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diff --git a/old/54634-0.txt b/old/54634-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 809e347..0000000 --- a/old/54634-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5765 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of With a Camera in Majorca, by Margaret D'Este - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: With a Camera in Majorca - -Author: Margaret D'Este - -Release Date: April 30, 2017 [EBook #54634] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH A CAMERA IN MAJORCA *** - - - - -Produced by readbueno, Adrian Mastronardi, ellinora and -the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive/American -Libraries.) - - - - - - - Transcriber Notes - - ● Obvious printer errors corrected. - ● Variations in spelling, accents and hyphenation left as in the - original. - ● Italics are represented by underscores surrounding the _italic text_. - ● Bold text is represented by equals signs surrounding the =bold text=. - ● Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPS. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - WITH A CAMERA - IN MAJORCA - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: MAJORCAN COUNTRY GIRLS.] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - WITH A CAMERA - IN MAJORCA - - BY - - MARGARET D’ESTE - - AUTHOR OF “THROUGH CORSICA WITH A CAMERA” - - - _Kennst Du das Land wo die Citronen blühn, - Im dunklen Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn, - Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht, - Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht, - Kennst Du es wohl?_ - - - With Illustrations from Photographs - by Mrs. R. M. King - - - G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS - NEW YORK AND LONDON - The Knickerbocker Press - 1907 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - (_All rights reserved._) - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - Contents - - - PAGE - - PART I - - PALMA AND ITS IMMEDIATE VICINITY—PORTO PI— 1 - BELLVER—CASTLE OF ALARÓ—RAXA - - - PART II - - OUR FIRST TOUR IN THE ISLAND:—FELANITX— 44 - SANTUIRI CASTLE—ORATORIO DE SAN SALVADOR— - PORT OF MANACÓR—DRAGON CAVES—CAVES OF ARTA— - CAP DE PERA - - SECOND TOUR:—ANDRAITX—SAN TELMO—ESTALLENCHS— 66 - BAÑALBUFÁR - - THIRD TOUR:—VALLDEMÓSA—MIRAMAR—SOLLÉR— 78 - FORNALUTX - - FOURTH TOUR:—ALCUDIA—POLLENSA—CASTILLO DEL 94 - REY—MONASTERY OF LLUCH—GORCH BLAU—INCA - - - PART III - - ISLAND OF IVIZA—SANTA EULALIA—PHŒNICIAN 121 - NECROPOLIS—SALT WORKS - - - PART IV - - MINORCA—PORT MAHON—PREHISTORIC ALTARS— 142 - CIUDADÉLA—ROCK DWELLINGS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - List of Illustrations - - - MAJORCAN COUNTRY GIRLS _Frontispiece_ - VIEW OF PALMA _Face p._ 2 - SIGNAL TOWER AT PORTO PI ” 3 - PUERTA SANTA MARGARITA ” 8 - PUERTA SANTA CATALINA ” 9 - VIEW FROM THE GRAND HOTEL ” 10 - SENTRY BOX ON THE RAMPARTS ” 11 - PATIO WITH BANANA CLUMP ” 12 - STREET IN PALMA ” 13 - PATIO WITH WELL ” 14 - PATIO IN THE CALLE ZAVELLA ” 15 - ARAB BATHS ” 16 - DOOR OF MONTESION CHURCH ” 17 - CLOISTERS OF S. FRANCISCO ” 18 - CLOISTERS, UPPER CORRIDOR ” 19 - STAIRCASE OF PRIVATE HOUSE ” 20 - STREET OF THE ALMUDAINA ” 21 - LONJA ” 22 - DOOR OF S. FRANCISCO ” 23 - GIRL WEARING THE REBOSILLO ” 28 - IVIZAN HOUND ” 29 - PATIO IN BELLVER CASTLE ” 32 - IN THE GARDEN OF RAXA ” 33 - CURIOUS OLIVE-TREE ” 36 - GATE-TOWER AT ALARÓ CASTLE ” 37 - CURIOUS OLIVE-TREE ” 38 - CURIOUS OLIVE-TREE ” 39 - A WIND-WHEEL ” 46 - GROUP OF WINDMILLS ” 47 - A WINDMILL ” 52 - SANTUIRI CASTLE, INTERIOR ” 53 - SANTUIRI CASTLE, EXTERIOR ” 54 - ORATORIO OF OUR LADY OF S. SALVADOR ” 55 - VIEW OF ARTA ” 60 - WOMEN WEEDING A WHEATFIELD ” 61 - ENTRANCE TO THE CAVES OF ARTA ” 64 - FISHERMAN IN PHRYGIAN CAP ” 65 - VIEW OF ESTALLENCHS ” 74 - INTERIOR OF HOUSE IN VILLAGE ” 75 - GEORGE SAND’S ROOMS AT VALLDEMÓSA ” 80 - VIEW ON NORTH COAST OF MAJORCA ” 81 - STREET AT THE PORT OF SOLLÉR ” 86 - PALMER FROM THE HOLY LAND ” 87 - VIEW OF SOLLÉR ” 90 - OLD HOUSE AT FORNALUTX ” 91 - COURTYARD AT ALFÁDIA ” 94 - ROMAN GATE, ALCÚDIA ” 95 - BAY OF ALCÚDIA ” 96 - MOORISH WATERWHEEL ” 97 - BAY OF SAN VICENTE ” 100 - ANCIENT COSTUME OF MAJORCA ” 101 - COCK FOUNTAIN AT POLLENSA ” 104 - ROMAN BRIDGE, POLLENSA ” 105 - CASTILLO DEL REY ” 108 - GORCH BLAU ” 109 - PLA DE CUBA ” 116 - VIEW OF THE PLAIN AROUND INCA ” 117 - TOWN OF IVIZA ” 124 - BAY OF IVIZA ” 125 - A PURVEYOR OF DRINKING WATER ” 126 - MOORISH TYPE OF HOUSE ” 127 - IVIZAN PEASANTS ” 130 - VIEW OF SANTA EULÁLIA ” 131 - PORCH OF CHURCH, S. EULÁLIA ” 134 - PHŒNICIAN TOMBS ” 135 - FORTIFIED CHURCH OF SAN JORGE ” 138 - SALT WORKS, IVIZA ” 139 - TALAYOT OF TORELLO, MINORCA ” 148 - PREHISTORIC ALTAR, TALÁTO-DE-DALT ” 149 - OUR GALARÉTA ” 152 - A WILD OLIVE-TREE ” 153 - NAU-DE-TUDONS ” 156 - ALTAR OF TORRE TRENCADO ” 157 - PIGS’ PALACE AND PREHISTORIC PYLON ” 158 - MEGALITHIC DWELLING ” 159 - ROCK-CUT DWELLINGS, SAN MORELL ” 164 - INTERIOR OF ROCK-CUT DWELLING ” 165 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - AUTHOR’S NOTE - - -To those who are unacquainted with the Spanish language, the -pronunciation of Majorcan names is such a stumbling block that the -following phonetic rendering of some of those most frequently met with -may be found useful:— - - Jaime = Ha-eé-may - - Lonja = Loan-ha - - Andraitx = An-dreítsch - - Lluch = Lee-oók - - Sollér = Sole-yair - - Iviza = Evéess-a - - Mahon = M’hone - - Aubercuix = O-ber-cóotsh - - Puig (signifying Peak) = Póotsch - - Bañalbufar = Ban-yal-boo-fár - - Felanitx = Fay-la-néetsch - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: Map of =Majorca=] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PART I - - -In the spring of 1906 we found ourselves with three months to devote to -foreign travel, and after some deliberation we decided to spend them in -exploring those “_Iles oubliées_” of the Mediterranean—Majorca, Minorca, -and Iviza—and in ascertaining for ourselves whether they were worth -visiting and what were the possibilities of a stay there. - -Their names, it is true, lingered in our memories like some familiar -echo from far-off schoolroom days, but with regard to all practical -details we were extremely ignorant, and it was without knowing a soul in -the islands or a soul who had ever been there, that we set out on the -last day of January to visit the Balearics—those homes of famous -slingers. - -A railway journey of twenty-two hours takes the traveller from Paris to -Barcelona by way of Toulouse. The change from France to Spain is an -abrupt one. After racing through flat lands of vine, through sand dunes -and salt lagoons, one crosses the frontier into a dry place of red and -orange hills, where stone villages stand bare and unshrinking in the -strong sunlight, and here and there a palm—solitary outpost of the -south—waves her dusty plumes; and the night falls suddenly upon a sky -crystal clear, as the sun slips in glory behind the strong outline of -the purple Pyrenees. - - * * * * * - -An old writer has left it on record that the thing which chiefly -repented him in his life was having gone anywhere by sea when he might -have gone by land. Since it is decreed, however, that islands shall be -reached by water, one subject of remorse was spared us as we boarded the -steamship _Miramar_ at half-past six on the evening of February 5th. And -so great is the power of comparatives to cheer, that though the worst of -sailors, we derived a certain happiness from the reflection that we had -at any rate chosen the lesser evil in sailing from Barcelona instead of -taking the twenty-four hour crossing from Marseilles. - -Behold us then at dawn gliding into the Bay of Palma and gazing around -us with that undefined expectancy that even in these prosaic days of -travel tinges with romance the landing on an unknown shore. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_From the grounds round the Castle of Bellver a most - lovely view of Palma is obtained through the pine-trees_....” - - (page 31) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _the little harbour of Porto Pi, guarded by an old - Moorish signal tower_.” - - (page 32) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Here is nothing of the wild and rugged mountain scenery that meets the -eye on approaching Ajaccio. Rather like some Fortunate Isle safe from -the reach of tempests does Majorca lie serene and dreaming upon the -water. The great bay opening to the south is enclosed upon the east by a -level shore terminating far out at sea in the blue headland of Cape -Blanco, while closer at hand the western coast line is indented with -many a rocky promontory and wooded headland curving down to the -harbour’s rim. A low cliff of orange sandstone encircles like a sea wall -the head of the bay, and upon this cliff stands Palma, a sea of -colourless houses massed upon the water’s edge and stretching backwards -to the wide plain—deep blue and level well-nigh as the sea itself—that -forms the background to the town and to the great cathedral that towers -high above all other buildings. - -At its eastern rim the plain rises slightly to the double peaks of the -Puig de Randa, far inland; on the west the panorama is closed by a -distant range of sapphire blue mountains, the Sierra of the interior. - -We land, and are rattled quickly away in an omnibus to the Grand Hotel— -but a few minutes distant from the quay. It was no small relief to find -that we were spared a further encounter with the Spanish _douane_, for -the ruthless violation of our trunks at the frontier station of Port Bou -was still fresh in our memory, while the very hour of our sailing from -Barcelona had been marked by a last attempt at extortion. A Customs -official who was patrolling the wharf in all the glory of helmet and -sword, took upon himself to detain a packing case of ours, containing a -saddle, and, on the ground that he could not see what was inside, he -forbade it to be put on board. - -It was late—it was dark—the boat was about to sail, and we had retired -to our cabin. Our hired porter raved and shrieked upon the quay, then -came to us and said we must have the case opened or it would be left -behind. I stumbled upstairs again, my Spanish deserting me at such a -rate that by the time I reached the shore my vocabulary was literally -reduced to the one word, _sombrero_—which, unhappily, did not bear upon -the matter. The _douanier_ was polite, but firm. With shrugged shoulders -he said the Senorita would comprehend that with the best will in the -world he could not see through a deal board. - -At that moment the gleam of a street lamp fell upon an upturned palm -protruding from beneath the military cape—and into it I slipped a -peseta, which produced such a furious access of shrugging and -protestation that for one brief moment I thought I had insulted the man. -But on looking round I saw that all was well, porter and case being -already half-way on deck—and with a sense of deep annoyance at having -tipped a person I would willingly have fined, I followed them and went -to bed. - -On the Palma quay all is peace. By a simple arrangement involving a -certain annual subsidy to the Customs officials, the proprietor of the -Grand Hotel has ensured protection for his guests’ luggage, which -escapes even the most nominal examination. The hotel omnibus merely -draws up for a moment in front of the _Douane_ on entering the town; the -officials, armed with long probing rods, saunter out, open the carriage -door and wish us good day—and on we go again. - -The town is still half asleep, and as we drive up to the hotel its -shutters are being unshipped by yawning faquins. We find a large and -handsome five-storied building with an imposing façade, and balconied -windows that look out upon the small central square of the town. The -interior conveys a truly southern impression of silence and space, due -to the great expanses of marble pavement and to the cool stone walls and -passages which prevent the conveyance of sound. The dining hall is -immense; so are the lobbies that run round the central well of the -house, and off which the bedrooms open. We go upstairs, and within an -hour of our arrival have become _pensionnaires_ of the hotel at 10s. a -head a day, and are installed in two excellent rooms on the third floor, -comfortably furnished, fitted with electric bells and light, heated by -hot water, and reached by a lift, while our wants are being ministered -to by a cheerful white-capped chambermaid answering to the name of -Dolores. - - * * * * * - -With brains still jumbled by travel it is almost impossible to realise, -in the midst of such up-to-date comfort, that we are really and actually -in Majorca—an island that might, for all we knew to the contrary a few -weeks ago, have proved an inhospitable rock. Memories recur of nights -spent _en route_ at Paris and Toulouse, and we go to the window half- -expecting to see a vista of wide boulevards and to hear the familiar -clanging of electric trams as they glide up and down some arcaded street -of cafés and shopfronts. - -We are sharply recalled from such visions: a sea of pale yellow-ochre -tiles, unbroken, though intersected by narrow crevasse-like streets, -stretches down to a strip of brilliant blue water in the harbour below. -On flat house tops lines of wet linen flap wildly in sun and wind. -Jutting up above the mass of irregular roofs are fantastic turrets and -aviaries, painted blue and red, the homes of innumerable pigeons now -wheeling in flocks over the town, their wings singing as they cleave the -air above our heads. From scattered belfrys and towers unmelodious bells -clash out wildly for a few moments and then relapse into silence; and -like a running accompaniment to the murmur of the streets is heard the -gobble, gobble of many turkeys, and the bright eye of one of these birds -is seen watching us fixedly through the Venetian shutters of a small -upper room across the way. No, truly! this is all very unlike a northern -city. - -Majorca is in fact a stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, where the -East and West—rather than the north and south of her geographical -position—may be said to meet. - -She has had many masters in her day: the earliest colonists of whom we -have any record were the sea-faring Rhodians, who were said to build “as -though for eternity.” But not the faintest trace of their occupation -survives. Their successors were the Carthaginians, who left footprints -in Minorca by founding Mahon, the capital, the reputed birthplace of -Hannibal. Then came the Romans, who in 123 B.C. founded Palma and -Pollensa; Balearic slingers fought under Julius Cæsar in Gaul as they -had done under Hannibal at Cannæ. Five hundred years later the islands -were captured by the Vandals—were retaken by the Byzantine general -Belisarius, and fell subsequently with the greater part of Spain into -the hands of the Visigoths. - -In the eighth century came the resistless tide of the Saracens, who held -the island for an uninterrupted period of nearly five hundred years, and -might have kept it longer had they not strained the patience of their -Christian neighbours to breaking point by their piratical habits. They -had become such a menace to the marine commerce of Europe that the then -Pope preached a crusade against the Balearic bandits, and an allied -fleet sailed from Pisa and Catalonia in the twelfth century. The -pirates’ nest was smoked out, Palma succumbing after a long and stubborn -siege. The allies, however, proved unable to retain their prize, and the -island relapsed to the Moors, who so far took their lesson to heart as -to somewhat amend their ways. - -But the great assault was yet to come. On Sept. 6, 1229, Don Jaime I— -King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona—destined to live in history by the -title of _El Conquistador_, set sail for Palma with 150 galleys and -18,000 soldiers, besides a great company of Spanish knights aflame with -religious zeal, the lust of conquest, and the hope of glory. We are told -that the Christian host encountered a great storm on the way, and that -they were grievously sick before they landed near Porto Pi to the west -of the town. - -Here the infidels attacked them, but were beaten back and besieged -within the city, which fell some three months later after a desperate -resistance, and was entered by the victorious Spanish army on December -31, 1229. - -From that memorable day may be said to date modern Palma. Everything -around one testifies to the break that separates the history of the town -since the conquest from the old period of Arab domination. The names of -the streets immortalise the Conqueror and succeeding sovereigns or -notables of the invading race. The scutcheons that ornament the public -buildings display the arms granted to Palma by Don Jaime—a castle in the -sea, with a palm-tree issuant, quartered with the arms of Aragon and -surmounted by the Bat, cognisance of the Counts of Barcelona. - -The town houses of the aristocracy are the old palaces of the nine noble -families whose ancestors accompanied the Conqueror and settled in the -island. The Governor’s residence stands where did the Moorish sheikh’s -palace; the Cathedral occupies the site of the principal mosque. So -thorough were the invaders in destroying or converting to other uses the -Moorish buildings, so fierce was their Christian zeal—“which spared not -even stones”—that hardly a trace remains of the oriental Palma, that -city crowned with minarets and peopled with 80,000 souls, which attained -under the Moors a glory and magnificence that have never since been -equalled. - - * * * * * - -The Palma of the present day is a prosperous town of some 60,000 -inhabitants. She has burst her ancient limits, and her eastern outskirts -are thick with factories and windmills extending to the plain, while -outside her western fortifications has sprung up a large residential -suburb, and the wooded slopes above the bay are thronged for miles with -villas and summer residences. Only the town that lies inside the walls -is the old Palma, and this—in its main features—has probably altered -little since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The gateway by which Don Jaime is said to have made - his triumphal entry into Palma in the year 1229._” - - (page 10) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The Riéra is seen flowing beneath the bridge that leads - from the gate of Santa Catalina to the suburb of the same - name._” - - (page 9) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -A wide thoroughfare divides the town into the upper and lower _Villas_, -and starting from the harbour, takes a right angle near the Grand Hotel -and makes its exit through the Porte Jésus in the north-west walls. This -is the principal artery of the town, and was originally—like the Rambla -of many another Spanish city—the bed by which the river found its way to -the sea; but in the year 1403 a disastrous flood, causing the loss of -hundreds of houses and lives, so alarmed the inhabitants that the river -was turned from its course and conducted into the moat that surrounds -the town. Spanish rivers are proverbial for their lack of water, and it -is difficult to credit the Riéra—which in its normal state suggests -nothing more dangerous than a gravel pit after rain—with such powers of -destruction in bygone days. - -The gigantic scale of Palma’s encircling fortifications may perhaps best -be realised by a glance at the accompanying picture, where the Riéra is -seen flowing beneath the bridge that leads from the gate of Santa -Catalina to the suburb of the same name. - -The fortifications date from very different periods. The completed -design of moat and rampart as it now stands was originated in the -sixteenth century and only finished a hundred years ago; but remains of -the old Moorish defences still exist, though they suffered severely in -the great siege of 1229, and were strengthened and largely rebuilt by -the Spanish conquerors. - -A picturesque gateway on the north of the town, now called Santa -Margarita, but dubbed by the Moors the Gate of the Christians, is -pointed out as having been the one by which Don Jaime made his -triumphant entry into Palma. This gateway, like the other survivals of -the ancient fortifications, stands some way within the _Muralla_ of the -present day, which encompasses the town as with a raised highway—one -might almost say a common, so incredibly vast are the earthworks within -the walls. Hither the townsfolk ascend at evening to enjoy the sea -breeze and the glorious view over land and sea. Cows graze peacefully -along the ramparts, surrounded by children at play; and wheeling flights -of pigeons execute aerial manœuvres overhead, while squads of new -recruits march unendingly backwards and forwards from morning to night -in the dry bed of the moat below, and the bastions re-echo the sharp -words of command. - -The moat on the eastern side is devoted to rope-making, and there men -are seen walking backwards all day long, spinning as they go, and the -dull thud of heavy mallets is heard as they beat out the bundles of -esparto grass. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _the_ Plaza del Mercádo, _lying in the shadow of the - old hexagonal tower of San Nicolas, and flanked by the - great balconied house of the Zafortéza family_.” - - (page 12) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_At intervals along the ramparts stand ancient sentry - boxes of weathered sandstone_....” - - (page 11) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -On the southern ramparts overlooking the harbour and immediately beneath -the cathedral, is the broad terraced walk that forms Palma’s most -beautiful promenade. At intervals along the low parapet stand ancient -sentry-boxes of weathered sandstone, and one looks past them out to sea, -with a bird’s-eye view of the harbour and its shipping backed by the -white suburb of Santa Catalina and the pinewoods of Bellver. Above us -rise clustered houses, with here and there a group of slender palm-trees -leaning from some garden, and crowning all stands the great cathedral, -rich with pinnacles and flying buttresses, and turning to the harbour a -cliff-like face of sandstone deep tanned by centuries of sun and sea. - -Small wonder that the townspeople love to stroll on their beautiful -_Muralla de Mar_. It is probably the only portion of the ramparts that -will survive the work of destruction now proceeding—for the doom of the -fortifications is sealed. The last part they played in history was -during the Spanish war of succession in 1715, when Palma hotly espoused -the cause of the Austrian archduke and was reduced by General Aspheld -with an army of 10,000 men. Modern science has rendered the old walls -useless as a defence—modern hygiene considers them an undesirable -barrier to fresh air. - -And so they are to go. - -For the last thirty years the work of pulling them down has proceeded -with but occasional pauses from lack of funds. Already a wide breach has -been made on the side next the sea; to the north a large section of the -moat has been filled in and converted into a square with gardens; and -workmen are now engaged in throwing down the eastern walls. The outer -casing of masonry is being gradually stripped off and the vast -earthworks shovelled into the moat. To the onlooker it seems as if ants -had been set to remove a mountain as he watches one trolley-load of -rubbish after another slide down to the glacis below without making the -slightest perceptible difference. - -Yet it is only a question of a few years before walls and moat alike -shall have vanished. Gone will be the old entrance gates with their -scutcheons and turrets and their deep archways of black shadow where -lurks the _douanier_ watching for his prey. Gone will be the bridges -with their ceaseless stream of passengers plying to and from the town. -Gone—alas! will be one of Palma’s most picturesque features. - - * * * * * - -A cheerful scene greets the eye of the stranger who starts out on a -voyage of exploration the morning after his arrival at the Grand Hotel. -Facing him, as he emerges into the street, is the _Plaza del Mercádo_, -lying in the shadow of the old hexagonal tower of the church of San -Nicolas, and flanked by the great balconied house of the Zafortéza -family. If it happen to be a Saturday morning a busy throng is -congregated on the square; the ground is strewn with displays of glass -and crockery, of coarse green and brown pottery and graceful waterjars, -while the sellers of young orange-trees, of toys and jewellery, of cheap -rocking chairs and folding trestle bedsteads, vie with one another in -attracting the attention of possible purchasers. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The_ patio _in some houses is merely a plain courtyard - enclosed by whitewashed walls, with perhaps a clump of - bananas growing in the centre_.” - - (page 14) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Long flights of steps lead to the higher part of the town, - some broad and shallow, the playground of innumerable - boys_....” - - (page 13) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Long flights of steps lead to the higher part of the town—some broad and -shallow, the playground of innumerable boys; others steep and so narrow -that the tall houses almost meet overhead. - -The cobbled streets of the oldest and most aristocratic quarters of -Palma resemble ravines, and are barely wide enough to admit of the -passage of the heavy two-wheeled carts that come lumbering through, -scraping either wall with their axles and compelling foot passengers to -seek the shelter of the nearest archway. An oriental atmosphere of -mystery hangs about the massive, fortress-like walls of the great houses -that tower on either side, turning to the outer world a blank and -inscrutable face of reserve that offers not the faintest indication of -the life existing within. External windows are represented by a few -heavily-barred apertures high overhead, but if you chance to find the -great nail-studded _porte-cochère_ standing open you are at perfect -liberty to go in and look about you. - -The universal plan of all the better houses is that inherited from the -Arabs—of a _patio_ or open courtyard in the centre of the building, from -which a staircase ascends to the dwelling rooms on the first floor. In -some houses this _patio_ consists of nothing more than a plain courtyard -enclosed by whitewashed walls, with perhaps a clump of bananas growing -in the centre; but in the palaces inhabited by the nobility and dating -back some centuries the courtyard is frequently of great beauty and -constitutes the chief architectural feature of the house. - -The residence of the Oleza family in the _Calle de Moréy_ has a fine -courtyard in Rénaissance style; handsome pillars of red marble support -the vaultings of the house, and the gallery that spans the marble -staircase rests upon a wide flattened arch bearing the family coat of -arms. The ground floor is devoted to stables, coach-house, and domestic -offices, and in the court stands that characteristic feature of Moorish -and Spanish _patios_—the well, from which the household draws its water -supply. The bucket is lowered from a wrought-iron support in the form of -a crozier, and on being brought up brimming its contents are upset into -the font-shaped receptacle of stone close by, from which they flow -through an orifice into the water jar placed on a slab below. - -The palace of the Marquis de Vivot in the _Calle Zavella_ is not as -ancient as many another, dating as it does from the beginning of the -eighteenth century only, but its _patio_ is the largest in Palma and -certainly one of the most beautiful. It is approached by fine _portes- -cochères_ and has in the centre a paved space where carriages stand at -the foot of the great staircase. From eight beautiful marble columns -spring the graceful arches that uphold the house, and in brilliant -relief against the black shadows of the recess stands out the clear red -of two immense oil-jars containing palms. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_In the court stands that characteristic feature of Moorish - and Spanish_ patios—_the well_.” - - (page 14) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The_ patio _in the palace of the Marquis de Vivot is one - of the most beautiful in Palma_....” - - (page 14) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -I am not competent to enter into the details of wrought work and -sculpture with which the _patios_ of Palma abound, but even to the -visitor unversed in architecture a voyage of discovery in the older -quarters is full of interest. The meanest back street may produce a -richly-carved window frame or a staircase with a stone balustrade of -quaint and original design. The _Calle de Sol_ boasts a house front in -purest Rénaissance style, five big windows on the first floor being -wreathed in gargoyles and strange stone monsters. - -In the _Calle de la Almudaina_ we come upon an ancient machicolated -archway spanning the street. This once formed part of the wall that -encircled the very kernel of the old Moorish city, and is the only -survival of the five gateways that afforded entrance to the Citadel. - -Not far from here is the equally ancient Moorish Bath, a small building -some twenty feet square standing in an orange garden. It is in the -Byzantine style, and is built of small bricks scarcely thicker than the -intervening layers of mortar. The circular basin which no doubt occupied -the floor of the building has disappeared, and the interior contains -nothing but twelve much-worn pillars standing in a square, the eight -centre ones supporting the cupola of the roof, while the four corner -columns are by an ingenious—and I believe very unusual—arrangement -omitted from the circle and left standing back in the angles of the -building. - -An air of incredible age pervades this blackened and cobwebbed relic of -Islamism that lingers, unaltered and half forgotten, in the very heart -of the Christian city. It forms—with the Almudaina arch and the signal -tower of Porto Pi—the only authentic memorial of the race which occupied -Majorca for a period of five hundred years. - - * * * * * - -The churches of Palma are many. One of the oldest is that of Monte Sion, -which is said to have adopted both the site and the name of a still -older Jewish synagogue: as one skirts its walls, huge, blank, and -dungeon-like, one is quite unprepared for its exquisite doorway—one of -the richest pieces of sculpture in Palma. It is a fine specimen of -rococo, dating from 1683, and constituting in its delicacy of detail and -beauty of proportion one of the finest of the many beautiful church -doors for which Palma is famed. - -Scarcely less magnificent is the west front of the great church of San -Francisco, with its immense doorway in late Rénaissance style, -surmounted by an exquisite rose window. This church contains the tomb of -a scion of a noble Catalonian house—the famous Rámon Lull, warrior, -scholar, and saint—who in the reign of Jaime II. founded a college for -the instruction of twelve monks in oriental tongues, and was himself -martyred in Algeria by the infidels whom he went forth to convert. His -body was secured by some Genoese fishermen, who set sail for Italy with -their precious burden; but when off the coast of Majorca their boat -refused to advance till the martyr’s body was brought on shore, where it -was laid to rest in its native soil by the monks of San Francisco. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_An air of incredible age pervades this blackened and cobwebbed - relic of Islamism_....” - - (page 16) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The exquisite doorway of Montesion is one of the richest - pieces of sculpture in Palma._” - - (page 16) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -The tomb is a beautiful Gothic monument of red marble, but the effigy of -Rámon Lull, surrounded by fretted canopies and fantastic heraldic -beasts, is only dimly visible in the deep gloom of the church. - -A trap door leads down to an immense crypt, where a huddled-up human -skeleton is pointed out and the story told of a bloody tragedy enacted -in the church in the year 1490. Two of Palma’s greatest families were at -deadly feud, and while attending the ceremonies of the _Jour des Morts_, -upon some slight pretext came to blows. The church became a slaughter- -house, and before swords were sheathed more than three hundred dead and -wounded were left on the field of battle. - -Whether the skeleton in the crypt is one of those that fell that -memorable day may be doubted; but it is not improbable, for the church -and its monastery were founded shortly after the conquest—by monks of -the order of St. Francis of Assisi—and were from earliest times one of -the chief places of burial for the nobility. The walls of the adjoining -cloisters are thick with scutcheons and memorial tablets to those who -were once the greatest in the land. - -A beautiful colonnade of slender Gothic pillars encloses the monks’ -garden, where two geese—sole occupants of the _Paradiso_—chatter angrily -at the intruder. No other sound but the soft rustlings of palm branches -and the whispers of the wind in the orange-trees breaks the silence of -the long galleries and deserted cells. - -From the upper corridor with its broken pavement chequered with dazzling -patches of sunshine one looks out from under the deep overshadowing -eaves to where the cathedral spires rise dim and distant across half the -city. The atmosphere of infinite peace that pervades these cloisters—the -sense of seclusion, although so near the busy life outside the walls— -must have appealed deeply to the brown-frocked friars who once paced -these beautiful walks “revolving many memories.” - -Bitter must have been the day of expulsion when this monastery, like all -the others in the island, was suppressed in 1835. - -The church of San Nicolas contains a statue of Santa Catalina, a -Majorcan saint of great fame, and—incorporated in the outer wall, is the -rock on which she was sitting in the bed of the Riéra at the moment when -she was informed of her admission into the convent of St. Magdalen. The -interiors of these southern churches are so dark that it is with -difficulty possible to make out the statues that occupy the side -chapels; here may be seen a black Madonna and child of miraculous power; -there a group of saints laden with ex-votos in the shape of flat silver -images of men and women and models of human limbs, hung upon their arms -by grateful devotees; in another niche is a life-sized Christ upon the -cross—wearing a fringed crimson petticoat to the knees and a broad -silver girdle with a bunch of artificial roses stuck in it, while matted -locks of real hair straggle out from beneath the crown of thorns. