. Through curiosity to know foreigners and travellers, the Mur. cian seeks them, but only to avoid them afterwards with pointed af takes a complexion of that safectation. Thus the society here vageness with which the Murcians unaptly reproach their predecessors the Moors. it is confirmed by the testimony This account is not overcharged; cupied the see of this city, and of Cardinal Belluga, who long ocwho was distinguished for his learn ing and virtue; he justly estimated said, and all Murcia knows it, El the character of the Murcians; he cielo y el suelo buenos, el entre suola malo; the sky and the ground are good, it is what is be tween them that is bad*. An ex. ception should be made in favour of the Murcian women; they are mild and affable, and would be bands allow them very little li fond of society, but their husberty, and are always ready to find fault with their conduct, how ever innocent. Character, Manners, Customs, &c. of the Biscayans. [From the same.] There is an opinion pretty gene rally received, that the Biscayans Some historians assert that about and Irish sprang from one origin. two hundred years before the cayaus sailed to Hibernia, landed, Christian æra, a colony of Bis The point of this saying is lost in English, but from the correspondente of customs is preservet in French; Le ciel et le set sont bons, l'entresel mauvais. 3D2 took |