de Dios. He does not beg; no, he asks, demands; and, miserable and in rags as he may be, he treats you as a brother—­he does you the honour of accepting you as his equal.  The Spaniard who has a novia, a guitar, a cigarillo, and the knowledge that he has enough to pay for a seat at the bull-fight, possesses all that he can possibly need.  He will eat a plateful of gazpacho or puchero, a sardine, half a roll of bread, and drink clear water as often as wine.  Food is always of secondary importance:  he ranks it after his novia, after his cigarillo, after the bulls.  Sleep?  He can sleep anywhere, even on the ground.  Dress?  He has always his capa, and la capa todo lo tapa.  The Spaniard is, above all things, rumboso; that is to say, he has a large, generous, and sound heart....  The masses in Spain are perfectly contented, believing themselves sincerely to be the most heroic of people.  The Spaniard is naturally happy, because his wants are almost nil, and he has the fixed idea that kings—­his own or those of other nations—­are all, at least, his cousins.”

This is not the place to speak at large of the religion of the people; but one remark one cannot fail to make, and that is, the place which the Virgin holds in the life and affections of the masses.  The name of the Deity is rarely heard, except as an exclamation, and the Christ is spoken of rather as a familiar friend than as the Second Person in the Trinity; but the deep-seated love for the Virgin, and absolute belief in her power to help in all the joys and sorrows of life is one of the strongest characteristics of this naturally religious people.  The names given at baptism are almost all hers.  Dolores, Amparo, Pilar, Trinidad, Carmen, Concepcion,—­abbreviated into Concha,—­are, in full, Maria de Dolores, del Pilar, and so forth, and are found among men almost as much as among women.  The idea of the ever-constant sympathy of the divine Mother appeals perhaps even more strongly to the man, carrying with it his worship of perfect womanhood, and awakening the natural chivalry of his nature.  Be this as it may, the influence of the Virgin, and the sincerity of her worship in every stage of life, in all its dangers and in all its woes, is a religion in itself.

CHAPTER III

NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Certain strong characteristics of the Spanish people, with which the history of the world makes us well acquainted, are as marked in this hurrying age of railway and telegraph as ever they were in the past.  One of the stupid remarks one constantly hears made by the unthinking tourist is:  “Spain is a country where nothing ever changes.”  This is as true of some of the national traits of character as it is false in the sense in which the speaker means it.  He has probably picked it out of some handbook.