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_In the ancient monastery of S. Francisco a beautiful - colonnade of slender gothic pillars encloses the monks’ - garden_....” - - (page 18) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_From the upper corridor one looks out to where the - cathedral spires rise dim and distant across half the city._” - - (page 18) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -In the Cathedral the darkness is so intense by contrast with the -blinding light outside that it is some considerable time before one’s -eyes become sufficiently accustomed to the gloom to perceive the details -of the rich interior. The roof of the nave rises 150 feet above the -level of the pavement, and is divided from the side aisles by fourteen -great columns 70 feet in height, slender and stately as the shafts of -forest trees. High overhead—where the delicate ribs of the vaulting -cross—are carved the armorial shields of knights, who for this privilege -paid heavy sums in bygone days towards the building of the church. Eight -chapels, gorgeous with statues and gilding, occupy either side aisle, -and above them are Gothic windows—so little suited to this land of -fierce light that they have had to be bricked up, with the exception of -a few tiny apertures through which the sun shoots golden arrows. The -faint light that penetrates the rich rose windows above the choir lies -in jewelled stains upon the pavement, and does little to dispel the -solemn gloom. - -From the dim east end, far away, where wreaths of incense rise and the -high altar is outlined in brilliant points of light, comes the distant -chanting of priests and the response of choir boys—and suddenly a great -rush of harmony fills the cathedral as the voice of the organ sinks and -swells like a storm-wind among the columns, and dies trembling away in -the uttermost recesses of the great building. - -Worshippers move to and fro in constant succession; men spread their -handkerchiefs upon the stone floor and remain upon their knees in -prayer, wholly oblivious of the coming and going around them. Women, -dressed in deepest black, kneel motionless at the _grilles_ of the -various chapels, where lamps burn with a dull red spark before the image -of saint or Saviour. A stately _Suisse_ in wig and gown paces up and -down and receives the visitor desirous of seeing the treasures of the -sacristy; here are exhibited heavy silver candelabra, embroidered -vestments, jewelled crosses, and reliquaries—and in company with these -may be seen, bedizened with tawdry velvet and sham ermine, the mummified -body of Majorca’s second king, Don Jaime II., who died in the year 1311. - -It was in the old church of Santa Eulalia, not far away, that in 1256 a -general assembly was called to proclaim this Don Jaime—the second son of -the Conqueror—heir to the crown of Majorca, his elder brother’s -inheritance being the throne of Aragon, which carried with it a merely -nominal suzerainty over the island kingdom. Before long, however, a -dispute arose over the terms of allegiance due to the King of Aragon, -and in 1285 Don Jaime was dispossessed of his kingdom by Alfonso III. -for thirteen years, after which time it was restored to him by the -usurper’s son, and retained till his death. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The_ patios _of Palma abound in sculpture and wrought-iron - work_....” - - (page 15) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The machicolated archway spanning the street of the - Almudaina is the only survival of the five gateways that - afforded entrance to the Citadel._” - - (page 15) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -He was succeeded by his son Sancho, who died without children, and the -crown then passed to his uncle, the fourth son of the Conqueror, and -through him to Don Jaime III., the last King of Majorca, who fell upon -the field of Lluchmayor in 1349, in a last attempt to regain the crown -wrested from him by Pedro IV. of Aragon. - -So ended—within little more than a hundred years of its creation—the -independent monarchy founded by Jaime the Conqueror, and the islands -have from that time been incorporated with the kingdom of Aragon. - -In the fine sixteenth-century town hall is preserved a full-length -portrait of the Conqueror, which represents him as a grave-faced man -with a pointed beard and hair cut square upon the shoulders, robed in -crimson mantle, ermine collar, crown, and sword. For many centuries it -was the custom to celebrate the anniversary of the capture of Palma by -exhibiting this portrait outside the town hall, surmounted by the royal -standard of Aragon and surrounded by the portraits of eminent Majorcans. - - * * * * * - -The town contains innumerable other features of interest, but before -leaving this portion of my subject I must not omit a mention of the -_Lónja_—the Exchange—a large building standing near the harbour, and one -of the first objects to attract the attention of the traveller as he -nears the quay. Its keep-like walls and turreted parapets are usually -the subject of much admiration, but I must confess that to us the great -building seemed too symmetrically square and too conspicuously new to -awaken in us any enthusiasm for its exterior. - -Severely rectangular it undoubtedly is—but its appearance of newness is -misleading, for it dates from the fifteenth century, when it was the -custom for Spanish towns to vie with one another in the splendour of -their Exchanges; its claim, therefore, to be one of the finest _Lónjas_ -in Spain is a legitimate source of pride. - -It is said to have been begun in 1409, when the merchants of Palma, -having rendered the King of Aragon great aid in the conquest of -Sardinia, received permission to levy a tax on all the outgoing and -incoming wares of foreigners and pirate persons; and so large was the -sum accruing from this protective toll that after applying part of it to -the defence of their commerce at sea they devoted the remainder to -building this splendid Exchange—a testimony to future generations of the -extent and prosperity of Palma’s trade in the Middle Ages. - -The interior is extremely striking, containing nine fluted and twisted -columns of great height, their delicate groinings spreading in palm-like -tracery over the roof. The building has long been disused, and the light -that enters as the shutters are flung wide of the great windows looking -out to sea discloses nothing but some old paintings upon the walls and a -jumble of sculptured fragments piled upon the stone seats that surround -the hall. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The interior of the Lonja—Palma’s ancient Exchange—contains - six fluted columns of great height_....” - - (page 22) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The great church of S. Francisco has a doorway in late - Rénaissance style_....” - - (page 16) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -It will perhaps be thought strange that a town so comparatively easy of -access as Palma, and possessing so much to attract the artist and the -antiquarian, should be so little known to the world at large. Yet if we -reflect how small a distance from the beaten track will suffice to -deflect ninety-nine per cent of the travelling public, it is no subject -for wonder that Majorca is still an unknown isle. - -A certain number of travellers pass through Palma on their way to and -from Algiers, but the island in general is as yet barely aware of the -existence of the tourist, and he is quite a recent institution even in -Palma itself, where the opening of the Grand Hotel three years ago may -be said to have inaugurated a new era. - -Viewed in the light of a tourist resort the old town is so far behind -the times that she brings me in mind of some old-fashioned châtelaine -who with dignity offers her guests of her best, without in any way -altering her mode of life to suit the standard of modern requirements. I -can recall but two shopkeepers in Palma who knew any language but -Spanish, and at the Bank a special clerk is hastily summoned if an -Englishman chances to enter the door. An English church—the earliest -sign of a recurring visitors’ season—is as yet only represented by a -mission-room in the suburb of Santa Catalina, where the Church of -England service is read every Sunday by a Wesleyan minister. - -To the globe-trotter it will come as a surprise to find that he is no -longer under the world-wide ægis of Thomas Cook, and that that name by -which he has hitherto conjured conveys nothing whatever to a Majorcan -official. The foreigner who visits the remoter villages of the interior -is still looked upon as something of a curiosity; he will have to drive -in native carriages, live on native food, and bid a temporary farewell -to that cosmopolitan standard of comfort provided for all who travel the -world’s highways. But he will at least be sure of one thing—an unfailing -welcome by an island race noted for its charming manners. - -I think the courtesy of the natives is one of the first things to strike -the new-comer in Palma. Many a time as we rambled about the labyrinthine -streets of the town did a Spanish lady come out of her way to ask if she -could be of any use in directing us; in any difficulty you may apply -without hesitation to one of the common soldiers with which the town -swarms, and with all the instinct of a well-bred man he will immediately -do his utmost to be of assistance, nor would his own colonel more deeply -resent the inference of inferiority conveyed by the offer of a tip. - -The bow with which a native gentleman asks you to enter his _patio_ and -photograph what you will is only equalled by that of the peasant who -rises from table at a wayside cottage to ask the passing stranger to be -seated and to share his meal. - -In a country where manners cease to form a distinction between the -classes social intercourse becomes easy and natural. A market-woman will -enter the democratic tram, dragging with her an unmanageable and -overflowing basket, and the gentleman seated next her will without -hesitation accept half of it on his knees, hand it after her when she -rises, and raise his hat as she turns to thank him. There is neither -thought of condescension on his part nor of presumption on hers. - -School attendance is not compulsory in Majorca, and many of the peasants -with whom we came in contact were wholly illiterate; yet in no instance -had the proverbial twopence extra for manners been spared in their -education. I remember how when talking to a muleteer we once regretted -our inability to speak Spanish more fluently. - -“Ah, but the Señora speaks well!” he said quickly; “think how difficult -I should find it if it was I who had to learn _her_ language!” And an -old man chimed in, “And I, Señora, cannot even write!” - -The _patois_ spoken by the peasants is a dialect composed of the old -Catalonian tongue alloyed with a strong dash of Provençal French, and it -bears very little resemblance to the Spanish of Castile, which became -the language of the educated classes after the union of Ferdinand and -Isabella. The latter is, however, the tongue taught in the schools, and -the stranger who can speak “castelláno” will find himself understood -throughout the Balearic Islands, barring by a few of the older and more -illiterate peasants. - -The people of Palma are so little accustomed to Spanish-speaking -foreigners that some of the shopkeepers cannot be brought to mention the -price of an article to their customers, but persist in counting out the -required sum into their own hand and exhibiting it in dumb show—to the -exasperation of a certain German lady who objected to being “treated -like a child.” - -The shopping expeditions of more or less speechless tourists must -necessarily be productive of many a laughable incident, yet I never saw -a native betray the slightest amusement at the mistakes committed; I -have indeed had my hand wrung with heartfelt sympathy by a good woman to -whom I was struggling to explain myself. - -The chief shopping centre for visitors is perhaps the _Platería_—a -narrow street occupied by working silver-smiths—where gold and silver -chains are measured off and sold by the palm, and bits of old enamel and -peasant jewellery, in the shape of antique pendants and crosses, are -displayed in the little windows. Amongst the most fascinating objects -are clusters of silver-gilt buttons set with amethyst and garnet, such -as are worn by the countrywomen on _fête_ days, and dozens of minute -silver charms representing baskets, lanterns, tubs, and other familiar -objects, reduced to the scale of a mouse’s belongings; while hanging -everywhere, of all sizes and shapes, are the silver chain purses used by -every Majorcan, and exported by the thousand—to be sold at double the -price by fashionable jewellers in London. - -Few foreigners leave Palma without a souvenir in the form of a piece of -old-fashioned faïence or majolica—the latter an imitation of the Arab -lustre ware—manufactured at the neighbouring _fabrique_, along with the -pretty glazed tiles, originally introduced from Valencia, with which the -Majorcans face the steps of their staircases. Other local industries -include lace-making and embroidery, basket-weaving, the plaiting of -complicated string seats and backs to the native chairs, tanning and -shoemaking—in which latter branch a large export trade is carried on -with South America. Shoes are cheap, and it is quite noticeable how -neatly shod the Majorcans of all classes are. - -The Majorcans are good workers, and their charges moderate. The scale of -wages is low, but so is the cost of living, and it would be difficult to -find a more contented and prosperous-looking race than these islanders. - -Extreme cleanliness is one of their most salient characteristics; they -are noted too for their good looks, and it is indeed rare to find a -plain face among them; and this, combined with a sensible, cheerful -expression and a natural talent for effective colouring in dress, -renders them a remarkably picturesque and attractive people. The country -girls still retain the muslin coif, or _rebosillo_, which once formed -the universal female headgear, but in Palma this has given way to a -handkerchief worn somewhat far back on the head over beautifully dressed -hair. - -Scarlet skirts are much in vogue among the working classes, but, on the -whole, soft half-tones are preferred to the primary colours, and a crowd -of market-women presents a gay kaleidoscopic scene in which lemon- -yellows, sage-greens, salmon-pinks, brown-reds, and turquoise blues are -worn side by side with charming and harmonious effect. - - * * * * * - -In the early morning the big market-place in the upper town is the -_rendezvous_ of countless housewives, bargaining busily, basket on arm, -for the day’s provisions. Under the long arcades bordering the cobbled -square are installed the sellers of fruit and vegetables, with plaited -ropes of garlic, pans of fresh olives, strings of scarlet capsicums and -bitter tomatoes, hampers of newly picked oranges, bunches of pale -Majorcan dates and still paler bananas, and masses of figs turned out -_en bloc_ from big rush baskets lined with leaves. A neighbouring booth -supplies flat fig cakes stuffed with almonds and aniseed, and slices of -dark red _Carne de Membrillo_—an excellent quince preserve, in -consistency like damson cheese. - -From the fish market, where the morning’s catch is displayed upon marble -slabs, rises a very babel of voices. Loud and shrill is the clamour of -the fishwives as they detain the passer-by with a scaly hand, and seek -to repair the mischief with a no less scaly apron. Crabs and lobsters -lie sprawling upon their backs, and wave stemmy legs amongst marine -creatures never seen upon a hotel table—giant shell-fish, octopuses -lying in knotted heaps, jelly-like squids, ugly thorny monsters who are -all head, and gorgeous little fishes coloured like macaws—scarlet, blue, -yellow, or glittering with metallic greens and reds. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The country girls still retain the pretty muslin coif or_ - rébosillo....” - - (page 27) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_These dogs can boast a longer pedigree than any dogs - under the sun, for they are descended from the hunting dogs - of the old Egyptians_....” - - (page 29) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -By midday all will have been sold, and the market square given up to -tall, cadaverous-looking dogs that saunter round the deserted stalls and -pick up what fragments remain. Gaunt, listless, and apparently starving, -these dogs of Palma attract the attention of every new-comer; and thanks -to a fellow-guest at the Grand Hotel, our own interest in them was -specially aroused. This Swiss scientist had come to Majorca to study the -domestic animals of the island, and the result of his researches had -proved a theory he had long held—that somewhere on the shores of the -Mediterranean would be found descendants of the dogs of ancient Egypt. - -This island breed, known locally as Iviza dogs—but dubbed by the -unappreciative foreigner “degenerate greyhounds” and “pariahs”—can boast -a longer pedigree than any dogs under the sun, for they are descended -from the much-prized hunting dogs of the old Egyptians. Introduced ages -ago by Greek or Phœnician colonists, they are now peculiar to the -Balearics, where they are found in great numbers. - -They are the size of a large greyhound, with smooth coats usually yellow -and white. Nothing will fatten them: the pampered favourite of a great -house is as lean as his scavenging _confrère_ of the market-place, and, -like him, he wears a look of melancholy weariness not unfitting an old, -old race that has existed since the dawn of history. The chief -characteristic of the breed is their long, pointed ears, which when -pricked stand stiffly erect, and never droop as do those of the somewhat -similar hounds imported from Algeria and Morocco. These ears, with the -long, narrow muzzle, give the dogs a striking resemblance to the jackal- -headed god Anubis of Egyptian sculpture. - -They are mild, timid creatures, quite useless as watchdogs, but popular -as pets, and—like their original ancestors—much valued for purposes of -the chase. Landowners keep them for coursing hares and rabbits, of which -they catch extraordinary quantities; and so devoted are the dogs to this -sport that those belonging to peasants on large estates have frequently -to be hobbled, and are seen wearing steel bracelets on their fore and -hind leg, connected with a light chain. - -Another interesting relic of a bygone race is seen in the survival in -the Balearics—so our Swiss professor pointed out—of the Greek type of -horse familiar to travellers who have seen the statues of Balbus—_père -et fils_—in the Naples Museum. These animals are not very common, but -here and there one comes across a horse differing utterly from the -prevailing Andalusian type. Round and compact, often black in colour, -and with stiff mane and tail, these horses have a remarkably arched -crest and a slightly convex outline of nose—the profile of head and neck -being represented rather by the segment of a circle than by the right -angle formed at the apex of the skull by the lines of the slender -Spanish horse. - - * * * * * - -Mules are largely used in the Balearics, Majorca being especially -celebrated for its breed. They are big, handsome animals, unusually -docile, owing to the gentle treatment they receive, and a good pair of -carriage mules is more sought after and more valuable than is a pair of -the best Continental horses. Nearly all the carriages of the Palma -gentry are drawn by fast-trotting mules, and towards evening a perfect -procession of _galarétas_ wends its way westward along the sea road, -each with its match pair of strong, sure-footed beasts that make nothing -of the hills to be encountered. - -Half an hour’s drive along this road brings one to the wooded knoll -beyond Santa Catalina, on which stands the old castle of Bellver, a -well-preserved thirteenth-century fortress, whose yellow walls rise -above the surrounding pines, foursquare and stately. In olden days it -was used as a residence by the Kings of Majorca—in later times it served -as a state prison—and now it stands empty, the last use it was put to -having been as an astronomical station for the English expedition which -went out to Palma in 1905 to observe the solar eclipse. From the grounds -round the castle a most lovely view of the town is obtained through the -pine-trees, and it is amongst these woods that a new hotel is now being -built, to be opened this year under the name of Hotel Victoria. It will -be under the same management as the Grand Hotel in Palma, and being -connected with the town by a service of trams it will no doubt prove -extremely popular with visitors who prefer life amid country -surroundings. - -A mile or so beyond Bellver we come to the little harbour of Porto Pi, -the mouth of the creek guarded by an old Moorish signal tower, now -converted into a lighthouse, though still used for signalling purposes. - -It is not till we get beyond Porto Pi that we reach the real country and -find ourselves amongst olives and asphodel; and here the Spanish ladies -descend from their carriages and stroll bareheaded along the road—the -only form of exercise in which they indulge. The Majorcan roads are upon -the whole very good, though dusty in dry weather; and they are kept in -far better repair than one would be led to expect from watching the -leisurely procedure of the _Péon caminéro_, who brings stones and earth -upon the scene in small basketfuls, moistens them with a watering-pot, -and stamps them in patiently with a small rammer. When, however, he has -occasion to spread road metal in greater quantities he takes a high hand -with the public, and procuring large boulders he arranges them on -alternate sides of the road, so as to compel passing vehicles to drive -over the fresh stone; he is considerate enough to remove these -stumbling-blocks at nightfall, but it is a ludicrous sight to see a -whole string of smart carriages twisting in and out of these obstacles -as if in a driving competition, in obedience to the arbitrary behest of -the road-maker. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The Castle of Bellver is a thirteenth century fortress, and - has a circular_ patio _with an upper and lower colonnade_.” - - (page 31) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_At the château of Raxa the grounds are laid out in - Italian fashion, with orange and cypress terraces, and - splendid flights of marble steps._” - - (page 35) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -The almost universal type of native carriage is the _galaréta_, a light- -running covered vehicle, in appearance not unlike a baker’s cart on four -wheels. The hinder part is entered from the rear, and is seated like a -wagonette; there is a window on either side, and another dividing it -from the broad hooded seat in front on which the driver sits. - -To the foreigner these covered carriages appear intensely uncomfortable; -if he be above the medium height his head comes in irritating contact -with the roof; he can see hardly anything of the landscape from the -windows, and he never ceases to marvel at the natives who can pack -themselves in incredible numbers into one of these little-eases and -emerge unruffled and cheerful at the end of a long drive. Yet it must be -admitted that in its own country the _galaréta_ possesses several -distinct advantages over the open carriage; its occupants are -indifferent to sun and rain, and can protect themselves from both dust -and wind; on the hottest summer’s day a draught can be created by -lowering the glasses and drawing the Venetian shutters with which each -window is fitted, while upon the homeward drive the chilly night air can -be as easily excluded. - -Like all Southerners the Majorcans dread the change of temperature that -takes place at sundown, and towards evening they wrap themselves in -cloaks and mufflers, while the fearless foreigner sits out on a terrace -to enjoy the sunset and is extremely indignant at waking next morning -with a sore throat. - -In a land where the new-born year is so amazingly precocious it is -difficult to remember that in England he is still in his white swaddling -clothes; by the end of January the plain around Palma is decked with -miles of almond orchards in full bloom, their faint scent filling the -air and their laden branches covering the country with billowy white -masses. The wind has forestalled the date of the Carnival, and his last -night’s Battle of Flowers has flung deep drifts of snowy confetti upon -the sprouting wheat beneath the trees. But there are still snow-caps on -the blue hills away to the north, and a sudden rattling storm of hail -reminds us that even in Majorca Spring is not yet fully enthroned. - -By February a vast expanse of young wheat has clothed the land in a -garment of the crudest Pre-Raphaelite green—almost startling in its -intensity when seen in contrast with sea or sky. - -By the first week in March new potatoes and green peas are in the -market, the orchards are knee-deep in beans, and the whole island is -fragrant with bean blossom. In the carob groves—where the knotted trunks -and twisted limbs of the old trees cast strange shadows on the swaying -corn—are purple anemones, pink gladiolus, and a blue shimmer of honey- -scented grape-hyacinths. - -The long days of unbroken sunshine are now devoted to excursions into -the surrounding country, and visitors begin to leave the town in which -they have wintered and to roam further afield. - -A favourite drive is to the neighbouring Château of Raxa, a country seat -belonging to the Count of Montenegro, where the grounds are laid out in -Italian fashion with orange and cypress terraces, stone vases and -statues, and splendid flights of marble steps. Roses, violets, freesias, -and heliotrope were in full bloom in the gardens on March 3rd, and the -women engaged on the orange harvest handed down to us branches heavy -with fragrant golden fruit. Oranges are nothing accounted of in Majorca, -and lemons are looked upon as so far below all price that they are given -one for the asking, any idea of payment being vigorously scouted. - -The road to Raxa runs for many miles through a red plain given up to -olive culture; whether it is the soil of Majorca that is responsible for -the extraordinary grotesqueness of the olive-trees I cannot say, but -they resemble nothing I have ever seen in other lands. Stretching away -in quaint perspective on either hand are distorted grey forms suggestive -of an enchanted forest; many of the old trees stand on a kind of tripod -formed by the splitting and shrinking of their own trunk; here a hoary -veteran of many centuries has wound himself into an excellent imitation -of a corkscrew; a group of twisted crones appears to gossip together -with uplifted hands, while two sprawling wrestlers are locked as in a -death-struggle in each other’s arms. Here squats a gnarled mass like -nothing so much as a gigantic toad; there a boa-constrictor twines -itself in folds about its prey, and an antediluvian monster stoops to -examine with interest the strange human insect that has adventured -itself within reach. - -So endless are the variations of form assumed by these extraordinary -trees, so fascinating is each fresh discovery, that one wanders on and -on, like children in a bewitched wood, and a determined effort of will -is required to tear oneself away from such a scene and return to the -carriage awaiting one on the prosaic high-road. - - * * * * * - -The same weird olive groves will be found on the way to Alaró, a small -inland town lying at the foot of the mountains, near which are the ruins -of the castle—famous in Majorcan history—which one morning in March we -set out by rail to visit. - -Majorcan trains are not fashionable in their hours, and it was little -after daybreak that we steamed out of the Palma station and glided away -through richly cultivated fields of beans and wheat, where pleasant -homesteads stood embowered in almond orchards and fat yellow lemons -bobbed over the garden walls. As the line approaches the mountains the -country becomes wilder and more open; vast undulating expanses of stony -red ground are being slowly ploughed by mule teams, and miles upon miles -of fig-trees cast a white shimmer over the plain—their leafless branches -so pale as in the distance to resemble blossoming orchards. The dark -glistening green of carob groves contrasts vividly with the feathery -grey of the olive, and as a background to the scene a dark belt of pine- -trees crowns the red slope and stands out in brilliant relief against -the indigo blue ranges of the Sierra. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _an antediluvian monster stoops to examine the - strange human insect that has adventured itself within - reach_.” - - (page 36) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_One enters the precincts of the old fortress of Alaró - through a Moorish gate-tower with a curious double - archway_....” - - (page 38) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Within an hour we descend at Consell and change to the branch line -forming the connection with Alaró; a small tram was awaiting us outside -the station, and this proved to be the branch line. No road was in -sight, but the tram lines vanished into an endless perspective of -beanfields, and through these we were slowly drawn by two horses -harnessed tandem fashion. Our only fellow-travellers in the tiny front -compartment—reserved for the rich who could afford to pay threepence— -were a couple of buxom market-women, most deeply interested in our -appearance. - -Quaint things happen so easily in Majorca that we were not much -surprised on reaching Alaró when the tram conductor got down, shouldered -our camera and the heavy luncheon basket, and without a word marched -away towards the village inn as though it were his business in life to -conduct strange ladies there. Setting rocking chairs for us among the -wine barrels, he lit a cigar and proceeded to assist in the saddling of -the two donkeys that had been ordered overnight for our ascent to the -castle of Alaró. One was a riding donkey for my companion, the other a -pack animal to carry our impedimenta, its pack saddle being furnished -with panniers and fitted with the native breeching strap—a wooden -contrivance shaped like a Cupid’s bow, which fits across the donkey’s -hind legs and rubs off all the hair. - -Away we started in brilliant sunshine with an old man and a boy in -attendance, and turning into a narrow track between stone walls we -followed a babbling torrent through carob and orange gardens and began -to wind up the hillside by a steep zigzag path. Innumerable sheep-bells -tinkled among the olive yards, and the voice of a herdsman rang out in a -Gregorian chant from far up the heights where he tended his goats among -holm oak and pine. Sheer above us towered the perpendicular red scarp of -the cliff on which the castle stands, a small white speck upon its edge -the _Hospedéria_ of the summit. - -A couple of hours’ stiff climb brings one to the back of the cliff, and -scaling a rough rock staircase one enters the precincts of the old -fortress through a Moorish gate tower with a curious double archway—the -outer arch being round-headed and the inner one pointed. - -Like a great wedge of cheese with straight cut sides does the cliff of -Alaró stand out into the plain; its perpendicular front rises sheer in a -terrific precipice, its only approach a steep ascent commanded by a -fortified tower. Small need to be told that by assault the castle was -impregnable; but it was subdued by siege and starvation in 1285, when -Alfonso the Beneficent of Aragon warred with Jaime II. of Majorca. What -followed the surrender of Alaró is known to every Majorcan; the -Conqueror, exasperated by the vain but most gallant defence of the -castle, had its two governors burnt alive at the stake in the presence -of his whole army. