[15] The line of Dante is well known: “l’avara povertà di Catalogna.” Napier speaks of “the Catalans, a fierce and constant race.”
[16] The Gallegan, “o Gallego cauto” and “sordidos Gallegos duro bando,” in Camões, ever remains the butt of Spanish wit. The inhabitants of the _Montaña_ are considered almost equally dense: “El montañés para defender una necedad dice tres” and again “From Burgos to the sea all is stupidity.” The Asturian, of the region between Galicia and the _Montaña_ has, rather, the reputation of a business-like shrewdness, he is the _Astur avarus_ of Martial and Silius Italicus; in return for his boast that he has never had any infecting contact with the Moors, a proverb says: “El asturiano, loco y vano, poco fiel y mal cristiano.”
[17] “Para cantar los navarros, para llorar los franceses, para pegar cuatro tiros los mozos aragoneses.”
[19] It is true that he was a Spanish Basque and was merely reproducing in modern dress the scene in “Don Quixote,” in which the Biscayan leaves his mistresses unprotected in their carriage and fights in order to show that he is by birth a _caballero_.
[20] Drunkenness is especially rare in Spain. Their sobriety has been made a reproach, as being based on laziness and lack of initiative. The second half of their proverb: “Goza de tu poco mientras busca más el loco--Enjoy the little you have, and let the fool seek more” is, indeed, as foolish as the first half is wise.
[21] Cf. the “altos pensamientos,” of Quevedo’s famous Pablos of Segovia and his father, the barber-thief, and the latter’s remark: “Esto de ser ladron no es arte mecánica sino liberal”--the thief’s is no base mechanical trade, but a liberal profession.
[22] “Drudgery they will do none at all.” Sir R. Wynn, “A brief relation of what was observed by the Prince’s servants in their journey into Spain.” 1623.
[23] They have that momentary isolated intensity which M. Anatole France ascribes to men of action: “Ils sont tout entiers dans le moment qu’ils vivent et leur génie se ramasse sur un point. Ils se renouvellent sans cesse et ne se prolongent pas.”
[24] Episodios Nacionales. Narváez. 1902.
[25] Cf. Joseph Townsend. “A journey through Spain in the years 1786 and 1787,” 3 vols. London. 1792: “We must not imagine that the Spaniards are naturally indolent; they are remarkable for activity, capable of strenuous exertions and patient of fatigue.” Another noteworthy judgment of the same author concerning the Spaniards is that “Their ambition aims in everything at perfection, and by seeking too much they often obtain too little.”