THE SPANISH PEOPLE.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 418, 25 October 1861, Page 3

THE SPANISH PEOPLE.

It was an inexpressible pleasure to me to witness a busy, thriving nationality, utterly distinct from any I had seen before, and, moreover, of a character which strangely fitted into my peculiar tastes. Every wheel of life in these northern parts of Spain, so far as a stranger cau judge by wbat goes on in the streets before his eyes, appears to move freely, while the whole forms a machine absolutely different from any other in Europe. Nothing in common use seemed borrowed from other countries. The dresses of the men, women, priests, porters, and muleteers were peculiar and not ineffective. The cattle were mules and oxen, and did their work excellentlybetter, I dare say, under a driver of Spanish temperament, than a horse would. The animals and the men are notoriously well matched; indeed, the skill of the muleteers, the mastery they showed over their art, and the ingenuity and novelty of their harness and pack-saddle appliances, were an endless astonishment to me. The street architecture was peculiar and exceedingly imposing, with its large square, well-glazed balconies, and numerous awnings. Every act of the people was original —their gait, their implements, and their way of setting to work. I looked into many shops, such as tinkers', blacksmiths', potters', and so forth, and came to the conclusion, speaking very broadly, that if any of their patterns were introduced into England, or that if any of ours were made to replace theirs, the change would involve decided incongruity and lead to questionable improvement. Another subject which struck me at once, and with which, up to the last moment of my stay in Spain, I became no l«ss charmed, was the graceful, supple, and decorous movement of every Spanish woman. It was as constant a pleasure to me to watch their walk, their dress, and their manner, as it is a constant jar to all my notions of beauty to see the vulgar gait, ugly outlines, mean faces and millinery, and ill-assorted colors of the vast majority of the female population that one passes in an English thoroughfare. The hideous bonnet is still wholly absent in these parts, and, in place of it, every Spanish woman, of'every cjass, has her dense, black, uncovered hair divided with a straight, clean, white parting down to the forehead, and beautifully smoothed on either side.— Vocation Tourists and Notes of Travel.