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Many of the old olive trees stand on a kind of tripod - formed by the splitting and shrinking of their own - trunk._” - - (page 35) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _running a nightmare race with each foot rooted to - the ground_.” - - (page 35) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -So perished the heroes Cabrit and Bassa, leaving their names to be -handed down through the centuries as the names of men who died loyal to -their king at a time when the greater part of the island had gone over -to the usurper. - -When Majorca again came into the hands of the legitimate line the ashes -of the canonised heroes were placed in an urn and deposited beneath an -altar in Palma Cathedral, where they remain to this day; and every -succeeding generation hears from childhood up the stirring tale of how -the two patriots fought and how they died. - -The little oratory of Our Lady of Refuge stands upon the summit of the -cliff, and no doubt originated as the chapel of the fortress. -Subsequently it became a renowned sanctuary, and attached to it, as is -usual in Majorca, is a small _hospéderia_, or hostelry, where pilgrims -and visitors can obtain a night’s shelter. The view from this point is -worth coming far to see; unrolled like a map at one’s feet, far, far -below, is the great southern plain, from the Bay of Palma on the west, -where the dark mass of the cathedral still shows just visible above the -faint haze enveloping the city, to the glittering Bay of Alcúdia upon -the far east coast. All the cities of the plain—Inca, Benisalém, La -Puebla, Múro, and Lluchmayór, lie outspread before us. Behind us, range -upon range, are the wooded slopes of the Sierra, the topmost peaks still -crowned with snow; threads of quicksilver flash down the mountainsides, -and valley, plain, and hill alike are enveloped in a grey sea of olive- -trees, dwarfed by distance to the semblance of lavender bushes. - -Some idea of the height of the rock on which we stand is obtained by -dropping a stone over the edge; peering over the abyss as we lay full -length on the ground we launched a small boulder into space, and, watch -in hand, timed its descent. - -“One, two, three,” the seconds ticked away, and still the stone fell, -though to our eyes it appeared already to have reached the olive groves; -“four, five, six,” and not till now did a dull crash come up from below -to tell us that the stone was at its journey’s end. We arose cautiously -and walked back along the very centre of the cliff, feeling in every -nerve that were we to stumble nothing could save us from covering fully -thirty feet in our fall and disappearing over the edge of the precipice. - -Rejoining our donkeys, we set off on our downward ride. Midway we were -overtaken by a party of boisterous young men who tore down the -mountainside laughing and shouting, gave us a breathless good-day in -passing, and vanished with giant strides down a precipitous shortcut, -apparently intent on breaking their necks. We looked on aghast, but our -guides evidently considered it no abnormal way of descending a mountain. - -“Going downhill no one is old,” says the island proverb reassuringly; no -doubt the subsequent stiffness of our own knees was the result of not -having gone down sufficiently fast. - - * * * * * - -The Palma carnival differs so greatly from that function as celebrated -on the Riviera as to be worthy of mention. There the tourist element and -its accompanying ostentation of wealth are the most conspicuous features -of the performance. Here, in Palma, all this is wholly lacking, and the -carnival has retained its native character to a truly refreshing degree. -It is essentially a people’s festival, with hardly a foreigner present. - -From three o’clock in the afternoon till late at night the whole town is -_en fête_; all the shops are shut, and the shop people sit in merry -groups before their doors; the balconies overlooking the Borne are -crowded, and the wide Borne itself is a seething throng of people on -foot sauntering up and down, and chaffing one another in high good- -humour. - -The troops—of which five or six thousand are quartered at Palma—send a -large contingent to the crowd of holiday-makers; infantrymen in long, -blue coats, crimson trousers, and bright green gloves, mingle with -pretty girls in kerchief and _rebosillo_, whose hair is powdered thick -with coloured confetti. Here is an old peasant, come in from the -country, wearing under his hat a handkerchief wound round his head in -the style of his Catalonian ancestors; his wife has donned her gayest -shawl, and has brought the baby, who chuckles with delight at the -festive scene and wears a funny little straw hat shaped like a Saracen -turban trimmed with scarlet pompoms. - -Tiny maidens of four and five are costumed as grand ladies, and walk -about, quaintly dignified, with proudly trailing train and flaunting -fan, in rich brocade skirts and velvet bodices, with long, white gloves, -and hair elaborately dressed with flowers and high tortoise-shell combs. -A party of Arabs, draped in white sheets and armed with spears, lead -about an unfortunate comrade disguised as a dancing bear, who is -vigorously kept up to his part throughout the day; and small boys, -dressed as Pierrots, or rejoicing simply in the disguise afforded by a -pasteboard nose and a high falsetto voice, caper unrestrained through -the crowd. - -Towards evening a couple of hundred carriages turn out into the streets; -galarétas, landaus, dogcarts, and wagons form into line and follow each -other in slow procession round and round the Borne. The smart barouche -and pair of the Captain-General is preceded by a humble donkey-cart, and -followed by a heavy country _charrette_ overflowing with clowns. Every -one is dressed according to taste, and every one is free to throw things -at every one else. The imperturbably correct coachman of a stylish turn- -out gets hit on the nose by an egg-shell stuffed with confetti; the -gentleman seated beside him—who wears a mask and an amazing tow-wig— -replies with a well-directed volley, and a furious fusillade ensues, the -enemy coming up to the very windows of the galarétas to pour in a deadly -fire among the occupants. - -Mounted officers, armed with paper rockets, do battle with the people in -the balconies, who, in return, hail down missiles and torrents of -confetti upon their assailants. Eggshells fly in showers from carriage -to carriage, smashing upon any head they meet with. On the wide Place -Weyler the confetti lie so thick that the square resembles some -cathedral floor—tinted by stained glass windows, and the carriages and -horses are so tangled up in coloured streamers that they appear to have -broken through a great rainbow spider’s web and carried it bodily away -with them. - -By eight o’clock the Carnival is a thing of the past, and the gay, good- -humoured crowd is in full retreat, thoroughly tired out. - -And at midnight the stars look down upon a sleeping city, whose -stillness is only broken by the sonorous chant of the watchmen going -their rounds with lantern and staff. The familiar cry—so associated with -Palma—again rings out beneath our windows:— - - “_Alobado sea el Señor! Las doce—y sereno!_” - (Praised be the Lord! Midnight, and a clear sky!) - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PART II - - -Although it falls to the lot of few of us to remain as sublimely -unconscious of geography as was Charles Lamb—who asserts that though he -held a correspondence with a very dear friend in New South Wales he was -unable to form the remotest conjecture as to the position of that _Terra -Incognita_—yet I think I may safely assume that not many of my readers -are familiar with the geography of Majorca, and a glance at the sketch- -map given in this volume may be of service in acquainting them with the -principal places of interest in the island. - -The fact which perhaps chiefly strikes one is the miniature scale of -distances. Just as the mouse occupies the same space on the page of a -book on natural history as does the elephant, so does Majorca appear in -its own particular map to be as large as Ceylon; and it gives one -repeated shocks of surprise to find that what looks like a day’s journey -is a matter of two hours by rail, or a morning’s carriage drive. There -are half a dozen excursions which visitors to the island rarely fail to -make; one is to Sollér, only a day’s expedition by carriage from Palma— -though, as it possesses a comfortable little hotel and is in the midst -of beautiful scenery, it is a favourite place for a lengthened stay. The -old towns of Pollensa and Alcúdia upon the east coast attract a certain -number of foreigners every season; and the fame of Arta’s stalactite -caves draws thither a large number of sightseers, being easy of reach -from the railhead at Manacór. - -But with these exceptions the interior of Majorca enjoys an almost -perpetual immunity from tourists, most of whom are far from -enterprising. - -It was to Arta that we ourselves were bound when we quitted Palma on -March 12th, but having plenty of time before us, and being fond of -driving tours, open air, and scenery, we decided to do the whole journey -by road, and to spend as many nights _en route_ as we found desirable. -Our carriage was one of the hotel victorias, drawn by an excellent pair -of little grey horses; our luggage was of the most modest description, -consisting of two of those feather-weight valises, made of brown -cardboard, that can be bought for a few shillings in most Continental -towns, and that belie their frail appearance by resisting ill-usage to -an almost incredible degree. Our driver was a friendly and reliable -native, who in all the years he had driven hotel carriages had never -been asked to conduct anybody across the island. It was indeed an -unheard-of thing to do. Was not the railway there to take people to -Arta? and was it not well known that the southern districts of the -island contained nothing that could be of any possible interest to any -one? However, it was no affair of his if English ladies were eccentric; -his not to question why. Their motives might be inscrutable, but he was -there to carry out their wishes, whether wise or foolish. - -No June morning could have been more glorious than the one on which we -left the Grand Hotel, and, rattling over the cobbles down to the -harbour, struck out southwards towards Lluchmayór. For a couple of hours -we crossed a great plain, carefully tilled and tended. In the orange -gardens the golden crop was being gathered by peasants mounted on easel- -shaped ladders. Stretches of corn and beans alternated with extensive -fig orchards, which in July supply a harvest so bounteous that even the -pigs fare sumptuously upon the fruit. Thick as faggots of dead wood were -the leafless branches of the old trees—their elbows stuck out at an -aggressive angle as though resenting the proximity of their somewhat -heathenish-looking neighbour, the prickly pear, which in Majorca is -termed the “Moorish fig,” as opposed to the “Christian fig” of -cultivation. - -Standing up above the level of the orchards, and extending over the -plain in numbers that suggest an immense pyrotechnic display in -preparation, are countless wind wheels, twenty or thirty feet in -diameter, furnished with a tail to keep their heads to the wind, and -with sets of wooden slats that furl and unfurl like a fan, according to -the strength of the breeze. Raised upon stone platforms and spinning -round rapidly, these wheels are engaged in raising water from wells and -pumping it into the great reservoirs that in summer supply the -irrigation aqueducts intersecting the fields. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _countless windwheels, twenty feet or more in - diameter, engaged in raising water from wells_....” - - (page 46) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_On some of the hills windmills are massed in a gregarious - manner characteristic of Majorca_....” - - (Page 51) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -At noon we reached Lluchmayór, and after lunching at the inn we visited -the great high-backed church that prides itself on being the largest in -the island outside Palma. It was deserted save for the presence of three -old charwomen, who alternately chatted and laughed or piously mumbled -_Ave Marias_ and _Pater nosters_ as they plied their flappers about the -pulpit and the quaint old pews, resembling settees, with curved backs -and deep seats inlaid with scenes in coloured woods. A wax figure of -Santa Candida in a glass case, and some marvellous embroideries with -inch-deep scrolls of gold thread set with precious stones, are amongst -the most treasured possessions of this church. - -On again, through Campos, whence we look back to catch a last glimpse of -the Palma Cathedral—far away across the plain; and the evening shadows -are lengthening fast as we drive into Santagný, where we are to spend -the night. - -Santagný is the southernmost town in Majorca, and as such suffered -sorely in bygone time from the Algerian and Moroccan pirates who -infested the neighbouring islet of Cabréra. In the sixteenth century the -town was encircled with walls, to prevent the repetition of a raid that -devastated the whole countryside and forced the inhabitants to fly for -safety to the interior of the island. But centuries of safety have razed -the fortifications more surely than any piratical attack, and one -massive gateway—standing in the market-place—alone remains to testify to -the dangers run by the townspeople in olden days. - -The _fonda_, or inn, at Santagný proved to be one of those truly -primitive establishments that cause one to ponder the eternal question -as to which comes first—the tourist or the inn. The problem regarding -the hen and the egg is itself not more elusive than the vicious circle -in which one becomes involved when dwelling on this subject. It is -highly improbable that the accommodation at Santagný will undergo any -improvement until visitors have shown some sign of wishing to come to -the town; it is equally improbable that visitors will show any signs of -wishing to come to Santagný until the accommodation has been improved. - -I must admit that the supper passed off in comparative style. We sat in -a small, whitewashed room downstairs—our driver and a soldier also -supping there at another table—and in place of the bell of -conventionality we clapped our hands between the courses, which -consisted of an excellent omelette, a dish of meat and rice, and oranges -sliced with sugar. Our hostess’s attentions were somewhat spasmodic -owing to the periodical raids she made on certain small boys whose noses -were flattened on the window-pane, and at whom she dashed out very -suddenly—belabouring such as came under her hand with a large market -basket. In the outer room a guitar was being strummed, and the voices of -the men sitting drinking there broke out now and then in a resonant -chorus. All this was very nice and native; but when we went upstairs to -our bedrooms it was still very native—only not so nice. - -Three small and stuffy cubicles opened off the landing at the head of -the stairs; the only one that obtained any light or air was the end one, -which had a small window in the outer wall of the house, but—as if to -compensate for this advantage—it lacked a door, the privacy of its -occupant being dependant upon a flimsy curtain that fluttered airily to -and fro in the doorway. Each cubicle contained a bed, a chair, and a -straw mat on the floor; and outside, on the landing, stood one small -washstand, with a set of toilet appliances destined to be shared by all -the occupants of the bedrooms. That the centre room was already engaged -was evident from an unmistakably masculine snore that proceeded from it. -Horses munched loudly in a stall below, and the petulant voices of -dreaming pigs rose to the skies from an adjoining farmyard. Even our -driver—who never considered his duties at an end until he had personally -inspected our sleeping quarters for the night—expressed disapproval at -the prospect, although his sympathetic shrugs plainly intimated that as -we had made our beds so must we lie upon them. I speak figuratively, for -as a matter of fact our beds were not made at all, though we had been -more than two hours in the house. - -Amidst such unpromising surroundings did we eventually retire for the -night, waking to find that our neighbour of the middle room had most -opportunely taken himself off in the small hours of the morning, leaving -us in sole possession of the washstand, so that our toilet was -accomplished in comparative safety, and with no other interruption than -the sudden appearance of our hostess on her way upstairs to fetch a -sausage from the attic. It is but fair to say that this was the only -_fonda_ we met with in the whole of our wanderings that was so primitive -in its arrangements. - -On going down to breakfast our hostess presents us each with a thick -tumbler containing a species of strong, brown broth, very nourishing, I -should suppose, for an invalid; swelling with pride, she reveals the -fact that the strange beverage we are drinking is _tea_—and it is -doubtless on the strength of this compliment to our nationality that she -presently tenders us a bill for fourteen pesetas—ten shillings and -sixpence—a sum not overwhelming in itself, but absurdly high according -to the standard of charges current in Majorcan inns. - -Five pesetas—four shillings—a day for each person is the recognised -charge for board and lodging at all the best _fondas_ in Majorca. At a -little hotel, such as that of Sollér or Alcúdia, one’s _pension_ may run -as high as six or even seven and a half pesetas; but these are the -outside prices; and one’s driver’s food—for which one is expected to pay -while on tour—should never exceed two pesetas a day. - -At small native inns an arrangement as to terms should always be made on -arrival. Particularly is this the case in out-of-the-way villages where -strangers are rarely seen, and where the innkeeper will occasionally -endeavour to make a profit out of all proportion to the accommodation -provided for his guests. This sharp dealing is so little in keeping with -the character of the average Majorcan that I can only explain it by -quoting the people’s own saying, to the effect that there is not room -for honour and profit in the same pocket. I think that the opportunity -offered of enriching themselves easily at the expense of well-to-do -foreigners proves too great a temptation for certain _fondistas_ who -have lost the finer feelings possessed by their compatriots not engaged -in trade. - -Quitting Santagný we drove on to Felanitx, a pretty little town -surrounded by low hills whose crests are occupied by many windmills -frantically waving their arms on the sky line. Windmills are everywhere. -Some stand singly upon barrow-like mounds crowned with cactus tangles, -others are massed upon ridges in the gregarious manner characteristic of -Majorcan corn mills. All have either six or eight sails, which gives -them a very full-bodied appearance; and some are furnished with tail -feathers, and resemble large dragon-flies that have interrupted their -whirring flight to settle for an instant with outspread gauzy wings upon -a little tower of dazzling whiteness. An old miller leans out of a -little upper window in one of the mills, filling it up so completely -that we wonder if he will ever get back again. - -“_Buena vista!_” we call up to him as he watches us from his lofty -perch. - -“Ah, yes!” he replies, looking far out over the sunny landscape, “from -here one sees all the world!” - -It is in truth a very lovely world upon which he looks down this bright -March morning. The almond orchards are streaming down the hill slopes -and invading the town in torrents of young spring verdure; the houses -are screwing up their eyes in the sunshine, even the tiniest windows -being half built up with slabs of freestone, while many are closed -entirely. Old women sit at their doorways plaiting and spinning, and -greet us cheerfully as we pass, and leaving the town we take a pretty -road through pine and heath, almond and olive, arbutus and carob, and -set out to visit the old castle of Santuíri. Within half an hour of our -destination the carriage halts, and a rocky goat-path leads us to the -summit of the crag upon which the ruins stand. - -Santuíri was one of the great mediæval burgs of Majorca, and is in far -better preservation than either of its fellows of Alaró or Pollensa. In -the fifteenth century its walls were strengthened against an expected -attack of the Moors, and much of these defences still remains. - -Proud, and most desolate, is this old sentinel of the southern coast. -Buzzards hang in mid-air beneath the battlements—brown specks against -the dim blue plain below; sheep graze amongst spurge and St. John’s wort -on the grassy knolls within the fortress. The old gray walls are trimmed -with golden patches of coronilla and crowned with a _chevaux-de-frise_ -of bristling aloe spikes. A narrow path cut in the face of the crag, and -unprotected by any parapet, leads to the machicolated gate tower; above -your head there are slits for boiling oil, and at your back is sudden -death in the shape of a precipice, with nothing to break your fall but -the fixed bayonets of some huge aloes rooted in the crevices of the -cliff below. Assuredly it was well to be on good terms with its lord -when craving admittance to the Castle of Santuíri. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_All the windmills have either six or eight sails, and some - are furnished with tail-feathers._” - - (page 51) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Santuiri was one of the great mediæval burgs of Majorca, - and is in better preservation than either of its fellows of - Alaró or Pollensa._” - - (page 52) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -A twin height across a little valley is occupied by the Oratorio of San -Salvadór—the shrine of a wonder-working Madonna whose fame dates from -the Middle Ages, and who is visited annually by thousands of pilgrims -from all parts of the island. - -To this shrine we ascended in the afternoon, the latter part of the -route being a steep hillside, clothed with prickly pear and a sweet- -smelling dwarf gorse, up which we slowly toiled on foot, the zigzag path -marked out with twelve stations of the Cross, depicted in faïence tiles -upon freestone pillars. Attached to the Oratorio upon the summit is a -large _hospedéria_ containing some forty bedrooms, built for the -reception of pilgrims; the four brown-frocked friars who minister to the -wants of visitors were busily engaged in sawing timber in the entrance- -hall amidst a litter of fresh shavings, and one of them interrupted his -work to take us into the adjoining chapel. In pitch darkness we groped -our way to a niche at the back of the high altar, and were shown by the -light of a match a little old stone statue—the Blessed Virgin of San -Salvadór—only second in power to Our Lady of Lluch. - -A special room is set aside for the votive offerings presented to her: -the walls are thickly hung with uniforms, children’s garments, and -bridal gowns; there are toys and medals, and stacks of crutches; there -are rows of photographs of the Virgin’s _protégés_, who attribute their -escape from accident and illness to her shielding power; there are crude -childish representations of fires, shipwrecks, thunderbolts, runaway -horses, and all the perils that humanity is heir to. Some of the ex- -votos date from the attack of the Moors in 1737; others come from far -countries—such as the one “promised to Our Lady in the fire of -Santiago.” - -One of the most pathetic offerings that I saw at another Majorcan shrine -was a thick plait of long black hair—“promised to Our Lady” on such and -such a date, doubtless by some soul in sore need. The belief in -miraculous intervention as an answer to personal sacrifice is deeply -ingrained in the islanders, and is, I should imagine, a source of much -consolation to them. - -After buying a few rosaries and ribbons bearing the name of Our Lady of -San Salvadór we walked to the end of a hill-spur where stone seats -invite the wayfarer to rest before beginning the steep descent. The sun -was setting, and the scene before us recalled some Egyptian evening in -its strength of colouring; far beneath us lay the great dim plain with -its white towns, wrapped in the violet mists of sunset and melting away -into the transparent blues and purples of the distant sierra. The roofs -and walls of the Oratorio and the pine-trees upon the hilltop stood out -in inky relief against a sky stained with orange and crimson, fiery lake -and scarlet; the clouds were black, glowing coals backed with gold—the -whole heavens were aflame in conflagration. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The old grey walls of Santuiri are trimmed with golden - patches of coronilla and crowned with a_ chevaux de frise _of - bristling aloe spikes_.” - - (page 52) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Far beneath us lay the great plain, wrapped in the violet - mists of evening.... The Oratorio de San Salvador will - for ever be associated with the most beautiful sunset we ever - witnessed in Majorca._” - - (page 54) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Long after the glory had faded away a pure, brilliant glow illuminated -the sky and lighted us on our homeward way, and we returned to Felanitx -with the memory of San Salvadór for ever associated in our minds with -the most beautiful sunset we ever saw in Majorca. - - * * * * * - -On March 15th we left Felanitx and continued our journey across the -great southern plain. The road to Manacór runs along a low ridge and -commands extensive views on either hand; asphodels fringed the wayside, -and every patch of waste ground displayed the Spanish colours in gay -yellow daisies and a tiny scarlet ranunculus, the Adonis vernalis. The -weather was glorious; a shower during the night had laid the dust and -cleared the air, and blue cloud-shadows chased merrily across the -landscape. - -“_Bon dia tengan!_” comes in cheerful greeting from the fields where -groups of peasant women, in big straw hats, ply their hoes among the -wheat. When they found we wished to take a photograph of them their -amusement was unbounded, and their merry laughter was quite infectious. - -Unceasing is the care of the crops, and unremitting is the labour -bestowed upon the land before it assumes that market-garden-like -neatness that is the ideal of the Majorcan peasant. Centuries of -cultivation have converted much of the land into rich, productive soil, -but a glance at a recently reclaimed field shows one the difficulties -with which the original cultivator has to contend, difficulties that -would surely daunt a less stout-hearted race. Slabs of bed-rock and -countless myriads of loose stones cover the surface of the ground: by -blasting and patient excavation a certain proportion of these are -removed, and the intervening patches of earth are dug by hand, the first -harvest being represented by a scanty crop of wheat sprouting in the -interstices of the rock paving. The second or third year it will perhaps -be possible to drive a narrow sharp-pointed ploughshare between the -stones, lifting it briskly out of the ground when the shaft mule is -brought up with a jerk by a more than usually stubborn boulder. Each -year hundreds of tons of loose stone are collected and disposed of in -one way or another; some are stacked in cairns among the crops and go by -the name of _clápers_; others are carried with infinite toil to the -boundaries of the field and built into a dry wall a yard or more thick— -coped with the masses of rock that work up through the soil almost as -quickly as they are removed from the surface; others again are thrown -into great stone reservoirs built for the purpose and filled to the brim -with blocks big and little. Gradually the plague of stones begins to -abate. What one generation has begun, a future one will accomplish, and -eventually the land will assume the appearance of a rich alluvial plain, -and Dame Nature will put on as benevolent a smile as though she had -proposed from the very first to bountifully reward the industrious -peasant. - -But always there will be miles upon miles of beautifully built stone -walls to tell a different tale. Truly may it be said of the Majorcans, -as of their Catalonian forefathers—that from stones they produce bread. - -All the morning we drove, and by noon we had passed the town of Manacór -and were descending towards the sea through a silent, sun-steeped land -of rock and asphodel. Asphodels surrounded us for miles, their starry -sceptres swaying in the wind and shining like silver where the sunlight -struck through them. It is strange that no southern artist has painted -us a Madonna of the Asphodels. - -Down by the seashore stands a small group of freestone houses called the -Port of Manacór, and after lunching at the _fonda_ we set off on foot to -visit the famous stalactite caves close by. There is nothing in the -surface of the surrounding country to suggest the existence of vast -subterranean caverns; the guide simply leads the way across the wide -moor to a walled enclosure, where, half concealed by boulders and scrub, -a flight of rock steps leads down to the _Cuevas del Drach_—the Dragon -Caves of Manacór. - -Armed with acetylene lanterns we descend, and plunge into a perfect -labyrinth of halls and passages; some of the scenes are very beautiful; -there are “cascades of diamonds”—frozen falls that sparkle like hoar -frost in the sun—and wonderful statuesque formations under fretted -canopies fringed with glittering icicles; there are myriads of -stalactites hanging from the roof, some snow-white and thorny, others -like pink glass, that ring musically when struck with a stone. There is -an immense cavern where one sits down to rest; weird shadows cast by the -lamps dance upon the walls, and falling drops of water tinkle loudly in -the silence. There are precipices and bottomless pits—into which the -guide tosses stones—and atmospheric lakes, into which one is liable to -walk unawares—the surface of the water being invisible to the sharpest -scrutiny. There are bright blue pools, crystal clear, in the depths of -which stalagmites appear like white sea-anemones and seem to mirror back -the pendant bosses of the roof. One may walk for miles and not have seen -all, but the heat in these caves is trying to many people, and one is -not sorry to come out into the cold upper air after spending an hour or -two in a temperature of nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit. - -Many years ago some Spaniards were lost for days in the Drach caves, and -the spot is still shown where in their despair they scratched upon the -walls: _No hay esperanza_—There is no hope! - -In the caves of Arta, people are said to have entered who have never -been seen again, alive or dead. - -The little inn at the _Puerto de Manacór_ is a typical Majorcan _fonda_. -Our rooms were floored with cheerful red tiles, and the walls were -almost awe-inspiring in their spotlessness; it is a popular saying that -on Saturdays the Majorcans whitewash everything within reach. From our -windows—furnished with wooden shutters in place of glass—we looked down -upon a vine-covered pergola and a little bright blue bay encircled by a -snow-white beach. Our beds were good, and the bed-linen excellent—the -lace-trimmed pillow-cases and beautifully embroidered monograms -testifying to the skill with which the women ply their needle. Supper -was served on the first-floor landing, and consisted of fish, omelette, -chicken and rice, and dessert; and at nine o’clock our hostess mounted -the stairs to inform us that there would be no milk for our morning -coffee unless some could be procured from Manacór (an hour distant)—the -local dairy being inconsiderate enough to have two fine kids at the -moment. - -She bade us a friendly good-night, and as an afterthought pointed out -that being in the country here, it was the custom to empty bedroom -basins out of the window. We promised to avail ourselves of the -permission, and retiring, were gently lulled to sleep by the rhythmic -breathing of the tide below. - - * * * * * - -It is strange to hear of snow and frost at home while we are living in a -long succession of June days. Under a cloudless expanse of blue—unbroken -save by a transparent white moon in the eastern sky—did we leave the -_Puerto_ on the morning of March 16th. Retracing the road to Manacór, we -drove through tracts of pine wood and rosemary, and at midday reached -Arta—an oriental-looking town of white houses and palm-trees—the -_Yartan_ of the Moors, in whose day it was an important colony. Their -principal mosque was converted by the Conqueror into the great church -that stands upon the hillside and with fortress-like walls and wide- -arched upper gallery dominates the town. Crowning the same hill is the -wall-encircled church of San Salvadór, used in olden times as a refuge -for non-combatants during Saracen attacks, and in more recent days as a -lazaretto in time of pestilence—which led to its being pulled down and -rebuilt about a hundred years ago. - -In the vicinity of Arta are to be found certain tumuli of unknown -origin, that correspond more or less to those monuments of a pre- -historic race which exist in most of the islands of the Mediterranean. -In a deserted olive-yard—where the poisonous _solanum sodomacum_ trailed -its miniature yellow and green melons among the stones and big, pale -periwinkles grew—we came upon the _Clápers de Gegants_, or Giants’ -Cairns. A ring wall of large stones weighing several tons apiece had -evidently existed at one time; but most of the blocks had fallen in, and -the central mound—whether watch tower or burial tumulus—was a mere chaos -of stones and brambles. To any one who has seen the far finer megalithic -monuments of Minorca, no Majorcan remains will appear of much -importance. