The avanico is used ceremoniously and socially:—in the first place, it is stiffly and demurely restricted to its legitimate end. When it enters common life, held firmly, yet freely between the fingers and the ball of the hand, it serves as an extension of it, feathered to flout the air. The ordinary fan practice is to throw the hand outwards while letting go one side of the fan; then turning the hand inwards to recover it by a jerk. If we had no fans in Europe there would be less difficulty in describing, because our imagination would be free and at work. Having fans, and using them to disturb the air, we have settled notions of them; and when we hear what a Spanish fan can accomplish, we conclude that there is a code of signals—some sort of constructive slang imparted to the initiated. The Spanish fan is no more the arm of a telegraph than the leaf of a winnowing machine. A fan is to a Spanish woman what feathers are to a bird. Is she content and happy?—there is its gentle fluttering—in its vivacious and rapid catch—in its long-drawn motion—in its short pulse. There is all that is conveyed to us by the brow when it lowers the eye; when it flushes the cheek—when it glows. She wants not the frown to dismiss, nor the smile to invite: it is an additional and mute voice:—I might compare it to the rod of a magician, or to the passes of a mesmerist. Once seen, you feel that it is what was required to complete—woman. The ideal was always in the mind, guessed only before, but recognised the moment it is seen.[88]
An English lady plays on the harp or the pianoforte. A French lady touches the one and pinches the other. The guitar belongs to the Spaniard—as constant as her mantilla; as familiar as her fan—it is ready to please a guest; to solace a leisure hour. It is no matter of ostentation; it is no performance. Her proficiency is not the result of study; there are no hours,—no years consumed in practising; it is an unceasing amusement, an inseparable companion.
That which would strike the stranger as most extraordinary, is our having one costume in the morning and one in the evening; one dress which lives only in daylight, another which never sees the sun. This is a peculiarity for which no age and no race afford a parallel. Take Cherokee or ancient Egyptian, Hindoo, Athenian, Hottentot, or Kamschatdale, you will not find one who has dressed his body according to the motions of the sun and earth; or held a checked waistcoat, or a close-bodied gown as appropriate at one hour and inappropriate at another. When dress was associated with respect, change either by the hour or month was impossible: the man was then more than the food and the body—than the raiment;—change could only become habitual where such feelings were dead; and then dress, escaping from the guidance of taste, became the trappings of vanity. This evening-dress of Europe is the common in-door dress, slightly disfigured, of the Spanish lady.
The veil and fan, the chief adornment of the female costume, are from Spain; so also is that richest and most distinguishing of its materials, lace.
Barbara of Brabant has received the credit of the discovery; but her share can extend no further than to the mode of working in flax. The texture in silk and cotton must have been carried thither by the Spaniards. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, the word blonda is found in a Castilian law,[89] it is referred to as a manufacture in general use, and consequently long established. It was not known in Europe for at least a century later.[90]
Lace is to be seen in every hut, on every domestic article:—pillow-case, napkins, sheets—it is a national type, and must be of ancient date; in all likelihood, from that common source of Spanish things, Judæa. In this conclusion, I was confirmed by finding in Barbary the term Guipoör. It is used by the Jews for the festival of atonement, when they wear white mantles in the synagogue, with the fringes in open embroidery. The name of the country was given to the texture. The texture, then, comes from the Jews.[91]
The word dentelle[92] is explained as meaning the teethlike points of the serrated border lace, as distinguished from the Guipoör, Mechlin, Brussels, and English point, &c. But there was an ancient festival in Spain on the occasion of the child cutting its teeth, which was known to the Christians under the name of Dentilia.[93] Such would be a fitting time for the display of this finery. Whoever has seen the festival of Corpus Christi in Spain, or Portugal, will understand how natural it was to give the name; for on it all the procession, or at least all the public functionaries to this day, wear scarfs of lace over their uniforms.
The blonde is made on the frame. The common lace, which is used as seams and edging, is made with the crochet, which is as familiar in the hands of every Moor, as formerly the cronag in those of the Highland shepherd. The Barbary caps were originally so made, and indeed are so still. In the same way, may yet be seen Highland hose, and formerly the trews. The Shetland shawl still bears testimony to the recorded beauty of the manufactures of the Hebrides, in early times; and in Barbary—although I know not that the art is still preserved—magnificent pieces of Guypoör come from time to time to light. One was brought me at Tetuan three yards and a half in length, and above a yard in width.
The supposed invention, therefore, of lace-making in the Low Countries, must be understood merely as that of a new process, viz., the bobbins, pins, and cushion, by which a new variety was obtained, and which has its beauty and its facility; but which can stand no comparison with the original, which it has caused to fall into disuse; and now that the taste for it is revived, the art is lost.
While the Spanish female costume is unquestionably the most beautiful in Europe, it would thus appear to be at the same time a valuable historical monument. Nor is its antiquarian interest limited to the Peninsula: it carries us back to the land and the people, which, of all others, possess claims on the affections, and merit the study of Christendom.