We had traversed some miles of dreary rocky ground, without a tree, and hardly any verdure to soften its aspect, when from a deep valley, formed by two barren mountains, we discovered Olbera, on the top of a third, higher than the rest, and more rugged and steep than any we had hitherto passed Both the approach and view of the town were so perfectly in character with what we knew of the inhabitants, that the idea of spending a week on that spot became gloomy and uncomfortable at that moment.
The rustic and almost savage manners of the _noblesse_ of Olbera are unparalleled in Andalusia. Both gentlemen and peasants claim a wild independence, a liberty of misrule for their town, the existence of which betrays the real weakness which never fails to attend despotism. An Andalusian proverb desires you to “Kill your man and fly to Olbera”--_Mata al hombre y vete a Olbera_. A remarkable instance of the impunity with which murder is committed in that town occurred two years before our visit. The _alguacil mayor_, a law-officer of the first rank, was shot dead by an unknown hand, when retiring to his house from an evening _tertulia_. He had offended the chief of a party--for they have here their Capulets and Montagues, though I could never discover a Juliet--who was known to have formerly dispatched another man in a similar way; and no doubt existed in the town, that Lobillo had either killed the alguacil, or paid the assassin. The expectation, however, of his acquittal was as general as the belief of his guilt. To the usual dilatoriness of the judicial forms of the country, to the corruption of the scriveners or notaries who, in taking down, most artfully alter the written evidence upon which the judges ground their decision, was added the terror of Lobillo’s name and party, whose vengeance was dreaded by the witnesses. We now found him at the height of his power; and he was one of the persons examined in evidence of the noble birth and family honours of the candidate in whose behalf my friend had received the commission of his college. Lobillo is a man between fifty and sixty, with a countenance on which every evil passion is marked in indelible characters. He was, in earlier life, renowned for his forwardness in the savage rioting which to this day forms the chief amusement of the youth of this town. The fact is, that the constant use of spirits keeps many of them in a state of habitual intoxication. One cannot cross the threshold of a house at Olbera without being presented with a glass of brandy, which it would be an affront to refuse. The exploits performed at their drinking-bouts constitute the traditional chronicle of the town, and are recounted with great glee by young and old. The idea of mirth is associated by the _fashionables_ of Olbera with a rudeness that often degenerates into downright barbarity. The sports of the field are generally terminated by a supper at one of the _cortijos_, or farm-houses of the gentry, where the _gracioso_ or _wit_ of the company, is expected to promote some practical joke when mischief is rife among the guests. The word _culebra_, for instance, is the signal for putting out the lights, and laying about with the first thing that comes to hand, as if trying to kill the _snake_, which is the pretended cause of the alarm. The stomachs of the party are, on other occasions, tried with a raw hare or kid, of which no one dares refuse to eat his share: and it is by no means uncommon to propose the alternative of losing a tooth, or paying a fine.