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Arta is an oriental-looking town of white houses and - palm trees—the Yartan of the Moors._” - - (page 60) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Groups of peasant women were plying their hoes among - the wheat_....” - - (page 55) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -From Arta it is a pretty drive to the castle of Cap de Péra, an old -fortress with portcullised gateway and peaked Moorish battlements, -around which one can walk on a narrow ledge laid on stone brackets. -Prickly pear and masses of crimson and white stocks run riot within the -walls and cluster about the little chapel of the summit. Beyond the -castle the road winds by a steep ascent to the lighthouse of the Cap de -Péra—built upon the extreme eastern point of the island, whence a -splendid view is obtained, the low coastline of Minorca being dimly -discernible far out at sea. - -At nine o’clock the following morning we set out for the stalactite -caves of Arta—said to be the most wonderful ones in the world, with the -exception of certain caverns in New South Wales. For an hour and a half -we descended towards the coast through a plain of fig orchards and -palmetto clumps—the latter portion of the route being a mere cart-track -of surprising badness—and finally drew up under a grove of picturesque -old _Pinus maritima_ near the seashore—the finest trees we had yet seen -in an island where good timber is rare. - -Fifteen minutes’ walk along a cliff path, with a turquoise blue sea -below, and the scent of pines and gorse filling the warm air, and we -come to the entrance to the caves. A great cleft opens in the face of -the cliff overhead—a natural ante-chamber to the caves, supported by -Herculean pillars of live rock, and to this we ascend by a long flight -of massive stone steps, as though to the portals of some grand old -Egyptian temple. Following our guide we pass through an iron _grille_ -and descend through cool depths of grey rock till we seem to have -reached the very heart of the hills. - -So strange is the under world through which one is led for the next two -hours that at times one doubts whether it is not all a dream. Now we -wander through lofty halls hung from roof to floor with stony curtain -folds, where tall stalagmitic palm-trees stand in groups—their rugged -stems hard as marble, white as though bleached by long confinement in -these sunless caves. Now we seem to be exploring a coral world in the -depths of the sea, and half expect to meet startled fishes darting -hither and thither among the fantastically sculptured grots and low- -fretted arches through which we creep. Now we enter the great hall of -columns, and wait in darkness upon a high rock-platform, while our -invisible guide busies himself below with Bengal lights. Suddenly a -vista of gigantic columns leaps out of black space, monstrous shadows -retreat into a perspective of infinite extent, and—as though in some -strange operatic scene—we find ourselves standing in a great vaulted -crypt, Gothic in its indescribable richness of architectural detail, -Egyptian in its gigantic proportions and massive grandeur. Still larger -is the great cavern known as the Cathedral, the roof of which attains a -height of a hundred and fifty feet; so weird and grand beyond belief is -the effect created by this vast interior when lighted up—so wonderful is -the mimicry of hangings and sculpture—so regular the slender turrets and -fretted pinnacles that enrich the structure, that it is difficult to -realise that the scene before one is Nature’s own handiwork. - -Wending our way down the Devil’s Staircase we next descend to a spot -below sea-level to visit the “lost souls”—a company of black and burnt- -up looking little figures seated beside a salt-water pool that goes by -the name of the Styx. Endless is the imagery suggested by the stalactite -formations; some resemble isolated statues, others intricate groups of -Hindu gods. There is an organ with musical pipes, there are strange -echoes that live far away among the rock caverns of the roof, and huge -lurking shadows that—startled by the light of our lanterns—glide swiftly -out of their recesses and disappear into the darkness ahead. But always -we return to the aisles of ghostly columns that distinguish these caves -from all others I have ever seen. - -Questioned as to the presumed age of these columns our guide throws up -his hands in despair, and, leading us to a small stalagmite in process -of formation, shows us a couple of copper _sous_ embedded in its glassy -surface; it is twenty years since they were placed there, and in that -time the stalagmite has risen to the rims of the coins and they are now -fixed in their place by the most delicate silver film. Allowing fifteen -_sous_ to the inch, a rough computation sets the rate of growth of this -particular stalagmite at something between three and four thousand years -to the foot—a period doubtless considerably exceeded in the case of the -larger columns. - -The gem of the whole collection is the great palm-tree that stands alone -in one of the outer courts. There are others that equal it in girth—its -stem measures little more than three feet in diameter—but its splendid -shaft ascends flawless, joint above joint of white coral-like -stalagmite, till it unites with the roof sixty or seventy feet above the -level of the floor. Since the world was young it has stood in these -Halls of Silence—a silence of æons, broken only by dropping water and -occasional earthquake shocks that have flung masses of stalactite to the -ground. These horizontal rings in its stem may have been deposited in -the days of palæolithic man; while that joint was being formed Babylon -and Nineveh rose and passed away, and the Pharaohs in long procession -filed across the world’s stage and vanished. - -The falling drop has now finished its work and has shifted to another -spot where it has begun the base of a second column. Some day the -capital of this one also will be completed.... - -It is a glimpse into Eternity that appals one. - - * * * * * - -On March 18th we left Arta. A hum and a buzz in the street proclaimed it -Sunday morning, and on emerging from our inn we found a couple of -hundred people—including two Civil Guards and all the elders of the -place—assembled to see us off. This interest was centred less in -ourselves than in our victoria, for to people whose only notion of a -carriage is the Spanish one of the baker’s-cart pattern, the sight of so -long, low, and altogether remarkable looking a vehicle was of thrilling -interest. It was probably the first ever seen in this part of the -island, and had it been a motor-car it could not have made a greater -sensation. Beasts of burden bolted at so novel an apparition, mules in -carts swerved violently; children would drag their small brothers and -sisters half a mile across country to catch a glimpse of us, and we -brought whole village populations running to their doors. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_A cliff path with the turquoise-blue sea below leads to the - entrance to the caves of Arta_....” - - (page 61) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_At the port of Andraitx fishermen in red Phrygian caps - were mending their nets_....” - - (page 67) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Stepping into our carriage with a gracious and comprehensive bow to the -throng around, we were whirled away at a gallop down the crowded street, -and quitting the town we struck out for Santa Margarita on our return to -Palma. Long processions of country carts were returning from Mass, with -men and women seated upon sacks at the bottom of the vehicles; but the -fields were deserted save for an occasional swineherd tending his beasts -among the carob groves. - -Near Sineu we passed a large corral of young mules with their mothers; -so proudly do these quaint, long-eared infants follow the handsome black -mares that one is irresistibly reminded of the inquiry put by an -interested listener to the man who was boasting of his mother’s beauty— -“C’était donc Monsieur votre père qui n’était pas beau?” - -The night was spent at Sineu, and returning to Palma the following -morning we settled down at the Grand Hotel for a week before starting on -our second driving tour, which was to introduce us to the North-western -corner of the island. - - * * * * * - -For the next few days the weather behaved as badly as it occasionally -will do in southern lands where its reputation is at stake. The Palma -natives became first apologetic, then exasperated;—“Fie, for shame!” -screamed an old woman angrily, addressing the rain from her shop door -where we had taken shelter in a downpour—“Fie, for shame! What, then, -will the English ladies think of us!” - -But the spirit of perversity had entered into the Spring; she sprinkled -snow upon the mountains, and kept the mail-boats imprisoned at -Barcelona; she drenched the shivering population till the very swallows -sat disconsolately on the clothes lines, drooping their wet wings; and -she persisted in making such ugly threatening faces that it looked as if -we should never start for Andraitx at all. Reason certainly pointed to -our remaining at Palma; we were warm and comfortable at the Grand Hotel— -we got far better food than we ever did on our travels, and the Dark- -room itself was more commodious than might be our future quarters in -some village _fonda_. On the other hand time was passing, and we had yet -much to see; finally we decided to risk all and to go. - -The heavens were black with clouds when we set off on the morning of -March 27th, but before we had been gone half an hour our lucky star -shone out, and the weather executed a complete _volte-face_ such as one -is led to believe any climate but our own would be ashamed of. Brilliant -sunshine dried up the puddles with that amazing rapidity peculiar to -porous soils, and the day suddenly decided to be quite, quite fine. - -So excellent may be the results obtained from flying in the face of -Providence—if only it be done at the right moment. - -Merrily our little horses jingled along the splendid _carretera real_— -the royal road—that leads to Andraitx; now we follow the coastline and -catch glimpses of blue waves and fringes of white foam between the stems -of the pine-trees; now we turn inland among the olive groves—where the -old trees pirouette airily or stand with feet gracefully crossed upon -the hill slopes, amidst pink and white cistus and bushes of wild -mignonette. In three hours we reach Andraitx, where the carriage road -terminates, and having no further use for our victoria we send it back -to Palma, with instructions to meet us the next day but one at the -village of Estallenchs beyond the mountains. - -Andraitx, the old Andrachium of the Romans, is a prosperous-looking town -lying in a green valley of almond orchards; most of the inhabitants are -sea-faring folk, and down by the shore—five miles distant—we found a -little colony of houses where fishermen in red Phrygian caps were -mending their nets until the gale should abate. It was assuredly no day -to put out to sea so long as white foam was running up the face of the -cliffs, driven by a wild west wind. - -The church of Andraitx is one of the oldest in the island; it stands -upon rising ground above the town, its great blank walls plain—even in a -land of plain exteriors; and beside it stands the fine old Possession- -house of _Son Mās_, said to date back to the time of the Moors. The -Possession-houses of Majorca were originally the country seats of the -Spanish nobility; once inhabited by the great landowners, they have now -descended to the level of farmhouses and have become the residence of -the principal tenant farmer upon the estate, who goes by the name of the -Amo, or master. These fine old buildings usually stand in the centre of -some large property, and are almost invariably fortified and adapted to -stand a siege. - -Very picturesque is the straggling yellow pile of _Son Mās_, with its -high walls and machicolated tower. Passing under a heavy stone archway -we cross a large courtyard, where pigeons are stepping through stately -minuets upon a vine pergola, and ascend by a flight of steps to a broad -open gallery, supported on pillars, that runs along the front of the -house. We are shown the spacious kitchen and living rooms of the present -occupants, and are then led through suite after suite of disused -apartments—whitewashed, stone-flagged, shuttered, given up to bats and -cobwebs. In the rooms occupied by the Señor, when on rare occasions he -pays a visit to his estate, are a few pieces of the old furniture—some -wooden chests, such as take the place of wardrobes in Majorcan -households, a carved bedstead, and a few old paintings—fast going to -decay. Soon there will be nothing save the stone scutcheon in the -courtyard to preserve the memory of the founder of _Son Mās_. - -Behind the house is an enormous reservoir containing a water supply that -would outlast any conceivable siege to which the inhabitants might be -subjected. The cement roof of the tank forms a wide terrace—some ninety -by thirty feet—and two well-shafts, thickly lined with maidenhair fern, -give access to the water. - -A winding staircase leads to the summit of the old watch-tower, where -from an open _loggia_ under the roof the besieged could hurl down -missiles upon the foe before the gate. In an unguarded moment I -attempted the ascent of this tower, and never shall I forget the -sensation of that climb; losing sight of my feet from the very start—my -head being always three turns higher up the steps—and momentarily -expecting to stick fast for good, I thrust myself in spirals up the -narrowest corkscrew stairs it has ever been my fate to encounter. -Judging by my own sensations I should guess the staircase to have -measured nine inches in width—but it is possible it may have been rather -more. - -As we sat at supper that evening there came a knock at the door and the -_Alcalde_ was announced; a shy little man fingering a felt hat slipped -into the room and made us a low bow; he was the Burgomaster, come to pay -his respects and to inquire if we had all we wanted. While entirely -appreciating the kindness that prompted his visit we could willingly -have dispensed with it, on account of the immense exertion required to -express ourselves in Spanish at all, and the impossibility of doing so -as we should wish. We gathered that he was placing himself and all he -possessed at our disposal, and we did our best to rise to the occasion; -but sentiments of gratitude are sadly lamed by a limited vocabulary. We -tried to improve our position by asking if he could speak French, and -expressing our disappointment when he negatived the question. The -interview was punctuated by rather painful silences—and it was with a -certain sense of relief that we saw our friendly visitor bow himself out -again on being assured there was nothing he could do for us. - -All that night a terrific storm raged. Mingled with the rattling of hail -and the crash of thunder came the sound of the _Sereno_ hammering at the -house door to wake the _fondista_, and shortly afterwards we heard the -latter come upstairs and pound lustily upon the door of an adjoining -bedroom; some señor had to be called to catch the diligence, which— -according to Spanish custom—leaves Andraitx at the extraordinary hour of -two o’clock in the morning. - -By the time we had finished breakfast the sun was shining hotly once -more, and we were able to start for San Telmo. Seated in a small -_carreta_—a very light skeleton cart on two wheels, with rush mats -spread over the bars of the bottom and sides—we set out at a foot’s pace -to visit the old castle on the coast, an hour and a half distant. For a -mile or so one ascends by a very steep mountain road, but after crossing -the _col_ this road deteriorates into the roughest of cart tracks, -winding down to the sea through a valley of pine-trees, olives, and -carobs. - -A country road in Majorca may mean anything—from a tract of bedrock -scattered with loose stones of any size, to a soft, uneven hill-path, -barely wide enough for a wheeled vehicle to pass. Short of coming to -actual steps, a _carreta_ is expected to follow anywhere where a pony -can obtain a footing, and many a time did the bumps and lurches to which -we were subjected recall George Sand’s driving experiences in the year -1838. - -Speaking of what is now one of the finest roads in the island she -narrates in lively French how in her day the journey was perilously -accomplished—“with one wheel on the mountain and one in the ravine.... -The jolting is indescribable ... yet however frightful a concussion the -driver receives, he sings all the time in a loud voice—only breaking off -to bestow curses upon his horse if the animal hesitates for an instant -before plunging down some precipice or climbing some rock wall.... For -it is thus one proceeds—ravines, torrents, quagmires, ditches, hedges, -all present themselves in vain—one does not stop for so little. Besides, -it is all part of the road; at first you think you must be -steeplechasing for a wager, and you ask your driver what possesses him. -This is the road, he replies. But that river? It is the road. And this -deep pit? The road. And that bush also? Always the road.... _A la bonne -heure!_ And all that remains for you to do is to commend your soul to -God and to contemplate the landscape, while awaiting death or a -miracle.” - -Descending from the _carreta_ shortly after starting, to lighten the -load of the floundering pony, I had at first persuaded the stout -proprietor to follow my example; but within a very short time he had -climbed in again, observing with a loud gasp that the way was long. It -was not the first time he had been to San Telmo; only a year ago he had -driven two English ladies there, and they too had had a camera, and on -the way it fell out of the cart and was lost. To this day he could -remember their lamentable cries of “La máquina, la máquina!” But five -days later it was picked up by an old man, who thought it was a bomb and -carried it home very cautiously. The ladies were very pleased—oh yes, -they gave him more than a day’s wages for it. - -The little castle of San Telmo was built in the sixteenth century for -the protection of Andraitx. It stands on a rocky prominence by the -seashore, and is in good preservation, its barrel-vaulted dining hall -serving as a workshop for the old man who lives there. From the flat -roof of the tower, where rusty cannon still occupy the embrasures, one -looks down upon a pretty beach, where long green waves, lit up by the -sun, break gently upon the sand, and great conch shells are sometimes -found amongst the foam fringes of the surf. Some three hundred yards out -from the shore is the low turtle-backed rock Pentaleu, where the -Conqueror first set foot on quitting his storm-tossed galley; and -screening the northern side of the little bay are the bare grey flanks— -dreaded by sailors—of the Dragonéra, Majorca’s westernmost outpost. A -lighthouse occupies the knife-like ridge of the summit, and cutting -along through the Freu—the narrow strait between the island rock and the -mainland—comes a little white steamer, the Barcelona boat, bringing a -welcome cargo of mails after a silence that has lasted more than a week. - -The following morning, March 29th, we set out for Estallenchs, our -cavalcade consisting of one riding mule and a sturdy donkey to carry the -luggage. No expedition could have offered a greater contrast to our tour -of the preceding week than did this journey across the mountains. On the -southern plain a whole day’s march of thirty miles is accomplished in a -morning’s drive; in the Sierra we take four hours to cover a distance of -twelve miles. Up and down among the hills winds the mule track; now we -are high above the lapis lazuli sea, on a mountain path knee deep in -palmetto fans and the red-velvet flower of lentiscus bushes; now we -descend to a torrent bed hemmed in by great grey cliffs scarred with red -scarps where part of the hillside has broken off and poured like an -avalanche into the bed of the valley. Now we enter the pine woods where -the white allium and many orchises grow, and the air is fragrant with -rosemary and gorse. Further on we come to a winding rock staircase cut -in the face of the cliff, down which, our guide tells us, it is not safe -to ride; the only surprising thing is that any animal except a goat -should be expected to descend it; and here our baggage donkey -distinguished himself by slipping down and lying motionless, but quite -unhurt, till he was unloaded and dragged on to his legs again. - -A rough cart track winds for some way into these lonely hills, and we -meet timber carts descending with loads of fir-trees, the mules -stumbling and sliding on their haunches down the steep hillside—the -heavy two-wheeled carts, with powerful brakes on, crashing and jolting -behind them over boulders and tree-stumps. - -As we approach human habitations again, traces of cultivation once more -appear; small terraces are levelled on the mountain side and planted -with almond-trees, from which our men snatch handfuls of young milky -nuts in passing—a universal habit that has given rise to the sarcastic -proverb, “The laden almond-tree by the wayside is sure to be bitter.” At -last, after a long and fatiguing descent by shallow paved steps, we come -in sight of Estallenchs—a pretty village nestling in a fold of the -hills, backed by cliffs, grey peaks of sun and shadow; in front a valley -opening down to the sea, with hill slopes clothed in almond, olive, and -fir. - -The inn is a very humble building, and does not even entitle itself a -_fonda_. The master of the house was absent, and the old woman left in -charge spoke no Spanish; we spoke no Majorcan, and by way of -facilitating conversation she suddenly sent an urgent message to the -village doctor, who arrived post haste, thinking that some accident had -befallen the English señoras. Somewhat dashed at finding us both -uninjured and in good health, he yet conversed with us very pleasantly -in our attic chamber, offered to show us the place, translated various -requests for us, and before leaving ordered our dinner. Thanks to his -ministrations we lacked for nothing that night, the only hitch occurring -at bedtime, when our best efforts to obtain candles resulted in a dish -of olives being set before us. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _the pretty village of Estallenchs, backed by great - grey cliffs, and with a valley in front opening down to the sea_.” - - (page 74) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The light streaming through the great outer door - revealed the usual spotless interior of a Majorcan house._” - - (page 75) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -The following morning a cheerful jingle of bells announces the arrival -of our good Pépé and the victoria; the approach to the inn being too -narrow for a carriage to pass, our belongings are carried up to the main -road and there bestowed upon the box. Village dames look on from their -doorways and nod affably, and one of them invited us to come in while -waiting for the carriage to be packed, and took the deepest interest in -our proceedings when we proposed photographing her room—only regretful -that her floor was not yet covered with the tiles she showed us stacked -in readiness. The only light streamed through the great stone archway of -the outer door, and revealed the usual spotless interior of a Majorcan -house, the walls snowy with repeated coats of whitewash. Good string- -seated chairs and stools were ranged neatly round the room, and on the -shelves stood the graceful water-jars in daily use among the people. -Boxwood spoons and forks hung in a rack by the chimney corner, and over -a clear fire of almond-shells upon the hearth bubbled a pot of bean -soup; nothing would content the good housewife but that we should taste -it—and most excellent it was. Everything about the place was tidy and -exquisitely clean. - -You might search in Majorca for a long time I fancy before you would -find a slattern. - -The scale of wages in the island is low—a labourer rarely earning more -than eighteen pence a day; but there is every sign of general -prosperity. The necessaries of life are very cheap, and a well-built -stone house can be obtained in country villages at a rental of from two -to three pounds a year. - -The drive from Estallenchs to Bañalbufár is—from the point of view of -scenery—one of the finest in the island; high above the sea runs the -road, following every curve of the rugged coast; dark, fir-crowned -cliffs tower overhead, and mountain ranges in splendid perspective jut -out into the blue Mediterranean. Headland upon headland, point upon -point—each intervening bay outlined with a semicircle of snow-white -foam—they stretch back to where the faint blue battering-ram of the -Dragonéra is still dimly visible in the haze of distance. - -Perched on a rock pinnacle above the sea stand the yellow walls of an -old watch tower; these towers, or _ataláyas_ as they are called, were in -olden days tenanted by coastguards, who from their lofty eyries watched -the sea and gave the alarm to the countryside when any suspicious sail -appeared on the horizon; a system of smoke-signals was in use by which -the movements of a hostile fleet could be communicated to all the other -_ataláyas_ along the coast and to the inhabitants of the interior. - -Bañalbufár is a small village built upon a mountain slope high above the -sea, chiefly noticeable for the marvellous terracing of the surrounding -hillsides; the terraces are so narrow and the walls so high that seen -from below the effect is that of an unbroken stone wall several hundred -feet in height, while from a little distance they resemble a gigantic -flight of curved steps or an inverted amphitheatre upon the hillside. -Vines and tomatoes are largely grown by the industrious inhabitants. - -Down by the sea, in the cavernous recesses of overhanging rocks, are -some curious corn mills, to which one descends by a steep paved path, -the tiny mountain stream that works the mills raging and sluicing -alongside in a polished aqueduct at such prodigious speed that upon -touching the water your hand receives a smart blow. - -Here upon a small headland below the village we ate our luncheon, among -clumps of purple stock and bushes of bright green spurge—devouring the -while a week’s budget of letters that Pépé had brought out with him; -after which we rejoined our carriage and began the long ascent of the -Col that lay between us and Palma. Like a snake does the white road wind -in loops up the mountain side; the _Pinus maritima_ clothes the hill -slopes to the very summit, but rarely attains an even respectable size. -In this respect Majorca differs strikingly from Corsica, where grand -forests of Laricio pine flourish in the rockiest of soils. Natural -timber is indeed a feature entirely lacking in the greater part of -Majorca, owing to the fact that whenever it is in any way possible to -utilise the ground it is devoted to the more profitable culture of the -olive and almond. - -Leaving the mountains behind us we presently pass Esporlás, with its -rushing stream bordered by Lombardy poplars, and its great cloth -factory, where hanks of dyed cotton are hanging out to dry; and soon -after reaching Establiments—a trim and prosperous townlet nine -kilometres from Palma—the rain comes down in torrents. We meet flocks of -drenched sheep, and tilted country carts returning from market, each -carter fast asleep inside, with his head on a pile of sacks and a -blanket drawn up to his chin, leaving all responsibility to the -sagacious mule who steps aside to let us pass. The wheat fields are -dripping, the wet air is heavy with the scent of flowering may, and -Palma itself is spanned by a bright rainbow. Let it rain! we are back in -comfortable quarters once more! - - * * * * * - -On the 2nd of April we went to spend a few days at Sollér—the one -inevitable expedition for all visitors to Palma. By the most direct -route the drive only occupies three hours, but it is best to make a -_détour_ by way of Valldemósa and Miramár, so as to include the -beautiful scenery of the north coast. - -Long and straight and flat is the road to Valldemósa, the cornfields on -either side decked out with blue borage, gladiolus, and pink allium, and -bordered with a fringe of flaring yellow daisies—the kind known in -English gardens as annual chrysanthemums. A brilliant touch of colour is -given by a row of bright vermilion flower-pots, set out on the snow- -white parapet of a country house; but actual flower gardens are as -lacking among the homesteads of Majorca as among those of most southern -lands—and the peasants would no doubt marvel greatly at the sentiment -which induces an English cottager to allot so much valuable space to -flowers when he might devote it to the utilitarian onion or the -practical potato. - -A couple of hours’ drive brings one to the foot of the mountains, and -passing through a fine gorge the road ascends to the village of -Valldemósa, perched upon a saddle among the hills. It was here that in -the sixteenth century Santa Catalina was born—the pious maiden who on -her walks used the leaves of the olive and lentisk as rosaries, and who -from her cell heard mass being celebrated in Palma Cathedral, ten miles -distant; but Valldemósa’s chief claim to fame lies in her great -Carthusian monastery, a huge yellow pile occupying the ridge above the -village. Originating as the summer palace of the Moorish rulers of -Majorca, the great building was subsequently used as a residence by the -kings of Aragon, and it was not till the year 1400 that it fell into the -hands of the monks; fortified, restored, and added to at various times, -the monastery eventually covered an enormous area of ground, and -sufficient still remains to amaze us at the lavish style in which twelve -Carthusian friars and their Father Superior were housed. - -When the monastery was suppressed in 1835, the Spanish government made -over the newer wing of the building to private persons, and nine -Majorcan families occupy the monks’ old quarters to this day. Very -charming are these monastic residences, entered from the cool, -whitewashed cloisters; each set of rooms is quite secluded from the -rest, and each has its small terrace garden to the south, where lemon- -trees bask in the sunshine, screened by the high walls that divide each -monk’s territory from that of his neighbour on either side. From the low -parapet in front one looks out over a steep declivity of orange groves -and ranges of hills stretching down to the gorge—the gate of the plains. - -It was in one of these apartments that George Sand passed the winter -when she visited the island with her two children in the year 1838, -accompanied by the invalid Chopin. The accommodation provided for one -Carthusian friar—three good-sized rooms and a kitchen on the ground -floor, with as many bedrooms above stairs—afforded ample living room for -the party of four; but the winter proved bitterly cold, and all the -comforts of a northern home were lacking in an island where open -fireplaces are unknown, and a brazier filled with charcoal is the only -means of warming a room. At great expense an iron stove was brought up -to Valldemósa and installed in one of the rooms, where it smelt -abominably. In other matters the unfortunate strangers were no happier; -the grand piano—imported from France—gave such endless trouble at the -Palma customs that they would willingly have had it sunk in the harbour— -but even that was not permitted. It was only after protracted wrangling -that it was finally liberated upon the payment of four hundred francs. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_It was here that George Sand passed the winter when - she visited the island with her two children in 1838, accompanied - by the invalid Chopin._” - - (page 80) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The mountain ranges stretch back in splendid perspective - to where the faint blue battering-ram of the Dragonéra is - dimly visible in the distance._” - - (page 76) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -The attitude of the Valldemósans too was anything but pleasant or -conciliatory to the French exiles; the expulsion of the monks was too -recent for them to have become reconciled to the occupation of the -monastery by lay residents, and they looked with intense suspicion on -these foreigners who never came to church and who scandalised society by -allowing a little girl of nine to roam the country attired in rational -costume. - -There were doubtless faults on both sides; if the peasants regarded -George Sand as a heathen, she looked upon them as uncharitable and -bigoted barbarians, and she contrasts the result of their so-called -religion with the abomination of desolation of philosophy in which—as -she ironically remarks—her own children were brought up. - -Life in Majorca seems to have offered few attractions to the foreigner -in those days; setting aside the difficulties of transit—difficulties -rendered doubly trying in the case of an invalid—the discomfort of the -pig-boat by which one came to Palma, and the shocking state of the -roads, to which I have previously alluded—setting all this aside, the -very character of the islanders seems to have been radically different -when George Sand sojourned amongst them from what it is now. According -to her, the Majorcans were dirty and impertinent; they cheated one -shamelessly at every turn; they were calculating, selfish, and utterly -heartless where their own interest was concerned; letters of -recommendation to twenty Palma residents would hardly suffice to prevent -a stranger from wandering homeless about the town on arrival; and if any -luckless foreigner presumed to complain of the treatment he received, or -so much as ventured to express disapproval at the presence of scorpions -in his soup, a torrent of indignation and contempt descended on his -head. - -Now our own impressions of the Majorcans differed so wholly from the -above description that it is difficult to realise that the writer was -referring to the same people. Our experience of the island was, however, -necessarily a brief and superficial one—and though I have endeavoured -faithfully to record all that befell us on our travels I am open to the -charge of having taken too _couleur-de-rose_ a view, or—in the more -pithy Minorcan phrase—of having unconsciously resembled “the ass of -Moro, who was enchanted with everything.” - -I therefore quote the following words written by one not open to this -charge—the Austrian Archduke Louis Salvator, who for more than twenty -years made the island his home, who travelled about among the peasants, -and who probably knows the island and its inhabitants more intimately -than do most of the natives themselves:— - -“The Majorcans,” he writes, “are gentle, cheerful, open-hearted, -compassionate, and charitable to the poor; faithful in friendship, and -extremely attached to their wives and children; _very hospitable, like -all the Balearic peoples_—this applies to rich and poor alike, who all -heap kindness upon the stranger and entertain him with their best.” - -How to reconcile this opinion with that of George Sand I do not know—for -it is not usual for the racial characteristics of an island people to -alter so completely in fifty years. I can only imagine that the French -authoress must have arrived in Majorca at an inauspicious moment; that -she unintentionally roused the animosity of her neighbours, and that she -may have been actually unlucky in the people with whom she came in -contact; while anxiety over the condition of her sick friend did not -improve her temper. It must not be supposed, however, that her winter at -Valldemósa was one long Jeremiad; she thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of -the scenery and the flowers, and her vivid imagination, her spirit, and -her sense of humour carried her through trials that would have depressed -many another person. - -An apology is due to her memory for the deliberate charge brought -against her in Murray’s guide-book of having damaged a certain -“priceless historical document” during her stay in the island. The -document in question is a curious illuminated map of Europe and the -north coast of Africa, made for Amerigo Vespucci in the year 1439 by a -Majorcan draughtsman; and George Sand is most unjustly held up to the -reprobation of all future travellers as having obtained permission to -copy this map, and as having upset her inkpot over it. - -That an inkpot _was_ upset over it she herself records in dramatic -narration, but her account of the affair goes to show that she had -neither part nor lot in bringing about the accident; her hair stands on -end with horror as she recalls the scene.... - -She was being shown the library collected by Cardinal Despuig, uncle to -the then Count of Montenegro, when the house-chaplain volunteered to -show her the precious map—the gem of the collection. Spreading it on a -table he unrolled the beautiful illuminated parchment—whereon large -cities share the Sahara with equally large savages mounted on camels; -but the vellum was reluctant to remain flat, seeing which, a servant -placed a full inkstand upon a corner of the map to keep it open. But -alas! its weight was insufficient! The scroll gave a crack—a leap—and -lo! it was again rolled up, _with the inkstand inside_! - -Horror and confusion reigned; the chaplain fainted away; the servants -were petrified—and then, losing their heads, dashed up with sponges, -brooms, and pails of water, and fell upon the map with zeal so fatal -that kingdoms, oceans, isles, and continents were overwhelmed in common -ruin. - -George Sand declares she was not even touching the table at the moment -of the catastrophe—but adds prophetically that she quite supposes the -blame of it will to all time be laid at her door. The map was -subsequently restored by skilful hands to nearly its pristine glory, and -is now to be seen under glass in the house of the Count of Montenegro at -Palma. - -The big monastery-church of Valldemósa contains little of interest -beyond some good marble mosaics, and hanging on the wall is a curious -apparatus not unlike a pool-marker, with lettered pegs that fit into -holes—the talking board used by the silent monks when they wished to -communicate with one another. - -From Valldemósa an hour’s drive brings one to Miramár, the large estate -purchased in 1872 by the Archduke Louis Salvator. Before arriving at the -house itself one passes the roadside _hospedéria_, kept up—with true -Majorcan hospitality—by the lord of the manor for the benefit of -travellers: free quarters for three days, with firing, salt, and olives, -are offered to all comers, and the woman in charge cooks the food that -visitors bring with them. This hospice makes an excellent centre from -which to explore the north coast of the island, and good walkers would -discover countless delightful rambles amongst the pinewoods that clothe -the cliffs down to the water’s edge. - -The Archduke’s own house is a plain building standing 2,000 feet above -sea-level; the name Miramár—Sea View—has attached to the site ever since -the thirteenth century, when Don Jaime II.—acting on the recommendation -of Rámon Lull, his seneschal—founded a college there. Never was a name -better deserved; like a silver mirror the placid Mediterranean lies -outspread below one, its motionless surface flecked with tiny fishing -boats; dark, fir-clad cliffs slope precipitously to the sea, and far -below lies the red rock Foradada like some gigantic saurian in the blue -water. Look-out points, or _Miradórs_, are constructed in various parts -of the grounds, commanding glorious views; and perched upon a rocky spur -lower down the hill is a tiny chapel, recently built, dedicated to St. -Rámon Lull. One of its foundation stones was brought from Bougie in -Algeria—where the saint met his death by stoning—and another from San -Francisco, in memory of the missionary Juan Serra, the Majorcan founder -of the Pacific city. - -For the last eight years the Archduke has not resided at his Majorcan -home, greatly to the regret of the people; the house is uninhabited, but -is shown to visitors by the caretaker. - -Its chief interest consists in the entirely native character of its -contents; everything in the house is Majorcan—the thick, soft matting on -the floors, the string-seated rocking-chairs and the fat stools of -stuffed basket-work; the handsome brass braziers and the carved four- -post bedsteads; the inlaid chests and cabinets, and the splendid -collection of faïence ware, of which the owner is a connoisseur. -Majorcan too is the vulture in the garden—a fierce, brown bird, who -hisses at visitors, and jumps wrathfully from branch to branch of the -aviary in which he has lived for seventeen long years. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The port of Soller is a fishing village of narrow - streets_....” - - (page 89) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_We came up with a palmer from the Holy Land, posting - along at five miles an hour._” - - (page 87) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -The Archduke is the author of a very exhaustive and profusely -illustrated work on the Balearics, “_Die Balearen in Wort und Bild_”; -but unfortunately it is too costly a work to become generally known, or -it would bring many travellers to visit the islands which the author -loves so well. - -On leaving Miramár we continue along the coast to Deya, a picturesque -village of clustered houses and steep streets of steps, perched upon an -isolated peak and backed by high mountains. Here we caught sight of a -strange figure striding along the road ahead of us, and presently we -came up with a holy palmer, who might have stepped straight out of the -twelfth century—with cockleshells and staff, and with his sandal shoon. -He was posting along at five miles an hour with a dog at his heels. - -“Whither away, O Father?” we asked with respectful salutation. - -“Over the whole world, my children,” replied the old man, turning upon -us a rugged face framed in long grey locks. - -We learnt that he was a native of Spain, and had for years been on a -pilgrimage to the most sacred shrines in all lands; he had been in the -Holy Land and in Egypt—had visited St. James of Compostella, and Rome, -and Lourdes—and now was on his way to the shrine of Our Lady of Lluch. -His wallet contained his papers—viséd at his various halting places— -together with a few treasured relics from the Holy Sepulchre; of money -he had no need, since the faithful everywhere would give him food and a -night’s lodging, for the labourer is worthy of his hire. But he dare not -tarry, for he had yet far to go, and with a “_Buen viaje!_” we drove on -and soon lost sight of the solitary pilgrim who in this strange fashion -was working out his own salvation. - -The town of Sollér lies almost at sea-level, in a spacious valley ringed -round with mountains around whose grey peaks buzzards and ravens—dwarfed -by distance to the size of midges—circle and slant for ever to and fro. - -Warm and sheltered, rich with orange and lemon groves, date palms and -loquats, and entirely enclosed with hills but for an opening down to the -little port on the north, Sollér is Majorca’s garden of the Hesperides. -Though it is only April 3rd, the roses are running riot in the gardens -of _Son Angelāts_, a fine house on the outskirts of the town belonging -to a Marchésa who only resides there in summer time; it has terraces -overlooking Sollér, and large grounds laid out with orange groves, tall -palms, and flowering shrubs; roses cover the terrace walls and climb up -into the grey olive-trees from whence they fall back in festoons—and the -gardener breaks off branch after branch for us as we go along, great -yellow Marshal Niels, pink La France, crimson tea roses, butter-coloured -Banksias, miniature _roses de Meaux_, and fragrant Madame Falcot; we -have more roses than we can carry. The borders are full of pansies and -polyanthus, Parma violets and carnations; we are given bouquets of -spirea, freesias, peonies, and heliotrope, and we drive away with our -little _carreta_ decked out as if for the Carnival. - -The Marchésa has beautiful grounds—carriages and horses, and many -servants; and to these possessions she adds, with true Southern -incongruity, a most remarkable approach to her entrance gate; several -yards of decayed cobble paving—bestrewn with loose blocks of stone and -full of deep holes—over which a small stream swirls rapidly, intervene -between her carriage gate and the road outside. The bumps and crashes -with which our cart forded the water nearly threw the pony down, and we -feared at one time that a wheel was coming off, but we got through -intact. That the marchioness should enjoy this episode as part of her -daily drive strikes even the natives, I think, as a little strange. - -The modest little hotel _La Marina_ at Sollér is a great improvement on -the ordinary village _fonda_; the cooking is good, the bedrooms plainly -but suitably furnished, and the proprietor and his daughters spare no -pains to make their guests happy. Mules can be procured in the town for -mountain expeditions, a carriage and pair is kept for hire, and there is -a toy _carreton_ belonging to the hotel in which one may drive out -alone—feeling somewhat like a coster going to the Derby; the minute -white pony hurries one along at extraordinary speed and stops for -nothing but the Majorcan word of command—Poke-a-parg! - -The port of Sollér, about half an hour distant, is a little land-locked -harbour with a fishing village of narrow streets and picturesque houses. -Majorca’s northern coast is in general so precipitous and inhospitable -that the safe anchorage offered by the Sollér harbour was a great -attraction to the corsairs of the Middle Ages, and many and terrible -were the struggles that took place in the sixteenth century between them -and the inhabitants of Sollér; on one of these occasions they sacked and -then burnt to the ground the great Oratory of Santa Catalina, which -stands on a headland at the mouth of the harbour. After this a castle -was built, whose guns commanded the entrance to the port; but of this -nothing remains except part of a tower, now incorporated in a modern -dwelling-house. - -There are many expeditions to be made on foot and on muleback into the -mountains that surround Sollér; stalwarts can make the ascent of the -snow-crowned _Puig Mayor_—Majorca’s highest peak, five thousand feet -above sea-level—or visit the _Gorch Blau_, a ten hours’ expedition, with -several miles of rock steps to come down on the way back, but both of -these require strength and endurance. Then there is the _Barránco_, a -ravine, clean cut as with a knife, upon the summit of a grey mountain -ridge from whence a splendid view is obtained; and there is the _Torrent -de Pareys_ on the north coast, to be reached by boat on a calm day in -about two hours. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The white town of Soller lying in the lap of the hills, - framed by converging mountain slopes_ ...” - - (page 92) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Many of the houses at Fornalutx are extremely old, with - quaint staircases and old stone archways._” - - (page 91) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Of the shorter excursions one well worth making is to the hill village -of Fornalutx; the road runs up the valley of the Torriente, a bubbling -hill stream with banks of blue and white periwinkle and a masonry bed -overhung with thousands of orange and lemon trees, beneath which lie -oranges in golden mounds, like cider apples in a Somerset orchard. In -spite of the scale disease, which in latter years has wrought havoc in -many groves—blackening the fruit and destroying the foliage—the oranges -of Sollér are still famous, and fetch market prices ranging from a penny -to fivepence a dozen, according to quality, while a dozen of the best -lemons are here sold for twopence. - -The streets of Fornalutx are principally flights of broad cobbled steps, -and many of the houses are extremely ancient and fascinating, with -quaint wooden balustrades, carved window frames, and old stone archways. -One of those we visited had an oil mill on the premises, and we were -shown the stone bins into which the panniers of olives are first -emptied, and the great trough in which they are subsequently crushed -with a millstone turned by a mule; the olive pulp is then placed in -flat, circular baskets, and when these are piled up in layers to a -considerable height, boiling water is poured over them and they are -crushed flat by an immense baulk of timber that descends upon them from -above. The exuding liquid flows into a tank below, where by the happy -provision of Nature the oil is able to be drawn off by a surface pipe -while the water is carried away by one at the bottom. The olive harvest -takes place in October and November; the oil is much used in Majorcan -cookery—though not to any unpleasant extent—and children are often seen -eating slices of bread spread with oil in place of the jam or dripping -with which it would be flavoured in our own country. - - * * * * * - -Our stay at Sollér was cut short by the unkindness of the weather. For -two days the rain held off, grudgingly; but on the third we awoke to -find the whole valley enveloped in a dense Scotch mist; our host looked -up at the blurred outlines of the mountains, and he looked at the gusts -of cloud that were blowing through the _barranco_, and he shook his -head; he was honest, and he confessed that the prospect was not hopeful. -A rain wind sobbed round the house as we sat over the wood fire that -evening, and from an adjoining room came the singularly monotonous -chant—high, nasal, and quavering—with which a Majorcan servant girl can -accompany her sweeping for hours at a time. The effect was indescribably -triste, and our thoughts turned to the flesh pots of Palma. - -The following morning showed no improvement, so our host’s victoria was -requisitioned and we set out on our return to the Grand Hotel. For an -hour and a half our two sturdy horses toiled up out of the valley, the -winding zigzags of the road affording us now and again a backward glance -at the little white town lying in the lap of the hills, framed by -converging mountain slopes. On reaching the top of the pass we met a -fresher air, and we rattled merrily down the beautifully graded road -towards the plain, drawing up presently at the wayside villa of Alfádia. - -Alfádia is an ancient caravanserai that still bears traces of its -Moorish origin; passing under the high entrance gateway, which has a -Moorish ceiling of carved and painted wood, one enters a vast courtyard, -surrounded by stables and containing a fountain and a pepper-tree of -immense size and age. When first we entered the great quadrangle it was -absolutely deserted, but no sooner did our camera mount its tripod than -with the mysterious suddenness of Roderick Dhu’s men figures emerged -from all sides, anxious to be included in the picture. - -Hardly had we regained our carriage when the rain that had long been -threatening began to come down—first gently, then harder, and finally -with a terrific clap of thunder we were overtaken by a kind of -cloudburst. Whipping up the horses our driver made a dash for a wayside -inn on the Palma road, and driving in under the deep verandah-like porch -running along the whole front of the building we drew up and were -gradually joined by other refugees till every inch of standing room was -taken up. Cheek by jowl with us were white-tilted orange carts from -Sollér, a countryman and his cow, a post cart, sundry mules, and a -number of pedestrians who arrived half drowned beneath their umbrellas; -and in this most welcome shelter we all remained imprisoned while for -the next half hour it rained as I have never seen it rain before. -Cascades fell from the edge of the verandah roof, the road became a -river, and from the olive grounds gory floods were descending and were -struggling and leaping through the culverts like the legions of red rats -charmed out of Hamelin by the pied piper. - -It is with diffidence that I venture to observe that a _very unusual_ -amount of rain fell around Palma this spring—for there is a growing -feeling of incredulity on the subject of unusual seasons. I have heard -of a man who had lived for thirty years in Algiers, and who asserted -that in that time he had experienced thirty unusual seasons. Few winter -resorts perhaps could equal this record, but I fancy that in most places -abnormal seasons of one kind or another are sufficiently common for the -really normal one—when it does make its appearance—to be almost, if not -quite, as unusual as the rest. - - * * * * * - -On April 16th we took the train for Alcúdia and set out on our fourth -and final tour in Majorca. When I say that we took the train for Alcúdia -I mean that we went as far in that direction as the train would carry -us, for with a strange perversity the railway line, instead of running -right across the island from Palma to Alcúdia and so connecting the -latter and its Minorcan service of boats with the rest of the world, -stops short some ten miles from the coast, perhaps with a view to -annoying possible invaders. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Alfadia is an old caravanserai.... In its great courtyard - is a fountain and an enormous pepper tree_....” - - (page 93) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_We passed out of the town of Alcúdia by the Roman gate - called the Puerta del Muelle._” - - (page 95) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Two hours after leaving Palma we descended at the terminus of La Puébla, -where we and five other persons scrambled with difficulty into an -immensely high two-wheeled carrier’s cart covered with a canvas tilt. -For an hour and a half the stout horse jogged slowly along a flat road, -and then we drove under the great fortified gateway of San Sebastian and -entered Alcúdia, an ancient town of dingy-looking houses, with paved -alleys so narrow that our horse had to put his head right in at people’s -front doors in order to turn the sharp street corners. - -Alcúdia is still surrounded by strong walls and a moat, fortifications -dating partly from Roman and partly from Moorish days. During the great -peasant revolt of the sixteenth century the Aragonese nobles came here -for refuge; their yoke had been a heavy one, and since the annexation of -the island by the crown of Aragon discontent and unrest had filled the -population. Oppressed and heavily taxed, they at last rose in -insurrection, and forming themselves into armed bands laid siege to -Alcúdia till the arrival of a Spanish fleet turned the scales against -them. Their leader, Colom, was beheaded, and his head sent to Palma, -where for more than two hundred years it hung in an iron cage at the -_Puerta Margarita_, near to which is a square that still bears his name. - -We did not stop in Alcúdia, but passing out of the town by the fine -Roman gate called the _Puerta del Muelle_ we drove on to the harbour, -about a mile distant. - -The _Fonda de la Marina_ on the seashore is a large and quite civilised -inn, with whitewashed corridors and rows of numbered deal doors; it is a -very marine _fonda_ indeed, being situated actually on the water’s edge, -so that our driver before putting us down takes a short turn in the sea -to wash his cart wheels. Fishing-smacks lie under our windows, and -Francisca the general servant—in whose absence everything is at a -standstill and who is being perpetually screeched for from the front -door—comes up hurriedly in a small boat from the mole where she has been -buying fish for our dinner. - -Our host informed us that two visitors were already installed in the -house, but when we inquired their names and nationality he was -hopelessly vague. To the Majorcan innkeeper foreigners are foreigners, -and as such will naturally know all other foreigners; and he describes -bygone guests by their appearance, age, and such traits as he has -observed in them, confident that they will be at once recognised by the -person to whom he speaks. To his disappointment, however, we entirely -failed—in spite of his most graphic description—to identify our fellow -guests, and it was not till we were sitting at table that evening, over -our raisins and cabbages, our lobster salad and cutlets, that we saw two -strangers enter whom we perceived to be English. They told us they had -been here more than a week, and had thoroughly enjoyed their stay. - -Very peaceful is the great bay of Alcúdia, with its sand dunes and pine -woods, its reedy marshes, and its sickle-curve of dazzling white sand -encircling the deep blue water. One may wander for miles along the -lonely shore, watching the ways of the burying-beetles that live in -large colonies among the bee orchises and cistus bushes above high-water -mark, or searching for shells and fragments of coral among the seaweed -rissoles of the _Poseidonia oceanica_ that bestrew the beach in -countless numbers. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Very peaceful is the bay of Alcúdia with its sickle curve - of snow-white sand encircling the turquoise-blue water._” - - (page 96) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _one of the_ norias _introduced by the Moors, and - still used in Majorca for raising water from wells_.” - - (page 99) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -There are many excursions in the neighbourhood that good walkers can -easily accomplish on foot. Between the harbour and the town of Alcúdia -are the remains of a Roman amphitheatre, supposed to mark the site of -the old Pollentia—long disappeared; on a rocky slope, converted into a -wild flower garden by a gorgeous tangle of yellow daisies, convolvulus, -borage, asphodel and mallow, can be traced partial tiers of seats and -flights of steps cut in the rock; and in a depression of the ground are -seen the caves originally destined for wild beasts, but now inhabited by -nothing more ferocious than a family of black pigs couched upon a bed of -seaweed. - -Here and there among the flowers one stumbles into a grave; there are -rows upon rows of these Roman graves—narrow, shallow tombs cut in the -surface of the rock and half filled with earth. Fragments of Roman -pottery, broken lamps, skulls and bones are constantly picked up, and -two years ago a grave was found intact by some men who were quarrying -freestone. Like the rest, it was quite shallow, and in it was found a -quantity of gold jewellery that had evidently belonged to a Roman lady. -We were shown the ornaments, which comprised a brooch set with rubies, -an oval locket—which at one time had apparently contained a portrait—a -long chain necklace with clasps, set with small pearls and two emeralds; -two handsome gold and pearl earrings, and a few smaller trinkets. In -another tomb was found a gold bracelet, and a silver coin said to be of -the reign of Tiberius. All these are now in the possession of the -finder. - -Close to the Roman cemetery are some other graves, half hidden by rough -grass. As our guide turned over the earth with his foot he disclosed a -jawbone furnished with a row of splendid molars; from the style of -burial and other indications these graves have been decided to be -Moorish, but as far as we could learn no systematic investigation of the -ground has yet been attempted. - -The following morning we drove to the _Castillo de Moros_, in one of the -usual tilted carts, drawn by a big mule that for some time showed no -sign of being able to go at any pace but a walk; our remark, however, -that a horse would have been swifter, put the driver on his mettle, and, -declaring that his mule had great velocity, he urged the animal into a -fast trot which was kept up as long as the condition of the road -rendered it in any degree possible. - -Skirting the town by an arrow track cut in the bedrock, and dating -probably from Roman times, we struck out across country to the Moorish -fort that stands on a promontory overlooking the bay of Pollensa. In -spite of its age the little _Castillo_ is in good preservation; moat and -bastions are almost intact, and a squat pylon of yellow freestone gives -entrance to the building and to a broad, flagged terrace on the side -towards the sea. Goats browse around the ramparts among palmetto and -lentisk, cactus and asphodel; and framed in the embrasures of the -masonry is the gorgeous blue of the bay, with the long serrated ranges -of Cap Formentór visible in the far distance. - -Below us, silhouetted against the distant headland of the Cap de Pinár, -stood one of the _nórias_, or Persian wheels, introduced by the Moors -and still used in the island for raising water from wells. Bushes of -pink stock clambered into the ancient stone aqueduct, which led away -from the nória across the bean fields; some sheep were grazing the stony -ground, watched by a boy in an enormous straw hat, who stood in the -shade of a clump of pines. It was a pretty pastoral scene, typical of -the peaceful tide of life that flows on around the Moors’ old fort. - -The southern shore of the Bay of Pollensa is very beautiful, and by an -amazingly bad road it is possible to drive a considerable way along it, -to the Cap de Pinar, a wild headland where we spent a delightful hour; -at our feet—far, far below—lay the waters of the bay, and beyond it the -trackless sierra of Cap Formentór stretches its arm northwards till it -ends in a bold cliff that plunges sheer into the sea. Behind us is a -mountain range, on the slopes of which is visible the pilgrimage church -of Our Lady of Victory, and looking inland we can see the pale blue -pyramid of the Puig Mayór. - -It was a _fête_ day, and crowds of holiday makers were returning from -the Cap—whole family parties laden with palmetto roots slung over their -shoulders; the heart of this dwarf palm is considered a delicacy by the -Majorcans; the plant is chopped out of the ground with an axe, and the -lower leaves trimmed off close, leaving only a tuft of young shoots at -the top, which gives the root an almost precise resemblance to a -pineapple. But it is a woody form of nourishment, and not a taste to be -acquired after childhood I should imagine. - -On April 18th we left Alcúdia for Pollensa. A gale had arisen in the -night, and we awoke to find the bay flecked with foam caps and the white -sand flying like smoke along the shore. The Barcelona boat was many -hours overdue, and the fishing fleet could not put out to sea, so that -the men, who had stocked their boats overnight with kegs of water and -provisions, instead of being off at daybreak as was their wont, were -reduced to mending their nets and splitting firewood while they waited, -with all the philosophic patience of their kind, for the wind to abate. - -Pollensa is about an hour and a half’s drive from Alcúdia. Surrounded by -ancient olive groves and rockeries planted with patches of beans and -wheat, the old town lies secluded among the hills, out of sight and out -of sound of the sea—only three miles distant. On one side of the town -rises the green Calvary hill, on the other the bare grey _Puig de -Pollensa_, crowned by a pilgrimage church and _hospedéria_; this passion -for building a church on the highest and most inaccessible spot -attainable is a really curious phenomenon. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Very picturesque is the little blue bay of San Vicente, - with its cliff walls and jagged peaks._” - - (page 103) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The generation now dying out is the last that will be - seen in the dress worn by their forefathers for a thousand - years past._” - - (page 101) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -An atmosphere of old-world tranquillity pervades the place; undisturbed -by railways, approached by only one good road—that from La Puebla—and -brought in touch hardly at all with the outside world, Pollensa is the -most characteristically Majorcan town in the whole island. The older men -still wear the wide Moorish breeches, the woollen stockings and strong -leather shoes latched across with a bow, which the younger ones have -forsaken in favour of the less picturesque modern garb. The generation -now dying out is the last that will be seen in the dress worn by their -forefathers for a thousand years past, and I am glad to have visited the -island before the costume has become a mere tradition. - -Castillian is little spoken in Pollensa, and our stay at the inn of -Antonio de Sollér was complicated by the fact that our good host and his -daughter knew rather less Spanish than we did ourselves. The old woman -who swept the floors was, I think, a little touched in the head, and she -annoyed us considerably for some time by pausing in front of us with -uplifted broom—as we sat in our rocking chairs, peacefully reading—and -haranguing us in Majorcan, of which she knew we did not understand a -word. - -“_Les silents ont toujours tort_”—and at last we turned the tables on -her by suddenly bursting forth in emphatic English, which had the effect -of silencing her completely, and she departed, muttering darkly, no -doubt more convinced than ever that we were mad. - -We found our inn to be comfortable, and, in spite of being in the middle -of the town, exceedingly quiet. The Majorcan cookery is always good, and -though liable to become monotonous, a certain variety of diet is -obtained by moving from place to place. Chicken stewed with rice, or a -ragout, supplemented by fish and an omelette, form the staple dishes of -Majorcan _fondas_; and each inn has its own idea of what a sweet course -should be, to which it rigorously adheres; at Felanitx we got into a -stratum of enormous jam puffs—larger than I could have conceived -possible; at Arta it was figs, stuffed with aniseed; at Alcúdia, slabs -of quince jelly; at Pollensa heavy pastry starfish, which made their -appearance twice a day with unfailing regularity. - -For breakfast coffee can always be obtained—although it must be -remembered that coffee does not necessarily imply milk, unless specially -ordered; and with the coffee it is the custom to eat an _ensaimáda_—a -kind of sweet sugar-besprinkled bun. Except at Palma and Sollér, butter -is not to be had; we usually supplied its place with jam we carried with -us, but at Pollensa we found ourselves reduced to our last pot, and that -pot we decided to save up as emergency rations, for rumour had it that -at Lluch, whither we were bound, we might be glad of anything at all. - -The morning after our arrival at Pollensa we drove out to the _Cala de -San Vicente_, a bay on the north coast of the island; after driving over -a bad road for some miles we left the _galaréta_ and walked down to the -sea by a charming path leading through pine woods and a wild rock-garden -of pink and white cistus and yellow broom, where for the first time we -heard the nightingale. Near the shore are large freestone quarries— -smooth-walled pits of cream-coloured stone—where men are employed in -detaching great blocks with wedges, and shaping them with saw and axe; -so plentiful is the freestone in many parts of the island that not only -the houses, but the field-walls and even the pigstyes are built of it. -It is extremely soft and easy to work when first quarried, and has the -invaluable property of hardening more and more as time goes on, when -exposed to the air. This causes many of the ancient buildings—such as -the Lonja and others—to look quite disappointingly modern, owing to the -smooth, unweathered surface of the walls and the sharp lines of all -angles. - -Exceedingly picturesque is the little blue bay of St. Vincent, with its -enclosing cliff walls and jagged peaks; on a small headland stands a -ruined _ataláya_ of curious construction, the tower being rounded on the -land side, but forming an acute angle towards the sea. - -Amongst the prickly pear and boulders of this headland we noticed a -large, almost circular, block of stone that attracted our attention from -its bearing traces of a rude square cut in its upper surface. We asked -the daughter of our _fondista_, who was with us, whether there was any -legend attaching to the ancient stone, but she was interested not at all -in pre-historic man: - -“That _mésa_,” she explained—_mésa_ means table, and is the term applied -to all the megalithic altars in the Balearics—“that _mésa_ is there for -visitors to have their luncheon upon.” - -This lack of observation and of intelligent interest in their -surroundings we found not uncommon among the people, who have an almost -Oriental incuriosity with regard to things that do not practically -concern them. Many a time did we draw the attention of a native to some -conspicuous plant growing in profusion around his home, and ask him what -kind of flower it bore when in bloom; whereupon he would reply without -hesitation that that particular plant never flowered at all, and -consider himself well out of the matter. - -I remember being told by a traveller in Spain that once when in the very -centre of the liquorice industry he inquired of his landlord what part -of the plant was used, to which he replied that it was the root: - -“And what kind of plant is it that supplies these roots?” - -“Oh, there is no plant at all—nothing to be seen above ground.” - -Pursuing his inquiries further, he found a man who admitted that there -was certainly a plant, but he maintained that it never flowered. This -was in the neighbourhood of acres of the plant, then in full flower! - -In the afternoon our host drove us to Aubercuix in a tilted cart, with -an old flea-bitten Rosinante in the shafts. Passing the quaint _Fuente -de Gallo_—an urn-shaped stone fountain presided over by a spruce cock, -where all day long the women fill their water jars—we had not proceeded -more than half a mile on our way when the back bench of our conveyance, -on which we both were sitting, broke down with a loud crack, and in the -confusion our best umbrella fell out in front and got badly kicked by -the horse. Our host was aghast; he jumped down and repaired the damage -as quickly as possible—propped up the seat with some chunks of firewood -that happened to be in the cart—disengaged the umbrella from the horse’s -hind leg—and tried to assure us that all was well. But it was far from -well. Our appearance had for some time past not been our strong point; -repeated wettings and dryings had not improved our hats; our clothes -were almost worn out—and now the best umbrella was just as baggy and -bent and stained as the other, and, moreover, would only open in a lop- -sided way. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The_ Fuente de Gallo, _an urn-shaped stone fountain, - presided over by a spruce cock_.” - - (page 104) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _the fine old Roman bridge at the entrance to - Pollensa_.” - - (page 107) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -We were not a little annoyed at this mishap, but our annoyance was soon -quenched in amusement, so curiously unconventional was our host’s style -of driving; hollerin’ and bellerin’ like Prince Giglio of immortal fame, -as though driving half a dozen plough teams at once, our good host urged -the old horse to speed with a running accompaniment of vituperation and -ceaseless objurgations, ranging from threats to cajolements, thence to -sarcasm, and occasionally rising to heights of scathing laughter, which -startled the old horse more than anything else. It must not be imagined, -however, that our progress was rapid; the noise served to clear the road -for half a mile ahead of us, it is true, but the old horse had to be -allowed to walk down every descent, while on the flat he was not -expected to exceed a gentle trot; he understood his master perfectly, -and feared him not at all. Never did we see an animal ill-treated in -Majorca. - -The road to Aubercuix takes one down to the port of Pollensa, and thence -round the bay as far as the little lighthouse on the opposite point; -beyond this one can only penetrate into the _Cap de Formentór_ by a bad -mule track, or by taking a sailing boat and landing in some little cove -along the coast. - -Wonderful was the view, glorified by the golden evening light, that we -obtained as we wound along the water’s edge and followed the gravelled -causeway leading to the _Fáro_; across the bay shone the white town of -Alcúdia, seemingly built on the seashore, though in reality far inland; -looking back towards Pollensa the scene was of marvellous beauty—in the -foreground the curve of the shore, broken by black clumps of rushes, a -few stunted trees, and an upturned boat lying on the sand; beyond, some -fishermen’s huts, with here and there a dark pine-tree, sharp-cut -against the dim distance of the sierra. Rank behind rank, their planes -parted by the evening mist, veiled in shimmering tints of pink and -violet, dove colour and indigo, and melting away into the sunset sky -itself, stretched the mountain chains behind Pollensa. Their peaks were -tinged with flame, and the rays of the setting sun descended like fire- -escapes of golden web into the azure mist that filled the valleys. - -For a few minutes the unearthly light lingered, and then the sun sank -out of sight; a chill sea-breeze sprang up as we set our faces homeward, -and the stars were shining serenely before we regained our _fonda_. - - * * * * * - -The following morning we rode to the _Castillo del Rey_, the route -taking us, soon after starting, over the fine old Roman bridge at the -entrance of the town. For an hour and a half we pursued a good mule- -track up the gorge of the Ternallas, a mountain stream dashing down -through woods of ilex and pine, with bare grey peaks towering overhead; -leaving the forest we came out into a grassy and boulder-strewn trough -among the hills, and presently arrived at the foot of the crag on which -the castle stands. So inaccessible does the rock look, crowned by the -skeleton ribs of the old banqueting hall—yellow rock and yellow masonry -welded in one—that at first sight one wonders how the ascent is to be -even attempted. Up a steep hillside, covered with rocks, loose stones, -and prickly shrubs, we scrambled and toiled on foot for nearly half an -hour; more and more desperate grew the path as we advanced, larger and -larger the rocks to be surmounted; but at last, with a final effort, we -scaled a boulder over six feet in height and were hauled up by our -muleteers into the arched doorway of the old fortress. - -The origin of the castle is lost in the mists of antiquity; it is -supposed to have existed in the time of the Romans, and under the Moors -it formed an important stronghold to which they retreated after -evacuating Palma. Later on the flag of Jaime III. still waved over the -_Castillo del Rey_ after the whole of the rest of the island had gone -over to Pedro of Aragon, but in the year 1343 the loyal garrison was -forced to surrender after a siege of more than two months. - -Not much of the fortress survives at the present time; three pointed -freestone arches belonging to the central hall form the most conspicuous -feature of the ruins. Beyond this there is little except some -subterranean chambers, and a few fragments of rock-like wall and pointed -battlement, still untouched by time, that survive amidst a chaos of -masonry. From the northern edge of the cliff—an appalling precipice -descending sheer to the sea—a magnificent view over the coast and the -surrounding mountains is to be had on a clear day, but on the occasion -of our own visit ominous stormclouds were closing in around us, and the -horizon was a blank pall of rain. - -Hardly had we sat down to luncheon when heavy drops began to fall; -seizing our cutlets and oranges we fled to the rock tunnel leading from -the entrance to the interior of the castle, and in that narrow and -draughty passage continued our interrupted meal; but to our dismay -rivulets soon began to invade our retreat, the heavens poured down water -through a machicolation overhead, and before long we were sitting, like -the Blessed Catalina, on stones in the middle of a river bed, while a -growing torrent flowed beneath our feet. Our men wrapped their blankets -around them and squatted patiently in the doorway. Presently footsteps -were heard, and a wet stranger scrambled breathlessly in at the tunnel’s -mouth, accompanied by a guide in wide indigo breeches soaked to the -consistency of jelly bags, while rivulets ran from the brim of his felt -hat. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Presently we came in sight of the Castillo del Rey - ... built upon a crag crowned by the skeleton ribs of the - ancient banqueting hall—yellow rock and yellow masonry - welded in one._” - - (page 108) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_We found the Gorch Blau filled with a rushing whirl of - foaming, emerald-green water_....” - - (page 115) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Still it poured—steadily—without intermission; the landscape below us -was blotted out by a veil of driving rain; banks of cloud were sweeping -in from the sea and settling in woolly folds upon the hills, which -appeared and disappeared as one storm after another broke over them and -passed on. For two hours we waited, and then there came a lull; sallying -out in desperation we slid and scrambled down the slippery rocks and -soaking vegetation of the steep hillside, and rejoining our equally wet -mules set out for home. The red path was now a quagmire under foot, and -the little watercourses were leaping and chasing down the hills to join -the river; but the rain held off and we got back in safety, being met at -the inn door by a chorus of inquiries as to how we had fared, laments -over our wetting, and an optimistic assurance that on the morrow the -weather would be very _bonito_ indeed. - -But when morning dawned it was far from being _bonito_—it could hardly -look worse. Nevertheless we determined on making the march to Lluch—a -ride of about four hours across the mountains. The charge for a mule -with its attendant muleteer is six pesetas for this journey if they -return the same day; but if, as in our case, they are retained at Lluch -for further expeditions, an additional five pesetas is asked for the -return trip to Pollensa. One of our mules was a very smart-looking -beast, ridden with the iron noseband which in Majorca usually takes the -place of a bit, and carrying the English side-saddle we had brought with -us, covered with a sheepskin to lessen the slipperiness so fatiguing to -the rider when going up or down a steep mountain path for hours at a -time. The other one was a sturdy pack animal, bridled in inferior manner -with a hemp halter and furnished with pack saddle and panniers. - -These pack saddles are extremely comfortable to ride on if they are well -balanced; one sits as on a broad, soft platform between the panniers, -dangling a foot on either side of the mule’s neck, the idea being that -if the beast falls you will alight on your feet and get clear of him -whichever way he rolls. As a matter of fact you find it impossible to -move at all, partly owing to the adhesive nature of the sheepskin on -which you are seated, and partly to a heterogeneous mass of luggage— -rugs, valises, and fodder bags—piled high on either hand, while -umbrellas and tripod-legs close your last avenue of escape. - -The mounting of a laden pack-saddle is a problem in itself, and to the -last I could discover no system upon which the feat is accomplished; a -wild, spasmodic leap, taken from some wall near the animal, usually—but -not always—lands one in the saddle, and once in position a fatalistic -calm is the best attitude with which to confront the perils of the -ensuing ride. The most well-meaning of mules has habits which do not -conduce to the happiness of his rider upon a mountain track; he will -pause on a hogsback ridge of slippery cobbles in the middle of a swift -stream, to gaze entranced, with pricked ears, at the distant landscape; -with an absolutely expressionless countenance he carries one under a low -bough—or anchors himself in front by fixing his teeth firmly in a tough -shrub as he strides by, and then falls over himself as his stern -overtakes him. In short he awakens in his rider a lively sympathy with -Dr. Johnson, who was carried as uncontrollably on a horse as in a -balloon. - -The paths were in an unusually bad state that day owing to the recent -heavy rain; great parts of the track were under water; every torrent was -swelled to twice its normal size, and miniature Lauterbrunnen falls were -leaping down the faces of the cliffs. We forded several streams, -slithered down causeways of loose sliding blocks, and scrambled up -slippery rock steps where it was all the mules could do to keep their -feet and avoid falling backwards. - -For the first hour we rode in drenching rain through dark ilex woods and -fine mountain scenery; but as we got higher the weather improved—the sun -came out, the birds began to sing, the scent of wet cistus bushes filled -the air, and emerging on to a grassy plateau we presently came in sight -of the monastery of Lluch, lying in a level valley high up among the -hills—a great pile of yellow buildings backed by grey rocks and ilex- -trees. - -Crossing the wide green, with its long range of stabling, its poplar- -trees and fountain, we dismount—wet and tired—under the entrance -archway, and pass into a large quadrangle formed by the college, the -_hospedéria_, the priests’ house, and the oratory, an ornate chapel hung -with embroidered banners presented to Our Lady of Lluch. - -The history of this oratory goes back to a date shortly after the -conquest in the thirteenth century, when a herd-boy named Lluch—or -Lucas—while driving his flock home one night, noticed a strange light -upon the mountain side; on relating this to a priest, the latter went to -examine the spot whence the light proceeded, and there discovered a -stone statue of the Blessed Virgin and Child, which was installed -forthwith in a little chapel built for the purpose; and this Virgin of -Lluch—the _Máre de Deu_ as she is called—became in course of time the -patroness of the Majorcans, and a great power in the land. Bequests of -money and land were made to her, and in the fifteenth century the -Oratory was founded, together with a college for the instruction of -twelve poor children. The original college now forms the _hospedéria_ -for visitors, having been superseded by a newer building where to this -day twelve boys receive education and instruction in church singing from -the four priests who inhabit the _rectoria_. - -The wants of visitors are attended to by six lay brothers, and at times -the resources of the establishment are strained to their utmost. We were -told that at Easter no fewer than six hundred people had made the -pilgrimage hither, coming from all parts of the island and staying two -or even three nights; those for whom there was no room in the -_hospedéria_ were bedded in the corridors and stables, while the rest -slept in their carts and carriages outside. - -Until recently all comers had to bring their own food, but some few -years ago a kind of restaurant—independent of the monastery—was -established, where visitors can get simple meals at a very moderate -charge. The wife of the _fondista_ cooks well, and though neither meat, -milk, nor butter are to be had, the staple provisions of sausage, -sardines, cheese, bread, coffee, and condensed milk—with the addition of -a fowl or an omelette—constitute a diet with which any traveller may be -content. After supper one crosses the great quadrangle to the -_hospedéria_, which contains some fifty beds, placed two, three, and -even four in a room. - -In answer to the bell at the iron grille a lay brother made his -appearance and took us upstairs and down a long, spacious, echoing -corridor to one of the whitewashed cells, where he presented us with a -key and a pair of damp sheets and left us to our own devices. The room -was sparsely furnished, and contained two beds, with a pile of -mattresses and blankets, a small table, a chair, a diminutive tripod -supporting a basin, an equally diminutive towel, and an earthenware jar -with some water. - -For the moment it did not strike us that we were expected to make our -own beds, and after waiting some time we sent an urgent message to our -friar by a young man we met on the stairs and who seemed faintly amused -at the errand. No one came, however—and neither on that nor on any -subsequent occasion did Brother Bartholomew condescend to attend to us -in any way whatever, or even supply us with more water, so that on the -second morning we were reduced to a kind of _nettoyage à sec_. The only -thing he did for us was to come and rattle our door loudly at five -o’clock in the morning to make us get up—and failing in his attempt, to -go away, having either by accident or with malice aforethought turned -the key in the door and locked us in. - -It was not till breakfast time that we discovered our plight, and we -should have been constrained ignominiously to call for help from the -window had we not succeeded in picking the lock with a buttonhook and so -regained our freedom. - -At nine o’clock we set out on our mules for the _Gorch Blau_, a two -hours’ ride from the monastery. It is hopeless to ascertain beforehand -from one’s muleteers the nature of the road that lies before one, for -they admit no difference between one mountain path and another, and -assure one invariably that the road will be good the whole way; nor are -they in any way abashed when presently you come to a slippery rock -staircase, so impossible that they advise you—in your own interest—to -dismount and proceed on foot. The ride to the Gorge includes, as far as -I can remember, only one really _mauvais quart d’heure_—but the rain had -converted the paths into sloughs, and our poor men soon had their shoes -soaked through and through, in spite of making _détours_ wherever -possible to avoid the floods through which our mules splashed -recklessly. - -But if all this water increased the difficulties of the march it also -added immensely to the beauty of the landscape. As we wound along the -heights we could hear the _Torrent de Pareys_ in its deep cañon bed, -thundering down in flood to the sea, and we found the _Gorch Blau_ -filled with a rushing whirl of foaming emerald-green water instead of -containing—as it often does—a supply so scanty as hardly to deserve the -name of torrent at all. - -Towering fern-clad cliffs close in upon a ravine a few yards only in -width, through which the water dashes at racing speed with a noise that -prevents one from hearing oneself speak. An ancient pack-bridge spans -the stream, and a path cut in the side of the water-worn cliff leads -through the gorge into a broad open valley—a valley of desolation, -ringed round with walls of bare grey rock, and strewn with innumerable -stones, amongst which sheep and goats pick up a scanty living. For -another hour we followed the course of the stream, now flowing -tranquilly over a pebbly bed, and then reached a spot known as the _Pla -de Cuba_—a higher valley among the hills, through which runs the path to -Sollér, five hours distant. Here we made a two hours’ halt, and while -the mules ate carob beans and cropped the coarse _carritx_ grass -covering the hillside, we explored the rocky slopes in search of the -pink orchises and white cyclamen that grow here in profusion. - -These high regions have a far larger annual rainfall than the rest of -the island, and the comparative dampness of the atmosphere is seen in -the mossy trunks and fern-clad limbs of the ilex woods, as also in the -unusual girth of the trees—one grand old ilex, said to be the largest -tree in Majorca, having a diameter of fully eight feet. - -Clouds gather every evening upon the mountain tops around Lluch, and the -plateau itself, sixteen hundred feet above sea-level, is often shrouded -in fog for days together. In bad weather a stay at the monastery is by -no means enjoyable, and when we woke on the second morning and found the -rain falling fast, we were not sorry to think that the _galaréta_ we had -ordered from Inca to fetch us would arrive in an hour or so. Our shoes -and skirts had never dried thoroughly since the soaking they got on our -ride from Pollensa, and the unwarmed rooms felt miserably chilly. - -Going across to the restaurant, where we breakfasted at an icy marble- -topped table, we found four young Frenchmen, who had arrived overnight, -stamping their feet on the cold stone floor and bitterly bewailing their -fate; they had come with the sole object of seeing the Gorch Blau—and -now, not only was the expedition out of the question, but they were -imprisoned in this dismal place—for _voila!_ by this frightful weather -it was impossible even to depart. What to do! _Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!_ - -We could offer little comfort beyond suggesting that some misguided -visitor might turn up during the morning, in whose conveyance they could -make their escape—a contingency which both they and we felt to be very -unlikely ... but even as we spoke, we saw to our surprise _two_ empty -carriages cross the green and draw up before the monastery. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The_ Pla de Cuba _is a high valley through which runs - the mule path to Soller, five hours distant_.” - - (page 115) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Now and again we got a peep of the plain and its white - town far below_....” - - (page 117) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Two blacks may not make a white—but two mistakes may result in a -remarkably good arrangement. Owing to a misunderstanding with our late -host of Pollensa—who, it must be remembered, spoke nothing but Majorcan— -a _galaréta_ had been sent up from La Puebla for us, besides the one -which we ourselves had ordered from Inca. Behold, then, a solution of -the difficulty! We stowed ourselves into one carriage—our four enchanted -fellow-visitors into the other—and away we bowled towards Inca, a two -hours’ drive on a splendid road engineered in giddy spirals down the -mountain side, with ever and again a peep of the plain and its white -town far below us, seen through a break in the hills. - -As we get down into the zone of olives again, a warmer air meets us—the -rain has been left behind, and we are once more in sunshine; passing the -picturesque village of Selva, with its church perched on the very top of -a hill, we soon find ourselves at Inca—a large and prosperous-looking -town of fine stone houses and shops. - -Here we took the train for Palma, and packed ourselves and our valises -into a little first-class compartment which we shared with an -aristocratic-looking old gentleman travelling with a large wicker -basket, apparently containing the week’s wash, and with a lady in a -graceful black mantilla, who had a market basket, and a big bundle done -up in a check tablecloth. She was evidently leaving home for a few days, -and many and anxious were the parting messages given to the two honest -servant-girls who stood at the carriage window and with a hearty embrace -bade their mistress goodbye before the train started. - -The terms upon which master and servant meet in Majorca—and I fancy all -over Spain—are very much freer than with us. - - * * * * * - -Palma at the end of April is a very different town from the Palma of a -few weeks ago; the trees along the Borne are greening fast, and the -country is a mass of leafage. The swifts have arrived, and are wheeling -and screaming over the town in thousands; the masses of dwarf blue iris -by the seashore are over, but the waist-high corn is spangled with -poppies and corn daisies, gladioli, and a handsome crimson and yellow -scrophularia. The roads are deep in dust—the river dry as a bone. Our -rooms maintain a steady temperature of 66° Fahrenheit, and the heat in -the middle of the day is already sufficient to make us appreciate the -draughtiness of the cool, narrow streets of the town. - -Palm Sunday is celebrated by a palm service in the cathedral, and by a -palm fair—the _Fiesta de Rámos_. At the palm service the bishop, mitred -and coped, and accompanied by priests, choristers, mace-bearers, and all -the dignitaries of the cathedral, processes around the outside of the -building—and all carry consecrated palm branches in their hands. These -palms are afterwards distributed amongst the townspeople, who fasten -them to their house-fronts and balconies as a protection against -lightning. - -The _Fiesta de Rámos_ takes place in the Rambla, where for three days -the wide gravelled walk is occupied by a double row of wooden booths, -between which a seething throng of townspeople streams up and down; -there are toys and sweets and fruit stalls—dolls and dolls’ furniture, -and charming baskets of all sizes, down to the familiar covered market -basket made in smallest miniature by the neatest of fingers; there are -merry-go-rounds and a Japanese giant, drums, trumpets, and squeaking -whistles, and for three days there is a pandemonium of noisy instruments -which to the children is the seventh heaven of delight. - -In the spring, too, the annual swearing-in of the new recruits takes -place, and is a picturesque sight; all the troops in the town—cavalry, -infantry, and artillery—are assembled on the great Plaza Santa Catalina -outside the walls, where is erected a large red and yellow marquee -surmounted by a royal crown and flanked by cannon, stacked rifles, and -warlike trophies of swords and bayonets. Inside the tent is an altar -with lighted candles, and when all the high civil and military officials -of the town have arrived, mass is celebrated—the elevation of the Host -being marked by three shrill bugle calls, at which the whole body of -troops and spectators fall on one knee and uncover—the cavalry lowering -their swords. - -After this, a priest walks round the lines, and halting opposite each -regiment reads a short address, at the close of which a simultaneous -assent bursts forth from the ranks of the new conscripts. When all have -been sworn in, the recruits—who on this occasion numbered three or four -hundred—defile in front of the colours, kissing the flag and uncovering -as they go by. - -And with this the ceremony is over for the year. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PART III - - IVIZA - - -The small steamer that plies three times a week—weather permitting— -between Palma and the island of Iviza does so wholly in vain as far as -foreign visitors are concerned. I think if the whole annals of the Grand -Hotel were searched they would hardly produce a single record of a -stranger having gone to Iviza, or, if he did, of having ever come back -to tell the tale. - -It was obvious that the only way of finding out anything about the -island and its inhabitants was to go there ourselves, and, prompted by -curiosity, we one fine day boarded the noonday boat and set forth on our -voyage of exploration, our only life-line a letter of introduction to -one Sebastian Roig, keeper of the _Fonda de la Marina_ at Iviza—a letter -full of greeting and amiability, with a civil postscript to the effect -that our blood would be required at his hands if evil befell us during -our stay in the island. - -Away we went. Once outside the bay the little _Isleño_ rolled horribly, -and we ourselves remained prostrate below, till at eight o’clock in the -evening we felt the boat come to a standstill and heard the anchor being -let down; whereupon we arose and came on deck, thinking that the worst -was over and that we could now step on shore. - -Bitterly were we disappointed! - -Neither quay nor shore was in sight, for owing to the rough sea we had -not been able to enter the harbour at all, but were tossing up and down -half a mile from the pier. It was pitch dark and raining hard. Some -fishermen in glistening oilskins were unloading tunny from a bobbing, -lateen-sailed felucca alongside, and we could hear the thuds of the -stiff, heavy fish being thrown on board. The dim light of a lantern fell -upon a party of broad-hatted peasants collected on the wet deck, who one -by one were vanishing over the ship’s side and dropping into a -cockleshell of a boat that pranced about below. Presently it was full, -and backing away from the steamer it disappeared, with a steady splash -of oars, into the darkness. - -Such, then, was to be our landing at Iviza! For three-quarters of an -hour we waited, looking out at the slashing rain and feeling so -unutterably miserable that, had it been possible—even at this eleventh -hour—to turn back to Palma, we should assuredly have turned. But it was -not possible, as the _Isleño_ was bound for Valencia, and when the boat -came back for the third time to fetch us and one native gentleman—the -only passengers left on board—there was nothing for it but to grope our -way to the wet, slippery ladder and from thence to drop either into the -tossing boat, or, as seemed far more probable, into the sea. - -And now, in this blackest moment of our whole journey, appeared a _deus -ex machina_ in the shape of the aforementioned señor; prompted by the -kindness of his heart, and perhaps not unmoved by the sight of two very -forlorn strangers, he took us in charge and reassured us; there would be -no danger at all, he said, if we would cling firmly to the chain at the -foot of the steps and wait for the boatmen to catch us; he would tell -them to be careful, and as for our valises, a boy would come up and -fetch them when we were safely in the boat. He helped us down the -swaying ladder, and unseen arms clutched us and dropped us on to a seat, -where we sat down in two large puddles. Our unknown friend jumped in -after us, and the silent oarsmen pulled away from the black hull looming -overhead, and rowed us across the inky, swirling water to the quay, -where a row of twinkling lights along the harbour’s edge heralded the -town. - -Landing at a flight of steps, we paid the boatmen their fee of two and a -half pesetas, and then splashed away in mud and darkness to the inn, -where our new acquaintance left us after promising to look us up on the -morrow. Dinner was going on in the big _comedór_ on the ground floor—the -company consisting of a number of Ivizan residents and some officers in -uniform, with all of whom we exchanged salutations as we took our seats -at the long _table d’hôte_. Never was food more welcome than that set -before us. Half an hour later—wet and tired, but no longer hungry—we -went upstairs, and were shown into a large red-tiled room, arranged in -the Spanish fashion with two alcoves, shut off by glass doors, -containing each an excellent bed. Unpacking our valises, we were soon -fast asleep, fully prepared to take a more cheerful view of things on -the morrow. - -But, alas and alas! when we woke and went to the window the prospect was -as dispiriting as ever. The _fonda_ stood on the very edge of the water, -and we looked out upon a landlocked port shrouded in fog. It was still -raining, and the leaden sky was merged into a leaden sea spattered with -raindrops. A few seagulls drifted past the window, uttering melancholy -cries, and the only sign of human life was a solitary old woman who was -fishing patiently from her front doorstep, seated under a large -umbrella. - -At this juncture a voice at the keyhole announced breakfast, and going -out on to the landing we found tea and hot buttered toast laid for us on -a little table. The tea possessed in a high degree the primary essential -of good drinking-water—absolute tastelessness; but the buttered toast -was comforting, and as we ate it we discussed the situation seriously. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Iviza is massed high above the harbour, the lower town - separated by a sharply-marked line of fortification from the - upper town—the old Jevitzah of the Moors._” - - (page 125) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _a good view is obtained over the bay to where the pale - grey silhouette of the distant lighthouse divides sea and sky_.” - - (page 125) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Here we were in Iviza, with no possibility of getting away for the next -thirty-six hours, when the _Isleño_ would call on her return from -Valencia. The weather looked hopeless, but if we were going to allow -ourselves to be influenced by it we should in all probability end by -seeing nothing at all, and our eight hours’ crossing would have been in -vain; our clothes were already so wet that they need not be taken into -account; and after considering all these points we decided to sally -forth and look about us. - -Hardly had we defied the Fates when they relented. The sky became -lighter, the clouds began to clear away, and as we left our inn a -welcome gleam of sunshine broke out, at sight of which all the ships -lying at anchor in the harbour with one accord spread out their wet -sails to dry. - -At the end of the mole a man was fishing in the shelter of the great -breakwater some twenty feet in height, and thinking that from the summit -we might obtain a good view of the town we asked him if there was any -means of scaling it. Courteously raising his hat, he replied that the -señoras would find no other _escalera_ than the broken end of the -breakwater itself—a nearly vertical face of stone blocks, each the size -of a grand piano—which he immediately proceeded to climb, carrying our -camera and tripod in one hand. With his help I also reached the top, -from whence a good general view of the town is obtained, as well as over -the bay to where the pale-grey silhouette of the distant lighthouse -divides sea and sky. - -Very picturesque is Iviza, massed high above the harbour—the lower town, -chiefly inhabited by fishing folk, separated by a sharply marked line of -fortification from the upper town, the old Jevitzah of the Moors. -Crowning the highest point stands the fortified cathedral, built almost -immediately after the expulsion of the infidels, and adjoining it is the -citadel, enclosing within its walls the governor’s residence, and -barracks for a hundred men. - -To the upper town we presently ascended, escorted by our waiter, who had -been sent by our host—mindful, probably, of the postscript to our letter -of introduction—to attend us. Inquisitive faces appeared at balconies -and doorways as we picked our way through the narrow, muddy streets of -the lower town. Purveyors of drinking water were going from house to -house with donkey-carts laden with earthenware jars; scores of cats -feasted on remnants of fish in the gutter, and the melancholy Ivizan -hound roamed his native alleys like some canine shade in search of the -happy hunting grounds. Crossing a drawbridge we pass under the fortified -gateway built in the reign of Philip II.—“Catholic and most invincible -king of Spain and the East and West Indies”—and ascend by a steep -cobbled path to the summit of the town. Many of the houses are extremely -ancient looking, and have carved lintels and mullions, or the arms of -Aragon cut in stone upon their walls. Passing the prison, where a bored -official was leaning out of the window and yawning heavily, we entered -the courtyard of the citadel—after giving up our camera to the sentry on -guard—and sat down on a low bastion carpeted with sweet alyssum to enjoy -the panorama around us. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Purveyors of drinking-water were going from house to - house with donkey carts laden with jars of porous earthenware_....” - - (page 126) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “... _Flat-roofed, oriental-looking houses that resemble - great cubes of chalk—a form of architecture which is a legacy - from the Moors._” - - (page 127) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -From this height Formentara and all the lesser rocky islets that compose -the Pityusæ group are clearly discerned out at sea. The general aspect -of Iviza itself is that of low, wooded hills. Cutting straight across -the island is the long white road leading to St. Antonio on the western -coast, twelve miles distant, and some six miles to the south of us -glisten the great salt works, the famous _salinas_ of Iviza. - -To St. Antonio we drove in the afternoon. It was Holy Week, during which -no carriage is allowed to enter the town, and we had to walk out to the -end of the street where a little _carréta_ awaited us; it was driven by -a comic looking countryman, and drawn by a spirited little grey horse, a -_caballo de carréra_, one of the racing trotters for which the islanders -have a great partiality. Packed into this small and fragile conveyance, -the driver and our invaluable waiter in front, ourselves squeezed into -the little side-seats behind, with every symptom of approaching cramp, -we announced ourselves ready to start. - -Skirting the town we struck inland along a broad and splendid road, -which for the first few miles is comparatively flat and then rises to a -kind of table-land in the centre of the island, to fall away again -towards the further coast. The plain is thick with olive groves, date -palms, fig and almond orchards. Snow-white houses nestle amongst dark -clumps of pines—flat-roofed, oriental-looking houses that resemble great -cubes of chalk, with an arcade of roundheaded arches opening into a -court on the ground floor, and above this a broad, open gallery where -the inhabitants can sit during the noonday heat. This windowless form of -architecture is a legacy of the Moors, and the Ivizan peasants are said -to have preserved the characteristics of their Moorish predecessors to a -higher degree than the inhabitants of either of the sister isles have -done. The town-dweller or fisherman of Iviza—generally of Spanish -extraction—is said to draw a sharp distinction between himself and the -peasants of the interior, whom he looks upon as semi-barbarians. Their -boats are a subject of great merriment to him, and he makes a point of -laughing heartily if he meets a party of country-folk afloat. - -“At sea,” says the fisherman, “I have no fear of the peasants—but -ashore! they are worse than the Moors!” - -With a character for being turbulent, hot-tempered, and ill-educated, -the Ivizans present a great contrast to the mild Majorcans. Murders are -not infrequent among them, the almost invariable cause being a quarrel -over cards or the jealousy of rival suitors. - -Poor and proud, the peasants look with scant favour on any member of -their community who may have grown rich and who sets up to be a person -of consequence on that account. “Heaven preserve us,” says the Ivizan, -“from the shoe that has become a boot!” There are no really wealthy -families in the island, and outside the capital we saw no good houses. -The ground is far less highly cultivated than the Majorcan plains, and -Dame Nature asserts herself in a wealth of wild flowers; the fields are -red with poppies and blue with grape-hyacinths, and on either side of -the road runs a brilliant border composed of pink tufts of allium -swaying on slender stalks, pale dandelions, dwarf iris, charlock, red -dwarf ranunculus, small yellow cistus and a bright blue borage. As the -road rises we drive through undulating slopes where the juniper and -various conifers grow. The hillsides are covered with the maritime pine— -whence the islands derived their old name of Pine islands—and large open -stretches of uncultivated ground, intersected by rough walls of reddish -stone, are given up to the great fennel, seen here for the first time, -heath, asphodel, pink and white cistus, and many other shrubs. - -All this is very unlike a Majorcan landscape, but still more striking -are the parties of country folk that we meet upon the road. It is a -_fête_ day, and every one is in _grande tenue_; whole families are -coming to the town or walking back to their villages—bouquets of bright -colour, purple, blue, yellow, pink, green, and red—quaint figures, such -as one dimly remembers having met with in bygone days on nursery plates, -and having accepted as truthful representations of that romantic race— -the _foreign peasant_. Here they all were as large as life. - -The women wear a dark bodice with long sleeves, over which is folded a -shawl with a border of gay-coloured embroidery worked on black silk. The -skirt is immensely full, and often accordion-pleated, and it is worn -over half a dozen petticoats which distend it to the dimensions of a -crinoline, and make the wearer look high waisted and very stout. It is -cut short in front, to display six inches of red or pink underskirt -ornamented with scrolls of black braid, and on top of all comes a very -short bright-coloured apron, which gives the women a three-decker -appearance. The hair is worn in a plait down the back and smoothly -parted on the forehead, the headkerchief being often embroidered with -gay silk flowers. A heavy gold chain is sometimes worn round the neck, -and the shoes are of white canvas and resemble Moorish slippers, being -turned up in a point at the toe. - -The men are hardly less picturesque. Their velveteen trousers of -peacock-blue, brown, or purple are cut tight at the knee and spreading -at the foot, like those of our costers or sailors. The coat of dark-blue -cotton is very short and shaped something like a blouse, being gathered -into pleats at the collar and hanging loose and full all round. They -wear a white shirt with a vivid pink or blue sash, a broad-brimmed felt -hat with ribbons hanging down behind, and their costume is completed by -a fringed shawl in red and green plaid which they hang round their neck. - -The little girls are precise replicas of their mothers—long skirt, -apron, headkerchief and all—so that at a distance it is impossible to -say whether it is a party of children or of women coming towards one, -and it was often a surprise to see a small matronly figure skip suddenly -across a ditch with an agility beyond her apparent years. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_It is a fête-day, and the Ivizan peasants are all_ en grande - tenue....” - - (page 130) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Very Corot-like is the landscape, with Santa Eulália - crowning a small eminence by the seashore._” - - (page 134) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -When we reached St. Antonio, a village of clean whitewashed houses, with -reefs of bedrock cropping up in the streets, we got out our camera, and -were soon surrounded by a friendly group of peasants fully as much -interested in our appearance as we were in theirs. Yet in no way did -their curiosity get the better of their manners. We found them quite -willing to be photographed if we wished it, but the posing of a group -was unaccompanied by any of the bashful giggling with which our own -yokels would meet such a request coming from a foreigner. Earnest and -dignified, quite devoid of self-consciousness, and not easily moved to -mirth, the Ivizans struck us as the most perfect-mannered people we had -yet met. - -The mere fact of our being English was a great recommendation in the -eyes of the natives, for the forthcoming marriage of King Alfonso with -an English princess was of course the topic of the day, and all classes -were equally delighted with the match. As compatriots of their future -Queen we therefore met with an unusually favourable reception, and -though I am sure none of the peasants had the remotest idea where -England was situated we found a great bond of union to consist in the -fact that both we and they lived on an island. - -Many were the questions we had to answer—Did one reach England before -getting to America? Was England far from London? - -One man left his plough to come and tell us that he liked the English -very much, which was a little surprising when one considered that till -that moment he had probably never set eyes on any one of our -nationality. We heard subsequently, however, that some years ago an -Englishman hailing from Birmingham had stayed in the island, and though, -to our host’s surprise, we could not supply the unknown traveller’s -name, we were shown an unmistakable proof of his visit in the form of an -English book—the only existing specimen in Iviza. - -We got back to our inn in time for dinner, and found the same company -again assembled at table. The _Fonda de la Marina_ is the fashionable -restaurant of the town, and it caters for a considerable _clientèle_ -among the residents in addition to its own guests. The cookery was -doubtless excellent, but the dishes were so wholly native in character -that we perhaps failed to appreciate them as fully as did our fellow -convives. During Holy Week the fare is _maigre_, and our _menu_ that -night was the following:— - -A tureen-full of shellfish, stewed—shells and all—with rice and -fragments of lobster. - -A mess of pottage, very thick, containing white beans and cabbage. - -Another mess—chunks of salt cod, with eggs, potatoes and peas. - -Whole fishes, boiled, with yellow sauce. - -A sweet cake. - -Cheese, raisins, and oranges. - - * * * * * - -The following morning we drove to Santa Eulália. There are only two -really firstrate roads in Iviza—one to Sant Antonio, the twelve-mile -drive we had already taken, the other—slightly longer—to San Juan, at -the northeastern extremity of the island; it was in this direction that -we set off at eight o’clock. - -The view of the town as we skirted the harbour was extremely striking. -The great sails of the merchantmen lying at anchor in the bay shone -white against the deep blue sea beyond, and the low sun was catching the -angles of the fortifications and casting cobalt shadows upon the snowy, -irregular houses clustering upon the hill crowned by the _campanile_ of -the cathedral. Market folk were coming into town—countrywomen in broad -be-ribboned hats of palmito plait, mounted on mules and donkeys with -laden panniers—a sight never seen in Majorca. Innumerable frogs croaked -with jangling grotesque jollity from hidden reservoirs in the rich -_huerta_, or garden, of vines and almonds, beans and wheat, through -which we were driving. Presently the road rises, and winds through -pretty wooded slopes and copses of conifers. Here and there are stacked -great heaps of pine bark, used for tanning the fishing nets. Sheep seek -invisible sustenance upon stony red ground, and young pigs sport in the -shade of budding fig-trees, the prevailing principle seeming to be to -turn beasts out to graze wherever they will do the least harm. - -Turning aside from the main road we take a rough track leading down to -the coast. Very Corot-like is the landscape before us, framed by the -stems of gnarled olive or dark knotted carob. On a small eminence by the -seashore stands Santa Eulália—a frankly oriental-looking village of -blank white walls and blue shadows, ringed round with a fence of prickly -pear. By a steep zigzag path one climbs to the old fortress-church upon -the summit, and enters the building through an immense vaulted and -enclosed crypt-like porch, supported on massive pillars and capable of -holding a couple of hundred people. In the Middle Ages this church, like -most of those in the island, formed the stronghold of the villagers -during the frequent piratical raids, and inside the porch is the well -from which the besieged drew their water supply. - -Stepping through a side door one enters the cemetery—a tiny enclosure -upon the hillside, with nameless wooden crosses half buried in grass and -a tangle of yellow daisies. Here the dead lie, under sunshine and sea- -breezes—and from here the eye ranges far over land and sea, over wooded -hills, undulating red plains, palm-trees and rocky islets. Commenting -upon the beauty of the scene to our faithful waiter, he admitted that it -was indeed a _precious_ one—a complimentary term which he applied -indiscriminately to views, roads, the weather, or the condition of the -sea—but far more precious, he hastened to assure us, would be the sight -of the river which we should presently be vouchsafed. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The old fortress-church of S. Eulália has a vaulted porch - capable of holding a couple of hundred people._” - - (page 134) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_These Phœnician tombs have a shaft cut in the live rock - to a depth of some six feet, whence a low sloping gallery leads - to the subterranean burial chamber._” - - (page 137) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -The river was unfortunately not looking its best, being very nearly dry; -but we duly inspected its rocky bed, fringed with oleander and dotted -with water pools, and expressed our admiration of the fine stone bridge -that spans it. The pride with which the natives regard their _Rio de -Santa Eulália_ is due to the fact that it is the only river in the -island. - -We went back to Iviza at racing speed, the little horse trotting fifteen -miles an hour on the flat, and straining every nerve to raise his -average. We feared that it would over tire him to take us to the Salt -Works in the afternoon, but his owner laughed at the idea, and assured -us that the good little beast would be quite ready to start again after -a two hours’ rest. We were somewhat amused when, at the end of our stay, -we received the bill for our three long drives—a bill for fifteen -pesetas, exactly the sum that we should have paid for a half-day’s -excursion at Palma, where carriage hire is by no means cheap. - -“The donkey makes out a different bill from the driver,” says a Minorcan -proverb, and whether our little horse considered his three silver -_douros_ an adequate compensation for the work he had done I cannot say— -but his owner was completely satisfied. The Ivizans are as yet—and long -may they remain so!—too unsophisticated to charge special prices to a -foreigner. A striking instance of their natural honesty occurred on the -night of our arrival. I had given a _peseta_ to the sailor lad who had -brought down our luggage from the deck of the _Isleño_ and put it into -the boat, and to my surprise he handed me back the coin at once. -Thinking that it was either a bad one, or that he expected more, I asked -our friend who was with us in the boat, what I ought to give; but he -replied that the boy had already received threepence from himself for -carrying the luggage, that nothing further was expected, and that the -peseta had been returned because it was considered too much. - -Our third and last expedition in Iviza was destined to be the most -enjoyable of all. Our kind friend—whom we found to be one of the -municipal officials of the town—volunteered to accompany us to the Salt -Works, and _en passant_ to show us the recently-discovered Phœnician -necropolis, in the excavation of which he was deeply interested. -Although it had long been known that the Phœnicians colonised the -Balearics—the very name of the islands being derived, as some think, -from their god Baal—it is only of late years that actual proofs of their -occupation have been obtained. Iviza was said to have remained under -their sway for a thousand years, and to have had a capital with a -population of a hundred thousand souls, and the Phœnician cemetery which -three years ago was discovered just outside the town goes far to -substantiate this theory. - -Alighting from our _carréta_ at the foot of a rocky reef immediately to -the south of the town, we climbed the hillside and reached a grove of -ancient olive-trees growing in the crevices of a great granite outcrop. -The whole hillside is honeycombed with rock tombs—they are everywhere, -on the hill, and on the lower ground—filled in with earth, built over, -planted over; it is the burial ground of a nation. More than a thousand -tombs have already been located, and of these some sixty have been -investigated at the cost of two or three Ivizan gentlemen who are -interested in the subject. - -The general type of tomb is an oblong hole or shaft, cut in the live -rock and descending to a depth of six to eight feet, whence a low -sloping gallery leads to the subterranean burial chamber. Each chamber -contains one, two, or even three massive stone sarcophagi, made from a -kind of white limestone found on the neighbouring island of Formentara. -Not a tomb has yet been opened but what it has already been violated—it -is presumed by the Vandals. The heavy sarcophagus lids have been pushed -aside or broken, and any contents of value—if such there were—long ago -abstracted. But of what the Vandals overlooked or despised, there yet -remains enough to rejoice the heart of an archæologist, and a small -museum has already been created in Iviza for the reception of the finds -as the work of excavation goes on. Bones and skulls, once clothed in -Tyrian purple and fine linen, are collected and ranged neatly upon -shelves. Hundreds of amphoræ are found, each sarcophagus containing two, -placed in a depression at the feet of the dead, while others seem to -have served as cinerary urns for the remains of children. - -There is a large collection of red pottery—busts, statuettes, and masks— -some of the latter with an Egyptian cast of countenance, others of a -comic type with glass or metal rings in the nose. There are some -beautiful tear-bottles of iridescent glass, coloured with metallic -oxides, and delicate pottery jars for ointment. There are shallow open -oil lamps, shaped like a shell, and bronze rings and seals. That very -day the workmen had unearthed a pretty ram’s head with curling horns, of -fragile white earthenware, which our friend showed us. He also had in -his possession what I should suppose to be the most valuable find yet -made—an engraved scarab of dark green hæmatite, comprising on its tiny -surface the figure of a man on horseback, with a spear in his hand and a -dog by his side, the whole cut with the delicacy of the finest intaglio. - -No inscriptions have as yet come to light, but as each tomb is opened -the hope revives that it may prove to be in an unrifled condition and -contain something that may throw a fresh light upon the burial customs -of a long-vanished people. An illustrated pamphlet dealing with the -Ivizan discoveries up to the present was in process of preparation at -the time of our visit, and I much regret not having received a copy in -time to acquaint my reader with fuller details regarding this necropolis -than we were able to gather during our very brief stay. - -Continuing our drive to the Salt Works, we pass the old fortified church -of San Jorge, standing alone amongst the fields, its battlemented walls -glistening snow-white against the distant hills. This church was built -in the fourteenth century, and has withstood many an assault by the -Moors. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The old fortified church of San Jorge was built in the - 14th century, and has withstood many an assault by the - Moors._” - - (page 138) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The salt pans cover an area of six square miles, ... and - the shining islands of salt are stacked upon stone platforms - in the water._” - - (page 139) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Another hour, over a ludicrously bad road, brings us to the low-lying -_Salinas_ near the coast; one might almost fancy oneself in a miniature -Switzerland, for these salt-pans—which are said to have been known to -the Phœnicians—cover an area of six square miles, and resemble inland -lakes in whose unruffled surface the surrounding hills are mirrored. -There are thirteen great _estancos_ or shallow basins, fringed with -glittering salt-crystals and intersected by sea-water canals, and -causeways along which a little train puffs breathlessly towards the -shining islands of salt stacked on stone platforms in the water; filling -its trucks—each of which contains a ton—it hurries back to the embarking -station, and pulling up on a staging running out into the sea, tips its -load down a wooden shoot into a barge below, where bare-legged men—half -salted up—are busy levelling the white mound, and presently convey it to -a big Norwegian steamer lying in the harbour. Other salt boats are bound -for Russia, or for America. One would think there was enough salt to -supply the whole world; it lies in deep snowdrifts on the quay and is -piled up into mountains by men who look like black flies beside it. The -busiest time is during the summer, when the water in the shallow basins -evaporates and the deposited salt is collected, but at that season the -locality is considered unhealthy—the combined heat and moisture breeding -malaria and a plague of mosquitoes. - -By evening light the _Salinas_ are very beautiful. The colours of the -sunset are repeated in the water, and the dark banks and rushes stand -out in sharp-cut silhouette against the soft purple of the hills around. -Out at sea rises the double fang of the island rock _Détra_—an -inaccessible pinnacle, in the summit of which the wild bees have nested -from time immemorial; the whole rock is said to be sticky with honey, -which at times descends in rivulets even to the water’s edge. - -It was dusk when we regained our inn, and at ten o’clock that same night -the red lights of the _Isleño_ were seen gliding into the bay, and we -were summoned to go on board. Taking leave of our most kind friend—who, -not content with having done the honours of his native island, insisted -upon our accepting some charming Phœnician relics as souvenirs of our -stay—we went down to the quay and were seen off by our host and the -faithful waiter, the latter remarking, as he shook hands with us, that -we might safely rely upon the night being a precious one. - -The sea was indeed like glass. The little steamer lay within fifty yards -of the shore, and not a ripple stirred as we were rowed across in -company with a tunny boat just in from Formentara—the fish standing on -their heads in baskets on the deck, their big tails sticking up like -ammunition for some torpedo boat. On an even keel we glided out into the -night, and awoke at five the next morning to see the red watch tower of -Porto Pi slip past the port hole. A fiery dawn was breaking over Palma -as we went on shore; half a silver moon hung in the sky, and the masts -and rigging of the shipping in the harbour were cut like a fine etching -against the colourless mass of the town. - -Even at this early hour the day’s work had begun; scavengers’ carts were -going their rounds; yawning octroi men were astir; women were already -fetching water from the tortoise-fountain on the Borne, and as we -reached the hotel a belated watchman was making off with lantern and -staff, to hide in some quiet retreat till dusk again brought him out to -his bat-like life. - -Our visit to Iviza was already a thing of the past, but the little -island that had before been only a name to us was now a very definite -memory of pleasant days spent in the open air, of friendly and -picturesque natives, of sunshine and charming scenery—while even our -unpropitious landing had turned out to be a blessing in disguise, in -acquainting us with the resident whose kindness contributed so largely -to the pleasant recollections which we shall always retain of our stay -in Iviza. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PART IV - - MINORCA - - -April was now nearly over and our holiday in the Balearics was drawing -to its close. We had seen Majorca pretty thoroughly, we had had a -charming glimpse of Iviza, and it only remained to spend a few days in -Minorca to complete our tour of the islands. For fifty pesetas two -first-class passages were secured for us on the _Isla de Menorca_, -leaving Palma on April 26th, and at half-past six that evening we went -on board, prepared to endure the eleven hours’ crossing to Port Mahon. - -To the last it was doubtful whether the boat would start that night; a -high west wind was blowing, the bay was flecked with white horses, and -the clothes hung out on the housetops were clapping wildly, as if in -exultation. But start we eventually did—perhaps owing to the fact that -the Governor of the Balearics was on board, a personage of sufficient -importance to allay any apprehension on our part as to the voyage, and -indeed to act as a practical guarantee of safety, since, though the wind -and the waves may be no respecters of persons, it remains an undoubted -fact that governors of provinces get drowned far less frequently than do -obscure individuals. - -At half-past five the following morning we entered the famous Minorcan -port, and steamed up it for three miles before sighting Mahon, which -occupies a commanding position on the edge of the precipitous rock walls -of the harbour. Disembarking at a little quay below the town, we -confided our valises to a porter and followed him up a steep, cobbled -street to the Hotel Bustamante, a very respectable inn in the higher -quarter, where we were promptly accommodated with rooms and board at a -_pension_ of six pesetas a day. - -Seen at close quarters, Mahon is singularly uninteresting and -commonplace. If the architecture of Palma is essentially Spanish, and -that of Iviza Moorish, Mahon must be put down as painfully and typically -English. The long, straight streets of ugly houses, without balconies or -outside shutters, the dreary vistas of grey cobbles and foot pavements -recall the outskirts of one of our own manufacturing towns; there are -the same mean-looking painted street doors, the same sash windows, even -the same lace curtains inside. We were shown the exercise ground, with -its row of British-built barracks, the hideous Paséo, or Promenade, -which resembles a cinder track, and the favourite drive along the -harbour, a dismally unattractive road. The sole trace of the picturesque -that the town can lay claim to consists of one small fragment of the old -fortifications that spans a modern street—a turreted archway known as -Barbarossa’s Gate, in memory of the corsair who sacked the city in the -sixteenth century. - -The inhabitants of Mahon share the general commonplaceness of their -surroundings. They have neither the dignified bearing of the Majorcans -nor their good looks; the men are not clean shaven like those of the -other islands, but wear beards, and sometimes whiskers. The style of -dress is also very inferior, and here and there we met with signs of -actual untidiness among the women—frowsy heads and ill-fitting blouses, -such as we had not set eyes on since landing in the Balearics. - -Something of this lack of personal neatness may perhaps be set down to -the tempestuous winds from which Mahon suffers almost perpetually, and -which nearly tore our hats from our heads and our clothes from our backs -as we drove out towards the mouth of the harbour to visit the ruined -fortress of San Felípe. San Felípe is a strong position commanding the -approach to Port Mahon upon the southern side, and it played an -important part in the English occupation of Minorca. Twice captured by -the British and twice retaken, it fell for the second time in the year -1782, when General Murray was forced to capitulate to a combined French -and Spanish force under De Crillon, after a long and tedious siege which -the allies had hoped to avoid by the offer of a bribe of £100,000 to the -English general. - -It was during this siege that the cook of the Duc de Crillon earned for -himself undying fame by inventing as an adjunct to his master’s salads -the sauce termed _Mahonnaise_—the familiar mayonnaise of all cookery -books to come. - -We had hoped to find objects of pictorial as well as sentimental value -among the ruined fortifications, rock galleries, and nameless British -graves at San Felípe, of which the guide book speaks, but our hopes were -destined to be rudely dashed, for after a most uninteresting drive of a -couple of miles between untidy stone walls we were unceremoniously -stopped by a sentry, who informed us that no one was allowed to approach -the fort without a permit from the commandant of Mahon. For our -consolation he added that in any case there was nothing to be seen, as -the ruins of the old fort had been replaced by modern defence works. A -more unpicturesque scene could indeed hardly be imagined than the site -of San Felípe now presents—a bleak headland traversed by long lines of -masonry and intersecting trenches, with grass-grown embankments sloping -down to the old sea wall on the side of the harbour, from whence one -looks across to the new fortress built on the opposite peninsula. - -Disappointed, we retraced our steps. It was now evident that neither -Mahon nor its immediate surroundings would produce anything that need -detain us in the town, and we decided to set out without further delay -in search of those relics of a far older occupation than that of the -British—the menhirs and dolmens of a pre-historic race. - -These megalithic remains—of which there are said to be some two hundred -groups in all—are found scattered over the whole of the southern half of -the island; but the average traveller will be wise to confine himself to -those specimens only which present most perfectly the different types of -monument erected, _i.e._, the tumulus or talayót, the altar, the -enclosure of monoliths, and the megalithic dwelling. Some of the finest -specimens of all occur in the neighbourhood of Mahon itself, and can be -visited in the course of a drive extending over some four hours. Acting -on the recommendation of our very friendly host we chartered a -_galaréta_ driven by a swarthy native who knew the country thoroughly. -Our host, to our great surprise, spoke very fair English, and even our -driver could say “Yes,” which was a great advance upon anything we had -yet met with. - -It is singular that although so many English customs and traditions have -survived amongst the Mahonese—who are dubbed _Inglesos_ by the rest of -the island—yet the only island to agree with ourselves in its rule of -the road should be Majorca, both Minorca and Iviza following the -opposite and continental fashion. - -Mounting our _galaréta_ we bumped and crashed away over the worn paving -of the town and emerged by the Barbarossa gate into the open country. -The surroundings of Mahon are not beautiful; flat, windswept, and -practically treeless, save where a stunted olive-tree hunches its back -to the blast, the most conspicuous feature of the landscape is its -countless miles of stone walls. If we had thought Majorca stony, it was -only because we had not seen Minorca. Majorca is a land of fields -intersected by walls—Minorca a land of walls interspersed with fields. -Once off the high road one becomes involved in a labyrinth of narrow -lanes bordered by stone walls four or five feet thick, and varying in -height from six to ten feet, between which one wanders as in an -overgrown aqueduct. Every field, however small—and some of them are -patches but a few yards square—is enclosed by a prodigious rampart of -loose stones, within which cows and donkeys graze as though at the -bottom of a quarry. These walls serve a double purpose in sheltering the -crops and the animals from the wind, and in relieving the land of a -certain proportion of superabundant stone. - -As may be imagined, a cross-country tramp in Minorca is attended with -considerable difficulty, and in visiting the talayóts it is essential to -have a guide who knows his way about and who can direct one through the -maze of obstacles that has to be threaded in attaining some tumulus that -rises like a landmark half a mile away. Much of the land is under wheat— -the crop much behind that of Majorca—and this has to be carefully -skirted, or waded through with an eye to the barest patches of ground; -other fields are devoted to pasture, where handsome mauve thistles -flourish abundantly in the rocky soil, in company with periwinkles, -borage, yellow daisies, white clover, and sweet alyssum. As a rule the -enclosures can be entered and quitted by the _barréras_—light wooden -barriers kept in place by blocks of stone and removed for the passage of -cattle; but occasionally we were obliged to scale the walls by means of -projecting footholds built into their sides, whereat spotted cows ceased -grazing, to gaze with mild surprise at the unusual spectacle of two -ladies performing gymnastic feats in company with a camera and tripod. - -A quarter of an hour’s arduous progression brought us to the _talayót_ -of Trepúco, said to be one of the largest in the island, but by no means -that in the best preservation. The Minorcan _talayóts_—a word akin to -_atalaya_, a watch-tower—consist of solid cone-shaped cairns built of -roughly dressed stone blocks, often of gigantic size. These cairns range -from thirty to sixty feet in diameter, and from twenty to thirty feet in -height; but at close quarters they are far less conspicuous objects than -might be supposed, partly owing to their general resemblance to the -stone walls surrounding them, and partly to the enveloping scrub of -lentiscus and oleaster which conceals their outline and lends them the -appearance of a natural mound. Some of them are in an extremely -dilapidated condition—others again, like the _talayót_ of Toréllo of -which a picture is given, are in almost perfect preservation. It is -supposed that they are the burial cairns of chieftains, but though -cinerary urns are said to have been found inside them in one or two -instances, this theory alone does not satisfactorily account for other -features of these curious monuments. In some of them traces of interior -chambers have been discovered, others have a sloping ramp running round -the outside as a means of ascent, and the _talayót_ of Toréllo has an -aperture like a window, on a level with the summit of the mound, the -reason of which it is impossible to guess. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The_ talayot _of Torello is in almost perfect preservation - ... it is supposed that they are the burial cairns of - chieftains_.” - - (page 148) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The upright slab of the Talato-de-Dalt must be nearly - twelve feet in height ... and surrounding it are traces of - a circle of monoliths of about the same height._” - - (page 149) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Not one of these tumuli has, I believe, yet been properly examined, and -their purpose—whether sepulchre, watch-tower, refuge, or accessory to -some strange religious rite—is still a secret, though the latter -supposition finds support in the fact that where there is a _talayót_ -there is in many cases an altar in its immediate vicinity. These altars -or _mésas_—tables, as the natives call them—are composed of two gigantic -slabs of dressed stone, the one imbedded in an upright position in the -ground, the other balanced horizontally upon it. The altar of Trepúco -consists of two fine monoliths, the lower one measuring nearly nine feet -in width and standing over seven feet out of the ground; but that of the -Taláto-de-Dalt far exceeds these measurements, the upright slab being -nearer twelve feet in height and proportionately wide. When the upper -stone had been laid in its horizontal position it was apparently -considered ill-balanced, and a prop has been added in the shape of a -leaning slab surmounted by a wedge. The group of monuments at this spot -is the most complete that will be found in Minorca; the tumulus itself -is in a chaotic state, but the altar is of unusual size, and surrounding -it are seen traces of a circle of monoliths of nearly the same height as -the pedestal. Just outside this enclosure is a so-called megalithic -dwelling into which one can creep on hands and knees; the walls are of -rough stone, and two short, thick pillars, about three feet high, uphold -the large slabs that form the roof. The members of the priesthood—if -such they were who tenanted these modest habitations—certainly did not -err on the side of luxury in their homes. - -In few countries perhaps would the splendid monoliths of these altars -and the tempting quarries of building material provided by these -_talayóts_ have survived destruction as they have in Minorca. The very -profusion of stone, constituting not merely a drug but a curse -throughout the island, has safeguarded these old monuments more -effectually than any protection founded on sentiment could have done, -for it has simply never been worth anybody’s while to utilise them. - -All the Minorcan country-folk live in excellent stone houses, as might -be supposed, and before leaving the island we had the opportunity of -visiting a solitary outlying homestead tenanted by a peasant family of a -superior class. Although we were fully prepared to find signs of homely -comfort in the dwellings of so industrious a people as the Minorcans, -yet it was a surprise to see how excellent—not to say luxurious—were the -appointments of this house. Not a room but was better furnished than -those of any _fonda_ at which we had stayed. The spacious bedrooms had -handsome bedsteads, large wardrobes—an article of furniture never seen -in Majorca—and one of them actually contained a fine toilet-table _à -l’Anglaise_, with a marble top and sets of small drawers. The daughter -of the house showed us the kitchen, the dairy—with its big white cheeses -destined for the Mahon market—and then she took us upstairs to the -attics, where hanks of homespun yarn hung from the ceiling in company -with hundreds of dried sausages and home-cured hams. In one small and -otherwise empty room were half a dozen faggots carefully propped -together in the centre of the floor within a ring of sheeps’ wool—a -scene so suggestive of sorcery that our thoughts involuntarily turned to -some magic rite connected with the mysterious cromlechs of the land. But -the girl informed us that this was a depôt for live stock destined for -the table—and pointing out myriads of snails adhering to the sticks she -assured us that they were very excellent eating when fried. - -The neatness and spotlessness of the whole place it would be impossible -to exaggerate. The Minorcan housewife is popularly supposed to live with -a broom in one hand and a pail of whitewash in the other, and the -industry and morality of the islanders make them valued colonists in any -land to which they may emigrate. Early trained to habits of thrift and -diligent labour in a hard school, the peasants have no sympathy with -those who think to sit under the _mañana_ tree and yet to prosper, and -the tragic fate awaiting them is thus recorded in an ancient Minorcan -verse: - - Juan and Juanita - Go to the wood; - Monday they saddle, - Tuesday they start, - Wednesday they arrive, - Thursday they cut wood, - Friday they load it up, - Saturday they set off, - Sunday they come home; - That is why they died of hunger. - - * * * * * - -On April 28th we left Mahon and went to Ciudadéla on the west coast, the -town which formed the capital of Minorca up to the time of the English -occupation. The two towns are connected by a splendid road that runs -through the very centre of the island; and as the distance is little -more than thirty miles the journey can easily be accomplished by -carriage in a day. We started at nine o’clock in our _galaréta_ of the -previous day; our valises were bestowed upon the front seat beside the -driver, and we ourselves climbed into the closed part of the vehicle at -the back, not sorry to be sheltered from the wind. We had an excellent -mule, both strong and active, who trotted briskly on the flat and pegged -away up the hills as though walking for a wager—a characteristic which -we observed most of the mules to share. - -Leaving the town we bowled away along the great main road of the island. -Seen in the brilliant sunshine of an April morning, with a blue sky -overhead, green crops in the fields and wild flowers spangling the -wayside, even the country around Mahon becomes invested with a kind of -fictitious beauty; but what the hideous desolation must be of these -endless stone walls seen on a grey winter’s day or under the parching -drought of summer it is hardly possible to conceive. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Our valises were on the front seat beside the driver, and - we ourselves climbed into the closed part of the_ galareta _at - the back_....” - - (page 152) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The prevailing tree of Minorca is the wild olive, which - turns its back to the north ... and assumes the appearance - of a crumb-brush._” - - (page 153) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -“When the North wind goes down the West wind is already knocking at the -door,” says a Minorcan proverb, and the few trees that grow in these -exposed regions are driven to the most ridiculous subterfuges in their -endeavours to protect their foliage from the blasts that sweep for ever -across the island. The prevailing tree is the oleaster, or wild olive, -which turns its back to the north, and with bent stem and long hair all -blown in one direction assumes as nearly as possible the appearance of -an attenuated crumb-brush. Some of the trees are absolutely ludicrous in -their contortions, and we could not help laughing at the sight of a -whole row of them growing beside a low stone wall, over which they had -flung themselves in their attempts to escape; falling on their hands and -knees, so to speak, in the next field, they had picked themselves up -again and gone on running, leaving their roots and trunks on the farther -side of the wall—quite content so long as the very tips of their -branches remained alive and out of reach of the dreaded north wind. - -At the seventh kilometre stone out of Mahon our driver pulled up, and -tying the mule to a gate, he led us across a field to show us what he -called a _bonito casito_—a good little house—built by megalithic man. - -At the base of a ruined _talayót_ constructed of enormous stones and -overgrown with ivy, we saw a small opening, about a yard in height, -leading into a low passage some eight feet long, at the further end of -which is a still smaller doorway, measuring only two feet six inches by -two feet. Once through this, however, one enters a palatial abode not -less than twenty feet long, seven wide, and nine high—which, although it -will hardly bear comparison in point of grandeur with the stone -dwellings built by the Minorcans nowadays for their pigs, was yet so -immeasurably superior to the modest priestly dwelling of Taláto-de-Dalt -that we concluded that we were looking upon the residence of none other -than the arch-druid or high-priest himself—and that it was through this -very doorway that the venerable personage used to emerge on all fours, -robed in full canonicals. - -Of all the _talayóts_ that we examined this is the only one that -contained an inner chamber of any size, most of the so-called megalithic -dwellings consisting of small cavities or recesses that can only by a -stretch of imagination be supposed to have served as human habitations. - -As one approaches the centre of the island the most conspicuous object -in the level landscape is the conical outline of Monte Toro, a mere -molehill less than twelve hundred feet in height, but raised to the -dignity of a mountain from the accident of having no rival in Minorca. -Upon its summit is seen the large convent and church of the Augustines, -a place of pilgrimage for the islanders. At noon we arrived at Mercadél, -a tidy and commonplace little village forming a half-way house between -Mahon and Ciudadéla, and here we put up for a couple of hours to rest -and have luncheon. The Governor of the Balearics who was making the tour -of Minorca in a steam diligence, arrived almost immediately after -ourselves, and from our window we could watch him being received in the -street by the local officials, between whom and the governor’s suite -there was much hat raising and clapping on the back—the latter form of -greeting being carried out mutually and simultaneously by both persons -concerned, with a peculiarly genial and happy effect. The governor’s -steam diligence overtook us again before we reached Ciudadéla, and our -mule, taking its snorting and rattling as a challenge, responded by -racing it frantically along the high road for more than a mile before he -would admit himself beaten. - -On leaving Mercadél we made a _détour_ to the south by way of San -Cristobal, an hour distant, where Murray’s guide-book asserts that -certain “fine and curious _talayóts_” are to be found. Our search for -these, however, proved a wildgoose chase, for all our questioning of the -villagers produced nothing beyond four quite unimportant tumuli, -difficult of access and in no way worth visiting—our driver remarking -severely that he knew all along it would be so, since if he had not -heard of the monuments we were in quest of it was quite certain they did -not exist. In spite of this crushing observation we were not altogether -sorry to have come to San Cristobal, for the road passes through the -prettiest country we had yet seen in Minorca, undulating hills wooded -with pine and ilex, and ditches full of a handsome flowering reed not -unlike a small Pampas grass. - -At Ferrerías, where we rejoined the high road, the whole soil is so -impregnated with iron that at a little distance one might have imagined -the landscape to be tinted by a Swiss _Alpenglūth_—the ruddy hillsides -and the dark red of the stone walls harmonising strikingly with the -crimson flower of a sheet of sainfoin in the foreground. The western -side of the island is in general more hilly and more timbered than the -eastern coast, some clumps of tall Aleppo pines forming picturesque -features in the scene. - -When within a couple of miles of Ciudadéla our driver drew up, and -pointed out to us a large grey mass lying in a field some little -distance from the road. This was the _Nau de Tudons_, one of the most -remarkable monuments in the island, which our guide was particularly -anxious to show us; but after getting down and wrestling for a few -moments with a high field-gate he returned crestfallen to the carriage -to say that the gate was locked, and that it would, unfortunately, not -be possible for the señoras to visit the Nau, as there was no other way -of approach. Assuring him loftily that locked gates were as nothing in -our eyes we got over it, to his great astonishment, and made our way -across the fields towards a strange erection unlike any other we had -hitherto seen. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The_ Nau de Tudons _is one of the most remarkable of the - monuments in Minorca_.” - - (page 156) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_A short walk brought us to the altar of Torre Trencado_....” - - (page 159) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -The Nau de Tudons—_nau_ is the patois for boat—is composed of enormous -blocks of stone and built in the form of an upturned boat about thirty -feet in length and twelve in height. The rounded bow points to the -north, and at the base of the square stern is a so-called dwelling—a -retreat barely large enough to accommodate a human being. It is supposed -that the interior of the Nau itself served originally as a habitation, -for the centre is partially hollow and is roofed over with gigantic -slabs, most of which have now fallen in. There is something strangely -pathetic about this old monument raised by a long vanished race that has -left memorials of imperishable stone without a sign or a word to record -who the builders were or whence they came. Mysterious and lonely the Nau -stands out against the sunset sky; a couple of donkeys graze amongst -clumps of spurge and asphodel, and a stonechat chacks sharply from the -topmost slab of the roof; but the tide of human life has long receded -from the spot—never to return. - -At seven o’clock we reached Ciudadéla and drew up at the Fonda Feliciano -in the Plaza Alfonso III. The sunset had cast such a glamour of crimson -and gold over the white city on the seashore that we were a little -disappointed to find it so essentially unromantic-looking at close -quarters, but any haven was welcome after seven hours’ shaking in a -_galaréta_. We found the inn to be chiefly frequented by persons of the -class—as far as we could judge—of commercial travellers, several of whom -dined at the _table d’hôte_ that evening. The fare was ample, but the -cookery far more greasy and less refined than in Majorca; the strangest -medley of eatables made its appearance on the dish sometimes—the beef -being garnished with potatoes, fat bacon, hunks of stewed cabbage, -_garbanzos_—enormous white beans—aniseed cake, and goodness knows what -besides, so that during one course we had nine different things on our -plate at once, to only five of which could we put a name. Being very -tired we went to bed early, our host informing us in bad English as he -lighted us upstairs that as the inn was very full he could not give us a -second bedroom till the following day. The fact that the house was being -rebuilt, and that we should be waked at five o’clock by workmen pulling -down a floor overhead, he prudently left us to find out for ourselves. - -There are several excursions to be made from Ciudadéla, and the two days -we spent there were amply occupied in visiting the principal megalithic -remains in the neighbourhood. The _talayóts_ of Hostal which Murray’s -guide-book mentions, we found uninteresting, besides being troublesome -to get to—much traversing of rocky wheatfields and stone walls being -necessary before reaching them. But the drive to Torre Trencáda is well -worth taking, and can be combined with a visit to Llafúda. - -Starting at nine o’clock, we retraced our steps along the high road for -a few miles and then turned off sharply by a cart track leading across -the fields. The pastures were studded with outcrops of live rock turned -to gold by a brilliant orange-coloured lichen, and innumerable tiny -field flowers, red and blue pimpernels, vetches, and a minute orange -marigold, spread a gay little carpet under foot. The common daisy of the -Balearics is not the crimson-tipped flower of our lawns, though quite as -wee and modest; it is a more fragile plant, and its flower has a faint -mauve tinge which on being dried becomes a bright blue. A friend of ours -at Kew told us it was the _Bellium bellidioides_ of Linnæus. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_Acting as a kind of pylon to the pigs’ palace at Son Saura - is a megalithic monument, unlike any other we saw_....” - - (page 163) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_In the immense stone wall at Llafuda are built two or - three small megalithic dwellings_....” - - (page 159) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -A short walk brought us to the altar of Torre Trencádo, which is a very -fine one. The horizontal stone has in its lower surface a clean cut -socket which receives the head of the upright slab, but in spite of this -it has needed additional support in the shape of a pillar and wedge like -the _mésa_ at Taláto-de-Dalt. One would give much to penetrate the -secret of this old-world altar standing in its great solitude, wrapped -in the silence of the ages. For what strange worship of sun or moon was -it erected? What implacable deity demanded a human sacrifice? Does the -spirit of priest or victim ever haunt the lonely monument at twilight -and hovering around the symbol of an out-worn faith realise that the -gods themselves have passed away in the _Götterdämmerung_ that has -descended upon the land? - -The monuments at Llafúda, although exceedingly extensive, are in a state -of chaotic ruin, the monoliths lying in confusion as though flung to the -ground by an earthquake. The position is partially encircled by an -immense stone wall, ten feet in height, in which are built two or three -small megalithic dwellings. This wall is absolutely typical of those -built at the present day by the Minorcans, barring the fact that its -thickness is in places not less than fifteen feet. - -From the neighbouring _talayót_ a fine view over the surrounding country -is obtained—even the faint blue mountains of Majorca being visible -across the water. I had a somewhat ludicrous _rencontre_ upon the summit -of the cairn, for just as I reached the top I came face to face with a -big brown and white buzzard who was skimming over it from the opposite -side. It would be hard to say which of us was the most startled; we both -stepped back hurriedly, but the great bird was so close that I felt the -wind of his wings in my face and could see his magnificent golden eyes -dilate as for one moment he hung motionless, with yellow claws upturned, -before he swung round and with one convulsive flap was gone. - - * * * * * - -One of the pleasantest drives in the neighbourhood of Ciudadéla is to -Son Saura, an estate about six miles distant belonging to a Minorcan -nobleman. On this occasion we drove out _en famille_, for being Sunday -afternoon not only was the waiter sent with us to enjoy an outing, but -we were begged by our hostess to allow little José, aged six, to be of -the party. Little José was weeping dismally on the doorstep at the -moment, but as soon as our consent was given his tears stopped -instantaneously, and he was hoisted on to the box seat next the waiter, -under whose charge he was put. His mother assured us that he would be -good—but we had already seen quite enough of Master José to discount -this statement. Our hostess appeared to have no sort of authority over -her children; she would rave and shriek at them, and occasionally reduce -them to tears, but in the end they invariably got their own way, and -their attitude towards her was entirely that of the little girl in an -old Minorcan nursery couplet which for simplicity and impertinence it -would be hard to surpass: - - The Mother says to her: - Dirty one! Badly brought-up one! - - And she answers: - You! You were the same! - -I may add at once that little José did not belie his character. He -snatched flowers from the flower beds, trampled mercilessly on precious -young tobacco plants in crossing the fields, nearly fell into a large -reservoir, was hauled hurriedly over two walls at the imminent risk of -overthrowing a whole row of his elders and betters, perilously balanced -on the top—and in fact acted as a complete antidote to any pleasure -which the poor harassed waiter might otherwise have derived from the -expedition. We, not being responsible for the child, took his misdoings -less to heart, and when he temporarily disappeared in the vicinity of an -open reservoir we were able to search the surface of the water for -bubbles with comparative calm—confident that Master José’s career had -not been such as to arouse the jealousy of the gods. - -Son Saura is a pleasant-looking house surrounded by a large garden of -geraniums and verbenas, roses and lilacs, all in bloom at the time of -our visit. The estate is laid out with orange groves, olive and vine -yards, corn and tobacco plantations, the whole admirably irrigated from -two immense central reservoirs. In summer water has to be sought at a -great depth in Minorca, and the wells being too deep for the employment -of the Persian wheel, the usual method of raising the water is by means -of a large windlass turned by a donkey—one bucket being let down as the -other is wound up to the top. The drinking troughs for beasts which -stand beside these wells partake of the archaic simplicity and -durability of the dolmens, being formed of ponderous stone blocks -hollowed out to the required depth. - -The modern Minorcan has indeed sundry habits not unworthy of the -megalithic monuments of his predecessors. The stones which he builds -into his field walls are hardly less vast than theirs, and the palaces -he erects for his pigs bear a strong family likeness to the prehistoric -_talayót_; composed entirely of loose stones, with a cleverly domed -roof, these buildings form quite a feature of the landscape in many -parts of the island. The smaller ones are often plain huts, but the -larger ones almost always have tastefully ornamented roofs—some -resembling the step pyramids of Sakkára, others being built in round -tiers like a gigantic wedding-cake. One—by no means the largest—which we -entered at Son Saura, and of which a picture is given, measured not less -than twenty feet across, inside, and twelve or fifteen feet in height; -spacious, clean, and delightfully cool in hot weather, these houses are -used by the pigs of Minorca as sleeping quarters at night and lounges at -midday. Any attempt to photograph the occupants we found, however, to be -out of the question: the very sight of a camera filled them with -suspicion, and when this was followed by a strategic advance their worst -fears were confirmed—with volleys of shrieks they broke up in panic, -and, with ears flapping wildly, went off helter skelter with all the -_abandon_ of their Gadarene ancestors. - -Acting as a kind of pylon to the above-mentioned palace at Son Saura is -a curious old _mésa_, unlike any other we saw in the island—the -horizontal slab being supported on _two_ upright pillars, each of which -has a rude capital formed by a separate stone. This monument is possibly -of a different date from the other altars, and is said to be of a -pattern of which—as far as is known—only one other specimen exists, in -the island of Malta. - -The last expedition we made at Ciudadéla was to visit the rock dwellings -at Son Moréll—a large property about an hour distant from the town. -There are three farmhouses upon the estate, at the first of which one -naturally draws up to inquire the way, and unless the traveller is very -careful he will here be taken to see two wholly unimportant tumuli lying -at some distance away amongst stone walls and a waste of asphodel—the -peasants being convinced that to lead a foreigner to the nearest -_talayót_ is the surest way of making him happy. In all good faith we -followed an ancient man across the fields, and in due course reached the -_talayóts_; it was quite useless to explain to our guide that it was not -such as these we were in search of, since besides being very deaf he -understood no word of Castillian, and when we remarked that the wind was -very high he replied by telling us that he was seventy-eight in January. - -After much useless tramping and waste of time we at last discovered that -it was _Son Morell de Barránco_ to which we ought to have driven—the -Barranco being the ravine containing the rock dwellings—and continuing -our route across the fields we presently came to the second farm, lying -within a few minutes’ walk of the coast. Leaving the carriage here, we -descended on foot towards the sea, and soon came upon a row of curious -dwellings excavated in the rock walls of a narrow valley. Three of the -caves are of considerable size, and in the one of which we took a -photograph a pillar of live rock is left in the centre to support the -roof. All have neatly cut doorways and windows, and one of the house -fronts, as will be seen, shows traces of decoration—a cornice and a -couple of fluted pilasters having been rudely chiselled in the face of -the rock. Sheep and goats now inhabit the caves; of the people who with -patient labour constructed their dwellings in this wild and lonely -ravine by the sea no memory remains. - - * * * * * - -On the 1st of May we left Ciudadéla and returned to Mahon, stopping for -luncheon at the little town of Alayór, just off the main road. Seen from -a distance Alayór is a veritable fairy city set upon a hill—glistening -snow white in the sunshine—and though at close quarters it is no longer -beautiful, the whiteness of the houses is so dazzling that it is like -passing through snow-cuttings to drive through the streets, and we were -glad of the green glass panes of our _galaréta_ to protect our eyes from -the blinding glare. Whitewash is indeed a mania among the Minorcans, -who, not content with applying it to the outer and inner walls of their -houses, extend it to the tiles on the roof, the gutters, chimneys, -outhouses, and even neighbouring rocks. Where the field walls are coped -with freestone this also is whitened for miles, which gives the -landscape the curious and misleading effect of being traversed in every -direction by high roads. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The rock caves at Son Morell are of considerable size, and - one of the house fronts shows traces of decoration, a cornice - and a couple of fluted pilasters having been rudely chiselled - in the face of the rock._” - - (page 164) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - “_The rock caves have neatly cut doorways and windows, - and one of them has a central pillar supporting the roof._” - - (page 164) -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -Within half an hour’s drive of Alayór is the _mésa_ of Torralba—one of -the largest in the island, though it loses in effect by being encumbered -about the base by bushes and _débris_. The horizontal stone is said to -have a square cavity in its upper surface, as though to contain the -blood of a victim; but as our outfit did not include a ladder we were -obliged to take this statement on trust. - -One of the sudden storms, for which Minorca is noted, overtook us while -we were engaged in photographing the altar. The sky darkened, and -without a moment’s warning such a deluge of rain descended that we were -quite unable to regain our carriage, not twenty yards distant. The -ground was swimming, the bushes and long grass were drenched, and when -ten minutes later the sun came out again and all was smiles, the only -dry member of the party was the camera—who with his usual foresight had -enveloped himself in the one waterproof cape at the very beginning of -the rain. - -A couple of hours later we were again in Mahon, and at five o’clock that -same afternoon we had boarded the Palma boat and were taking our last -look at the town as we glided out of the bay—past the flat green tray of -Hospital Island, past the little rocky hump of Rat Island, where some -fishermen wave to us as their boat rocks on our swell—past the ruined -pepper-pot tower on the Philipet promontory—past the old sea walls of -San Felipe and the bristling defences of the Isabella fortress opposite— -and as we enter the open sea a chill wind springs up. - -At daybreak we land once more—and for the last time—at the now familiar -quay at Palma, and are rattled through the streets that three short -months ago were new and strange of aspect in our eyes. - -Our holiday in the south is over. It is the first week of May: -strawberries and cherries are in the market, and the voice of the cuckoo -is heard in the land. The pigeons are wheeling in flocks around the -sunlit tower of San Nicolas, and myriads of swifts still weave their -tireless flight over the town. But the swallows have gone northwards, -and we must follow them. Two busy days are spent in packing and in final -arrangements for the return home; and on the 5th of May we board the -_Miramar_ for Barcelona. - -It is a marvellously lovely evening. The wide plain is wrapped in -shimmering shades of pink and violet, and brilliant against the deep -cobalt of the Sierra stand out the white houses of the town. Cutting the -western horizon in dark silhouette are the wooded slopes of Bellver—the -castle arch spanning a glowing fragment of the sunset where the gules -and or of Aragon are once more blazoned in the sky. The harbour is a -sheet of gold, and across the ever widening stretch of water Palma has -already dwindled to a doll’s city, where the great cathedral is the last -object on which our eyes linger. A spark breaks out on the old Moorish -tower as we glide past Porto Pi, some soldiers wave a last goodbye from -the earthworks of San Carlos, the darkening mountain slopes recede as we -reach the portal of Cala Figuéra—and at last we are clear of the bay of -Palma. - -A golden moon hangs in the indigo vault above us, and our wake cleaves a -shining path straight up to the old white city that is vanishing from -our sight. And passing out into the night on a sea of glass we half -expect to hear once more the solemn midnight cry— - - “_Alobado sea el Señor! las dóce, y seréno!_” - - - FINIS. - - - UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THROUGH CORSICA WITH A - CAMERA - - BY MARGARET D’ESTE - - _Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d. net._ - - -“Observant, animated and agreeably sensitive of the charm of the restful -island it describes, it will be read with advantage and interest by -every one who fosters ideas of some day going there.”—_Scotsman._ - -“The book has a delightful touch of feminine vivacity, and the camera is -almost as important in the production of it as the pen.”—_Observer._ - -“Miss d’Este gives a very attractive account of Ajaccio.”—_Spectator._ - -“Margaret d’Este gives a picturesque account of her wanderings all over -the island, in and out of the beaten track, and tells us that she found -its principal charm in its wild freedom, magnificent scenery and -delightful climate.”—_Daily Graphic._ - -“The reviewer is tempted at almost every page to quote, so full of -description is this charming book, but space forbids.... We cannot -remember enjoying any book so much since the days when William Blake -told the tale of his journeyings.”—_Daily Chronicle._ - -“A facile, charming style of writing; a quick, accurate observation of -men, beasts, flowers, and things.”—_Photographic Monthly._ - -“There are no fewer than seventy-eight photographs by Mrs. R. M. King -and the author in this charming book of travel far from the madding -crowd.... An unusually well-written and well-illustrated book.”— -_Northern Whig._ - -“The authoress has given us some delightful pen sketches of the scenery, -delicate little vignettes of local colour, and strongly sketched-in -characters of the natives, and the illustrations are decidedly -enticing.”—_Photographic News._ - -“The book is one of the brightest of recent travel volumes. Mrs. King’s -photography is a worthy contribution to the work, and is worth studying -by would-be picture makers, for its good placing of masses within the -space, and for the strong yet not harsh way in which bold patches of -deep shadow are placed against broad expanses of light.”—_Photogram._ - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's With a Camera in Majorca, by Margaret D'Este - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH A CAMERA IN MAJORCA *** - -***** This file should be named 54634-0.txt or 54634-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/6/3/54634/ - -Produced by readbueno, Adrian Mastronardi, ellinora and -the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive/American -Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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